"You must arouse children’s curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it's very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school? Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers.” (Page, 11)
I picked this quote because it is a very strong, it does not have a lot of content but the quality of it is what caught my eye. That as teachers we must leave no doubt in our student’s minds, of why they need education and why is it important to have an education in this society. That as future educators we must learn how important it is to teach kids the in an attractive way, that pulls them in and makes them want to learn more. We are naturally curious about things that catch are eyes and minds, we want to learn more about the things that appeal to us. We are also born learners, but as teachers we do not realize that everybody learns differently. We must first understand the students and see what their needs are in order to teach them what we think is important. The encouragement that the students will have after they see that the can relate to all these things will further there learning. The student’s intellect and emotions towards school changes because they make meaning and can act on what they have learned.
For example: This class has empowered all of us to learn. The material was not picked by us the students. Professor Bogad picked all of our readings accordingly to the success those other students have had when relating to the material. We have all learning something this semester, we may not agree with all of it but we have learned because the material caught our attention and we easily related to it because we have all been threw similar situations.
“Competition encourages people to survey other people’s differences for potential weak spots... We learn to ascribe winner or loser status based on certain perceived overt characteristics…” (Page, 24)
This quote stood out to me because it talks about method that many teachers take as an affective learning but do not realize the end result can affect the students in the long run. I have realized that many boys in general like to compete because they like the excitement that it brings when the teacher says that they have won. I agree when it says that competition in a class only leads to isolations and alienation among the students. All it does is encourage the same old “Winners “, while the “Losers” are kept out and not really encouraged or helped learn what others have already mastered. The competitive pedagogy does not give a class an egalitarian outlook because certain students end up with positive feelings and others have negative feeling towards learning therefore enabling them not to learn.
“Self-Centered Pedagogy” (Page, 15)
I picked this quote because the Values for Empowerment section caught my attention the most. I believe that the critical pedagogy is really helpful to the students because all of the focus goes towards them. It gives students enough room so they can do they want to do in order to learn, but does not give them the alternative for them to do whatever they want. The teacher does not just do what she wants either they come to an overall conclusion of what they are going to learn. Teachers are supposed to investigate everyday themes, social issues, and academic knowledge to incorporate into their classroom. The students are basically the one teaching them with how they can relate to the material. This provides the students with the tools to better themselves and strengthen their intellect. This is all with the intention to create and egalitarian and just society. This will deploy and education that will be the beginning of a social change.
For Example: We are basically living proof that this critical pedagogy works because we have taught ourselves, and are class discussions have helped all understand the material that we have encountered. The dialogue and we problem-posing has made us active agents of are learning experience this semester.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Sydrome
I believe strongly that we should all be treated equally. We are all humans and all share important roles in this society. That it is important to form concepts that can help students that suffer from disabilities, in this case Down syndrome. We must show the importance of respect and value since it’s something that everybody deserves without any hesitation.
“It’s not like they come here to be labeled, or believe the label. We’re all here—kids, teachers, and parents, whoever— it’s about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that’s what learning is. Don’t tell me these kids are being set up to fail.” (Page, 75)
This quote stood out to me stood out to me because it’s a great way to make your classroom an opportunistic environment for all. It really caught my attention how this teacher involved all of her students. As a teacher a teacher it is very important to understand that everybody has an equal opportunity at education. That the students not as intelligent as the others just because they have a mental disability; or labeled as incompetent. It is not fair to teach them differently or exclude them from the rest. We all have things in common, were humans, that in order to become a better society we must work together, play together, stick together, and learn as a unit. That people with disabilities should be set up for success just as any other person. The author makes some references to a community; I believe that in some kind of way she was trying to get across that we must not treat mental disabled students as a different community but as a part of our society. We as a society must realize that in some kind of way we are labeled, for example; when I was in elementary school I was labeled as Deprived/Disadvantaged and At Risk. This label stuck with me all throughout elementary because I was not just being labeled for my education but as well as my life.
