i) When the idea of being Canadian comes to mind, we often think of it as our pride. Think of it as ourselves, selfishly. We don't mind to think of what we come from, or where our land came from. Our land is on treaty territory, all of our land is actually treaty land.
Treaty = Canada. The normative to fellow class mates stories as I look around are similar to mine, forgetful. Forgetful to what land we stand on and where this country truly comes from. " Oh there he is #10 in the black and red panthers jersey. He lines up at the face off in his hockey stance, the referee drops the puck game on. Kish-kish I hear the sounds of the skates cutting through the ice as they race for the puck. The players skate so smooth they make it look easy tight turns and transitions as they speed to the net. Don’t worry Rick will stop them I think to myself." As Jaclyn says, the idea of a game is what up-rises the Canadian spark to Jaclyn's young eyes. United to the game and cheering of hockey. My story relates with Jacylns revolving around the same idea, the great hockey game. "The teams are soon to set their skates upon the ice surface for warmups as the stands are already packed. As team Canadas skates glide onto the glistening ice, the crowd goes absolutely wild. The energy in this building is so high I can’t help but become apart of it." My area of focus of feeling united by a crowd to watch a game is very similar as to Jaclyn. At this time I only saw being Canadian as in the moment and not so much as the pass. Seems to be that myself and Jaclyn's stories relate to Scott as-well to the cheering with Canadian Pride. "All 40,000 fans are charged up by a human sized gopher getting the Green and White Army chanting “Go Riders Go” at the top of their lungs." Prime example of how we represent being Canadian as doing so in united together. These story's unite together to show our views of being Canadian by showing how sport brings out pride and provides evidence of how to us we feel being Canadian is shown by being unite with pride. Producing cheer in their story lines. None of these stories include mention of treaty or where we got the land to play our beloved games on. ii) Not all peer stories relate topic wise to stories posted above. Emily's story on her outdoor experiences stay away from Jaclyn, Scott and my-selves story line of sports and looks toward the great outdoors. "That summer day was when I realized that home is so much more than just a house; home is feeling. Home can be anything that ignites a feeling of warmth, family, and love." She provides that home is where the heart is and gives us sense of her outdoor love, fishing with handmade fishing rods with her father. Her story is based in the outdoor beauty of treaty land with no acknowledgement in her writing of being on it. As in "Is everyone Really Equal?" says "Humans are social beings who depend on the humans around us to make sense of our world"(43) opens up a perspective on how we open up our world, learn from it. "We are always wearing our cultural glasses and cannot truly take them off" (43) Scott, Jaclyn and my stories all seemed to keep our cultural glasses on how the "Canadian Culture" of being a spectator at a sports game best describes our "Canadianship". We need to maybe change our "glasses" though to stop silencing the true land we stand. We sing "O'Canada! Our home and native land!" Prior to every sporting game, but do we truly recall whose land we are standing on or make any mention of it. Lets not forget where we come from and be sure to be aware of it and share awareness. Work Cited; Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017) Understanding the Invisibility of Oppression Through Sexism. In Is Everyone really equal (2nd ed., pp. 43). New Yok, NY: Teachers College Press. Are you white? Maybe you are not. But if you are, how does the word, white, make you feel? Can not make you feel to uncomfortable I assume, as it is seen everywhere. White walls, white dresses, white advertisements, white people. White is everywhere, you get the point, or do you?
What even is white fragility? Well if you feel a little uncomfortable just reading this, that is your definition, but don't feel bad, I feel uncomfortable just to be writing this if that helps. It is not a bad thing to feel uncomfortable about the topic of white fragility and to think/know that you take place in white fragility, as it just means you are aware to the topic and now you are thinking about it. After all it is what we have been growing up with upon birth. Being white means a lot of things. Usually means better health, better wealth, better social status, "white rights" and so on. Just Because you are white does not mean you cant be sick or in poverty or have poor social status as a whole. But there are a lot of things that can be dealt to you. And being white is not a bad thing to be dealt your way. Yes you may have not asked to been white, may have not asked to be privileged but it is what you have been born as and your honestly not going to complain. You do benefit from white privilege. Although we really don't like to say it, admit it, do we? It is the belief of natural innocence we have of being white that directs us to the denial perhaps. You may have noticed the term white repetitive above and perhaps felt the same discomfort as I have felt writing this piece, what is okay, recognizing discomfort about white fragility is the beginning of being aware of it. If you do not feel discomfort on questioning from white fragility, you may just be having none at all or in total denial of the word existing. If so perhaps you should be looking more into it. "The solution to white fragility, she says, is to build up stamina; just as with exercise, that involves doing the painful task over and over again until you get better. So try it. Say "white." Say it to white people." -Global Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/whiteness-is-a-racial-construct-its-time-to-take-it-apart/article32301637/ Engine roaring, windows down, car flying, music blasting. Charming wheels of my Nana's candy apple blue, metallic painted, glistening, 1984 Camaro Z28. I called it a racecar. Out for our normal cruise to explore and find cool parks, searching through my Nanas endless CD book for her Aqua CD, so i could play my favorite song, Barbie Girl.
