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My weakness on teaching culturally diverse students

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My weakness on teaching culturally diverse students

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I think something I struggle with when trying to teach in a culturally diverse setting is the fear that I will offend a student or parent by something I say. I do want to know more about other cultures, especially of the students in my room. Yet, sometimes I fear asking questions about someone’s culture because I do not want to come off as offensive. I do not think that I ask offensive questions, and I try to preface asking questions by saying, “I hope this isn’t offensive, I am just genuinely curious and want to know more about your culture.”. Sometimes though, I think I refrain from asking some things because I am afraid of how the person might take it. I think my fears of this can also hinder the situation and make it awkward. My fear of offending, and my inability to address the situation great contribute to the struggle that I have. The picture I chose to represent this struggle is my bitmojis, which represents, me with many questions in a thought bubble. This is meant to represent the many questions I want to ask in relation to other cultures about their beliefs and practices, but it also represents me questioning what the best way to ask is. I have many questions about how to best get to know a culture while being as respectful as I can to the people I ask.

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My name was originally supposed to be “Samantha”. That was until there were 27 baby girls born the month before I was due with the name “Samantha”. My grandmother decided my name would be too common and convinced my parents to change it.

My parents decided on the name “Karli” after Carly Simon, a singer they loved. They decided to change the name to make it a more unique name. They got the K from my mother’s maiden name, Kaper. They decided on the I at the end just to make it even more unique.

My middle name was passed down to me from my grandmother. In my family, we alternate between the middle names “Rae” and “Lynn” each generation. My middle name is Rae, my mom’s middle name was Lynn, my grandmother’s is Rae, and her mother’s was Lynn. This has gone back for at least 6 generations.

My maiden last name is Popovich. This originates from Poland and means “Son of the Pope.”. In Georgia, I have spent my whole life being the only Popovich that I know of. Since my father is adopted, we have always wondered what our family’s real last name should be.

My last name has been Burgess since June 22, 2017 wen I married my husband. His last name can be traced back to the American Revolution and the Mayflower coming over. Although I love being married and wanted to take my husband’s last name, I do miss having a unique last name.

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What I like most about myself is my organization skills. To me, this is an important skill to have, especially when it comes to being in school or being a teacher. My ability to be organized is important to me because it took me a long time to get to be as organized as I am. Organization was always a goal for me, but it took a while to find the method that worked for me. I love the ability to be able to know exactly where something is and when something is coming up. This is why I chose my planner to represent my organization. I put everything in my planner, so I know exactly how my days will go, what I need to be doing, and when to have it done by. I take pride in my planner, making sure it is decorated for the month and color coded for all of the things I have going on in my life. I believe that the importance of being organized may reflect the cultural outlook of

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An important object that carries a lot of relevance for me personally is my mother’s ring. This is the ring that she wore every day. It was an engagement ring given to her by a boyfriend she had who she had not been able to marry. She wore the ring every day on her right hand and it was something very special to her. The day she passed away, she was wearing the ring and it was then given to me. The ring is special to me because to me, it represents my mom. It reminds me of her and who she was. Once I received the ring, I began to wear it all the time, as she did. I stopped wearing the ring because when I got it, the band was morphed from where my mom wore it so much. The more I wore it, the less it looked like how it did when she wore it. Because of this I keep it at home where it is safe. To me, this ring symbolizes how important family is to me and what my mom meant to me. It shows that I care deeply about my loved ones and want to keep their memories close.

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I think that my privilege is a caring and loving family who uplifts me and motivates me to be the best I can be. Some people may not see this as a privilege, but there are so many people in the world that so not have a loving family to go home to, that I think if you do, you are so privileged. These people lift me up and keep me going. If I need something, they are there for me and will help me the best way that they can. They give me advice, money, food, and clothing. My life is far from perfect, but my family help make it amazing. My grandparents have put me through school, my in-laws are letting me, and my husband live with them, my dad helps us with anything we need. Without these people in my life, I do not know where I would be. The image I chose is a collage of my family. These are all people who have helped and encouraged me through the years. Though I do not have a picture with all of them together, I wanted to put them all together here to showcase them because each of them has helped me so much in life.

