Blog 2

 I do think that we all have a bias.  Some of these biases can be intentional, but research is discovering that many times bias is unintentional.  A great example of this from one of the videos was writing recommendation letters and comparing between men and women.  The person writing the letter likely meant well when recommending this person, but the language used in each recommendation was often times different based on if the person was male or female.

In order to recognize and overcome these biases, people need to reflect and have conversations about this topic.  Like I said before, many biases are unintentional, so having conversations with others and reflecting on personal choices can help recognize and overcome these.  Through this collaboration with other teachers would be a great way that I can become a more culturally responsive teacher.  Along with this, I believe it is important to get to know students and the cultures they represent.  Building these relationships with students allows students to feel welcome and valued in the classroom.  Instead of adding in single things that highlight the cultures represented in the classroom, integrating the culture throughout the curriculum and activities that are already planned in the classroom is another important way to become more culturally responsive for my students.  Finally, it is important for students to see themselves represented in the classroom to know that they are welcome and important.  As the teacher, I can accomplish this by continuing to build a more culturally diverse classroom library.  I want my students to see themselves and their cultures represented in the stories that we are reading together.  It is important that a certain type of character is not only portrayed one way.  This is great for students to see themselves, but it also benefits every student because they begin to become more culturally aware and responsive as well.

The first thing that Kamehameha is doing to embrace student culture is building relationships between students and teachers that encourage trust and respect.  This allows a strong foundation to be built for learning within their school.  Students are learning values that are major components of the Hawaiian culture but will extend far beyond Hawaii and benefit the students wherever their lives take them in the future.  Lessons are focused on culturally relevant topics.  This crosses to every content area.  A literature teacher from this school spoke in the video and discussed how she had to use the culture and revamp her content to meet the needs of the students.  They learned about several different topics, but she encouraged their point of view to be considered and for them to view these different texts through their own personal lens.  This allows students to make connections with their culture and others as well as make sense of the world around them using their own culture as a foundation.  Finally, by using these culturally relevant strategies throughout the school, Kamehameha found that students had strong values connected to their culture and, as a result, wanted to give back to their communities.  Not only are students learning necessary academic content, they are also building strong values connected to their culture.  I think this is a great thing to learn from this school.  Teaching academics is obviously important, but it also important to remember values as well.  As teachers, we are tasked with the responsibility of learning about the cultures represented in our classroom and then instead of ignoring those, capitalizing on it just like the teachers at the Kamehameha school have done.

In the final video, the teacher is working to find a way to increase writing in her classroom.  Her students don't write very much and they are only copying her work.  To encourage more authentic writing, she begins to incorporate their interests.  As a result, students began writing more, became excited about writing, and even referred to themselves as writers.  The strategy used here was getting to know students in order to learn about what interests them and incorporating this into the classroom experiences.  I do think this could be considered culturally responsive teaching because interests can be a derivative of one's culture.  The things that we are interested in often times are a reflection of our culture.  Students were able to use their own ideas and interests in their writing which was a reflection of who they are, so I think this could be a great way to become a more culturally responsive teacher.