ASSIGNMENT 2

In the surveys given by my professor, it brought many issues to my attention. It made me realize how I actually think about issues such as men, women, sex, culture, education and politics. It showed me that most of my beliefs were based on what I was taught by my parents and the culture I grew up in. This proves that culture and the way you are grown has a lot to do with the way a person is, how he or she thinks and how they affect society. In my home, my parents always instilled that there was to be no bias behavior in a situation at all, no matter what happens. This definitely has made me into the individual I am today which is an open minded, fair, honest person who respects each and everyone. In some of the survey, I really did not understand the relevance of it until I completed all of them it showed me how diverse a classroom is going to be. You are going to find a million different personalities, backgrounds and behaviors in your classroom and the ultimate goal is to accept them and learn about new things. You are never too young or too old to learn. Everybody can learn from somebody. As an aspiring teacher, I hope that everyone is influenced by who I am, where I am from, and where I stand. Some of the questions in the survey I thought were somewhat weird but I then realized that this is the way some people do think and believe. They do so not because they are weird but because that is the way they know how to. I hope that in the near future people will realize that we are all one. They should also realize there is no need to discriminate against each other because they do things differently but they should accept one another and try to learn something new. Diversity is really an interesting topic and is important when it comes on to schools and children. Children should be able to make their own choices and I am sure that this world will be a better place.

Reflection 20:- INTERSEXUALITY

Intersexuality is the combination of features in a human. These features are from both male and female. Transexuality is the changing of an individual into another. For example, a male changing himself into a female for various reasons such as not liking the body in which they were made in. The study of these topics was rather interesting. Some parts of the discussion I hated but others were interesting. This proved to me that anything is possible whenever a woman is expecting. As a teacher in training, I would like it to be implemented in the minds of everyone that no matter what is wrong with you; you should be able to go to a public school. Reason being for that statement is because my professor asked me as if I had an intersexual child if I would send him to public school. Of course, my response was yes I would because I do not think that I should keep a child in home school just because of his/her sexuality. My professors response was no because that child is going to need special care and attention. In my head, I thought no matter what school you went to you would be jeered whether about sexuality, height, color etc. so I thought to myself that I would try to implement a standard to make parents send intersexed kids wherever they want to send them. They should feel as any normal person would and should get no different treatment other than how normal persons are treated. There is a lot of controversy when it comes on to this topic, which makes it somewhat rather confusing. There is no right way or wrong way to this ongoing issue rather than how the person in the situation feels. I am really touched about this topic and I hope that anyone that comes across this situation will treat these individuals with respect, dignity, love and care. Therefore, I leave this reflection by saying treat others just as you would like to be treated.

REFLWCTION 19:- SEXUALITY

I think the cause of homosexuality is somewhat of a choice and sometimes I think that you were born with it. I truly do not know what the cause is. I have grown into the mentality of not caring about a person’s sex life or sexual preferences. With this way of thinking, I am positive that I will be a non-judgmental teacher. My views on homosexuality after the lecture with my professor have not changed. I think it has done so because of my personality. I have a personality of which I stick to what I believe no matter what my culture says. I am Jamaican, and in my culture, they hate homosexuals and homosexuality I do not judge others based on that I think of people as individuals and through their personality. This will definitely influence me later in life as a teacher because I will come across different people of different sexuality. As a teacher, I cannot judge students due to their personal life not only because it is not my business but also because I do not care and I am not like that. I think others in our society should stop being judgmental and allow everyone to have privacy and their own belief in their sexuality. I do not ever think I would have a change of mind because I would not want anyone to judge my sex life. I have experienced once where people were judged and stoned to death because of their sexuality. I thought that was where inhumane and those individuals who did that deed were heartless. I could not come to reality what had happened because I saw it firsthand. To see something like that can really change your way of thinking and how you treat others and in my case teachers others to treat others. In my classroom, the kids will be advised to leave their personal lives at home in order to avoid conflicts, jeering and other hurtful stuff that happen in schools. This would allow kids to live in peace and d harmony without knowing each other’s business.

REFLECTION 18:- THE TALE OF TWO ISLANDS

In the article, the tale of the two islands racism was very prominent. It was very appalling to find out that people were discriminated just because of what color they are and where they are from. If this was to happen to me, I do not know what in the world I would do. It is very hard to believe that another human being can do such bad things to another human. The US discriminated against Haitians and Cubans after they left their homeland in trying to seek a better lifestyle. Instead of trying to help, they instead started to stereotype against them. Most Cubans and Haitians here in the USA now can relate to this story because their parents and grandparents experienced this dilemma. I think a case can be developed against the US government for being so hard, harsh, and insensitive to their own kind. Not only that but also stereotyping individuals was very awful. As an inspiring teacher, this has influenced me in so many ways. It has taught me how to look at everyone through the same eye not to stereotype and to educate the young about their past so that the future will be different. I would never want to be looked at differently because of the way I look, talk, walk or even where I am from. I want to be treated as an individual and equal. Each child in my classroom will learn to be looked at as an individual and be treated with respect, dignity, pride and equality. To me this will change everything and how things are looked at in today’s world. This will not only have an impact on the USA but the entire universe. I am very happy I got this opportunity to explore the various aspects of diversity. With this, it will help to mold me into a better person, and an awesome teacher. One who listens talks out and is very fair. This will have a positive impact on the students thus affecting the society.

