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Growing up the forms of technology that took part in my life was a car, family computer, DSI, and iPod. I would say my time was 90% nontechnology and 10% technology. I remember most of my days after school I would get home eat, and play outside till it got dark. Once I got to 7th grade that began to change. I got a phone and began to always be on it, then in high school I got a laptop and it felt like I was spending the majority of my time using technology and now COVID has happened and I spend even more of my time on technology. It has definitely become a big role in my life and development. I feel like it can be useful for school and other resources, but I spend a lot of time on social media which doesn't really help me develop and easily takes up my time.

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Week 11  Relationships with earth, land, outdoors

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Week 11  Relationships with earth, land, outdoors

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While talking about my sister, in a way it also had extrinsic learning because we both it had to do with the environment. However, we both individually had a passion for learning more about nature.

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 Cultural and Community Expertise (Equity)

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 Cultural and Community Expertise (Equity)

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I live in South Texas, also known as the Valley. The valley is almost 100% Hispanic. Most of my life I have been blinded by my dominant culture to even notice it was a part of my culture. I started to notice it was culture once I came to college in Austin. My friends would pick up on phrases I say, and they asked me to tell them more common phrases I say. They find it enjoyable to learn about the Hispanic Culture in the valley, while in my head I just thought it was common things people say but now I realize it isn't. Because my culture was dominant I believe it greatly helped me have confidence acting on it growing up, for example speaking Spanish with other kids in recess.

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Ableism can be seen in different ways; compared to societal norms or in medical terms. When reflecting on my own life I recall a personal friend complaining about how often times when parking in the handicap spots, the spots have no room between parking spots to take out their wheelchair. This made me realized how I have ableism without even thinking about it. I selfly don't have to worry or think about things like this, however, I should be concerned so that everyone can have accommodations to met different people's needs.

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Being bilingual has been useful in my household because my mom only speaks Spanish, so it is the only way to communicate with her. My mom's side of the family also only speaks Spanish so it's really great to not have a barrier of communication between us. In school, it has been very useful because I would easily get an A in my Spanish classes. In my lifestyle, it has helped because I can engage in the Mexican culture by listening to Spanish music. Lastly, it has just overall all been extremely helpful in life to be bilingual, oftentimes I find myself being the translator for random people and it brings joy to me to use my skill for someone else's benefit.

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Civic Action & Play and Reading Segregation by Experience

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meant to said biases* at minute 1:10

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Civic Action & Play and Reading Segregation by Experience

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As Hispanic, growing up I chose to play with other Hispanic kids. I felt like they would understand me better. I also chose to play mainly just play with Barbie's and with only girls. I was taught that boys and girls aren't supposed to play together because boys are very different from girls. Because of this, I feel that it has limited my development. When I came to UT, it was one of the first times I interacted with people of different races, today I feel like interacting with different races has grown me in my development and way of thinking. I believe that also playing only with Barbie's stopped the development I could have gained from playing with a "boy toy" such as cars. Thirdly, I  noticed how girls and guys are able to engage in conversation naturally at UT. On the other hand, I have a hard time communicating with males because growing up most of the time I would only talk to girls. However, after this week I learned about the queer theory, which made me realized that when I raise my kids I want them to be able to pick any toy and not label it to a specific gender, to not limit their development. I also want them to view everyone the same regardless of their gender to promote their communication skills and also to have good morals.

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Growing up, up until 3rd grade I lived in Nebraska in a small town that was primarily white people. One day I recall my dog ran out of the house and started to ran away. I began chasing him with my mom. However in the process we passed a white mans property. When he saw me and my mom he ran out and told us some cruse words and that us beaner's need to get off his land before he calls the cops. I was about 5 when this happened, however I can clearly remember it. It effected me because it started to get me thinking what racism is and how it's a real thing. After that I never again assumed that everyone was treated equally in regards to color.

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Week 2 8/31/2021 Reflection

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I am Mexican, there are many different cultural things about being Mexican. In this picture, I am celebrating my quinceanera. This is a Mexican tradition that celebrates when a girl turns 15. My culture has had many impacts on my play and development. In play, I remember as a child dressing up with my sisters in Mexican dresses and dancing all over the house. It has also taught me to show kindness when playing, for example, a big rule my mom always had was to make sure everyone was included. In development, it has taught me how important family is. Also how you can eat a tortilla with basically anything. It has also created a tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve at midnight instead of Christmas morning.

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Growing up I’ve always been non-denominational. This has definitely played a huge role in my play and development. Specifically, in play, I try to incorporate morals I’ve learned in my religion when I play making sure that everything is fair, just, and displaying kindness to others over myself. In my development, it has also played a huge role because it has given me wisdom on viewing everyone as equal. It also made me a community of friends because we align with the same morals, which continues to align me with morality.

