Unlearning the myths that blind us

Linda Christensen Discusses in "Unlearning the myths that blind us" how children books like fair tales and movies and cartoons are so influential to how children portray a "perfect life". Christensen mentions that two parents Kenya and Sabrina go off on a rampage about how Disney does not have any leading characters who aren't white. Sabrina wrote in an essay that she will not take her children to see a Walt Disney movie unless there is a leading character of a different race other than white. Kenya mentions " Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess" . Being a hispanic young women This figure of speach made me happy that i wasn't the only one who thought this way. When i was younger I loved Disney movies my favorites were The Lion King, Peter pan, Lady and the tramp,Bambi, & Lilo and  Stitch. I had all of those films on the VCR or DVD. I watched princess movies but i didn't own any. My family never bought me princess movies,i was such an animal lover that they thought i was happy with films about animals which I was.But after reading this piece by Christensen I asked my mother this weekend " Why didn't we own any princess movies when i was younger?" and her response was shocking yet understandable now that I am a young adult. She said " Honestly Alexi, there were only princess movies about white girls, asian, native american, and arab.We didn't want you to question why there wasn't any hispanic princesses, and I don't regret not buying princess things because look, after 20 years there still isn't any hispanic princess or character who isn't a servant or help, your aunt and I loved your fascination with animals, dogs dinosoures, you loved every character in the Lion king. You saw princess movies with your friends or even when they aired on TV but we just didn't want to buy you something we didn't agree on" After this discussion I thanked my mom because today I am a young hispanic women who doesn't think She needs to be rescued by a prince or needs a crown or thinks just because there isn't a spanish princess I'm ugly. I am the biggest animal lover in the world and I'd pick animals over being a princess any day.  


After 20 years on this earth Disney has finally came to their senses !!!It may not be a big role movie but it is a start !!!!

"All hail Elena! Disney has created its first Latina princess — meet Elena of Avalor! The adorable new royal will make her official debut in 2016, during a special episode of Sofia the First, Disney Junior’s hit show for preschoolers.

PHOTOS: Celebs are Disney princesses!

Princess Elena, who wears a red ruffled dress and is adorned with hoop earrings and a flower garnish in her long dark hair, “is a confident and compassionate teenager in an enchanted fairy tale kingdom inspired by diverse Latin cultures and folklore,” the network said in a statement on Thursday, Jan. 29. She’s “bold, caring, funny, and clever” and is "the ascendant to the throne in the fairy tale kingdom of Avalor."

PHOTOS: Celebs at Disney

"Our creative team has delivered a universal story with themes that authentically reflect the hopes and dreams of our diverse audience,” Nancy Kanter, Disney Junior’s Executive Vice President and General Manager said in the statement. "What excites us most is the chance to use distinctive animation and visual design to tell wonderful stories influenced by culture and traditions that are familiar to the worldwide population of Hispanic and Latino families and reflect the interests and aspirations of all children as told through a classic fairy tale."

Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/disneys-first-latina-princess-elena-of-avalor-introduced-picture-2015291#ixzz3TiEL812d
Follow us: @usweekly on Twitter | usweekly on Facebook

LGBT

Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school by Alexandra Allan, Elizabeth Atkinson, Elizabeth Brace, Rene ́e DePalma* and Judy Hemingway was a very eye opening story about stories where teachers had to teach about LGBT in certain situations like the classroom or between other teachers.  A part in this story that stood out to me was the way Laura tried to explain the prince's love story issue about how he didn't want a princess, he wanted a prince and she let the class give their ideas as to why, and they all ( expect for 1 or 2) reacted in a non negative way to the fact that they were figuring out why he should have a prince and not a princess.  The class did not turn into negative pupils they were helpful for the prince. I imagined my future classroom being helpful for someone who just wants to be happy and not judgmental. I thought it was really heartwarming that the classroom wanted to help the prince charming find his not princess but prince. Also when Laura changed her character to "Cindy" a lesbian, i enjoyed how she didn't want to make the character too girly and pretty in pink. She wanted to make a statement that not all women are pretty in pink and not all lesbians look like men. The way she handled the questions from her students about "if she is gay" was really honest and professional. They should know that their awesome fun cool caring teacher is gay, that way they know gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people aren't bad in any form, because the students personally know someone who is  "gay". I personally don't like to think about my teacher's sexuality preferences, i believe that their personal life should be kept personal and their professionalism should be kept professional as well, but if a teacher was ever to give the class a heads up they are LGBT, good for them for letting us know and making us feel comfortable and giving the people who don't feel comfortable the opportunity to choose their educators, even though their sexuality should not matter. I think if a teacher does not straight out tell their class about their sexuality then that means it is not technically off limits to talk about but they prefer for their students to judge them off of their professional work.