A minute passes and ahah, there it is. Gracefully glide the CD out from the cover and insert it into the CD player and skip to the 3rd track. My Nana knew exactly what i was doing, the intro began, and our voices became one to unison with the song. Belching lyric for lyric getting hyped up as the song went on. After the song finished my Nana turned the volume down and told me not to tell my friends at school I like that song. Not to be rude, but to look out for me. After all I got picked on the previous week for having nail polish on, I guess cause boys are not suppose to like that. Side Note; I still listen to the song, its an absolute banger. The second I was born, my socioeconomic status was doomed. Single mother at the age 19, dropped out of college with the father abandoning her when told of the pregnancy. Stranded, alone, unfortunate. All of which I came out powerless of changing. But what did I know at that young age? My insistence to high to evaluate situations of whats difference even is.
It was not until school begun that I began to realize where I stood amongst socially. Heck, it wasn't even me that pointed out that I was different then anyone else. It was pointed out to me by my peers. "Whys your Dad never drop you off at school/ pick you up." Well, uh, I don't even know at this point. My world shook, confused, but things clicking. It doesn't stop there it continues on with questions and that I do not know the answer too! "Why do you always wear that?" Well, uh I don't know I like it? But quiete frankly… its all I really have. Why do they have more clothes then me... Nicer clothes then me? Gears ticking in my brain, clicking. Somethings not right. A sense of where I stand clicks. Holy heck, why is everyone's life better then mine? It really does not make sense in the insistence of my childish eyes.. But its clicking! Oh its clicking. Christmas time is when my biggest realization came to place of where I really stood. Hearing Larid getting his new cool skateboard for Christmas, Ruth with her iPod shuffle, and every other person getting a bike. A BIKE? THATS WHAT I WANTED!!! Number one on my list, why did you get one and I didn't. Best gift I got was a... Oh shoot what was it? Maybe a teddy bear. Why do they get everything they want and I don't, Anything I ask for when out at the store with my mom is a no, but for you its a yes? Clicking... Gears, clicking. Young me realizing where I really stand. As far back as my innocent young mind goes I can not recall the moment I noticed the difference in skin colour. I grew up in a very diverse neighbour-hood. I never hung out with people my colour as a child. Barely recognizing colour was a thing. This thought had stumped me of when the turning point clicked that I was not the same colour of the kids I was hanging out with.
“O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.” The anthem that unites us as one. Brings are Canadian nationality roaring together as our voices collide into one. In my hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, there is no place more like home then a hockey game at “The Aud”. The home of the Kitchener Rangers where 7,131 fans are seated to unite together as Canadians, and watch what we love most, hockey. When Kitchener was to host an exhibition World Junior game between Canada and Finland December 23rd, 2010, tickets instantly sold out as people’s passion for the countries game drove them to the box office immediately as tickets released. Lucky for me I was fortunate enough to hold one of those tickets with extravagating pride to stand witness of the game to come.
