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Guernica

discrimination

I remember being discriminated against in high school when I went to the mall. If I wore sweatpants and my hair in a messy ponytail, it seemed the employees wouldn't help me because I looked like I didn't have any money because of my age and appearance. They even seemed suspicious of me, as if I might shoplift just because I was a teenager. But if I wore nice clothes, carried a nice purse, and had my hair and makeup done, they would run right over to me all smiley asking if they could help, hoping to make a sale. I didn't really handle the situation in any certain way, probably because I'm not a big fan of confrontation. My "I don't care what you think of me, I'm never going to see you again" attitude didn't really change either.

I definitely discriminated against my roommates/classmates this summer while studying abroad. The majority of them attended UT Austin, UVA, and Vanderbilt and all they seemed to want to do was party. I associated their drinking with being southern, even though it probably was just because it was summertime. Another difference is that they were there taking Spanish classes to complete gen ed requirements and Spanish minors, while I was one of the few Spanish majors there, and really wanted to experience the culture so that I could become a better teacher. I didn't want to waste a minute doing something I could do at home in the US (partying). Another factor was that I paid for my study abroad with my own money, which made me take the experience a lot more seriously than my peers whose parents paid their way. In retrospect, I wish I would have enrolled in foreign institution.

I can use the mall experiences to combat discrimination in my classroom by not judging my students and others based on their appearance, age, and other factors. From my experience in Spain I realized that everyone has different motivations and goals for doing things, just as my future students will have different reasons for taking my classes.

One person's junk is another's treasure...

It was hard to narrow down the choices from In The Making for my lesson plan activity - there were so many great ideas! But I ended up liking the Sourcing Inspiration section more than the Scoping An Audience section, and decided to go with 2L - "Three fictitious opportunities are described below. Choose the one that seems most likely to inspire you and write a proposal for the work of art you plan to create. Your proposal can take the form of an oral report, diagrams, models, sketches, digital simulations, or a PowerPoint presentation." The second bullet point reads, "You have received an invitation to participate in a citywide arts event called D.I.R.T., an acronym for Delight in Refuse and Trash. You have no budget, but you do have ten college students who will be your assistants for an entire semester. The work will be exhibited in the Earth Day celebration at the municipal museum." I was originally drawn to this studio exercise because of a project I described in an older post that I did in Elementary school. We walked around the school grounds for a couple hours picking up trash, and made a scarecrow out of our findings as a class. It was so much fun! I like that the exercise requires a proposal. I'm thinking it will be kind of like a rough draft that will require my students to think their ideas through. And as an added bonus, if the school requires writing across the curriculum, I'm covered! A part I will probably remove is the having 10 college students as assistants. Instead, to foster a sense of community in the classroom, I will allow students to work individually, in pairs, or small groups. Choice will definitely be a motivator for this project, as students will be able to choose who they work with, the form of their proposal (has anyone else studied Eisner's Multiple Forms of Representation? - love it!), and what trash items they use - aluminum cans, cereal boxes, old clothing, etc. They can even find items at garage sales, and I will do a mini lesson on Dadaist Duchamp and his use of ready mades. The day I introduce the assignment we will clean up the school grounds to see if we can find anything inspiring to use as springboards. I like the idea of watching the Garbage documentary to get ideas flowing too. I will allow the projects to be 2D or 3D. Difficulties I imagine - students may not want to get dirty, but I'll warn them ahead of time to bring rubber gloves if I don't have gloves to hand out. I would definitely want to assign this project while the weather is pleasant. Wet garbage and cold students probably wouldn't be too much fun. Since the possibilities are endless, students may have a hard time coming up with ideas, but working with a partner and doing some research online can help with this problem. I imagine I'll need wood and metal glue available for student use since they'll be sticking all sorts of strange items together. And I'll definitely need soap, hand sanitizer, and febreeze! Timing could be another issue, but I'm thinking students will need at least two weeks since a proposal is required too. Students will present their proposals during the first week, and we will look at them again during our final critique to see how the project changed from the original idea. I'll definitely need to develop a good rubric for this assignment, and group members will have to participate equally. Students sure will learn that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that one person's junk is another person's treasure! :)

Classroom Rules

Addition to Tuesday, Feb 2 HW

guilty - talk about people, when I don't workout/go to church enough, doing something fun when my homework isn't done, spending money
worthy - teaching Spanish to my elementary students, working, volunteering, when I'm a good sister/friend/daughter/granddaughter/Goddaughter
laugh - my boyfriend, my Godmother and her son, movies, my students, my friends
embarrass - being late, giving speeches/presentations
infuriates - wastefulness (time, money, energy, food, things), disorganization, messes, parents sometimes, friends sometimes, waiting
thrills - nature, children, art, running, boyfriend, traveling, 4wheeling, snowboarding, concerts, sledding, water skiing, tubing
comforts - food, friends, family, home, boyfriend, running
sad - music, movies, books, weather, family and friends and boyfriend sometimes

qualities that apply to me:
assertive, playful, joyful, courageous, fearful, proud, daring, opinionated, pious, bossy, believer, optimist, bold, outspoken, ambitious, polite, controlling, hyperactive, determined, self-centered, anxious, confident, energetic, enthusiastic, organized, outdoorsy, athletic, intelligent

transpersonal traits:
family - daughter, sister, niece, cousin, granddaughter, Goddaughter
gender - female
education - University of ABCDEF senior, College of Education student, Spanish major, Art endorsement
sexual orientation - straight
nationhood - German, Swedish, Scots-Irish, French-Canadian
race - Caucasian
body type - tall, athletic, curvy
leisure activities - reading, hiking, fishing, running, working out, concerts, snowboarding, laying out, water skiing, tubing, boating, photography, scrapbooking
political beliefs - registered Republican but vote for whichever candidate I think is better, love Obama, for abortion, want troops home, think NCLB needs to be redone, want same tax percentage for all, want health care for all, want my family to be able to hunt (gun control)
religion - Christian Methodist
health - eat healthy, try to exercise 3x week, don't smoke, take daily vitamin, see docs regularly
economic status - dependent of upper middle class parents, have 2 jobs at school and 1 at home, broke
age - 21, almost 22
generational identity - Y?
marital status - have a boyfriend, hope to be engaged in next 3 years
diet - sweet tooth, lots of milk and dairy, parents would kill me if I was a vegetarian or picky eater, like fruits/veggies/carbs, don't have any food allergies (yet anyway - mom and brother do)
websites - postsecret, facebook, yahoo, google, wikipedia, blogger, online banking, Iowa isis, icon, etc
music - rock, country, pop, indie, some alternative/emo/punk, some rap/hip hop/r&b
fashion - whatevers on sale - American Eagle, DSW, Express, Jcrew, Target
art - Kahlo, Warhol, Walker Evans, Mary Cassat, Monet, Picasso, Duchamp. newer - Mary Engelbreit & Sticks

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