Inclusion, Respect, Acceptance, Understanding

                There is a lot we can do to promote a respectful, safe and learning environment.  I believe that the key points though are that we as educators create and maintain an environment that is as inclusive as possible as well as one in which there can be many opportunities for social interactions among the students.  Inclusive as I define is that we have a class in which we have people with disabilities (person first language from my adaptive physical activity class), students in the general education incorporated into our classrooms; moreover, with tentative issues such as the judgment and harassment of individuals based on their appearances or sexuality we must take measures to "protect" these students and make sure they do not feel alienated (or the least possible form of "segregating" these students from the general population of students) or miss out on academic activities.

                As we learned from our latest readings, as teachers we are a bridge for many, whether that be from students to parents, parents to administration, standards to students, or students to students, and as that bridge we must be able to see every single person's viewpoint to better communicate and work with.   In addition, as teachers in the classroom we must be a "Golden Gate Bridge" for our students, especially in promoting cultural and individual diversity.  For example, with the issue of Cynthia from our RAFT, as a teacher I would definitely create an environment in which she could be included and interactive with others in hopes of breaking down stigmatizing labels.  Also, the same could be said for students with disabilities, such as the case with the child with Autism Spectrum; moreover, collaboration would be key in that scenario.  By collaboration I mean the general education teacher communicating with the special education teacher, and then having that expert evaluate the student and address and communicates any issues with the administration or worried parents.  I believe that having all these diverse students is a social challenge, but it is accomplishable and the rewards are great for the students because they all bring in unique perspectives to discussions and the classroom, which allows other students to learn a great deal, to achieve a deeper understanding or interpret something different, whether they learn about the subject matter or another culture it is still learning.  In conclusion, teaching our students to be understanding, acceptance, and respectful will allow for greater learning, and that could be applied to all our scenarios in class (i.e. the student with Autism Spectrum, the student who may be transsexual, the girl who doesn't want to be anything else than exceptional, or the case with the students using derogatory slurs).

"Double-Edged Issues", Two Sides of the Same Coin, Etc.

                I believe that knowing both sides of an issue is very important so that we can better understand the issue at hand.  Personally I can't come up with many ideas that really contradict my own train of thought because I may get fixated on a certain way of thinking, I'm bias like that.  In our "discussion" or "debate" in class about School Choice, Bilingual Education, and State Testing, some of my peers came up with interesting ideas I hadn't thought about, but I can't say that I was on one side or the other, I mean at least for School Choice or State Testing.  Bilingual Education on the other hand was a topic I definitely have a fixed way of thinking, a personal bias of sorts.  I believe that there should be bilingual education and in all forms we can possibly think of because knowing more than one language benefits anyone in this era of globalization.  For that reason it never crossed my mind that bilingual education could hinder a children's learning because he or she might tune out instruction in the language he or she doesn't understand and so as some classmates suggested the students might be "missing opportunities".  I can definitely see how it might encourage some students to tune out instruction of the material and that is certainly not something I would want any student doing, but it doesn't mean everyone will do this.

                I think that understanding an issues two sides will help us as teachers in the classroom.  For example, not everyone is the same and not everyone learns the same way, so we have to be able to see how some students learn best and why that is.  We may need to adapt our lessons so that a student who is more hands on learning has an equal opportunity to learn the material as those who can simply learn it by hearing it during lecture.  In addition, having the ability to communicate and understand others' viewpoints is a valuable trait, especially when we are working with students with different languages and cultures.  I'm not very familiar with cultures outside of the Latino cultures, and for that reason when approaching children such as from Asia or the Middle East I have to have an open mind so that I can understand why they might do or say certain things in class.  For instance these students might mention something that is completely relevant to their culture, but I may see it as wrong or offensive even though they do not mean to offend anyone or they think they are right.  I have to have the ability to question them and see if I can understand why they said what they said.  For example, in our class discussion today about the "Summer is Santa" skit, the girl in that scenario could have been from the southern hemisphere and so for her associating summer with Santa Claus is perfectly normal, and that's just part of her culture.  Of course that is a very easy example to see that, but it could be that we face an incident in which we hear or see things that we may not understand and that doesn't mean that the student is wrong it means we don't understand because we don't have the same language or culture, and this is where understanding their perspective comes in handy as we are enlightened by their viewpoint.

"The Class"

            It was very interesting seeing how learning was taking place in "The Class", but it was somewhat ambiguous whether there was learning taking place all the time at the same level.  I think that in some class sessions learning was achieved more than in others, especially when the teacher allowed his students to express themselves freely about who they are.  For example, when Wei wrote about his struggles in learning French and what he did outside of school, where he was from, you can definitely see learning was taking place in that Self-Portrait assignment, because it allowed the teacher to learn and obtain a greater understanding of who Wei is; moreover, it allowed the students to reflect on themselves and see what they valued about themselves and things in life or didn't value about themselves, others and life.  I think learning was achieved with the Self-Portrait and it showed a great deal of creativity and different takes on the assignment.  The interpretations to me were great from Souleymane's photograph representation of who he is to Wei's heartwarming narrative and even the new student's take of what he liked and didn't like or in his words "hate", because to me it sounded a bit like a poem, like the "Where I'm From" poem we made in our class.  I think that Marin's assignment was very well done because it was open to interpretation and that makes it easier for students to work with and allows for them to bring in their unique perspective as they did.

