Discussion Two

I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.
 
-Walt Whitman
 
Science is dichotomous.  Some scientists subscribe to a classical approach - the world as a whole is divided into hierarchies and taxonomies based on observed differences.  Other scientists subscribe to a romantic approach - the complexities of the world are integrated into unifying themes based on observed similarities.  The former approach is objective, masculine and individualistic.  The latter approach is subjective, feminine and communalistic.  Exclusive subscription to either approach narrows scientific scope.  
 
Science seeks to construct definitions and models.  These constructions, consequently, define the boundaries of science - the selection of scientific processes and the validation of scientific products.  The selection of scientific processes defines what a scientist does.  The validation of scientific products defines what science is.  Everything outside these definitions is thus excluded from the scientific realm.
 
Science is a social construction continuously shaped and reinvented by sociopolitical forces as well as sociocultural contexts.  If this is true, the objectivity of science becomes a fallacy and the perceived reality of a global scientific community becomes a mere ideality.  Yet this purely relativistic view of science is contradicted frequently by real examples of scientific collaboration and the promotion of local theories to universal laws through innumerable validation studies performed in different settings and under different circumstances around the world.  Furthermore, biological humans share common cognitive infrastructure and processes regardless of the sociocultural contexts they are members of.  In other words, humans think in similar ways.  However, certain “ways” of thinking and processing sensual information may be emphasized over other equally valid “ways” by the pressures and demands imposed by natural and cultural environments.  Thus, humans may differ in the degree and frequency of the usage of common cognitive processes because their environments differ.  These differences may manifest themselves in the cognitive realm of science.  What constitutes as “science” may be subject to environmental  forces.  The nature of nature becomes nurtured.  Consequently, the degree and frequency of the usage of common cognitive processes in the study of this perceived “science” begin to differ between cultures.  If sociocultural factors affect thinking, then those same forces also affect scientific thinking.  In addition, if sociocultural factors construct the lenses used to perceive the world, then the lenses used to perceive the world scientifically change as the perception of the natural world, which is the very thing science seeks to investigate, also changes.  An adequate analogy to describe this phenomenon is the alteration of corrective lenses in eyeglasses as vision changes throughout the wearer’s life.  Therefore, the field of science is dependent on the selection of the scientific cognitive processes demanded by a socially constructed perception of the world.  In this way, the nature of science differs from culture to culture.  Fortunately, the range of cognitive processes available for scientific use is limited by the capacities of human cognition in general, a limitation shared by all human beings.  This limited repertoire of cognitive processes available for scientific use creates enough similarity between the scientific thinking of different cultures to make the objectivity of science, relative to human beings, less of a fallacy, and the existence of a global scientific community less of an ideality.  
 
An educational system that promotes the development of the entire repertoire of scientific cognitive processes available to human beings as well as an equal appreciation of the value and validity of each process would provide a science education that is truly universal and humanizing.  This would require a pioneer curricular shift away from the foci and practices of contemporary science education toward a more empowering and unifying type of education.  
 
Current science education focuses primarily on the acquisition of content knowledge.  This push for maximum content coverage has overshadowed the pressing need for the refinement of students’ cognitive skills or, more specifically, their scientific reasoning abilities. A major shortcoming of this approach is the valuation of certain scientific principles and the devaluation of others.  Since scientific knowledge is the product of the selected scientific cognitive processes employed, such an ethnocentric evaluation indirectly promotes certain cognitive processes over others which are equally valid.  This narrows the range of scientific cognitive processes available to students and thus, narrows the scope of the scientific knowledge they are capable of constructing.  Ultimately, it narrows what students think science is as well as what students think a scientist does.
 
Teachers should broaden “science” to include the alternative and informal forms of scientific reasoning present within their students’ culture.  Doing so broadens perceptions of the “scientist” and provides students a place within the scientific realm regardless of their cultural, linguistic and/or socioeconomic backgrounds.  The key is a curriculum focused more on the concrete scientific cognitive processes shared by all human beings and less on the abstract definitions and models which constitute a scientific knowledge base dependent on the exclusive experiences and language of a single dominant culture.

