Marilyn in Education

Being raised by Vietnamese immigrants, my parents solely spoke Vietnamese to me in the house, always reminded me to never forget where I came from, and would save money just so we could take trips back to Vietnam but when it came to school they always told me to be good, listen to my teachers, and don’t get in trouble. I didn’t realize the implications of this until I learned about the implications of assimilation and the “model minority” label much later in college. My parents wanted the best for me so they uplifted their lives to America so that I could have a “better future”. Talking about Maslow’s hierarchy last week in class, I remember being angry at my parents for not understanding why assimilation was bad. In that moment of frustration I failed to remind myself that they had gone through a war and had experienced starvation at levels that I could never understand. Coming to America and not having to worry as much about those basic needs made it seem like America was a better l...

For this week's session we took a look into a documentary called in Sickness and in Wealth. The documentary focuses on the social determinants of heal th such as race and class which we touched upon last class. It also talks about the effects of chronic stress from a medical perspective. Rather than focusing on  how we can fix the healthcare system, which is more of a reactive measure, it highlights more of how people get sick in the first place and why some people are more likely to have ill-health than others. Coming from a medical background, it was interesting to see a documentary like this which explained social determinants of health in a more digestible format for the public to have access to that kind of knowledge. The documentary compares the lives of a CEO, a lab supervisor, a janitor, and an unemployed mother and specifically draws the connection between how resources, opportunity, power, and wealth contributes to one’s health. It argues that with less resources, opportu...

Hello fellow educators, My name is Marilyn and I am originally from Seattle. Last year, I uprooted myself across the country to come to Providence to teach and go to graduate school. I currently teach at Blackstone Valley Prep Highschool as the Anatomy and Physiology and AP Chemistry Teacher. I am currently near the end of my I.M.Ed program. I love to play basketball (I coach at the school), play/watch tennis, and cook in my spare time. Looking forward to meeting everyone in class and the discussions we will have. A little look into who I am as en educator is shown in my manifesto below. I am a teacher who stands up for what is just against oppression, who is in favor of working together against apart from one another, who is a supporter of the goodness in humanity against selfishness, and who is a defender vulnerable populations against the greedy. I am a teacher who favors the permanent struggle against underrepresented populations and against systems that do not allow opportunity fo...