Jan. 30, 2017: Culture

This is a Brazil keychain. I have come to see my time in Brazil as something that defines me culturally because I now speak a new language, see with a different perspective, and understand a completely new culture. This has changed the way that I perceive myself and the American culture. This also helps me relate to the Mormon culture in that it represents my belonging to the group of return missionaries. This is significant because we have our own lingo, shared experiences, and mindsets. 

This is a BYU tshirt (that I actually do own, although this picture came from the BYU store website). BYU has become a huge part of my culture as both a college student (and living and thinking the way college students do) and as a young single adult in the LDS church.  This also relates me to the people that I live with and attend church with, as opposed to attending a regular family ward. 

My family loves crossword puzzles. If you don't like to do crosswords or learn how to like them, then you miss out on bonding time with family. I'll work on one together with my mom while she makes dinner, and my dad listens in and contributes from the living room. This artifact probably is representative of a middle-class upbringing. First of all, we get the newspaper everyday in the mail. Also, we have the spare time and higher education to complete the difficult questions on the crossword.

Picture credit: Deseret Books
This is a CTR ring (that, once more, I actually do have but it's broken) that I associate with my LDS culture. Not only does it encapsulate principles by which we adhere, but it also serves as a reminder to do good and be good, key components of our culture.

Dr. Pepper is a key part of our culture because it's the soda that our family drinks. We don't like coke, we don't like Fanta, and rarely do we like sprite. We were raised on it, always have it as a staple at any family function (on my mom's side), and usually have at least 4 cans in the fridge at home. Dr. Pepper is also pretty representative of the American culture and contributes to my American identity, seeing as this soda is rarely found outside of the United States. 

This is the Macpherson clan tartan. On my Mom's side of the family, we are from the Scottish Macpherson clan. This is important to us because we have Macpherson clan reunions, and hold by our clan's motto, "Touch not the cat but a glove." No one in our family owns cats. This also helps me to connects with my Scottish heritage, allowing me to connect with the Scottish side of my family and be accepted into that cultural group. 

As I mentioned previously, my dad is from Great Britain. This hat has become a motto in our family. While it's a joke, it represents pretty well our feelings about the Trump presidency and our liberal perspectives (at least, liberal compared to the majority of the LDS population). Needless to say, I voted for Hillary. While my belonging to the democratic party gives me an identity in US culture, it also gives me an identity in the LDS culture in that I am, on the whole, singled out as being different from my peers.

Picture Credit: Musicscores.com
Piano music is a cultural symbol for me because my whole family plays and has been playing since we were kids. This often shapes our Sunday nights, with me or one of my sisters on the piano, my dad playing the flute, and the rest of the family singing. This also contributes to my middle-class uprbinging in that l many people in the lower-class would not be able to 1) own a piano and 2) afford to take piano lessons. 

This Outer Banks Tshirt (courtesy of  wanelo.com) represents our family culture because that is OUR BEACH. We love the Outer Banks and we go several times in the summer, often for several days at a time. My grandpa was born and raised in Nags head, which is just a few miles away, and so we have a ton of family members there and we often will have family reunions down at a beach house somewhere. In our personal points of view, the Outer Banks is the best beach in the mainland US. This also contributes to my middle-class identity in that many people in the lower-class cannot afford to take expensive vacations or rent beach houses. 

Our family heartily believes in breakfast for dinner (or lunch, or breakfast). We love pancakes, waffles, and French toast, which my dad makes with garlic. It's better the way he makes it.
If you don't like breakfast food "all that much," then you're doomed to not ever be really content at our dinner table.

Picture Credit: Pepsi.com
Pepsi is a culturally significant item because we do not drink coke. My grandma's family owned part of Pepsi back in the day, and although she got ousted, we are faithful to that. My grandparent's fridge always has Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. This contributes to my middle-class and white identity because Pepsi has been a southern company ever since it was founded, noticeably, by white people back in the 20th century when there was still wide-spread persecution of African Americans. This also is representative of my middle-class identity because of our family's prosperity due to this venture. 

Agatha Christie is practically a part of our family at this point. We read her books, watch the adaptations, and know all the murder plots. Sometimes we forget the little details, but we always know who the murderer is. Poirot and Ms. Marple are our favorite detectives. This has shaped the type of tv show that we watch and that has evolved to other British  and Australian detective shows.

(Picture Credit: Amazon.com)
Pride and Prejudice is a movie that everyone in my whole family has seen, can quote, and actually loves (except my brother, maybe. But he's seen the whole thing multiple times).  But the Colin Firth version, not Keira Knightly. My dad has not only read the book, but agrees to watch this on Sunday afternoons. We all end up falling asleep by about the second hour in, but nonetheless. It's important to our family. All our husbands will be forced to watch it. This is also fairly representative of my middle-class upbringing because of its cultural capital.