Ultimately, I think it is my goal to
try and reach every student's zone of proximal development. How to do
this will be a continual struggle. I think the best tool to assist us
is the student themselves. Students are people from who we can learn
from beyond the content. To know a students culture is to build a
bridge towards knowing how to find how a student feels about a
subject. Recently, it has been advantageous to really know who the
kids in my classroom are. It has helped me use different angles at
looking at the same concept. In doing so, students challenge my
knowledge of the subject by having me take a concept and trying to
create a situation relevant to them. Sometimes, this might be a bit
underhanded. There is a student who has lots of Potential. I
remember meeting his mother at the first parent-teacher conference
were she expressed her concern for his negligence in his studies. She
had told me that his behavior was forfeiting the possibility to
graduate. I spoke with the student and told him that he had
potential, but he was just a kid at the top of a hill, on a bike
holding on to the brake. He has recently decided to come to class and
it is pretty late in trying to make up for all the lost time. I
noticed that he is really into tagging and making decals. That is
part of his culture. Riding bikes and, for all I know, writing on
walls. While we covered some review for the CST, which he had no
reason to care for because he is a senior, he looked at a drawing of
a simple circuit that his group had drawn. He asked me something
about a tattoo. I told him about this one time I saw some guy with an
equation of this crazy physics equation. He looked at me a bit
baffled and that's when I clarified that it was like him drawing that
circuit on the wall. He followed my comment with a smile and said
that would be a funny and even funnier if somebody else was able to
solve it. There is a part of me that hopes that he is not inspired to
vandalize public property, but the other part of me hopes to have
helped him let go of that mental brake and inspired some kind of
physics chaka.

Reflection 2
How do we work with students who are exceptional and culturally different? How do we embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
The most important strategy to working with exceptional and culturally different students is to create a nurturing, encouraging and respectful class and school environment. I’m amazed at how much students can pick up from the smallest interactions. And since we cannot predict every single possible situation in which a students’ cultural or specific experience might make him/her vulnerable I think it’s most important to have a general understanding that everyone must respect each other.  I don’t know exactly how this is systematized but I think it has a lot to do on how we as teachers treat our students.
I’m on the fence on the single-group study approach presented by Grant and Sleeter in Ch.4. This approach seems problematic because it’s a bit fetishizing. By lumping a group of people together and studying their ‘history’ in the hopes of learning more about them is unsettling to me….for some weird reason. I can’t quiet put my finger on it. But it feels like a strategy that is doomed to fail since we can never predict all the different cultural groups that we can encounter in a classroom. Sure, MOST students at Wilson H.S. are Latino but will reading up on the contributions of all past Latino political leaders, activists, teachers, leaders, etc really help me understand my students better….I’m not sure. It also feels inefficient to think of the groups mentioned as different groups of people – Latino, people with disabilities, African American, etc.  – because there are people that could be all three.
My uneasiness with this approach may also stem from my own experience with often being lumped into the Mexican / Mexican-American experience (in the West Coast) and the Puerto Rican/Domican experience (in the East Coast). I obviously have no issues with neither group, but I don’t really feel connected to what is traditionally considered Mexican-American or Puerto Rican history. So whenever well intentioned teachers included a reference to Cesar Chavez, Cinco De Mayo, mariachis etc. I knew they meant to include me and I would go along with it, but deep down I couldn’t relate and I felt that my true history was not recognized. Even back then I felt that everyone’s history could not all be acknowledged so I went along. This is also the reason why I think the best approach is more general.

Arellano
Reflection 2-How do we work with students who are exceptional
and culturally different? How do we embed a human relations approach into our
teaching?
            I am hoping
that by the end of this course I'll be better prepared to answer the above
mentioned questions. Anyway, I think that working with students who are exceptional
and culturally different involves teachers knowing who their audience
(students)  is. What works for one
student may not necessarily work another and we cannot assume that we know what
a specific student is going through.“The biggest mistake of past
centuries in teaching has been to treat all students as if they were variants
of the same individual and thus feel justified in teaching them all the same
subject in the same way” (Gardner). We need to take into consideration the
multiple intelligences and cultures in the classroom and provide multiple
opportunities for students to access the curriculum.
            Learning about our students assets and obstacles may give us new
insights into what their lives are like outside of school. Home visits,
interviews, community walks are all good examples of how we could learn about
our students cultures. We need to be able to adjust how we teach
based on the needs and experiences of our students.  
            When embedding
 a human relations approach into our
teaching, we must learn how to be culturally sensitive and to an increasing
diverse population of students. The human relations approach, as described by
Sleeter and Grant (2008), is one perspective that educators may use to address
multicultural education. In this approach, a strong emphasis is placed on
teaching students to recognize both cultural universalism and cultural relativism.
The human relations approach focuses on challenging stereotypes, providing
accurate multicultural content, and promoting positive relations by
incorporating cooperative learning strategies while eliminating competitive
practices.
 

