Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with diverse families and children, my hope is to be more patient and understanding with them. I will remember to not be afraid because they are just like me. Although I can't understand them and get frustrated because I have no idea what theyre saying, I must remember they probably feel the same way. One goal I would like to set it to make sure we are accepting of everyone and never judge someone by their appearance.
I want to thank all my classmates for taking the time to read and leave comments on my blog. I have really enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you and hope to see you in the next class!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My families country of origin: Egypt

5 Ways I will be culturally responsive:
     1) Research Egypt cultures online and apply that to my teaching and communicating.
     2) Egyptians primarily speak Arabian, I would learn some words of phrases from this language the best   
          that I can and incorporate that to the family.
     3) Find books from Egypt and about Egyptians and incorporate those in my lessons.
     4) Find music from Egypt, we can learn to sing a song in Egyptian or just listen to how they sing songs.
     5) For snack we could possibly have an Egyptian meal. Maybe we could do a different culture each day
         of one week and have a meal of that culture on that day.

I hope these things will make the family and the child feel welcome in my classroom.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

I can honestly say in my entire lifetime, I've never experienced bias, prejudice or oppression directly aimed at me. I'm not even sure I can think of a time when I've seen it happen to others. Actually I just thought of an experience I had the other day. I'm not sure if it's considered to be any of these three things, but I think it is because it has to do with being poor or rich. There is a local restaurant in our town and it is owned by two sisters. One of the sisters has 2 girls that I went to school with and I love them, they are super nice and the best waitresses ever. The other owner has 3 girls and to me they all 3 act really snobbish. I used to work at this restaurant in the summer time and I felt the same way. I will only eat there if one of the 2 girls I went to school with is working. So before I left that morning, I text the girl and asked if she was working. If she was working I was gonna eat breakfast there, but if she wasnt I was just going to get a sweet tea. I walked in and she wasnt working so I was just going to order a tea. So I waited a minute. The waitress (the other owners daughter) walked to a table and waited on people. Came back to the desk for a minute then fixed their drinks and another man who had ate just walks up and practically gets right in front of me and she walks up and helps him!!!!! I was SO MAD! For one, that he just got in front of me and for 2 when I was standing there it's like she didn't even notice me! I ALMOST walked out!!! I was fuming... I started getting tears in my eyes and I thought "Shanda suck it up!" Finally she looked at me and said "do you need to order some food?" I said no i just need a sweet tea. The entire time she barely looked at me. It's like she thinks she was too good to talk to me! And this was the exact reason why I wasn't eating breakfast there unless my friend was working! They've had complaints on this before, but that's the first time it has happened to me that bad. My dad is a jokester and I've been there with my parents several times and it seems like everytime we go in there my dad cracks a joke to one of them girls and they don't even laugh, they are just so not nice! Even if I go to a restaraunt where I don't know the waiters, they should be friendly! These girls are not friendly at all. So I do beleive that would be considered oppression. I feel it dimished equity by making me feel like I wasn't important and apprently she didn't need my business. Guess I wasn't dressed good enough or something. But I'm the type of person that honestly I don't care I'm not going to dress any better the next time I go in there because I dress comfortable and that's what I like. Of course then again it did hurt me because I felt like I was ignored. I mean really, I literally stood there for about 5 minutes before she asked me! To change this incident, she could have at least said, I'll be with you in just a minute or at least acknowledged me. Also, I went in there with the attitude that they were rude, maybe if I would've went in with a different attitude, then I wouldn't have even noticed (although I still would've).