Midterm Reflections

Communication:

I have never been the student in class who has all of the answers and all of the friends. I am the student who is shouting out the answers in my head but being afraid to say it aloud for fear that it may be the wrong one. I prefer smaller, more intimate crowds. As far as entire classroom discussions go I tend to stay on the shy side. I feel that if the group is smaller, I am able to make a better connection with my peers. I guess I doubt my answers too much and I suppose that I would feel a lot less embarrassed shouting out the wrong answer in front of three or four people, as opposed to fifteen. This is something that I need to work on. Not only do I need to become more confident in my answers for myself but also for my future students. I think that children have a great judge of character and they are capable of distinguishing how confident an adult is about a particular subject or issue. Not to mention that when I am a teacher I pray that I will not have students who are too afraid of answering questions wrong that they don't participate in class discussions. As an educator, how will I expect things from my students (such as speaking up in class) that I am afraid of doing myself? Communication is so important for students in the classroom and they are also extremely important outside of the classroom.

Research:

I find the textbook to be very useful for this class. I have had previous classes where I wished I would have saved the one hundred dollars but this book is actually interesting. I feel that I have been able to research topics that we have discussed in class. I have also used our class website for research. The "multicultural research" section that you posted contains some really great resources for research on educating culturally and linguistically diverse students. I particularly enjoyed the section on how to choose multicultural books. I'm interested in buying some of the ten best books on the list. I think that it is important to research the literature that teachers read to their students because you don't ever want to read something that is inaccurate or portrays false information about a culture or language. I have also used the internet to look up a few questions that I have had about students learning different languages at a young age.

Technology:

I am so far away from every being in the "loop of technology" that it is not even fun, its kind of sad actually! Though I no little about technology, I am loving the experience of creating my own website. I never thought that I would be capable of creating my own website! I'm currently taking a microcomputers course and it is also catching me up on today’s technology. It's not that I am not interested in it; I just become overwhelmed when I think about hardly knowing anything about technology. I feel that by the time that I learn the last ten years of technology, I will only be that much further behind. It can be overwhelming not being a "computer native" - if that is the correct term for this techno savvy generation of children. I must, must, must, try my hardest to be in the loop before I start teaching. I understand that my students will probably always know more about technology than I will but I feel that I must keep myself updated.

Collaboration:

I feel that we have not collaborated a lot this far in class. I imagine that once we start meeting at Apache, we will have plenty to collaborate about. When we wrote our discussions with each other on the first day of class we all collaborated our opinions. I loved getting to read peoples diverse and alike opinions and outlooks. I sometimes have an easier time making my point when I write it down, so the collaboration of thoughts and opinions were great for me. The Barnga simulation was also a time when we collaborated as a class. Though we were not able to talk, we used body language and cues to express our opinions or struggles about the rules of the game. When Vicki Bruno came to our classroom we collaborated by communicating in sign language.

-Five dimensions of learning

Confidence and Independence:

I feel that possessing confidence and portraying independence as a student comes with an awareness of personal skills, along with a complete comprehension of content knowledge. Students must have experience with the topic and they must also be able to reflect on their own learning. I feel that I have been able to comprehend the material learned in this class so far. I know that the semester is only half way finished and there is a lot more to learn, but the text and the classroom discussions have helped me understand more about the aspects of teaching linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Skills and Strategies:

This is my first semester in the UNM program and I feel that so far I have learned skills and strategies which will make me a better teacher. I know that as I have more practicum experiences, I will only learn more effective ways to teach students. Once we begin our practicum work at Apache, I hope to learn skills and strategies that I can use to effectively teach linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Knowledge Content:

I have found the textbook very interesting and I feel that I have learned a lot from it. I feel that there is an overwhelming amount of content to learn about diverse students. There are diverse languages, religions, opinions, interests, values, and the list could go on and on. I feel that all of these aspects are a reflection of a students culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. To say that I understand how to educate diverse students is a very optimistic statement at this point of my schooling career. I feel that I have barely touched the surface of this broad topic. But I am really excited to learn more! I think that I will only learn more about students’ differences as time passes and I have more practicum experiences.

Use of Prior and Emerging Experience:

I have always had an interest in cultures and traditions. When I moved to Albuquerque from the small town of Aztec, I was so excited to meet people with so many different backgrounds. I never really sought out people from different cultures but I always seemed to have friends who could all speak different languages and who came from diverse cultures. I loved hearing their diverse stories about families, values and traditions. I acquired a great understanding for different people and what they value. My friend Marco is from Taiwan and he is Buddhist. I learned a lot about his religion just from watching him converse with people and react to situations. I have another friend named Dimitre who is from Bulgaria and he and his family migrated to the U.S. during the end of the Cold War. He has told me scary stories about communist leaders in his country and how hard it was to succeed. He always talked about how lazy Americans are and how they take things for granted. He is a very kind hearted, yet straight forward and very serious. I understand that people in his country struggle and deal with things that I could not even imagine having to be faced with and this is the reason that Bulgarian's are hard working and have little time for "silliness". The last friend that I am going to talk about is Ketan. He moved to Santa Fe when he was little and he was constantly struggling with being culturally diverse. He was brilliant and never got a grade point average lower than a 4.5. His family raised him in a very traditional Indian environment and he felt a lot of pressure from his mom to live a traditional Indian life. They put a lot of importance on education and they even wanted him to consider an arranged marriage. Ketan lived in Santa Fe the majority of his life and all that he really wanted was an "average" American youth. On a daily basis he would come up with scenarios which involved him quitting school and traveling to some foreign city where he would find a girl that his mother would never approve of!

I witnessed first hand, on a daily basis, my friends struggling with being culturally diverse in America. I know that there are many other issues that culturally diverse students deal with but this did give me an insight. I think that having these close friends has allowed me to pay more attention to the many differences students will have in and out of the classroom. I have learned to become more aware of students backgrounds.

Critical Reflection:

The class has offered a lot to reflect upon. I truly enjoy our text and I have learned a lot from it. Join In has been a great book for me and I like that it puts me in the characters shoes. It gives great insight on how minority students feel in America. I would really like to join with other classmates for a book circle to get some other view points. Having Vicki Bruno in class was fun and a nice refresher for me. And now I am excitedly and nervously waiting to meet with the Apache Elementary students!

I have attended every class, read my textbook and Join In , completed my assignments and posted them on my website, and I have participated in class discussions, therefore, I feel that I deserve an A for my midterm grade.

I think that I need to read each chapter of the text a couple to times to ensure that I am grasping every aspect of the book that I possibly can. I should also research on my own more about ways to educate students ex. internet, books, etc.

I think that we should have more guest speakers. I think that hearing personal stories will hlep me understand more about linguistically and culturally diverse students.