In my classroom, I believe it is important to develop
community and respect when interacting with students from culturally diverse
backgrounds.  This means statements and
acts that are demeaning, disrespectful, racist, and negative towards other
students will not be tolerated.  Setting
a standard of respect and establishing a space that is safe for my students
creates an environment that is conducive to talking about diversity.  On an individual level, I acknowledge
students unique backgrounds by engaging them in conversation about their home
life, culture, and upbringing.  In this
way, I learn more about the cultural capital they bring to the classroom, so
that I “…can design an interesting curriculum that is rooted in the
perspectives and lives of real people” (Grant & Sleeter, 127).  Similarly, I try to share my background and
culture with my students during whole class discussions.  As I begin to learn more about my students, I
try to incorporate their skills and interests into my lessons.  For example, I like to give my students
opportunities to develop and create rules to explain mathematical relationships
or their own word problems.  In my last
unit, I had students create their own right triangle trigonometry word
problems.  One group created a word problem
on ninja turtles and another on a Lil Wayne concert.  As I supply my students with opportunities to
share their skills and interests, I am able to learn more about them. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 I engage students
that are exceptional and culturally different in different ways.  Those that are more quiet and introverted are
engaged by providing them with challenging independent activities.  In one instance, after completing problems on
graphing exponents, I told the student to write and explain the pattern between
the graph and its equation.  I supplied
the student with a word bank or list of vocabulary words to include in their
explanation.  As an incentive, the
student was rewarded extra credit.  I
know that understanding math happens quickly for some than others, but I like
to think that all my students have the potential to be exceptional.

I embed a human relations approach into my teaching by
developing a positive relationship and rapport with my students.  I agree with the statement that “One way to
enhance your current knowledge about a group is to study it in some depth, and
from the group’s perspective” (Grant & Sleeter, p. 124).  As a result of having a positive relationship
with my students, they are more likely to share their honest feelings about
school, teachers, and other matters.  For
instance, I am able to view their perspective on a “good teacher” as they share
their experiences with me.  Some students
talked about how a teacher taught an interesting science lesson, but that their
tone and interaction with the students were disrespectful.  Although the lesson was good, the students
did not like the class because of how the teacher treated them.  Also, the science teacher reported having
behavior and other issues with these students. 
I learned that students will respect the teacher and participate in a
lesson if they feel respected by the teacher. 

Journal #2                                                                                                                                           Leonardo SandovalStudents that are exceptional and culturally different sometimes face many challenges that may not be visible to them or to us, but they are real challenges and obstacles that students that fit into to the cultural norm do not experience.  I believe it’s good to prepare the culturally different students for what they may encounter in their future not just as students, but as professionals and as human beings. 
One thing we can do as teachers is find role models from the students’ own culture that have done great exceptional things, preferably in the field we are teaching, such as Math.  In the classroom it’s important to respect all students and teach understanding of all students avoiding judgmental accusations based on foreign cultures.  There’s a book called Hannah Divided, a story of a 13 year old girl living in rural Pennsylvania in 1934, "Hannah" is talented in Mathematics, but because of the lack of female Mathematicians, and the belief that “Math is only for boys” she doesn’t get the support she needs, until someone gives her a chance and offers her a scholarship to a preparatory school where she learns to appreciate and her "gift with numbers".  Hanna lived in a culture that limited her options, but someone took a chance and opened the doors for her.  As teachers it’s important we open the doors of opportunity for all our students, exceptional and non-exceptional. 
Contacting parents usually comes as a result of poor behavior, but twisting it around and calling parents for exceptional behavior and exceptional class work can have a huge impact on students.  This impact can go so far as to change the mentality of parents that come from a culture where education is not so important, this impact can alter the path that the parents had for their children and gear them towards enhancing their exceptional skills through education. 

