Chapter 10 & 11 of Nieto

Chapter 10 of Affirming Diversity focused on how to "affirm pride in culture," the title of the chapter. This section discussed how schools and teachers could help promote a positive attitude about students’ cultures. Some examples that Nieto gives it for teachers to support native languages by encouraging students to use their language at home and even let students work in same-language groups. Although I believe that this idea is a little extreme, I do see the importance of students’ continuing to use their language with family and friends. I guess I just feel that it is important that they have a good understanding of how to use the English language before using their native language in the classroom. This isn’t because I think that students should only use English, but in order for these students to excel in the American education system, full of English-written tests, as well as in the real wold where few people take the time to learn another language, they need to understand English. Sadly, they need to take the steps to communicate with others, because most Americans are lazy when it comes to learning other languages. Neito also says to create multicultural programs. At my high school, we had a multicultural club called Spectrum, and the club would put on an all-day performance once a year. I think that this is a step towards Nieto’s beliefs that "multicultural education should be an integral part of the school experience of all students". (360). Nieto goes on to say that multicultural education needs to be supported by more than just academics. Extracurricular activities should welcome students of all cultures. Unfortunately, most extracurricular activities reflect usually reflect only one culture. Nieto suggests posting flyers for various clubs in different languages. I have seen this at the junior high school I’m observing. There are many students there that are predominantly Spanish-speaking, so that have flyers for clubs that are in Spanish. The end of chapter 10 discusses what you need to do to become a multicultural person. I think one of the hardest steps in to "confront our own racism and biases". (383). I find it hard to think of myself as someone who is racist or biased, but I know that whenever I see a student, I automatically make some assumptions about them. I need to be aware of these assumptions and make sure that they don’t affect the way that I treat the student. Chapter 10 ends with the different levels of multicultural education. I had never thought about possibility of there being different amounts of multicultural education, but I plan to look for these levels in the future teachers I observe and the schools that I observe at. Chapter 11 of Affirming Diversity goes on with methods to solving problems that teachers might face and how to practice multicultural education. What stuck out most is the teachers need to work together. During my field observation, I didn’t get to see my cooperating teacher work with other teachers, but I know that at most schools, teachers must work together to create curriculum and lesson plans. From reading this, I learned that I need to work with other teachers, even when I am tempted to work alone. Nieto also talks about how you must change curriculum, including an example in which math teachers should ask students to see how different math operations are done in other countries. I was excited to read about this because this is something that one of the teachers in Dreamkeepers did with her students. There were so many strategies that I can use to teach multicultural education when I become a teacher, and I plan to keep this book as a resource.

Of Borders and Dreams Presentation and Immigration Act Class Discussion

Looking back into my notes, I realized that I haven’t yet written out my reflection of the literature circle presentation of Of Borders and Dreams, as well as the class discussion about the Immigration Act that we had later that week. It was very convenient that we spend two days close together discussing both of these topics because they have a lot to do with each other. For the presentation, the presenters tried to help us understand the barriers that the book’s main character, Alejandro had to get around in order to get an education. I also enjoyed the exercise in which the presenters had the class close our eyes and envision what Alejandro’s parents had to go through to get into America. I knew little about how illegal immigration affected the school system, so I enjoyed this presentation a lot and I thought that it was very informative. I only wish that the presenters included that class more in their presentation to help us better understand what they wanted us to learn.

Our class discussion about the Immigration Act and the controversy around it helped me to connect what we learned in the Of Borders and Dreams presentation to what’s going on today. Before class, I knew little about this act other than the fact that it had recently been protested in many cities, mainly starting the week that we were on spring break. I was surprised to learn that this act has been around for a while, but it was just coming to the attention of the public because of the protests. There are both positive an negative effects of illegal immigrants living in the United States, so I have mixed feelings about the act. Although I think it’s ridiculous to basically make out all immigrants in the United States to be criminals, I do think that it’s important that they become citizens. There are many illegal immigrants here that are beneficial and do many of the jobs that most Americans would refuse to do, but there are others, such as Jim’s example of the man from Mexico who comes here in the summer, makes money, and then goes back to Mexico rich. That man is abusing the system. He’s coming here to make a profit, but doesn’t give anything to the country, such as paying taxes. It’s people like that who ruin opportunities for everyone else. Recently, there was a political cartoon in the Chicago Tribune that amused me. It was a picture of Native Americans talking to Europeans coming over on a ship and saying, "You can come and live here as long as you adopt our language, customs, and values". This point was also brought up in our discussion when someone pointed out that other than the Native Americans, we are all immigrants. Although this is a pretty obvious point, I think that as Americans who have had families that have been here for generations, we can forget about this sometimes. We need to realize that we came here for the same opportunities that people are coming here now for. I really enjoyed our class discussion on this topic and I hope that I can learn more about this act because as we have learned in class, as well are our reading of the Suarez-Orozco article, immigration to America has a huge effect on the educational system.

