Final Blog Post

Through out the semester we have been introduced to some very interesting topics of diversity. When I read through the syllabus I did not think that I was going to learn any more about the areas than I already knew. I thought that after TE348 I had obtained a great amount of knowledge in these subjects. After writing the first paper and meeting with our small groups I found out that I was wrong. At first I thought the critical papers were a hassle and I was not going to get anything out of them. After writing the first and receiving feedback from you and my group members, the second, third, and fourth went much better. I learned that instead of forcing a question out of the text, looking at it through more than one point of view would help me find a question that I was actually interested in. One of the main topics that I gained a great deal of knowledge from were the topics that I had not been exposed to much when I was in school. Even the ones that I was exposed to, I never thought of the books about the topics critically. For example I never saw all of the stereotypes that are put into books. With that, I never realized how this might affect the group that this book is about. I am not Native American so when I read a book that talks about their wardrobe or how they wear feathers in their hair, I think nothing of it. But when a Native American reads this book, they may see it as false and stereotypical. I think that this is the best lesson that I learned this semester and the most valuable for when I have my own classroom. I feel that I can look at a book and say wither or not it will be appropriate for my classroom. I will be able to put books in my personal library that are about all different cultures, not just one. I want to be able to bring culture into my classroom and have the children exposed to as much about another culture as I can. From here I will make sure to watch the books that children are exposed to not only in my class but the ones that they bring into my class. I also want to have children of different cultures that are in my class, talk about their culture. I think that this is the best resource to gaining insight from an insiders perspective. I thought that all together this was an awesome class and I learned a lot more than I thought I would. All of the group discussions were interesting and I gained information from everyone either from my peers or from the professor. I hope to take more classes about diverse literature in the future!