Why can't she remember that?

"Why can't she remember that?" The importance of storybook reading in a multilingual, multicultural classrooms by Terry Meier is a reading that focuses on the encounters teachers face every year with having young students who have little book reading expierences, and do not have gardens who read to them either.  The reading gave me many situations and solutions for normal classroom experiences. For instance when the bilingual prekindergarten Gabriela spoke her mind about how did not remember the answers to the questions she has previously asked in the past to the students, while reading i finally realized why the article was called " Why can't she remember that". Gabriela didn't answer the teacher's question when she asked how many mittens there were, therefore the teacher assumed that she did not know the answer and that she may need more help in the english language vocabulary department. Little did the teacher know that Gabriela did know the answer she just didnt understand why the teacher was asking it again, in Gabriela's house the teacher looked like she was the one who needed extra help.  My connection to this story would be when Cherrie Moraga (1983) described her earliest experience of the power of language when she remembered her mother and her paints gossiping and laughing iin spanish and in english n the kitchen drinking "cerveza". I also had the exact experience as a child, the stories i would hear and sometimes be present for while sitting on one of my aunts laps, would be about our family members , friends, boyfriends of theirs or ex's. Although the conversations were educational they the importance of those oral stories will forever be in my memory. Growing up , my mom decided to go back to school when her and my father divorced when i was about 3 years old. She went to CCRI and graduated with her associates degree. My mom got really involved with certain departments on campus like the testing and advising center, she even worked there as student help. She now has been working for the testing center and is the yea dog the testing department for CLEP test and ACT exams and ect. My mom may not have had time to read me story books when I was in kindergarten or pre k but Just like Gabriela, I still understood when teachers would repeat themselves and reread certain books and ask questions that they already had asked the first and second time. Thankfully my teacher didn't do that often, only when a book was chosen yb popular demand by the class for story time. After reading this story i think about how maybe if my mom did enforce books and set time aside to read to me or to make me read a certain amount of time a day i would maybe enjoy reading a little more but now I am in college and reading is a huge part of most class assignments. I hope that when i become a spanish teacher i will be helpful to students who may not have the support at home to enforce reading as much as they should. Reading only makes you a better person, it shows different verities of vocabulary that aren't used in the daily conversation, i even read certain words here that i had never seen before, for example ;Ubiquitous?

