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My name was supposed to be Tamera or Antonela, but my father decided to name me Anita. He never told my mom, he just put the name Anita on my birth certificate so that was it. I wasn’t named after anyone particular, my dad just loved the name Anita. When I was younger, many people thought I was Hispanic because of my name. Through research I learned the name Anita is the short form for Anahita which is the Iranian water goddess in Avestan which would explain why I love the water! I have gone through life hearing tons of jokes about my name. People always say Anita as “I need a…” and then say something silly after. For example, I work at Chilis and we work as partners. This guy would always say, “Anita. Anita new partner that’s what Anita.”

I chose to do a word collage of the names Antonela, Tamera, and Anita with Anita being the most and biggest because that is my name.

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My favorite characteristic is that I am adaptable. I have a go with the flow personality and I am open to change. I am always open to opportunity and am always on the lookout for improvement or minor tweaks to not only a lesson at school, but in life generally. When something doesn't go as planned, that is okay I just go with the flow and change and adapt to my environment. Being adaptable means I am always willing to listen to others’ points of views and not be limited to just my thinking.

I chose a picture of the beach because adaptability means going with the flow and going with flow reminds me of the beach.This picture shows an adaptable characteristic because the ocean is so huge and does what it wants. You can swim as much as you want, but the waves will always come. You have to go with the waves or go with the flow. I chose adaptable as my favorite characteristic because many people I know are such type A people and get stressed out when things don't go their way, but I am not like that. This makes my life less stressful.

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An important object to me is my teddy bear I have had since I was about 2 years old. It is a simple brown teddy bear that has a lot of meaning to me. I first got this teddy bear when I was in Bosnia and it came with me to America. When I was travelling to America for the first time my teddy bear provided me with comfort, warmth, and security. My teddy bear was a friendly face in a strange country full of unknowns.  Throughout the years I have kind of “destroyed” my teddy bear by giving it a haircut and coloring the eyes with nail polish. I remember the first time I went back to Bosnia to visit and I brought my teddy bear with me. The flight attendant came me graham crackers and an extra pack for my teddy bear and I remember thinking that was the coolest thing. I will always hold my teddy bear dear to me because it has been with me through years of friends, schooling and just life in general.

I chose to take a picture of my teddy bear because it is an important object to me. When I look at my teddy bear, I think of my childhood and the love and security that is represented. I chose a teddy bear to be an important object to me because it has gotten me through years of life and I will always cherish it.

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When I think of my privilege, I think of coming to America. I think of how my parents sacrificed so much to come to America for us to have a better life. Many people do not have the opportunity to come to America so I am very privileged that I had the opportunity to grow up here. I was born in Bosnia and that is where we lived and my whole family still lives. We go back from time to time to visit and the quality of life is just so different. I am grateful for coming to America.

I chose to take a picture of money because that is something my family probably would not have if we stayed in Bosnia. It is also another privilege that we have almost always been financially stable. When I go back to Bosnia, it is so different and my family doesn't have a lot of money. My family doesn't have a lot of money either, but we definitely live comfortably, unlike the family in Bosnia who struggle so much. I choose coming to America to be my privilege because there are so many people in the world who want to come to America, but can't get approved. It is a sad reality, but one I am grateful for having to happen to me.

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My cultural biases happen most often at work. I am a server and when I see a table that looks “ghetto” or looks like “white trash,” I feel like they won’t give me a good tip. I overcome my biases and treat every table the same hoping for a good tip. Sometimes I do get a good tip, and sometimes I don’t get a good tip even though I treated the tables the same.

I chose a picture of me at chili's because that is where I work. This picture represent my cultural biases because that is where it happens most often. I do not have these feelings outside of work and when I do at work I treat every table the same. It is just the initial first glance. I know I need to work on judging books by their covers. I chose this as my cultural biases because I don't really have any other ones.

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One cultural discomfort I have is when people think woman should be the ones cooking and cleaning, while the men go to work and make money for the family. Some cultures, including my culture, believe in this situation. They think the woman needs to be a perfect house and take care of the house and kids, while the men do the "hard" work and have a job and provide for the family. I am not the best cook, but my fiance is and he is always so helpful around the house because I am always either at school or at work.

I took a picture of my fiance doing dishes. This photo represents that men can do chores around the house too. I love that he is willing to do house work to help out. We both provide for each other and make a great team.

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Some of my cultural values include manners, pride, behavior and family life. My family has always been so big on manners and behavior. I remember growing up and my parents would always encourage me and my brothers to always be respectful of everyone especially your elders. Family life is very big to me because my family is very close. In my family we care about each other and know that no matter what family comes first. My parents are wild, and music is a big thing in our household. I remember when I use to live with my parents and every Saturday morning would be Croatian music playing so loud downstairs while my mom cleaned. Even today, I still listen to those same songs and will always love those songs. I also get my work ethic from my mom. My mom is a very hard worker and always has been. She has 2 jobs and a side job now and doesn’t even need them. Even with 3 jobs she still makes time to cook dinner almost every night (when she is home) and keep the house clean. I know nobody is perfect, but she comes very close. I get my work ethic from my mom. I work very hard at my job and try to be as helpful as possible to people just like her.

I chose a picture of my mom and I because all of my beliefs and values, I inherited from her and my dad. My mom is the best and has taught me so much about who I am as a person. She was always so patient while I was growing up and believed in me and made me believe in myself. She has molded me into the person that I am today. I have so much pride in where I came from and who I am as a person because of my mom.

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I use literacy practice in my everyday life specifically using social media. Social media provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms. You can write what you want or even record a video. I communicate with friends and distant family through social media. I read what friends are up to on social media.

