Counter Narrative Text

     Originally, I had a hard time coming up with a concept for my text. I knew I wanted to modernize a story because I thought it would be more interesting and relatable for students. Initially, I considered modernizing beauty and the beast, but I realized its been done before. I tried to think of other Disney films based on books because those are the stories I remember most. After doing a little search on Disney films, I came across Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty, like other Disney films, was based on a book, initially written in France. I decided to use Sleeping Beauty because I loved watching it as a child. It was the typical story of a handsome young man coming to the rescue of a beautiful princess.
     In order to create an alternative text to Sleeping Beauty, I decided to change the roles: the man was going to be sleeping and the woman was going to be the hero. I did this because I wanted to show how most women today no longer fit into the stereotypical roles. Instead of the man sleeping, I made him frozen and incorporated a little Beauty and the Beast into the story by making him loose his looks. I wanted to keep the story in a palace so I decided to do a search of current monarchies and discovered Belgium still has a King. Since wheels and thimbles are no longer in abundance in palaces, I tried to think of a current device which could cause the same curiosity to touch it and thought of a cell phone. People can live without cell phones, but they are innately curious about them.
     Like Sleeping Beauty, I had the boy cursed by a servant and had him be frozen for years. I incorporated other modern devices into my story, like the computer. In the end had the Prince woken up by a beautiful girl.
   I guess my story can be viewed as a happy ending with a small warning: be careful to not become enveloped with modern devices.

Reaction to Gerald Campano Visit

     Attempting to give children a sense of belonging in a school setting can be difficult. Gerald Campano suggested the best way to develop a sense of belonging in a school is to embrace diversity. I thought Gerald's thoughts about diversity were very intriguing. Using students as resources to illustrate diversity was a great point he made. If you get students to talk about their different cultures and to tell stories about their families, they will be able to realize that being different is not so different. Someone on the forum said it is important for students to encounter multiple perspectives in order to instill true democracy in a school and I completely agree. If students are able to encounter multiple cultures, they will be more willing to except differences.
     Another good point Gerald made was every student has potential, but it is sometimes hard to find that potential. He suggested trying to make curriculum more relatable to students. He said teachers would be surprised to discover how much students blossom when they write about themselves. Based on my own experiences, I have found students are more motivated to complete work when it is more personalized. Teachers should consider encouraging students to learn more about their shared world and its diversity by creating ways to showcase that diversity, either by writing papers, show-and-tells, or by working on projects.