Soccer is a huge part of our family, and it comes from my dad's side. All of my mom's side plays basketball (because we're giants, to be honest), but our family is the only family that doesn't unless it's church ball. We play soccer, and we love it, and it makes us different from the rest of our family. This is also representative of our middle-class upbringing because we could afford new cleats and afford to pay the fees to play in the recreational and school leagues. 

(Picture Credit: Pintrest.com)
My dad's side of the family  belongs to the Sutherland clan. We as kids has kilts of this tartan, and at my sister's wedding, the men wore ties in this tartan, and my sister's sash was in this tartan as well, and these were the colors of the wedding. We, as Brits, are incredibly proud of this heritage. It binds us together, even though clan membership isn't as important a part of  British culture as it has been previously.

So this valentine might be scary to you, but in reality it's something very important to my sisters and myself culturally, in that my relationship to my sisters has been strengthened through our love of hating Nicholas Cage and photo-shopping his face onto literally any picture. Lord of the Rings and Nicholas Cage is an especially great combination. 

These are Fruit Pastilles. (Picture from Amazon.com) They are a type of British candy that my family loves. If you're a member of the family, it's assumed that you love it. Even if it's not your favorite, you have to like it to be considered properly sane. If you refuse one, then you get stared at. It's uncomfortable. This is also representative of my middle-class upbringing because the only reason we have access to these are because of our travels to the UK which we would not be able to afford if we were of the lower-class.

This is my little pig necklace. It's an inside joke in my family, but the pig could be called our mascot, since my mom is from Smithfield, the ham capital of the US, and if you were to ever go to downtown Smithfield, you would be able to go into any store without seeing something pig- or ham-related. 

Picture credit: Brian Athey, argentina-travel-blog.sayhueque.com/terere-mate/
This is tereré, a South American tea that you can drink either cold or hot, depending on the seasons and the selection of herbs. I served my mission in Brazil, and this has become a huge part of my personal culture and my culture within my mission friends and companions.

This is the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD Box set (picture courtesy of Barnes and Noble). This is a key element to being a part of our family--being able to quote it at a moment's notice. You're not really our friends unless you've watched at least part of this with us. We watch it every Christmas (yes, all three movies) and at least twice during the summer holidays. If you don't like Lord of the Rings, you're messed up, man. 

Reflection:
In doing this culture portfolio, I've come to realize how much these things define me, not just in my family life or my LDS life, but in being white and middle-class. I never knew how much my culture defined me, rather than my humanity. I've realized how much I am defined by my upbringing--middle class, Southern and British, and LDS. It's interesting to me that I consider these things indispensable to my identity, which helps me to realize how much others depend on their upbringing as well to identify themselves be it through language, culture, and class, and I can't expect people to just automatically relate to me. I have to work hard to understand where people come from and endeavor to understand what they include as being something that defines them, be it experiences, literature and media, or opportunities. 

Portfolio 1: Jan. 13, 2017

(Credit: Mrs. E from "Teacher, Teacher I Declare" at http://teacherteacherideclare.blogspot.com/2013/01/seating-chart-possibilities.html)
This is an example of an arrangement of desks that I would like to have in my classroom. I like having groups in classrooms because I think group work is essential. Learning from peers often has more impact than learning from teachers. I think it's also important that they get to know one another, and that my students have the chance to feel like they belong to a group, since group-think is so essential in adolescent behaviors and development. I hope to stimulate the kind of atmosphere in which this group-think will be positive and uplifting.

(Credit: pinpicture.com)
This "Quotation Station" is something that I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. It would be fun to pick a quotation every week from something that we read that the students especially liked; whether interesting, profound, or funny, it would be good to get to know what interests the students and what they get out of our readings and the texts that I may assign.

(Credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5keVtNLwvELmxJ9aE3DZ2-7bBDPsCeGEAwgoQKVXjVyDB9slh37Cbw63QWIJuW8G7xE5ohU352nxdebCRrqO1GjrVJcvf3D-YuGhpTNGtpKUTyTaTYW83jHEc_PJ7M23zfLbC6jQS-iI/s1600/Our+Favorite+Books.jpg)
This is an example of a bulletin board that I would like to incorporate into my classroom. Not only does it allow us as a class to focus on the things we like about literature, but it allows us to learn more about each other as people, about our interests, and I think it would be fun to add to it as the year progresses in order to get some feedback from the students for myself and for them to see how their tastes have changed.

(Credit: @lessonswithlaughter instagram.com)
This bookshelf is something that I envision in my classroom, but with perhaps more advanced books for my students. I love that it's fun and colorful and it will not only give my students freedom to read and to learn, but it will give them responsibility as well--to return the book, to treat others' things with respect and care, and to be instructed and delighted on their own time.