I chose a picture of my facebook because this is the social media platform I use most often. I see a lot of literacy through facebook. I see it in the videos that are posted or the statuses that are made. I also love the memes that are on facebook. I engage in literacy the most in my everyday life through facebook.

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My favorite literacy experience is playing video games. I have a gaming laptop and play games a lot. Right now, I have been playing with my fiancé a lot and we like to play fortnite. It is kind of funny because my 2nd graders know what that is and a handful of them even play it. Playing video games is really fun and it relaxes me from stress. My fiancé and I play almost every night together. It is also a way where he can still play video games without feeling guilty that he is not hanging out with me.

I choose this picture of the game fortnite because that is the game, I play most nights. In this game literacy is included in the meaningul communication I have with my fiance as well as creating the actions by "reading" the game. I read a map during the game and really have to think through actions. I chose video games as my favorite literacy experience because I love doing it and it is so engaging. I am still hanging out with my fiance while we are gaming together.

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I am not the biggest reader out there, so I do not read much. I think it is because I always had trouble reading growing up and I never got to decided what to read. It was always decided for me, but if I have to choose an important book it would be the book, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. When I was younger, I remember reading this book and falling in love with it. This is the only book I would ever read. I knew all the words perfectly, so I did not feel dumb when I read it. When everyone would read a new book in class, I would always stick to this book. It also resonates with me because the book is about the value of being an individual and I am definitely my own person.

I chose to create a picture and draw fingerprints to represent individuality just like in the book. Just like how fingerprints are different for everyone, so am I. We are all different and unique and I think that is beautiful. Individuality is vital to society. If we were all the same the world would be boring. Society is forever changing, moving forward. All this can be connected with individuality.

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Struggles with Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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Struggles with Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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My struggles with teaching culturally diverse students is that I won't make the lesson engaging and culturally relevant for the students. I can think of fun activities for students to participate in, but I am not good at making it culturally relevant to them. I want to have my students be fully involved and engaged in the lessons I put together by including them. In that way, they will know I care about them. I don't know much about other cultures outside of my own and it is hard for me to find good literacy resources for students to relate to. And of course I want to find something appropriate to share with the class.

I chose to take a screenshot of my very first lesson plan I ever made. I did not understand cultural relevancy what so ever and thought this would be culturally relevant to the students. Looking back on this I have seen how much my knowledge has grown with cultural relevancy. However, I am still learning and trying to find good resources to keep the students engaged and feel welcome.

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Strengths on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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Strengths on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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I was born in Bosnia and my nationality is Croatian. My strengths on teaching culturally diverse students is that I can relate to them. Many culturally diverse students come from different countries and do not know English yet and I remember being in the same situation when I was younger. I have strategies that I remember learning from my ESOL teachers that I can teach to the culturally diverse students. I know the struggle and the hardship, and I can relate and be more patient.

I chose a picture of my ancestoryDNA results to show that I am from a different country. This picture represents my strengths on teaching culturally diverse students because I am from a different country and I know the struggles of a child who has come to a different country and is trying to learn a new language. I understand how these children feel. I never learned in a fun way and growing up, I was also so bored of school. I want to do fun activities for students to learn and I want to engage them by bringing in things they like. I wish someone would have done that for me when I was younger.

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This selfie represents who I am. This photo shows how silly I am and am almost always in a great mood. In this picture, I am in bed which is where I am most of the time. I take a lot of naps and always lay in bed doing homework. It is the most comfortable and relaxing spot for me to do homework and just chill out especially because I'm always either at school or work.

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I am Anita Trupina

Not Tamara or Antonela, just Anita

The beach makes me go with the flow

My teddy bear reminds me of when I was young.

I am Anita Trupina

From the country of Croatia

And the server at chilis

Respectful of all religions

And a hard worker.

I am Anita Trupina

The scroller of Facebook

And a gamer

Who values individuality.

I am Anita Trupina

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My thoughts on literacy as I completed this project is noticing that literacy is everywhere in my day to day life. Doing this project, it made me think about how I use literacy in everyday interactions such as playing video games, the music I listen to, social media, and the shows and movies I watch. Literacy is everywhere around me. I have gained a lot of knowledge about myself throughout this project and it will greatly benefit me when I begin my future teaching career. I have reflected on my privileges, my cultural biases, my cultural discomfort, and my cultural beliefs and values. I believe understanding all of these things will help me become a more culturally responsive teacher in the future. Through my cultural biases, I realized I am able to overcome those and treat every child respectively.

Knowing myself and who I am culturally impacts my teaching. Being an English language learner gives me more patient and I can connect to my ELL students more. I believe it is important to know my own cultural beliefs and recognize that everyone has their own cultures. It is very important for me to understand funds of knowledge to promote a culturally responsive classroom. Each student brings in with them a different set of funds of knowledge whether it be academic and personal background knowledge, life skills, or world views. It is important to know that every student is different and brings in something different, but valuable into the classroom. Getting a better understanding of your students’ funds of knowledge can enhance the classroom and gives the teacher a better understanding of the students; overall abilities and experiences. My funds of knowledge consist of the things I mentioned in my cultural selfie including common literacy practices and my cultural beliefs and values. I bring with me a set of skills to the classroom such as work ethic, manners, and pride. In my experiences, I bring that I was privileged enough to come to America and I know the struggle of not being able to have everything I wanted to have.

Literacy can come in a variety of different forms and is used in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. “Good literacy” is different according to every student. Some students with not enough support have a different literacy than a student who has ample support. Therefore, I believe there is no such thing as “good literacy” because it depends on the student. In my classroom, I will provide a positive learning environment to promote equity and better serve my students. I will get to know every child as an individual and recognize the uniqueness of every student. In my classroom, I will view culture as an asset instead of a deficit. The identities students have enriched their academic life. I believe it is very important to know your culture and view it as an asset.