St. Jerome Was the school I had the pleasure to teach at. St. Jerome is a well reounded inclusive school that has taught me so much in just a short amount of time. Ms.Schlechter was an amazing teacher to look up to, and it was an honour to take part in her classes. Not only did she make us feel very welcomed she also let us take part in teaching the children and marking their work. I want to thank Ms. Schlechter for giving me an awesome opportunity, and the children foir giving me such a great first teaching experience.

Field Blog 1

Hello, my name is Cheyanne Fishley; now none as Miss. Fishley too the Grade 2/3’s of St. Jerome elementary school. Today was my first day with the 2/3’s and it was an amazing experience.  I was extremely nervous walking into the classroom for my first day, but as soon as I saw the children they made me feel welcomed and appreciated. Some things I noticed when I entered the classroom was the colours. Ms. Schletcher did a fantastic job at making a colourful fun room with lots of décor. I really appreciated this type of atmosphere. It felt warm and welcoming from the moment I stepped in. One very interesting thing that it incorporated into this classroom that may be different from others is the seating plan. MS. Schletcher does not have a seating plan for her children. The children get to choose where ever they want to sit for every class, and can move around freely as they wish to. Of course, she does not just let them run around free well she is teaching, but she has what she calls am active seating plan which allows them to mingle with all their peers and enjoy their time in their spot. I really enjoyed this aspect, but I did have a few concerns. My main concern was the children that are always sitting alone. I noticed that a few kids were always alone. I also noticed that some kids were always sitting with the same people. I understand everyone has those people they always want to be with, nut sometimes a seating plan is best at a young age to make some children engage with kids they wouldn’t normally. The main focus in today’s class was materials, so the students where building things hands on. This was a great idea for our first day, because we got to go around the little groups get to know the kids and ask them things about themselves. This group of children have so much energy. They were all very egger to meet me and get a chance to ask some questions. One thing that really stuck with me leaving the classroom was the things a few students said to me. One student I was talking to earlier in the day was asking me questions about myself, and I said I was really nervous about today because it was like my first day of school again. The young boy then said, “its ok to be nervous, we all get nervous sometimes”. This was the cutest most honest thing I have heard and coming from a grade 3 student was amazing. This was an awesome first day of school in the grade 2/3 class, and I know it will only get better.

Field Blog 2

For the second week of our field placement we were to focus on the community of the school, and the type of atmosphere that is portrait by the staff. The staff at St. Jerome are incredible. We have three adults in our classroom. Ms. Schlecher is the teacher, and have the help from 2 Educational Assistants. I have gotten to know the one Educational Assistant pretty well. Her name is Mrs. Boss. Mrs. Boss is extremely helpful and very welcoming. I’ve had some awesome conversations with her about sports and children in the classroom. Today Ms. Schlecher took us to the staff room to meet some of the other staff members. When we went into the room all the teachers were very welcoming. She introduced us to each of the staff member that were in the room at the time and we had little conversations with a few of them. Ryan and I have also spent a lot of time in the library where we have met Ms. Zeck. Ms. Zeck is an awesome librarian; she is very outgoing and always willing to help the teachers with whatever they may need. The staff also has a snack day every Thursday in the snack room. We were told we could certainly eat the snacks as we please and can bring anything we would like to in return. I thought this was so welcoming. The community and the school seem to get along pretty well; Ms. Schlecher did let me and Ryan know that if we parked in front of a certain house we may have a few unkind words thrown our way. Overall the staff and community have overall been so welcoming. I do not feel a bit out of place anywhere in the building. The final thing I see is how the community and school is connecting through a food drive. Going down the halls you can see the bags of food children have brought, and trust me there is a lot.

