Drake Lomax
EDUC 2120 Lesson 4
This lesson was all about culture. It included how to handle issues in the classroom. I also learned about how to teach about different cultures and what to do and not to do in these situations. In the second part of this lesson I took a test that was supposed to tell me my preferences. I took the one about the presidents. I was not very surprised with the results but it just goes to show that sometimes we can have underlyning feelings on what we think we believe or say we believe.
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How comfortable do you feel with handling issues of race and culture in the classroom? How can you ensure that you are not discriminating against students of a different color or culture in your classroom?
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I feel rather comfortable handling issues of race and culture in the classroom. I feel like the best way to ensure that I’m not discriminating against any color or culture is to continually remain neutral in all discussion and or issues. I also believe that is very important for the teacher to only give facts and to not push their personal opinion on the students. Even when a teacher feels like a student’s viewpoint is completely wrong it’s very important to that child and their family that the teacher remain neutral. I also believe it is very unprofessional when a teacher downgrades or even criticizes a child for their race or culture.
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How would you use the ethnicity and race of your students to teach a lesson in the subject you are planning to teach?
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I’m not exactly sure how race and ethnicity works its way into the subject of math. I don’t really believe that race or ethnicity would be a really relevant topic in a math class. The foundations or possibly even where the inventors of the specific area of mathematics was founded are from could possibly relate to race and ethnicity. I also believe that it is very important to keep every race and ethnicity comfortable in my classroom. I would try to incorporate race and ethnicity into my lessons, but I would not try to push down other races in doing this in my classroom.
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Regarding the test you took, were you surprised with the results? Explain.
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I wasn’t really surprised with the results from my test. I knew the entire time that I preferred George Bush over Barack Obama. I was kind of surprised with how I was a lot quicker with Bush and good then I was with Obama and good. I was also surprised at how many I got wrong once they changed which side was good and bad.
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Do you agree with the results? Why or why not?
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Yes, I agree with my results. I do prefer George Bush over Barack Obama. I completely agree with my results.
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Do you think that this assignment was beneficial to you and was worth the effort to accomplish? Explain.
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I don’t really think this assignment was really beneficial to me. I didn’t really get a lot from taking the test. I already knew that I preferred Bush over Obama and all the test did was reassuring that to me. I also didn’t think it was worth the time to complete.
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Overall, describe what you learned.
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I didn’t really learn anything from doing this test. I did however learn that when words are switched I was more out to put them in the wrong place. I did discover that I was better at putting pictures in the right place then putting words there.
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Summary:
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Through this test I didn’t learn a whole terribly lot of stuff. I did however learn that I was better at putting pictures in the right side and not as much for words. I learned that I am more out to put them in a right place when they’re in a long running line rather than if they back to back different. I also was kind of surprised as to how I would I would click the wrong one if I got a long running line the same thing than a change.
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Summary:
Through lesson I’ve discussed my view as to how comfortable I feel discussing issues of racism or ethnicity in my classroom. I feel fairly comfortable discussing them and dealing with issues that may arise. I also feel like I could remain neutral in the discussions with even a wide range of different students and cultures. I also done thought into how I could incorporate race and ethnicity into my subject but I don’t really feel as if race or ethnicities really have a place in a math classroom. I believe that race and ethnicity is a subject that are better left alone unless brought up by students.
Research Question: What are some ways to incorporate race and ethnicity into the classroom?
Research Analysis:
Throughout this lesson I was asked the question about how I could incorporate race and ethnicity into my lesson and quiet honestly I was unsure of the answer. I didn’t really have a real life example of how I could bring these two very broad topics into my classroom. Throughout my research I tried to find out as to how I could incorporate race and ethnicity into my discussions. In my research I found a school district that has found ways to incorporate race and ethnicity into their classrooms. These schools also found ways to help work through certain situations to help different students of different races and ethnicities.
The first thing that did was a survey that showed some of the same answers as a lot of the surveys done before. The survey showed that some students of color don’t feel represented by the curriculum. It also showed that a long of school faculty were not equipped to handle issues of race that arose in the classroom. Another finding by the survey was that a lot of students of color feel singled out. The final finding by the survey was that alternate views were not tolerated by some of the faculty.
This school district also went on to find special way to incorporate different races into their lessons to fix the issues discovered by the survey. One of the biggest objectives put into place way to try to find readings with authors that come from a wide variety of racial backgrounds. They also encourage their teachers to use examples that relate to everyone and not just the majority race in the classroom. To this school district however the most important thing is that when a racial issue arise in the classroom that the teacher know how to and handle them in a way that all races feel like they are treated fairly.
Research Summary:
Throughout my research I found that there are school districts who are actually trying to make the classroom a neutral place where all races and culture have equal opportunity to learn. I am also pleased that I found a school with faculty who actually care about the students and want them to succeed. I also believe that it is more important now than ever that every student is given the opportunity to learn and not feel as if they’re being singled out or put as a public display in the process. I’m proud that some people are still trying to help every student to learn. I’m proud of the school district that is trying to help students learn and become the best that they can be.