Close to our Culture Class 2012

Thank YOU!!!! I wanted to highlight some of your thoughtful comments in your reflections and Case Studies. I feel so lucky to be working with so many CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATORS like you.  Here are some things you had to say:

Chances are, if we are looking only at what a student seems to lack, the pattern will continue to be one of negativity.  If we first start with a student’s gifts, we will be that much closer to the sharing of those gifts, and I think we all want that.

Understand their difficulties to develop socially with others and also help them to develop confident in their owns telling them the same thing I tell myself every morning: even though they think I don’t know anything just because I don’t speak their language, I will be showing them they are wrong even in Spanish.

It is important that when we communicate with parents that we are sensitive to their feelings and personal history.

I will make activities based on my immigrant students’ cultures where we talk about their culture so that they feel comfortable in my classroom. I will make them work in groups where they can share their thoughts with other cultural students. I will give my immigrant students more opportunities to bring their ideas and experiences to my classroom. I will make them share their heritage and culture to the whole class.  I will recognize their individuality by showing interest in their learning and provide assistance for their academic success.

They migrated to our country to get a fair or better chance of life.  That does not mean that they have to conform to our ways and accept our beliefs.

It is important that ELL students have access to educational programs that focus on helping students finish school, acquire work skills, postpone parenthood, and keep physically and mentally healthy.  This can enable students to overcome barriers in the classroom.

To engage ELL students in school, educators must not try to impose American’s culture, but instead provide avenues to explore and strengthen their ethnic identities and languages while developing their ability to study and work in this country.

The question then is; how will teachers treat students with characteristics that are different from theirs?  Teachers have the opportunity to judge each student either positively or negatively.

As a teacher, I will make my classroom environment more comfortable for ELL students by posting pictures of different cultures on the classroom walls. I will provide an English speaking buddy (mentor) for each ELL student and make sure that they get help from their buddies. Occasionally, I will make activities based on my immigrant students’ cultures where we talk about their culture so that they feel comfortable in my classroom. I will make them work in groups where they can share their thoughts with other cultural students. I will give my immigrant students more opportunities to bring their ideas and experiences to my classroom. I will make them share their heritage and culture to the whole class. 

The progress of identity determines not only how students feel about themselves, but also what they see as important in their lives.  The challenge that I may have as a teacher is to recognize that these difficulties may be indicative of a need for ESL support rather than of a real learning disability or behavioral disorder. interest in their learning and provide assistance for their academic success.

I am also personally moved by my students’ testimonies of fear and confusion after their movement to the U.S.  Evidence of this constant state of fear surfaced a few weeks ago in two of my classes.  First, in my Extended Learning Time class, students chose a vocabulary word with which to complete a Frayer diagram.  One student chose the word “apprehensive.”  His example sentence read, “I feel apprehensive when I travel because I could get in trouble.”  The accompanying illustration showed a car stopped in front of another car with a red light on the roof, presumably a police car.

Students should be encouraged to remain who they are while respecting, actively engaging in, and appreciating American culture and the opportunities this nation provides to immigrants. The following equation from the chapter summarizes my thoughts effectively: A + B + C = A^D + B^D + C^D, meaning that immigrants should maintain their cultural identities while also acknowledging the dominant American culture on a daily basis.

It is therefore a huge mistake and a disfavor to students when attempt is being made to put them in a “one box fits all” structure.  Those students that cannot fit could be placed in a very disadvantageous situation.  With all the tools that are available today, it is incumbent to give time for students to get acclimatized to their new environment and test them when a deficient learning pattern persists before placing blames or labels as to why “Johnny could not succeed”    

Coming from a background that could have easily made me a culturally insensitive and racist individual didn’t happen.  Whether it was my own sense of right and wrong or just luck I was able to retain my own cultural identity and appreciate the things that make it great and still have the capacity to recognize weaknesses and issues that need to be addressed.  What I hope is the next cycle I go through is the clarified identity to achieve societal change (Noel 2008).  

I have learned to see beyond what my student just did and begin to ask what must have been the motivation or reason behind his/her action.  I now understand that constructive and earnest dialoguing with my student is needed in order to help student and teacher expand their identity.  My perspective as a teacher should be informed by my specific communities so that acquiring a new perspective from another culture should serve to deepen my understanding as an educator in my quest to help my student understand in a positive way their cultural and ethnic identity.  

In class a few days ago, the school’s lunch menu was announced on the morning announcements, and one of the menu items was called “Asian To-Go”. One of my students looked at me and remarked, “isn’t that a little racist”. 

Focusing on schoolwork becomes secondary when your parents are taken from you and your future seems uncertain.

The instructor Elizabeth Webb reminded me that to really understand a different culture, and to empathize with that culture, requires looking within first, and understanding one’s own culture as a basis for understanding others.

I know that students as well as teachers have far more varied life-affecting circumstances and environments in their lives than just race and nationality can define.  If we limit our understanding of people to just those basic labels, we not only lose the opportunity to make universal threads of connection in other, and sometimes far more important ways, we also fail to see people as more than just those basic attempts to define them. 

Rather than using a heavy-handed discipline or instructional approach, I try to inspire students to develop empathy and understanding for my classroom goals as well as those of each other, to lend a helping hand when they can, and to encourage others to stay on a positive track with their work. 

For English Language Learners, their home language is a large part of their personal identities.  Language connects us to others, and if you are not living in a place where your home language is not the language of power or the majority language, it can feel as if part of your very identity is being denied. Therefore, teachers should make every effort to affirm students’ identities – both the aspects that are carried over from a former home and the emerging qualities that result from living in a new, different culture.

I am genuinely interested in learning about my students’ culture, not just to help them, but because I genuinely want to know them better since I feel like my students are a big part of my life since I see them day in and day out.

It is difficult to strike a balance between preparing students for success according to specific, state and federally mandated measures of success (standardized tests) and allowing students to express other ways of knowing.

This chapter’s information helps me to see that even though students have cultural differences, that they still can be successful in their own unique way.  One just has to go beyond their our own confusion and fears as well as be willing to understand the many approaches to identity construction.

Many people at some time in their lives have a revelation to search to understand their cultural, ethnic, or sexual identity.  This is seen as an “encounter” or an “Ah-hah!” moment that sometimes may startle or confuse us. But, we must learn to accept our identity and move forward even though our reaction may range from cognitive dissonance to emotional shock.