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Tamara Herrera
HD497 ELAC BA Capstone
November 08, 2016
Robin McConnell
Pacific Oak College
Reflections of Core HD 390
HD 390: Developing Anti-Bias Curriculum: Teaching Our Values to our Children, was a
very interesting class about introducing us to many topics, rules and hypothesis for developing
anti-bias curriculum. We also focus on early childhood Education and many developmentally
useful practices. This class show me perspective and actions towards others in the areas of
gender, race, culture, and abilities. Other material that we learned in class were developmental
problems, events, inquiry of resources/materials and beginning assistance aids. As well the
importance of self-introspection and critical thinking was addressed in this course and gave us a
better understanding of anti-bias situations.
Many of the discussion that we spoke about in class and online were about daily
observation, opinion, and current events in our daily workspace. One weekly discussion was
about how play in the classroom and we moved away from it or toward it. I enjoyed reading
everyone response on this discussion because I do believe play is a big part of a child education
and that it was great to read everyone view on the topic. This adding to my knowledge of play
and how there a certain way things should be addressed. Play helps a child develop special skills
and how its also match a certain story in the book we were reading in class (Anti-bias Education
for Young Children and Ourselves by: Louise Derman-Sparks). In part two of the stories a
mother is concern for her daughter Vivian, where on her first day of school she was given a test

where she failed. The mother spoke about how that was the first impression of school and how
she was affected her views. The mother wanted the daughter to play more and be a child, not to
stress over school. Play should be enjoyed in school while there young because there not going
to do as much as if there why in elementary or middle school.
In fulfilling my goal, I learn that I need to see thing differently in my classroom, personal
space, and other areas. In this course, we talk about real problems that go on in young children
and in classroom. How gender identity, play, and racial problems go through a classroom and
how children change because of this. Also in another weekly discussion, we wrote about how
families I work with, what did I learned from them and how I supported them. If I embraced the
challenges or the differences that are going on in their homes. Most of the time when children
come with a different attitude are due to problems at home. I want to be there and try to help
them the best that I could.
One of the assignment that help me understand more this class is the Movie Observation
Assignment which was an in-depth observation of diversity and anti-bias techniques where I
observe a film. The film needed to be based on a character in teacher/teachers, their classroom,
and the interactions they are having with the students, which it could be good or bad. I needed to
mention how their perceived identity, and attempt to teach/interact with the students are factoring
into whether or not they are successful or not. The assignments in spilt up in three sections; the
first section is the observation of the film, the second sections is the Anti-Bias
Curriculum/Community, and lastly the third section is the personal analysis. The film I choose
was Spare Parts directed in 2015 by Sean McNamara. This movie was such a great film that
my daughter introduces to me that reminded me from where I came from. The whole movie was
based on an article written by Joshua Davis from Wired Magazine, La Vida Robot. This

story/movie was based on a true story about four kids from a Latino high school, who are all
immigrants in the United State. They won the M.I.T. in 2004 in the Mate Rov competition. They
were helped by their teacher who inspired to be something in this country. This just gave me a
better senses of being a better teacher and do the same for my students even though there young,
I want them to know that they can be anything they set out to be. I learned that it doesnt matter
where your background is from or who you are, if you set out a goal to be someone in this world,
you can be anyone you want.