Reflection Post

 Aria by Richard Rodriguez 

This story highlights the importance of bilingual speakers within our school system. After reading it is clear that the public school system makes Spanish a private language rather than a public language that was used in the classrooms which is English. A part that truly stuck out to me was when the nuns went over to his house and asked if he could start speaking English instead of Spanish and the parents went along with it. This would ultimately change him and his parents' relationships since they couldn't communicate in their native language. "The special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then. Gone was the desperate, urgent, intense feeling of being at home; rare was the experience of feeling myself individualized by family intimates. We remained a loving family, bur one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness" (page 36) What the school system fails to recognize is that things like this is tearing apart families that have young bilingual students. As educators we need to encourage our bilingual students to stay in touch with their culture, background and continue to speak in their native language. This story reminds me of my service-learning classroom. There are a handful of Spanish speaking students some of them are bilingual and can speak both Spanish and English fluently. While there is one student who primarily speaks Spanish with knowing just a few English words. The teacher does a nice job trying to communicate with him by giving him simple directions in Spanish. She asks the other Spanish speaking students in the classroom to help him as well. It is important as teachers to still be able to include your bilingual students in everyday discussions and be sure not to exclude them just because they speak the same language as the rest of the students in your class. 

Here is a link to the benefits of bilingual learning and how it can impact a whole classroom. 

The Benefits of Bilingual Education | American University 

Finn Literacy with an Attitude

 Quotes: 

"All of us teachers and students were locked into a system of rules and roles that none of us understood and did not allow for much in the way of education." 

This is a good example of the Culture of Powers presented to us by Delpit. How these powers are enacted in not only the classroom but also the school environment itself. We have discussed numerous times how the school system is based on rules to show who is in power. The teacher at the front of the room, students sitting in chairs, bells that tell us when to move to the next class, schedules, etc... It is a system that is set to enable power amongst each other and so much that sometimes they are unaware because of how normalized this system truly is. 

"Don't be so damned superior." 

To be a good teacher is to know how to present yourself in front of your students. Knowing your boundaries in the classroom with the people you are teaching. Students will give you the same energy you give them. As a teacher, it is your job to give directions, guide, and teach your students but when you start taking advantage of the power you have against your students, they will not want to keep learning from you. You want your students to be able to connect with you on a professional and personal level and get them to want to learn from you. Don't set up barriers between you and the students that don't allow for that connection to happen because you will have a room full of students who will make your teaching career harder. 

Video Analysis