Reflect

Similar to my last entry, I experience privilege as a white, educated, middle-class individual.  I am employed, insured, and live in a safe community.  I don’t have to worry about a place to live or food for our family.  I grew up in the same way and have not experienced any other lifestyle.  I may experience marginalization being female. 
Content in the math curriculum is pretty straightforward I think.  There have been small changes to problems presented but only regarding names and experiences.  The names seem to be more gender-neutral and the problems or situations described are more diverse.  I feel like it is difficult to have much diversity in math but definitely needs to be seen in the literature.  
I can make my classroom more equitable by making the content more relatable to all of my students.  I also want my students to feel that my classroom is a safe learning environment.  They can come in any time to get help or just as a place they feel comfortable coming to.   

How do you experience privilege and marginalization?I experience privilege because I am a White, Middle Class person.  I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from or how my mortgage is going to be paid next month.  However, with that being said I also have worked for all this and to get myself to this point in my life.  I know not everyone has the same resources or support system that I had growing up so I try to encourage my students and volunteer in areas where I can help individuals the way I was helped by my family and friends growing up.  I feel as though I have been marginalized in the past due to my appearance.  I have struggled with my weight much of my life and I feel that in some cases interviewing for jobs in the past that it had something to do with why I did not get some positions.  Nothing specific was every said to indicate that but it is a feeling I had when the interviews were occurring and the path that the interviews went it.

Who sees themselves and their own lives reflected in our curriculum and our classroom materials?In my curriculum of Mathematics you see that most if not all of them are white males.  So it was the white male population back in the very early years that developed all the theorems and rules that we now see in Mathematics.


How might you use your own privilege to make your classroom and school more equitable?My classroom is a safe place where I hope students feel comfortable enough to come to when they need a place to take a break from reality. Being a teenager is extremely hard so the more safe places we can give our students the better.

Privilege and Marginalization
I am very privileged in many areas but have also experienced marginalization as a female. As a college student, my advisor would not let me sign up for the 'hard' science classes even though that was a primary area of interest for me. I also routinely experience different treatment in meetings and suggestions are not accepted the same if someone identifying as a man presents the same idea.

In my classroom, I work very hard to present a variety of cultures/genders/religions in the books I read to students. I want to make sure that there are examples of scientists, doctors, and leaders from every group presented.

As mentioned in the last entry, I experience privilege as a white, straight, middle-class individual in our community. I may experience marginalization for being a woman at times; in Privilege 101 I connected with the author sharing that as a mentally-ill woman, her problems were seen as PMS and not the PTSD she was experiencing. Primarily white individuals see themselves in our curriculum and classroom materials, though I have fewer identity-based examples in the math classroom. It is important for our examples to be diversified in the humanities classes so all students can see themselves in literature, history, etc. Our staff could make our classrooms and school more equitable by bringing in people from diverse backgrounds, including parents of students in our school community, to share ways they have felt oppressed and explain to students how they can be an advocate for their peers in our primarily white community. 

How do you experience privilege and marginalization? The survey stated that I checked 93% more than other quiz-takers, so I definitely experience privilege in many ways. I am a white, educated, heterosexual, employed, insured married individual that owns my own home. I live in a very comfortable clean safe secure community where everyone looks just like me. I grew up in a two-parent home, not far from where I live today, so I have never had the opportunity to experience a different environment or lifestyle. My marginalization comes from the mere fact that I am female. Because of this, need to work harder to succeed at many things and am sometimes discouraged from doing, saying, or having my own opinion. Who sees themselves and their own lives reflected in our curriculum and our classroom materials? In the middle school math curriculum, I feel like most problems are pretty straightforward as far as content goes, however, I have seen changes in the presentation and representation of word problems over the past several years. For example, the names of people being described in a word problem are more diverse, occupations that are discussed are not so gender specific, and examples use different real-world scenarios. How might you use your own privilege to make your classroom and school more equitable? I can make my classroom more equitable by creating content and a curriculum that is reflective of my students. Have extra pencils, paper, and calculators available for student use. Show kindness to students who are new to the district, or compassion to those who may feel isolated or troubled. 

How do you experience privilege and marginalization?I am privileged as a white woman who lives and works in a primarily white suburban area.  I don't feel threatened or have any fears as I come and go through my community.  I may see the marginalization as a woman working in a man's world.  Things have changed but there is still a ways to go.  I know of local companies that have just recently hired a man and woman for the same positions but the man was offered more money.  This was brought up in a community meeting that I attended. 

Who sees themselves and their own lives reflected in our curriculum and our classroom materials? I look at the reading material and social studies textbooks and can see privileged individuals throughout.  Until I started taking workshops that really forced us to look deeper and become more focused I never really noticed it, since everyone looked like me.

How might you use your own privilege to make your classroom and school more equitable?  I have been trying to find materials that work for the whole group.  I want to make sure every group is being represented.  We need to make all individuals are represented when we are teaching.

How do you experience privilege and marginalization? I experience privilege because I am white, heterosexual. Everywhere I go almost everyone looks like me and I blend in. I don't "stand out in the crowd".  I experience Marginalization because I am a women. Many men still see our gender as not being able to do certain things as well as they can and we are not paid as much as our male counterparts doing the same job. In our curriculum many of the lessons are around white characters and their lives. If given the opportunity I can help make our classroom material more diverse. I would like to use more materials geared around the different ethnicities that we have in our classroom and hope that at least one of my students sees someone like them doing great things and it inspires them.