I want to break this label down because if it was not for this reading I would have never realized the true significance of labeling:
• Deprived: lacking the necessities of life; so this meant this meant that I did not have the enough things to succeed in school. This is messed up and wrong in so many ways because who were they to judge me on my life. I have a mother, food, and a roof over my head. I was not lacking the necessities of life because they had not been taught to me yet. Plus how did they know what the necessity of life is? Everybody has different way of being successful, so categorizing me just because my mother was not around to help me was simply wrong.
• Disadvantaged: poor, underprivileged, impoverished, deprived; handicapped, impaired, disabled. I was considered disadvantaged because I didn’t have everything the other kids had. I simply was not understood and properly taught. It was not my fault they stuck me in an all English classroom; of course I wasn’t the best. I was the best in my first language which was Spanish which seems to me to be an advantage, not a disadvantage.
• At Risk: I was at risk because I could not read, spell or understand anything. I stayed back in first grade because I could not read, then they let me pass because I had already had stayed back. So they put me that label because I did not have the proper tools that were supposed to be taught to me. It makes no sense, so I got placed in resource which helped me out a lot because it broke everything down in both language making that connection was all I needed. The label came off after I got out of Elementary school.
“Schools have traditionally taken a narrow position when defining and judging student intellect. If you came into my VIPs classroom and were told there was a retarded child in the class, a child with special needs, I don’t think you would pick them out.” (Page, 79 & 83)
I altered this quote because I have a unique way of explaining this quote and relating it to what I have been doing every Monday. As everybody knows I work in an inclusion classroom which brings everybody together in one classroom. I have one student who is mental challenged his name is Luis, he is a very smart kid, he does all of his work, and understands his material. He does not need to be told twice what to do, you give him the work and he will do the rest. The only key component is making sure that he understand that your there to help him and encourage him if anything comes up. He is the type of kid that is first to sound the words and read the words correctly. I also have a kid named Harris who is one of the brightest kids in the classroom. This kid can read at a third grade level, he sometimes gets bored of the work because it too easy. I just heard this today, this kid is labeled as a kid with disability just because he does not like to talk, and he is very shy and just liked to keep to himself. This took me by shock because it makes no sense he is ahead of the whole class but is labeled just because he is not outspoken as the rest. The problem in this case is that if he would be loud, off the wall, and fidgety he most likely be categorized as having ADHD, and put on Ritalin to calm him. So basically there is no win with this situation. I cannot believe that schools are judging kids to these standards because they simply make no sense and seem to put kids down no matter if they’re smart, mentally challenged or not.
“That’s what learning is. It’s taking risks and seeing stuff in new ways. From the top of slide (on the playground). Or, like, in a book that you just opened up. Those kinds of ways. Maybe you don’t read the book exactly like the author wrote it, but you’re making sense of it—like Isaac. Dancing to it, and then the next day, maybe your dance changes.”
I picked this quote because it best describes this class. Professor Bogad has taken risks and has seen a new way of teaching that enables us to learn. This class is not just your ordinary class we learn differently, it not just about exams, test, presentations, blogs, and class participation that counts, Overall it’s the relationship that we make with all of these readings, how we can relate to them in a good way or in a bad way. We learn something new every single class because we can teach each other, the discussion and blogs help us understand the true meaning of the reading. It helps the relationship between all of us, it’s like we are a little family and we help each other when the times get rough. We all have a different way of learning and this class has helped us show sides of us that we did not think we had in us. Sometimes it’s okay if do things the correct way and do things backwards in order to understand and get the most out of it. WE ARE ALL EQUAL AND WE ALL SHOULD BE TREATED THE SAME NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE!!
“It’s not like they come here to be labeled, or believe the label. We’re all here—kids, teachers, and parents, whoever— it’s about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that’s what learning is. Don’t tell me these kids are being set up to fail.” (Page, 75)
This quote stood out to me stood out to me because it’s a great way to make your classroom an opportunistic environment for all. It really caught my attention how this teacher involved all of her students. As a teacher a teacher it is very important to understand that everybody has an equal opportunity at education. That the students not as intelligent as the others just because they have a mental disability; or labeled as incompetent. It is not fair to teach them differently or exclude them from the rest. We all have things in common, were humans, that in order to become a better society we must work together, play together, stick together, and learn as a unit. That people with disabilities should be set up for success just as any other person. The author makes some references to a community; I believe that in some kind of way she was trying to get across that we must not treat mental disabled students as a different community but as a part of our society. We as a society must realize that in some kind of way we are labeled, for example; when I was in elementary school I was labeled as Deprived/Disadvantaged and At Risk. This label stuck with me all throughout elementary because I was not just being labeled for my education but as well as my life.
