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Madison Reese Aragon

Usually a child's parents will pick out their name for them. Unlike most people, my mother's best friend, Kelly Hendrix, named me. My mother wanted me to be named after Georgia because that is where she is from and where the rest of her family is from. My mother could only come up with the names Georgia and Savannah, but she didn't want to just settle for one of those names. So, she went to her best friend, Kelly, for help. Kelly threw out the name Madison, after Madison County, Georgia, and my mother fell in love with the name. Uniquely though, my name is not after someone in my family, but it is supposed to represent where we are from, Georgia.

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My favorite characteristic is that I am always optimistic about anything and everything that life has to offer. An optimistic person is defined as someone who is hopeful and confident for the future. Whether it is about my personal life, a friends life, my students life, or anything that is just going on in the world, I choose to be optimistic and smile through it. This is a picture of me at my previous placement, Knight Elementary, during the Milestones testing. Some of the teachers gathered at the front of the school and wrote inspiring messages to the students who were taking the Milestones tests that week. It was to encourage them and have them be optimistic about the tests that were about to come. I was able to share my optimistic spirits with the students that I worked with, and they all did an amazing job on their testing that year!

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The important object that I chose is my baby's ultrasound picture that we received after being examined by a maternal fetal specialist. This ultrasound picture carries a lot of relevance for me personally and culturally. I was told awhile back that I would never be able to have children of my own, even though it was always a dream of mine to have. Therefore, finding out that I am pregnant has been a huge blessing to mine and my husband's lives. This ultrasound, in particular, is the ultrasound where we found out that our baby is 100% healthy, and that we are on the right track for a great delivery in February. As I look at all of the ultrasounds of my baby, including this one, it is a constant reminder that all things are possible. Now, everything I do is to better my life for my baby, husband, and myself.

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When I think of my "privilege" the first thing that came to my mind was my family. This is a photo of my family from my wedding. I have been blessed with a family that has been around me for my whole life. They have all literally lived at least 15 minutes away from me, and has been there for me whenever I needed them. I have realized that not everyone has been blessed with a family like mine. Some of the students that I have had in my classes don't even have a family to call their own. Therefore, I view my family as a privilege because I am blessed to have them.

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My cultural discomfort comes from a fear of mine. I have always struggled with getting out of my comfort zone and doing things that I would not normally do. I used to always just do things that I like to do and enjoy doing, but my husband is the kind of person that constantly stretches himself to be better in all aspects of life. He inspires me to get past the comfort zone that I have built for myself. This is a picture of me and my husband at Main Event, geared up to do their Gravity Ropes. That is where you get on these ropes that are attached to the ceiling of the building, it is super high up, and you do an obstacle course. This is something that I normally would never do because it makes me scared and feel uncomfortable. Even though I was extremely scared and uncomfortable, my husband encouraged me the whole time, and I made it to the end of the course without falling off, thankfully.

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When I think about my cultural values and beliefs, I think about my faith/religion. I am a believer in Jesus Christ, and my faith guides me through everything that I do.

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During an average week, I participate in a variety of literacy practices. When I have time, I get on social media (i.e., Facebook) to look at Tasty videos (or other food/recipe videos), dog pictures, memes, and to catch up with friends/family. Although I do read books and articles for class, majority of the time I am on social media (i.e., Facebook) reading/watching the content that it has to offer.

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This is a photo of one of my favorite books, "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. This book will always be near and dear to my heart because it is all about a mother loving her son, and in return her son ends up loving her back. I read this to my baby, when I can. When I read this book the first time to my baby, who happens to be a boy, he started kicking like crazy, and that I a feeling that I will never forget. This is a book that will stay in our nightly routine for as long as he will let me read to him. This is also a book that my mother used to read to my sister and I when we were younger too. She would always say, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be", and that's the little lullaby song the mother in the story sings to her son. Therefore, this book will always hold a special place in my heart.

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The most important book in my life is the Bible. As previously stated, my faith means everything to me. I have grown up reading the Bible, and it is my comfort in the good and bad times. Pictured is one of my favorite verses from the Bible. It is Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." This verse is one of my go to verses when I need encouragement or a reminder that God is always on my side.

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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 with teaching culturally diverse students is that I connect with the students on a deeper level because of my experiences in life. I come from an area that was considered to be one of the "poorer" areas of the county that I grew up in. There were drugs, alcohol, and gang violence happening where I lived. I was able to get out of that and make something of myself, and that is something that students look up to and admire. It also allows them to feel more connected to me because I know what they're going through, especially in a Title I school setting. After opening up to my students, and having them open up to me, we were able to find similarities in the interests that we had. Including an anime show called Naruto. This photo was taken on Book Character Day (2018) with two of my (favorite) students, who were two of the biggest Naruto fans I have ever met.

