Alyssa Stuart - FNED 502 Blog

"The Myth of the Model Minority" brought me back to my high school years. My group of friends only had one Chinese-American. Everyone thought he was the smartest of the group, but when he didn't make the top ten of our class everyone was so surprised they thought it was a mistake. They stereotyped him, and started saying things like "He must be upset" and, "His parents must be so disappointed". He was the only one in our friend group they said that about, and I do not think anyone stopped to ask him how he felt about it. They just assumed. He was still in the top twenty, and that is definitely something to be proud of. Unfortunately, everyone thought they knew his family dynamic because they knew his race.  I do not understand why some people think there are "good" stereotypes and "bad" stereotypes. If you ask me they are all bad, just like the author in "You're Asian. How Could You Fail Math? Unmasking the myth of the m...

I have a few students who constantly tell me about the lack of diversity in the school. They combat this by always identifying themselves as Hispanic in a joking manner. They are never serious about it, but say things like “Is it because I am hispanic” and then laugh. When I read this chapter “Locating Yourself for Your Students” by Priya Parmar and Shirley Sternberg I thought about them and their relationship to me and the rest of the school. In this chapter, the authors argue that it is important to address one’s identity, as a teacher, to the students. From their experiences teaching they have found that identifying who you are as well as what you know and don’t know helps students respect and understand you more as a teacher.   In the chapter Sternberg writes about an instance when she had to talk in front of an all-Black and Latino/a class of high school students. She came out and said, “I’ll bet you’re wondering what a frizzy-haired Jewish woman is doing up her...

My name is Alyssa Stuart and I am an art teacher at Winman Junior High School in Warwick. I graduated from RIC just last May with my BFA in Art Education and this is my first year teaching. I have yet to be accepted into the Art Education graduate program, but will be applying this semester with the hopes of being an official graduate student next Fall. My area of expertise in art is sculpture, and I have a fascination with the female body. My work ranges from an exploration of the body itself and the overall beauty of it to exploring more deeper issues of the body and problems the female may face due to her body. Here is a link to my website that showcases my work as well as my students' work ( alyssastuart.weebly.com ). Some of my more "explicit" work is not showcased due to the fact that the artwork probably wouldn't go over to well with employers, but if you are curious I would be happy to show you :)