Creative Connector
Pg. 79: When students in Mr. Michie’s class refer to Mexican students as “brazer’s”:
Kathleen, I saw that you had this mentioned in your connections also, but I feel extremely sensitive to this issue as well! As most of you know from our discussions, I was in an extended substitute assignment where students in the class were very diverse. I had a very difficult time with the amount of name calling and hurtful slang comments towards students that were “different” from them. These students are 5th grader’s who probably don’t even know what they are saying but they do know what they are saying will influence a reaction and what they are saying is clearly hurtful and wrong! It makes me wonder where they even hear some of the slang names they call their peers and really hit home with the recent headline stories in the news on bullying. I think there needs to be a change in focus from high school bullying to bullying starting out in elementary schools so that we as teaches can make some changes early!
Pg. 84: The different writing pieces students had written about what they thought the definition of “Mexican’s” “American’s” and “Mexican American’s” are:
These definitions were crazy and blew my mind! I actually read them out loud to my mom I couldn’t believe what some of the students had come up with, especially for what they thought the definition from “American” was. I personally don’t have a connection to this experience but I was extremely moved by the comments and made me realize just how true the stereotypes are for these different cultures and how much the students truly believe them. It’s both very sad and very enlightening how much teachers really need to focus on these stereotypes and incorporate them into our classrooms so that our students cam become more and more accepting of cultures. Which is way, the team teaching unit was a great idea by Mr. Michie and his colleague! Even though it took a lot longer than they expected, they left a great impact on their students and themselves
Pg. 87: Mr. Michie’s 2nd TerribleHorribleNoGoodVeryBad Day!
Thank goodness I have no been in a situation like this one, but I’m sure there will be a time in my career where a situation like this will happen to me! I love how Greg Michie writes-particularly in this section. He completely admits that yes, even though I have been teaching for a few years now I still make these terrible mistakes and yes, you can recover and rebound from them! I felt terrible for the position Mr. Michie was put in and for that poor student. However, we are only human and we make mistakes like this everyday, no matter how experienced we are and even if we knew better, these things do happen and it’s ok to admit it! There are definitely days I feel like I am losing my patience or throwing everything I have learned in my education programs out the window, but it’s always important to reflect on those days and remember that tomorrow will always be a better day!
Essence Extractor
Trying new teaching methods though challenging at the time, may surprise you in the end
Idea Illustrator
I’ll bring my sketches to class!:)
Rachel-- I completely agree with your 2nd creative connector! Although I didn't read the definitions to my mother, I was blown away by what some of the students had said. I wish that Mr. Michie had revisited this assignment at the end of his unit and see if he had changed the opinions of his students after helping them to learn more and more about their culture. It seemed (from the following mini-chapter by Lourdes) that her opinion of her heritage and her culture was changed for the better. I hope that the other students were impacted in the same way.
ReplyDeleteby the way, this is Hannah^
ReplyDelete