Portfolio Part 7

Reflective Summary

     Going into this class I wasn't really sure what to expect for multicultural education. I expected our class to be this feel good environment where everyone was accepted and there are no problems in the world and we are just going to talk about how to love all of the students and their differences do not matter because we are all people. I was in for a rude awakening on that first day. I was not sure exactly what Dr. Draper meant when she said we were going to have to talk about uncomfortable things on that first day. It is really sad that people are struggling with racism and are not accepting people because of their skin color. That was about all I thought of multicultural education, and I certainly did not think I had any sort of problem with that. I never took into consideration that multicultural education would include things like how someone speaks, their sexual orientation or how much money their family made.
     Each part of this portfolio showed me a different door to multicultural education that I was not expecting. I think the first time I started to actually get a grasp of what multicultural education was is when we did the second part of portfolio and we talked about our own personal cultures. This proved to me that having a culture was not all about what ethnicity you were or even what religion you were. I had a very different culture then even just my husband who is from the same city, same religion and same ethnicity as I am. Each person has their own culture and that is exactly the point, no one is the same and I cannot treat my students the same. They all need to be treated equally yes, but that does not mean that I treat each person exactly the same.
     When it came to being the "other" part of the portfolio I had a really hard time stepping outside of my box and I really did not want to do that assignment. I do not like stepping out of my comfort box or drawing attention to myself because I stand out. Why in the world did I choose to become a teacher then? It is all about standing out and being different than others. Having this experience helped me to relate to my students a lot better. I had never had the chance to learn from being the minority, I was always a majority. I was grateful for this experience because it helped show me how hard it would be for my students to be the ones that stand out, no matter what the reason may be. Everyone strives to fit in and that is why I want to try so hard to make my classroom and open, comfortable and accepting environment that they can discover who they are and learn from their classmates.
    The personal values part of the portfolio, each part of the portfolio seemed to get a little bit more complex. How am I supposed to pick only five values? There is so much that I want all of my students to learn and I just want to give them easy experiences to learn it all. Respect is still my number one because I think learning to respect others is a very important and will get you far in life. Respect captures all parts of multicultural education because it does not matter how one speaks or presents them self they still all deserve our respect and just because they are different does not mean they are less intelligent. I also believe that respect provides opportunities for all people. Throughout this class I have seen how far being open and respectful really does take you. No matter what your background may be, respect will open doors and give my students opportunities to learn and be successful.
     I learned that something I struggle with today is judging others because of how they speak and I did not even notice it until I was watching the videos on others languages. The second I heard that "hick" voice I immediately assumed they were less intelligent than I was because they did not use proper grammar. I believe that not jumping to conclusions is something I have gained from this class after this semester. What helped me to understand this was when I attended the court session. I did not fully understand all of the words they were using and it was in my own language. No body mocked or made fun of me or crossed me off their list because I did not understand them. I feel like that is exactly what I used to do, "They don't understand English so I may as well not even waste my time." I was discriminating against them because they were different then me. I was not excited to have ESL students in my class because they were going to be so much more work because of the language barrier and they should just learn English anyways. That breaks my heart that I used to think like that! I am so happy that I was able to change that perspective before I went out in the schools to teach the next generations. I would be a horrible teacher if I went into my classrooms with that perspective.
      Because of this, I was excited when I got my book for book club that was about immigration schools. The whole book was about these students that had gone through such hard times just to get to America and then there were people like myself here who were being prejudice and thought that they should have learned our language before they came out here. This book was very humbling to me to see a school put so much effort into teaching their students English and how to fit into our culture here without erasing who they were and where they came from. They all had incredible experiences to get here and that should be remembered.
     This book is big part of why I have learned how judgmental I was just four months ago. I never realized it and sat in class the first day thinking about how this class would not apply to me because I did not have any problems with racism. I have so many flaws though and that is why this class was so hard for me. Each time I read an article or watched a video it pointed out my own imperfections to me and I realized that I was putting myself above others because I had always been a majority. I had never experienced such things before. Having a multicultural class is no longer having a random day where we'll celebrate another culture like I believed it was four months ago. There is so much more that goes into it and I want to incorporate everything that I have taken from this class into my own lessons.