(Credit: writing.com)
This is something that I would hang in my classroom as a poster. I like this because it's not only appealing in its humor to my (future) students, as they will (most likely) be high school age, but it's educational and definitely applicable for their age and (some of the students') levels of writing, of which my brother's 12th grade essays are proof.

           I imagine that my classroom will be a clean and inviting place. I don't want it to be so full of posters and bulletin boards that my students pay more attention to reading/examining the things on the walls that they forget to pay attention to what is happening at the front of the classroom or what their peers are saying, but I want them to feel comfortable and ready to engage. I like the idea of grammar and literature humor for the walls, and a bookshelf with a wide assortment of books ranging from the classics to "escape" fiction for their enjoyment and for projects where they might get to choose the book rather than it being assigned to them. I intend to have "emergency supplies" or something like that where maybe someone forgot to bring their pencil or some paper and they can have a weekly pass for that station. I also think the idea of a phone-charging station would be interesting because not only does it get their phones out of their hands, but it helps them to know that I understand how important connection is to them. 

     I imagine that my students will come from many different backgrounds, and that means that they will have many and varying needs.   I imagine some will come from wealthy backgrounds and others will come from poorer homes. Some will have functional, healthy familial relationships, and others will not. Most of them will feel the need for affirmation. Because of where they are, in a young-adult/adolescent stage, they will be experiencing changes and won't exactly be knowing where they fit in, who their friends are/should be, how they should act in school and out of school, etc. They will be uncomfortable in their bodies or at least very self-aware, and they will be in a constant struggle to feel accepted and to achieve an elevated social status. Some (many, I hope) will be interested in literature, but they'll all be interested in the themes of identity and "finding" oneself, since that is so applicable in their stage of life. They'll be interested in their cell phones and in dating and having fun. They'll be interested in going out on the weekends, learning how to drive, and probably sports or going to the high school sports games. In class, I anticipate some of them being on their cell phones, even if that isn't the ideal. I also imagine that some will be paying attention, learning, thinking, and expanding their own ideals and opinions. Some will be distracted by passing notes, or flirting with the cute classmate sitting across from them, but most will be eager to get good grades, so they can get into college. 

Cell phones: I intend to engage the students via their devices, whether they have laptops, tablets, or cell phones. BUT. At the beginning of class, unless I say otherwise, they go to the charging station, where I will have a couple of power cords so they can plug their phones in, and when I say, they can go and get them from the charging station for classroom use. If I see someone using it during instruction time, they get one warning. If I see it again, then it goes in phone prison, which will probably just be a little basket, and they have to come and get it from me at the end of class. 

Tardiness and Absences: I imagine there will be a school-wide policy, but I intend to be fairly lenient about absences so that my students don't feel overwhelmed by all of their classes' workloads. Absent work will be due by the next week. If they're tardy, it might be fun to ask them to write me a two-to-three paragraph story--fictional or truthful--about why they were tardy. If it's creative, colorful, or satirical, with good grammar and spelling, then I won't mark them tardy.

Be Respectful: Students can't laugh at other people's opinions. Literature is focused on learning truths about humanity. Humans can be cruel, but in my classroom we will not.

Homework: It's due when I say it's due. Late work will be marked down 20 points each day it's late unless you have a reason you discuss with me personally. I might give them 3 late passes and 1 no homework pass per semester. 

Romeo and Juliet: I imagine Shakespeare will make up a large part of what I teach. If I were to teach Romeo and Juliet, I'd like to involve the class. I think it would be fun to have an inner-class competition between study groups. Each would get a scene to perform, maybe the same scene, maybe different ones. They would have to be creative, use what they have to make costumes, be innovative, whether that means changing their method of speaking or the time period of what they're acting, and the class would vote for whichever team was the most well-presented, the most accurate, or the funniest. While they are preparing with their groups and rehearsing, I would walk around, give encouragement or ideas, help with the language, especially since Shakespeare can be very hard to understand, and give them feedback. I might be helping them come up with what they can use as the backdrop on the projector, or some background music. I would try to interact with the kids as much as possible while allowing them to think and be innovative themselves, and mostly have fun while they were learning the themes of each scene.

        I might ask them if they liked Romeo and Juliet, what themes they noticed about love and family and things like that. I'd ask them what they didn't like, what they would change if they could, why those changes would matter and how they would affect the themes of the story. I chose this topic because I think not only is Shakespeare the Father of the English Language, but his stories are about flawed, selfish people. While there's always an element of the fantastic, his themes are about real people trying to get what they want, and their actions always affect those around them. That's an important lesson to learn. 

        At the end of their presentations, they have to come up with at least 3 themes prevalent in their scene (the number is likely to change; 3 is preemptive) and how they apply to their own lives. They can write this down or they can say it to the class as a part of their presentation, but I expect them to be able to interpret and understand the themes that are most relevant to them such as love, family, revenge, death, etc. I will know they've learned something when they can apply Romeo and Juliet meaningfully to their own lives.