Has it really all come to an end?

The answer to that is very simple. My CYW classroom career has almost come to an end. I am sitting here writing one of my last reflections! This is actually crazy, but so exciting. Two and a half school years have passed since I walked into my first class at Loyalist. To evaluate my learning in this course I need to take into account my learning throughout the program.

To understand Culture and Diversity at the level that we discussed I needed the learning that I have had in previous courses. As a CYW you need to know what is important to consider when exploring the needs of a child. Culture is something that every child has, sometimes they are just not aware of how it is impacting their life.

To summarize my learning from this course I am going to use some of the questions provided:

In what ways were the course content and the course outline helpful or useful to you?

• By providing awareness about Culture and Diversity it has helped me identify it more in my daily life. Before this course Culture was not something that I liked to identify in my own life ( I am not saying that this has changed). Through this course I have started to understand the importance that it holds in others and benefit for them to identify their uniqueness when compared to others. Children and Youth need to know that they are unique and that they can stand out in a positive way. This course has also opened my eyes in the same way to why some adults value culture and diversity.
  

Did you find the textbooks, handouts, reading useful?

• I opened my textbook at the beginning of the semester and tried to start reading. I would call myself a reader, so I was very confused when I was not absorbing any information. So I skipped to the next chapter and tried again...ya still nothing. The next time I picked it up was when our group was making our presentation for South East Asia. We used some information from there about how to help clients, that is all. I do not think that was worth my money. The book just was not used enough in the class to ask students to use it. It may have lots of great information in it but since it was not related or essential for our classwork I did not use it and I know that was the case for many of my classmates.
• I love handouts and I have made use of A LOT of them that I have received especially this year. With that being said, printing out slides hows as your handout should be OUTLAWED! No one uses those ones. When it looks like the group has actually put the effort into make a one or two page handout with vital information people are more likely read them. Yes it is easy and I have done it a time or two but people do not read them when the handouts are slide shows.
  

Was the evaluation process fair?

• I think that so far all the marks that I have received correspond to the amount of work that I have put into my assignments. So I am pretty happy about that.
  
• The toolkit outline was the only one that was VERY vague. This was the case for the another toolkit that we were assigned for another class. It is just really hard to understand what the teacher is asking for when there is such a big spectrum of what they will accept.
  
• I think it is very valuable that we have been given the opportunity to reflect and respond to classes and the course. Feedback is a really good idea!
  

Please comment on the instructor's attitude and approach in the classroom?

• Sarah, Sarah, Sarah! Always excited and ready to go with tons of stuff for us to discus in class and to learn about. As students we can tell how much teachers care by the amount of effort that is put into the lesson plans. Thank you for putting the extra effort and energy into our Friday morning classes.
• It did not happen to me, but I felt really bad for the groups that were cut off during their presentations. I know the the rubric gave a time limit but I just felt like the groups were a bit disrespected when they were cut off before giving their whole presentation, since they obviously worked really hard on their project. Sometimes that happens, sometimes schedules are thrown off but that is just what happens.
  
• Sarah, thank you for being available for us if we had questions about assignments.

List 4 of the most valuable exercises/ experiences in this course for you and elaborate on the personal learning that you took away from these experiences.

• I really liked having the groups at the end of the class where were could talk about what happened that day. I wished we could have done that more, but I am really glad that we had the chance to do that when we did.
• I REALLY liked that we used the book "If the World was a Village". I think that book is a great tool for giving children and adults a realistic picture of our world.
  
• I like that we were challenged to step out of our comfort zone for an assignment. As of yet I am not sure how I will hand that in but some how I will be able to display what I learned through that activity.
• Lastly, I really enjoyed the blogs. When I was finished each week I felt really good about being able to reflect on what I had learned that week.

As a CYW entering the field this course helped prepare me for working with Children and Youth on Issues of Culture and Diversity.

This time for real.....Leah has no more words!

Peace!