Anti-Bias Activity: Culture Calender

         My anti-bias activity I chose is a Culture Calender from Roots and Wings on page 195. The reason I chose this activity is because there are many, many activities that stem off of it as well as the meaning of the different culture holidays for the children. The children will easily find out about other children's families and holidays that they celebrate in their culture. I think this activity would be very effective on the children also, because they will see the holidays the school celebrates. This is an activity the children and the teachers could keep on all year long. In the book it states that this calender will help the children recall the past, celebrate the present, and anticipate the future.

        This activity is age appropriate because it does not support the "tourist" aspect of anti-bias curriculum (York, page 182). It is an activity that the children will always be involved and is all year long (instead of just a certain time period). This activity will inspire the children to learn and be exciting about celebrating other cultures. It can be included in different themes such as Families, My Culture, and Our Class (York 195). The Cultural Calender would be a good activity to carry out during the whole year for an anti-bias activity because it does not include many different conversations about deep rooted stereotypes. It spends enough time on culture without making stereotypes stronger (York 187).

         Some of the activity goals that this activity uses are introducing children to other cultures, help children live happily and cooperatively in a diverse world, and that many different people live in our community. I definitely think that this activity will introduce children to other cultures because it will involve many different family cultures. They will recognize their family and appreciate their own cultural heritage as well as their classmate's. This activity will encourage children to be happy and be cooperative in a diverse world because it introduces many other cultures and recognizes different feelings and emotions towards anti-bias. They will be sharing their families celebrations with others as well as a experiencing belonging in the classroom. This helps the children become more positive about themselves within the cultural curriculum (York 128). This activity will show them that many different people live within their community. The children will experience and explore similarities and differences in a positive way as well as show increasing comfort with human diversity (York 140). Through this activity, the children will develop positive outlooks on different cultures, families and celebrations through out the community and in the world. The children will also become comfortable and empathetic with the diverse group of people in our world.

         To produce the Cultural Calender there are a few materials needed. The materials needed are 12 calender grids. You can create your own or create it on your computer. I think it would be awesome if you create your own version of a big calender and hung it up in focal point of the classroom. You would need a yard stick to achieve that. You also need fine point felt-tip pens.

       

         After you have an idea and the materials needed for the project, then start by sending a note home to parents about the calender and ask them to make a list of the holidays and celebrations they observe each year. Create a time line with all of the family's information on holidays and celebrations and then add all of their holidays/celebrations  to the main calender in the classroom. "Keep the calender up all year long. This will help the children recall the past, identify the present, and anticipate the future." (York, 195) It will be important to add information about the holidays the school, community and local neighborhoods participate in.

          A few of the books you can read along with the calender is called Calender by Myra Gohn Livingston. It the book it explains about all of the seasons in each 12 months of the year. It goes into the feelings one would get in each of the months.

       This next book is called The World Holiday Book. It's got a celebration for each day of the year. Very multicultural and lighthearted when it comes to reasons to celebrate!


            An extension you could use with the Cultural Calender is invite each child to bring an item from an unique holiday the celebrate. Each child can have a turn sharing the special celebration and the artifact form the holiday and their culture. The children will learn new celebrations from each other and get to handle items from a different families cultural celebrations.

         I really enjoy this simple way to incorporate multi-cultural  and anti-bias curriculum in the preschool aged setting. This also would require parent involvement which would stregthen the relationship between parents and their children's anti-bias curriclum. Parents support is need in these crucial steps to anti-bias education for young children!

Film Critique: The Princess & the Frog

The Princess & the Frog

Orginal Release Date: December 11, 2009



The Princess & the Frog is the first Disney film with an African American Princess. The film takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. This inspirational story is about girl names Tiana who who believes in working hard to achieve her dreams. She has a seamstress mother (who works for a wealthy white man , Mr La Bouff and his daughter Charlotte) and father who works very hard for his family with the dream to be a chef where his family will open a restaurant where "all walks of life"will come to eat. With voodoo and the Shadow Man, this story transforms into Tiana meeting her "Frog Prince"and going on an adventure with an talking Aligator who plays the trumpet and a Firefly who helps them along the way.

