Oddly Normal Book Review

For this assignment, I read "Oddly Normal." I had a few disruptions.  Joseph had a learning disability that was largely linked with his emotions.  Several times throughout the book, I was wondering which of his struggles came from the learning disability and which came from his experience as a gay young man.  In actuality, that is really a bad way to look at all of that because this was HIS experience.  No one child is going to experience coming out the same way and no one is going to experience it in an isolated way.  There will always be factors that affect it and I cannot discredit my student's experience and attribute their pain to something else just because I don't understand them and want to stay in my comfort zone.  Also when the author discussed Prop 8, he was very much against opposing the law on a religious basis because there is no evidence to suggest that children raised by same-gender parents turn out worse or that same-sex marriage harms the institution of marriage.  As a member of a church that opposes same-sex marriage, this definitely caused a disruption.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realize that I oppose it because of eternal things that no one would really understand unless they understood how our doctrine of eternal families worked and I'm not sure even we understand all of it.  So how can I expect someone who does not believe as I do to agree with me?  So I became more content with that disruption.  I'm aware I will run into it again, I understand where they are coming from and I am OK with that.  In class, we talked about the spectrum of views of the LGBTQ community from hostile to advocate.  I feel like this book gives examples for every stage of this spectrum.   The principle of the middle school demonstrates tolerance.  He says he is willing to help but gets serious when Jeanne jokes that she wants to make Joseph a shirt that says "gay" to make things easier and he tells her that's not allowed.  On the other hand, the parents are definitely advocates, even though they don't always know what they are doing.  I don't have to wait to understand everything before I help.  This book will help me with students in the future because I will understand (1) that I need to communicate with parents about their children and, if necessary, help them navigate the school hierarchy to get things done (2) make sure that I find the root of the problem rather than punishing the symptoms and (3) there will be zero tolerance of bullying in my class.  Students have died over such things.  

Re-Imagined Classroom

1. Five images of my classroom:

http://www.displays2go.com/Article/Effective-
Classroom-Seating-Arrangements-32

I still want to have my class set up like this because I feel like it will allow me to get to interact with my students more and be able to keep a closer eye on what is going on in my classroom.  I won't know how to change my teaching to fit the needs of my students if I don't know my students.

http://www.transpacificproject.com/index.php/maps/  

  I still want to have a map of the world split differently so that the emphasis is no longer on North America and Europe but rather on Asia and the Pacific Ocean.  It will communicate to my students that my classroom is a place where the traditional Western way of doing things is not the only culture that is welcome in my classroom.

http://forum.worldofwarplanes.eu/index.php?
/topic/39376-flags-of-the-world/

I still want to have flags of the world all over my classroom-- not so much that they are distracting but I definitely want flags from the countries we are studying in class.  I want my students to realize that there is a world outside of the classroom that has different ideas and perceptions of the world.  I want to teach my class to be open to seeing things from other points of view.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/12/11/
google-play-books-for-android-now-
lets-users-upload-their-own-books/

I originally wanted books in my classroom because it puts me at ease and makes me feel more at home.  However, I have realized that this could cause some of my students stress.  Therefore, I probably shouldn't cover a wall in my classroom with books.  However, I do want to have books in the back of my classroom that can help my students with their projects.  I want to help my students be familiar with the research process but some of my students might not have the resources available at home to be able to research.  I want my students to be able to check out books from my classroom to be able to research.

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/RG-posters.html

Originally I really wanted to have models of things from history around my classroom.  That still is something I want but more than that, I want to make sure I have a poster like this somewhere in my classroom and want to make sure that this is the atmosphere in my classroom.  This is more important than any of the model ships or old maps or anything like that.  Even with those, I need to make sure I have researched my old models because I need to make sure that I know the significance they hold to the culture they come from.

2. What resources are available for students?
I want to make sure that I never give an assignment that I cannot provide the necessary materials for.  I need to have markers and scissors and pencils and paper and books for research.  When I assign a research assignment, I need to make sure that I have time in class for them to work on their assignments and have resources so that my students who live in poverty can finish assignments on time.  I also want to have resources available for those who have no place to sleep and nothing to eat.  I wanted to allow my students to use their phones but I definitely want to make sure that my impoverished students feel left out.  As such, I should probably have the music during study time come from my computer so my students aren't divided.