I believe we work with students who are
exceptional and culturally different by establishing and a classroom culture
that is a safe space for students, respectful, and culturally sensitive. It has
been my experience that many times teachers and society focus so much on making
the exceptional feel acceptable that all other individuals feel unacceptable.
Thus not only do I think a respectful and culturally sensitive environment
needs to be established for the exceptional and culturally different students
to feel confortable but for all other students to feel safe as well.
In the same manner we need to make ourselves
open to discuss areas of our lives which some might consider personal if we are
to expect students to trust and believe we truly have students best interest in
mind. Thus by showing our true selves to our students and maintaining a safe environment
for them to share their concerns we establish a human relations approach to our
teaching.

A couple of weeks ago during our advisory class a
number of ASB students came in and had the classroom participate in an activity
that asked students if they ever felt bullyed. The activity was done to inform students
of the “Day of Silence” and how many homosexuals encounter different forms of bullying.
As they finished the activity a short speech was given about how unfair an
unjust it was for homosexuals not to be able to speak out on their sexuality,
then they went around and called out every student in classroom and asked if
they would support the Day of Silence. Every single one of my students said
they would wear the band and support the cause. When the ASB students left I noticed
one student drifted away from the crowd and began acting different. I
approached my student to see if everything as ok, and he told me he felt guilty
for saying he agreed with the cause when his beliefs contradicted him
supporting homosexuality. When asked why he said yes he shyly said he felt
pressured to, and felt like everyone would look at him differently had not said
yes. This truly upset me, as I felt the others students where doing exactly
what they set out to protest against. So many times we focus on the political
correctness of issues we often fail to notice we are alienating other whose
beliefs are different. 

Reflection 2-How do we work with students who are exceptional and culturally different? How do we embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
 
Working with students who are exceptional and culturally different is very important from a social justice perspective except many times these groups of people are not given the attention they deserve.  First, when I think of exceptional, I think of students who are different from the normalized group.  There are two kinds of exceptional students, the gifted students and the under peformers.  I feel that the gifted students may be some of the most neglected at my school.  My school tends to teach the middle and we do not track.  What this means is that the gifted students are not exposed to the high level of mathematics that they otherwise could be exposed to.  Likewise, the underperforming students seem to generally feel frustrated when we teach beyond them without proper scaffolding.  To meet the needs of these students, you need exceptional classroom management.  When you have the management under control, then you can start differentiating instruction.  In our class, we group some of the students by abilities.  For example, in my algebra for repeaters class, we have the students who are working on mastering basic math concepts like fractions, decimals, etc., but who are also being exposed to the new material.  For example, if they are solving systems of equations but if the coefficients have decimals or fractions, they panick.  We are working to overcome what prior educators have taught them: namely that they are bad in math.  We are working to get them comfortable with the basics as well as the new content.  At the same time, we have gifted students who get the material almost immediately.  We separate these students by grouping them together and then give them more advanced material related to the same content standard.  This way all the studens get access to the same curriculum, but each individualized instruction tailored to their needs.  In my classroom, we embed a human relations approach into our teaching by taking eaching students' situation in to consideration.  For example, if a student misses an assignment, but he misses it because he did not get dinner the night before we take that into consideration.  We offer a mastery learning approach where we allow all our students to re-do any and all assignments up until the last week of school.  We understand that many are facing different hardships.  We want the mathematics to be doable for them.  We do not want to overly strict at the cost of our students.  By offering mastery learning, we are able to offer a human relations approach because if a student does not perform on a test they can do it again.  And, to be fair, as discussed above, we offer this to everyone. 
According to Grant Sleeter page 127, "the culture of a group encompasses its whole way of life, including the group's literature, language, music, art, philosophy and technology".  In our classes we try to make mathematics topics culturally relevant by giving the students the opportunity to present math concepts in ways that are relevant to their life.  For example, when we were discussing the fundamental counting principle and permutations and combinations, the students had to work in groups and imagine that they were throwing a party.  Any type of party they wanted and they had to pick their menu of their favorite foods and then demonstrate the number of combinations through trees and mathematical formulas.  The students were interested because they could see the real life relevance of the work and how it would be applied directly to them and their way of life.  The menus made me hungry.  I like diverse foods and cultures.  
With respect to embedding a human relations approach into my teaching, it is important to note that a human relations approach means different things to different people.  To me, it means to take into account a the human element: meaning to take into account obstacles students face and try to help them overcome their obstacles.  According to Grant and Sleeter it may also mean this but they describe it as "challenging stereotypes, providing accurate multicultural content, and promoting positive relations by incorporating cooperative learning strategies while eliminating competitive practices." I also agree that these are important and we work on these in my classroom too.  Also, the following quote from Beyond Heroes has created quite a stir within me: "While denying structural racism, Whites usually spend their lives constructing an understanding of race and social equity from that vantage point." Pg. 40.  I find this book to be filled with loaded quotes.  While I agree that white people probably construct an understanding from their own vantage point, I disagree that that vantage point is one where they "deny[] structural racism...".  Some white people may deny it, but others do not.  I think it is dangerous to make generalizations about groups of people.  I feel that the authors of this book lose credibility when they make broad generalizations about an entire group of people.  That being said, I feel that an essential component of a human relations approach is to be aware that racism exists and to do everything you can to help stomp it out.  We all need to be activists.  