I want to break this label down because if it was not for this reading I would have never realized the true significance of labeling:
• Deprived: lacking the necessities of life; so this meant this meant that I did not have the enough things to succeed in school. This is messed up and wrong in so many ways because who were they to judge me on my life. I have a mother, food, and a roof over my head. I was not lacking the necessities of life because they had not been taught to me yet. Plus how did they know what the necessity of life is? Everybody has different way of being successful, so categorizing me just because my mother was not around to help me was simply wrong.
• Disadvantaged: poor, underprivileged, impoverished, deprived; handicapped, impaired, disabled. I was considered disadvantaged because I didn’t have everything the other kids had. I simply was not understood and properly taught. It was not my fault they stuck me in an all English classroom; of course I wasn’t the best. I was the best in my first language which was Spanish which seems to me to be an advantage, not a disadvantage.
• At Risk: I was at risk because I could not read, spell or understand anything. I stayed back in first grade because I could not read, then they let me pass because I had already had stayed back. So they put me that label because I did not have the proper tools that were supposed to be taught to me. It makes no sense, so I got placed in resource which helped me out a lot because it broke everything down in both language making that connection was all I needed. The label came off after I got out of Elementary school.
“Schools have traditionally taken a narrow position when defining and judging student intellect. If you came into my VIPs classroom and were told there was a retarded child in the class, a child with special needs, I don’t think you would pick them out.” (Page, 79 & 83)
I altered this quote because I have a unique way of explaining this quote and relating it to what I have been doing every Monday. As everybody knows I work in an inclusion classroom which brings everybody together in one classroom. I have one student who is mental challenged his name is Luis, he is a very smart kid, he does all of his work, and understands his material. He does not need to be told twice what to do, you give him the work and he will do the rest. The only key component is making sure that he understand that your there to help him and encourage him if anything comes up. He is the type of kid that is first to sound the words and read the words correctly. I also have a kid named Harris who is one of the brightest kids in the classroom. This kid can read at a third grade level, he sometimes gets bored of the work because it too easy. I just heard this today, this kid is labeled as a kid with disability just because he does not like to talk, and he is very shy and just liked to keep to himself. This took me by shock because it makes no sense he is ahead of the whole class but is labeled just because he is not outspoken as the rest. The problem in this case is that if he would be loud, off the wall, and fidgety he most likely be categorized as having ADHD, and put on Ritalin to calm him. So basically there is no win with this situation. I cannot believe that schools are judging kids to these standards because they simply make no sense and seem to put kids down no matter if they’re smart, mentally challenged or not.
“That’s what learning is. It’s taking risks and seeing stuff in new ways. From the top of slide (on the playground). Or, like, in a book that you just opened up. Those kinds of ways. Maybe you don’t read the book exactly like the author wrote it, but you’re making sense of it—like Isaac. Dancing to it, and then the next day, maybe your dance changes.”
I picked this quote because it best describes this class. Professor Bogad has taken risks and has seen a new way of teaching that enables us to learn. This class is not just your ordinary class we learn differently, it not just about exams, test, presentations, blogs, and class participation that counts, Overall it’s the relationship that we make with all of these readings, how we can relate to them in a good way or in a bad way. We learn something new every single class because we can teach each other, the discussion and blogs help us understand the true meaning of the reading. It helps the relationship between all of us, it’s like we are a little family and we help each other when the times get rough. We all have a different way of learning and this class has helped us show sides of us that we did not think we had in us. Sometimes it’s okay if do things the correct way and do things backwards in order to understand and get the most out of it. WE ARE ALL EQUAL AND WE ALL SHOULD BE TREATED THE SAME NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE!!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Promising Practices
Promising Practices: What my day was like…??