The Silenced Dialogue

In "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", By Lisa Delpit, the issues of certain teacher's styles on educating their students, don't have the same affect on every child like black children. Different style of teaching don't work the same on everyone because of their backgrounds and life style at home. When one of the parent's voiced their opinion as to why their child was getting in trouble in class because they "weren't obeying the teacher", the parent simply told the teacher to order the student on what to do because that is how the parents runs their house hold. I thought this was eye opening because to be completely honest this reading was not that interesting to me personally until i started to read real life examples like this ones. The black student that was getting in trouble because they weren't listing to the teacher because their way of teaching was not harsh enough seems familiar to me. I have been in classrooms in elementary school where there would be a nice  friendly teacher who had no control over the classroom because they were too nice. Ofcourse students took advantege of this teacher because they knew the teacher would never yell or order them around. Until one day this teacher all of sudden started sending kids to the principals office because they didn't want to deal with the children's behaviors. And guess what, all of these students were either hispanic or black. And it came time for the parent teach meeting and the principal meetings the parents would just tell the etcher, "just be more strict with them, thats how i am at home and thats how you have to get things done". At the time the students in trouble would always talk about what happened during lunch or after school thats how i know what was said in these conversations. Some of my friends in elementary school wouldn't obey the teachers but once i went over their houses, their parents were like drill sergeants. Now that i think about it, maybe the teaching methods of white teacher aren't as affective to black students because they are taught to respect their parents no mater what that they feel like their obedience is to their parents not the easy going push over white teacher. Maybe they are taught or maybe trained to obey orders so that when they are faced with a strict teacher in the future, they are ready and not taken back because they have had such an easy life at home where no one has told them what to do and only asked them if they want to do something. I can not stand when some teachers ask the class " should we begin  ?" or " how do you guys feel about a quiz this friday" and expect the respect from their classroom because they're trying to be nice and get the class to like them. NO. You are the deachr who holds the degree in education and has worked hard to get a teaching job, you should NOT be asking the class if they want to do something , you are the teacher ! the teacher has the power to control the classroom in whatever way they want to, whether they want to be push overs and have their students in things in late and come to class late or even skip class without being penalized then thats their choice. But if a teacher who takes pride into wanting to educated their students make them learn then they don't ask their students what they want, they don't give them suggestions, they tell them what they expect and hopefully each student can fufil the teachers expectations. I love having honorable,  strict, old school teachers who teach by the book. The orderly directions and deadline due assignments make me want that power of having the power to teach for instance in my case spanish, to kids and have them learn it the right way and not let them slack off , my teaching methods will be suitable for all types of cultures. When the two black students described the "boring" teacher I got bored just reading the paragraph. I had an art teacher once in high school who just let the class " free our minds and communicate through drawings". she didn't really teach us how to draw things properly or what drawing utensils were essential for certain types of paper and what not. Then my senior year i had a very strict art teacher who took attendee every day on time,  gave homework every night, and gave each student one on one attention and even when she didn't the directions she would give the class on what to do for our assignments were so detailed, almost no one had questions because we were directed so well by this teacher and her teaching style. And when i read the paragraph about the black student who had the strict teacher, it made me excited to be that type of teacher one day. One that makes her studies get into the lessons and participate because participation is what gets the students really involved in the teachings  and it also gives the students that little "push" to speak their mind after lets say, reading a paragraphs in a book that the whole class is reading together, just different kids are being called on to read certain parts, a teacher can approach the student by asking them if they want to read the 2nd paragraph. By asking that student , the student now has the choice to say yes or no and if they say no, the teacher has to ask another student and the process could go on for a while and get now where . Now if the teacher's style wasn't as laid-back and easy going, the teacher could call on a student and say " alexi continue on to read the second paragraph where Rachel left off". That is not being order, it is being structurally to the students and not asking them if they want to participate.

I hope that when we are all in the teaching field and have steady jobs at institutions we don't have to deal with silenced dialog. By reading this story, I personally think all the bright students in this class will take into consideration on how to handle their future classrooms. After reading this story i surly know that when i teach a certain way and someone has something to say or contribute, i will not silence them or not acknowledge their opinion.

Hello fellow bloggers ! My name is Alexi Arriaran I am 19 years old and I'm a transfer student from CCRI. I transferred to RIC because I dream of being a spanish teacher for secondary education. I couldn't possibly tell you how many people told me how great of a college RIC was for teaching. I had my eye on other universities but what drew me to RIC was the fact that i grew up around the area. I remember going to the track and soccer field with my aunts in the summer just to be active on nice days. Also i use to dance in a Bolivian Folkloric dance group called  FFB (fraternity folkloric of Bolivia). The Bolivian community here in rhode island is surprisngly large. We host an enormouse festival on Bolivia's Independence Day, usually the 6th and the 7th of august. The festival is a two day event that has been held all over providence. For the past couple of years the festival has been in the skating rink in downtown providence. The festival starts off from Saint Patricks church and all the groups performing in the festival parade down to the ice rink. The Bolivian festival takes months of perpetration, practicing and dedication. The costumes are hand made in Bolivia and then flown here to RI. My group use to practice in the big parking lot down the hill of RIC for years each summer for months. I spent years around the college, even going inside to use the bathroom. When I was younger the college seemed so big and fascinating and it still is today. I worked very hard at CCRI to get out of there as soon as I could. After three semesters i had my credits and here I am. I also attend rhode island college with many of my close high school friends, step brother and even my boyfriend who is also on the baseball team.