Thursday, November 11, 2010
Prompt 4
My personal history and sociocultural characteristics don't intersect with my students. I guess that it might be because we all come from the same country and have the same values and culture. Everything is about culture in the Dominican Republic and there are certains things you can't do, for example, you can't talk to a person older than you in a bad way, you need to respect them, and not only that because here in America is the same, but there are other things that are part of our culture that you can't do. As a teacher of these students the advantages that I might have I think is that I can communicate with them in one way or another and they would be able to understand me, and the most important thing is that they respect me, no matter how old I am, they still respect me. So far I have confronted no misconceptions about various cultural group because all of my students come from the same culture, as I said, they are all Dominicans.
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So wouldn't you say that your personal characteristics do very much intersect with your students'? Intersect in the sense of even "match"!
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ReplyDeleteYou're lucky. I don't have anything in common with the students I volunteer with, except music. People want to say that music unites everyone; not so much. If Johnson had anything to say about it, I think he would say that mutual prosperity unites people.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you can relate to your students.I think teaching and being a teacher to these students that come from a different background, in itself can get tough at times so the fact that your students respect you and you could relate to them must make your experience that much more exciting!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Fariana, it is great that you "Ana" can relate to your students. I have not had the opportunity to work with many Latinos yet. When I work with them, I hope to use the language and my Latino culture to reach out to them. I hope it works! That is why; I think that teachers should know a bit of different cultures to bring together their classes.
ReplyDeleteI think it is amazing that you get to work with students who you really relate to. I am currently working with students who are completely different cultures than I am. I do not feel as though it is hard for me to relate with them though. They are extremely nice student who do show me lots of respect. I wonder if age might have something to do with this. Do you think that if your studets were a lot younger your ethnic background would not matter? Do you think they would treat you the same?
ReplyDeleteI do not know if I agree with the benefits of working with children with same ethnicities. I understand that these children probably do not see any Dominican teachers or not very often. But isn't that what we have been trying to learn in this class, diversity. If they have white teachers, both can benefit. The students will learn a little about the white culture and the white culture can learn about the Dominican culture.
ReplyDeleteYou are all making great points. In response to Stephanie's comment, I believe that what Ana, Fariana, Saul, and Jana are trying to say is that while non-white students- in this case Dominicans- learn a lot from White teachers in the culture of power, it is incredibly beneficial for them to learn and interact with educators who share their background, and who can be influential role models in their sense of identity and motivation for school success.
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