Reflections Chapter 2

2.2 - Interviews about achievement

When I conducted my interviews I tried to pick a variety of different people. I interviewed two people who are roughly the same age, but have come from different backgrounds and family situations. My third interview was of someone of an older generation (trying to be nice here) who has lived long enough to see many of the achievements we all hope to have in our lives at one point or another. What I found interesting about all of the interviews was the importance of education. All of my interviewees have had varing amounts of education; two graduated from college and one from high school, but it didn't matter how much or little they had they all found it to be achievements in their lives. They also found long lasting relationships to be high achievements. Two talked of marriage being major accomplishments and all discussed the importance of having friendships from high school.
When it came to the skills they used to accomplish life achievements all agreed that communication has been a useful tool. They also mentioned education as a skill as well as personal skills. Their educational skills and communication have all been useful in their accomplishments of finding jobs that they love and enjoy doing. One talked of using personal skills to overcome her shyness and gaining more confidence which has been extremely helpful since she became a teacher.
What I found most interesting about these interviews was their reactions to the last question. Once again, everyone agreed that they admired people who could maintain long term relationships, whether it was marriage or friendship. One person said they admired people who could support a family and not in just the traditional sense, but people who could support a family mentally, physically and especially emotionally. I whole heartedly agree with this statement. I admire people who see family as much more than just another check on their life-list.
Even though all of these people have come from different backgrounds and families, they all seemed similiar in a way after this interview. No matter where people come from life achievements are all the same when it comes to family, education, and relationships. For the most part, I agreed with everything these people said. They only things I couldn't agree with were things I personally have never experienced.

2.6 - Teaching and Students Socializing Forces

This was the most difficult part of this reflection because not only did I have a hard time figuring out what it was asking me to do, but I also had to figure out a way to explain it to the kid I was interviewing. When it was all said and done I simply asked the kid to tell me about a typical day he has and how his family and school are linked. The kid I was interviewing said that he felt that most of the time he had teachers who cared about him and encouraged him, which I think is pretty lucky because not every kid would have said that. He felt as though he had support both at school and in his home life. We both didn't see how the media played a role in his life other than it perhaps influenced what he read or what a teacher might have on their classroom walls.

2.8 - What a Student Says

I interview a 13 year old boy named Brenden who lives in Eugene, Oregon.
1) Situation that gave you a sense of power: Brended believes that the one place he feels he has power is in sports. He participates in wrestling and feels when he is with people his own age he has more power than when he is surrounded by people who are older and inheritently have more power.

2) Situation that gives you freedom: After school, Brenden is allowed to use the public transportation in Eugene to either go to the library or back to his own house. The freedom in this situation is being viewed as old enough to take care of himself after school. He gets to decide where he goes and has the opportunity to move around.

3) Activities outside of school and in: Brenden loves to read and this is one of his favorite activities, but he also enjoys wrestling, band and playing board games.

4) Where or when do you feel like you have a sense of belonging: When I asked Brenden this question I though because he is a more sensitive boy he would say that he feels a sense of belonging when he is with his family, but of course I was wrong. He feels like he belongs when he is with his friends or with people who have common interests with him.

5) If I were your teacher...Fantastic teacher: Brenden told me that in order to be a fantastic teacher I should teach either history or science, but because I don't, he suggested that I show educational videos in class. He also said it is really important to him that his teachers have a sense of humor. He thinks the best teachers are ones who can joke with their students and who don't take themselves too seriously. This is one thing I really believe to be true. The teachers I enjoyed in middle school and high school were the ones who had a joke or two to start class.

2.9 - Applying what you learned to a classroom

I think the one thing I can do to allow my students to feel they have a little power and freedom in their classroom is to invite them into the decision making process. I had a few teachers who would put a list of books on the board and it would be the classes decision to pick two or three of the books that we would be reading thoughout the year. We got the opportunity to discuss what each book was about and whether or not that sounded like something we would be interested in reading or learning about. To make my classroom more fun I think it is important to, again, let your students have a say in it. I want to have posters on my walls that the students want to see everyday not just me. This could be something as simple as having the students write autobiographies and having a picture of themselves on the wall next to their writing. This is their classroom as much as it is mine and this allows not only me, but all of them to get to know eachother.
I think the hardest part about a classroom is making every student feel like they have a place where they belong. Most of the time they want to be with friends or family, not a classroom. At this time, I don't really know how I would make all of my students feel like they belong. The only thing I can do is make sure that each one of them knows that they are welcome in my classroom and that I want them to be there, even if they don't.

