It's Official

They're in! Now we just wait for the call!! Love you all!

Black America

This is a cultural snapshot of Black and African Americans living in poverty. As I was researching them I put some pictures and statistics that I found into a video:

Here is a list of links to the articles and sites found in this video:

A More Nuanced Look at Poverty Numbers

Racial Disparity in School Suspensions

HIV Stats

U.S. Blacks, if a Nation, Would Rank High on AIDS

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8507.asp

The Song is Hope for the Hopeless by A Fine Frenzy

As I continued my research I found a video that directly talked about the stereotypes of Black Americans and how they are viewed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXzKLtgKJj0

You can see from both the statistics and facts presented as well as the video on stereotypes that African America's are definitely viewed a certain way in America. They are seen differently than the cultural capital in America, there are many more that live in poverty and struggle to break the mold created for them. As I was reading and researching it really surprised me how much higher the poverty rates were for African Americans in contrast to other races. After reading all of this I felt as if Blacks and African Americans have a hard time knowing how to overcome their poverty and it has becomegenerational poverty that gets harder and harder to control. They begin to acquire negative orientation in which they believe they cannot change their situation, it is by fate that they have ended up this way and there is nothing they can do.

If the children see themselves as less than or not as good as others they could have a hard time achieving biculturalism within their life. Biculturalism is the ultimate goal for every student, even if they don't have to learn a new language, being able to function well in the classroom as well as at home is essential for the student's success in school. If the other students in the class feel that African American students are not as good or smart or anything else as they are it could really effect their potential to learn. This institutionalized racism could potentially have long lasting effects that limit their potential and abilities. If we as teachers view children in this way we limit the ability of all students of that race and culture.

As educators we can help children to break out of this mold that they have for themselves, we can help them see that it is possible to change. It starts with eliminating the deficit theory and doing our best to implement socio-cultural learning in our classrooms. It is important to build your teacher efficacy in order to truly be able to help these children. We do have the ability to change their lives and make them better but we first have to believe in ourselves and know that the ability really does lie within each one of us.

When I think about rain

Today has been very overcast. But as I walked into the HBLL for a long night of uninterrupted studying(yeah right, I'm blogging right now) the sun was peeking its way thought the clouds as it set.

Three things I'd rather be doing: sleeping (heaven knows I need it), hot tubing, or possibly watching this.

I wore a scarf today. Which makes me think of this which makes me laugh.
I also wore a sweater with flowers on it which makes me think of this lovely lady whom I've ranted and raved about enough on this blog.
I also also wore my glasses today. My eyes were feeling a little..."wiggle-y" yesterday so I decided glasses was a good call.
I just bought a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears from the bookstore (you really can't buy them anywhere else, they just aren't as good) and a water bottle which is the perfect study pal for me this eve.
I just finished reading this book. I cried through the whole thing, seriously THE WHOLE THING...balled...like a baby. p.s. its a 5th or 6th grade reading level book. I'm pathetic.
I just bought my mom a present and I'm so very excited to send it to her (don't worry mom it was 5 dollars)

Lastly, I had my dentist appt today for my mission, I have two interviews left (one of which is on Sunday) and then I'm done...Finally.

G'Bye!

I have no title!

Hello blogging world. This is an important post! Today was a big day, it was a day I've been looking forward to for some time now. First of all Stephanie Nielson came to BYU and spoke, she is so incredible I have been looking forward to this for weeks!! So, it started at 7pm and I'm playing on a kickball team (yeah...i know, its awesome!) and we had a game at 6:15 normally I would just skip it BUT if I didn't then we would have to forfeit and we wouldn't go to the tournament and ultimately win a shirt (simple pleasures I know!) So I had to go to the game, and ended up being late to NieNie...but NEVER FEAR I heard all of her talk. YES! She is so amazing, she spoke on inner beauty and the fact that we are all beautiful and have talents that we need to embrace.

So before all of this greatness I had to go to the doctor for a physical for...(brace yourself)...MY MISSION PAPERS! So I'm guessing a lot of you reading this already know that I'm going on a mission BUT I've gone viral! lol! Anyway I'm almost done and am hopefully putting them in next week! Yay! So there you go blog stalkers! Enjoy!

Introducing...

So I've been wanting to introduce some pretty people that I think are great that play an important part in my life. The next couple posts are going to be things I'm doing mixed with some bios! So I literally just got home from running...SIX miles. I'm training for a half marathon in November and it was a little bit torturous toward the end but it was good. I'm not doing this by myself because I need a little motivation and someone to push me, ENTER: Sarah Pugmire
Let me tell you a little about her, she is in the masters of accounting program in the Marriott school...basically she's a genius! She is a GREAT friend, she always helps me with anything I need to my mom she is still considered "the-girl-who-helped-me-with-Ashlie's-bridal-shower" (Ashlie's shower was in February). Also she is hilarious...freals...HIL-ARIOUS! She is from San Diego, meaning she is obviously a chill person ;) and wears a lot of GAP.

So the two of us together are running the Snow Canyon Half Marathon on November 6th in St. George, we are on week two of training and its going pretty good. When my mom was here for education week she bought me these shoes. My old ones had been hurting my feet pretty bad so I was pretty excited about them. However I think they are causing me some SERIOUS problems. almost every night I go to be lookin like this:Needless to say something is not right, but just so everyone can take a deep breath I've been smart and not pushing it too hard and I even took a day off the other day. And when I went today it felt much better. The point is however that these shoes are not helping me, if anything they're hurting me...literally. But the other point is that I ran 6 miles this morning and that is a big deal for me!

My mouth feels a little foamy!

Last night we had a relief society activity and I was standing in the kitchen when all the sudden there was a BAT FLYING AT MY FACE. It was coming for me because no one even saw it until I screamed, dove to the ground (literally), and starting crawling away from it. I jumped up and yelled "where's the bat" and frightened ran screaming out of the house. At this point people tried to tell me it wasn't a bat...it was and there were many witnesses who agreed with me. So it was really traumatic and I've been replaying it a few times in my head today and got scared all over again. Just imagine this 3 feet from your face:

The story does not stop there but it gets a little funnier from here on out. I'm telling this story to my co-workers and reenacting it for them and its just hilarious. Now this is where I debated whether or not I should post this part but I think its funny and it will help me get to the bottom of this. So after I finish that story I tell them about how on my last blog post that someone name Linda commented that they missed me and wished I was home with them. While I loved that someone missed me I don't actually know who Linda is so i was a little confused. Anyways my coworkers informed me that Linda was the bat and the bat was just trying to give me a hug last night until I freaked out. So Linda, just so you know you are now known as Linda the bat in my office and you have brought such great joy into our hearts this day. But freals (for reals) Linda, I'd love to miss you too. Who are you?

Change...or lack thereof!

This post is dedicated to my mother. This is a look at what my desk looks like. Lets count 1, 2...5 water bottles all containing perfectly good water. I was picking up my room today because it hasn't really been messy since I moved but last night was a little crazy sleep, which is for another time. As I was cleaning I was thinking about how much I have grown up because I have made my bed everyday for quite a while and I have been really proud of myself. And then I picked up a few water bottles that were empty and threw them in the trash and then I looked over at my desk and saw this and just chuckled to myself about how nothing has really changed! Growing up I always had SO MANY cups of half drunken in my room along with all of the house. It drove my mother CRAZY! So here you go mom, it's all the same!