As I was reading the Kimmel Article, once I came back from my vacation, I found it interesting that the article hinted that masculinity is an effect of nurture, rather than nature, and that it is changes in social ideals that have marked the behavior as appropriate or inappropriate... masculine or feminine. Those ideals change over time. There was a time where identifying as bisexual was completely normal. Shakespeare was bisexual! Then somewhere down the line, that became taboo, and now we seem to be on an upswing where being GLBTQ is slowly becoming more and more acceptable. I suppose even though sexual orientation is not something that is a choice, that the social ideals of masculinity are a result of nurture. How do we incorporate this kind of diversity in the classroom? Through acceptance of students of all walks of life? By pointing it out or treating them all the same. I like to treat them all the same, regardless of orientation. A zero tolerance bullying law within the school seems to help as well. I think in the light of all the suicides due to bullying, school's have become more hip to being more open minded about their student body's differences from student to student.
In the Walters article, I found it highly intriguing about the dynamic between the second generation of children of immigrants to the identities of their immigrant parents. The immigrant parents identifying with flaunting (in a way) their racial and ethnic background to set themselves apart from "Black Americans," when the children of these immigrants have American accents and cannot stand out as a member of their own ethnicity as well. Where does that leave them? How does that effect their ability and time in school? Do their parents realize they are alienating their children?
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Week 3: Affirming Diversity
This week I attempted to go to Teen Coalition, but apparently instead of being able to go from 5-7 they want us to go from 3-5. Oops! 3-5 is going to be a significant difficulty for me, as I'm normally in school until 3:15. I guess going from 3:30-5:00 would be acceptable (or that's what Lola said anyway) but it's still a stretch. I was sort of bummed that I didn't get to work with the LCHC teens. Next month, I suppose, once all the confusion has cleared up.
In the blogs I noticed that a lot of people were writing about the Model Minority book, however... I'm going to focus on the Affirming Diversity book. I read a couple really interesting stories from immigrant students and children of immigrants, and I'd like to share my thoughts on those:
I read about Liane, the Eurasian girl with a French-Polish father and Chinese mother, and the support that was received from her school in her learning Chinese both in school and through her mother, and how that support helped her feel closer to her mom and her heritage. I thought it was very cool that her school offered her home language, but I had to think about the reality that in public school settings, at least in Massachusetts, that there are very few schools who offer or are capable of offering a language like Chinese or other languages that aren't English or classes that are ESL/ELL.
I do know that there are some schools in Connecticut that spend a week speaking and doing work in English and then the next week will be in Spanish. They zone the students dependent on whether they feel that would be helpful for them (i.e. my half brother goes to an English only speaking school because he does not speak Spanish but some of my mom's neighbors go to one of the English/Spanish speaking schools.
I also read about Manuel, who was from cape verde, and how Massachusetts had to scramble to cater to the Cape Verdean population. While I do think it is nice to have classes in Crioulu, and other languages to cater to every student, I think it would be just as productive to have ESL classes that have people schooled in these different languages to better serve immigrants in learning the predominant language of the United States. Not to discredit other languages, and perhaps I'm thinking of it backwards and it should be the English speaking population learning more of these other languages, but I think it would be helpful to help the students gain English language skills, rather than have classes that function under those foreign languages, which teach these academic skills but not the English language skills that they would need to excel in American Society as a whole.
My mother and I were having a conversation about this very topic as she was explaining how the English/Spanish speaking schools in New Britain, CT work. All I kept thinking was, "But how are they improving their English language skills with such a disjointed method of teaching? Wouldn't they forget the English skills in that week they're speaking entirely Spanish?" I thought about the schools I'm teaching in and how the students are getting ESL classes and it's an important thing to remind the Hispanic students to speak in English "We speak in English in __________ Class, boys and girls," and how those students even still struggle with the language skills they need to excel in the English speaking school. If we aren't enforcing constant practice of those language skills, how are they to improve them?