Autobiography

I was born in Hood River, which at the time was a small town in the middle of the Columbia River Gorge. Hood River is known for its fruit industry so it is important to know that when I say I grew up in Hood River, I should really say I grew up in Hood River County which consists of about three small towns: Hood River, Odell, and Parkdale. Each of these towns are between 10 and 15 miles apart from each other and over the years the differences between the people and who lived there have changed dramatically and has been a major influence on the person I have become.

When I was born the town of Hood River was primarily white. When I began school, the majority of my classmates were white and came from middle class families such as myself. Depending on how well your family did in the fruit industry, you might have more money than the kid sitting next to you, but that wasn’t usually the case. As I progressed in elementary school the grades became more diverse. More and more Hispanic families were moving to Hood River to help in the orchards, but in a class of thirty there would probably only be one or two students who were not white.

The diversity in ethnicity of my classrooms were never something I really thought about when I was younger, but what I did notice was the difference of economic status. As I've said the majority of Hood River is and was middle class so when you met a fellow student who obviously had more or less money than your family, it was something that stuck in your mind.

It’s important to understand that in Hood River County each of outlying towns have their own elementary schools. It isn’t until you reach middle school that the schools start to blend. Everyone in Parkdale goes to Odell for middle school and everyone in Hood River goes to the Hood River middle school. The valley continues to filter down once you reach high school. Every student in Hood River County attends the same high school and it is there that you will see how diverse Hood River becomes.

By the time I began high school there was a huge influx between white and Hispanic students. Odell and Parkdale had become heavily populated by Hispanic families working in the orchards, but Hood River stayed primarily white. This effected the clique order in the school. For the most part there were the same cliques as always, the popular, the jocks, the theater group, and the outsiders. These groups were primarily white with a few minorities mixed in, but for the most part the Hispanic culture kept to themselves. I personally was in the "doesn't have a clique" clique. I had friends from almost every clique and would just go back and forth between them. My parents call me the collector of misfits because none of my friends have anything in common. I think this has made me more understanding of other people and who they are. It's never really mattered to me where someone grew up or who they know. If I like them...I like them. Hood River may have been small when I was younger, but once I reached high school it had grown and with it the diversity of it's people.

I talk a lot about Hood River because I feel it has had the most impact on who I’ve become as a person. I’m seen Hood River go through many different changes especially when it comes to the people and their ethnic backgrounds, as well as their financial and political status. My parents have also been an example of those changes. When I was born my mom worked in the school district as a speech pathologist and my dad ran our family farm. We, like most of the valley, owned a small apple, pear and peach orchard, but my the time I was three the fruit industry had become a hard business to stay in. Only large orchards were making any money and it was apparent to my parents that their orchard wasn’t going to sustain them for the rest of their lives. My dad quit the orchard business and has been working in construction every since. He personally has seen the economic changes of Hood River. Hood River began as a middle class town, but in the last few years has become the place for “the yuppies” as I call them. These are the people who have enough money to commute from Hood River and Portland everyday and who have driven up the house prices making it impossible for the people who actually care about Hood River to live there.

I think the way my parents brought me up has really contributed to the person I am today. My family was lucky enough to have two parents with fairly well paying jobs and who were able to be home every night with their kids. My family and I ate dinner together every night and it wasn’t until I started school that I found that wasn’t always the normal situation in a family. My parents have kept me grounded. They’ve introduced me to new people and cultures and taught me to respect each person I come into contact with. I’ve learned a lot by just observing the way they have interacted with other people and even today find myself emulating them.

When I decided to go to college I had a lot to think about. I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and that I wanted to go to a school that was small. I’ve found over the years that I like the idea of small classes to one teacher rather than a lecture hall to one teacher or teacher’s aid. When I found Western Oregon University, I found everything I was looking for. It’s a small liberal arts school with great teachers and a more diverse population than I thought at first. College was the first time that not only was I going to school with Hispanic students, but African-American and Asian students as well. I met kids with similar backgrounds to myself, but also others who were completely different.

