# data[].attributes.body
Last semester I would always mention TE 101 to my family when they asked about classes. I would express that I was learning a lot and felt like the class was very purposeful for future teachers. My family is always wanting to learn more and learn how to be better people, so they asked me what I could share with them information that could help them be better ally's. So, I started by talking about our experience with the Black Lives Matter movements in our town. My parents always encourage my brother and I to be a fair and equal people to everybody, but they had never really pushed us to speak up or out for others being oppressed. So, I explained to my parents that during the booming times of the Black Lives Matter Movements in Chicago was to perfect time for us to show our allyship. I recall my mom posting on Facebook and attempting to educate herself on all levels of the movement, but never pushed herself or our family to join in on the action. I explained that it was great for her pushing herself and our family to unlearn previous knowledge and engage in relearning, but to make that extra step to truly be an anti-racist and the best ally possible, we have to join in on the movements and prove it through actions. The definition we learned in TE 101 of a true anti racist is one who supports anti racist policies through their actions and antiracist ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
I follow a page on Tik Tok called the Black Menaces, they are a group of black students at Brigham Young University. (BYU's demographic 80% white students and .4% black students) The group goes around campus asking controversial questions, on camera, to other BYU students or people on the BYU campus. Sometimes the people being interviewed will just simply answer the question or they might give some explanation. In this video the Black Menaces go around campus with the question of "Do you support Critical Race Theory?". Which Critical Race Theory is material we learned about in TE 101 and still continue to explore in TE 102. I know that Critical Race Theory is the academic movement to connect racism, race, and power to education. But, in this tik tok I notice that some people do not have the correct knowledge of the Critical Race Theory. The group interviewed an older man that was on campus and his perspective of Critical Race Theory was that it was an idea of blaming white people. Which is not true. It became clear to me that Critical Race Theory is greatly important for this very example because this man did not even know the true meaning of what he was being asked, so he automatically turned into a defensive mindset. Critical Race Theory needs to educate the uninformed.

# data[].attributes.body
While reading this book I reflected on my own experience in school and all the people that were pinned as the "Troublemakers". I reflected on one particular situation I could remember. There was a boy in my math class in sixth grade, he was extremely smart and also had ADHD. His name was Patrick, he would wear a suit every day to school and loved to talk. My teacher definitely saw him as a distraction or a disturbance to our class. He was always the "class clown" type of guy, always cracking random jokes and making the class laugh. But our teacher clearly did not find him funny. So, the teacher would hold him after class to reprimand him and tell him his behavior was inappropriate. Soon he stopped cracking jokes, stopped talking to classmates, stopped wearing suits, and started hanging out with dangerous people. It pains me to think that our school system pushed the idea of him being a troublemaker so much that he started to believe it and got involved with the wrong crowed, started doing worse in school, and finally did not even fulfil his 6th grade dream of graduating and going to college.

# data[].attributes.body
In class we presented our Critical Media Projects to our peers, and one project that resonated with me was about a show called Abbot Elementary. So, after class I decided to watch a couple episodes of the show and I truly loved the show. I thought it perfectly represent schools these days in a comedic way. I found that a large theme of the show was that the school was a low-income school and struggles with money and funs for their students and teachers. It was very clear that the impact of this problem was shown in both students and teachers, and it upset me because I know that the world of education deserves so much more. Another theme I witnessed was passion, some teacher clearly lacked this, and it was portrayed onto their students and onto other teachers. I too noticed this is my experiences in school. I have had teachers who have been full of energy and knowledge to share and those were the classes i excelled in. But on the other hand, I had teachers who clearly did not enjoy their job and or were tired of the school or their students, and I noticed that these emotions reflected my work in their class. I want to be the teacher with the best attitude so that my students can know they can succeed and come to me with all questions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Critical Race Theory Conversation w/ my brother

# data[].attributes.subject
Critical Race Theory Conversation w/ my brother

# data[].attributes.body
One of the topics from TE 101 & 102 that resonate with me the most is Critical Race Theory. I believe I am so intrigued by this because I was never informed of such education when I was growing up. In my classrooms growing up conversations of race were controversial and avoided. And this is a main reason why there is little change in ideas of race in my hometown, because there is no open conversation to learn and unlearn their ideas. So, I decided to talk to my brother about this topic because he experienced the same thing growing up in my hometown, but now he is in college in Austin. I asked him why he thought that the schools would never bring up conversations of race in class, and he said that it was their weird way of protecting us from the world, and our parents did the same. This was so obvious to me that this was a display of dominant culture. We had been taught that these conversations were off limits so that ideas don't change. My brother and I found this very disheartening but decided we would advocate for ourselves and open up these conversations with our friends and family.