Portfolio Part 6

Book Club

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens

By Brooke Hauser

The New Kids is a story that follows several immigrants that came to America in remarkable ways and the challenges that they are faced with to try and fit in. They all attended an immigration school with others who had come over to America so many of the classes focused on teaching the students English and social skills.A few of the characters is Jessica who was kicked out of her father's home after she arrived in China. Ngawang who actually spent twenty-four hours folded up in a small suitcase to get out of Tibet. Mohamed who was a diamond minors son from Sierra Leone and his arrival in America was a mystery, he never would say how he got here. Yasmeen who was an orphan from Yemeni and has severe pressure to get married so she could take care of her younger siblings but she also desired to go to college. Lastly was Chit Su who came from Burmese and had ended up spending the past few years living in a bamboo hut as a refugee in Thailand. She came to America as a seventeen year old freshman.
Refugee students leave their native countries for a variety of reasons such as war, ethnic or religious persecution, lack of access to education and socioeconomic circumstances. Communication is key with these students because each one has different needs.
Because all of their needs range so widely we cannot treat all of the students "equally". We cannot as teachers, group them into different races and assume they all need the same things. Each student has to be case by case.
Many of the students had huge academic challenges that came with it and they had to have teachers that were willing to work with them to learn whether they were even capable of reading, writing and math. They were all faced with the challenge of having to learn English. They attended a school with other immigrants but many were the only ones in the school who even spoke their home language. This caused many language barriers as they struggled to be able to communicate with everyone in America.
She emphasizes in the book that the most important thing the students needed was time. For those refugees that came here not knowing how to read or write in English often needed more than just four years of schooling. Having them stay an extra year or two helps them to make leaps and bounds in the curriculum and learning the social skills as well - this will give them greater overall success in America. Along with that she talks about how they will need extra emotional or cultural support.
These stories connected with our course readings because it covered many of the aspects that we had talked about in our class over the entire semester. It was all about these students having nothing and many coming with little to no education, facing poverty and still trying to fit in with their peers in America. Many of these students relied on their teachers and other academic helps to get by. This book also demonstrated some language of power because living in America you have to know English to get what you want and get by. One of the teachers in the book told students that she was willing to help them however she could but as long as they were in her classroom they were required to speak English. She wasn't trying to make it harder on them or tell them that their language or culture was not important but that they have to use English to get what they wanted. I thought this applied well to setting expectations for the students. We have to find a balance between babying the students and teaching them. We want to be for them as a teacher but we also need to help them learn the skills for themselves and it doesn't always come easily.

Even though we as teachers may not fully understand what they are going through or fully understand their language we can provide so much support for them just by showing that we are there for them and willing to help them learn and go through the struggles with them. We can help refer students to help like extra literacy support known as Students With Interrupted Formal Education or S.I.F.E. It can help students that have been faced with conflict and there are no terms for those students. There are also faculty members that can help students find jobs, homes and even little things like ice-skating and other social activities. There purpose is to help the students adapt to the new culture while trying to learn the language as well.
This influenced my work as a future teacher because I want to be the kind of teacher that helps students out and is open minded and caring for the students. I want them to be able to trust me and know that even though I don't understand everything I am willing to listen and work with them so they can get the best education possible. As teachers we also don't always know what sort of circumstances they are facing at home. This book has helped me to be more understand and to want to push my students to do their best but to also be considerate of the things they are going through. I want them to each feel acknowledged and know that I will expect them to become the best they can be.

