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I was eating lunch with a few of my friends and a friend of a friend was there so I didn't know him as well. My roommate pointed out he sounded like he had a Southern accent and he said he was from Georgia. I said how I barely even noticed he had an accent and he said it was because he hasn't been home in a while, and usually when he's home it's way stronger when he's around his family, and often when he comes back to school his friends notice it more. He then said how he had a job interview the other day and had to hide it and talk in a Midwest accent because Southern accents are perceived as dumb.
This reminded me, first of all to "The Hate U Give," but also to education and different cultures and languages. Many students feel like they have to code-switch when around their peers at school, around teachers, and in this case at work. Code-switching is "the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of languages in conversation." Having these accents or dialects when talking to specific people have turned stereotypes into normalized beliefs. When teaching, we need to understand that the way someone speaks doesn't affect their intelligence or their character.

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I actually had this conversation a few weeks ago but with this week's content it reminded me of what was said. For some reason, my friends and I were comparing what we scored on our ACT's. We first brought up how the state only required students in Michigan to take the SAT, but most people also took the ACT because it 'looked good.' Then we were comparing scores, and I didn't do the best on it so I was a little hesitant to say my score, but then I realized that we are all at different points in our lives and we are exactly where we need to be. A couple of my friends scored very high, and a few of them went through tutoring and sessions to help take the test.
I myself did not go through any tutoring, and it's not something I am against, but it seemed to stick out to me because I would always think to myself, why are people getting taught how to take the test rather than the material on the test? It was like they were learning how to be disciplined to manage their time, stress, resources, and learn strategies to take the test instead of learning about material that might be beneficial for each subject. Most people I know also took these tests multiple times, and it goes to show how much of a cycle the entire concept is. If you do poor on the test, that might affect your chances of getting into college, so in order to do that, take the test again until you are satisfied (or the colleges) with your score. When you look at it from this perspective, it really is interesting to see how this can be seen as unfair, especially when you think about it from the financial aspect.

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I went to a school district that offered the TAG Program which was offered at a separate middle school but still in the public school district. When I was in 4th grade, students tested for this and you would be placed in the Talented and Gifted program if you scored high enough on the standardized test. Parents had the option for this and teachers could usually recommend you for this.
This week we talked about neoliberalism and how it can show up in education systems. One of its main principles is reinforcing competition and the ideas of Darwin where the fittest survive. It also embraces privatization, and although not exactly the same thing because it's a public school district, this program separates students to a different school with more funding (I'm assuming) to offer these types of 'advanced' classes. The standardized testing used to get into these schools also creates division between students because it is creating competition between them. A school in Wisconsin offers this program and they define it as "Students enrolled in public schools who give evidence of high performance capability in intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic areas and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilities." It's interesting to see how they call these non-TAG program classes 'regular' classes and I believe that almost creates an oppressive boundary towards other students. Additionally, students who are in these programs often have more access and financial ability to tutors, resources, transportation to school, and so on.

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Recently we've talked a lot about segregation within schools and how it still exists today because of policies with housing and income gaps that were set in place. In the early 60s, Bob Dylan was a big advocate for the civil rights movement and his songs were even used throughout some of it. In this song called 'Blowin' in the Wind,' it is a direct statement in support of civil rights and symbolism that still pertains to our environment today. In the very first line of the song he says, "How many roads must a man walk down / Before you call him a man." This was representing people marching the streets protesting and questioning how many different roads they will have to march down in order for things to change. This was also still a time when Black people were considered inferior to white people.
Today, protests are still occurring in the wake of police brutality, injustice, and other policies that Black people are fighting for, like Dylan mentioned in the song. Schools are still segregated because of income gaps and taxes that affect the demographics of school districts, and Black people are more likely to attend schools with lower funding. Although there is more awareness and people still fighting for change, these policies put in place 50 years ago are still having an effect on generations of families.

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Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind (Official Audio)

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It is horrific what is going on Ukraine, and with that are tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing to safety. Men of military age are prohibited to leave, so families are being separated by the second. Women, children, and the elderly are escaping Ukraine and entering into neighboring countries like Poland and Romania for protection.
These people have to live through leaving their homes and families in order to survive, but they still have to continue with their everyday lives. Children still have to attend school even though they may no longer have a father figure in their life or any of their belongings with them. In "Troublemakers," many students were posed as 'problem kids' because of things that they were experiencing at home. No matter the circumstances, every person in Ukraine has experienced some type of loss, and whether they are attending schools in Europe or the US, we need to welcome them with open arms, just like any other student, and be empathetic with them.

