Michaela Duggan Portfolio Reflection 12/9/2013

1. What strengths do you demonstrate in your portfolio, in terms of Anti-Bias Education and culturally responsive teaching? I spent a lot of time working through the principals learned in class. Really looking at the students in my classroom and deciding what types of anti-bias and culturally responsive teaching would best benefit the students. I spoke with the teacher on multiple occasions to get her insight as to how the students were doing from a social emotional standpoint and what she felt like the best areas to address would be. I looked through the textbook before writing my lessons and spent hours online doing research and locating the perfect materials to use in my teaching. I have included in my portfolio a final draft on three lessons; the first one being a Community Membership Lesson. This was a focus for the students on being good community leaders. After really analyzing the class interactions I realized that the students were not interacting on a level where it was evident that they care about each others learning. Some of the girls were very loving and acted like family toward each other, and a few of the boys displayed an exocentric approach toward their peers, especially those who interact regularly with one special needs student in particular. Other than these few exceptions, it was not the general rule in the classroom that students helped each other, were concerned for their friends educational success or were able to consistently work their disagreements out in a productive manner. I felt like teaching the students a little bit about how to approach their educational experience from a team perspective and become aware of their peers needs would be most beneficial to the classroom community. Next I was able to think about specific anti-bias goals. The goal I chose to approach was that which addresses misconceptions about race and gender. There is a relatively even number of both male and female students in my classroom; there is a racial diversity that includes Asian student(s), Hispanic student(s), and Caucasian student(s). Other races are represented within the grade and in other grades at the school. I felt like it was important for the students to recognize their peers as equals, no matter what the situation, event, assignment or activity. There are a lot of clichs that play themselves out in this particular first grade room, the girls seem to participate in what could be considered girl dominated activities, and the boys tend to gravitate toward boy dominated activities. During free-time the girls write, color, and play with stickers and such. The boys tend to play with blocks, Legos, drive pretend vehicles and such. I felt like it was a good opportunity to address the fact that there arent any invisible lines that divide males and females, that everyone in every race is equal and every person has the same capabilities and opportunities. I was able to elicit a lot of really valuable input from the students regarding misconceived notions such as how its not always a womans job to cook and that many men like to cook also. We had a lot of great revelation with regards to little girls who may not look like societies perception of what a girl should look like and they may not only do what some tend to expect a girl to do, letting the children know that alternative style and behavior is perfectly okay. There is not really any way to wave a wand and remove preconceived notions or eliminate bias and misunderstanding in the childrens minds, however, I feel like I was able to plant a seed and

Michaela Duggan Portfolio Reflection 12/9/2013

give them a reference point when it comes to their choices and how they interact with those in their classroom, school and community. 2. What challenges do you have, in terms of Anti-Bias Education and culturally responsive teaching? I feel like the most significant challenges I have discovered when considering culturally responsive teaching and Anti-Bias Education have been the discomfort factors. I feel like this is the ideal challenge (if there is such a thing) as it will likely dissipate throughout time. I would hope that the more time I spend teaching and consciously incorporating culturally responsive pedagogy and anti-bias goals into my everyday teaching and classroom environment, the more naturally these things will come to me and the more experienced I will be in handling unexpected occurrences. I really feel nervous about the potential events I may experience with my students and their families, however, I remind myself that there isnt any such thing as normal when it comes to teaching and navigating so many different cultures, lives and families. Therefore I feel like I am prepared despite my mild apprehension. 3. What would you revise if you could and how? When I think back to the revisions I would consider making in my portfolio I try to view my portfolio as a snapshot of the events of the past 130+ hours I spent in the first grade classroom. I could not change my portfolio without changing the occurrences or the way I approached my lessons. I am certain that there is room for improvement in all of the lessons I have taught. Primarily my most outstanding challenge was my tendency to expect the students to perform slightly beyond their zone of proximal development. What I mean by that is that I feel like some of the activities and requirements built into my objectives seem to be a stretch. I try to keep things challenging for the students, but it seems that perhaps I should take a step back and possibly pare things down in my objectives. I think with ample time I would be able to easily work my students up to successfully meeting the objectives in my lessons, and it may be the nature of field study that one is always challenged with the lack of enough time, but regardless my main goal for my next field study is that I concentrate on what is really doable in the time allotted to my lessons. 4. What one or two things in your portfolio are you most proud of?

I am positively most proud of my cultural autobiography, and the lessons that I developed. I really spent a lot of time working really hard on my cultural autobiography because I wanted to make sure that I was able to really analyze my own cultural background. I was able to dig deep within myself and identify the culture which I have within me as a person and the parts of my upbringing, my environment, my choices as an adult and my current experiences which are still shaping my personal culture. I didnt feel like I would be able to truly tap into any childs true culture or their cultural needs unless I was able to identify the invisible cultures I may have never identified for myself. I feel like this piece of my portfolio was without question the foundation on which the rest of my field study experience was built.