My Reflective Journal

In part 1 chapter 3 of Hurds text, it really went into detail about disabilities. Throughout the entire reading, I saw so many connections to my TCH 394 course I took last semester. It reminded me again of all the different disabilities we as teachers can see in our classroom and how to properly handle them. I personally feel like I have such limited experience with special needs children, which makes it really scary to think about working with them in the near future. With that being said, having resources like TCH 394 and now this text that helps us as future teachers prepare helps ease my mind. It makes me sad and scared to see first hand accounts of special needs adults who were bullied as students. I hope we’ve come further than that and their education now can be as equal as others without a disability. Specifically from the text, I found Lisa's poem so interesting. I thought it was so interesting to see her disability show right through it, having all the words just seem thrown up on the page yet it was still so meaningful. The most important takeaway from this chapter and our discussion about it is seeing disabilities as able bodied still. They might be different but we all are and all our needs are different as well.

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I found Chapter 6 of Pain and Privilege all about Susans experiences super interesting. Although I cannot relate to her experience with being an adopted Asian woman, I felt like she was still so relatable in her descriptions. The entire section “Creating an Asian Persuasion” was very powerful to me. She went into detail about how she had pre thought out responses for when someone commented on her identity. For example, “if you ask a question related to doing math, I will respond that I’m supposed to be naturally good at math, but I was raised here by white people, so I suck at it (good at math)” (97). Susan coped with her struggling identity by beating everyone to the joke in a sense. I also found it interesting how when someone made a comment about her identity, she was stuck between being glad they considered her cool enough to “joke” about but struggled because she wasn't White enough for them to not make the joke at all. She described her experience when she won Salutatorian and someone commented how everyone who won an award was Asian and someone responded with “no, Susan won an award” and hearing that was the greatest honor from that day, regardless of her winning Salutatorian. That speaks volume. 

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Sikas story in Pain and Privilege really spoke to me. The fact that her own grandparents and family referred to her as extremely racial slurs is insane to me and shows just how much pain marginalized groups really have to go through just because of the color of their skin sometimes. I can't imagine being judged by my own family and it is so unfortunate people have to experience that just because of something they have zero control over. This story showed me as a future teacher to be kind to all students because they may not feel love even from their own family. I also find her discussion of Trump really interesting because that's all very recent and we've all lived through his presidency. I think its interesting to hear people of color describe their experience with his time in office. It's crazy to me that such a powerful person in our country was so racist and everyone knew that. You think we've come further than that but it feels like when he became president, we took a few steps back and you can see that specifically in these stories written by minoritized groups.

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In class, Suzette and Mikey were discussing how they grew up in very diverse communities which led their communities to embrace and celebrate diversity. This really got me thinking about my own experience and where I come from and the lack of diversity and acceptance. My hometown is a dominantly white area but has some diversity throughout. I realized that these diverse students I went to school with come into this community and feel like they need to push away their culture and identity and associate with the majority they are surrounded by. I really think it's important when I go back home to teach to embrace diversity and make the few students/families that aren't the majority feel welcome for who they are. Pushing their culture, race, traditions under the rug to fit the norm is not what we as teachers should do but rather take the opportunity to share and learn about other cultures like Suzettes community does by having celebrations of other cultures in their local park with different foods and traditions. In my future classroom, I will embrace everyone's different cultures and holidays and give opportunities for everyone to become more educated on their peers' differences. 

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In class, while we discussed the Pain and Privilege text, Dr. Hurd mentioned he was pulled over by the police for something minor and ended up being interrogated because the police racially profiled him and he was discriminated against for his different race. This idea from our conversation and connection to the text made me think about a similar, yet very different, situation I had. The other week I was parked outside a house near where I usually park my car and I was sitting in my car for about an hour, doing nothing wrong, but a person called the police on me because I looked “suspicious.” The police officer came to my window and asked what I was doing and I explained I was just relaxing in the shade, didn't want to go back to my apartment yet and he said “okay have a good day” and that was that. I was telling my mom about the situation that night and I mentioned if I wasn't a white girl, that situation could have been a lot different, which was really sad to think about. I was kind of nervous because I didn't want to get in trouble but I wasn't scared for my life like I could have been if I wasn't white. This can be applied to my future classroom because although you don't always mean to be racist, you have to be mindful and not profile students. 