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PRZEMYSL, Poland (AP) - Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing war at home by crossing the borders into countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day.

Cars were backed up for several kilometers (miles) at some border crossings as authorities in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova mobilized to receive them, offering them shelter, food and legal help. They also eased their usual border procedures, among them COVID-19 testing requirements.

At a major border crossing, in Medyka, Poland, Ukrainians arrived on foot and by car and train and were greeted by Polish authorities and volunteers offering them food and hot drinks.

Slovak police said that most of the people arriving at its border were women with children after Ukraine banned men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country, and this appeared to be the case everywhere.

Some sought to join relatives who have already settled in Poland and other EU nations, whose strong economies have for many years attracted Ukrainian workers.

Marika Sipos fled Koson, a village in western Ukraine close to the Hungarian border, arriving early Friday in Lonya, Hungary.

"We had to leave behind everything, our whole life's work," Sipon said, describing it as a "terrible feeling" to leave her property.

Erika Barta, arriving from Backi Breg, Ukraine, said she would seek shelter with relatives in Hungary and planned to return when the danger passes.

"It's not safe at home anymore," she said.

For many the first stop was a train station in Przemysl, a city near Medyka in southeastern Poland that is a transit point for many. Ukrainians slept on cots and in chairs as they awaited their next moves, relieved to escape the shelling of Kyiv and other places.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi spoke in Parliament on Friday of the "long lines of cars leaving Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, heading mostly toward EU borders," and said "it is possible to imagine a huge influx of refugees toward neighboring European countries."

"The images we are seeing -- of unarmed civilians forced to hide in bunkers and subways -- are terrible and bring us back to the darkest days of European history," he said.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that more than 100,000 people were believed to have left their homes in Ukraine and that up to 4 million people may flee to other countries if the situation escalates.

Hungary, which mobilized its military to help, announced in a decree this week that all Ukrainian citizens arriving from Ukraine, and all third-country nationals legally residing there, would be entitled to protection.

The welcome that Poland and Hungary are showing Ukrainians now is very different from the unwelcoming stance they have had to refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa in recent years. Hungary built a wall to keep them out when a million people, many Syrians fleeing war, arrived in Europe in 2015.

Poland is now building its own wall with Belarus after thousands of mostly Middle Eastern migrants sought to enter from Belarus in past months. The EU accused Russia-backed Belarus of encouraging that migration to destabilize the EU. Some of those people denied entry into Poland died in forests.

But Ukrainians are a different matter altogether - Europeans who are mostly Christian, and to the Poles, fellow Slavs with similar linguistic and cultural roots.

Transcarpathia, Ukraine's westernmost region which borders Hungary, is also home to about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, many of whom are Hungarian citizens. While Russia's invasion has not yet extended to that area, which is separated from the rest of Ukraine by the Carpathian Mountains, many have decided not to wait for the situation to get worse.

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Vanessa Gera reported from Warsaw. Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, Bela Szandelszky in Lonya, Hungary, Karel Janicek in Prague, and Nicole Winfield in Rome, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Ukrainians flee war, seeking safety across western borders

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PRZEMYSL, Poland (AP) - Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing war at home by crossing the borders into countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day.

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This week, I read "Refugee" by Alan Gratz. It's in an incredibly moving book with three different stories of refugees, from the perspective of a young Jewish boy living in Nazi Germany, a young girl and her family fleeing Cuba in 1994 during the governing of Fidel Castro, and a young boy living in Syria in 2015, whose family had to leave their homes during a civil war. The story I wanted to focus on most was the story of the boy in Syria, named Mahmoud. At only 13 years old, one of his best friends died, his house was destroyed by a bomb, he has witnessed death in so many forms, his baby sister went missing, he had to walk by foot to cross the boarders of several countries, and so much more. Many places rejected his family, threw them in prisons, and treated them less than human.
No child should have to experience this, let alone anyone, and we may encounter many students who are refugees. I picked this particular story because it was the most recent, and with all that's going on in our world, many families might have to take refuge in the U.S. and bring with them all of their past. We saw in "Troublemakers" different forms of 'cultural conflict.' As teachers who have never even had to think about experiencing these things, we need to make sure we understand all of their trauma and the culture that they bring with them in order to help them be most successful.

