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.