In the beginning of the film, you see Charlotte and Tiana sitting in Charlotte's room listening to Tiana's mom telling the story of The Frog Princess while sewing a dress for Charlotte. You can see that in the beginning Charlotte's room is quite big a colorful (and so is her dress). Tiana and her mom, Eudora, are wearing the same dark green color. It signifies the differences in the lifestyles each Tiana and Charlotte live and their race. Charlotte's dad comes in as Tiana and Eudora are leaving, and asks Eudora to sew her a dress like the princess in the book (in hopes to become a princess one day). "We see the shadow of Big Daddy sternly telling Charlotte that he will no longer be a pushover — and then, in a baby-talk voice, asking, “Now who wants a puppy?”"(The Oberlin Review).This specific scene I believe is showing some form of white privilege by the way Charlotte and Mr. La Bouff acts. Charlotte is given whatever is asked of her father and Tiana views this as she walks out of Charlotte's room.


 I thought it was interesting to see that Tiana lives in an all black neighborhood. The color contrast  between Charlotte's house and clothing and Tiana's clothing, neighborhood and home is different. Charlotte's home/clothing is colorful and big, Tiana's is dark and her and her neighbor's blothing are dark tones as well. When children view this, this has a negative affect on their view on white and colored people. It gives the messages that white people are "rich", "colorful" and therefore, "interesting" . That colored people are "poor", "dressed badly" and "not as interesting". Another thing I noticed was that all of the African American people look alike. They have the same features like noses, lips, eyes and hair. This is a stereotype of African American people for children to see.


I also thought this scene was interesting. This is at the beginning when Prince Naveen arives into New Orleans. His valet, Lawrence, is a white man. Later in the movie, you learn that Lawrence lives a poor life and provides for the rest of his family. Another thing interesting about this scene is that he has white women swooning over him (this could also be because he is a prince). In different parts of the movie also (in the restaurant Tiana works in and at Charlotte's party there are different races of people).



Once Tiana reaches her amount to buy her restaurant, these two brother realtors (Mr. and Mr. Fenner) sell her the restaurant. Tiana then see's them at Charlotte's party for Prince Naveen. She talks about her excitement for the new restaurant and they tell her "You were outbid by a man. A woman of your backround would have had your hands full." This is creating a stereotype for women and African and American women. Their blatantly calling her out on the fact that she wouldn't have been able to handle to the restaurant, the work, or the money. This scene is very offensive.

At this point in the film, the Shadow Man has turned Prince Naveen into a frog. He finds Tiana, mistakes her for a Princess and asks her for a kiss. Tiana becomes as frog too and so starts their journy in the Bayou where they meet Lewis an aligator that plays the trumpet and a firelfy names ray. In an article about the stereotypes in this film, the Oberlin Review talks about how Ray signifies what it's like to live in rural Louisiana and that anyone colored who lives there is poor (Ray's accent and that he's missing teeth).



We then run into another steroptype, Hillbillies. Along their adventure in the Bayou, the frogs run into 3 men who are frog hunting. The hillbillies aren't wearing shoes, all are wearing overalls, have guns, beards, southern accents, and are missing teeth. They also seem very dim and not very smart.




We then run into Mama Odie who is the good voodoo woman. Tiana and Prince Naveen try to fnd her to undo their curse. She then sings a song about finding themsleves and what they need. This was one of the better lessons for children. She won't change them back before they know what they need. Although Mama Odie kind of plays a Fairy Godmother type role, she is African American, bigger and missing teeth (shows that Disney is trying to diversify Fairy Godmothers) "she only plays a minor role" and "seems very scatterbrained". - The Oberlin Review

After they travel on a Ferry boat back to New Orleans and the Shadow Man tricks Tiana and Prince Naveen. They realize that what they needed was love and choose to stay together even though they are both frogs.