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This past week I've been watching a lot of "90 Day Fiance," and I saw a few different issues that we've talked about in class come up. In season 2, this couple Dan and Amy, met in Australia doing a Bible study class. Dan is from the U.S., and Amy is from South Africa. For every couple on the season and really throughout the whole series, the families from the American side are almost always skeptical about the potential spouses' intentions for wanting to get married and live in the U.S. Many of the couples have met online, or only spent a short amount of time together before getting engaged and only having 90 days of a visa in the U.S. to get married. This couple in particular raised a different issue of one that I haven't seen brought up in this way before. In an episode where Amy meets Dan's family, his dad expresses his concern about them being an interracial couple and how that isn't accepted in America. He also talks about how their kids are going to deal with hardships for being mixed races.
I think this was surprising to me because all of the couples obviously come from different cultures and traditions, but this case was different because it involved black and white. When teaching, students who have parents that are interracial might experience these thoughts where they feel like they don't belong to one particular group. I also think that if these ideas that the father in the shows continue to be pushed on to kids, then they might think that people of different races won't even be able to get along. to be friends This may be an extreme, but we might encounter cases like this. The other issues that rose with every couple were the reasons for coming to America, and the stereotype that these people only came to America for a green card. At the end of the season, many of the women who came to the U.S. to get married talked about how hurtful it was for them to be judged just because they were from another country. Again, in classrooms, we need to empathize with not only kids with immigrant parents but also new immigrants who are new to American culture and ideas.

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I just got done reading "The Hate U Give" and wow, it was powerful. The main character, Starr Carter, had to watch her best friend get murdered by a police officer, someone she is supposed to trust, because of an assumption and lack of judgement. The story covers a lot of different themes, but the one that stood out to me was the power of language. One of the most moving parts of the story is the development of Starr's character where she at first is struggling with her two identities: that girl that she is at home and the girl that she is at her school in the suburbs. She is constantly fighting this mental battle about who she is and originally keeps quiet about her witness account and truth about what happened the night of her friend's death. She decides to finally speak out, and with the help and support from her family, friends, and attorney, she discovers her voice, which her attorney says is her biggest weapon in the fight of this case.

In the end, the case does not go to trial, and protests and riots erupt where the murder took place. Starr ends up protesting too, and giving a speech on behalf of her friend. This quote is impactful because although Starr did everything she could with talking to the police, district attorney, and doing an interview on tv, it still wasn't enough. At the end of the story, she realizes she could see herself as an activist and will never stop fighting for her friend's justice. I think this is critical for us as future teachers because there will be times when we can be doing everything right and things will not go our way. We just have to remember to keep fighting for what we believe to be right and use our voices and positions, which is to teach young minds.

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Netflix's new "Emily in Paris" told a lot about French and American culture. Emily, an American, sets to work for a French marketing firm but she doesn't speak a bit of French. Many of her coworkers are surprised by this, and her boss is flat-out offended by it. I think this speaks a lot about the privilege that Americans have with speaking the English language. 'Linguistic hegemony' is defined as one language being seen as superior over another. In this case, Emily, didn't see her need for French as a high priority because she assumed everyone spoke English. Luckily for her, they did, but it still showed how English was seen as the superior language. In classrooms, we should make sure to emphasize the value of every language, and make sure no one is left behind because of a potential language barrier.

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Over break, I watched "The Queen's Gambit" and I thought it was fantastic. The story was so moving and intriguing, and reflecting now I thought about why Beth succeeded so much.  At first, I wanted to include a scene of her looking at the high schoolers outside while she was still at the orphanage. She envied them for their freedom, ability to do things on their own, and just grow up in a normal household setting. I think you can quickly see the differences in the school settings, where at the orphanage the girls had to wear the same clothes, take "medicine" daily, learn certain things, talk a certain way, and so on. The high school next door didn't have many rules, and they had clubs and classes that offered opportunities to bring students together with common interests. Dr. Love talks a lot about emphasizing the importance of students being able to embrace their cultures and identities in a safe environment. When Beth had nothing else, she had chess, and that became a part of who she was. She applied it to school, friendships, and life in general. In the beginning, Beth had to hide the fact that she and the janitor would play chess, but it was now a part of her identity. In school settings and as future teachers we should be conscious about allowing students to embrace their identities, and not try to push them aside to keep a uniform culture. Such a thing is boring, and actually will harm students learning. Overall, I loved this show, and it was interesting to see how something as simple as chess would help her succeed in life.