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I was really interested in our class discussion about homelessness and The (un)Muted Voices of Middle Grades Youth chapter 4. We dove deeper into the definition of homelessness the author proposed, “Homelessness, according to McKinney-Vento includes: Children and youths who are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; who are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; who are living in emergency or transitional shelters; who are awaiting foster care placement; who have a primary night-time residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; or who are living 6 in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus, or train stations, or similar settings. (Mohan & Shields, 2014, p. 190)” I personally, am lucky enough to have never experienced any of these struggles therefore I did not feel like it was for me to say that this definition was overgeneralized. Listening to my classmates, who have been in these unfortunate situations, discuss this and their opinions and ultimately coming to the consensus that this was too broad was really interesting to me. This conversation and hearing their insight really gets me thinking about this idea and if the definition is too loose where we are looking past those who are seriously homeless and are in desperate need, more than others that also fall into the category might.

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Throughout reading Beyond Crisis, I've noticed recent chapters have continued to emphasize the importance of social- emotional learning. The idea was first introduced to me in TCH 130 which showed the importance of implementing social-emotional learning into the middle school curriculum and also briefly how to incorporate it. That class really focused on the importance for middle schoolers and their development as a whole. In Beyond Crisis, it focuses on the importance of social-emotional learning for ELLs specifically. This connection between the two areas really emphasizes why implementing social-emotional learning and well-being is so important for everyone, teachers, administrators, ELL’s, and students who speak English as their first language. In my future classroom, I want to create a safe place for my students and encourage social-emotional learning in my day to day teaching. 

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In Beyond Crisis, chapter 8 really goes into depth about challenges and more specifically the challenges Covid-19 brought into the classroom and education system. We, as students, saw first hand some struggles that Covid-19 caused and in turn also saw positive aspects implemented into learning because of this. Although it was an extremely difficult and scary time, I am glad to have experienced it first hand and gain resources I can later. For example, we realized the importance of collaboration. Students benefit the most when they are working with others, whether that be in break out rooms if need be or turn-and-talking in the classroom. Empathy and vulnerability also were a lot more embraced after Covid-19 or could be after a challenge in general. Teachers may feel like since it is the 10th time teaching content that the students should pick it up and learn it like they've been taught it 10 times, but it's their first time. I think during covid, teachers had more patience and really understood that everyone was learning someone for the first time and they finally felt for the students. This created a stronger relationship between teachers and their students because no one felt alone and everyone was in it together. The most important thing Covid-19 brought to the classroom is all the online resources we now use. Whether it be a free online textbook or tools for accommodations like closed captioning on ZOOM or text to speech resources. These all became very popular resources during the pandemic that stayed when we transitioned back to in person. These are all aspects we really implemented because of Covid-19 and now I will be sure to implement into my future classroom because they all positively influence the classroom. 

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In Beyond Crisis, the last chapter really ties in the importance of relationship building. This idea has been persistent through many of my college courses, specifically TCH 130. Not only is this beneficial for multilingual students but every middle school student. It creates a safer environment for everyone to share their thoughts, helps families feel like their culture, views and language are represented, and helps create a sense of belonging. These are all extremely positive attributes that should be strived for in the classroom and school community. From the beginning, I will implement several things to encourage relationship building between students, my students and I, and my students' families and I. For example, to give my students opportunities to build relationships with one another, allowing group work and collaboration daily is an easy yet effective idea. I will build stronger relationships with my students by having time at the beginning of each class to catch up with them as people instead of just students. This will allow me to know about their hobbies, struggles, personalities in general and show them that I care about them. I will create relationships with my students' families by including them in emails weekly about what's going on in the classroom or with their child specifically if need be (positive or negative). I think it's important to create a relationship with families and guardians because it shows you care about the students as a whole and it creates an opportunity to incorporate what is important to the students (family, culture, traditions, values). Obviously building relationships within your classroom, school, and community is super beneficial for everyone which we saw in Beyond Crisis and several other TCH courses and I am excited to start developing these relationships in my future classroom!

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After reading Beyond Crisis, I really enjoyed going back and reflecting on just a few of the important aspects seen throughout the entire book. One main idea that was constant that I really took away from this reading was focusing on students strengths and what they bring into the classroom rather than what they might lack. I think this idea is super important in middle school specifically because students are really finding themselves during these years and building them up as people rather than reminding them that what they struggle with might affect their view of themselves. This also creates a safer space in the classroom and a more positive school experience in general. Strength- based learning is definitely something I will work hard to implement in my future classroom and I am glad I got a good idea of how to do that through this text. I also really took away the importance of community and family connections in the classroom. I realized how much developing connections with students’ parents and families can benefit everyone involved. Sometimes we get caught up in thinking we need to know all the content for our students and that's all we are good for but this text really emphasized the importance of having a relationship with the students themselves, beyond the classroom and incorporating their guardians as well. This really excites me because this is one of the main reasons I wanted to become a teacher, to make connections and forever change my students' lives, in a positive way and this book really helped me with why and how to do that. One thing that I hope becomes more clear to me as I begin to be in my own classroom is how to incorporate families and parents that may not want to be a part of their child's learning. This is a scary reality but hopefully I learn techniques as I go!

