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Bekka's Response: I like food, being loud, and spending time with others. Particularly when involving art and music I really start to grow and glow into a space. I’m not perfect and I use commas incorrectly all the time. This experience made me see how easy poem writing can be with a form- something I was daunted to do at the start turned out pretty interesting. 

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Bekka's Response: I like food, being loud, and spending time with others. Particularly when involving art and music I really start to grow and glow into a space. I’m not perfect and I use commas incorrectly all the time. This experience made me see how easy poem writing can be with a form- something I was daunted to do at the start turned out pretty interesting. 

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Bekka's Response: I didn’t realize just how many pieces of my school life would pop up in this poem. I’ve got stuff from both music and art lessons, along with private piano and guitar that I teach. I am able to see how finding my happy place at home can help me find my happy place at work. I feel like I had a lot of adult responsibilities thrust upon me when I was pretty young. That didn’t show up here, only what I’ve created for my life today. 

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Bekka's Response: I didn’t realize just how many pieces of my school life would pop up in this poem. I’ve got stuff from both music and art lessons, along with private piano and guitar that I teach. I am able to see how finding my happy place at home can help me find my happy place at work. I feel like I had a lot of adult responsibilities thrust upon me when I was pretty young. That didn’t show up here, only what I’ve created for my life today. 

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Bekka's Response: It is important to know and understand how our students are all from different lifestyles. What is normal in one household may not be in another. When living with my dad after my mom’s severe car accident in 1999 my school and home life looked drastically different than it had when living with my mom. All of a sudden we were expected to do homework when we got home. He would have me spell words from my spelling list out loud while washing dishes, he would have a few too many with his buddies then have me dance on his feet in the kitchen. I was in charge of cooking, Lord knows what we would have eaten had he or my older sister taken on that job. Because my grades took a severe jump up that year it looked like a lot of this was good, and a lot of it was, but there are pros and cons to every situation. When living full time with my mom we would spend two over-nights a week at the baby sitter’s house- this is when my homework would get done. Living with my mom saw her reading the Harry Potter books out loud to us, eating papa murphy’s pizza at least one night a week and scrounging the pantry for food other nights, while learning to do laundry at 2nd grade. I was in charge of getting my little brother up in the morning, making sure he was dressed and fed, then walk him to school. Again, these instances influenced how I grew up and how I grew into school. By understanding the weights that may lie on the shoulders of our students, we can better understand why they are tired, distracted, acting out, falling asleep on the carpet, etc. 

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Bekka's Response: It is important to know and understand how our students are all from different lifestyles. What is normal in one household may not be in another. When living with my dad after my mom’s severe car accident in 1999 my school and home life looked drastically different than it had when living with my mom. All of a sudden we were expected to do homework when we got home. He would have me spell words from my spelling list out loud while washing dishes, he would have a few too many with his buddies then have me dance on his feet in the kitchen. I was in charge of cooking, Lord knows what we would have eaten had he or my older sister taken on that job. Because my grades took a severe jump up that year it looked like a lot of this was good, and a lot of it was, but there are pros and cons to every situation. When living full time with my mom we would spend two over-nights a week at the baby sitter’s house- this is when my homework would get done. Living with my mom saw her reading the Harry Potter books out loud to us, eating papa murphy’s pizza at least one night a week and scrounging the pantry for food other nights, while learning to do laundry at 2nd grade. I was in charge of getting my little brother up in the morning, making sure he was dressed and fed, then walk him to school. Again, these instances influenced how I grew up and how I grew into school. By understanding the weights that may lie on the shoulders of our students, we can better understand why they are tired, distracted, acting out, falling asleep on the carpet, etc. 

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This activity was very difficult for me to complete.  I am not a very creative or outside the box thinker.  Therefore, my poem was very straightforward.  For example, "I am from Durand, Wisconsin.  I am from two loving parents."  From this, I realized that race and culture have never been a huge part of my life.  My family doesn't have any family traditions that revolve around our heritage and/or culture.  In fact, I can't even tell you where my ancestors are from.   It is apparent to me that race and culture are low on my priority list. Sometimes I envy those who have a rich culture with traditions.

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Growing up in a family that values education led me to my profession.  Therefore, that aspect of my life influences what I do everyday.  As a result, I hold my students to high standards and I try to instill in them the importance of a good education.  Because education has been so rewarding for me, I like to pass on my passion in an effort to motivate my students to find what they are passionate about.

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I believe that everyone is influenced by their upbringing in some way or another.  As a result, that influence affects how students behave and perform academically  in school.  For example, If education is valued, the students will value it.  If it isn't valued, the students are less likely to take school seriously and put effort into what they are doing.  Therefore, it is my job, as a teacher, to know how the students are affected by their background and upbringing and do what I can to assist them. I also need to help students recognize that we all have different backgrounds and experiences and that those do affect us.  In spite of that, we need to learn to work together and support each other in order to be successful.  No one should ever have to walk alone!

