Sometimes I Can Be Anything: Power, Gender, and Identity in a Primary Classroom

I found this book to be a very readable book. I enjoyed (and was shocked by) the observations. I identified many of "stereotypes" that may be sitting in my classroom at this moment. I struggled a bit with what I could come away from the book with, but ultimately it was awareness. Awareness of the children and what they might be going through, awareness of how my own gender affects them, and awareness of the subtext of the classroom that Gallas often refers to. I recommend this book to any teacher who seeks to be aware of all the intricacies of these little minds and to teachers who seek ways of looking beyond the day to day hum to see the "other/real" world of classroom gender issues.

Karen Gallas does not hold back any of the real facts and actions of what happens in the regular classroom setting. She records real observations of real children and expresses her opinions in ways that I feel the majority of any classroom teacher would agree. I found the book difficult to read, the content, in the beginning because the observations seemed too extravagant to be true of the classroom setting; however, I think I was trying to convience myself that these types of interactions don't happen in the classroom, when they really do. After completing the book, I felt I could relate to Gallas in many ways. I was able to identify all the diffferent gender-specific stereotypes within my own classroom, and reflect upon my own teaching style to meet the needs of my children better. After reading this book, I feel like I walk into my classroom and view each one of my students in a different perspective because of this eye-opening novel. I really enjoyed the observations and suggest that any primary classroom teacher read it and reflect upon his/her own students and compare them to the students mentioned in the book.

Finally, a teacher is talking about what happens in classrooms! After so many years of being told by "experts" how classrooms work, we have at last a look into the real life dynamics of social relations in an elementary classroom. Here is a page turner that takes us into the lives of young children in schools and describes how children build a learning community. Here, also, is the account of a teacher researcher who does not know all the answers but hopes to learn more about her students' world by carefully documenting their 'social' work. This book is sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing -- but in the end we all learn something about the assumptions we have made about gender roles, power, and the ways young children understand their world.