When I signed up for Multicultural Education I had no idea what multicultural even meant. I was just trying to check off a required class in my major. But I never expected to learn as much as I did. This class not only challenged my views of the world but it also challenged me to change my views in order to understand the world outside of my white privileged bubble. Almost my whole life I have been a part of the majority and because of this I have been willfully ignorant to many of the problems in the world. And having my privileged bubble popped has not been the easiest thing for me because it has required me to do a lot of self reflection and a lot of changing. However looking back now I realize that it is so important for my future and for my future students that this bubble has been popped.
In doing the Portfolio assignments I was forced to look at things from a different view. For example in the being the other portfolio I was required to put myself in a situation in which I had little cultural capital, which is something that I can normally avoid as a part of the majority since most things cater to my comfort anyways. But in doing so I was able to realize that for so many others they often feel like they are always the 'other' or the odd man out but most of the time they cannot do anything about it. And in the Community Experience and Investigating Oppression I was able to learn more about the LGBT community and to gain a better understanding about what they go through each day. For most of my life that has been a community that I have avoided because I personally have had some prejudices or misconceptions about them. But through learning more about their experience I have come to understand that they are real people and they matter just like everyone else. I gained a new respect for them and I have changed my ways to be more accepting of the LGBTQ community and also I have began to love them more.
Also through the case studies in readings and some of the videos we watched I began to think of ideas that I had never though of before. Like the video that we watched on homelessness where the students were describing how that had effected them and I was really struck by one kid talking about how he had to do his homework with little or no light. And many of the kids were unsure of if they would have a place to live soon or a food each day. And that is something that I had never thought about before. My future students could face a variety of struggles in their lives and those struggles will affect how they learn which means that as a teacher I need to be aware of them and seek to understand what is going on in their lives before I jump to conclusions on their desires or performance.
Additionally, throughout the semester I had to redo a couple of my portfolios and in doing so I realized just how much my mindset has changed because as I went back in to read them I would find myself saying things like "I can't believe I wrote that" or "That's not okay at all" and then I would go on to word them differently or to completely change them. This happened a lot in my Reimagined classroom as I put a lot more thought into how I could make an inclusive classroom that all my students could feel comfortable in rather then a classroom that I thought was right for me. I understand now that the students are more important then me, that their cultures, their opinions, their ideas are what need to be the foundation of my future classroom.
I also came to understand how important it is to constantly seek to understand my students lives and to learn more about them in any way possible. They are all unique and they will all have unique backgrounds and things that they bring to my classroom. And it is going to be a constant process to establish a classroom for each of them. Teaching for social justice will be a life long, constant process and it will require me to continue to adapt my teaching and my classroom and to keep learning. When we did the book club assignment I got to read Between the World and Me and from reading that book I came to understand a lot of things but one of my biggest take aways from it was that I need to continue to learn about the experiences of others. Reading that book helped me to understand how big the struggles are of blacks and it helped me to understand just a small part of what they go through. And if I had never read that book I never would have known and it has given me a desire to keep learning and to keep finding other people's stories so that I can continue to expand my understanding of issues in the nation, in my community, and in my classroom.
And I feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg of what I have learned but all of it is going to greatly effect my future work as a teacher. I know now that I will be more conscious of the effects of certain teaching in my classroom. And I know that I will work to have a classroom in which each child will be able to identify with something whether it be in story problems, or in reading books or resources in our classroom. I will keep an open mind and be accepting of each child for who they really are. And I will seek to make connections with families so that we can create a community in our classroom. I know that it is going to be a life long process full of success and failures but I now know that in order to help my students really find success in life that creating a multicultural classroom is going to be necessary and important.
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