            Although learning did occur, I couldn't help but be frustrated and feel somewhat scared because of the class conduct being extremely disrespectful not only to Marin but to themselves.  If learning was hindered at any moment in the movie, it was definitely when students or teachers began to curse at each other, bring each other down and argue with each other.  For instance, as of yet that I've seen in the movie the moment when Souleymane and Marin begin to argue because of what Marin said in the meeting about Souleymane being "limited" definitely showed no learning occurring because it became more of a never ending argument with neither side trying to understand the other's point, and even worse was that they both refused to be wrong.  Marin said that he was the teacher and that he could say certain things and students couldn't, to me showed some serious ignorance and arrogance.  As someone pointed out in class so perfectly Marin employed a double standard for his class.  In addition, I think that Marin's inconsistency in his formal, informal teaching style definitely hindered the students' ability to learn because you never know what to expect, because sometimes they could freely speak their minds without ridicule from him and other times Marin would even tease them in a way for what they said, like when Rabah (I believe) tried to make the tenses of words.  Also, one example in which learning was stunted was when Boubacar and Nassim presented about themselves and somewhat put down each others' nationality when they were talking about footballers and the African Cup of Nations, or when Souleymane criticized the student for not making up his mind about his nationality whether he identified himself as a Caribbean or French and both these examples in the same class period showed narrow-mindedness, which to me is an attribute that hinders learning.

            With all the different nationalities present in Marin's class it was both a something that hindered and promoted learning.  I've already talked about how learning was hindered with the above remarks, but learning was also supported by the various backgrounds because it gave the class a glimpse of different cultures and languages they could learn about.  In the movie I saw a piece of the Koran tattooed on the shoulder of a student, we saw a glimpse of Arab culture when the student explain feeling like an outsider at a party and the bacon comment, how one Boubacar felt shame in eating in front of his friend's mother out of respect.  I think from these examples the students got a greater understanding of each others' culture and language and even Marin did as well.

Language/Culture and related ideas about teaching and learning

We discussed various themes we could possibly take away from the reading of culture.  An idea we discussed was the notion of how different culture see particular things differently, that is to say what may be fine for one group may be completely wrong for another or out of the ordinary.  Then we went even further in discussing the idea of "culture clashes" and where in the learning environment we may encounter such clashes.  One area may be in our take over once we are teaching with either the students or teacher.  Let me elaborate, with the students it may be that our teaching style is new to them or completely different and unsuited for them since they may have been accustomed to the original teachers teaching style.  In addition, we may have some cultural differences with the teachers and may clash with them because we have completely different styles, or we may not like that person's style or they may not like our style of teaching.  Everyone is different thus we don't how that will go, we can only hope to have collaborate with someone that can complement our style and if not learn approach the situation with an open-mind and try to fit in as Nunez did with the blind community he encountered.  If our situation is that like Nunez and we have to learn to cooperate with a teaching style or person we may not like we have to make the best of the situation and try because we must remember it is temporary and again as Nunez did we will be out of that person's classroom eventually. For example, in my pre-professional experience I was with a really good teacher that well and had good control over his class, but I did disagree in his methods of grading because sometimes he didn't held the students accountable for the material, that is he graded the work just on getting it done sometimes and not all the time on whether it was right.  It was somewhat difficult for me because I've been accustomed to getting it done right, but either way I graded as he told me and that doesn't necessarily mean I'll employ that in my own undiscovered, teaching style.  Also, we may encounter language and culture barriers in communication, whether that's from the students not understand the academic language or from them not understanding the language as it may not be their first language.  It will definitely be a challenge knowing when to use academic language and when not to so that my future students understand me even though I may be speaking the same language.  Furthermore, learning about different languages will be fundamental as some of our students may not particularly know well the English language.  Working with ELS will be a challenge in may be teaching them the material, but not necessarily in relating to them because as some of those students English is not my first language.  I consider myself fortunate in that I might be able to relate to my students and may be there might not be a language or cultural barrier as with others, but that doesn't mean that's going to be the case always.  I think developing an understanding of other cultures and languages will definitely aid us in interacting with the students just like Nunez learned to interact with the blind people.  The more he went against them the more he seemed to struggle/clash with them, but once he opened up to them a bit he got to a comfortable level with the blind individuals.  I think that that sort of thinking may be key once we are out in the field teaching.

Where I'm From

I am from la cuesta
from playing in the backyard con la manguera on a summers day
I am from playing soccer every weekend
and practicing everyday for the love of the sport
I am from the snake-carrying, majestic eagle
perched on top of the cactus en media del lago
I am from walls littered with family photos
honoring those dear to our hearts
I am from waking up early to see me dad go of to work
and where the kitchen smells delicious from the moment I wake up
I am from bunking beds
sharing a cluttered room con Miguelito
I am from mi Papa Refugio producing agriculture in my backyard
from manzanas, naranjas, and aguacates to elotes, chiles y fresas
I am from the sand between my toes and the cold sea water
but I don't care, I love the refreshing, salty sea air
I am from coming home y la "pinche perra"
lambinadome, asking for mi to pet her
I am from every time I leave he house I give my mom a good bye kiss
and even to this day at 20 some because it reminds of when I was kid