Looking Back at the Semester - Final Post

I came into this course looking for the answers to many questions that were left lingering after previous classes. My major goal for the semester was to become more comfortable with choosing diverse literature that accurately represented the diverse cultures and were also quality pieces of literature in all aspects. However, as the semester comes to the end I still find myself questioning what is good diverse literature, but I am questioning in a new way. This class showed me that it was okay to question and actually it may be worry some if I didn't question the literature I was presented with. This class taught me to ask the right questions. For example, how do generalizations and stereotypes play into the text, or how much does the author know about the culture. Although I feel that I have also been on the look out for stereotypes one key point I bring from this class is that some stereotypes have truth and the goal of looking at literature is deciding how those stereotype help to portray the characters and if they are positive or negative and most of all accurate. I think so many people, my self included, are so quick to jump to the accusation that stereotypes are all horrible and negative and although this often happens, it is not always the case.

I also wanted to discover where to look for diverse literature and I was surprised to find that these types of resources were at my reach, I just hadn't taken the time to look. I didn't know there was as much diverse literature published as there is and although some of that literature may not portray positive representations, there are still several books out there to discover and analyze in order to find diverse books to incorporate into the classroom. I found this most prominent as I was searching for books about persons with disabilities for my final project. I had so many options, the difficult part was finding those books that had positive representations and insider authors for books portraying persons with disabilities.

The big question for me as I leave is how am I going to incorporate all of the literature that I would like into my classroom? I feel that I have been presented with so many materials that would be great for the classroom but will cause controversy in many school districts that may be more close minded than others. I would love to say that I am going to be that teacher that pushes against the system and will risk my job to bring the literature that children need to experience into the classroom but will I really? I know that this is a goal of mine and something that I will strive very hard to meet but maybe it is more a question of when I will have the opportunity to make as big of an impact as I would like. I am going to earn my master degree in administration and I may wish to pursue a career as a principal after a few years of teaching. I feel like I would have a bigger impact if I were able to incorporate the acceptance of diverse literature into several classrooms rather than just one. However, I think that even a small step counts and the question of my job or my beliefs and passion for quality education will be addressed when I cross that bridge. I cannot answer that question now but I feel this class has made me feel more confident about myself and my abilities of sticking up for the literature that I believe in and I would like to think that I will make the right and most meaningful decision for my future students.