3. Describe the students in your classroom.
This question seemed difficult before but now I am even more aware of just how many different combinations of traits, culture, and life experiences my students will consist of.  There are an infinite number of possibilities.  Ideally, my students will be participating in class discussions, taking notes, and participating in class activities.  I want to make sure that they feel comfortable and that my students are aware that they each have unique perspectives that are necessary to the class.  I know that some of my students will be shy or have events in their lives that they don't want to share with the rest of the class and so I want my students to write in journals so that my shy students can express their ideas in a way that makes them comfortable.
4. Describe your classroom policies.  
I still believe that my rules should be built on mutual respect.  I feel even more strongly about my late policy knowing what these students might be going through.  My most important rule will be that everyone is treated with respect.  My subject matter will deal with different cultures and through these I want to teach my students how to deal with different cultures in the classroom.
5. Describe a typical lesson you will teach in your classroom.  
My original lesson plan was as follows:
" I will probably be teaching several different classes- probably a geography class, and a couple history classes.  A typical lesson would be a lesson about the start of WWI.  I chose this topic because it would be a lesson that would need to be taught whether I was teaching world history or American history.  I would teach it by breaking the students into groups and have them move around the classroom, each station teaching about a different reason why WWI began.  Then we will pull together at the end, discuss, and wrap up the day by doing a brief overview about what the rest of the unit will cover.  The main thing I want the students to learn is how alliances, militarization, and a misunderstanding of the horrors of war led to WWI."  
However, I have become aware that this is not a very diverse lesson.  I want to throw in how other areas of the world were affected and try to make it seem important to all of my students.  So I will show how Russia was affected, how Africa and India were affected, and other groups of people as well.  I will then have them apply this to themselves and write a reflection on how their lives would have been affected at this time considering their own culture and lifestyle.
6. Imagine your work as a teacher during this lesson.
In addition to moving around, asking and answering questions, and making sure people are on task, I want to talk to students about their lives during down time so that they feel like I actually care.  I want to keep an eye out for unfair treatment or a student that looks like they are struggling because of a disadvantage.
7. What are your students doing during the lesson?
They are reading, answering questions, engaging in discussions, like I mentioned before.  However, I want them to be sharing and applying what they are learning to their life experiences.  I want them to be writing in journals so that I can understand them.
8. Imagine how you will assess what your students have learned.  
I will have them do projects at the end of each unit so that they can prove how much they have learned and I want the projects to be very open to interpretation so that they can make them their own and be able to show what they have learned in their own way.

I want to pay more attention to the diversity of my students.  In order to do this, I need to make sure that I know my students and what their wants and needs are.  I want them to feel comfortable coming to me.  I was not aware when I first started this class how very slanted my lesson plans were.  I need to keep in mind the different groups and interests I have in my classroom and try to cater to them.  That should be my top priority.

Community Experience

For my community experience, I attended a court session.  My father is an attorney and so I am no stranger to the inside of a courtroom (research purposes only, I've never been summoned to court for any reason other than my father asking me to come).  However, this time was different because, instead of looking at the case, I was studying what this case could teach me about teaching students from different cultures.  The case helped me see several different things.  First, the defendent couldn't speak English-- or at least he wasn't confident enough in his English to attend his hearing without an interpreter.  Both his lawyer and his interpreter spoke to him in Spanish.  Legal jargon is hard enough to understand when you speak Spanish and there was some point in which it seemed like the man was a little lost.  How hard must it be for students who don't speak English in a classroom?  It would be hard for them to learn, let alone enjoy my class and feel comfortable there.  Additional stressors from events outside of the classroom-- like this man's experience in the courtroom-- might make it harder for them to feel like they fit in and might make them feel like school is one more thing they don't understand.  It would lessen their motivation to work hard in the classroom.  Even if they speak English, if their parents do not, they may have to translate for their parents.  This could be stressful because they might be translating for really important things and they might not know how to best translate ideas. That's a lot of pressure for a teenager to live with.  It would make sense that that student would be a bit distracted.
This man also was of a lower socioeconomic class and so was unable to pay his dues right up front.  A great number of my students will be from that class and will have to deal with these problems.  Some of them might even end up in the justice system because they feel like they have no choice or because they were raised in a neighborhood in which that was common.  Once a teenager gets in the system, it can greatly hinder them in their quest to reach their dreams.
In short, this experience helped me see an example of what experiences my students might have to deal with in their daily life that can interfere in their ability to learn in the classroom.  I hope that I can help my students who have these problems find a place of security in my classroom.  

