Equity- Autobiography part 2

      Looking back in my childhood, the hardest part about moving was leaving the people I met behind. I was almost always upset to leave, but I was happy when I made friends.The downfall of moving so much was I never had the long-term childhood friends that many kids my age had. I only told certain friends certain personal information, because I didn't know how long we would be friends. Keeping in touch after a move usually did not happen. In the back of my mind, I never knew how long I was going to stay at my home/school. All of the knowledge that I have acquired through every move will help me be more empathetic toward the students that are frequent movers. I have the understanding of what they could be going through. I know that what they are going through is probably different and their feeling maybe different, but I can let them know that I am there if they need help catching up on a topic, because the school they came from is in a different place than were I am at in my lesson.
        Moving  a lot means you live in a variety of neighborhoods and homes. In my life time so far I have lived in what I would consider low income to middle class homes/apartments. The most cramped in a home has been when my family lived with my grandparents in a 2 bedroom 1 bath trailer. My brother and I slept in the dining area. This was not a fun experience. The nicest place that I have lived is now. I am a proud home owner making mortgage payments in a nice neighborhood. I have lived in areas where there has been gang activity,drug activity, and severe crime area. In living in a variety of areas, I learned how to communicate with a variety of people. I am hoping that I will be able to use some of the knowledge that I have gained from this neighborhoods to apply it to my teachings, especially if I talk about communities. 
       Alcoholism was mainly in my extended family. I didn't have it in my home, but I experienced it none the less. I understand what it is like to witness child abuse. My uncle would come home drunk, yell and hit his kids with the belt. He never curved his language at all when I was around. My family stressed me out when they drank. I never new if they were going to be violent or over loving (ranting on how much they love you). I do have one thing to thank my family for. I knew I didn't want to be like them and I am not.What I have learned as a child was how to be better than some of the role models before me.  If a student felt comfortable to talk to me about their family; I would listen to what they have to say. I may share some stories with them, if they want to hear them. I hope that I am able to guide and help students to be better people. Good role models are sometimes hard to find, especially when you are a place where you want to hide.
       From moving, family, and being picked on at school and home I have developed a tough side to me. I have been in a few fights, but I usually don't try to be in them. The first one was to protect my brother from a kid that was being a bully. To me protecting family is the right thing to do. I love my family and I am very attached to them. The second one the kid just wouldn't back off and it just happened. I person can only take so much before they blow. As a teacher, I hope that I can be the mediator before a student blows and two students decide to take it to the next level. I have found that sometimes fights break out over misunderstandings. Most of the fights that I have seen ( that I have not been apart of) have been the same gender. I believe that girls can hold their own in a fight just as well as boys. Girls are a little more brutal. They pull hair, use nails, and rip out earrings.
        As gender as a whole the experiences that I have had have been people telling me that I can't do something because I am a girl. That statement always has made me angry. If you want something bad enough, you have to try for it. If it doesn't work, it is not because of your gender. It is because you were not able to do it. I want all of my students to try in my class. It doesn't matter of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation. They all will have a fair chance in my class to succeed.
         I am very blessed to have a good family structure. Both of my parents loved me and showed me that they loved me. They were very supportive in everything that I did. As I have grown my idea of family has changed to include my friends into my family. Family to me is a group of people that may or may not be related to you that care about and/or love you. Hopefully most of my students will have at least 1 person in their life that care about them. If not, I can tell them that I care what happens and that they have options in their life.

        Since I have seen so much in the last 35 years, my perspective of the world is not very rosie. Students are different and come from different backgrounds. They may have home issues, school issues, learning disabilities that have been overlooked, english as a second language, and many more. It is my job to guide them and teach them. My job may include talking to them about personal issues or class work. I may have to be a mediator of a fight or help students solve a problem with another student. To one or more students I may be a role model. I want to work as many problems out in my classroom before calling the parents into play. Since I don't know what kind of home life my student has, I don't want to make it worse at home unless I have to.