They end up getting married as frogs by Mama Odie and then turn back into human. It's a happy ever after and Tiana then gets her restaurant. But I noticed that when Tiana pays for her restaurant with her savings, Prince Naveen is with her. This to me, shows that only once when Tiana was married to a man (and a man of power at that) they finally give her the restaurant. You can also tell at the end of the film that Prince Naveen and Tiana are of different races and thus, this is the first interracial marrige with Disney.

 

This film has good messages and disturbing views that our children could see. I think the good messages are that there are differenet Racial views of people such as Prince Naveen and his Valet Lawrence, and that there are a mix of different ethnicities in the restaurant and at Charlotte's party. Children could easily see that the bad ideas are White Privelege (Charlotte and Mr. La Bouff, when he gets the parade king because he has a lot of money), the color contrast between the white people and colored people, and what the realtors say to Tiana about having her hands full.
Some parts are apparopriate and some parts aren't. I am a little torn about how I feel after watching this film, but some of the messages are ispiring for children. No matter what, race shouldn't justify what you get out of life, it should be the way you treat other people and how hard you work to achieve your dreams.

Picture Book Analysis: Henry's Freedom Box

This book is written by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson and published in 2007 (originally published in 1872 & is also a true story).
Henry's Freedom Box in about a boy who grows up in a culture and environment of slavery. The story takes place in the mid-1800's when slavery is in America was very popular. Henry lived with his family at their master's house. One day when the master is sick, he calls for Henry and tells Henry that he's giving Henry to his son. Henry leaves his family to go with his new master and work in his factory, pulling tobacco leaf. Henry meets a woman and they have a family together. Then, their master sells Henry's wife and children. Then, Henry got the idea to "mail himself to freedom". He got in a large wooden crate with the help of his friends, and the sent him off to Pennsylvania. When he finally arrives, his new friends open the box and welcome him to his freedom.

This story's environment takes place in a world where slavey is extremely present. There is no stereo-type in this story. The African American's in this story look different and seem like their oppressed. All African America's in the story are dipicted in a real way and don't appear like they are illustrated by a certain stereotype.

Henry's master is the one with the power at first when he sells Henry's wife and kids. As he becomes upset and comes up with a plan, he then mails himself to Pennsylvania. The master's power over Henry is overwhelming and not a positive power. When he comes up with this plan, I think the power shifts and he feels like he has his own fate in his hands. The power used by Henry is positive because he his changing the fate of his freedom.

The language used is appropriate for this story. The language used is truthful to the situation and slavery. It says in the beginning of the story that Henry is is a slave and slaves weren't allowed to know their birthdays.  Also, in the beginning his mother says "Do you see those leaves blowing in the wind? They are torn from the trees like slave children are torn with their families." Then when Henry says goodbye to his family he looks at the feild and the leaves swirling in the wind. When the story turns and Henry is going toward freedom, it illustrates the white friends that help him go to Pennsylvania and how they don't support slavery.

The pictures in this book illustrates the fact that African American's were owned as slaves. It shows that they were at the bottom of races and weren't valued. The illustrations in this book also show what it may look like to be oppressed (wheb Henry is devistated by the news of his family being sold) and the the extreme happiness of what it's like to be on the way to freedom.


The stereotype of slaves in this book, I feel are represented appropriately. The master gives Henry away to his son (which was what hapened often back then). It shows the slaves tearing tobacco leaves and shows that master with a stick(it says in the story if they messed up the master would beat you) and when Henry gets married to Nancy and his master sells their children (which also used to happen back then).

I would definitely recommend this book to read to children. The illustrations are appropriately presented and the story is true. It represents the culture of slavery acurately. It would be a good story to use to teach children about slavery, their environment and what it would be like to be one of the few to escape slavery and be mailed to freedom.

Who am I?