Personal Artifacts

The cable bridge from the Tri-Cities, Washington-- my hometown.  It's unique culture has really become part of my own culture. It is traditional to take pride in the fact that we are not like the rest of Washington (we're small-town, conservative, and have rodeos and county fairs).  Because I grew up in this location, I am comfortable in cities and in the middle of nowhere because it is a lovely combination of both. I also am familiar with words referring to nuclear power plants.

I'm a college student.  That means that there is a common language of stress, midterms, sleeplessness and shortness of money.  But it also means that I engage in a great many scholarly discussions as my peers and I try to figure out how the new information that we have received fits into the world that we are currently experiencing.  Also, college students tend to be well-read.  This picture is one that I took in the HBLL while writing a textbook but I have talked to many friends and professors who have recommended books to me and I have read them and they change the way I view the world.  In our culture, being well-educated is synonymous with being well-read.  This gives us a wide variety of subjects to discuss using words and examples that would be foreign to other people.

I'm a student at BYU.  As such I am a college student that does not drink and does not have sex, putting me in a unique culture that many other people would not understand.  We have words like "SWKT" and "Wilk" and "blue book" that would confuse someone who does not go here.  I have a predictable feeling of guilt Tuesdays at 11 because I'm not at devotional.  The Honor Code is something that most of us only see once a year and most have never read it through all the way but everyone knows what is expected when it is mentioned.

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As such, two weekends out of the year are unofficial holidays where I lounge around all day listening to church leaders surrounded by those I love most.  Also, the building that is just below this has a special significance to me while people outside of this culture group have no idea what occurs inside.  I go as often as possible and this buildings and those
like as well as what I wear there and what occurs
there are extremely special to me.

I am a citizen of the United States of America.  This flag is a symbol that has special significance for me.  The last Thursday of November is always an excuse to eat a lot of food, the 4th of July means fireworks.  Independence, equality, and freedom are words that are especially charged in our language.  We have patriotic songs that send chills through my body.  Citizens of other countries typically don't experience all of this.

I play the violin and the piano.  The top picture is a picture of one of my favorite piano books in my apartment (partially because it looks AWESOME) and the video is a recording of the last piece I learned with my violin teacher back home before I moved out to Provo.  There are music jokes that I understand, I understand what if feels like to play music and feel it coursing through you and feel in your gut when something goes wrong and how good it feels when you get it right.  These feelings are especially noticeable when I am part of a large musical group and I feel part of a bigger whole.  Every person who has played in a group that I have talked to understands that feeling but those who don't have a hard time with the concept.  Because I am able to
read music, I understand symbols and language that
those outside of the group cannot.

This is my ID badge that I take with me when I do school observations.  It is a very obvious symbol that I am a part of the teaching major culture.  My roommate and I bonded because on move-in day we both had these ID's hanging by our bed.  This culture talks about Bloom's Taxonomy and looks at a classroom, class rules, and class activities a little differently than anyone else.  We talk about things like "Bloom's Taxonomy" and the PRAXIS.  We are a group of students who have decided in our early 20s that we don't care that we won't get a lot of money in this lifetime.  Instead, we tend to value education and helping others more.

In addition to that, I am a Social Science teaching major.  This picture is a picture of some of my textbooks on my shelf.  You'll notice that there is quite the diversity there.  I love learning about humans and how they work and why they do what they do.  I love learning a bit more about how our world works and I much prefer social science to any of the hard sciences.

