I love showing the students how this works with the students when they have different answers to problems or differences in opinions. We discuss the different ideas and dissect or unpack the ideas together and see if one answer has a better reason than the other. This helps the students understand how everyone thinks differently and comes to their own conclusions differently. Some of the responses from the students are mind blowing and fantastic rationals due to personal experiences.

My Mamaw always said “We are from here”, I never really understood as a child because she never said more like a town or country. Later I learned that we are literally from America because we are Native Americans. Her mother, who would have been my Great Great Grandmother, was from a reservation if I remember my history correctly. The correlation about how she took care of nature and how I was taught to do the same is from our native roots. None of my other ancestors or family do this, which I find very strange that they do not have histories or traditions tied to the land.

This reminds me of my Gramma and my Mamaw, (her mom) who always took me on outings to the mountains, the beach, fishing and more because they both would always have a bag that we kept for trash. This bag was to make sure that we left the places we went to better than how we came across them. If that meant emptying our bag a couple of times then so be it but we never left trash if we came across something while we were out. My husband’s family was horrified that we picked up trash when we went out and just could not understand why we did. I taught this to my children and we all would forget sometimes to bring a bag then we would wash our finds that ended up in our pockets. It has become a bit of a laughing point because of all the little finds that come home with me. My son and I compare fishing hooks and lures that we find while fishing.

Learning to think outside of the box for research can really give different perspectives about any subject and can be so liberating to pick things you would not normally learn about. In class I try to have the students learn about things they are interested in but do not have experience with. This way the students are not relying on ideas or information that they already know and have to go outside the comfort zone. We have also been doing this in the foods class I teach and it gives us so much more diversity.

I see my own students more engaged when they are in groups and we are working together. I have put two big tables together in my classroom and started getting away from the solitary exercises because my special education students are already behind in social skills and understanding roles in group activities. I do this because their peers are so far ahead of them academically that they can not engage or contribute to their group the same and then the groups accuse the students of cheating when really they just cannot comprehend what the class is doing. I am trying to help the students learn social cues and academics with the activities that are centered around group work.

This really hit home for me because at home during my childhood everything was done in solitary, from getting ready for the day to chores and even meals. We as a family never ate together except on special occasions. If I got all of my chores, homework or whatever it might need to be taken care of done as soon as possible so I could go to my friends’ homes where we had dinner together and family engagement. I did not mind if I needed to help the family with more work.

This shared task and collaboration ethic is my favorite way to work and learn. As a young adult somewhere in the multiple homes I visited I came to the conclusion that if you could not work in the kitchen together with a potential mate then that was not the person you should be dating or considering for marriage. It may sound silly however the theory has proven itself more times than I would like to count in my life, my children's lives and many friends and family. There is a bond that cannot be explained when you can work together for common goals.

I had never experienced the segregation mentioned here growing up and as an adult at a family gathering for Thanksgiving at my in-law's dinner I was told my children would have to be seated at a different table. Children were not included at the adult table or later in activities because their belief was that children are seen not heard. This was and still is horrifying to me as a parent because I wanted the children to be with us and never had that kind of separation with my children or my family growing up. That was the only dinner I ever ate without my children unless my kids did not want to have me at the table with them and preferred someone else like the favorite Aunt and Uncle.

The Assembly-Line Instruction has been horrible for students and teachers alike. I have always learned more in the "non-traditional" ways of learning and encourage “non-traditional” learning in my classrooms. As a special education teacher and foods teacher I want my students to be successful in life not just school so I teach mostly by using activity based learning and I always remind kids it is ok for our project or food not to turn out ok because we will learn from it as long as we are putting forth an earnest effort.