Between my own book and the books that my classmates read, this project helped me gain an understanding of the many different things that children in America can experience, as well as the different backgrounds they come from with their home lives. I learned that it can be something different with every child. Just because one child isn’t experiencing something that another child is, doesn’t mean that one child isn’t experiencing something different of their own. For example, the main character in the book I read, Jude, had a pretty good relationship with her family, and they seemed to be big supporters of hers with whatever it was. When we look at the lives of other kids from different books, some of them did have very rough lives at home. Whether it was abuse, lack of support or socioeconomic struggles, children in other books had some of those issues that would have a direct impact on their performance and/or behaviors in school. Jude might not have had these problems, but she had problems of her own. Coming from Syria to the United States, she was completely unfamiliar first and foremost with English. As a foreign exchange student this is one of their greatest challenges to bear, is trying to get familiar with the new language. Jude also had the stress of worrying about looking different from everyone else, especially when it came to wearing her hijab, which is a part of her culture back home. This really made her stand out from the crowd. This is just one of many examples of how different students can be facing different issues in their lives, but this project really opened my eyes as to how the problems are different from student to student. It is important to be aware of all these different problems students can face.
As a future teacher, I will apply this to my work by having an increased awareness of the different issues kids in my classroom are facing. What I have learned from this project tells me that it could be something different from each child. Each child has their own unique abilities and experiences, and as a teacher in a room full of all these kids, I have to be able to recognize the skills and abilities that each one of them has and get them to be able to utilize those in the classroom. It is likewise with recognizing their different struggles and issues. This project has helped me understand that different kids come from different situations, and it is a challenge to face as a teacher to accommodate all of those need, but important to try as hard as possible to complete that challenge. All in all, when I am a teacher in the future, I will work as hard as possible to meet the needs of all my students and lower their stresses from the problems they face outside of the classroom.
