Marcia's Blog

This week's reading talked about two topics that I always called my attention : Monolingualism and language diversity. In the article Educational Linguists, the author argues that the failure of the monolingual white community to assimilate to multilingual and multidialectal mainstream its causing a language gap. I completely agree with the author, however I must state that along the years I been seeing some improvement,  at my internship. A case that I found interesting was a seven years old boy who comes from a white monolingual family , but his parents wanted him to learn a new language. He was put in a dual language classroom, where most students were exposed to another language at home. The students need to be able to complete assignments, read and write in both languages: English and Portuguese. My first thought was that the young boy would be resistant to learn in another language, but when I started helping him I noticed that he was reading better than som...

I'm sure that most of us know Caitlyn Jenner and Harvey Milk. Yet, most people don't know Sylvia Rivera. Before Caitlyn Jenner and Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera was an important figure in the LGBT rights movement, and fought for the rights of transgender and homosexuals individuals.Along with Martha P.Johnson, she was willing to go difficult lengths to defend transgenders, people of color and homosexuals. Rivera had a difficult life, at ten years old she was left on her own in Times Square and worked as a sex worker. However, she did not let the obstacles stop her from fighting for her rights. She founded STAR (street tranvestite action revolutionaries),opened a shelter for transgender youth,and was member of early of groups like the Gay Activist Alliance and the Gay Liberation Front. After reading the articles about her, Rivera fascinated me because most men and women in that time chose to "hid in the closet" but she was not among them, she would rathe...

The articles" Why Talk about Whiteness?" and  "The unexamined Whiteness of teaching:  how White teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies" presented interesting  ideas abou t Whiteness. T he qualitative study presented in the article" The unexamined Whiteness of teaching:  how  White teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies"  demonstrated how  important  it is for teachers and students to explore their beliefs and identities and how it  affects teaching and learning. Although, I was aware of many facts she presented on the study, I learned that religion, life  experiences and class can affect the way you view your students and your teaching. For  example: the author argues that due to the stereotype of African Americans being criminals  and dangerous individuals, the participants feared their students in urban schools.  Another interesting view she presented wa...

         As a black woman, the articles and the video made me aware of many important facts. Although  all the articles present various ideas that are still relevant in our society, I would like to focus on the these three specific ideas: the black lives matter movement is often confused as a mechanism for protest, many criticized the movement for not being similar to the civil rigthts movement and as teachers we should develop relationships with our students and be culturally responsive to their needs.              The article"Why teaching Black lives matter matters" presented many interesting ideas about the movement. A fact that I was not aware of is that the movement is still seen as a reason to protest, even though its true purpose is becoming more and more clear. In the article, it crystal clear that the main purpose of the movement is not to protest, yet to end police brutality, invest in equitable e...

Hello everyone,            My name is Marcia Ramos, I'm completing my master's in World Languages Education. I  graduated from RIC in August 2017, with BA in Modern Languages (Portuguese). I have not been  accepted into the Languages Education Graduate Program yet, but hopefully by the end of the  semester I should be officially accepted. I do not have any teaching experience yet, however I hope to  learn a little bit from your experiences. I have a fascination with learning and teaching different  languages, and exploring different cultures, traditions etc. As a future teacher, I'm determined to make  Languages teaching more effective and create a safe and enjoyable classroom for my students.