Teaching Tolerance Website

Blog Post 10

The Teaching Tolerance website has a lot of useful information on it. Under the classroom activities section, there are pages and pages of different lessons that relate to bullying, race and ethnicity, diversity, religion, sexual orientation, and more. All of these lessons are creative and have a different approach than just lecturing. Some of the lessons are specific to one age group while others have a lesson for multiple age groups just adjusted to the age that is being taught. I see a lot of these lessons being useful to me as a future educator. It gives a different approach to teaching. Each lesson has its objectives listed along with essential questions, materials needed, and guidelines. 

Under the Film Kits tab, there are a handful of kits and subscriptions that are free to teachers. Most of these relate to the age group of 6th to 8th grade, but some can also be for high schoolers. This section does not relate to my journey as an educator because of the level grade level for each of the subscriptions. The good thing about these subscriptions is that they not only have the magazine, but they include other things. For example, the America’s Civil Rights Movement: A Time for Justice is a subscription that includes a film, a teacher’s guide with standard aligned lesson plans, and a poster relating to the topic (Teaching Tolerance, Film Kits). 

The tab called Publications is a road map for anti-bias education at every grade level. The learning outcomes are divided into four main domains- identity, diversity, justice, and action (IDJA). states, “The standards provide a common language and organizational structure: Teachers can use them to guide curriculum development, and administrators can use them to make schools more just, equitable and safe. The ABF is leveled for every stage of K-12 education and includes school-based scenarios to show what anti-bias attitudes and behavior may look like in the classroom” (Anti-bias Framework). I feel like this is also a great tool for teachers. It deals a lot with prejudice and social justice. These things can be taught, and need to be taught, to every age. 

Works Cited

"Anti-bias Framework." Teaching Tolerance. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

"Film Kits." Teaching Tolerance. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

Risk Factors for Youth

Blog Post 9

When you look at how the world is today, there are many drastic changes in the way our society is. There are a few things I believe are great risk factors for today’s youth. The first is the amount of violence shown in movies, television shows, and video games. I was watching television with a couple friends one day. As we were flipping through the channels, we noticed that almost every show had some sort of violence incorporated. One key example of this is the crime show Law and Order SVU. While this show is entertaining, they also provide insight to way criminals think. Violence has not only become a problem in the streets of any city, but it is becoming a major problem in schools. There have always been fights in school, but it is becoming more serious. When kids are bullied, they think the acceptable way to get back at the kids picking on them is to bring a gun to shoot the bullies or themselves. In certain areas, gangs can be a problems and cause more violence. This just depends on where the school is located. Students who attend the schools are not the only problem to worry about. In the past couple of years, there have been outsiders come in and have shootings. A perfect example of this is the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December of 2012. In a perspective article called “After Newtown- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness,” the author states, “These four events share two common characteristics: all four shooters were apparently mentally ill, and all four used guns with large-capacity magazines, allowing them to fire multiple rounds of ammunition without reloading (Barry, 2013). 

Another great risk factor is bullying. This can be an issue in many ways including: gender, gender orientation, social status, and many more. We have talked a lot about gender orientation in class, and I think this is one of the most common ways bullying occurs. Bullying relates to violence. Especially as people get older, you hear cases of suicide. While the reasons are sometimes unknown, there are many cases of people feeling worthless and different. There are many risk factors, but violence and bullying are the two I think are the greatest. Both of these things effect my journey as an educator, because I will witness and have to deal with bullying and violence in one extreme or another. While of course I hope it is not the worst extreme, I have to be prepared to deal with anything thrown at hand. For instance, the six adults who were killed in the shooting at Sandy Hill Elementary saw it as their responsibility to protect those kids. 

Work Cited

Barry, Colleen L., Emma E. McGinty, Jon S. Vernick, and Daniel W. Webster. "Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness." The New England Journal of Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Geographical Loaction

Blog Post 8

I have lived in two different areas in my life. I grew up in Woodstock, Georgia. While it is not a big city or a country town, it is somewhere in between. I grew up in a pretty big neighborhood where I learned a lot about community. You had your neighbors and then the people who lived on the same street. From what I remember, everyone got along. No one was hesitant to lend a helping hand. If we needed something we were able to ask our neighbors, but if they didn’t have it or it was more than an egg or a cup of milk, the store was no more than five to eight minutes away. Not only was it close, but there were many options. Shopping malls and other things like that were not to far away. 

When I got older, my family moved to Canton, Georgia. All I knew was that I was now living in the middle of two cow pastures. Don’t get me wrong, the landscape was beautiful but way different than what I was used to. The neighborhood I moved in two was a lot smaller than the one we moved from, but there was not as much of a sense of community. The people who lived in there were stuck up and loved being in your business. Other than my neighborhood, people were really nice. It was a small town so everyone basically knew everyone if you grew up there. My friend’s dad would tell us stories all the time about all of the work he would have to do in the summer. Another one of my friends actually lived on a farm, and she would talk about all the things they had to do. I thought doing yard work was bad. There was not a whole lot to do in that area. Even though we had a grocery store down the road from our house, everything was pretty distant. The closest Target was about forty-five minutes away. The longer we lived out there, the busier the area got. A lot of the open land was cleared and turned in to something. 

I think both of the places I have lived have impacted me to be the person I am today. I feel like the move to Canton, was something my whole family needed. Although we went through some rough times, I know it happened for a reason. Through it, we meant many wonderful people, learned many lessons, and grew closer as a family. It gave us a new perspective on how people were raised and how they do things. 

Mormon Church Experience

Blog Post 7

This past Sunday, I went with two classmates to a Mormon church in Dahlonega. Growing up, when my family went to church, we went to a Catholic church. We did not attend regularly, but when I got older we started going to a non-denominational church. Before going to the Mormon church, I was honestly nervous because I don’t know much about what they believe or if we would be welcome. I had never known a Mormon, but I got to talking about it with a friend who is. This is why we chose to go there. When we got there, I was surprised how nice everyone was. I was worried that they would ask if I came from a different religious background, and one girl did. I was surprised that she didn’t care. She was super nice, and offered to answer any questions we had when the ward was dismissed. 

When we arrived, I noticed some similarities but also many differences. I have been to many Baptist churches. Some similarities I saw were how the people dress. Men wore suites and women worn proper dresses or skirts. This differs from my church because you can literally wear pajamas and no one would care. Even though people don’t actually do that, people wear jeans all the time. Another difference I noticed between my church is that the Mormon church calls their services a ward. The one we went to was about an hour long. Before it was over, they mentioned that after there were other meetings. I asked my friend what that meant, and she told me that they are normally there for three or four hours every Sunday. My church is about an hour and a half every Sunday.

There were many things that happened that I was not positive on what was going on. They did a lot of voting as a church on members of different councils. This is a small thing but I noticed how when they prayed and talked, sometimes, they would use words like “thou” and “thee.” I have seen these words used in the Bible, but the pastor at my church and other leaders do not use that language. The main difference was how they have the Book of Mormon. I am still not positive on what it is, but one guy shared his testimony and referred to it a lot.