Kayla's House

     The unequal funding of public schools is an increasingly large issue in America today. The public school funding system is based primarily on local property tax revenues. This has created what many people call "wealth discrimination," which is horribly unfair to families with lower incomes living in poverty. This is just one of the ways that money prevents said students of those parents from receiving the same education and benefits as upper middle class or wealthy families. But it does beg the question, how much does money really have to do with the wealth discrimination in America?      From reading through the module, I have learned that equity for all students involving schooling does not just mean equal access to the same treatment, funding, or instruction. While it is unfair that students coming from wealthier families get access to more services, it is also on us as educators to pursue equity, the most prevalent topic in this cour...

 I think that gender and gender roles have a lot to do with the status of the teaching profession today. The excerpt right at the beginning of the module sums up why teaching is a predominantly female dominated profession. It all stems from the fact that "our American systems are built around white middle class gender norms..." Also the fact that women could be payed less tax money than men, which stems from a history of sexism and less respect for working women. We as a society have created many stereotypes around gender. The fact is, the media has flooded our lives with all kinds of stereotypes and expectations on how men and women should act or what they should look like. Or even what kinds of morals we should hold for ourselves. A great example of this is the set of rules for teachers in 1915. This list is exclusive and only applies to women, and forces teachers to follow a set of rules where majority of them have nothing to do with their ability to educate properly.  Thi...

Do I have the full picture? I feel as if I was a little bit conflicted when thinking about this question. I grew up in a sparsely diverse community, I was exposed to people who did not look like me, but not enough for me to fully grasp what it was like to experience diversity on a daily basis as a child. When doing the face test, I was bothered by this fact. My experience with diversity was not as present when I was a child.. It is not the same now as it was when I was growing up, and for that I am thankful. I am a lot more aware and empathetic and understand the importance of standing with people who may be marginalized in our society. I started to realize when watching the last video about Ruby Bridges, that the schooling I received was not benefiting my awareness, by not exposing me to the depth of the injustices that non-white people have had to go through, and still are going through. When reading through and thinking about the assignments this week, I feel as if it would be wrong...

 From analyzing and reading/watching all of the assigned material this week I think I gained a really great perspective on how to teach students to talk about issues that matter. Just from reading the first excerpt "Fostering Civil Discourse," I learned that you have to bring your full "heart, mind and conscious" to the topic or else you will get lost and not have the ability to engage and conversate/understand what you're peers are saying. Failing to prioritize ugly conversations for the benefit of someone else comfort will do the students no good and prevent them from learning and becoming good conversationalists. With that knowledge, I read "How I Faced My Identity When Teaching the Reconstruction Era," and gained more ideas on specifically how to talk about issues that matter in a respectful manner. I learned that as a teacher it is effective to "be bold." To really take the time to do the "foundational work" in order to increas...

Hi! I'm Kayla House and today I will be sharing with you my motives behind wanting to pursue Education as a career and just what teaching means to me... My passion for wanting to be an educator has been a lifelong dream. I grew up watching my mother teach and from a very young age observed the way she led and conducted a class full of second or third grade students. My grandma and aunt and so many before them, were educators. As I grew I deeply admired their drive and dedication to wanting to make children's experience in the school system inclusive and special. The way they spoke about their jobs and just how fun filled and creative they were able to be really pushed me into wanting to be a teacher. As well as how they spoke about the visible changes they were making in young children's lives and seeing them get ecstatic about their progress. My passion has always been language arts, however I would like to teach elementary students all of the above. There's a special ...