Blog #6

Read-Alouds

My favorite read-aloud this week was Becoming by Michelle Obama, read by Korbyn. It really opened my eyes because I didn’t really know what the Obamas went through as they entered into office, and I felt more informed about what they went through as African Americans. I also am interested in reading and watching Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It sounds like a story that I would want to look more into regarding how people are treated based off of how they look. Another book that stood out to me was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved the excerpt on how I need to be comfortable with fear and not fight it anymore. It’s easier said than done, but it inspired me to take baby steps towards my goals that scare me.

Learning Experiences

This week I started to research the top foreign languages spoken within the U.S. are Tagalog, Chinese, and Spanish from corelanguages.com. I was inspired to look more into this after our session with our guest this week, and I find it strange that English is our first and required language, yet we’re called the melting pot. I want to look into more cultures in the future and see what I can do to expand the type of language education is the U.S. if I can.

Quote of the Week

“I need to take these chances
Let all my feelings show
Can’t tell what’s waiting
Still I need to go
I need to know.” -From Barbie as the Island Princess

Observations

Outside of school, I’m learning not to ridicule others if they don’t know something that is otherwise known by the majority. My aunt was really patient with my niece when she put the wrong type of gas in her car. Lots of my family laughed at her, and she felt really self-conscious, but my aunt was patient the whole time and made sure to teach her the right way.

Reflections

I’m learning to be thankful more and more every day. Learning what our speaker went through coming to the United States and the struggle she had to getting where she is today makes me look at my life and be thankful, and then seek to make sure people like her feel loved and accepted into this country. I’m not very patriotic, and coming from an African American girl, I know how cold and ignorant people can be when they don’t take the time to understand your life and your culture. I’ll be more mindful whenever I complain about my school, the food I eat, or the life I live in general. I realize things could be much worse.