My grandma bought me this shirt while she was in Ireland to remind me of my heritage.  My extended family is very proud of our heritage and we tell stories from our family history whenever we are together.  These ancestors have given me a place in the white culture, although I do have a few Native American ancestors and ancestors from Africa that I love to claim because it makes me feel more diverse as a person.

I am part of the nerd culture.  One artifact of that is the map of Middle Earth that I have up in my room.  You can's see this in this particular picture but I also have Narnia and Harry Potter in prominent display in my room and an Avengers poster.  While I may not be good at video games (they weren't big in my family), I can talk Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who or whatever other nerdy things that come up with complete fluency.  These involve complete worlds and ideologies that might seem foreign to other people and make them feel like an outsider.  Just try being an average person while watching a Star Wars marathon with my friends.

I'm a woman and, although I have gone through a very long tomboy phase, I do now enjoy being feminine.  Although we make up 50% of the world's population, the female culture is quite an exclusive club.  We go through experiences that no guy will understand.  The hair in this picture alone required more time than most guys spend getting ready for church.  In the picture below, you will see that I have pepper spray on my keychain.  This is because, in the female culture, we are taught that we need to protect ourselves against the crazies of this world.  I have asked a guy how often he pays attention to the people walking around him at night or looks in the backseat of his car when he gets in at night.  They typically answer that they never do.  Females are not permitted to think this way.  We are also encouraged to go to certain professions because of our gender.  However, there are definite perks to being a woman because history has dictated that I be spoiled.

There is a definite culture surrounding people who experience mental illness and those who care for them.  I have been surrounded by mental illness my entire life and have had a few episodes myself-- I believe that Heavenly Father gave me just enough that I am able to better help those around me.  Because of this, I understand cues better, I can see through facades better, and I understand about triggers and sensitivity and what a panic attack feels like.  There are words that I understand all too well that I have recently been made aware mean nothing to others.





I'm a heterosexual female who is currently single which means I am totally free to admire the amazing gifts that Heavenly Father has given men in the looks department and sit with my fellow single friends and admire male celebrities during movies.  It's a fun culture to be in for now.

I have siblings and I am the oldest.  This puts me in a culture that allows me to look at other older siblings, roll my eyes, and silently say "Little siblings, am I right?"  I also have an adopted sibling and a guy that might as well be adopted into the family.  None of the boys in this picture are related to me by blood.  The camera-shy one in the back was adopted when he was a few weeks old and I was three.  The kid in the foreground lives on our block.  His mother passed away and his dad has to work a lot and so he has spent most of his growing up in our house, refers to us as sisters and calls my parents "Mom" and "Dad."  We have pictures like this from as far back as when he was six.  Because of this, I am aware that family does not necessarily come from blood and am more willing to adopt others as family.

I am a member of a vegan dinner group but I am not vegan.  This really puts me in a unique culture as I try to decide where I fit in this meat-eating world.  Many friends are vegan but I do not feel the compulsion to be so.  Instead, I largely steer away from meat unless said meat is free or orange chicken from Panda Express (thus the picture on the left).  Thus I am able to speak across several cultures as my vegan dinner group helps me belong to the vegan culture while I can still go to Panda Express with other friends and enjoy myself.



My culture has so many different parts to it.  There is absolutely no part of my life that is not affected by it and I am largely oblivious to it.  There are bits of cultures that I feel I have part in simply by being around so many people who belong to that group.  Unfortunately, what largely helped me identify the various groups I was a part of was to think of what groups I am a part of that other people would not understand.  Largely, I think that my cultures have helped me in school cultures (except possibly in PE classes :) ).  I am part of several cultures that our school system unintentionally caters to.  The only group I am part of that has caused me to feel like I need to fight for myself was the gender group that I am in and then it was not so much from teachers but from other students or the perceptions of others and even then, because I have always been fascinated by history and was drawn toward a profession that has been historically a profession that is approved for women, that wasn't a common problem.