When game day came about, there were thousands of people outside surrounding me, everyone dressed in our country’s colours, faces painted, cheering proudly, loud. An atmosphere filled with pride of our countries game. Fans scraping outside trying to find last minute tickets to buy. The line to get in is endless in length full of die-hard Canadians. Feels like it takes forever to get but we finally enter the doors of the arena and proceed to get our popcorn and beer-nuts. The teams are soon to set their skates upon the ice surface for warmups as the stands are already packed. As team Canadas skates glide onto the glistening ice, the crowd goes absolutely wild. The energy in this building is so high I can’t help but become apart of it. The warm ups come to wrap and the game is soon to begin. Our national anthem comes on before the drop of the puck and everyone rises, standing with rightful pride. Every mouth in the building was letting the words of the anthem fall out, not just fall out, belched out! The game begun, the voices only got louder. Every goal scored had the crowd go absolutely wild. Such intense surroundings, surroundings that really made you feel Canadian. A feeling that makes you feel like, “this is who I am”, all from a simple hockey game defining who you are. From starting the wave to soar throughout the stadium to chanting “one more goal” in unison, and singing the national anthem in the last minute of the game with the whole crowd, it was in all of these moments I felt defined as Canadian. Oh dear final field blog, my dear class mates, group members, family :')
First off would like to point out my field experience not just coming from the classroom I was in helped me skelp together strategies and knowledge for my future in teaching, but your field experience and what you shared with me on your blogs and in class helped me greatly for what I have to come in the future and I am totally grateful for that. This experience has really turned me to thinking deeply about my future career such as to where do I want to end up teaching and ultimately what grade I want to shoot for. I wish I had an ultimate answer for these questions but for now will have to make due with being slightly clueless on this topic with just a small jest. Furthermore, to me. My last week was sad, my co op teacher told us she didn't have the heart to tell the kids it was our last day because the kids are always excited for Wednesdays when they get too have us in classroom. So the kids were totally un aware that it was our last day what kind of makes me sad as we never got a good final goodbye. My final day consisted of me inside a French classroom during my teachers prep, in a grade 4 French immersion classroom. I know this may sound a bit weird considering that I do not know any French but this experience was very interesting to me.The teacher talked in English and French enough for us to understand what was going on. They had to come up with a story on where santa is cause he was reported missing. ME and my partner walked around the classroom asking the students "wheres santa?" to help them get some ideas floating in their heads. Funny enough most students replied in French leaving me clueless but then said it in English for me and it really amazed me have creative these kids can get at such a young age.They created storys so quickly, wish you could see it for yourself and see how fast they develop these crazy ideas, really shows off the childs imagination. Onto the next period back with my 7/8s we worked on a paper handout on capitalization as my class is struggling at a low writing level and struggling to us proper capitalization throughout their writing. May seem odd but the children are just a little lazy with it. When the assignment was handed out a lot of kids just didn't do it. I found when I sat next to them they would actually work what made me feel respected by them. Overall this last day was great and I really soaked in a lot, if any of you want to discuss more you have my contact :) see yall around and goodluck next semester! This week our day falls on where our co-op teacher is on recess duty and has a prep. We joined her for both of those, recess duty was defiantly very cold and slippery. We were on the younger kid side and A few kids fell and hurt themselves and the kids on that side seemed to tattle to the teachers non stop. The teachers were pretty chill with it, asked them what they did and then gave them feedback on what to do and then sent them on their way.
During our teachers prep we sat down with her well she talked about plans and then offered and then assisted her with marking papers. I learnt I am a very slow marker at first but pick up speed slowly. Maybe not quite looking forward to marking in future career haha. During our class time the students were working on a project about French explorers. I've noticed most of the curriculum work teachers tend to get their students to do through presentations. The kids at the grade 7/8 age are always questioning, "why do we have to do this", "whats the point of this". Our teacher constantly refreshes the kids that everything she teaches them has a point and shell run through it with them, she tells them they're going to need to know this for high school and is always prepping them for that transition. Sad to see this semester winding down and having only one more day with the kiddos. The teacher tells us everyday her class asks if the interns are coming in. Everytime I go into the classroom the kids are happy to see me and all ask for highfives. (I put my hand as high up as I can and every week they seem to think they can hit it) Hope y'all enjoy your last week at your schools. Also very sad to no longer be in a group with you amazing people soon :'( <3 Elsie Mironuck school has a wide range of diversity, its something I had noticed the first day I went into the school. The School has taken in a large amount of refugees and kids from other cultures. This week i got to take part in recess supervision and witness a school assembly. These two things gave me a great sense for diversity and showed how the school includes everyone in the school no matter where your from. The assembly had a lot of classes take part in the assembly by; Having students lead the assembly, present in the assembly and so on. The thing i found most interesting about this assembly was this thing they called a trashion show, for this a class modeled items that were in the lost in found and kids would claim it if it was theirs well the show was going on. I found it cool cause it was something new that I've never experienced or heard of before.
When it comes to sexual and gender diversity in my class everyone is treated the same although some can tend to be more difficult then some other kids, the boys may take a little more heat then the girls in the classroom as their generally more outgoing then the girls. We have one student in the classroom that doesn't know what they are but the teachers try to include the student, however they are a bit difficult and don't always want to participate in what the teachers have going on, Look forward to seeing what other experiences I can squeeze in before this class is done. |