Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Teaching Internship
I am starting all over with my blog, because I have tried to post this entry for the past 3 weeks, and for some reason it is not showing as a posting?! In any case, let me try again.During any of your placement work, has there been a time when you have found yourself acutely aware of a cultural difference between you and a student or group of students? How did this make you feel? How did you react to the situation? Did it make you feel in any way that you should alter your teaching with this student or group in any way? Did any of your course work help you deal with this situation better?Labels: Diversity
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6 comments:
I would say the best example of this occurred at my Lakewood placement last semester. I grew up in a very liberal, Jewish community in Miami, Florida--a very different upbringing from many of the students at Lakewood. One day while discussing the rise of Nazism in my Human Rights & Conflict class, a student used an anti-Jewish word to explain his point.
I was totally flabbergasted, but even more so because a number of the other students were oblivious to it. I had to immediately nip it in the bud, without making too much of a scene or embarrassing the student too much (he did not realize he was being offensive).
What I found was that most of these students had never met a Jewish person before, and I had to retool my lessons a bit to humanize the people we were talking about while learning the Holocaust. I had completely taken it for granted that they would know what a Jewish person looked like. When they found out I was Jewish, they said "But, you're blonde... does your husband have those curly hairs next to his ears?" Bizarre experience to say the least, but it taught me to be patient and understanding of different peoples' expectations of others.
In all, I think my Holocaust unit actually ended up being MORE effective, because I reworked it to make it more tangible and meaningful for the students.
WOW! I was very interested to hear both of your experiences. We just never know quite what to expect...."out of the mouths of babes...." it does sometimes get disheartening to see how stereotypes can form at such young ages....Thank you for sharing and dealing with the situations so professionally. P. Komperda
I think due to my past work experiences and being a student and teacher at a school which is known for its diversity and international population, I have been very comfortable with diversity..both ethnically, socially, and economically. For me I was more aware of my differences when working in a group home with children who took one look at my white, middle class background and assumed I was going to be a certain way. It took many weeks for them to open up to me, and to rethink some of their preconceived notions of who I was.
I think what has helped me along the way, is by making sure to be honest, let students know I am interested in learning about them.
I have an African American student who approached me a couple weeks ago and asked me for a "recommendation letter." I said, "sure, what for?" He proceeded to tell me that he had been charged with a felony at his former school and was going to court over spring break. He wanted a letter from a teacher so that he could show that judge that he had changed his behavior. I talked to Todd, who agreed to write the letter on official LHS letterhead, and we collaborated to write the student a glowing recommendation.
The student was very thankful and said to us, "well, hopefully I'll see you after break." I quickly realized he meant that if things didn't go well in court, he would be immediately taken to jail.
Do you feel you have had enough exposure to information about how to deal with "diversity," (sometimes I am not sure if there is a universal definition for this)or at least when the group is different from you, in your coursework in MAP? If not, how could we have prepared you better?
P.Komperda
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