School Girls Presentation

I have waited a long time to reflect on this presentation because I have lots of feelings and reactions to this literature circle presentation. Although all of the other presentations were interesting and I will take what I learned from them and use them when I become a teacher, this presentation hit home for me. I had never thought about how the differences in behavior could affect performance and learning in the classroom, but after hearing this presentation and looking back on my childhood education, I can see how my gender has affected my education. My only sibling is a sister, so I have never had the chance to see how my parents would treat a boy differently, but I think that I have been brought up to be more submissive, like what was talked about during the presentation. Because of this, I was more silent in the classroom and still am today. It’s not that I don’t like to participate in class- many times I have opinions that I’d wish to share, but I think that from my history in schools with boys, I have been taught not to speak. I wish I was as confident as some boys when talking in the classroom, but I’m still not. In one of my earlier journals I wrote about an article I read about creating more separate schools for both genders. At first I thought that was a ridiculous idea, but it sounds a little better after watching this presentation. I do, however, realize that not all boys learn and act an certain way, as well as girls. I still don’t think that this is the solution. When the group started talking about boys fulfilling the role of the stronger sex while girls were the weaker sex, I immediately thought about my experience working with Habitat for Humanity. I have worked with the program for three summers and have learned a lot about construction work, but every summer the adults on the worksite give the more difficult jobs to the boys, even if they have no experience working with tools. This not only bothers me, but most of the other women that work on the site. Last year, one of the adults asked if some of the ‘strong boys’ could carry shingles onto the roof. Needless to say, many of the girls were very insulted by this comment and decided that we could carry some shingles onto the roof as well. The packages weigh about forty pounds, which is almost half my weight and the weight of the other girls, but we did it. I don’t know if we were that strong or if we just wanted to prove ourselves to the men on our site, but we carried all of the packages of shingles onto the roof. I’ve started to realize the gender roles that men and women are supposed to play, and I’m trying not to play my role, but play who I am.

I was also really affected by the clip of Mona Lisa Smile that was played during the presentation. I had never seen the movie, but that was such a powerful speech that Julia Roberts gave. It makes me question what type of woman I want to be when I grow up. I’m proud to say that I didn’t come to college looking for a husband, but I have already found mine. Although we’re planning on getting married the summer after I graduate from college (I know it’s a little early to talk about things like that) I am going to start teaching and continue to teach while I raise a family. This presentation really affected me and my feeling about my responsibilities as a woman.

Observation Reflection

Now that I have finished my field observation, I feel as though I should reflect on what I have accomplished and learned this semester. Looking back on my experience, even though it seems like I didn’t do that much in my classroom, I learned so much about the teaching profession this semester from working with students and relating what I was learning in class to what I saw in the classroom. What I enjoyed most about my observation time was working with the students. That is something I always love to do and I will miss a lot. Most of my time was spent helping students with their assignments since they worked individually during class, but I learned so much by working individually with students. I was able to talk with them and look at what they were learning from their perspective and try to help them better understand it. When I first started observing, I was nervous when answering students’ questions because I was afraid that I couldn’t help them. Over the semester, I found that I was able to answer most of them and help the students. During my last two weeks of observation my cooperating teacher was absent, so I was able to help the students even more because many of the substitute teachers didn’t know what the class was learning about. These two weeks gave me so much confidence in working with these students. I just wish that this confidence had come earlier.

I really enjoyed observing my cooperating teacher this semester also. He has such a creative teaching style that is uncommon in most teachers. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it other than that he treats his students with complete respect. Unlike many teachers that I’ve had, he treated his students like adults and had discussions with them about issues affecting society. During my last day of observation, he showed a video about the genocide going on in Sudan and asked the students what they thought about it. He also gave them a fifty point extra credit opportunity to think of something to do about it and do it. He gave examples such as sending money to an organization that would help those in Sudan or writing a letter to a government official asking them to do something about the problem. After class, he spent extra time talking with a student that was very interested in this situation and had strong feelings about what should be done. This teaching method of questioning and improving society reminds me of Dewey’s philosophy of education. There are dozens of other teaching techniques that mu cooperating teacher has done that I can relate to readings that we have done over the semester. I feel very lucky that I was able to work with him and prepare to become a teacher while observing him.

Now that I have finished my field observation, I miss it terribly. I can’t wait to get back in the classroom and start working with students again. One question that I still haven’t fully answered is my feeling about teaching junior high school students. Each week I seemed to have a different opinion, either hating the idea of having to work with them or thinking about the possibility. I am, however, very excited to continue to work with children of all ages. This was a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to get back into the classroom.

