My review on White teacher
White teacher by Vivian Paley is good easy to read book, it’s about the author’s experiences as a white teacher who cares about embracing diversity in a multicultural school not long after segregation. It’s great book for multi-cultural education, and as someone who really enjoyed reading this book, I would totally recommend it for future teachers, for its written for them. The writing style is more of a diary and a self-reflection of a white teacher teaching kindergarten in a multicultural classroom. The power of her insight and her honest account of coming to terms with colorblindness makes it one of the books that future educators and every teacher working in this field must read it during their educational years.
Throughout the book, Vivian Paley takes the perspective of a white teacher trying her best to not run to assumptions, ignore ignorance, and be so open minded learning more about her student’s individuality as well as their culture in a way to determine what approach might work best for them. I appreciated this perspective for it shows how honest she is even with herself, and how willing she wants to make difference in her student’s daily life. Being honest, and welcoming is something all teachers should do for this field is a hard one, and being honest with yourself, and your students, as well as their parents, is one thing that will have a good impact on your learning style and your professional personality.
Paley looks at the uniqueness of every student and how they come together to form a classroom full of happy moments, playful times, and bad times when they hurt each other physically and emotionally, but all this are moments where students grow and learn. Paley takes a variety of different classroom management approaches to deal with students, one of the approaches she uses is Positive Classroom Discipline and she uses this approach to reinforce positive behavioral in her students. You’ll see this approach when Paley gives positive comments to her students on the work they do, or they invite a new student to their circle and help them each other out. However, the main approach Paley uses through this book is the Community Building because she makes it her goal to build a welcoming, safe environment for her students, such community where no one is isolated. Despite the negativity that kids treat each other, Paley manages to create a classroom environment where students value, respect each other, and work together cooperatively with every one of them bringing their differences to the table to be part of one whole group.
Throughout the chapters, I came across many good quotes that educate teachers and this one is my favorite, “Each child wants to know immediately if he is a worthy person in your eyes. You cannot pretend because the child knows all the things about himself that worry him. If you act like you like him, but ignore the things he is anxious about, it doesn't count. The child is glad you are nice to him, but deep down he figures if you really knew what he was like, you'd hate him. So your liking him without knowing him just makes him feel guilty.” This is a lesson I’ll take to my classroom and so should every future teacher.
Throughout the book, Vivian Paley takes the perspective of a white teacher trying her best to not run to assumptions, ignore ignorance, and be so open minded learning more about her student’s individuality as well as their culture in a way to determine what approach might work best for them. I appreciated this perspective for it shows how honest she is even with herself, and how willing she wants to make difference in her student’s daily life. Being honest, and welcoming is something all teachers should do for this field is a hard one, and being honest with yourself, and your students, as well as their parents, is one thing that will have a good impact on your learning style and your professional personality.
Paley looks at the uniqueness of every student and how they come together to form a classroom full of happy moments, playful times, and bad times when they hurt each other physically and emotionally, but all this are moments where students grow and learn. Paley takes a variety of different classroom management approaches to deal with students, one of the approaches she uses is Positive Classroom Discipline and she uses this approach to reinforce positive behavioral in her students. You’ll see this approach when Paley gives positive comments to her students on the work they do, or they invite a new student to their circle and help them each other out. However, the main approach Paley uses through this book is the Community Building because she makes it her goal to build a welcoming, safe environment for her students, such community where no one is isolated. Despite the negativity that kids treat each other, Paley manages to create a classroom environment where students value, respect each other, and work together cooperatively with every one of them bringing their differences to the table to be part of one whole group.
Throughout the chapters, I came across many good quotes that educate teachers and this one is my favorite, “Each child wants to know immediately if he is a worthy person in your eyes. You cannot pretend because the child knows all the things about himself that worry him. If you act like you like him, but ignore the things he is anxious about, it doesn't count. The child is glad you are nice to him, but deep down he figures if you really knew what he was like, you'd hate him. So your liking him without knowing him just makes him feel guilty.” This is a lesson I’ll take to my classroom and so should every future teacher.
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