Tat's Diaries

  For this blog, I chose to reflect on the lesson plan linked below, "Using picture books to explore identity, stereotyping, and discrimination". I really liked this lesson because for each 45-minute session (8 of them), students are either defining, connecting, sharing personal thoughts, or collaborating with one another, and if not one of those there is a class discussion happening. I feel like all of those components are important when it comes to teaching a good lesson. Throughout the lesson, I like that there is questions listed that can help guide the classroom discussion, to keep it flowing with the topic of identity, stereotyping, and discrimination. One thing that I truly love that ties all 3 books together to the objective is the chart that is being filled out throughout the lesson. For the chart, students, as a class, are filling in the ways that the characters from the books are expressing identity, being stereotyped, and being discriminated against. I feel like t...

 For this evaluation I chose the book "Becoming Vanessa" by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. In this book, a girl named Vanessa prepares for her first day of school with an outfit that has all of her favorite clothing items. While she's at school she becomes self-conscious about being herself because her outfit is seen as a distraction by her classmates with all the questions and pointing out; but her teacher loves it. She also becomes self-conscious about her name because her classmates names aren't as long, so she tries to say that she is a different name. Once she's home she tries to avoid the day by ignoring that it happened at all. The next day, Vanessa wears an ordinary outfit that doesn't have the "personal touch" of Vanessa, and her mom helps her remember why she is so unique and how she doesn't need her favorite clothes to show that she is unique in her own way. Once she is reminded of the importance of her name and why she is unique and special...

When it came to drawing my self-portrait I wasn't really worried about the facial features or the shape of the head, because even if I'm not the best artist, one thing I wasn't sure about was what to draw for my hair. I'll come back to the hair ideal in a little bit, but first I want to talk about the other things I consider to be as part of my identity. One of the biggest things I feel that makes me who I am is my family. My family literally means so much to me, including my extended family. With being a military brat me and my mom constantly would find new friends who became our extended family, who helped with raising me as well, because as they say, "it takes a village". Friends are another big one for me, because like my family I feel like they all have had an impact in helping me recognize and become who I am today.  School is also a really big one for me as well, because I knew that I wanted to achieve great things growing up. With that achievement mind...

Hello, begin at newer posts above :)  (beginning in July) Posts below are older posts- feel free to read if you'd like though :)

  1. 3-2-1 Research Reports   This is a good strategy because it asks you to identify:   3 things you found out   2 interesting things you learned   1 question you still have   I liked this one because it is a great way to identify your learning experience.   2. 3 Minute Pause   This strategy asks you to pick one or more of the following :   I changed my attitude about...   I became more aware of...   I was surprised about...   I felt...   I related to...    I empathized with...   I liked this one because it is another great one to identify your learning process.   3. Black-Out Poem   This one asks you to leave out key words that are important or stand out to you, and black out the others; so in the end you create a blackout poem. I liked this one because I found out that I highlighted a lot about how important self-reflection was and how teachers shouldn’t fear discussions of black his...

 I ask myself this question often! It truly is sad that in the world we live in discrimination has always been a part of it, even today. Segregation today had a start from Redlining; Redlining was the segregation of housing by a green and red side, the green side was for rich white Americans, and the red was predominately African Americans because of the cost of housing being 30% more for them. With that separation in neighborhoods, came segregation in schools, and as time continued, the segregation continued. Because of the separation of housing the the predominately white area had higher property taxes so they had better schools, and the predominately African American area had less funding for their schools, and it still is like that in most areas today. As stated in the "Redlining: Black History for White People" podcast, "America wasn't segregated by accident", it came from the lawmakers in the beginning, and not much has changed.  It's hard to hope for ...