It was an overall great day. I arrived right on time and had some coffee to wake me up. I got chance to talk to of few people I knew and who were pretty excited about getting the day started. I was kind of anxious to get the workshops going because I what it was all about. I was also happy that it was my first Saturday off in about a year. I always work on Saturdays so I forgot what Saturdays were like. I was pretty thrilled to be a a major even with fellow teachers and classmates, it felt like if we were already teachers and just wanted to learn more.
My first workshop was Engaging Interaction in Our Classrooms. It was a fairly interesting workshop because the speaker just kept on saying that her presentation was not the same because she was a Mac type of person and that are technology at RIC was not the same as her computer. It was a Basic talk about Privilege, Bias, and Discrimination in Interaction. We also talked about Ferris Bueller, which is a great movie. It was something I could relate to because I have seen it so I understood what she was trying to say. So it started off very well but during her second part of her presentation I was just getting lost with what she said because she was saying one thing but contradicted herself by saying another. For example, she had my full attention and my Kozol side when she saying that we need to get rid of certain stereotypes that affect students and our classrooms. “He’s black; he’s just not smart” I can see were certain people think this way and abuse kids emotionally. This workshop had could easily be related to material that we have covered in class. I mention Kozol because she was stating her facts about how kids in poverty do not have a chance of interaction when there the ones that need it the most. She also spoke about how teachers help and reinforce the “HIGHER-ACHEIEVERS” instead of helping the kids struggling. The presenter really lost me when she began in eyes contradicting herself because she started of by saying that as teacher we must learn to comfort are students no matter what the circumstances are that all kids are entitled to an equal education. After she talked about Interaction with those less fortunate she went on to talk about Gender interaction. I thought she was going to talk about how to get girls interacting with boys and boys interacting with girls. I was completely wrong, she started to talk about how gender bias, which in many cases it is the man getting the praise, if its one thing I know girls do a lot better in school than boys do. She stated that teachers select males more often than girls which I thought was pretty funny because I’m writing a paper on gender bias, how boys have fallen behind girls in education in the last 40 years. So I know that boys in schools are not really favored, teachers give more positive feedback to girls, they evaluate the same behaviors differently, and tend to want girls succeed more than men. Simply look at are class, how many boys are there? I don’t think she looked around because there was about 20 girls and 4 boys in that workshop. It really put me in a Carlson mood because I feel as if boys in schools are not really listening to; if you don’t do sports then your chances of being known around school are not likely. Boys/Men get discriminated on in education because teachers may believe that there not committed, or to energetic, therefore needing drugs to calm down.
My second workshop was very interesting; it was the one I was really anxious to go to. I was entitled Teacher of English Language Learners. The main goal in this workshop was to understand certain key components that as Spanish educators can help prepare students with BILITERACY. I learned a few interesting facts about ELL’s, about 79% of them are Spanish speaking Latinos, 75% are poor, 91% live in urban areas, 75% live with parents who have not completed 8 years of schooling. All true facts, ill be the first to tell you because I’m one of those students that originated from those percentages. I never really thought about it until this workshop. I grew up speaking Spanish in my household, since both of my parents did not know any English. I was forced to speak English and get rid of my Spanish. I can not say I’m poor, but my family did live a hard beginning when settling here. We never received any type of help because my parents were both illegal immigrants. It was a very hard childhood for me and my sisters. We have always lived in urban areas, no matter were you go in Providence it will still be considered a urban city. For me and my family its always been a humbling experience and a place of comfort. My father did not even graduate from middle school, and my mother only made it to 8th grade before being forced to give it up in order to care of her sisters and work to help provide her family. The workshop helped me really understand that in order to teach kids about Language and helping them succeed in a education system built only for English is to dive deep into student’s cultures and understanding were they come from. That we must build with what we have and make it an equilibrium between English an Spanish. This workshop really brought me to Collier and Rodriguez. Collier says that we must honor student’s first language in order to help them learn and succeed in a education system not fit for them. I think Rodriguez plays a key part because many parents think its okay for kids to lose their first language and learn English as long as it helps them succeed in this society. I think otherwise because we should make the system fit the students needs and make it work around there abilities. If we do not then the chances of them succeeding is not likely.