Field Blog 3

Growing up playing boys hockey was always a struggle. From a young age, I was “accepted” onto the team, but truly was never fully appreciated for my skills or abilities. Being on the only female on the team is a challenge. From a young age, I was clumped together with 20 other boys in my town and surrounding towns to make a hockey team. Being the only girl on some of my teams wasn’t always the easiest. I had to learn how to stand my own ground from the start to prove that I was capable of playing on the team. Not only did I have to prove myself, but I had to became one of the “boys”. It was always the easiest trying to fit in with the boys when I was younger. They had the idea that all girls were gross and didn’t know anything about sports, so proving to them that I did wasn’t always the easiest. I specifically remember one occasion where one boy thought he should be on the ice over me because I was a girl. I can tell you the coach didn’t like that very much, and made it very clear that I was on the ice over him because of my skill, and not anything else. This was the first time my gender came clear to me. Looking back now it was hard to be that girl on the team that was better than some boys. They tend to not like when girls are better than them, so proving to them that I was just another player on the team trying my best to fit in, and do my part came as a struggle.

On the other hand, playing on a male hockey was also a blessing. The boys I played with when I was as young as 3 are still my friends today. I am the girl that is known as “one of the boys” in Balcarres. I am so grateful for the friends I made well playing the sport I love, I was everyone little sister on the team, and if anyone hurt me they were in trouble. As a child, I wasn’t in dance or, the “girly” sports so creating those relationships with the boys were very important. There was always that one boy that had the snarky comment about how I was playing basketball at recess with the boys, or how I was sitting with all the boys at lunch, but these were my best friends and teammates. The teammates I grew up with made me forget about gender. I was just their friend. It didn’t matter if I was wearing pink or, had a crush on one of them; they still excepted me into their group. I do believe gender plays a role in how you are treated to some extent, but I think that has to do with how you portray your gender. If I went onto the team thinking I was the greatest, and no one could do better than me because I was a girl; then maybe I wouldn’t have made so many great relationships. I believe some women are too quick to think they are being judge by their gender, and not just by their attitudes. I have been on both sides of the spectrum and I do not think anyone should feel the way I felt as a 8 year old getting discriminated against because of their gender.

Field blog 4

For my fourth week with the grade 2/3s of St. Jerome I got to attend a liturgy. This was an awesome experience as I did not attend a Christian school as child, so this was totally new to me. The children got to video tape themselves saying prayers; which were then put up on the wall for everyone to hear. I think it is such a good opportunity to have my field placement at a Christian just because I have never got to experience these kinds of things. I may end up teaching in one down the road so getting this experience now is really nice. For our topic, this week we were told to focus on inclusive Education-Diversity & Difference. Diversity can be taken in many ways some examples would be the diverse cultures in schools, or diversity in income between families. There is come cultural difference in the classroom that I notice, but the children are not treated differently because of this. Talking to Ms. Sletcher yesterday she made us aware that their school is on the border line a community school, because of the diversity income. Coming into the school you can tell some children do come from lower income families. Based on food they come with, or clothing. This does not affect how the teachers or other students treat these children. Income may not always be a visible diversity. Some kids from 2 low income parents, some come from single family households, and others are in foster care. This may not be visible to other students, but making these children feel included is very important. Every child is treated fairly at this schools from what I have been able to see. There are no teachers “pets”, or children treated different based on their appearance, or abilities. Another thing I have noticed is the children that struggle a bit or come from harder backgrounds are not given the easy way out. If they do something wrong they are talked to and taught right from wrong like everyone else. I really like this idea because treating these kids differently would give them the impression that they can do whatever they want based on diversity. From all I have gathered this school is well rounded and a very inclusive school.

Field Blog 5

Today was my fifth Thursday in the 2/3 class at St. Jerome. Today was the first day me and my partner Ryan got to see a math class. The class is a 2/3 split so the grade 2s went into another classroom for math, so we could focus on the grade 3s. For the math class the kids are learning how to estimate. Ms. Sletcher gave the children in groups a baggy filled with buttons. The kids were to try and estimate how many buttons were in the bag and then count them to see how close they were to the correct answer. This class is very diverse in the fact that all the children are at different progressions in math. It was made clear to us that this class struggles with math quite a bit so working with the children is a big part of the class. One inclusive practice that I notice a lot is Ms. Sletcher having the children work together in partners. Almost every day the kids are working together in partners that are made for them so everyone is included and the kids get to know each other. We also took part in science today. In science, we worked on structures and how they hold different things. Ms. Sletcher makes sure she chooses almost every student to answer questions in science, including everyone. Being in a younger class you don’t see too much activity about gender or sexual identities. I am not sure how Christian schools go about gender and sexual identities. When is this taught in the school? How is it taught? I think this school does a great job of showing diversity and being inclusive. I don’t see any signs in my classroom of any children ever being left out. One main example of this is the children with special needs being a part of the classroom all the time and doing the same work as everyone else. Not a lot of schools are like this, so this really shows inclusivism and diversity.

