Journal reflection #2

If I were a principal of a school one of the common practices I would change would be the cafeteria seating arrangements. In most schools around the country the majority of the students tend to sit with people that they are familiar with.  What I mean by this is that students from different racial backgrounds, cultural, religious, and social backgrounds tend to sit with each other.  If I were principal of a High School, I would implement a diverse seating arrangements.  I would have the African-American students sit with the Asian-American students.  I would have the “upper middle class” students sit with students that are from a working class family.  I would have the Muslim students sit with, the Christian students.  I believe that food is really an intimate part of a person’s life, and by eating with people that do not share the same beliefs, this in turn will lead to toleration and acceptance.  I obviously believe that some students would object to this, as they would think I was forcing my ideology on to them.  I reject this suggestion that I would apply personal opinions/feelings towards student integration during lunch time.  Students tend to gravitate towards people of their own race and culture.  By implementing this sort of “Lunch time interaction”, understanding of culture, beliefs, and customs will be achieved. 

Journal BLOG Reflection 1

Journal Blog Reflection #1.

The most significant teacher that I have had the privilege of learning from would be Mrs. Donna Dixon.  She was my 4^th grade teacher.  She cared deeply about her students, because she wanted them to exceed and to flourish in life.  She was a teacher that cared, about the personal lives of the students, and she made a point to show us that doing well in school is the key to success in life.  She would reward us when we scored great on tests, with little candies.  By doing these little things, she would encourage us to do even better, so that we could get more candies.   I still remember days in which I would do well on a test, and Ms. Dixon would tell me to stand and tell the other students, what I got on a test.  When I said, 100% I would get satisfaction in knowing that I had scored higher than, one of the best students in class.  She had many characterics and its hard to sum them all up in one short page.  I would like to say, that her best characteristic was that she was really patient.  She was one of two female role models that I  looked up to.   Since, I’m an ESL teacher here in Leipzig, Germany I know that I will be teaching until the day that I die.  I’ve worked at other places in my life, starting from bagging groceries in High School to working at Fed Ex Ground in University.  The only job that I “feel” at home with is teaching.  The most important characteristic that Ms. Dixon had, and something that I have now, is caring about the students.  In order to be an effective teacher, one must care about the students as well as the discipline.