In the blogs I noticed that a lot of people were writing about the Model Minority book, however... I'm going to focus on the Affirming Diversity book. I read a couple really interesting stories from immigrant students and children of immigrants, and I'd like to share my thoughts on those:
I read about Liane, the Eurasian girl with a French-Polish father and Chinese mother, and the support that was received from her school in her learning Chinese both in school and through her mother, and how that support helped her feel closer to her mom and her heritage. I thought it was very cool that her school offered her home language, but I had to think about the reality that in public school settings, at least in Massachusetts, that there are very few schools who offer or are capable of offering a language like Chinese or other languages that aren't English or classes that are ESL/ELL.
I do know that there are some schools in Connecticut that spend a week speaking and doing work in English and then the next week will be in Spanish. They zone the students dependent on whether they feel that would be helpful for them (i.e. my half brother goes to an English only speaking school because he does not speak Spanish but some of my mom's neighbors go to one of the English/Spanish speaking schools.
I also read about Manuel, who was from cape verde, and how Massachusetts had to scramble to cater to the Cape Verdean population. While I do think it is nice to have classes in Crioulu, and other languages to cater to every student, I think it would be just as productive to have ESL classes that have people schooled in these different languages to better serve immigrants in learning the predominant language of the United States. Not to discredit other languages, and perhaps I'm thinking of it backwards and it should be the English speaking population learning more of these other languages, but I think it would be helpful to help the students gain English language skills, rather than have classes that function under those foreign languages, which teach these academic skills but not the English language skills that they would need to excel in American Society as a whole.
My mother and I were having a conversation about this very topic as she was explaining how the English/Spanish speaking schools in New Britain, CT work. All I kept thinking was, "But how are they improving their English language skills with such a disjointed method of teaching? Wouldn't they forget the English skills in that week they're speaking entirely Spanish?" I thought about the schools I'm teaching in and how the students are getting ESL classes and it's an important thing to remind the Hispanic students to speak in English "We speak in English in __________ Class, boys and girls," and how those students even still struggle with the language skills they need to excel in the English speaking school. If we aren't enforcing constant practice of those language skills, how are they to improve them?
Monday, February 6, 2012
Week Two: Children of Immigration
I particularly liked that this book clearly defined the difference between "immigrant children," and the "children of immigrants," wish such detail. I also thought it was interesting to see the different considerations that need to be given to children immigrating from one country to another, the different possible scenarios, and the consequences and hardships associated with immigration and the anxiety it could cause. Chapter 3 was particularly illuminating in describing the many factors that could be at stake with a child that is moving to another country. They could be living with relatives, with a single parent, waiting back in their home country while one parent comes to the other country to work and come back for the rest of the family... the list goes on and on...
Looking at the statistics of the different scenarios, it made me think about my student teaching and what kind of students am I teaching? Maybe a student is checking out because he or she is adjusting to a new environment and new educational customs? Or they're possibly just unable to understand what's expected of them, among several other possible reasons. It makes me think again about some of my students and how they are behaving. Perhaps they have no parental unit at home, or perhaps they have just been reunited with their family. I thought it was interesting to add another layer to my understanding of students who come from other countries, and now easy it is to assume that their parents don't care, or that they themselves don't care, when either, or neither could be the case, and it could just be a matter of circumstance for them. But how do you cater a lesson plan to a student in that sort of situation without excluding them or holding back the other students? These are the dilemmas that face teachers day in and day out. Perhaps we need to take a look at what resources we could give our students before writing them off.
Looking at the statistics of the different scenarios, it made me think about my student teaching and what kind of students am I teaching? Maybe a student is checking out because he or she is adjusting to a new environment and new educational customs? Or they're possibly just unable to understand what's expected of them, among several other possible reasons. It makes me think again about some of my students and how they are behaving. Perhaps they have no parental unit at home, or perhaps they have just been reunited with their family. I thought it was interesting to add another layer to my understanding of students who come from other countries, and now easy it is to assume that their parents don't care, or that they themselves don't care, when either, or neither could be the case, and it could just be a matter of circumstance for them. But how do you cater a lesson plan to a student in that sort of situation without excluding them or holding back the other students? These are the dilemmas that face teachers day in and day out. Perhaps we need to take a look at what resources we could give our students before writing them off.
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