My name is Andi Smith, I'm a silly 20 year old girl who resides in Grass Valley. My primary language is English, however, I did take 4 years of spanish (3 in highschool, 1 at Sierra College). I was born in San Louis Obispo and shortly after (when I was 3) my family moved to Nevada City to be closer to my grandparents and other family. So, yeah,  I grew up here in Nevada County! I've always loved being outdoors and spending time with my family and friends. I'm a girl who enjoys food, music, crafting, walking/hiking and having fun.

My ethnicity is caucasion, I have a little of everthing though. The nationalitys I know of for sure are, german, swedish, and english. I am also 1/16 Cherokee Indian. My grandfather is a 1/4, although he might be a 1/2 (I can never remember), but he and my dad have leather-like skin and my sister and I have always tanned easily. Ever since I can remember, my grandfather and grandmother's home has been filled with Kokopelli's and Indian tapestry's and rugs. Also, I have been exposed to parts of Nativie American heritage and culture almost all my life.

What is most important to me? I would say honesty, communication and understanding. Honesty and communication go hand in hand, but I believe you can not have a meaningful and productive relationship (with anyone) with out them both. It's important to speak your mind (truthfully) and to communicate how you feel in any partnership setting (job, marriage, or school). Understanding is also very important to me. The ability to understand or "walk around in other people's shoes" and to be able see different points of view and emotions is hard for many people. To do this, you have to have an open mind and heart and be able to hear all feelings and emotions. I believe teachers should provide these 3 assets, set an example in class and teach/guide the children how to use these with friends, teachers, and parents in a repectful and positive way.

A little about me and my family. . . ?
I am a fun, caring, silly, sensitive, passionate, intelligent, hard-working, responsible, imaginative, and ambitious person. I am a teacher, daughter, best friend, sister, co-worker, friend, dog-sitter, house-sitter, and student (wow, I don't think about all this often enough). First of all, I really enjoy my job. I get to spend time with kids 6 hours a day, play, laugh and make a difference in their lives (they also make a difference in mine). It's awesome. I am really passioate about education. I love to learn new things and different subjects. I'll probably be one of those people who go to school for the rest of their life.
I have a great family whom supports me and challanges me always. M y parents are divorced and I lived with my dad in Alta Sierra up until 2 months ago when I recently moved out on my own. My mom has lived in Rocklin since my 8th grade or freshman year. So she's lived far away from my sister and I for awhile, which is hard, but she's a great mom. My dad remarried to my step-mom my freshman year of highschool. She's a wonderful, funny lady. I also have a younger sister and a younger step-sister who are 2 of the funniest and beautiful girls I know. My dad is the most hard-working, strong and sweet person I know. Our family has been through a lot, but he turns it into a lesson and learns from mistakes made and turns each and every thing into an opportunity. He's always telling me that if I'm unhappy or unsure about my profession or anything I do, that I can always, (no matter what) change it and do something else, and that I should never settle.

My job? Well, it's one of best things I've done with my life. I am a lead teacher in a 4th/5th grade classroom at an after school program. I get to spend lots of time with children and I'm always learning something new everyday. I'm a lead teacher so that means I lead the classroom and spend a lot of time outside of the big group of kids dealing with conflicts, concerning parents, first aid, and preping. However, I wish I had more time to spend with the group because the kids are awesome and so much bring me so much joy.

Culture and diversity is an important class to take and will be useful for my job as a teacher. I'm already an open person, but I think that this class will help tie in culture and diversity to curriculum for the kids I work with now and in the future. It will help me better serve the children for issues concerning this topic.

Well let's see, time. . . I usually have a break every day for 5 hours (I work 7-9am, 2-6pm). So I spend time walking/walking the dogs, crafting, spending time with family & friends, cooking and listening to music. Also, now that the semester has started, homework and learning. I take a full course load every semester (4 classes) and work 30+ hours each week so I enjoy relaxing while watching food network or movies and staying warm when not focusing on schoolwork. I set many goals for myself so I spend a lot of time deciding how to achieve them and taking action (like getting my degree in ECE). That's pretty much me!