Sociocultural Differences

Entering the classroom twice a week to me has shown me how much diversity there really is in our society today which is amazing. I walk in and see all of these students talking with their friends and notice most of the students are of a Hispanic background and are the minority are of a White background. This is an entirely different world from what I grew up with because I went to a catholic school where now if I think about it 99% of the time the classroom was mainly white. This always seemed so normal to me and it was what i was use to until I entered high school and realized how many diverse people there were.

My first grade classroom always has something to teach me. I go there to help them and they always end up teaching me something knew. They are always full of interesting to say the least stories about their families and home enviornment. I realize that each student has their own reason for doing things partially because of their background and this can either help them affectively or maybe not so much. We must realize as teachers that going in to a classroom we must be open minded and accept every child in their own unique way and try and make them stronger in what they struggle with. We need to be able to respond and enable them to have a smotther transition into a positive action pedagogy. We can prepare ourselve but as much as we try to be ahead of the game there will always be this one student who just makes us seem like did we even prepare ourselves well enough. Delpit also explains how students are different and it is important that we can recognize the students differences in order for them to understand what we are teaching.

A student who is a definite example of how to make our job more "interesting" or maybe more of an effort is Bobby. When I walked into this classroom Bobby really gave me a run for my money. He was off the walls and the teacher said just to kind of over look him. Not ignore him but maybe ignore his hyperness. I thought that may be difficult seeing as every where I went.. BAM.. there he was but I did my best to help everyone. He did not make my job easy to help him; he would really just want to get his work done so he would skip over everything and put his work away. Lisa Delpit mentioned that sometimes white teachers do not seem to be more authorative but I feel that I gave clear instructions but of course because he would not even listen to the instructions so he did not know what to do with his paper. Finally, I tried to relate to this over active child and sat him down and told him stories about me even if there were not entirely true it made him feel like I was on his level. I felt that i stayed in charge but I think if we have a common ground we could get a lot farther. I tried to break down barriers in a safe way and I am sure that is what made him willing to participate. (Carlson) I think this helped because every time I know I come in he is like a totally different kid. Maybe not as melow as the teacher would like, but he completes his work and if he has a question he is not affraid to ask.

Shor states, "people are naturally curious," he is very right. He is now willing to critical think and speak instead of feeling marginalized if he has the wrong answer. Bobby was so interested once he understood what was going on. Like Kozol would mention, is we must try and make a relationship of trust with the children and then they will be willing to accept us. Bobby was stereotyped as over active and hyper. He beat what Shor talks about as status quo and changes himself. He shows he can be cooperative and engaged in what ever activity is set before him. He unfortunately was a disruption and disturbance to Ms. S's classroom but now is a delight.

I feel as being a teacher we need to be able and try to relate to children. No matter who they are where they come from. They are all important and all have different needs. The kids have things to share with us and with that I know they will have something to teach us, which is equally as important.