My Last Day of Observation

Wednesday was my last day of observation at the junior high school. The class celebrated by taking their unit test over Africa. Students were allowed to use their study guides and maps that they worked on in class. They first had to identify various countries in Africa and then they answer questions about the countries. While the students were working on their tests, I went around and answered student’s questions. Unfortunately, I had a hard time answering most of the questions that students asked. This was because most of the students had questions about what the questions on the test meant. I tried to answer student’s questions, but when reading the test, I saw that some of the questions were unclear. I felt bad that on my last day of observation I wasn’t able to help the students. I was, however, happy to hear about the progress of one of the students in class over the semester. I had only worked with him a few times in class, but his interest in his schoolwork has increased and he put a lot of time and effort into his study guide that he was using in class. His teacher and I were both really impressed with his improvement over the semester. It was a very good way to end the semester.

Culture Presentations

Today's presentations were very interesting and fit together very well. I thought that Brittany's presentation about hip hop culture in junior high school was very informative and her observation of how students at the schools was very good. I had never realized the extent in which students are affected by hip hop culture. I don't think it had that strong of an influence when I was in junior high. That could be because my friends and I didn't listen to hip hop music all the time, but I didn't see any of my classmates wear hip hop styles or use that language. I do realize that it's important to know about the culture that affects your students. The teacher I observe knows the artists that his students listen to, as well as the different slang that they use. Obviously, communication is essential for learning, so you need to be able to understand your students. I also enjoyed Laura's presentation about girl culture, which I will comment more about when I reflect on the Schoolgirls presentation because I can relate to the ideas of those presentations the most. I did, however, like that she focused on the positive aspects of girls rather than present them from a negative perspective. I think I felt better about myself as a girl after this presentation. Imin and Lauren's presentations about fashion and pop culture were also interesting. Even though I knew most of the information that was presented from my experience in school and from observation, it was nice to review the information and listen to another person's perspective. I have enjoyed all of the culture presentations this semester. Many of them have opened my eyes to subjects in schools that I have never considered.

Caring in Schools Presentation

Thursday in class we were given a presentation on the book, The Challenge of Caring in Schools. The book had some very interesting and important ideas, although I'm not sure that all were fully presented. In this book, there are many controversial ideas, such as allowing students to pick their teachers and for students to only take classes that they are interested in and will need for the future. I'm not completely sure how I feel about both of these ideas because there are positive and negative aspects of both of them. Although it would be beneficial for some students to be able to pick who their teachers were, elementary and junior high school students, as well as most high school students, don't know what they need from a teacher. I do, however agree with her idea that students should learn about what they are interested in and will use in the future, to some degree. I feel that in elementary school, junior high school, and at least half of high school, students should learn all subjects. Most students don't know what they want to do for the rest of their lives until high school, if not later. It's important that students are well-rounded and can make a decision about what they are interested in after studying many different subjects. Mainly, I just agree with the idea that schools shouldn't just stress that importance of the basic subjects; math, reading, writing, and science. Doing so doesn't allow students to focus and learn more about what truly interests them. The most important thing that I learned from this presentation is that in order to be a good teacher, you nees to be involved with your students and their lives. Know what's going on and take an interest in each student. I believe that by doing this, the classroom will be a place where students will feel safe and be able to learn.

A Frustrating Day of Observation

I have finally come back to my web log, and I have a lot of catching up to do! Today I observed at the junior high once again, and there was another substitute teacher. Of all of the teachers I’ve ever observed and had, she was by far the worst I’ve ever seen. I know that I don’t know enough about teaching to critique her from that perspective, but I can from the perspective of a student because I have had many teachers throughout my education. I was surprised at first because the students in the study hall class were usually quiet, but that changed when the next class came in. To try and settle them down, she allowed them to be loud and talk for two minutes and then they had to quiet down. I actually thought that her idea was very good and would work, but I was wrong. The students were just louder after those two minutes. The lesson plan for the day was to read the chapter about the history and government of Africa and discuss it, but it was done differently than it is usually done. Instead of having the students read the chapter silently or aloud to each other, the teacher read the entire chapter to the class. At the end of each section, she would summarize what she read. It actually reminded me of a lecture class because the students weren’t involved in discussion. Half-way through the chapter, she asked the class to read the rest silently and create an idea map, but because the students had no idea what that meant, she changed her plans and asked them to write down five important words. The problem that I found from this assignment is that many of the students in the class work at different rates, so some finished and didn’t have any other assignment to work on, while other students didn’t have time to finish the assignment, which the teacher collected. I now understand the importance of having multiple activities for students to work on, which is what their actual teacher does. After they finished the assignment, the substitute went on to read the rest of the chapter aloud that the students had just finished reading, telling the students what she thought were important words rather than asking them. After they were done reading the chapter, the class watched a video about the origin of mankind. I guess I was just really frustrated about how class went today. I felt as though the students’ intelligence was insulted by the way that she taught the class and few students learned something. On a positive note, at least I was able to observe how not to teach a class. I am really looking forward to their teacher coming back!

