Entry 7

Reading the revolutions made me reflect on the presidential debates of 2020. When I read that the French ignored their Indian allies and gave the land to the British, it reminded me of the promises that the candidates make. Unfortunately, most of those promises get lost along the way to the white house. Almost every president fails to meet his/her proposals to help the people. I remember that last year’s, when Trump was in office, he said that he was going to “handle the dreamers with heart”, but he didn’t. Those dreamers are still living with uncertainty of whether they will be deported. Some are even scared to continue their college education because it might end up useless if in the future they can’t work legally in the U.S. This is similar to what happened to the Indians. The Indians should have received French territory because they fought on the side of France. Presidential candidates promise and bring up the hopes of the people, but at the end of the day no one can be trusted. Like the Indians were ignored even when they were on France’s side, the dreamers are working and paying their taxes but they are still ignored. They haven’t received any additional help to define their futures. Sadly, the president that is chosen this year will control the lives of our families, our future students, their families, and their education. The most disappointing part is that we can’t trust someone because we don’t know if they are our allies, stand with us, or at least that is what they tell us.

 

Entry 6

After reading Columbus and the Indians, I realized that when the Indians were given the impossible task of finding gold, they were desperate to run away and escape cruelty. This is similar to what ELLs are experiencing inside of “bilingual classes”. Some schools expect students to thrive in a classroom that is bilingual when in reality the instruction is just in English and Spanish is used sparingly. Because ELLs are not receiving that extra help and guidance, they start to dislike school and give up on their dreams and education. This is what happened to the Indians when they couldn’t find gold. They gave up on the beauty of life. Another similarity is that Indians were tortured while the students are also being traumatized with standardized exams that they are not ready to take. We need more districts and schools that provide sufficient help to the students in order to learn a second language. During my observations, I saw that Pasadena ISD had intervention for students who were recent immigrants and this helped them understand the concepts that were being taught. As teachers, we have to fight for their well-being and for their education quality. We don’t have to set them up for failure like Christopher Columbus did with the Indians.

Entry 5

The podcast named how we say our students’ names…. and why it matters made me reflect on history and culture. I realized that it is important to learn our students’ names because it demonstrates respect and proves that they matter. It is sad to see that our world is becoming more diverse and teachers still don’t assimilate that. I believe that teachers should be responsible for learning the names in order to accept that the world is changing. The students might have names that are popular or meaningful for their culture, but when we don’t make an effort to get the name right, we decrease its value. Yes, it’s hard to learn and say a name that is not part of our culture, but it is doable. I recognize that some names are hard because they have pronunciations that we don’t use in our language, but practice can make a huge difference. It is not okay to call someone by another name just because we can’t pronounce his/her name. Throughout the years, the names are going to become more diverse and we will have to adjust to new and unique names. As technology has had much advancement and we love it, we should also love the process of learning new names. I personally remember that I had teachers who didn’t even try to learn my middle name. They would just call me F rather than Maria Fernanda. Other teachers would pronounce /F/ /E/ R/ /N/ /A/ /N/ /D/ and they would pronounce an O rather than an A. I always asked myself, “they got through the first 7 letters but couldn’t they have made an effort to look at the last one”. Teachers assumed my name was Fernando. This made me hate my name when I was younger. I would already feel embarrassed before the teacher even called my name because he/she would always pronounce a boy name.  This podcast opened my eyes and made me think about the importance of my future students' names. I will make sure that I look up or ask the student for the pronunciation to his/her name because it matters.