Learning Letter, Plan of Action

Learning Letter: Plan of Action

This class really opened up my eyes to the world around me. I really enjoyed this class and all of the books that we read. My favorite books were “Kampung boy” and “This is not a dinner party”. I liked “Kampung boy” because of the style it was written in. I loved the pictures and their way of life. Seeing how the boy becomes a man and all the family traditions and tribal customs that he had to go through. The whole male circumcision was really intense but since it was made into a picture book it was more childlike and I had fun reading this book. “This is not a dinner party” was also one of my favorite books because it challenged my way of thinking. If I was made to go through that situation I don’t think I would survive. The Chinese Revolution was a very serious and I enjoyed our guest speaker who actually went through what the little girl in the book went through. The fact that she can talk about it so openly and have such a bright personality amazes me and shows a lot about her character. I had her as a teacher before and I had no idea that she had gone through such terrible heart ache. I have the up most respect for her.

My favorite project that we did in class was the group book talk section. In a previous class I had we talked about the controversial book “And Tango makes three” but we didn’t go in as deeply as I did for that project. I really enjoyed learning that the book is a true story and how huge of an uproar it caused for those working with children, in libraries, and families of the LBGTQ community. I never knew how many books were out there to better help parents explain to children that some families are different than others. I really respect that our country has changed a lot from when I was a child. I also really enjoyed hearing everyone’s groups and what topics they chose. My favorite was the step parents. My mom is a step mom and I am a step sister. I love my sister but she does cause a ripple in our family when she comes over for the weekend because she doesn’t have a good connection with my mom let alone her real father. I am in college so I can’t be there anymore to help smooth out the tension so seeing the books that are out there for her to read really opened up my eyes and I called my mom as soon as I was out of class to tell her about it.

After all that I have learned in this class about the world struggles and the different things people and children go through I plan to be more sensitive to other peoples and what they might be going through. Everyone is going through something that is significant to them and it needs to be respected. When I have children or come into contact with children in my family I hope to open their eyes to a wider variety of children’s books especially “And Tango Makes Three”. Of course I will ask the parents first but now that I have the knowledge about the book and others out there I feel more confident talking about and explain them to children and parents. Since I am graduating I plan to help out the Autism community and their families. It’s what I do now and it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. This class really opened up my eyes and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to open up their way of thinking in a fun and challenging way. Thank you.