REFLECTION 17:- RACE AND RACISM

For the past few weeks in my class, we have been discussing race and racism. This topic drew many debates and a lot of important incites to everyone. I personally learnt that everyone was of different color, style and nature. It was also prominently shown that everyone one on this earth believes in something different looks differently and talks differently. The next big debatable topic was racism, which is present everywhere and everyone, has experienced it at least once in their lifetime. Racism comes about in a group of individuals who think they are superior to other groups and they deserve everything. I was pretty amazed by some facts presented and how horrible it was back in the days. One example was that of Emmett Till, a teenager who was crucified for whistling at a white woman. When this documentary was shown, I was moved by it and I definitely started to appreciate more the things that are present in my life and for the time in which I was born. To me it was definitely ridiculous to kill an individual over something so minute. In today’s day and age, it might not be as prominent but it is still in existence. We the generation of today should try to destroy such thing as racism and other ethnocentrisms. I think so because we are all one and everyone should learn to love and live with each other. As an aspiring teacher, I am definitely going to teach my class about such tragedy and it will not be accepted in that room. I will teach them to treat each other as themselves while encouraging them to take that lifestyle on the outside to influence others. Thinking back now to that class period in which that discussion was held my mind is still at a lost in trying to believe that someone with a brain and a heart would hurt another human being like that. My conclusion is that they never knew better so we of today know better and should show it.

REFLECTION 16 :- GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING

From reading about these atrocities, I have gained a lot of insight of what these issues really are. these issues included genocide which is the destruction of a whole group and ethnic cleansing which is the same these activities has been taking place for many years and has caused a lot of pain and heartache in many hearts, souls and countries. Ethnic cleansing took place in Rwanda, Bosnia and Dafur , three places I never knew existed until I read about it to write this reflection. These places aren’t the best of places but to know that genocide happened there it breaks my heart to know that people would just kill each other because of what they believed in or looked like or what group they belonged to. I definitely would not want to be around when this is happening or even know anyone that this happened to because of how tragic it is. I think that this part of history should never be forgotten so the individuals of today’s society will appreciate their elders more. Not only their elders but also the struggles that they encounter will be appreciated. As an aspiring teacher, I will definitely teach my class about what happened in the past. My reason for this is if you do not know your past you do not have a future, and every child that gets in contact with me has a future one to make this world a better place. Therefore, i will be paving the way for them to have that future. I am in so much distress and disbelief because I did not know the details of what happened I just knew it happened. However, after today I definitely will continue to appreciate what I have gained and what is in store to come. I implore everyone to find out about your past because it will definitely help you to help others. During all this helping, the world will be changing into a better one for you, me and the generations to come. Change what is happening today do not wait for tomorrow.

ASSIGNMENT 1

I am doing my field experience hours at the Miami Dade North Campus Pre-School Lab. It is a very diverse institution. There are teachers and students from every race and culture that is possible to think of. The students are treated with equality and respect and are taught to treat others the same. I love volunteering there because of the attitude and the environment of everyone. The teacher Miss Sherine is a very open-minded individual she is one my many inspirations in becoming a teacher. She definitely recognizes diversity with respect because no child is treated differently and there are whites, blacks and Hispanics in her classroom. She also pays attention to different learning styles because of the way she teaches a few of the children in the classroom. I questioned why and she says it is because they learn differently. I think here she was displaying how people learn and encouraging them to do so. She instructs all her students in the same manner and the environment is the same towards and for everyone. This teacher uses many materials in her classroom and I would consider it diverse. I remember one instance where the children had to make a fruit salad and each child had to bring a fruit from their native culture I think that displays diversity among the children. They then had to work together to make this fruit salad. In doing this activity, Miss Sherine had to provide and accommodate some of the materials that were needed. Since this month is Hispanic month, the children are being taught all about the Hispanics, which include their language, food and dance. For everyday in the month of October, so far they have to say the alphabet in Spanish and count in Spanish. In my opinion, I think that this teacher respects diversity and displays it in every move she makes. I love what she is doing and I hope to be as good as she is.