Dr. Tricia Rose was the greatest. She was what made my day. I could not wait to hear her speak. It was like if she has been sitting in on are classes because she talked about everything we have talked about this semester. From the beginning she hit us with Tim Wise argument that we still cannot say that were living a post racial society, but like she said we got to get past the racism in this country. She then touched on Delpit issues saying that Power and Privilege still exist in out society. She kept it “REAL” from the beginning to the end. She started off saying that we must be painfully honest about elements, issues and reality. We have to take things for what they are, knowing your place before somebody else comes and tries to tell you who you are without knowing you. Then she pointed out Christensen because she was talking about how we have to stop denying things that all of us need in order to survive in this society. The connection between the “real world” and the classroom should not be hidden because then students will not be prepared for the hard facts about life. The struggles, obstacles, and neglecting of this society. “STOP THAT KID HE STOLE SOMETHING”. This was the example she used that people need to change these stereotype because they make are society even more harder to live in. So just because e we see a black kid running in the street does not mean he stole something, he can be running to catch a bus or simply getting a workout. She touched on Delpit, McIntosh, and Christensen in a couple of sentences. She really caught my attention when she was talking about Structural Oppression and Resistance. I watched America Violet which was a very good movie, and clicked with what she was talking about We Shall Remain series. America Violet is movie that is a true story which happened in Texas in 2000. It was around the time that Bush was elected. There were raids being done by the police departments. For some weird reason they only raided African American neighborhoods, isn’t that something. The people arrested were all basically forced to take plea sentences. Which set them free but could not go anywhere in life since they were convicted felons. The district attorney was behind all of these raids, and they proved that he was racist and all cases were dropped. The only reason this happened is because some people that were sick of these types of acts to the charge to change the system and even though it did not happen they still started something so that it will not happen again. I do not want to give it away but it really stuck with me. Tricia Rose got the point with her closing arguments. The pledge was amazing and I wish I could have added it in this essay but I will for sure make that a part of my class in the future. I will end with what word from Tricia Rose that does not need any further interpretation, it’s not what you are, but with what do with yourself.
Teaching is a Great Gift and Huge Responsibility!
http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/state/ell.pdf
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
It was an overall great day. I arrived right on time and had some coffee to wake me up. I got chance to talk to of few people I knew and who were pretty excited about getting the day started. I was kind of anxious to get the workshops going because I what it was all about. I was also happy that it was my first Saturday off in about a year. I always work on Saturdays so I forgot what Saturdays were like. I was pretty thrilled to be a a major even with fellow teachers and classmates, it felt like if we were already teachers and just wanted to learn more.
My first workshop was Engaging Interaction in Our Classrooms. It was a fairly interesting workshop because the speaker just kept on saying that her presentation was not the same because she was a Mac type of person and that are technology at RIC was not the same as her computer. It was a Basic talk about Privilege, Bias, and Discrimination in Interaction. We also talked about Ferris Bueller, which is a great movie. It was something I could relate to because I have seen it so I understood what she was trying to say. So it started off very well but during her second part of her presentation I was just getting lost with what she said because she was saying one thing but contradicted herself by saying another. For example, she had my full attention and my Kozol side when she saying that we need to get rid of certain stereotypes that affect students and our classrooms. “He’s black; he’s just not smart” I can see were certain people think this way and abuse kids emotionally. This workshop had could easily be related to material that we have covered in class. I mention Kozol because she was stating her facts about how kids in poverty do not have a chance of interaction when there the ones that need it the most. She also spoke about how teachers help and reinforce the “HIGHER-ACHEIEVERS” instead of helping the kids struggling. The presenter really lost me when she began in eyes contradicting herself because she started of by saying that as teacher we must learn to comfort are students no matter what the circumstances are that all kids are entitled to an equal education. After she talked about Interaction with those less fortunate she went on to talk about Gender interaction. I thought she was going to talk about how to get girls interacting with boys and boys interacting with girls. I was completely wrong, she started to talk about how gender bias, which in many cases it is the man getting the praise, if its one thing I know girls do a lot better in school than boys do. She stated that teachers select males more often than girls which I thought was pretty funny because I’m writing a paper on gender bias, how boys have fallen behind girls in education in the last 40 years. So I know that boys in schools are not really favored, teachers give more positive feedback to girls, they evaluate the same behaviors differently, and tend to want girls succeed more than men. Simply look at are class, how many boys are there? I don’t think she looked around because there was about 20 girls and 4 boys in that workshop. It really put me in a Carlson mood because I feel as if boys in schools are not really listening to; if you don’t do sports then your chances of being known around school are not likely. Boys/Men get discriminated on in education because teachers may believe that there not committed, or to energetic, therefore needing drugs to calm down.
