Journal entry 7

Journal 7

The chapter about revolutions makes me think about the resources that bilingual teachers have. The chapter states that “poor people did much of the fighting and suffering” but they were not given the rights they expected or the things that they were promised. This makes me think of how bilingual teachers have more tasks to do, such as translating stories or other work for students. Bilingual teachers fight every single day to help their struggling students, students who barely arrived to the US, and on top of that they are worried about not having enough resources to help those students. It is sad to see that bilingual teachers have more work to do, they are not given the resources they need, and they are still accountable for their student’s progress. In the story, the poor people fought to help win the war, and the teachers are fighting for their students, but yet they are not being helped. The poor people and bilingual teachers are in charge of doing the heavy work, work longer hours, and their efforts are still not enough to accomplish the positive change they want. The poor people were offered military rewards and they hoped to increase in rank but they never accomplished that. Just as these people who fought in the wars put all their effort and time, bilingual teachers are also spending more time to help bilingual students. Poor people never got what they were promised while the bilingual teachers effort is also being overlooked. It is disappointing to see that the people who are willing to fight for the benefit of others are being overlooked as if their efforts were worth nothing.

Journal entry 6

Journal entry 6

After reading a young people’s history of the United States, I feel like I have lived a lie all of my life. This has made me think that people are basically shaping our minds the way they please. People who write our history books are being benefited while the students learn misleading information.  This makes me think of my future students and me as a teacher.  Elementary students usually learn information the same way as I did. We all believe and learned that Christopher Columbus was the first to sight land while it was actually Rodrigo. Some people believed while some still believe that Christopher was a very pacific person and he is almost thought of as a hero. Students learn all of this misinformation but eventually they learn the truth. This makes we wonder whether my future students will come to believe that it’s fine to lie. If the people who write our books are being allowed to tell us lies, will they think its ok for us to tell lies too? If the government allows these types of history books in our schools, are they supporting the spread of these lies?  It is unbelievable to think that we trust our schools and the people behind our education, and they disappoint us by basically forcing teachers to lie to their students. We are the source of misinformation and through them; the lies continue to be part of our history. I find this so immoral because students should go to school to learn, and by learning I mean learning the truth. The lies in history textbooks should come to an end.

Journal entry 5

 Journal entry 5

 The podcast on history and culture made me reflect on the importance of names. I had never thought about the importance of knowing and properly saying someone’s name. This reminds me to an experience I had in high school. Teachers weren’t able to differentiate my sister and I apart. We are twins and have the same first name, and teachers called us  “G” and “F” or “Maria 1” and “Maria 2”.  When teachers called me this way, I initially had a negative response to it.  At a certain point in life I got frustrated and mad because other classmates began calling me just like the teacher did. People continued to call me “G” or “Maria 2” for a log time, which ended up being normal for me. I no longer got upset about teachers and classmates calling me different names. Now I have come to realize that some people may not understand or be conscious that nicknames or mispronunciation of names can harm others. This situation negatively impacted me for a short time, but there are other students that may be scarred for life. I will strive to be a teacher who asks how to properly pronounce a name, instead of just giving up as if the name of a student did not matter. I have to respect who they are and part of who they are is their name.  Maybe mispronouncing a name is not exactly the same thing as nicknaming a twin because they can’t differentiate us apart, but this is also affecting our identity.

Since we had the same name and we are sisters, people treated us as if we were the same person. If they mistakenly called me by my sister’s name, they thought it was funny and would say, “it’s the same thing”.  Each person is unique and we don’t only have to be aware of respecting him or her, their culture, and their ideas but also their name.