Demonstration of Illinois Professional Teaching Standards
 

• Paper on Latina culture
• Paper on Harlem Renaissance

            When I started public schooling, I was surrounded by diversity at home and at school.  I lived in Chicago in a working lower class area from preschool to fourth grade.  I was not ashamed that my mother worked at a nursing home and went to school at the same time while my father had a host of jobs from delivering flowers to being a mailman on foot.  I remember being friends with blacks, Puerto Ricans, Asians, and whites.  Then I moved to the suburbs where there was not much diversity and became friends with mostly white people.  I learned less about different ethnic cultures because my white friends had similar socioeconomic status, that of the middle to upper class white collar.  My family at this point had joined the ranks of the middle class.  My father started his own vending company while my mother worked as an RN at Cook County General Hospital in Chicago.  After high school I was once again surrounded by diversity when I entered the Summer Institute under the Golden Apple Scholarship program.  I even took a class titled "Diversity" which was taught by Greg Michie who wrote the book Holler if You Hear Me (it's being taught in some education classes here at U of IL).

            Here at U of IL I have not seen many people of color in the courses I have taken.  Even in our C & I 301 class-- it seems that English secondary education draws mostly Caucasian females.  However I have learned about how to address diversity in EPS 201 and EdPsych 211.  I have learned more about the roots of diversity in some of my English classes.  When I read, analyze, and write about diversity, I tend to internalize that information which I can apply later.

            My greatest diversity training had to be my internship at Summerbridge Cambridge.  The students had to apply for the program and only about 30% of the students were white.  I taught a Communications course which was also untracked and combined 6^th and 7^th grade.  I had to challenge a wide variety of learning and communication styles because students came from different schools, reading and writing levels, socioeconomic status, ethnic cultures, and family make-ups.  I had to change teaching styles and become more student centered.  Hands-on projects, speeches, and games were part of my lesson planning to accommodate different types of learners.  I have included in this section:

1)      Paper on Gloria Anzaldua's La Fronteras/Borderlands which addresses Latina culture, language problems, and sexuality.  This is mostly how to theoretically reconcile differences.

2)      Paper on African-American tropes during the Harlem Renaissance which traces the changing of stereotypes and black figures.  This addresses a variety of black historical and contemporary issues.

I don’t think anyone can learn enough about diversity of cultures or in learning styles.  Right now I can honestly say I wouldn't know how to address Special Ed students.  I haven't had the training yet.  I am somewhat familiar with ESL because I went through an ESL program myself in elementary school because Korean was my first language.  However, that does not mean I would know how to communicate or teach with new immigrants.  My goals are to read more minority literature and to learn more about other cultures.  I need to experiment with teaching styles that are not just audio and visual even further.  I should familiarize myself with ESL and how schools run their Special Ed programs.