Field Blog 6

This week during my field placement I got to take part in my first math test. Getting to see the children write a test was something new for me and was a huge eye opener to see how different students are at different learning levels. Ms. Sletcher had Ryan and I take part in one part of the testing which was a great experience. Going around and helping with the tests and any questions the children had helped me understand that in one class room there can be some many diverse levels of learning, and the curriculum sometimes doesn’t realize that. Not everyone was able to understand what the questions were asking, or just couldn’t do the math in general. It was hard to watch some children struggle with these things and not do anything to help them at the time, because it was testing. For the blog, this week we were told to focus on the curriculum that is taught. For science class, we focus mainly on the environment and how we as humans effect it. The children really engage in this class. Since this is something they are a part of and can help the environment. In math, the children seem to struggle more. I believe this has to do with the fact that math doesn’t really effect the world of a 10-year-old. Learning about the environment is different because the children deal with that every day, and can personally understand recycling as most would do it. I think the students really see the meaning and relevance behind protecting the environment, compared to math at the age they are at. As they get older they will realize they will use math more in an everyday life but for now science is more relevant.

Final Field Blog

Coming into my last day of my field placement I was very upset as I knew this would be my last time helping in the grade 2/3 Classroom at St. Jerome. Having the opportunity to do my field placement at St. Jerome was awesome. The kids were all so welcoming as well as Ms. Sletcher. Coming into the classroom I was very nervous, but right away the children were asking me questions and getting to know me as an educator. Leaving the room today was very hard. Before we left we were given books with pages each child coloured for us leaving us with a little note. Getting something like this was heart-warming. Getting to see how we impacted each child’s life; even if it’s just for a short amount of time. Some of the notes said things like “Thank you for helping me”, or “Thank you for being kind to me”. These little notes gave me so much encouragement and really made me aware that I am on the right path in my career choice. The number of hugs that I received today was amazing. Children that were quieter and kept to their selves were giving Ryan and I hug making us aware that we did benefit them with us just being there. One kid that needed a little extra help with us even started crying when we said we had to go now, this was heart breaking. To know we made this big of an impact made us aware of why we are in this field, and why we want to go forward with this career. I know I’ve said a lot about how we impact the children’s lives, but they also impacted mine a great deal. Thursday mornings were my favourite days of the week. I got to see 30 kids that were excited to be a school and learn. They were all such positive outgoing young children and that impacted my behaviours. I was happy to be there, outgoing, and positive because the children were. I love each and every one of the children I got the pleasure to meet this semester. Some children talked to me the whole morning and some were just happy to give me and nice “Good morning Ms. Fishley”; either way both these children impacted me tremendously. The amount of growth I have seen in the children’s learning and my relationships with each child is amazing. I could not have asked for a better group of kids to teach or a better teacher to look up to for my first placement.

Part 1

Gender and sexuality has been a big part of my life growing up. As I explained in my previous blog I wasn’t the average girl following the “norms”; dancing, figure skating, or doing gymnastics. Growing up this way considering myself as “one of the boys” made be very aware to the types of gender equalities and issues that arise for girls of all ages. There are many ideal standards and norms that men and women are supposed to follow in society today; a lot of these are portrayed through social media making it easy for everyone to access. Men and women have these standards to try and create a society were men are more dominate or masculine; leaving women to be the weaker, feminine gender. Being masculine means being tough, strong, and powerful; whereas feminine means being petite, weak, and being “ladylike”. For me growing up I heard the term “Ladylike” over and over again. The boys could burp whenever, but if I did it was “Cheyanne, you are a lady, act like one”. I never fully understood what this meant. To be a lady I could do normal bodily actions? I couldn’t be like my dad, my best friend, or my brother; just because of my gender? This all was confusing, but as I get older I realize that those were the norms that my dad grew up with so of course he would portray these on me. These were “normal” to my parents and grandparents. I do not blame our generation for the way women are treated as this is all that was known, but I think we can be the ones that try and change it.