Portfolio Part 5

        For my portfolio part 5 I chose to attend a court session. It was a really uncomfortable setting for me and I felt very much out of my element. Because of this, it was very intimidating and I felt very shy and anxious as to what would happen next. It was also nothing like it is on the television shows. Everything that I thought I knew about being in a court room was completely opposite of how I felt once I really was in it. We wore business casual clothing and had to keep very quiet during the session. The environment felt very strict and I was nervous that I was going to do something wrong so I made sure I did not do anything until I saw someone else who was watching do it and knew that it would be acceptable. It was stressful to be there because I was so concerned about what was going on, what would happen next and if someone was going to get upset or how they would react to what the others were saying. It was teenagers that were on the line, fighting and accusing each other for all sorts of things. It made me feel sad for the adolescence because a misunderstanding had gone out of control and gotten out of hand. As the lawyers, judge and adolescents were talking I found myself very confused at times not knowing what all of the language and big words meant. At the end I had to clarify with my mom, who attended with me, what had just happened and what the consequences had ended up being.
        As a teacher, I hope I do not have students that will have to go to court and be in a situation like that. However, I do think the other circumstances were very applicable to students, especially multicultural ones. The fact that I felt like I did not belong can apply to students on so many different levels. Whether it is because they are struggling with homosexuality, poverty, learning the language, fitting in or dealing with a disability. Everyone strives to feel like they belong. Thankfully I had my mom that was interesting in coming with me so she was able to help me understand more of what was going on and also inform me of the dress code. Many students do not have that luxury of a friend there to tell them what they should do or what they should be wearing so they will fit in. Students may watch videos about what jr high or high school will be like but it never portrays what it will really be like for you, especially if you are coming from another country. The students are probably also nervous about the classroom and what could happen to their social status if they do something wrong or out of the norm, maybe they won't fit in anymore. As far as the language goes, I know English but it was still hard to understand what was going on. ESL students would absolutely feel like this. They may know a lot of the language but when they get into our classrooms they might not have a perfect understanding of cooking or financial terms and feel even more lost than before. They may not even know the language very well period and as teachers we have to figure out how we can teach them English and the different types of words for our own content area.
        Having this experience really made me think more about what it would be like to be a student from a different culture. I have always grown up being the majority and never the minority. I want my students to feel comfortable in my classroom and not have to stress about every little thing that will happen. I want them to feel like in my classroom they can be themselves and they don't have to worry about their social status or fitting in with their other peers after class. Being in such an uncomfortable environment would also make it harder to be able to focus on learning when you have so many other things to focus on like social status and the culture. My goal as a teacher is to make each student feel like their own culture has a place in my classroom and they are free to express themselves. 

Portfolio Part 4

Personal Values

1. Respect

2. Optimism

3. Ambition

4. Perseverance

5. Self-Control


This assignment to only pick five values was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Especially when it comes to teaching because I have so many different things I want each child to be able to learn. I think that everyone in the class will have their own opinions and we will each have our own list of values as well. For me as a teacher respect would definitely be the first one on my list because it encompasses a lot of things. I would want to make it known to my students that it is very important to respect their fellow students in every way. I chose optimism as the second one because I believe that it is vital to have a positive outlook on life and being optimistic helps us to see the good and always hope for the best. I also want my students to have ambition that they can do anything and that they are all capable of so many things. Along with the ambition I want them to value perseverance so that they will be motivated to keep trying even if they fail because that is the real definition of success. Lastly I chose self-control because when people lose self-control is when they say or do things that they may regret. If they learn self-control and value that as well it ties back in perfectly with having respect for others.

Portfolio Part 3

Being the "Other"

For my portfolio 3 I chose to participate in a deaf ward for a Sunday. The artifacts that I gathered were:

They were very friendly, especially to visitors and wanted to meet everyone and get to know them.

Loud noises didn't bother the majority of the people

Everyone used American Sign Language

There were interpreters available in all 3 meetings. 

Everything they said and did was about the facial expressions.

Their personal space was different than ours. They just had to be able to see each others hands. There were conversations going on across rooms and also sitting right next to each other.