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In class, we discussed the idea of “push in” and “pull out” to give ESL students the learning help they need. During clinical, I was placed in a 6th grade science classroom which included 2 students who were blind.  Although my experience involves a paraprofessional for blind students and not an ELA teacher, I really saw these methods being implemented. The paraprofessional would come into the classroom and sit with the students while the teacher gave instructions or lectured and then would almost immediately pull these students to the back room to work with them. As we know, “pushing in” is more beneficial but can be difficult to implement. The paraprofessional was trying to push in as much as possible by having the students stay in class as long as possible but ultimately ended up pulling the students out and away from their peers to make it easier. My outside experience relates to EL students because the paraprofessionals are falling short of giving these students the best learning experience by pulling them out of the general classroom. These groups are missing out on other aspects of learning that their peers are getting (socializing, content specialty, etc.) which shows they are marginalized. It may seem like they are getting the extra help they need by getting pulled out for one-on-one time and it's beneficial but it's taking away from the whole learning experience that their peers are receiving in the general classroom. In my future classroom, I really want to welcome paraprofessionals and give them a space to feel as included as me, the general education teacher. I know it can be hard to co-teach but it's important to me to do the best I can because I know it really benefits the students.

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While reading chapter 3 of Teaching English Language and Content in Mainstream Classes, I really connected to the idea of family involvement in the schools. The entire chapter goes into detail about how important it is for families and parents to get involved in their child's learning and school in general. Growing up, my mom was extremely involved in my siblings and I’s classrooms. From volunteering on field trips to working class parties, she was there. I also remember her reading to me nightly in elementary school because she knew I needed to. I think it's also important to mention she was a stay-at-home home my entire childhood. I was fortunate enough to gave that family involvement because we were struggling. I realized that if she had to work, she would not have had these opportunities and would have been a lot more uninvolved in my early years of learning, which is the case for so many students, especially English learners. I also think I have always done well in school because my parents are involved. Not only was my mom always doing things for the school itself but my dad always cared about how school is going for me. I remember in high school geometry I did not understand SOH CAH TOA and he worked with me until I understood 100%. I am thankful my parents gave me the opportunities in school that I had and realized through this article that it's not easy. It takes a lot for families and guardians to be able to give their time to their child's learning and school. As a teacher, I will understand that a lot of families aren't as fortunate as I was and I will make it as easy as possible for parents and families to get as involved as they can. 

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In class, we discussed learning disabilities and how they are seen in the classroom. When emotional disturbance was brought up, Dr. Hurd mentioned students getting worked up when they may not have received the report they wanted on their behavior chart for example. Immediately, I recalled an experience I had with a child while working summer camp and it all made sense to me. This child was always getting into trouble but he was such a sweet kid when he wasn't. He was one camper out of only a couple that had a sticker chart, where he'd earn stickers throughout the day for behaving. When he started misbehaving, meetings were starting to be had with his parents and it was brought to our attention that he was having a hard time at home with his parents going through a divorce. I think this just added on to his emotional disturbance. One week, I was his counselor and he completely misbehaved early in the day and was near a write up. When we told him he isn't going to get a sticker for the morning activities and he might get a write up, he freaked out a little bit and begged us if he was good the rest of the day, we wouldn't give him a write-up. That was the best behavior I had ever seen from him. After our discussion in class today, I think from what he was going through at home to his behavior at camp, he was struggling with emotional disturbance and someone recognizing that could really benefit him and his future.

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This semester, I am taking an EAF class which requires 15 diversity hours. I chose to volunteer at the local Juvenile Detention Center. Overall, I have found so many connections to this course and my experience there then anything else and I am very glad I took these 2 courses simultaneously. This class gave me a different perspective to different groups and helped me become a better person in general. There are kids in the Juvenile Detention Center that I would have judged, unintentionally, but learning about different groups in this class and how to support them more really helped me and my experience there. I think this class connects more to my volunteering than the EAF class that it is required for so I am glad I am getting more out of both experiences (this class and volunteering) by seeing the overlap so much and seeing what we are learning in this class in real life.