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My cultural bias is that I believe that everyone should be vaccinated. Not only do vaccinations help protect you against illnesses and diseases, but it helps prevent the continuous spread of those illnesses and diseases. Although I am very aware of the fact that vaccinations do not solely prevent illnesses and diseases, studies have shown that when you are vaccinated, you are less likely to get sick and/or when you do get sick you do not get the illness as bad as you would have if you were not vaccinated. Therefore, I am vaccinated, my husband is vaccinated, and my baby will be vaccinated when the time comes. This is a picture of the forms my pediatrician gave me not too long ago to make sure that I keep in my records for when my baby is born. This will help me make sure that my baby gets vaccinated at the proper times and receives the proper vaccination.

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My Struggles with Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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My Struggles with Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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My biggest struggle with teaching culturally diverse students is the fact that I am a white girl, who loves to wear dresses, do her hair and makeup, and really just get dolled up. This fear started when I was working with a young first grade student, and she informed me that she did not like white people. Eventually, she came around to loving me, but at first she was really apprehensive towards me because of the color of my skin and the way that I looked. While working with the many diverse students in Gwinnett County, I am afraid that  they will see me for just my skin color or the way that I look on the outside, rather than taking the time to get to know me. I want my students to see me as someone who always wants to understand and be there for them.

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This project, overall, was a fun, interesting, and interactive way to get to know myself on a deeper level culturally in regards to my literacy practices and who I am as a teacher. Not only do these pictures and descriptions represent my life as a whole, but they also have helped me gain a better understanding of who I am as a person. By gaining more knowledge and a deeper understanding of who I am, my strengths, weaknesses, biases, and culture, will help better my future career as an educator in a diverse setting.

While conducting this project, I was able to get to know myself on a deeper level. It was an eye opener to me about the information that I learned about myself. I was able to recognize my strengths and weaknesses when teaching culturally diverse students. Although I am afraid of being seen as only “white” and nothing more and getting out of my comfort zone, I am now able to recognize those fears and move forward from them. The students in my class now are extremely diverse, to being from India to living in Georgia their whole lives, my students come from many different backgrounds. Needless to say, none of them see me as the “white” teacher. They love me for who I am and do not judge me based on my skin color. Now, my strengths are shining more because I have been able to put aside the fears that I have. After analyzing myself and getting to know myself, culturally, better, I am now able to be more cautious, considerate, and caring towards to group of students that I have.

Not only was I able to get to know myself on a deeper level, after completing this project, my thoughts about literacy have broadened, and I have started to think about literacy in a whole new way. I would have never considered singing along to karaoke or reading a recipe as being apart of literacy until now. For the students who say that they do not “like to read”, I am now able to question them about what they like to do in their spare time or what they do at home. Majority of the girls in my class love to sing along to Disney songs, watch those “How To” YouTube videos, or bake with their moms/grandmas. I have been able to connect the hobbies that they have outside of school to literacy and how we can take those literacy practices and bring them into the classroom. It is important to make these cultural connections, or these home/school connections, for the students because it further guides their interest in literacy, as well as makes them want to keep coming to school. By taking into consideration who your students are, you are able to be a more culturally relevant teacher, and this allows each student to shine in their own way.

Since every student that you have is culturally different, the students views on literacy and their own personal practices will vary from student to student. This can have students become frustrated when working with one another or become discouraged when their views don’t align with others. My character trait of being an optimist will allow me to break the barriers between my students. In this class, I have learned that I need to be more aware of what “good literacy” is. This also means that I need to be understanding and considerate about the differences my students have, and that I need to be more aware that these students learn and understand the material in different ways. Moving forward in my career, I plan on being more culturally relevant in the classroom by getting to know all of my students on a more deeper level, which is something that I believe is a strength of mine, but also by encouraging them to do their best at everything that they do.

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This is my self-portrait from my wedding in September of 2018. This is one of my favorite self-portraits because it reflects how I see myself, and how those who know me best see me as well. I like to see myself as a happy, down-to-Earth, go-with-the-flow kind of girl like portrayed in this self-portrait. Rather than going with the traditional veil, on my wedding day I wore a flower crown. My mother, and father, always joked that I was their "flower child" because I was the one who was down-to-Earth, never let anything bother me, go-with-the-flow, "march to the beat of her own drum" child, and that, I feel, truly describes who I am. It's the little things in life that matter most, and you shouldn't let anything stop you from being happy and who you are.

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Madison
A Wife, Daughter, Mother, and Future Educator
Daughter of a Loving Mother and Father
Lover of Life, Makeup, and Jesus
Who Feels Optimistic, Happy, and Blessed
Who Fears Not Being Good Enough, Judgement, and Getting out of Comfort Zone in General
Who would Like to See Peace, Love, and Kindness Spread Around
Resident of Suwanee, Georgia
Aragon