Nicholas Wall Whale Talk Assignment To begin, I was not the biggest fan of this particular novel.

It is not my favorite genre of fiction to read, so perhaps that is why I was not that interested in the content. With that said, my three characters are Andy Mott, Heidi, and John Paul Jones. Andy Mott is a character who fronts a facade of being a tough guy that no one wants to mess with. He definitely has his reasons for this, due to being assualted sexually and badly mistreated as a young child. He even had to get his leg amputated due to neglect. Because of this treatment he had to endure, he often intimidates other people to leave him alone. Underneath his tough exterior, however, he does have passion and shows he cares, as evidenced by his telling his teammates on the swim team the story of why he has a prosthetic leg. Many times, we may see students like this, the ones who seem not to care about anything and like to cause trouble just to cause trouble. It is important to remember that students such as these are people too and may just need someone to care for them, the way the swim team supported Andy. Even the coach put up with his antics (flipping off the crowd) because he knew deep down that Andy was a good kid. Heidi is a young child who had basically heard nothing but racism from day one because her actual father had passed away and she had to deal with a bigoted father figure. When we first meet Heidi, she is in counseling to help her get past what she has been told her entire life, that since she is half black she is not good enough and her white brothers are superior to her, so she should try and clean the blackness off her. While this is despicable stuff that a child should never hear, it does happen, and we must be mindful of the racism that still affects this country. Even in our little part of Wisconsin, where white people makes up the vast majority, there are still minorities who go to school here and may be subjected to racism from other students, parents,

and community members. Young children tend to emulate what they see and hear, and when authority figures subject them to racism, they will grow not knowing anything else. The character of John Paul Jones, I happened to notice right away his name more than anything. I found it funny that the author chose to name the father of the main character, who is a swimmer and feels at home in the water, after perhaps the most famous naval officer in the history of our country. Or the bassist for Led Zeppelin. I am thinking it is the former. I find it interesting that the quote that the original Jones said, I have not yet begun to fight is a good metaphor for John in this story. He is always ready to protect his children and family, but never has to actually come to blows. John is a very good father to his son, as well as the other children who come through their foster home. Though John dies at the end, he leaves a lasting mark on his son with their discussions of life and death and how he treats others. He has a rough looking exterior, but is a gentle man at heart, especially with young children. This stems from an incident in his earlier years and the death of a young child he has attempted to move on from. He truly cares for all children, even the broken ones such as Heidi (and Alicia) and shows them how a true family should work.

If I had a student like Andy in my classroom, the first thing I would do is talk to him alone about his studies and why he feels the need to act out in class, and also why he isnt living up to his potential. In the novel, Andy is the type of student who is very smart, and actively tries to not pass his classes. It sounds as if Andy is actually more concerned about what else is going on in his life, as he has tried drugs and tries to forget his past instead of excelling in school. He could achieve high grades if he put forth the effort needed instead of trying to fail his classes. This sounds to me like someone who is crying out for attention but doesnt want to actively

come out and ask for help. His intimidation factor keeps other students from wanting to try to help him, and its only when his swim coach tells him he needs to get his grades up to stay eligible to swim that Andy works for it. This is due to him finally feeling as part of a family with the swim team and the fact that he has something he cares about to work toward. Andy wouldnt need any special needs accommodations, as he understands the material, he just doesnt want to work for it. I would sit down with him and see if there is anything he would like me to do to help him, as often times a student who is acting out wants to be helped, yet doesnt want to ask for it. I could possibly set up a schedule with Andy where he can take his tests alone instead of with the other students so he doesnt feel pressured to underperform and keep his reputation up. I would also take a personal interest in Andy, find out about his life and his past, and see what is going on underneath that might be the root cause of his behavior. It is important to really get to know your students personally so you can understand them and not only how they learn, but why they learn as well. We will have students like this in our classroom, those that can do the work, but choose not to. These are the hardest students to teach, because they actively make the choice to not learn, rather than trying and failing because of some other circumstance. Thus, when we have the wont students and not just the cant students, it makes our job more difficult. This is why it is so important to get to know your students on a personal level, so you can understand why they might not be willing to do the work. It may just be something as simple as they want to keep up their image of intimidation instead of succeeding and having to answer questions of why, as it is in Andys case.

As I stated before, I was not very into this particular novel, as I did not find the subject all that interesting as far as reading goes. To me, it read like what you would think might be a true story or an autobiographical novel, instead of being fiction. When I read fiction, I read it for enjoyment, not really to learn from the subject matter. So, when I read this book, it didnt really shed any new light on diversity in the classroom and cultural sensitivity. I have had the fortune to work in classrooms, not only as a coach, but also as a substitute teacher. Granted, there was not a lot of racial diversity in the classrooms I have taught in, but there was some. For the most part, there really wasnt a lot of racism being shown toward the minority students, but that doesnt mean there was none. Even in this society, in 2013, racism is still heavily present. Since we live in a part of the country where the population is mostly white, we might not see much of it. But, that doesnt mean it doesnt exist. For example, I taught and coached at a school where there are some students who are Native American. Their cultural upbringing is different from other students who might not be familiar with some of their practices. One such practice is the males having very long hair that isnt allowed to get cut. I have seen this first hand, and when I hear other students and even community members comment on it, usually in a negative tone, I am displeased. In the case of the students, especially my students and ballplayers, they are taught right away that I do not stand for negative comments and stereotypes, and that before you judge someone you should attempt to get to know that person as a person, not as people. I have also had the chance to work in an alternative school, one that is not public, and the vast majority of kids there are not there by choice, they are mandated to be there by the court judicial system. Many of the children there, from ages 5 to 18, identify themselves as a race other than white. Though I did not do any teaching there, I still interacted with the kids on a daily

basis. For the most part, the kids there were great kids who had made mistakes in their lives, or their family life was a mess and they had nowhere else to go. There was a lot of gang activity involved there too, but that was another issue altogether. This particular school had a lot of diversity in its students, and it was an interesting experience, one that definitely helped me as a teacher see how important it is to get to know the students. As mentioned previously, the majority of the kids were good kids who had just made a mistake or didnt have anywhere else to go. So we authority figures strived to introduce an environment where they could learn from their mistakes and not be subjected to further cultural negativity. As I was reading this novel, I found myself increasing disinterested, as I have had actual experiences with diversity and positive learning environments. I didnt really learn much from this story, and I do not really see how reading this book fits in with this program to become teachers. This is especially of note because this book is written in first person with a student as the main character. I might feel different if it were written from a teachers perspective, such as seeing things from Simets point of view and how a teacher saw the events of the story go down. The swim team in the novel was a pretty diverse set of characters, with all of them having some issue that they identified themselves with. For TJ it was being mixed race, for Chris it was being mentally disabled, for Andy it was being physically disabled and abused, for Simon it was being overweight, and so on. As their season progressed, they found that even though they were all different, they were all the same as well in that they found a team to belong to. It is the same with the kids in our schools we will be teaching at. Most kids want to belong to something, to some group they can identify with. Peer influence is enormous in middle and high school, and it is something teachers must take into account. Thus, even though diversity will be present, not

just racially but social as well, we must get to know our students as persons and help them achieve their best and grow into outstanding young men and women.