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I can't really say that I learned much about race and culture from this activity. In the sample poem given, I was feeling an hispanic culture. I was having a very difficult time composing my own poem because I was trying to incorporate race and culture. It wasn't until I read Bekka's poem that I was finally able to start to compose my own "I am From" poem and even then I had trouble thinking of what to write for a couple of lines.

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Rereading my attempt at writing the I Am From poem, I noticed that family, whether mine when I was growing up or my current family now of children and grandchildren, kept appearing in my lines. I have always liked being with younger children. This is what motivates me and is the reason why I teach primary age students.

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Everyone has different experiences.  Even those living in the same household may perceive the "same experience" in a different manner.
What may work for one student in the classroom may not work for others. I need to be mindful and respectful of this. I cannot always 'be fair" because each student has or has had different experiences, strengths, or weakness to take into account.

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I did not like poem activity because it is hard to write about myself. I had to ask my husband to help me think of things to say. It made me think about what my beliefs are. I work and live in a community that does not have much diversity. But i do think about the households my students come from, how busy their lives are after they leave school and how much more responsible they are for such things as eating a good breakfast, how long they sleep, and what they wear to school. Those were all things my parents helped me with. My mom made breakfast,and told us what the weather was going to be like. We had a regular bedtime and we had to get up the same time every day, even Saturdays and Sundays. There were chores to be done and Mass on Sunday. Many of my students do not eat breakfast, but have money to buy candy and chips which they eat during breaks and lunch. Some students tell me they are not hungry at lunch so they do not eat. I believe this affects their academics and behavior in the classroom. Also, we now have special education services at school. These teachers are a big help when we have to differentiate i the classroom.

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I do think we are influenced by our environment. I am a helpful and patient person because that is what my parents taught me. We were to be kind and treat others like we wanted to be treated. I grew up in a farming community where about 80% of the students came from the farm. These students did chores before they even came to school! My father was a teacher and I grew up in the education community. We would come to school the week before and make bulletin boards and run errands for other teachers. I was taught to help when someone needed it. My sister is generous as well. I remember when our parents bought us new coats for winter and my sister came home from school without hers. She said her old coat was still good so she gave her new one away. So I teach because I am told I do a good job. I have learned how over all the years I have been teaching. I learn something new every year. I am motivated by how I was brought up. I saw my father and his love for teaching.

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We tend to understand better the students and colleagues most like us.  I have learned that a mixture of many different cultures and personal experiences.  We have many different experiences and backgrounds on our staff this year.  It gives every student in the middle school a chance to bond with one of us. Communication is very important.  My generation has learned many different ways of communicating.  We can write in cursive, talk on a phone, text, email and express ourselves using body language.  Some of these may become extinct.  Yet, knowing what way too communicate with each other is the best. Our staff tries to get to know and understand all of their students, which helps in the inclusion and success of our schools.

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Surprisingly I had a hard time completing this assignment.  I love creativity.  However, as I am reflecting on the poem, creative writing isn't one of my strong suits.  I am pretty straightforward and to the point.  With that being said, race and culture were never big factors in my upbringing.  I know a little bit of where my ancestors are from, but that is it.  My husband's family on the other hand takes great pride in their heritage.  They are only about 25% Norwegian but they have already traveled to Norway and they also went to Norwegian camp as kids.

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The reoccurring elements from my "I am From" poem are family, teaching, and my faith.  This makes sense to me because those are three things I value greatly.  I love getting together with my family.  It is something we do quite frequently.  I attribute that to one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher.  I grew up with a lot of younger cousins who I babysit a lot.    I realized after awhile that I wanted to make a career out of being around children.  My faith on the other hand didn't take precedence until I got married.  Growing up we would go to church on Sunday's and major holidays, but that was it.  It wasn't until I met my husband that we started growing in our faith together.  Now we go to adoration and confession regularly.  We also visit the residents at the Rutledge on Sundays and watch the Catholic mass with them on TV.

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Everyone has a different story. We all come from different experiences. However, that is no reason to treat someone differently. It is something I teach to my students and remind them of constantly. By including everyone and treating others the way we want to be treated, we can show success not only at school but everywhere we go.

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I struggled with this activity. I lack creativity in activities like this. Race and culture were never a huge part of my childhood. We were raised to show interest and respect for all cultures and race doesn't matter. Humans are humans no matter what they look like or their family dynamic. I know I am German and Irish but that has never been a huge deal. My red hair is a pretty big indicator as to my ancestry. My dad's family is very proud to be Norwegian. Holiday meals all the way down to the way they talk shows their pride in the Norwegian culture.

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My parents raised us to stand up for what we believe in even if it is against the popular opinion. We were also raised to work hard and to do our best. Both of these things have stuck with me and my siblings as we ventured through adulthood. I'm even using those same things to raise my daughters.

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Every student is different. They come from different upbringings, they have different experiences, and they react to situations differently. I am naturally excited and very loud. I have learned that some students perceive this as yelling when in reality, I'm just excited to share my knowledge with my students. Over the past four years, I have had to learn to read the room before showing my loud side. Not every student perceives the situation the same. As teachers, we need to think about how student perception affects their learning in our classrooms. If we can be conscious of that, I think we can have inclusive classrooms.