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High School Graduation with my mom, best friend and best friend's mom 

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I attended Airport Elementary, Cuellar Middle School, and Weslaco East High School. School played a huge part in my play and development, specifically Elementary. In 3rd grade, my parents split and I took it quite hard. I disengaged myself from the class. Because of this, my teacher met with my mom, my teacher wanted to place me in special education classes. However, my mom didn’t allow it because she knew I was only disengaged due to trauma. In the following year, I had an amazing teacher which taught me how much I’m capable of. This resulted in me challenging and believing in myself. There was also a lot of play in Elementary, due to having recess time. This grew my skills in interacting with other children.

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As a female, gender has played a huge role in my play and development. I grew up with only females in my household; my mom and my two sisters. Because of this, I have developed a mindset of surrounding myself with women and also viewing women as limitless. I am thankful to be a woman and to have grown up with such amazing women because it has allowed me to believe that I am capable of anything. However, because I did grow up with women I have a hard time with playing around with men because my time with males was limited. On the other hand, I feel extremely comfortable acting as myself around females.

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I grew up in Weslaco, Tx. This is an hour away from the beach so it was a very normal thing for me to be going to the beach on the weekends. Because of this, I feel like the beach has made me very interactive with nature and has helped me create a healthy relationship with the outdoors and enhance my play skills. My hometown is primarily Mexican. Because of this I only knew Mexican culture, so when I came to Austin I had a culture shock seeing all the different races.

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I really enjoy being Hispanic. I believe being Hispanic did impact my play and development; specifically who I decide to play with. As a child, I would normally hang out with kids who were Hispanic. This is because I felt like they would be more welcoming and understanding of me. This has developed me to naturally engage with other people who are Hispanic. Being Hispanic also helped develop my love for treating everybody like family.

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I am fluent in both Spanish and English. As a toddler, my mom taught me Spanish because that is the only language she speaks. It has really helped develop my skills both in play and development. It has helped develop my skills in play because I am able to interact and play with all my cousins from Mexico. It has helped develop me as a person because in the circumstance that someone needs help with translation, I can quickly come help. Because of this being bilingual has helped me improve my interaction and people skills.

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I am from a low-income family. This has definitely affected my play and development. My parents separated when I was in 3rd grade and my mom had to support us all on her own so I had to start becoming more creative if I wanted something. I quickly realized if I wanted something I was gonna have to make it on my own because I knew my mom wasn’t going to be able to buy it. I think being low income has really helped me become a very creative person and not feel the need to go to the store. It has helped me be creative in both my development and play.

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Most of my elementary schooling didn’t have teachers focused on agency. Instead, I always felt the pressure of teachers wanting me to perform well in state exams. I really hate that feeling, especially in 3rd grade. As I’ve stated before, my parents separated this year. I moved from Nebraska to Texas in the middle of the school year. I was traumatized and didn’t know anyone. It didn’t help that the class didn’t include much agency in it. I recall the teacher just giving lectures without including agency, leaving students unable to develop their own thoughts. I recall dazing off almost every day, my attention span was very short. Because of this, the teacher asked my mom to place me in special education classes, however, my mom refused. The next year I had an amazing teacher. She made me feel seen and was constantly challenging me to better myself and develop my own thoughts. She gave me books to read and was constantly asking me questions. Because of her use of agency she made me believe that I was actually smart and capable. I can definitely see an inequity with student’s education, not every teacher teaches the same. Some teachers put more time and thought into their teaching while other teachers just see it as something they have to do to make a living and don’t care how effective their teaching is in a child’s mind development. Because of this inequity, it affects the students, leaving some students to not know how much they are truly able to do. I’m very thankful I got the teacher I did in 4th grade because she gave me the push I needed to know what I can really accomplish.

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Culture plays a huge part the development and agency of a child. One thing I commonly have noticed in my Hispanic community and in my own life is that in the Hispanic household the mom is the one who disciplines the child, In my own experience my mom was in-between being strict, I do recall getting in trouble sometimes, but my mom also gave me a lot of freedom to make my own choices. For example I recall making dirt cakes with my sisters, we had this influence on one another. Another time was when me and my sisters were playing water guns and soon enough there was about ten other kids from the neighborhood playing with us. Because of the culture that surrounded me it was a common thing for agency to be displayed in my life through playing and interacting with other kids in my neighborhood.

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I've never thought about the tribe that lived in my hometown before. My hometown is Donna, Tx. The tribe that lived there before was Lipan Apache. This tribe is known for trading bison, venison, hides, and pecans. I never knew any of this and don't see any of that culture alive today in my town. I live there because my grandparents immigrated there from a town in Mexico. I feel very connected to the land myself and nature because growing up I played outside all the time with my sister, we created a space we called Narnia. Because of this I believe it made me very creative.