How
do we work with students who are exceptional and culturally different?
Every
student has an individual history. It is important to know that wherever that
journey has taken them, they are in your class, and they show themselves as the
people they have become thus far. 
Knowing who your students are, knowing their learning styles, and
understanding their interests are all ways that you can begin to build a
relationship that will help you work with your exceptional and culturally
different student. It is also important to build an inclusive community
environment that students feel comfortable in sharing themselves and their
ideas with the class.  By allowing
students the opportunity to learn in an environment that is accepting will help
students build the courage to discuss and develop their ideas and present them
to the class.
 
“We
use the term exceptional to refer to students in special education, but the
term can also refer to any student who is not succeeding academically.  The term culturally different refers to
a student whose cultural background – race, ethnicity, language, or social
class –differs from that of the teacher. 
The term also implies that there is sufficient cultural difference between
the teacher and the students that effective teaching and learning break down –
although, of course, this does not necessarily happen when the teacher and
students differ racially or ethnically” (Grant, page 12).
 
 
 
 
How
do we embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
A
great way to relate math to the world around the students we teach is through
teaching sociology to the students. 
One idea I have been thinking about using is to have students look at a
set of data and analyze it through the different perspectives.  An example of this was done in one of
our classes (I think it was Joseph’s summer class) where we decided which
patient had priority for an organ transplant.  Each person in the group took on a different perspective and
ranked each patient based on this perspective.  I think it would be interesting to apply this same task, and
include data elements, such as survival rates, Cost of medical bills based on
certain factors (with insurance, without insurance).  I’m not sure if this particular discussion would be
appropriate for high school students, but if this lesson was adapted to say,
product development, and one must take into account when building, say, a
skateboard, could prove to be an interesting discussion about mathematics and its
use in the design and marketing process. 
The topic would need to be something all students could be engaged with.

“Cooperative learning involves much more than grouping
students and asking them to work cooperatively.  Rather, the group tasks need to be planned carefully so that
each student has a significant role in the group, a contribution to make of
which he or she is capable and the incentive to work together with the group.”
(Grant, page 68).
 
 

How do we work with students who are exceptional and culturally different?
   Working with diverse students is both a privilege and challenge
in the classroom. Having a classroom filled with diverse learners can create a
rich and interesting learning environment for both the teacher and students.  Having a diverse classroom can also present interesting
and sometimes complex situations for teachers. Teachers need to find a balance
between presetting academic information and meeting the diverse learning needs
of their students. As teachers is it important to recognize and validate the
different experiences and backgrounds of our students in our class discussion
and activities. We need to incorporate and make our curriculum relevant to
students in a meaningful way. I understand that it is impossible to expect
teachers to learn and understand the experiences, histories and backgrounds of
each one of their students, but having a basic understanding and sensitivity to
the differences that do exist will make us better educators, allies, mentors,
and advocates for our students.
How do we embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
    The most important way to embed human relations in our
teaching is to always recognize and value the individuality and identity of
each of our students. Often we are forced to teach a general and bland
curriculum to ensure students get the same information. However, we forget that
each student will process and connect to the material in a different way.
Remembering that each student brings his/her own views, beliefs and experiences
to the classroom, allows teachers to connect the humanity of their students to
their teaching.
            It is also crucial to have
students connect to and respect each other. Classrooms in general and
curriculums specifically can make other students feel like outsiders. When
their histories and experiences are not represented or valued, or only
presented as a deficit, they may feel dehumanized. This may also influence
other students to view classmates differently. Providing opportunities for
students to share about their lives and hear about other students lives can
create a positive and inclusive learning environment.

