Microaggressions

I remember this one time I worked at a headstart and this little girl was very active but unique. She did unusual things that none of the teachers understood. I recall this younger teacher asking was something wrong with the child. She use to laugh at her behavior and call her slow. Many of the teachers observed her behavior and discovered that she had similarities of autism.  The teacher of the child, got with her mom and discovered that mom had some questions about her child's behavior also. The mom finally got the child tested and discovered that the child was autistic.
Comparing this situation to the lesson it displayed ableism. The young teacher made fun of a child's behavior and later discovered that the child actually had a disability.

As an adult, I think that was inappropriate. As a teacher we will see alot of things. Its not our place to judge or assume. Our goal is to motivate and develop a child's learning growth.

As I learned in this case when we stereotype something or someone before we know the fullness of the situation we may be misjudging.

Culture & Diversity

Alicia (White Female)

Culture to me means tradition, the way do things. Such as our dress code, or family functions.

Diversity means the different backgrounds we come from

Anthony (Black Male)

Culture means the way we do things that makes us different. What we developed from our past ancestors and family history.

Diversity means what we believe in

Jordyn (Black Female)

Culture is what we believe in, our customs and our patterns.

Diversity means what makes us different from one another such as our backgrounds and ethnicities.  

 

The aspects of culture and diversity are included in relations to the course such as culture being a tradition of how we do things and diversity as distinguishing us apart based on our ethnicities.

I do not believe that anything was omitted.

I also do not believe that anyone can influence my definitions of culture and diversity based on what they think. To me these two words can be explained from a person’s experience or their opinions.    

Family Culture

To choose three different items for me would be difficult because I cherish everything that I have. There are so many things that are important to me but the three I would most likely take would be my laptop, wedding dvd, and cards. To be placed in a different environment where the culture is completely different from yours would be a huge adjustment.

I would bring my laptop because it holds so many memories such as my favorite songs and pictures of my family and friends. Having this would probably help to ease some of my pain. My wedding dvd would express the love, fun and laughter we shared on the day I became one with my husband. Each of our family and friends showed great support towards us. My video shows the different things we like to do in my culture such as jumping the broom at the wedding, lighting unity candles, doing line dances such as the electric slide and the cha-cha at the reception, and watching the groom remove the garter from the bride and much more. The last I chose was greeting cards. I chose this because cards are very meaningful to me. I collect every card anyone gives me. From time to time I like to go back and read the sweet words on my cards, especially the cards where my husband and I first started dating or my first mother’s day cards.

To be loved by so many friends and family is a treasure that no one can take away. So if I had to give up two things and be left with one I would choose my wedding dvd. The dvd to me holds the most sentimental and important moments in life.

This lesson has taught me to be more appreciative to my family and friends. To cherish my culture and to never forget my background and what makes me.

Thank You

To all my classmates I thank each of you for your support and constructive critisim and positive words throughout the course. Many of you have shown me how to look at things differntly, you have helped me to grow and I thank you for that. This was a fun course and I'm glad that I got to share it with wonderful classmates like you. I continue to wish you all the best as you complete the program!
Thank you again...

Adjourning

Saying good-bye to a group of people where you became closely related to can be a sad moment. During my college years I was able to bond with my colleagues learning about them and their personal lives. When graduation came, it was a bit sad knowing that some of us would never meet again. Many of us moved to other states, many found jobs in our field while the other half didn’t. We all were happy that our courses were now complete.

Another experience for me, was leaving my baby alone in the hospital without her parents. Although it was not a complete good-bye, it was still a bitter moment. For a month straight, there were doctors who cared for my daughter in the NICU when I couldn’t do a thing for her. I was glad to see my baby leave the hospital but I was going to miss the nurses who cared for her. I remember taking my daughter to meet the nurses who cared after her for me. I wanted her to meet the wonderful team who cared so much for her.

Both of these experiences were big milestones in my life where I was glad to see them coming, but I was sad to see them leave as well.  

Conflict in Communication

I recently experienced a conflict with my boss before the Christmas Holidays. My principal/boss had got angry with me because a student hopped out my van line and disappeared into the car rider line. The way the issue was resolved was not fair. She basically yelled at me making it seem as though it was my fault. The bad part of it was I’m the teacher assistant not the certified teacher. I believe the issue could have been handled differently. During the heated conflict I surprisingly held my tongue while she literally yelled. She kept asking what happened, so I explained my point of view with a little anger in my voice. She never called the certified teacher that works duty with me into her office. I have no idea why, but I still think this issue has been unresolved. I really wanted to tell her a lot of things on my mind but I remained calm and allowed her to talk so that I could understand her frustration.

 

After being in this course I have learned some things about conflict management that may be useful towards my future conflicts.

 

 

Communication Self-Assessment

Doing this week’s application has helped me to identify where I stand as a communicator. I learned that my communication anxiety level was moderate, my level of verbal aggressiveness was significant and my level of listening was classified group 1 people orientated.

I had my husband and coworker to both evaluate me using the same assessments. To my surprise they both rated me as significant on a verbal aggressiveness scale, moderate on communication anxiety and a group 1 listener.

This was a shocker to me, to know that someone else viewed my communication skills the same as I do. I was a bit disappointed with one of my results. To know that my words can be offensive towards others did not sit well with me, although I have always been a person to speak my mind and be through with it.

I expected my husband to score similar to me, but not my colleague. It was glad to know that she viewed me as being a people person. She knows that I love to communicate one on one, but when it has to done publicly I tend to tense up a bit.

Learning about myself has taught me where my strengths and weakness are, and how I can learn to correct the areas that need improvement.