Personal/Professional Diversity Experience Reflective Essay & Word Cloud

Personal/ Professional Diversity Experience Reflective Essay

From the beginning of my academic career, I have been immersed in diversity. The preschool, grade school, and high school I attended was lucky enough to have many languages spoken, religions practiced, and a wide range of abilities in academics. But my acceptance for diversity started way before my schooling experience. My parents are two different religions, my father is Jewish and my mother is Catholic. I was raised Catholic, but half of my family is Jewish. Now, some people may say I'm really lucky because I am able to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, but it is a lot more than that. I consider myself extremely lucky because I was able to learn about both religions, which not everyone is able to do without taking a course. I never thought about how luck I was growing up in such a diverse setting until I attended college. When I attended college, people were shocked by all the different religions and cultures at my school. People had no idea what it would be like going to class with someone who was a different race. My friend graduated from high school, and everyone who graduated with her was Caucasian. At my high school, 40% of the student body checked something besides Caucasian on the standardized tests.

Having such a diverse background makes me who I am, and I wouldn't change it for the world. I am proud of my background, and feel a lot more accepting of others. When I teach, I hope to teach my students just that. My major is Special Education, so I am hoping to get a job teaching higher to medium function children with Autism. I want to make sure all of my students are happy and confident with themselves. I know its difficult for some students in the Special Education department to have a high self-esteem, because they may be picked on by their peers. Knowing this, I want to embrace differences as a whole in my classroom. The decorations in my room will be pictures of kids of all differences, not just the color of their skin. I want pictures of children with glasses, different hair color, short, tall, in wheel chairs, etc. If I can't find posters that reflect the differences in people, especially people at our school I will make a collage of pictures of students in our class. That way the students see that they are accepted into the classroom. Once my students feel confident with themselves, there positive energy will bounce off of others, forming positive vibes. I will also use personal stories to help relate a concept to my students, this way they can put a concept and a story together. I strongly believe that the children of today, are tomorrows future; and in order to change the way people think we need to start with children.

Word Cloud

Chapter Twelve Reflection

I thought this chapter brought up some very interesting points. I personally didn't think much on religion in schools, until this chapter and how much it impacts schools. I attended a public school from kindergarten through senior year of high school, we said the Pledge Allegiance, which had a line that mentioned God, but besides that religion was not discussed in depth while at school. My freshman year of college I attended a Catholic university, where the the professors said a short prayer before every class period. When this first occurred I was shocked and had no idea what to do. I am Catholic, but I felt very uncomfortable during this prayer, reason being it was so different to what I was used to, but after a few weeks I got used to it, and it wasn't as uncomfortable as I originally thought. After seeing the two types of schooling, I can understand why some people prefer one way over the other. I wouldn't say one is better than the other, but both schooling experiences are different and have their pluses and negatives. I think when parents are choosing a school, they should keep an open mind look at all their options (private or public) and see which one is best for their family.

Chapter Eleven Reflection

I thought this chapter was very interesting, and it reminded me when I was in junior high school. One of my best friends from grade school, realized that she was a lesbian. It was really hard for her to open up about it and tell her friends, especially since adolescents can be very judgmental. She was nervous that she would be teased and would lose friends. When she finally told our group of friends, we already had an idea and were not surprised. We didn't ask many questions right away, and we respected her for who she was regardless of sexual orientation. I don't know if my friends and I were an exception to the rule of adolescents being judgmental, or they way I was raised not to judge someone off that their sexual orientation, but I hope behaviors similar to this one is happening more often, rather than the teasing and the bullying.

Chapter Ten Reflection

This chapter was very interesting, but I feel like I have learned a lot about gender and gender roles in several other courses. Don't get me wrong, it is very important, but to be completely honest this chapter was difficult to get through because I felt like it a review from previous courses. Something I did find interesting was The Foundations of Boy's Work. I thought the studies described the concept well, and I didn't realize how much outside forces effect boys and their education. After reading this chapter I realized that as the role of teachers is vital because our students will shadow our behaviors. Especially since a lot of the time students idolize their teachers, and we do spend most of the day with students, we need to be very careful not to let our beliefs affect our teaching ways.

Chapter Nine Reflection

I really enjoyed this chapter, and thought it was very interesting. I am planning on becoming a Special Education teacher, so this chapter really related to the type of students I will be working with. This past summer I worked at an overnight summer camp for children with disabilities. It was one of the greatest experiences and I learned a lot about the children I plan on working with. While I was there, I couldn't help but think about the commonalities between which children had what disability and relate it to their race or Socio-Economic Status or family income. It seemed to me, that the children that had behavior issues or emotionally disturbed were from low income homes and more likely than not were African American. On the other side of the spectrum the children who were Autistic seemed like they were from well off families and were Caucasian. I have no idea if there is a correlation between this, but that is what I observed.

Chapter Eight Reflection

This chapter was incredibly sad to read. I felt so bad for the people living in poverty, I can't even imagine what it is like moving from one shelter to the next, skipping meals and constantly feel hungry, and not know what it is like to have a stable life. During the chapter, the authors introduced the idea migrant families, which was shocking to me. I have lived in the same house for my entire life, so I have no idea how it would be if I moved from school to school, never having constant friends, and not being able to call a place home. I know I'm repeating myself, but throughout this chapter that is truly how I feel on the topic.

As a teacher, I need to understand that poverty is something I will most likely have to face in my classroom. Last year, I was enrolled in ETE 227, one of the Middle School classes a guest speaker came in and discussed poverty and homelessness and how it effects the classroom. She gave us a few pointers to help us, as teachers help these children, because often time they fall through the cracks. She mentioned that if a student falls a sleep, let them take a nap. They may be missing out on the lesson, but essentially they need a safe place to sleep. She also suggested having "emergency packs" in your class. What that is is just a plastic bag of necessary toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, shampoo, soap, etc. ) and have dried food in the bag as well, such as granola bars. This way if a student is homeless in your class, you can help with the bare essentials. Most importantly, she suggested that you keep in contact with the principal and therapist at the school. As a teacher, especially a new teacher, you do not want this to be a secret, and having the support from the school will in the long run help the child. I think these are very intelligent ideas and I will definitely adopt these plans into my classroom.

Chapter Seven Reflection

I thought this chapter was very interesting, and hit on some very important and serious topics. The first part of the chapter discussed Culture, and how people respond to culture. I thought it was really interesting, and it reminded me of the Sociology class I took last year. In that class we spent a lot of time discussing culture, so it was neat to compare what I was reading for this class, to that class. Something that I ponder, is that we pride people so much when they know a multiple languages. Part of learning a new language is understanding the culture and why they may do something (ex: In Asian cultures, children need to bow to their elders to show respect), yet when a someone who moves into a neighborhood that may celebrate a different culture, some people may react poorly towards that family.

When the topic of mascots came up in this chapter, it really intrigued me. My high school's mascot was originally the Indians, but in 2001, they needed to change their mascot, we are currently the Wolves. This change caused many upset alumni and community members. I personally, thought it was kind of foolish that we needed to change the mascot because we never offended the Indians, in fact we honored it by having a totem pole. It also cost the school thousands of dollars to change the mascot. But after reading about the other side of the argument, I now see how disrespectful it could be having an Indian mascot. I currently, don't know where I stand on the topic, and I can understand both sides of the argument.