If I understand “exceptional” to
mean gifted, then the challenge that is presented when working with students
who are exceptional is their ability to grasp concepts and main ideas so
readily while the rest of the class is still catching up.  There is a fine balance of creating lessons
that promote a cross-cognitive-level instruction. 

One classroom that I’m assigned
to in my residency is an honor’s magnet class. 
In that classroom, many of the students are labeled gifted and the ones
that are not labeled gifted are sure deserving of that title.  I have a distinct luxury of creating lessons
for the sake of developing cognitive reasoning as opposed to for the sake of
classroom management.  But, I also have
some students that have difficulty comprehending concepts the first time
around.  In this classroom I have the
reverse affect of what many of my fellow cohort members mention, that is,
differentiating the lesson for the one or two gifted students that excel in
their classrooms.  Through culturally
relevant scaffolding I spiral the lesson so that they understand it in their
terms.  For instance, many of my students
are of Salvadorian descent and the lesson is on chemistry of living things
(organic or biochemistry), namely carbs, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.  I ask the students which of the four main
biochemicals are present in a pupusa de
frijol or a tamal de queso.  We then break down the ingredients in these
Latin-American delicacies into their constituent parts and come up with
answers.

That’s one effective way in which
I address culture in my classroom.

Beyond Heroes and
Holidays provides a variety of strategies for reworking our curriculum so that
it works in a sensitive way with the histories and cultural groups of our
students. Rather than focusing on a particular group during a national holiday,
or through the examination of one particular figure and his or her
contributions, the book argues inclusion must be taught much more actively and
from a broader perspective. James A. Banks discusses in detail the common and preferred
methods to teaching multicultural curriculum. He says of the popular
Contributions Approach, “The Contributions Approach often results in the
trivialization of ethnic cultures, the study of their strange and exotic
characteristics, and the reinforcement of stereotypes and misconceptions.”
Looking back on my own education, and they way I learned about other ethnic
groups, I would agree that this view reflects my experience.  Banks argues for the Transformative Approach,
which emphasizes “how the common U.S. culture and society emerged from a
complex synthesis and interaction of the diverse cultural elements originated within
the various cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious groups that make up
American society.” I appreciate his idea, but I again have trouble envisioning
how this would be implemented in a mathematics classroom.
 
Another topic covered in our reading was tracking. I found
the worksheet on pages 71 and 72 very interesting. It compared quotes from
teachers with students on high tracks with quotes from teachers of students on
low tracks. The teachers of the high track spoke of the critical thinking
skills they want their students to develop; while the low track teachers spoke
of very basic skills or a set of behaviors they would like to cultivate in their
classrooms. The difference in the attitudes between the two groups of teachers
is vast. Another article in this section spoke of the negative consequences of
tracking and ways to spot it at your school. It was an interesting conversation.
Working at a school that does not track I can also see some of the major
drawbacks to a single-track school. I think tracking is topic that should be up
for debate. 