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My biggest cultural bias is class, specifically the upper class. I struggle with stereotyping these people as un-caring and people who had their status handed to them. I catch myself being mad at these people because I assume that they had their wealth handed to them and they haven’t had to work for anything. What I try to remember after my bias presents itself is that a lot of the people who have money and nice things did have to work for it. It is true that some people are born with the silver spoon and have not had to worry about anything, but a lot of people have worked hard and saved to get to where they are. Though my bias is that these people had everything handed to them and they will act snooty, I think that my real goal is to someday be like them. I want to work hard and save so that I can get the things I want and have a nice house someday. I chose this bias because some students or parents what come into my classroom may be better off and I may start to see my bias come out when it comes to these parents. I need to work on remembering that it is not good to resent them, but it is great to strive to be like them. The image I chose to represent my bias is one that I drew. I found images that I thought best represented my bias of upper-class people as un-caring and having their noses up to everyone. I combined things from different images I found to represent the dramatic take on what these people may look like.

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One cultural discomfort I have is when people talk in other languages around me. This is not because I think people should only be allowed to speak English here, it is because I get uncomfortable that I do not know what these people are saying. If I knew the language, I would be fine with them speaking it, but I get uncomfortable not knowing what it being said about who. This is most prevalent when there are a group of people talking in another language around me, but I am the only one not knowing what is going on. The photograph I chose to make is me looking confused with different words in other languages around me. I used my bitmoji (an animation that looks like me) to represent me and used my iPad to write the words in other languages around the picture. I felt this best represents what it feels like to me when I am in this situation. I feel very confused as to what is being said and what they might be talking about and I feel like I sit there with this face on as it is happening.

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One cultural value I have inherited from my family is to work hard to achieve what you want. They have taught me to never give up and to keep pushing until you reach your goals. My grandparents had nothing, but they worked hard to get the jobs they wanted, worked hard to get the house they wanted, and never gave up. They passed that value onto my aunt, and then onto me. I chose this value because I believe it is a very important value to have in life. If you work hard, you can reach your goals and that has been true for me in my life. I have used this belief to get through school, to find jobs I wanted, and to feel confident in my body. The picture I chose to represent this value is of my aunt graduating from GGC in 2011. She is the perfect example of never giving up and working hard to obtain your goal. She had been in school since the 80’s and had gone to numerous different colleges. This goal did not take her this long for lack of trying or skill. Each time she would get back into school, she would be offered a great job which would keep her from finishing her degree. She has traveled all over the world for Outback, has managed numerous restaurants, and has made an amazing living for herself. Despite this, her life goal was to get a degree. So, she went back to school again to GGC and worked hard to accomplish her dreams. She is someone I have always looked up to and a great example of working hard to get what you want.

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Some of my literacy practices in everyday life include my bathroom mirror, my planner, junk mail, and the GPS on my phone. My bathroom mirror: My husband and I use our bathroom mirror to write affirmations and notes to each other. Using an expo, we may write a "Good morning" or "I love you" before we leave in the morning. We also write scripture or things to remember on the mirror, so it is somewhere we will be sure to see it. To me, this is a nice way to communicate or send a little message since most people get so caught up in texting all the time, this seems a little more personal to me. This is a literacy event because we are reading and writing. My planner: I always have my planner with me. I write down everything in it because if I don't, I will most likely forget about it. I look at it every day to see what I need to get done, where I need to be, and what is coming up. It is color coded, sectioned out, and my life source. This is a literacy event because I am constantly reading and writing in my planner. Junk mail: My husband's grandfather recently passed away, so we have been spending much more time with his grandmother at her house. We often go through her mail for her because she has trouble seeing it sometimes. She has signed up for so many things that she has a huge pile of junk mail delivered almost every day. Each time we go see her, we sit and sort out her junk mail and have to write in or call to try and get some of it cancelled. It is a never-ending pile, but it reminds me that we are doing it because we love her (and so the mail woman can actually fit her mail into the mailbox). This is a literacy event because we have to read each piece of mail and then write to or speak to the organization to cancel some of the mail. My GPS: I keep my GPS on everywhere I go, when if I know where I am going because I like to see what time I'm supposed to get somewhere. It also helps me know if there is traffic or an accident, so I can take a different route. I constantly look at it in the car to see if I need to change directions or if traffic has slowed down ahead. This is a literacy event because I am reading street names and traffic reports along my route. I chose to include a Literacy River as the picture for this question because even though I have gone into detail about several of my everyday literacies, there are so many more that I use every day that I wanted to display in some way.