# data[].attributes.body
I am a student with a hidden disability and in class we discussed the discrimination that students like me can face in schools or elsewhere. And this discussion made me think about a time that I faced this kind of discrimination in a sort of back handed way. It was junior year, and time for all students to take the SAT, all the students sat in rows in the cafeteria and took their test, but because of my accommodations I was assigned to a different room. I went to the room and saw my math teacher; he would be prompting my test. I had never had to discuss my accommodations with my math teacher at this point in the school year because I did not feel it necessary until there was a test to be taken. I was worried of what he was going to say, but I just brushed it off and sat down. I patiently waited for him to hand me my test and give me the prompted instructions. He then stood up and started telling me the instructions, so I listened. But I noticed something off, he did not mention my added time. I was flustered and quickly interrupted him asking him why I didn't have extra time. He quickly responded with sass, saying "extra time? why do you need extra time?". This comment struck hard. I know he just didn't understand, but I never knew I could be so affected by one little comment. I told him why and he immediately felt bad and tried to plead his case by saying "you are just such a great student I never could have guess". I had never felt so invisible, like my struggles, and hard work didn't matter. Because of my vision I have to work for 5 times longer and 10 times harder than my peers just to reach the answer that seems so "simple" to them. But no one knows this because it is hidden.

# data[].attributes.body
Last year I came upon a former NFL player, Emmanual Acho, whose place in the Media drastically changed. He went from being looked at for his athleticism to being looked at for his education and lessons heard through his "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man" where him and his guests discussed racial topics that were circulating the world last year. During those difficult times last year, I was very dedicated to learning more about how to be an active ally. This term is something that Acho brought into light for me, but also a term that I developed more perspective on in TE 101. Acho's first video "Dear White people" helped me learn how to work with people of color and how to unlearn my unconscious racism. Hearing these words and learning about how white people who think they aren't the problem are the problem were shocking but especially so because it was directly from a victim of those acts of racism. I continue to watch Acho's videos and connect what I learn from him to my learning from TE 101 & 102.

# data[].attributes.body
In class, we were told to look at the picture and talk to a partner about how this made us feel or think of the standardized test system. The one word I could think to describe this photo and standardized tests was "unfair". Throughout my life I have taken many standardized tests and I have never gotten an above average or even average score on any of them. To this I would just respond, "it just wasn't my day", or "I am just bad at taking tests". But I actually had a learning disability, so I was unable to take these tests like my peers. I was so discouraged by my score that I stopped trying as hard in school because I was just "stupid". But come to learn that I just learned differently than others. And because of this I do not believe that standardized tests are affective for students. They create a gap between students and push harsh standards onto students who may have different abilities and or different ways of learning. And this picture describes this idea perfectly because all of the animals have different abilities so not all of them will be able to climb the tree the same. And it gives others a clear advantage, like the bird, the bird will be able to quickly and easily reach the top without any worries whereas the elephant is going to struggle and be put down by his loss.

# data[].attributes.body
In class we watched a documentary of a school board and school in a difficult time. This documentary really opened up my eyes to some tragedies of the school board. It reminded me of when I first learned about the school board in my school district. It was during the time of covid, and stress levels of parents, students, and educators were very high. I remember hearing such negative things about the school board and never really understood how it operated. The parents and students at my school would always say that the school board only listens to what they want to hear and chooses which problems they bring into light. And this video that we watched in class really put these ideas into perspective as we saw in the documentary how the school board shut out the media and even their own teacher!!

# data[].attributes.body
In my class IAH 207 i have learned so much about my positionality and how it has shielded me from a lot of knowledge of immigration. In this class I have engaged with multiple young adult books carrying ideas of immigration. These books have truly helped me open my mind and take a step into someone else's shoes and look they're their perspective and experiences. This had truly shown me that because I have never been through these experienced, I have never pushed myself to be educated about other perspectives and experiences with immigration. And the same goes for a lot of the ideas that I have learned in TE 101 & 102, I have never had to step out of my positionality bubble to learn about others perspectives so I was just choosing to follow dominant culture ideas.