Women from a young age are supposed to “act” a certain way. That explains it all. “Act”. The definition of acting; “holding a temporary rank or position: performing services temporarily.” We as women must act a certain way. Not only in public but in the comfort of our own homes. Reading Shaunesy’s blog acting a certain way really stood out to me. I easily related to her blog “A Girl”, because as a child I was the only girl on the hockey team, or hanging out with the boys doing “boy things”. Shaunesy explains how her love of hunting was hard for her growing up because she was a girl “I remember one of my best guy friends saying, “Shaunesy there is no way you shot that…you are a girl, do you even know how to use a gun?” Followed by a “I bet your dad shot that for.” I have had so many of the same encounters with the boys I call my best friends today. Mine personally went more like “Chey you only scored that goal because you had two boys on your line.” Or “If you weren’t a girl you would have got a penalty for that.” Now I understand that some of that may be true, but, why is it? Give me the penalty. If I truly  deserve the penalty then give it to me. It shouldn’t matter if I am a boy or a girl; if I deserve it then I deserve it. Shaunesy then goes on to explain that something that was so important to her became less and less important; “Soon this story became less exciting for me because no matter who I told, the initial reaction was, “you did that?? No way”. This also connects to me in a personal way. When I would tell a boy about the goals I scored or how many I got I would just get the respond “Oh! But you play girls hockey so thats easy”. This was something that was important to me, but because of my gender it was less important to not only the boys but the girls too. I believe this connects to the way women are supposed to act and behave in society. We as women are not supposed to act like we are “good” at things men do, or even try to do the things men are “normally” supposed to do.

Secondly, I connect and relate to the idea of gender roles of a women. Women for as long I’ve known have been told that their place is in the kitchen, or cleaning up after the men. Women are not supposed to make more than men, or do the masculine jobs; as women are too weak. Zoe’s blog called “Gender” really hit home for me. Reading this story made me realize how roles for a woman are so normalized that we don’t even notice them. Zoe explained how at Christmas the women are the ones cooking and cleaning up after the meal; while the men go and sit in the living room visiting. When Zoe explained how she didn’t even realize it at the beginning it made me wonder if I ever have noticed this myself “The women are all cleaning up the table and the men retire to the living room while all the ladies do the dishes and put away the leftovers. This was the first time I watched my family closely and realized how deeply ingrained gender roles are in my family.” This line really related to me and my family. Not only do these gender roles exactly aline with the roles in my family, but they also show how these roles affect future generations. Zoe also talks about how she feels as she is now following into these rolls. I can really connect to this. As I have gotten older I find myself cleaning the dishes, laying out the food, and handing out the dessert to the men that sit in the living room and watch football or hockey. This resonates with the word “roles”. These are our roles as women, and when we don’t do them we are told we are lazy, or unappreciative of all the “hard work” that men do.

Part 2

We were now told to find a story that we thought went against we could not connect to as much as the previous two stories.  As a female, it was quite hard to find a story I didn’t connect to, because I have had a lot of the same experience’s as other girls in the class. Seeing all these stories and how I relate to so many almost made me sick to my stomach. All of these women have to deal with the social “norms” and “standards” of a woman on an everyday basis; making me reflect on how I fall into these norms. I as a woman follow these normalized behaviors. I don’t even realize my behaviors, mannerisms, and the way I speak all lead back to the way I am supposed to be as a woman. Becoming a teacher, you have a very important role in a child’s life, so trying to correct these types of things is a very important if we want to make a change.

