This week I have been thinking more about how my cultural background influences my learning experiences and my teaching style. The way we are raised and the types of teachers and teaching environments we have encountered throughout our lives largely effect the way we learn and how we approach teaching. These experiences give every person a different perspective in classroom and learning settings.
I grew up in a low-income, single parent home in rural South Dakota with eight siblings. At home I was held to high expectations for behaving, respecting my parents and elders, contributing to household chores, and being mindful of energy/food/resources use and sustainability. As the second youngest child of eight, there was this interesting balance of getting a lot of freedom and being expected to mature quickly and care for myself. I had to learn how to be very independent and learned most things by observing my siblings and other people around me. Most importantly, I developed an understanding of the value of hardwork and taking ownership of one's responsibilities, since I saw my mom working hard to support us and earn the things she had. My home life and the way my mother raised me was of course based the experiences and perspectives she gained from her parents, who learned from their own upbringings, and so on.
Additionally, my cultural background significantly shaped my childhood experiences, and I am interested in the way it has and will influence my teaching approaches. Having both German and Lakota heritage, I feel like I have these two cultural forces that work together to make me who I am, make me learn the way I do, and influence the way I go through life.
As I have spent time in various classrooms so far, I have noticed how I relate to school environments, students, and teachers differently depending on how comfortable and understood I feel among them. For example, at Poudre High School I am noticing that I am much more comfortable with the demographic of students because I can relate to them; many students from low-income homes, struggling students, culturally diverse students, etc. When I had a practicum at Preston Middle School, which is a very well-funded and high performing school, I found it harder to relate to their demographic of students because they mostly came from higher-income households and are priviledged to an extent that I can't really understand. Of course, this is not their fault and I don't mean to say I like one type of school/student better than the other. I just think it is interesting how my experiences influence the way I interact with students.
This duality between my two cultures inspired me to make this #improvisational doodle. I began my splitting the page in two with a black line, then tried to embody the essense of my German and Lakota cultures on each side. They are different, but do not oppose each other and are not separate; rather, they work together to make up an interesting composition.
