Katie

Reflecting on this semester there are many things I will remember.   The top three, however, are the way we built a community, the meaningful way Delpit’s ideas translate into everyday life, and the Aria reading by Rodriguez.   I didn’t realize until the first day of class that we were a combination of graduate and undergraduate students.   During this first class, we introduced each other, learned about each other, and laughed together.   The “Moo-in” at the beginning of each class further contributed to our community building.   We repeated our names before every class, learned how our day was, and learned different things about each other.   This experience, along with the food and laughs we often shared helped develop our sense of community.   I would use this technique in my classroom to both engage students and encourage comfort with each other.   On a more serious note, before this class, I had never heard of the author, Lisa Delpit. ...

I was a young mother when I had my children.  I had my oldest daughter first, then my son, and then my younger daughter.   They are all 18 months apart.  As they were so close in age, I would often bathe them together.  At that young age, the three of them noticed a difference between my son's body and their own.  I taught them the correct anatomical names, penis and vagina.  At this point, the three kids knew that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina.  I provided the first education on gender in my own home.  As this was almost 20 years ago, there was no conversation that existed about gender identity and personal pronouns.  I am now a school nurse in a public elementary school.  I work in conjunction with the health teachers to educate fourth and fifth grade boys and girls about puberty.  Currently the puberty lesson is one video with a short question/answer upon completion.  We send out permission slips to the fami...

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993176/  In his article, Hehir writes about a mother who refused to let her child be defined by their disabilities.  Penny is the mother who jumped off the path of least resistance in order to both protect and promote her child.  She worked with different people to dismantle assumptions about those people living with disabilities.  Penny felt that her child deserved every opportunity toward a successful and satisfactory life.  Penny developed awareness for the rights of those living with disabilities.   The YouTube video provided insight into a person living with a disability.  Judith Butler and Sanaura Taylor take a walk to discuss what it is like to live with a disability.   Sanaura is a person who lives with a disability.  Her disability is found within her body.  She cannot maneuver through life without assistive living devices that improve her mobility.  During thei...

  "Because I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one, I easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home." I never thought about a private and public language.  As a person who grew up with only one language, I never thought about the idea of a public and private language.  The school in which I work has a large Spanish speaking population.  When one of my bilingual students needs to be picked up for health reasons, or just to relay a message, many times the students need to speak with their families.  The student and their family member speak to each other in Spanish.  This is their home language and incorporating not only Spanish, but other languages found in school into the curriculum would enhance the students' developing self-awareness.  Providing access to other languages at a young age allows students to acknowledge, become versed in, and create a r...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJloZ3wKc0   Samantha Wood explores the role of privilege and how those with privilege can be powerful tools of change.  Throughout this class, we have watched, read, discussed, and blogged about the power culture and those with/without privilege.  I have thought about these concepts for the last few weeks and tried to find my place in this system.   I think back to my upbringing.  My Dad moved from Ireland to the United States when he was 28 years old.  He met my Mom soon after moving here; time moves on and they become pregnant with me, get married, get pregnant with my sister and eventually settle down in Rhode Island.  We lived on the Lincoln/Pawtucket line (that in itself was cultural dichotomy).  My sister and I grew up with a strong Irish culture.  My parents belonged to an Irish group that had its base in Pawtucket.  We listened to Irish music, attended every Irish event in the area, ate Iris...

 Until seeing the video in class last evening, I had never heard the term intersectionality.  As Dr. Stevos posted the slide entitled "Intersectionality" I tried to come up with words that define this term.  I came up with nothing.   Fransheska then defined intersectionality.  I now had a working definition and example of this term.    But it wasn't until we watched the TED talk with Kimberle Crenshaw that I could feel what this term means.  Ms. Crensahw coupled with Abby Dobson's singing really drove the point of intersectionality home.  Both women conjured emotions of hurt and pain, sadness and despair.   I felt angered by not only the atrocities experienced by the murdered women, but also that their stories, their names never made it to mainstream media.   This point was furthered by the number of people who sat once these names were verbalized.   The Wheel of Privilege and Power is interesting in that th...