How do we work with students who are exceptional and
culturally different? How do we embed a human relations approach into our
teaching?
The first step to working with others who are exceptional
and culturally different is to be aware of their differences.  This puts the onus on teachers, staff, and
administration to do some research and educate themselves on the main beliefs
and values of other cultures.  This
knowledge is crucial to accommodating and adapting teaching and developing a
school and classroom culture that recognizes and embraces a multicultural
atmosphere. 
My experience working in the scientific industry has given
me skills, knowledge, and perspectives that I was not even aware that I had
gained until being asked to think and reflect on situations as the questions
stated above.  Working for two
science-based companies exposed me to professional multicultural
environments.  The majority of my higher
level colleagues were on H-1 visas from other countries or had come to the US
and gained citizenship.  Many lunch time
conversations and discussions involved differences of technology, daily time
allocation, extracurricular activities, food, family and much more.  The knowledge and experience that I gained
from each company was also varied.  In my
first company out of college, my Biochemistry department and other colleagues
were from a lower economic status than the second scientific company that I
worked for.  The conversations at the
first company focused more on daily life events such as cooking and family
activities.  There was often talk of how
underpaid my colleagues at this company felt, but the culture that was built at
the company was wonderful.  We celebrated
each other’s birthdays and would randomly bring in culture-specific food for
each other to try.  The second company
was of a much higher economic status and many conversations were focused on
achieving higher goals both in personal and professional life.  Our breaks included making espressos from
whole coffee beans using a grinder and an espresso machine or the handheld
device my boss brought in. 
Aside from my experience with my colleagues, one main focus
of my company was on maintaining values. 
We had several website areas devoted to promoting cultural diversity and
several on-campus cultural groups.  One
of the company website areas was an interactive website that allowed
individuals to learn about cultural and business practices of other
countries.  It was mandatory for us to
educate ourselves on other cultures prior to attending business trips in other
countries and regions.  In hindsight, our
human relations department did an amazing job at maintaining an atmosphere that
promotes and embraces cultural diversity.
I would like to use my past professional experiences as a
resource for teaching in my classroom.  I
aim to educate not only myself on other cultures, but also to share the
experience with my students so that they can be exposed to many cultures and
hopefully begin to see the beauty in cultural diversity.
I felt the poem that we read this past Friday had many great
quotes that are directly relevant to my student’s lives.  “They’ll probably talk about my childhood and
never understand that all the while I was quite happy” (Giovanni, N., Nikki Rosa).  This particular quote reminds me of an
interaction that I had with one of my students who refused to work on our final
and the CST preparation questions.  I
told him that I wanted him to do well in my class so that he could have
opportunities available to him in his future. 
His response was that he was fine with his life and that he had gotten
used to the helicopters and the police sirens surrounding his neighborhood at
night.  It was from this response that I
realized that he interpreted opportunities to mean leaving his neighborhood.  I now realize that I have to be more specific
with my students when I say that I want them to have more opportunities and
that I do not intend to suggest that their life is not as meaningful as someone
who has more opportunities.
“As educators involved in challenging racism, we have likely
experienced the losses involved in becoming aware of our own participation in
oppressive dynamics” (Lee, E. et al., Beyond
Heros and Holidays. pg 67).  This
quote speaks to me because I understand what it is like to be uncomfortable
with some situations of diversity and unsure of my beliefs about controversial
diversity issues.  I also know what it
feels like to overcome the internal struggle of dealing with these issues of
diversity.  It is my hope that I can
begin to expose a perspective of diversity to my students in such a way that it
will begin to challenge and build their experience with diversity and cultural
differences.

"For many students, a caring relationship with the teacher is a prerequisite to learning." p.16, Turning on Learning
 
Over this past school year, there have been a number of students who tell me that I can explain things better than my Mentor Teacher, Ms. Sork.  Aside from the fact that this comment makes me feel good about myself, it is quite baffling for me to think that I could explain things better than a master teacher with over ten years of experience.  This past week, John Rubenstein approached me about one of my physics students who has advisory with him.  "He said that you're the main reason he's been passing physics.  Many times he wouldn't understand things explained by Ms. Sork; but when you explain the same concept, he gets it."  
Strange as it is, as of lately I have noticed a pattern that just might explain this phenomenon.  I noticed that the students who profess this preposterousness are the same students who I'm good friends with.  These are the students who I fist pound while passing through the hallways; the students who come in for tutoring loyally; the students who share their personal lives with me.  If it is true that, for these students, "a caring relationship...is a prerequisite to learning" then it must be that my vibrant rapport with them (as opposed to Ms. Sork's rather detached, professional demeanor) is the key that unlocks their door to learning.
It's funny to notice that none of these students I speak of are Asian.  In fact, I have the least rapport with the Asian students--which is surprising, considering the fact that I expected otherwise before teaching at Lincoln.  But after teaching here for almost a year, I have found an important revelation: Our cultural differences are insignificant compared to the similarities we have as humans.  The fact that the Asian students and I both eat rice on a daily basis holds very little relational value compared to the momentous discovery that some of my students love Pokemon as much as I do (or Spongebob, for that matter).  
And I believe the same holds true for gifted/exceptional students.  We could differentiate all we want--quantify their respective learning modality from Gardner's MI theory,  assign leadership roles during group work, organize community walks to accrue students' funds of knowledge and develop culturally-relevant instruction--but until students feel that we genuine care for them, many of them will simply slip through the cracks of this educational system.