Nicole

=Home Visits: How Do They Affect Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Diversity?=

Miranda Lin and Alan B. Bates
Lin, M., & Bates, A. (2010). Home Visits: How Do They Affect Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Diversity?. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(3), 179-185. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0393-1

__ Summary __

This article was written about a study that was conducted. Throughout this article, the authors, Miranda Lin and Alan Bates, discuss the importance of home visits in diverse classrooms. They begin by explaining that home visits to diverse students are important, because it helps the teachers gain a positive impression from the parents, understand different families’ circumstances, provide teachers with a cross-cultural learning experience, and it helps parents become more involved. They also explain that home visits can influence the way teachers teach to different cultures. The authors concluded by stating the results of the study were all positive and the teachers became more passionate about their diverse students and even wanted to incorporate their culture into the classroom.

__ Reflection __

This article is extremely relevant to this course. The entire article focused on trying to engage the diverse learners in the classroom. In this article, they discussed all of the positives of home visits for both the students and the parents. Many of these positives included more involvement from the parent and a willingness to learn from the students. In this course, we have discussed trying to do whatever we can to include all cultures in our lessons and this article is a perfect example of how to do that. As teachers, we have to build a connection with both the parents and the students and always try to understand what they are going through and home visits are a great start.

__ Explanation __

To be honest, I had never heard of home visits before I read this article. I find the concept fascinating. After reading this article, I will definitely attempt to do some home visits with not only my diverse students, but also the ones that are struggling when I have my own class. I want to have a very close bond with my students and their parents and I think this is a perfect way to do that. I definitely think that home visits should be a requirement, especially for the elementary level classes. All in all, I think home visits are a great idea and I will definitely be using them in my classroom.


 * Nicole Gottsacker**
 * Education Diversity**
 * Feb 14, 2012**
 * Text Talk**

Precious Movie Trailer- http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Watch-the-Precious-Movie-Trailer-Video

The movie //Precious// is a very emotional movie that portrays how different someone’s home life can be. The main character, Calireece Precious Jones, had experienced many hardships in her life. To start with, she is an overweight, illiterate, unloved, poor and angry teenager. She was physically abused by her mother and raped by her father. During the movie, she was pregnant with her second child by her father. When the school learned about her pregnancy, they kicked her out. She then decided to attend an alternative school, Each One Teach One, and learns that there may actually be hope for her. Her teacher, Ms. Rain, invested a lot of time working with Precious and even let her move into her house when she ran away from her mother’s house. In the end, Precious and her two children were free of her mother and free to live on their own.

The diverse group that is being depicted within this movie is the poor, abused, and illiterate African Americans in Harlem. Precious was not the only character that they portrayed with these hardships. Throughout the movie, more illiterate and poor African Americans were shown.

While watching this movie, the only thing that ran through my mind is “you never know what someone is going through.” It made me remember that not every student has a wonderful home life and that every student deserves a solid chance to learn. It does not matter whether the student is the best reader in the world or they are illiterate, they deserve the same amount of help from their teacher.

Growing up in a small community, I have never had to think of the special learning needs of children from different cultures. This movie made me realize that when I am a teacher, there will be students that did not grow up in the same type of household as me. This movie taught me that you cannot give up on a student, because every student, no matter their culture, deserves to learn.

The insights that I have gained from //Precious// are that a teacher must be passionate and determined about their students well being. Ms. Rain was a perfect example of a perfect teacher; she was kind, passionate, and determined to help Precious any way she could.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone that wants to become a teacher. I think it is very important to see different hardships that students will go through. It is also important to know how to handle it. However, I would not show this movie to my students. The language throughout the movie is very vulgar and there is a lot of violence. I do not think that this movie is appropriate for children, but I would definitely recommend it to any adult.