More Presentations!!

This week once again we had many presentations. Before the presentations we talked a little about the out of my comfort zone activity. Chad and Beckie came up with an awesome idea. They went shopping at a mall but, they went around the mall in wheelchairs. They said they were treated horribly and if they were permanently in a wheelchair they would NEVER go out in the busy times. As a CYW this is so important to realize that you need to be aware of others needs. If a person is going to be inconsiderate and insensitive in this field, they might as well look for a new job.

I was especially excited for the Mohawk presentation! This summer I spent a week working at a native reserve and it was a great experience. Also, my family has Mi'kmaq heritage. It is great to hear about different cultures. I really enjoyed the thanksgiving greeting. I also think that working in this area it is important to be informed about the different family systems. They noted in their presentation that traditionally women make the decisions for the household but the elders make decisions for the community. Broadening our understanding of different parts of the community is very important as a CYW.

I had never really thought about having to work with Mennonite youth and families before. This presentation had a lot of personal stories, which I love to hear. I feel like they really add to presentations. In this presentation I learned about the difference between new order and old order Mennonite communities. These communities have a very different way that they grieve deaths, which I found interesting. This presentation helped me understand this community a bit more and in which setting I may be working with this culture. It was refreshing to have a presentation about something I don't know too much about.

The last presentation was on India and Pakistan. I will be honest it was very hard for me to pay attention because I was so excited for the weekend to come. What can I say... I am only human. The most useful piece of knowledge that I got from this was the information the group shared on the Caste system that is prevalent in these countries. This is something that CYW's need to be informed about. This can be a huge culture shock for a child who was so used to being put down because they were low in the Caste system. They might not think much of themselves because of the circumstances they were born into, in their home country. We might be called to work with a child that is dealing with fitting into Canadian culture but they cannot shake off the Caste system.

I did learn a lot through the last couple weeks of presentations. It has helped me to reflect on things that have happened in class. Too easily the days just pass by without thought.

But...alas, those are all the words that I have.

Leah :)

Newcomers, Smarties & Crayons, and Afro-Centric Schools

I felt so happy that I had no idea what was going on when I walked into class. The last couple of weeks, every class I have had there has been something to hand-in or a presentation to do. The only thing I had to worry about was getting my blog done.

Once again there were group presentations. The first presentation was on New Immigrants coming to Canada. They went through many definitions about immigrants throughout the presentation. There were two things that I found really interesting about this presentation. The first is that more immigrants come to Canada than anywhere else in the world. That is really important as CYW's to take this piece of information into our work. We cannot just direct our practice with our clients as if they were all born and raised in Canada with the same cultures. The second thing that I really enjoyed about the presentation was Jen's story about her boyfriend working with a new immigrant. It was cool to hear about the relationship that they have built. The presentation was well put together. The videos also really added to the presentation.

The second group presented on Bi-Racial Heritage. I was excited to see what was going to be in this presentation because I have Bi-Racial Heritage Their first activity was GREAT! I will definitely hold onto the smartie activity for working with children or youth that are struggling with racial identity. Their presentation was well put together, I especially like that they talked about famous role models that are a part of this heritage. Kids look up to those people in media, it is good to know that there are some positive ones that children will be able to relate to and look up to.

The last group presented on African Canadians. They had many statistics that allowed us to understand better where Afro-Canadians fit into our culture and country. The video that they showed was about a specific Afro-Centric school in Toronto. When I first heard about this school I wasn't totally sure if I agreed with it. The video that they showed explained more than then the information that i gained from the news. I also think this was a great presentation.
Something that I think our class needs to work on (including myself) is not reading off their notes when presenting. I did get some good information from the presentations, but at points it was hard to pay attention.

Next, all Ineed to worry about is getting the tool-kit for this class started and finished! AHHHHHH!!!

thats all of Leah's words for today

peace

Projects all about Culture

There was a lot of work that I had to do before this class came. It was a huge load off my back after the class was over.
I was in one of the first groups to present their culture project. All of the projects are going to reflect a specific group of people that are found around the world. The topics range from ethnicity to countries to religious groups. My group's topic was South East Asia. We found information about the culture and people of the region and presented it in a way that would be helpful to CYW's in our class. I usually like presentations and I find them quite easy to do. This presentation however was very hard.
Being in third year generally you would expect that most of the students are responsible and would help....."take care of business". It was not really like that. I struggled a lot in being confident with this project in regards to the content, group dynamics and the presentation. There was bound to be a project like this that tested my ability in working with people. But...it is over and I do not have to stress about it anymore.

A group presented on the Hispanic culture. This was a great presentation. I really like their handout that they gave to the class. I will be putting that away in my resources that I will be using in the field.

The last presentation was all about the Muslim culture. The group started off with a video clip from a TV show. I wish that they would have spent that time giving us more information about the culture. I don't know if it is just because I have seen that clip before but I do not think that clips longer that three minutes help presentations. People get to much into the storyline adn forget about what they should be looking for in the video. Other than that I think the presentation was great. It had a lot of information in it that I was not aware of which will be very helpful in the field.

I look forward to more presentations about different cultures. I think that as a CYW it is so important to be somewhat knowledgeable about different cultures in order to help your clients. This is class time well spent.

thats all Leah's Words for this week.
Peace out.