As I continued with college, I began to think about my future as a teacher. I've always thought that when I had my teaching license I would go back to Hood River. After really thinking about it, I realized the only way I was going to get a job there was if I learned Spanish. Since leaving Hood River, the Hispanic population has exploded. In my elementary school where Hispanics use to be the minority, they have now become the majority and this population will filter into the middle and high schools. I have no problem learning Spanish, I've always been interested in the language and can't wait to go to a Latin American country and immerse myself in the culture and language.

Even though I personally feel I have had very little experience with diversity I think even a little knowledge can go a long way. I'm open to new ideas, cultures, and opinions and believe that my students will be teaching me a lot more than they realize.

Equity Reflection 1.1-1.4 and 1.11-1.13

Reflections 1.1 - 1.4

1.1) My vision of myself as a fantastic teacher:
- Engaging
- Helpful
- Resourceful
- Respectful
- Knowledgeable
- Willingness to push the student who needs to be pushed

1.2) What I mean by...

a) Love(ing) children means: I don’t think I would use the word love when it comes to one of my reasons for wanting to be a teacher, but I would use the word respect. I want to respect my students enough that they know I care about them and their future. I want them to know that I care about their success and where they end up in life.

b) Want(ing) to help students means: When I use the word help, I mean that I want to be a resource for my students. I want them to be able to come to me for the knowledge and resources to develop into the person/student they want to be.

c) Another reason I want to teach includes: One of the obvious reasons anyone becomes a teacher is to make a difference in a students life. I worked at a after-school program at a Salem middle school and met so many students who needed someone in their life who was their for them. Someone who was willing to listen to them even when they weren’t saying very much. I noticed the difference when someone took an interest in a student and that student understood.

1.3) What will sustain me:

a) Loving Children: What will sustain me when it comes to “loving children” is their acknowledgment of my respect for them and their willingness to give me the same kind of respect. What won’t sustain me is a student’s inability to recognize that I’m there to help them and my inability to give them they respect they deserve. I really do worry about how I will react when I can’t respect one of my students.

b) Wanting to help students: What will sustain me when it comes to “helping students” having the resources to give my students what they deserve. What will make this difficult for me will be my inability to obtain the resources I need to help my students.

c) Reaching out to students: I will be able to sustain this reasoning for teaching when I see that my acknowledgment of a student is recognized and sought after. This reason for teaching won’t sustain me when my students won’t accept my reaching out to them.

1.4) Love and help reexamined:

a) Similarities between the statements: After writing about my reasons for wanting to be a teacher I found that all of my statements center around respect. I want my students to respect me and me to respect them. This will push me to be more resourceful when it come to my students needs.

b) Differences between the statements: There aren’t very many differences between my statements.

Reflections 1.11 - 1.13

1.11) Dale Spender’s or Sojourner Truth’s interpretations:
I think Sojourner Truth brings up an interesting question, one that we will all be faced with as educators and that is do we value the same work done by different people? In Truth’s situation it’s the difference between a man and a woman, but in a classroom we will be dealing with the gender, ethnicity, disabilities, sexual orientation, as well as intelligence. We have to learn to look at each student individually and not compare them to the student sitting next to them or the class coming in after them. We have to ask ourselves, does the same work done by different people all have the same value?

1.12) Your philosophy of education:

a) What is the main purpose of schools? I believe the main purpose for schools is to provide a safe, encouraging, stable learning environment for any student, willing or not, to learn.

b) How does this purpose relate to or serve a diverse society? It shouldn’t matter how different a person is from ourselves. I’ve always believed that if a student wants and education than I’m going to give them an education to the best of my ability.

c) How does this purpose relate to or serve a socially stratified society? Again, it doesn’t matter how different my students are from myself. They are in school to get an education and that is what a school should be providing them.

d) What are the implications of what you wrote above for the work of a teacher? What this basically means is that a teacher will have to put aside any differences they might have with a student and just focus on what the student needs and how it can be given to them.

1.13) My vision revisited:
Not much has changed from my list at the beginning. I still want to be a resource for my students with the knowledge they are looking for. I want to be open minded to their ideas and their culture and push them when they need to be pushed. I want to respect them and receive that respect in return.