Racism & Assessment

EDUC 350
In class this week we discussed the 5 levels of prejudice. We also took a hidden bias test and the results actually shocked me. I had never thought of myself as having some kind of preference among people. It was a good thing to be aware of. Our professor gave us a list of scenarios and we talked about what we would do when put in that situations. It was nice to hear that I am not the only one who would prefer to stay out of confrontations dealing with race. On Wednesday we talked about a reading assignment we had for homework called "Narrative of Whiteness", it was a very interesting article. While reading this I realized that there are people in majority groups who do feel sorry and do comprehend the struggles of underrepresented groups. We watched a video that absolutely warmed my heart. This little boy was giving a speech about his teachers and administrators believing in him and it really opened my eyes to how much of an impact we can make to these amazing children. While that video was uplifting we also watched a video in which a teacher told her students that those who had blue eyes were superior to those who had brown eyes. It was heartbreaking to see how fast those children changed. The ones with blue eyes would call the brown eyed children names and there was even a fight between them because of this new "rule" within the classroom. The next day the teacher turned it around and told them that the brown eyed students were superior now of course there was a distasteful look on the students with blue eyes because they got used to being "better". In the end the students realized what being inferior felt like and they noticed and learned that you should not judge people by what they look like.

This week we focused on NCTCS standard 2b which states that "teachers embrace diversity in school community and the world". We have to be accepting of everyone of our students so that we can focus on teaching our content. I will apply everything I learned this week to my future classroom by making sure that I am aware of the 5 levels of prejudice and avoid them and prevent them at any cost. I will make sure that all my students feel accepted in the classroom. For my outside research this week I tried to look for ways to avoid prejudice and how to deal with your students asking you questions regarding differences between each other, I found this article that could help me.
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/teach/elemtips.htm

EDUC 410
This week in class talked about assessment and the importance of being able to assess our students. We also got a project in which we had to look up the different policies and laws that govern assessment. I had not realized how much of a controversy standardized testing had become until I started doing some research. I always knew there was some type of law which obligated me to take the EOG at the end of every school year but I had no idea that there were federal, state and local policies that governed assessment. As a student I hated tests but now that I realize that it was a necessity I thank my teachers for making sure that I was learning what I had to learn. I now know that  there are so many different ways of assessing your student learning besides just making them take a test. This is directly connected to the NCTCS standard 4h which states "teachers use a variety of methods to assess what each student has learned". Some of the methods that could be used are summative and formative assessment. I will use this in my future classroom because I can't just give out a test every time I want to check on my students. I can use different projects and activities  that relate to what we are learning so that we can maximize and strengthen comprehension.