Naomi's Growth in Becoming Naomi Leon

I just finished reading the book Becoming Naomi Leon. I was intruiged to read this book since in our last children's literature course we read one of the authors other books, Esperanza Rising. I have to say that this is one of my favorite books that I have read in a long time. There is one thing that stuck out to me after I started writing my questioning the text paper, so I figured that I would write a blog about my thoughts. We are able to see Naomi's struggle throughout the book with wanting her mother back in her life. Until she finds out that Skyla is wanting her to move to Las Vegas to basically babysit her boyfriends daughter, Naomi was enthralled with her mother. I noticed that throughout the novel, Naomi was never very secure with how she looked. She always commented about how she stuck out from others. This theme became apparent to me when they actually travel to Mexico and she tells us that the clothes really make the person, and the fact that she had on an embroidered blous and other articles of clothing that she finally felt like she was Mexican. She finally felt as if she fit in. She was able to be successful at the turnip carving competition, and feel good about herself. I thought thatit was interesting that after this trip to Mexico, her self confidence goes up. We hear throughout the story that she is always soft spoken and that no one can ever hear her, but this changes. We see her thoughts of remaning silent about all of the things that Skyla has planned for her, but in the end, in court, she decides that she has to say something or no one is going to say anything. She stands up for herself, her brother owen, and her great grandmother. Because Naomi found out who she was and where she came from, she was able to say something. I thought that this was an interesting growth throughout the novel and wanted it to be brought to the forefront. I think that this is an important novel that brings up issues of different family situations, and real world contexts that happen in our lives today.

My Educational Philosophy

I have never wanted to be anything else besides a teacher. (except for the brief broadway and acting stage that most young girls go through) I wanted to become a teacher after I finished fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher was an amazing woman (her name was Sue Bright) and I knew after that year, that teaching is what I want to do. Over the years I have seen individual teachers reach out and affect certain students. There are some children that can't be reached, but the extra attention, and the caring of a good teacher can change that. This is why I am teaching. I am teaching so that I can positively affect the children who come in and out of my life, and let them know that they can be whatever they want to be. This class pertains to my professional goals 100%. I have always loved children's literature, but this class has really opened my eyes. I would like to think that I have a decently diversified classroom library, but looking back at my books, I have mostly just African American literature. I need to step up and start getting different kinds of diverse lit. Literature however is a great medium in a classroom so that we will be able to learn about different cultures. It exposes children in a fun way, through reading over more traditional learning in the classroom. I think that multicultural education should be involved in every classroom. It is important for children to learn about other cultures when they are young so that they are more accepting to them in the future. It is interesting to see this now, because I am in an all caucasian classroom and have not seen much multicultural learning. These children grow up seeing only one thing, and I don't think thats right. Since I love childrens books, I think that diverse literature will be prominent in my classroom library as well as the lessons that I teach in the future. The only concern I have is the previous notions put into childrens heads about certain cultures in our midst. I hope that I am able to catch them at a young enough age that they will grow up to be accepting of everyone. I have to realize that everyone comes from their own unique background, and that I will not be able to reach every single student. However, I would like to think that I can touch a good percentage of them. I hope that my students by the time they leave my classroom will have more world knowledge than when they left. I feel as if I will be able to do this as long as I continue to put into effect critical pedagogy and critical literacy.