Childhood Bedtime Routines

One of the most prominent things I remember about my childhood bedtime rituals is that my dad would always make up stories to me. We very rarely would read from an actual book and when we occasionally did it was always one of those fill in the blank books where you pretty much got to make up the story as you went. (For example, the book would ask me to think of a happy place, think of what color the sky was and who was with me.) This was always my favorite kind of tucking in routine. If I could, I would have someone read this type of story to me every night for the rest of my life. I absolutely loved using my imagination and knowing that whatever I created, no matter how absurd, was no one's business but my own. Even when my dad would read these types of stories to me where I made up the surroundings as he read I would never talk about them out loud--I would always just quietly think to myself what my perfect magical land looked like. To be the youngest child of three, it was nice to have one place that was all my own and that was controlled by no one else but me.

With my mom, we would also hardly ever read from traditional bedtime story books and instead would look at "Where's Waldo" or "I spy" together. I don't remember really ever reading to my parents at all, I was always the one being read to. I also remember that my mother was very strict when it came to what cartoons I could watch. There were certain cartoons that she had deemed inappropriate or too intense. I remember that she would never let me watch tiny toons, for example, but I was always allowed to watch loony toons. To me, they seemed like the exact same show but to her, tiny toons was seen as vulgar (to this day I still don't understand how that is possible).

My parents generally would always talk to me like an adult; they were never the type to communicate to me through a high pitched baby voice. If I was bad I would get a time out, and nap time was never negotiable. My parents weren't exactly "tough" by any means, they just didn't give into the idea that a 4 year old could have more power than them. However, my mom was definitely always the stricter parent.

Da Hawaiian Pidgin Project

This project was so much fun for me that it didn't even feel like homework! I have not laughed that hard in such a long time the way I did while trying to develop the perfect accent to go along with our dialect. I just wanted to preface this by saying that I really did truly enjoy this project. With that said, it helped me understand a little more about just how hard it could be to teach a child who has grown up speaking a different dialect as their first language. After looking at how completely contrasting Hawaiian pidgin is from standard english it definitely gave me a reality check on how tough it would be to get a student to gradually slip into what seems to them to be a completely different language. However, it also showed me that learning and teaching other dialects can be fun! Before this project I was a little confused on how I would teach kindergarteners what a dialect even is, let alone how to make it fun in a way they would understand. But after seeing how much I myself enjoyed learning about the different dialects it gave me a new boost of excitement to teach others.

Not considered correct--just socially accepted as the best?

When reading the article bidialecticism I found myself wondering how we can teach children that all dialects are equal, while at the same time telling them that only one is considered the most socially acceptable and will get you further in the professional world? It seems like what we are really teaching them is that we can't outright label standard english as correct...yet it is what you need to learn in order to stay on top in our society? We say SAE is not the only "proper" form of english, yet we judge every other dialect in comparison to it. I am having a hard time understanding how to teach my students about this topic without sounding like a hypocrite.

The Dialect Divide

As a kindergarten teacher, the minds I will be molding will be young enough that there may not be as great of a divide as one might see with a high school teacher. At the ages of five or six, they are still young enough that they have not been ingrained with the false beliefs that specific cultures, and therefore dialects, may be considered superior over others. Because of this, I will be given the advantage of having a jump start on teaching them that there are no correct or incorrect dialects before others have the opportunity to tell them differently. With that said, it will still be my job to teach them the rules and regulations of both speaking and writing in standard english vernacular. While I would encourage students to be comfortable speaking in their specific dialects, I would continue to speak to them in the standard english that I was taught in school so that they can become familiar with both ways of communicating.  However, because children are so easily influenced by others, I believe it is the perfect time to teach them to be open minded. I would definitely establish that speaking differently from another person is in no way incorrect. It is certainly not my place to try and change the way a student would speak when he or she is around their friends and family, but it is important to teach the most socially accepted vernacular so that they can be fully prepared to excel when their time comes to face the professional world.

That girl who always blushes. . .

I suppose the first thing you should know about me is that I am not actually trying to become an english teacher, but rather, a kindergarten teacher. I am, however, an english major (writing option). Because I am the youngest of four I have always been the one to be guided and helped but have rarely ever been given the opportunity to share my own wisdom and advice. I guess this is what initially sparked my interest to become a teacher. The other reason--I absolutely adore kids.

I am the type of person who can meet someone on the street and chat with them for hours, however, put me in a classroom and for reasons unknown to me I become extremely shy. It is not that talking to others individually in the classroom makes me nervous, it is more the idea of addressing the entire room at once that chokes me up. For some reason, I blush all the time in class yet rarely get embarrassed anywhere else. This may seem like a very odd personality for someone trying to become a teacher, but kindergarteners don't intimidate me. I am sure once the class presentations start, the title of my blog will make much more sense. To be clear, I do not blush in a subtle or endearing way... no, no-- my face literally becomes the darkest red humanly possible. (Enjoy).

Other random facts: I went to high school in California but have spent most of my life traveling. I have had a house in Bigfork for eight years where I would spend every summer. With every summer I spent in Bigfork I found myself wanting to go back to California less and less. It has now gotten to the point where I can't imagine ever wanting to live anywhere but Montana.  I went to the University of Oregon for my freshman and sophomore year but decided it wasn't the place for me. When the time came to choose another college, I knew the state I needed to be in. After I am finished in Bozeman I hope to move to Whitefish and teach there.