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My favorite literacy experience that I like to engage in the most is social media. I check Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram daily. I use social media as a way to keep up with friends and family, while also being able to see what is going on in the world. Social media helps make me feel connected to and informed about what is happening all over. This is also a great literacy experience because there is so much to read on social media. They range from caption on pictures, news articles, or riddles. You also have to know how to read in context and with expression to truly know what someone meant when reading online. I think it is also important to know how to use social media to help relate to students now. Almost every kid has a phone with access to social media, so it is important to know what they may be dealing with in terms of their social skills or self-confidence. The image I chose for this is a picture of my Facebook profile. I look at Facebook often and it is a great place to read articles about what is going on or to read stories of family and friends.

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When I was a freshman in college, I bought the book “Not That Kind of Girl” by Lena Dunham. It had just come out, and I had heard great things about how open and honest the book was. This book is about a woman reflecting back on stories of her life from college and her early 20’s. This book is written as if she is having a conversation in person with you. She tells about boys she dated, her body image issues, life on campus, and trying to find your way. My freshman year of college was a confusing time and I was trying to figure out who I was and how I felt about things. This book helped me realize that this time in my life is about making mistakes and figuring it out. It helped re-assure me that I may not have all of the answers right now, but I will know better one day. Even after finishing the book, I would look back in it when I had certain things happen to me. If I went through a hard break up, I would look at the chapters on Dunham’s crazy and hard breakups and feel better than someone else had gone through the same things I was going through. I chose to use the picture I took the morning I bought the book. I was excited to read it but had no clue how much I would love it or what it would mean to me after. I think everyone needs to find a book like this in their lives.

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My strength on teaching culturally diverse students

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My strength on teaching culturally diverse students

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My strength in teaching culturally diverse students is my ability to make connections with the students and get to know them on a personal level. I think this is very important as a teacher because you want your students to feel comfortable in your classroom and you want them to be able to relate to you when you are teaching. You also want to know what your students are going through at home, so you know how to best accommodate them in school and be culturally relevant. I feel I have been able to make great relationships with almost all of the students I have been with. This has helped me be the best teacher I can be for them. The picture I chose to represent this is a picture of me and a student from the summer camp I taught Pre-kindergarten at. I built amazing relationships with these students over the summer and even some of the parents of students. Though I built so many great relationships, I was only able to take a few pictures with them. I chose this picture because I am very close to this student and her mom, who allowed me to take the picture and use it. I think it is a great example of how close the relationship is between me and this student.

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I chose this selfie because I think it is a good representation of how I see myself. It is not a perfect picture with a filter or editing done. It is a picture of me with no makeup on, my hair up, and at the lake enjoying the weekend with my husband. That is how I see myself. I don’t get ready unless it is something important, so I see myself a lot and think of myself when I have no makeup on and my hair is a mess. I don’t see myself as put-together because I usually am far from it. Even though, I still think of myself as pretty, which is why I chose a picture like this instead of one where I was all ready somewhere important. The setting of the picture is also important to me. We go to the lake constantly over the summer and it is one of my favorite places. I see myself as someone who likes to have fun and do things I enjoy once I get all the work tasks done. This picture shows me enjoying my weekend, not worrying about what I have due next. Though I do stress about assignments or money, I try to think of myself as more care-free and delegate those thoughts to a certain time and place.

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I am Karli

I am kind and hard working

I wonder about cultures other than my own

I understand the power of relationships

I say family is everything

I dream that I will be a great teacher

I try to do my best

I hope to accomplish my dreams

I am Karli