Blog #10- Age

I enjoyed the presentation on Age this evening. The girls started with the “Penny Activity.” Each person picked a penny out of a bag and found the date. If the date was later than your birth date, you were to think of a memory from that year. I picked the year 2009. This was a very special time for me because this is the year my best friend asked me to marry him. I only had to wait 7 years! I will never forget the year 2009 and of course the year 2010, when we were married.

A topic discussed tonight that I feel very strongly about is Childhood Obesity. This is such a serious topic today with children. I think that education regarding obesity needs to begin at home. Parents are the ones that provide their children with unhealthy food choices and that needs to stop. Parents need to be educated on what they should feed their children to give them the proper nutrition that they need. Also, it's important that children get exercise outside of school because public schools are really cutting back on their outside recess time.

Bullying is a hot topic in schools today and it is something that teachers and administrators must take seriously. Bullying is not only a physical activity but can be done with hurtful words as well. Actually, most of the time, the bullying I've seen has been with little girls and their mean words to one another. The most important thing I was taught was that bullying needs to be stopped before it starts. We teach our kids at our school at a very young age that being mean to others and saying things that aren't nice are not tolerated.

The last topic brought up tonight that I found interesting and controversial is teen pregnancy. The fact that this occurs so much more in Texas is awful. I think parents, teachers, and peers have a huge influence over teens when it comes to having sex. Parents and teachers educate them to be safe and peers can often pressure them to do things they aren't emotionally ready to do.

All of these topics have something in common: EDUCATION! Children must be properly educated on how to make correct choices in life.

Blog #9-Geography

Keeping in mind the geography of a child’s upbringing is so important. This is something I haven’t thought about until reading the chapter in the book and listening to the group presentation. As teachers, we do make assumptions about children based on where they are from and the accent they might have. But, after learning more about geography pertaining to teaching, it reminds me to keep an open mind.

I teach in a private school that is majority middle to upper class families. Almost all of the children in attendance live in the DFW metroplex and have had a suburban upbringing. I wonder how things would be different at the school if we were in a rural area in the middle of nowhere. Would we still have to deal with bullying? Would we see children talking about things that are way advanced for their age? Would five and six year old Kindergartners have electronics such as Iphones, Ipads, and Itouches?

After reading Chapter 8, it made me reflect on where I was raised and what an impact that had on me. I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the first 16 years of my life. My family then moved to San Diego, California, which was a huge culture shock. In Oklahoma, everything was spread out. I played in the neighborhood until dark and my parents never worried. In California, I had a strict curfew and was given specific rules that I had to follow because we lived in such a huge city. I'm lucky to have aspects from two different areas of the United States. This allows me to have a few different views of how people think differently in different parts of the US.

Religion

Beginning to work with my group, preparing our presentation on religion, I thought this was going to be challenging for me. Here's a little history about me. I was brought up in a household where religion did not hold the top priority. My parents were both brought up to go to church every Sunday, when they both couldn’t stand it. So, they decided when they became parents, they would give their child a choice of what they wanted to do. We never went to church. Sundays were for recovering and regrouping. When I was around 7, I asked my parents why we didn’t go to church like the rest of my friends. They explained to me that they thought teaching me to be a good citizen, not lying, not cheating, and not stealing was more important than sitting in a church every Sunday listening to someone talk. But…they also told me that if I wanted to go to church to see what it was about, that they would take me. So for about a month, my Mom took me to church, and sat through what she hated most. But after that month, I got over it and didn’t show interest. I love what my parents instilled in me. Don’t get me wrong, I think religion is important, and I think the idea of believing and looking to something bigger is crucial. But, what is most important to me is that I am a well-rounded person that has good morals and does what’s right. Some believe that you need to go to church to achieve this, but I think it’s all about how you are raised and the influence your parents hold over you.

Preparing our presentation was just a reminder that everyone has their own beliefs and that we have to accept everyone for who they are and what they believe. We tried to stir up some controversy to make the presentation more interesting and I think we achieved that goal. And most importantly, I felt OK with not having a strong religious background, because everyone is different and believes in different things.