One story that really stood out to me and I couldn’t fully relate to was Noah’s. Noah blog “Barbie Boy”. Noah wanted to get a Barbie as a child at home depot, but his grandfather didn’t time that idea very much trying to convince him to go with the normal boy toys “No! Boys do not get toys like that. Those are toys for girls.” This line really stood out to me. What in the world makes it that Barbie’s are only for girls. Thinking about this made me realize it is the social norms. Boys are supposed to be masculine, and Barbie’s are not masculine. This did not relate to me growing up. When I was 2-7 I was the girl that wouldn’t leave the house without pink on, but by the age of 8 that all changed. When I turned 8 all I wanted to do was wear boy cloths, and of course that’s what I did. You would think I would be treated the same way as Noah when I wanted to buy these cloths, but I was not. My mom didn’t care that I was wearing boy cloths. She knew I played hockey and got along with boys so she let me wear what I wanted and hoped I was happy. This made me reflect on the way boys are treated compared to girls. If I was a boy that wanted to wear girl cloths they would be called “gay” like it is a bad thing. So why is this? Why can’t boys buy Barbie’s and girl cloths, but as a female I can go out wearing boy cloths and play with tractors? Social Norms. It all Comes back to how men have to be strong and masculine; taking care of the weak, feminine women.

In the end, it all comes down to; why are people in society still following and obeying these social norms. To answer this question, I am going to refer to the video we watched called “Oppressed Majority”. This video portrayed sexual assault, but men being the ones targeted. This was abnormal for me because this is such a rare thing in society today. This was so abnormal that it seems unrealistic. This made me think that we as a society are so used to the idea of women getting sexual assaulted the thought of a man being abused seems unlikely. Thinking about this is honestly scary. We as a society have normalized sexual assault among women and now it truly does seem normal. You see adds and videos everywhere portraying women as the weaker gender that always needs someone to look out for them, but this doesn’t have to be true. In the video, we see men being the weaker more feminine gender and like I said it seems so unrealistic. We need to take this step forward. We need to make people aware of the gender equalities and all the myths that come with gender stereotyping. In the novel, Is Everyone Really Equal? one line really stuck with me ” Socialization refers to our systematic training into the norms og our culture. Socialization is the process of learning the meaning and practices that enable us to make sense of and behave appropriately in that culture.” This describes perfectly of how we as a society run and why we do things the way we do.

Suchorab, Noah; “Barbie Boy” https://nsuchorab.wordpress.com October 23/2018

Sargent, zoe; “Gender”  https://zoesblogword.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/gender/ October 25/2018

Diemert, Shaunesy; “A GIrl” https://shaunesyblog.wordpress.com October 23/2018

Sensoy, Özlem, and Robin DiAngelo. “Is Everyone Really Equal?” 2017.

One question that really stood out to me while doing the privilege walk was the question about how many people in the class grew up in a family that was a single parent family, or their parents were divorced. I have grown up in a 2 parent house my entire life, and for many years I assumed most children were like me. As I got older I realized how many children were growing up with one parent, or not having their parents together. I never really thought about the impact this could have on a child growing up. Growing up in a family with 2 parents that love each other is truly a blessing. I grew up seeing two people love each other unconditionally every day, and getting to see that can really impact on how you love people in the future. I always had responsibilities as a child growing up, but listening some of the stories other people in the class had about their one family homes really had an impact on me. I have never had the feeling of being the only one to take care of my sibling for the night because my mom worked and I was the only one around. Don’t get me wrong i still had to babysit, but I think it is different when it is a thing that happens everynight, and you cant have free time. This was a very real thing for a lot of the kids in my class; and was defiantly one thing I never thought of till last class. I always had someone at my sport games, at parent teacher interviews, and food on the table for every meal. Listening to other people made me aware that these things weren’t apart of their everyday life. They didn’t always have someone to cook for them, or pick them up from school. I believe I truly am blessed for growing up in a house with two loving parents, and wouldn’t change it for the world. Doing this privilege walk opened up my eyes to some very real issues that go on in society. It also made me aware of how my life is impacted, because of my gender and race. This would have to be the time that I realized what class I could be consider in. I was promptly at the front of the privilege line and I will not say sorry for that, but I will say I am grateful.

