While going through the surveys and assessing myself, I was somewhat surprised with my results. I felt that I have had much more experience with diverse cultures. Most of my experience has been recently in my life such as when I was in college or working as a teacher in different school districts and child care centers. I had mostly 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s and only one 10. The 10 that I had was in the category "Current work experiences." I found that my childhood was very monocultural because I was not exposed to anything different in my family, neighborhood, schools, clubs, or even friendships. It was not until college when my monocultural experience started changing into a multicultural direction. I was able to do field placements in Rochester City Schools and worked with many diverse learners. I also worked as a Preschool teacher after college and had diverse learners in my classroom.
I also felt that my experiences with individuals with disabilities did not take place until college and my current work experiences. The only "O" for often I had was "Study about in school." I did not have many classmates or teachers with disabilities while I was in school. I hope to learn more about individuals with disabilities and look forward to teaching in a diverse classroom.
Natalie Gianvecchio
I think that's so interesting, when we really look at our own lives and "count our blessings". I think it's interesting how your multicultural experiences starting happening more in college, when mine seemed to be the complete opposite. I had more diversity in high school than I ever did in college!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that we look around at these children who can't help where they come from. They can't change it, and I can't imagine facing those struggles every day when you're young. But all we can do as their teachers is teach them that it's OK. It's OK to be different and come from a different place. That's the beauty of being a human being, and it's so important that we show our kids those life skills to build relationships with one another.
Meghan Koch
Being of the older students in the class, I am somewhat suprised that you saw yourself more on the side of monocultural. Two of my four children are probably around the same age as you and I think the young adults to some degree have more experience and understanding of the lives of their peers because of the exposure to many of these situations every time they turn around. I feel that I am at a big disadvantage because so much of what people are faced with today was not as prevelant when I was going up as it is today.
ReplyDeleteAs much as we are different, we really are the same when it comes to educating the future students and trying to give our students the tools to be able to cope and understand that sometimes life is really complicated and sucks some of the time but that we all face adversity at some time in our lives. It is okay to come from different walks of life and still have great and caring relationships with one another and show each other that we care no matter what is going on.