learning from kids

I have always believed that adults don't give young kids enough credit. Kids are always learning from their environments they pick up on things like how adults speak to them. They can tell when someone is just partially listening to them or if they have the adults full attention. They are so young and most have not been jaded by the real world. I know when I was younger I could always tell what teachers liked me and what teachers didn't just by their tone of voice when they were speaking to me. And also in the way that they went about teaching. Ralph Fletcher talks about students being able to pick up on those teachers that don't like to teach, and don't like children at all. I think that as adults we can learn from children to just listen to those around us and tune into how we talk to one another. If we relate to each other in a personal manner then our students will learn from our examples just like we should learn from them on how to survey our surroundings.

racial and ethnic groups

Growing up I was always around a mix of cultures and ethnicity. Not specifically in my high school because my high school was predominately white, but in the high school that my mother taught in. As a child I would go to visit my mom at school because she worked on the theater productions at night so I would hang out at rehearsals and get to know the students of Dwight Morrow High School. I would love to expand my knowledge of ethnic groups I did this as a child by always being friends with everyone and get to know their background but since college I haven't really had the chance and would love to work in a school like an abbott school for a little while so that I can experience what the children are going through in the poorer districts.