Being the "Other"

The artifact that I had was a "get to know you" bingo but alas miscommunication happens and I no longer have it.  I loved the irony that was represented by that paper because it was supposed to show experiences that we have in common but I left that evening feeling the opposite.  However, BYU recently BYU published a picture that captured a little bit of what I encountered.  

  

For this experience, I went to an event in which I was the only person in the room who had not served a mission.  The group I ended up in was full of people who had served their missions in Europe-- two guys joined our group when theirs went home and they served elsewhere.  However, I have never served a mission and in Provo--especially right now-- this puts me in a culture of my own.  

Notes from this event:

-Oh look, I'm the only one raising my hand.  Everyone look at the weird girl.   Everything anyone ever said to me that was slighting in regards to my not serving a mission came flooding back into my brain.  

-It is so much easier to shut myself off from everyone and just sink into the background 

- People are always forgetting that I am not one of them and I keep having to remind them.  I'm actually really tempted to lie but I know that would backfire like crazy. 

-I do know a little bit about what they are talking about.  I'm not completely clueless.  I just have to remember the mission e-mails I've got from friends.  

-This makes it so much easier for me to just sit on the sidelines.  I've worked hard lately to be able to go outside my comfort zone and I have been making progress but I ended up just sitting on the sidelines because I didn't want to bring any more attention to myself.  

Being the other is really uncomfortable.  According to a recent article published by BYU, 63% of the current student enrollment is returned missionaries now and so I'm not unfamiliar with being a minority in most social events but this one was particularly painful.  I was so grateful when we left and I could blend back in.  I live with roommates who have not served a mission and we have all accepted that going on a mission was not what our Heavenly Father had in store for us.  I have gotten so that I judge people by how they react when I tell them I haven't served a mission.  At first it was perfectly fine.   This opportunity kind of dropped itself into my lap because when I went in, I was not aware that this was going to be an uncomfortable thing.  It was just an FHE at the house of a member of a member of the stake presidency.  However, at the very beginning of his talk, he asked how many people there had served a mission.  When he saw how many hands came up, he amended his question and asked "Who has not served a mission?"  My lone hand went up.  In that moment, I realized that I represented the "other" and so when the opportunity came to stay with them or to go home to my apartment and security, I elected to stay and continue to try to participate in the fun.  The group that ended up with was fun and I had enjoyed it so I thought that it wouldn't be that bad.  I was wrong.  All of the people int he group had come home within the last six months and so their way of relating to other people was through stories from their mission.  I tried to particpate with stories I had heard from others but that can only take me so far and when they started talking about the stores they went to and little things that I could not possibly relate to, I started to fade into the background.  I started having to force myself to participate in the smallest of things.  I tried to steer the conversation towards topics that we had in common but they were constantly forgetting that I didn't know about little things that reminded me that I did not belong.  I had to fish for stories that would allow me to speak their language.  What bothered me most about this experience was how much it affected how I viewed my ability to participate in anything.  I felt like an outsider and so it made it more difficult for me to be willing to make a fool of myself playing basketball or to show off how bad I am at ping pong.  It was the little things that they said that hurt the most and showed me just how much I am outside of my comfort zone.  It is important for me to know, as a teacher, just how debilitating this can be.  I need to be careful about my language and be careful about how I explain things to my students.  It is the little things that can trigger the feelings of being on the outside.  I also need to keep an eye out because I will slip up and I don't want them to sink into themselves or give up ever feeling like they will be part of the group because I know just how much that can affect. 

Cultural Snapshot: Muslims in Media

When most Americans think of Muslims, they think of men who cause scenes such as this:

The news doesn't necessarily prove them wrong.  One of my Muslim friends pointed out that one of the policemen that was killed in the tragedy at Charlie Hebdo earlier this year was a Muslim who laid down his life for a magazine that had, just the day before, insulted his religion.  However, the only religion that was mentioned was that of the killers.

Terrorists who claim to represent Islam and cause such horrible acts to occur are on the news quite frequently.  Is it any wonder that incidents such as this next one happen?  Much of what Americans know about Muslims comes from these acts of terrorism and they project these ideas onto others of that faith.

