Yap Culture for Lesson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBz8VGjVELw&feature=related

TEACHING LIKE CHAMPIONS

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html

Know the past to direct future...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/15/health/california-forced-sterilizations/index.html

Prevention of Teen Addiction

EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES: Emotional Disability Awareness

EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES: Emotional Disability Awareness

Multicultural Resume

Profile

My personal reactions' journey is my main focus of this multicultural resume.  The spiritual values instilled in me at an early age helped me screen out the ugliness of racism and allowed me to move on without begrudging anyone.   I was born to Ursula Adriano Untalan and Thomas Flores Fleming.  Born in Barrigada, Guam by a midwife named Nankala'.  I was born and raised in the wooden house my Dad designed and built.  I moved to the mainland when I was 14 years old. 

RACIAL EXPERIENCE

0 to 10 years old -  Barrigada, Guam  -  1956 – 1966 Early on in our home, roles were assigned without question according to one’s age and gender. For example, my Mom did all the cooking, cleaning, and raising all 9 children.  Cooking and cleaning were Mom’s work, the breadwinner was Dad.  Girls helped Mom and the boys did the yard.  It is these early years too that I learned that suicide is a sin, and death is entry to the everlasting life.

When I was ten years old I experienced my first racial slur. The neighbor’s whispers about our family name (Fleming) being ‘Americano’ and that we looked ‘mixed’, and known to be ‘of‘Gupalao’ race’,--- and I remember hearing an adult neighbor said it out in a disparaging tone.  I never repeated it to my Mother as I considered her feelings.  Gupalao is a deragotory word for Micronesian.  It was my own feelings of inferiority, for my Mother, of her dark skin and my curiosity of how she kept to herself and her family.  Still I sensed her power of having a deep sense of herself and probably never even was affected by mine and others’ ignorance.   My Mom’s mix of ¼ blood Filipino and Chamorru and alas, born in Yap Island, was immediately a gossip item that increased as her art in the garden flourished.  And still I find the need to defend her by saying to myself little did they know that a book was written about her and the Untalan family in the early 1930’s for their fashionable and refined lifestyle when she was very young growing up in Yap supported by their hard work in their Copra Trading business there.

11 to 13 years old  - 1967 - 1969

Around this age I noticed that there was a unified sense that we had to be perfect little respectful girls and separate from our peers who were ‘wild’.  We made sure we did not wear any makeup or short skirts or else our elderly Aunties would indiscreetly pinch us till our skin turned blue.  These same Aunties curse girls whom choose to break the unspoken rule of being virtuous.

When a group is criticized because of being different, my mother would constructively mention all the positive aspects of them.  For instance she’d say “the Filipinos have a great bustling society with a lot more professionals than Guam does”, and shakes her head in disgust; she tells us of how the navigational skills of the outer islanders are still practiced, then questions the locals, “why do they think they’re better than anyone?”

There was an ‘air’ of prejudice towards the Filipinos and other small population of Micronesian in contrast to the high regards given to the ‘Americanos’.  The close-knit Chamorru neighborhood in Barrigada welcomed the White contract teachers, inviting them to their fiestas.  As I now recall, there were no Filipino or Outer-Islanders in our neighbor.  I witnessed first-hand the effect of such ramification of such discrimination at Ypao Beach.  There was a big celebration happening in the park and being that it was a public park, we freely entered the pavilion, only to be attacked by a large angry crowd of young Filipinos wielding chains, sticks and one of them had a machete, we ran like death upon us as fast as we could back to the car.  I did not feel resentment against those young men.  Instead, I only felt an exhilarating episode in my lifetime.   I did not know it then, but truly, I now can say my parentsteachings on values of human kindness from the time I could hear, allowed me that understanding of their rebellious anger.  “No group should be made to feel ashamed of themselves.  (Sue, 2007, p. 20)

14 to 18 years old 1971 - 1974

Ethnocentrism became ever-present during this period.  A neighborhood girl moved in from Saipan.  Reflecting back on how she must have been an object of curiosity to the community, because she was “Saipanese,” this girl made it her job to be discriminatory first.   I suppose having caught wind of my parent's birthplace in Yap; she would constantly tease me about it.  As a result of her clever and aggressive nature, she became quite popular, needless to say, accepted quickly into the community.

Later into my teens, I experienced injustice in the form of power of one’s position in the work place.  It happened on my first day into high school in Guam.   I was late for my Counselor’s appointment; he outright called me a liar when I told him I couldn’t find his office.  I learned immediately not to trust despite having authority.  The following year in California, a racial antagonistic attack against me, chased off from a restaurant sitting area, it hurt.  It hurt most because it came from a citizen whom I now reside with, In America.  This came at a worst time to experience socio-economic disparity.  We had just moved to California 1971. In Guam, my Dad was always a self-employed carpenter and when the H2 workers were brought into the island it pushed him right out of the workforce. So being an immigrant, and the bottom of the totem-pole, I felt the ugliness of racial prejudice.  Once again, I feel grateful for my religious values, because I do not harbor ill-feelings against these anyone, but an awareness of that pain which I will never inflict on anyone as what was inflicted onto me. 

Education

University of Guam, Master of Arts in Counseling

Skills

Understanding the diverse populations and being aware that for people to function better in our society, I will recognize the heart and soul of the human being, his societal group and the universal dimensions.

Referrals

Dr. M. Artero

ED619 - Philosophy in Counseling

Lourdes Alonso

Counseling Philosophy

My philosophy as a Counselor is to minister to every client with respect and fairness.  That no matter what race, religion, gender, social status, age, or sexuality, I will work very hard to empower each with their desired paths in life.

What motivates me is my nurturing disposition that I believe my Mom had recognized since I was a little girl and because of it, she encouraged me to be a teacher.  And she was right, because I truly enjoy my work.

If you hear me talking to my students before the start of class, you would think I was already the school counselor.  It begins every first 10 minutes of class.  I will remind my class that whatever it is they battled at home, leave it there.  They can only control what is happening now so focus on doing their best every second of the day.  More specifically, if they have no control over a problem at home, I remind them to leave all their worries behind, and concentrate on the present. 

I encourage them too by telling them some of my hardships in my childhood and how I struggled to get good grades, to be liked, to ignore the teasing, and just concentrate on myself.  I see their eyes light up.  Every first of January, the Chamorru month Tumaiguini which means ‘like this,’ I would have the students work on their ‘dreams.’  I have them draw their dream job, dream life, and then remind them if they start planning now they can succeed and reach their goals.

In this one instance, I told of when I was in third grade.  How I walked to school everyday, bloody feet and all because I couldn’t afford to buy another pair of shoes.  But I worked very hard to make sure I did well in school so one day I can buy all the shoes I wanted.  The story changes on and on.  This is my motivator, seeing the possibilities of people’s lives, by simple encouragement given the opportunity to plan for their dreams at a very early age, or at any age for that matter.  I earned my college degree and began teaching in my late 40’s.

I forget every now and then that kids are so inclined to pass on the juicy news of what they hear from and about their teachers.  One morning a teary-eyed co-worker handed me a cup of warm cocoa, apologetic.  “Oh Lou”, she goes on I didn’t know you had such a hard life.”

I responded with eh, “life is not easy.”  She went on, “but your feet bled walking around because you couldn’t afford to buy yourself another shoe?!”   Not feeling the need to explain, I answer with, “boy does that get them wanting to do better in school now