My second workshop was very interesting; it was the one I was really anxious to go to. I was entitled Teacher of English Language Learners. The main goal in this workshop was to understand certain key components that as Spanish educators can help prepare students with BILITERACY. I learned a few interesting facts about ELL’s, about 79% of them are Spanish speaking Latinos, 75% are poor, 91% live in urban areas, 75% live with parents who have not completed 8 years of schooling. All true facts, ill be the first to tell you because I’m one of those students that originated from those percentages. I never really thought about it until this workshop. I grew up speaking Spanish in my household, since both of my parents did not know any English. I was forced to speak English and get rid of my Spanish. I can not say I’m poor, but my family did live a hard beginning when settling here. We never received any type of help because my parents were both illegal immigrants. It was a very hard childhood for me and my sisters. We have always lived in urban areas, no matter were you go in Providence it will still be considered a urban city. For me and my family its always been a humbling experience and a place of comfort. My father did not even graduate from middle school, and my mother only made it to 8th grade before being forced to give it up in order to care of her sisters and work to help provide her family. The workshop helped me really understand that in order to teach kids about Language and helping them succeed in a education system built only for English is to dive deep into student’s cultures and understanding were they come from. That we must build with what we have and make it an equilibrium between English an Spanish. This workshop really brought me to Collier and Rodriguez. Collier says that we must honor student’s first language in order to help them learn and succeed in a education system not fit for them. I think Rodriguez plays a key part because many parents think its okay for kids to lose their first language and learn English as long as it helps them succeed in this society. I think otherwise because we should make the system fit the students needs and make it work around there abilities. If we do not then the chances of them succeeding is not likely.
Dr. Tricia Rose was the greatest. She was what made my day. I could not wait to hear her speak. It was like if she has been sitting in on are classes because she talked about everything we have talked about this semester. From the beginning she hit us with Tim Wise argument that we still cannot say that were living a post racial society, but like she said we got to get past the racism in this country. She then touched on Delpit issues saying that Power and Privilege still exist in out society. She kept it “REAL” from the beginning to the end. She started off saying that we must be painfully honest about elements, issues and reality. We have to take things for what they are, knowing your place before somebody else comes and tries to tell you who you are without knowing you. Then she pointed out Christensen because she was talking about how we have to stop denying things that all of us need in order to survive in this society. The connection between the “real world” and the classroom should not be hidden because then students will not be prepared for the hard facts about life. The struggles, obstacles, and neglecting of this society. “STOP THAT KID HE STOLE SOMETHING”. This was the example she used that people need to change these stereotype because they make are society even more harder to live in. So just because e we see a black kid running in the street does not mean he stole something, he can be running to catch a bus or simply getting a workout. She touched on Delpit, McIntosh, and Christensen in a couple of sentences. She really caught my attention when she was talking about Structural Oppression and Resistance. I watched America Violet which was a very good movie, and clicked with what she was talking about We Shall Remain series. America Violet is movie that is a true story which happened in Texas in 2000. It was around the time that Bush was elected. There were raids being done by the police departments. For some weird reason they only raided African American neighborhoods, isn’t that something. The people arrested were all basically forced to take plea sentences. Which set them free but could not go anywhere in life since they were convicted felons. The district attorney was behind all of these raids, and they proved that he was racist and all cases were dropped. The only reason this happened is because some people that were sick of these types of acts to the charge to change the system and even though it did not happen they still started something so that it will not happen again. I do not want to give it away but it really stuck with me. Tricia Rose got the point with her closing arguments. The pledge was amazing and I wish I could have added it in this essay but I will for sure make that a part of my class in the future. I will end with what word from Tricia Rose that does not need any further interpretation, it’s not what you are, but with what do with yourself.
