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Micheal Foucault's quote best describes my new outlook on learning during the duration of this course.

"There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all"

I have never been one who is "set" in their ways and not willing to open up to new ideas and have always strived to learn more. During this course, however, I discovered something new happening to me while I was reading, writing, and reflecting on others, perceptions of the books we read. I began to see the world in a whole new light and perspective and began reflecting on my teaching practices and daily communications with others. I suddenly felt like a light bulb and the shining sun where I began to see the "whys" to things I have been in the dark about. I think a small piece of me was in the dark because I wasn't sure how important it was to connect instruction to issues that matter to students, their families, and their community. This course has really brightened up my perspective about happenings both in the classroom and in my everyday life and has helped me to think "outside the box".

Why have I been in the clouds for so long? After reading Reading Lives, the clouds lifted, the sun began to shine, and the sky was blue agian. It makes so much sense when you think about it that individuals all come from different experiences, histories, backgrounds, cultures, language identities, and dialect usage. So why did I think that just because I valued something, or thought a certain way, that others thought that way too? It is just this knowing that I must think differently in the classroom that is going to improve my relations with my students which is extremely important to generate the success of my students. More than ever, I realize, I must listen to my students, read "between the lines", and research who my students are, where they come from, what they value, respect, and what makes them tick.

I now know that I must be careful with my language, tone, and even way of conducting things in my classroom so that I can establish a learning environment in my classroom that assures students and parents that they are valued, accepted for who they are, where they came from, and are important. By peeling the skin off of each little peach in my room, I can constitute knowledge about them which will allow me to change my beliefs, practices, and understandings of what is going on inside of each individual fruit. I am going to turn on the lights in my classroom by doing a better job of researching my students backgrounds and home identities and use this information to see things differently as to what each individual child needs to succeed both socially and academically. It is just that internal listening to see things from a different point of view that will help me to understand them and thus improve my relationships with my students, parents, and even others. Hicks refers to it as "love's knowledge". The energy I put into a relationship with my husband, is the same kind of focus and attention I plan to have with my students. Hicks writes, "Understandings of other individuals (as in the cases of friendship and love) are therefore exemplary of the ways in which social relationships can be constitutive of knowing with others."

The Jake and Laurie stories helped me to realize that past experiences truely do shape our way of looking at things. I realize that just thematic units might not be enough since gender plays such a huge role in a child's learning development. It might be that I need to add a number or name like Earnhart to my toy cars. There are so many instructional opportunities that can be implemented from using NASCAR such as colors, shapes, ordinal numbers, and many other endless possibilities. It is just that incorporation of girlhood and boyhood practices that might just open some doors to literacy learning. So as an educator, I must look beyond the horizon to think and see in a different light.

I realize I must be careful not to judge, since the things that I say may be perceived as such creating a student to "reject" me which will stiffle their learning opportunitites in my classroom. Just because I think a student shouldn't have a toy car in front of them during writing, doesn't mean that is what the child thinks. That toy car could just be the thing that is motivating and generating ideas within the students. I am going to have to take the time to truely learn who my students are if I want to reach them.

After reading The Skin That We Speak, it internalized for me how important it is to use my words wisely because it is the misinterperatation of what I say, that can severly damage my relationships with my students. At the same time though, I see the light differently now that it is not enough just to teach Standard English. First, my students must be convinced that I truely do have their best interests at heart. To accomplish this I must embrace my student's interests, families, and native language. When my students respect and connect with me, then and only then will they be willing to adopt my Standard English format. I want, as Delpit wanted for Maya, for my students to appreciate and accept the beauty of their language, but learn to "code switch" when Standard English is the politically correct language to use. Delpit writes, "Ironically, the more determined we are to rid the school of children's home language, the more determined they must become to perserve it. Since language is one of the most intimate expressions of identity, indeed, "the skin that we speak," then to reject a person's language can only feel as if we are rejecting him."

From here, I now know that I am going to work harder to build a relationship with my families, with home visits, conferences, surveys, and even family nights possibly at the city lake park or whatever it takes to learn more about their identities and what they are up against. All of my students are from poverty or working-class families, so I must implement tons of literacy components and bahavioral patterns since this is absent from many of the families of this social class. This class has shed light on the way I see things and made me realize that I must listen more to what my students are saying so that I can form lessons that are geared towards their gender, interests, and sensitive to the roots of who they are.

I understand more than ever now how literacy learning is linked to the student's social class, gender, race, and life experiences which all work together to help students become "makers of meaning through literacy". I now know that reflecting on each of my students differences and life experiences, that bright lights will turn on and each little peach will be warmed by the sunlight and ripen the way they were intended to.
Linda Younts