What is the best way to prepare for "multiculturalism?"

In class I heard a lot of great ideas like, to have a few classes for our major dedicated to learning a different language. To me that is a great idea because there will be students in your classroom where English might not be their "first" language and it would help the student if you had some idea of their language, and with taking a foreign language that would benefit greatly. Another thing I heard was to "bridge the gap" meaning to not teach the student to be white, but to teach them in ways where it is the best way for them to learn. Hearing all these ideas in class really made me realize that we still have a long way to go.

Unequal Education Video

                The Unequal Education video was very interesting because you got to see two students of the same age, different skin color, one being white, the other being black. Both students had about the same intelligence, but the thing was they didn't have the same equal education or opportunities. The black student went to a broken down school called South Fordham. Students that went to South Fordham were from "the hood" and didn't have  a whole lot.  At South Fordham the teachers weren't even certified to be teaching the classes they were teaching, they were just thrown in their to teach without having any teaching background of the criteria. For a student this would be very hard to learn, when the teacher isn't familiar at all with the criteria, and this would cause them to not pay attention in class, do the homework, or sometimes not even show up to school. On the flip side, the white student they followed around went to a school called Riverdale. The teachers at Riverdale seemed to really care about the students and if the students seemed to be slipping, the teachers would notify the students parents and a conference would be held. The teachers really got the students and excited about class.
               To me, I would much rather go to the second school. I want my teacher to care about my learning, and not just have it seem like a job to them. It would be so hard to learn and take school seriously if I went to the first school I mentioned. I am very blessed that I was always at a school where the teachers cared about my education and were always there if I needed help. I hope that once I become a teacher that I will be able to help the students the best I can, and not just look at it as a job.

Field Experience

        I did my 20+ hours at St. Wenceslaus School back in my hometown of New Prague. I chose to do my field experience hours with my old second grade teacher Jen Rosen. Right away off the bat I felt comfortable working with Mrs. Rosen, which was very nice. The first day I was in the classroom the 2nd graders were all very welcoming to me and didn't give me a hard time at all.
       Right away I learned that some of the students needed extra help, for example, one student Sammy was dyslexic, so I had to read a lot of questions out loud for her when she was working on her math, writing, reading, etc. I learned that every student learns differently and some students may need more explanations than others.
       My favorite thing I did with the students was doing math stations with them in small groups of about six. It helped me connect with each student better and it helped me realize what students may need more help than others. The students really surprised me with when they had trouble with something, that they didn't hesitate to ask me for help. I definitely would love to go back to their class and work with them more, I ended up going over my hours because I enjoyed working with them so much. This field experience really made me realize why I want to become a teacher. Awesome experience!

The Global Achievement Gap Thus Far

So far I have found The Global Achievement Gap to be very interesting. Being a student entering the workforce in a few years, I find that this book has been very helpful with expanding my thoughts on schools and teaching. I found the part they talked about critical thinking was very interesting. How students nowadays, and so many people are guilty of this, of not learning the criteria, but just memorizing it only to forget it a few days later. That is why the MCA testing, ACT test doesn't measure who the student really is. Critical thinking allows students to think outside the box and to express themselves. Being a future teacher I would think that we need to change our ways and become more critical with out thinking. When we make our criteria for our students we should make it so the kids are actually learning and taking it in and participating, instead of jotting down notes and memorizing it, only to forget it. I also thought of the seven survival skills and related it to the the first chapters.

Field Experience

I am starting my field experience this Monday March 7th. I will be doing my field experience with Jennifer Rosen  at St. Wenceslaus school in New Prague, my hometown. I am very excited to start because it was the grade school I attended and Mrs. Rosen was my 2nd grade teacher!

Reaction to Speaking in Tongues video

The video Speaking in Tongues surprised me in a few different ways. First off, when the father of a Chinese student was complaining how only two and a half hours of the five hour school day is spent in English. This surprised me because I would think that the Chinese people would appreciate it more since they are learning there language, along with English and Spanish. That sort of shocked me and I don't fully understand his reasoning. What else sort of surprised me was that bilingual students tend to score higher on standardized tests. This is because bilingual students use more brain capacity. Very interesting stuff.