Sarah Gibson attended the Rose Spicola Forum to hear presentations from speakers. The keynote speaker, Kathy Short, emphasized bringing diverse cultural experiences into the classroom rather than just focusing on foods, dress, and holidays. Gibson also attended a session on spiders and snakes presented by her professor, which opened her eyes to their environmental uses despite her aversions. The final session discussed best book choices for children and teens according to librarians.

1. Sarah Gibson
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Rose Spicola Forum
I attended the Rose Spicola Forum in Reading. This was my second time to attend this
forum and I must say that this time around was a better experience than the
last because of the quality of the speakers chosen for the event. The keynote speaker, Kathy Short,
spoke on building cultire in the classroom. She elaborated on what many
teachers choose to do which is like the quot;tourist approach.quot; She stressed the importance of bringing
different views and cultural experiences into the classroom, not just
introducing the foods, dress and holidays associated with a particular culture. She also opened my
eyes and mind to including international authors. The styles in which
stories written by international authors are told can be vastly different from the ones we are used to.
Including these in the classroom can be a way to make
the classroom more international instead of giving students the idea that other countries are only on
television. I love how she included her own past and gave many
glipses into what was behind her writing. She left me with the realization that you must know your
own culture before you can understand someone else's.
The first session I attended was quot;Spiders and Snakes Can Be Our Best Friends.quot; I was
hesitant to attend this one due to my aversion to both snakes and spiders, but
decided to go anyway because my professor was the one giving the presentation. Although, it did
not change my opinion of these creatures, it did open my eyes up to their
use in our environment. I enjoyed the variety of media she used during the session. It kept it from
being mundane. I will remember this when preparing lessons for my future
class. She used children's books, videos from National Geographic, a power point, word
searches/fill-ins and discussion. She also gave us material that we will be able to
use including a really great book called Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon. It is humorous,
as the title indicates, as well as informative. The main point that really
stuck out to me was that half of our students will be boys, so we must not use our bias about things
that are quot;creepyquot; or quot;grossquot; as a way to avoid these subjects in our
classroom. She stated that most schools and classrooms are decorated in a quot;cutesyquot; manner, even
when it is spiders and snakes and that we need to keep our boys in
mind as well.
The second session I attended was quot;Librarian's Choices: Best Books for Children and
Teens.quot;