Nieto Chapters 8 and 9

In chapter eight of Affirming Diversity, Nieto writes about the many factors that affect academic achievement. I was aware of some of these factors from the effect on me throughout my education, while others were a little less obvious and present in my life. Early in the chapter, we learn that culture plays a huge role in a student’s academic performance, and connections to a student’s culture is important for their success. When a student’s culture is taught in the classroom, it is shown that the culture is valued. I did not realize this need throughout my education because my culture was the dominant culture that was taught and valued by all teachers and students. Once again, I also didn’t see the important role that society plays in a student’s learning because I was a part of the dominant culture, which was valued by society. I can understand, however, how negative views and political actions against a culture can cause conflict for students who identify with that culture and affect their performance in the classroom. In the reading, I could identify the effect that activities outside of school affects student’s schoolwork positively. My involvement in activities such as music and sports gave me confidence, as well as leadership and teamwork skills. In the text, Nieto writes of how students that are involved in extracurricular activities are less likely to involve themselves in dangerous behaviors such as joining a gang or using drugs. Finally, families, communities, teachers, and schools affect the performance of students. From my experience, my parents have had a huge impact on my feelings about education and my success in school. For students coming from low-income families or from other cultures, hard work may be valued more and parents might have higher expectations for their children so that they can grow up and have more options than their parents might have had. Caring parents who are involved with their children’s education usually produce successful students. Teachers that also care about their students and their well being help to support each students’ identities, causing these students to excel in the classroom. What I liked most about chapter nine of the text is that it finally stated that the multicultural education discussed in this book is just good pedagogy. All of the characteristics and strategies used to effectively teach children of various cultures are necessary to teach well in general. From first reading this text, as well as The Dreamkeepers, I had thought that both described qualities that were necessary for all successful teachers. Even if I don’t end up teaching in a classroom with people of color, which is almost impossible, I will use these strategies in order to teach effectively.

Presentation Reflection

I feel that my group’s presentation went well today. Although we didn’t come close to finishing our presentation, I feel as the main idea of the book was addressed and the class understood and was interested in the book’s strategies to become a more culturally relevant teacher. I was so happy to see the students take and interest in the material and ask questions throughout our presentation. I really enjoyed reading The Dreamkeepers and I think that the teaching strategies discussed are important for teaching all cultures. As we talked about in the presentation, this book was different than any of the other texts that we have read this semester because while it does present many problems, it also gives a solution to the problems. Instead of feeling discouraged, I actually felt confident that these changes could be made. It seems as though these teachers know and understand their students better than the teachers that I ever had. I think that understanding a student, their culture, and their community is vital to successfully teach that student. Throughout my education, I have been in schools with pretty much all white children and teachers. Although teachers had an understanding of my culture because they lived in communities similar to mine, most of the teachers don’t live in my actual community and aren’t involved with students outside of the classroom. I realized that these teachers teach more effectively when they have more contact with their students and therefore know the strengths of their students and how best they learn. I will take the concepts discussed in this book and see how they are demonstrated in the classroom that I am observing.

Learning Denied Class Lesson

I really enjoyed class today. Unlike some of my classmates, I never caught on to the fact that Dr. Winters was acting in a way to demonstrate the ways in which Patrick was treated in the classroom. I was shocked by how she treated the one "slow" group and including us in embarrassing them. During this class time, I felt very awkward and afraid to upset the professor. I also felt bad that she kept drawing attention to the same group. I thought that this was a very effective way of helping the class understand how Patrick was treated, and in turn, better understand the book. Reading Learning Denied was very difficult to read. I couldn’t understand how teachers could try and deter a student’s learning. This is exactly what happened in class when the professor had the slow group continue to work on the first assignment while she taught the rest of the class other important lessons, causing these students to miss learning important ideas. Reading this book, I felt completely helpless, which Patrick and his parents felt at an even bigger magnitude. I was shocked and couldn’t believe that the school district would rather focus on Patrick’s weaknesses and build upon those rather than taking into consideration his strengths. I have always thought of special education as something that is positive, but this book shows that there are some circumstances in which the special education program doesn’t work in the best interest of the student, which occurs when certain learning disabilities are misdiagnosed. Now that I have seen the horrible effects that holding back a student have on that student and their family, I will be careful in making observations about my students when I have my own classroom.