Blog Post #3

Growing up playing boys hockey was always a struggle. From a young age, I was “accepted” onto the team, but truly was never fully appreciated for my skills or abilities. Being on the only female on the team is a challenge. From a young age, I was clumped together with 20 other boys in my town and surrounding towns to make a hockey team. Being the only girl on some of my teams wasn’t always the easiest. I had to learn how to stand my own ground from the start to prove that I was capable of playing on the team. Not only did I have to prove myself, but I had to became one of the “boys”. It was always the easiest trying to fit in with the boys when I was younger. They had the idea that all girls were gross and didn’t know anything about sports, so proving to them that I did wasn’t always the easiest. I specifically remember one occasion where one boy thought he should be on the ice over me because I was a girl. I can tell you the coach didn’t like that very much, and made it very clear that I was on the ice over him because of my skill, and not anything else. This was the first time my gender came clear to me. Looking back now it was hard to be that girl on the team that was better than some boys. They tend to not like when girls are better than them, so proving to them that I was just another player on the team trying my best to fit in, and do my part came as a struggle.

On the other hand, playing on a male hockey was also a blessing. The boys I played with when I was as young as 3 are still my friends today. I am the girl that is known as “one of the boys” in Balcarres. I am so grateful for the friends I made well playing the sport I love, I was everyone little sister on the team, and if anyone hurt me they were in trouble. As a child, I wasn’t in dance or, the “girly” sports so creating those relationships with the boys were very important. There was always that one boy that had the snarky comment about how I was playing basketball at recess with the boys, or how I was sitting with all the boys at lunch, but these were my best friends and teammates. The teammates I grew up with made me forget about gender. I was just their friend. It didn’t matter if I was wearing pink or, had a crush on one of them; they still excepted me into their group. I do believe gender plays a role in how you are treated to some extent, but I think that has to do with how you portray your gender. If I went onto the team thinking I was the greatest, and no one could do better than me because I was a girl; then maybe I wouldn’t have made so many great relationships. I believe some women are too quick to think they are being judge by their gender, and not just by their attitudes. I have been on both sides of the spectrum and I do not think anyone should feel the way I felt as a 8 year old getting discriminated against because of my gender.

Growing up as a white woman in southern Saskatchewan can definitely have its advantages. One major area where I notice a difference in the way people are treated because of their skin colour is when it comes to shopping in stores. When I go to the store as a white person I never have to worry about being followed, or questioned mainly because of my skin colour. I am not suspected to be the person that is stealing or causing trouble. I am not the person that makes the workers just keep an “eye” on well I go through self-checkout. We hear stories after stories of people being followed or watched for no apparent reason, yet it still happens. This is a controversial issue, and only people that can change this problem are the people causing it. I am blessed, and truly thankful I do not have to worry about these things. My race is hidden when I go shopping, my race is not a factor when I go to the store, my race is not even considered when I’m at the store just buying my family milk, and eggs. Yes, I am thankful for all these things, yes, I am privileged, and I notice that. I am aware of these issues, and I will continue to be thankful and fight for changes to be made.

I believe everyone has experienced racism or some type of discrimination in their lives. I am not trying to compare my experiences to some of the awful, awful experiences that come with racism, but I have felt discrimination because of gender. I have felt racism towards myself in the community I come from. Growing up in Balcarres is different from a lot of small towns. We are very diverse; with 4 surrounding reserves, we have a large majority of Indigenous people in our community. My race may not stand out in the big city, or in university, but it definitely did in high school. Being one of the very few White females in my class I experienced discrimination being a part of the minority. I know I am a grain in the sand, and people feel these ways every day, but i think people need to know that discrimination works in many ways.  I believe anybody can be subject to discrimination; whether its race, gender, or age. We all need to accept each other for our differences and be willing to change our ways for the better.