Another thing that many people think of when they think of Muslims is the way that they treat their women.  One example of this is a scene from "God's Not Dead" that made my stomach churn.

My roommate showed me this scene from a French movie that showed how many Muslim girls view the hijab.  However, there is still a distinct division of worlds while he sits outside of the mosque-- symbolizing a world that he cannot enter.

Imagined Classroom

1. Images reflecting what my future classroom will look like:

My classroom will be set up in a format similar to this one to encourage discussions among my students.  It encourages them to talk to each other as well as me during discussion times.  All of the social sciences require thought and bouncing new ideas off of each other.  This format will hopefully encourage that.

  I have been a classroom that had a world map cut along the Atlantic Ocean across a large majority of the back wall.  The unique division really causes the students to look at the map more intently then they would normally would.  Also, if my geography students need help finding where something is, I have a way to show it clearly.

I want to have replicas of old things around my classroom to bring history to them.  That way when I am teaching certain time periods, I can reference certain things in the classroom and make it seem more real.  For example, this map is an excellent illustration of just how little the explorers knew about the world they lived in.

I would like to have a couple flags in my classroom.  I observed in a classroom that had a whole bunch of them hanging from the ceiling all around the room.  I found the number of them extremely distracting but if I had a few of them around the classroom, I think it could work.  I might even trade them out depending on what unit we are studying- although that maybe a bit more effort than I will be able to put in.  However, it would be nice if my students would become familiar with the flags of the world.

I want to have a couple shelves of books in my classroom- not textbooks, but books about the subjects that we will be covering in class, even if they are fiction.  They can be books my students can use for research, reading suggestions, or for me to reference in my lectures.  I love books and they soothe me as well.


2. As mentioned before, I want my classroom to be set up so that it encourages discussion.  I also want my walls to be decorated in a way that my students will learn from staring at them, rather than being distracting.  There will be books in the room that they can use for research and there will be a few computers in the room and more nearby that they can use to learn.  I will also allow them to use their smartphones for research while they are working on their homework as long as there is still an atmosphere of learning in the classroom and their assignments are done on time.  As a teacher, I will use a computer and a projector as well as a whiteboard.

3.  My students come from all sorts of backgrounds.  I will probably end up teaching in a suburban area so it will not be normal for my students to come in to school hungry or needing a place to sleep but I will definitely have some of those students that will have those problems that I should be aware of.  There will be definitely be students that will be from the LGBTQ community and there will be students from a variety of religious backgrounds and ethnic cultures.  There will be some that are interested in science, there will be some that are interested in what I am teaching, there will be some that are interested in their books, other that are interested music, and others that are only interested in the cute girl across the aisle.  Ideally they will be taking notes, participating in discussion, and answering questions during the lesson.

4. I'm going to attempt to have my classroom rules be built on mutual respect.  I will have a rule that when I am giving a lesson, their phones will be face-down on the left hand corner of their desk.  If they are working on an assignment on their own, they will be allowed to listen to their music through headphones as long as an atmosphere of learning is still present.  They will also be allowed to use their phones to do research.  Students will be allowed to turn in assignments late but they will receive a 5% each week it is late.  Students should be on task.  If they are not, their ability to use their phones, listen to music, do fun activities in class, will be restricted.

5.  I will probably be teaching several different classes- probably a geography class, and a couple history classes.  A typical lesson would be a lesson about the start of WWI.  I chose this topic because it would be a lesson that would need to be taught whether I was teaching world history or American history.  I would teach it by breaking the students into groups and have them move around the classroom, each station teaching about a different reason why WWI began.  Then we will pull together at the end, discuss, and wrap up the day by doing a brief overview about what the rest of the unit will cover.  The main thing I want the students to learn is how alliances, militarization, and a misunderstanding of the horrors of war led to WWI.

6. I am moving around and making sure my students are on task and understanding what they are learning, asking questions, and leading discussions as well as wrapping up what we have learned.

7.  During this lesson, my students are reading, answering questions, and engaging in discussion with their students and with the class later on.

8.  I will know that they have learned by their participation in the class, the exit assignment that I will give them before they leave, and a test at the end of the unit.