Being the other was a really scary experience for me because when I usually go places that I feel uncomfortable I'll have someone else come with me. Even though I know ASL really well I couldn't understand everything they were saying and many people signed too fast for me to understand. Along with that, I don't know very many church words so that made it more difficult as well. I felt really out of place. I didn't necessarily feel like I was being judged all of the time because everyone was so friendly and excited that I was learning ASL and attending their ward but I definitely felt like I was an outcast because I had to have an interpreter and I signed really slow and kept asking people to repeat things slower. I think this experience helped me to understand what someone from another culture might feel like in a classroom. Even if it is the same language if it is a new and uncomfortable situation they probably feel left out or like they don't belong. That is the last thing I want students to feel in my classroom. I want to make sure I have all the accommodations available for them so they don't think I am discriminating their culture but I also want to make sure that they don't feel like they stick out and are so different from everyone else.

Portfolio Part 2 - redo

My Culture

food

wedding rings

football

sewing

modesty

family dinner

music

General Conference

The boys were not allowed to be in just underwear

My family is more quiet and introverted

We love BYU

Temple Marriage

Cereal, our go to meal

Academics

Utah Accents

women in the kitchen

Family

Friends

LDS Missions

dirt cake

I learned that culture is more than just your race or where you are from. It varies from family to family. I learned this quickly when I got married. Our families have a lot of similarities but the longer we are married, the more I realize that he came from a completely different culture than I did. My culture helped a lot in school because we were expected to do our best in school and get good grades. Because of this, I was motivated to get my associates degree from UVU while I was in high school. I was very social and involved with my friends which was both good and bad because we motivated each other to do well in school and took several classes together so we could study. However, this also caused a lot more distractions in the classroom when we would be talking among ourselves. My major is FACS Ed. I chose this because my family is very traditional and the women did chores like cooking and cleaning and the men did chores like mowing the lawn and taking out the garbage. Growing up in the kitchen gave me a love for it so becoming a teacher of cooking and child care was no question to me. I was very motivated in those classes in high school and still am motivated in similar classes now.

Portfolio Part 2

American Flag

Dove computer on Photoshop to make models and actors look better than they really are and give people a false expectation of what they should look like

Plastic Surgery

Because people feel like they need to look like they are not aging and they do not have any imperfections they try to alter who they really are

Women in the workplace

This is more common now after many movements that men and women are in the same. Women are often the ones in the workplace just as much if not more than men now.

Families eating out more often

Increasing divorce rates

New Family Dynamics

Teen Pregnancy

Drug Use

Technology over family/social situations

Elevator social norms

Commercials about food are becoming sexual

People like their personal space

Social norm to wear shoes in public

separate restrooms

All speaking the same language

Another social norm

More Homeless

Reality TV Shows

Wedding ring is social norms

As I was reviewing the artifacts I collected on our culture I was surprised by all of our symbols, laws and social norms. I would not have thought of symbols and laws especially as something that would be specific to our culture. As I was talking about this assignment with my parents I learned that things are very different now than they were when my parents were growing up. Many things in our culture stay the same but there are a lot of things that slowly change over time such as fashion, social norms, what is considered beautiful and how society views our personal values. I was most troubled with the way that people especially women are led to view themselves today and what they believe is normal. Not only are they told they need to be taller, skinnier and prettier but they are led to believe they have to act like sexual objects for men like the Carl's Junior commercial above displays.
I think that our culture helps in a school setting because we have a lot of pride in our country and with the shift on men and women gender roles there are more people interested in taking the FACS classes that I teach which includes cooking, sewing, and child care. Also because of the FACS program there is a class called Teen Living  and Adult Roles that teaches the students consequences and promotes them to continue their education. It is hindering in a school setting because the students are learning false expectations of what it is like to be in or raise a family or what their role in society is. Another thing that could be both a help and hindrance in our schools is the use of technology. It is good if the teacher knows how to control the uses of it but now there are a lot of students texting in class or surfing the web instead of paying attention to the lessons.