Teaching is a Great Gift and Huge Responsibility!
http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/state/ell.pdf
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
Monday, November 9, 2009
WORKING-CLASS IS MY EDUCATION BACKGROUND
"Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use. For example, they wrote their "autobiography" by answering such questions as "Where were you born?" "What is your favorite animal?" on a sheet entitled "All about me."
These parts of the article stood out to me because I went through a similar situation and consider myself one of those students who attended a working-class school. The word working-class is pretty funny. They cannot make it seem more educated like the others, even middle-class school sounds a little better. It’s like the working class will never reach the expectations as an executive elite school because the opportunities are very different. The value of education takes a whole new meaning. The value of education in my eyes is best described with saying that it’s not the quantity of the things you may know but the quality and knowledge of things that will make you a highly educated person. I grew up in public schools; my mother started her own housekeeping business which was really hard to get going since she knew absolutely no English. That blue collar job was what provided for us and lead to us not seeing my mother until the late hours of the night. My two oldest sisters would make us food until my mother would get home, it would be us alone and we managed to survive. I was taught proper punctuation growing up but I never really understood it and probably still don’t. If it was not for Microsoft Word then I would not correct my errors because I probably would not be able to tell. Is that really my fault though?? I don’t think it was my mother’s idea to put me in English classroom when it is my second language. Don’t you think that if I would have been taught the key essentials of my first language I would be able to understand the English better? English is now my first language but because Spanish was basically forced out of me. It is now that I see that my education has not been the best and maybe that was the reason of my lack of interest in school growing up. I was never a good student because I was never given the chance to express myself. I feel as if, teachers lied to my mother and me, about how good I was doing in school. I feel as if the only reason they decided to put me in resource in elementary school was because they realized that they had made a mistake and if they did not do the necessary to correct their mistake that I would be an illiterate. At least I can read!
“The children had no access to materials. These were handed out by teachers and closely guarded. Things in the room "belonged" to the teacher: "Bob, bring me my garbage can." The teachers continually gave the children orders. Only three times did the investigator hear a teacher in either working-class school preface a directive with an unsarcastic "please," or "let's" or "would you." Instead, the teachers said, "Shut up," "Shut your mouth," "Open your books," "Throw your gum away-if you want to rot your teeth, do it on your own time." Teachers made every effort to control the movement of the children, and often shouted, "'Why are you out of your seat??!!"
I picked this out of the article because I feel as if teacher in the working-class schools instead of having a close relationship and focusing on key teaching components instead worry about all the unnecessary factors. I remember teacher talking to me like this and it got really annoying after a while and really made the class uncomfortable. It was if we couldn’t do anything, like incarcerated juveniles. We knew that nothing in this school belonged to us but the teacher always felt like if she needed to remind us every day. We never really had belonged to us because there just simply was not enough. I believe that students go to school to learn and receive help from professionals whose main purpose is to teach, educate and make students succeed in life. If that was the case, why do we have teachers yelling at students? I believe that discipline is something parents have fully responsibility of and students do not go to school to get yelled at and made look like bad students. Teachers do not have respect for students in a working-class school, therefore students don’t respect them which inhibits every bodies learning experience. Instead of teachers having patience with students and helping them they just push them off to the side and let them figure things out. Where not all geniuses some instructions in certain things are needed. I always felt as if I was under surveillance. A classroom flows so much better when you have input from the students and the students feel as important as the other. The singling out of students is really embarrassing and certain students just shut down because the teacher wanted to send a point to the class. It does not help learning. I had several classes that ran so smoothly because the teachers trusted us and really depended on us to make the best of the class. We did not need textbooks to learn, an overall good communication between classmates and the teacher empowered us all to learn things that I still remember. There are certain teachers that believe strongly in having full control of the class and being the one that students hate because fully expressing who you are is against the law.
“The school district requires the fifth grade to study ancient civilization (in particular, Egypt, Athens, and Sumer). In this classroom, the emphasis is on illustrating and re-creating the culture of the people of ancient times. The following are typical activities: the children made an 8mm film on Egypt, which one of the parents edited. A girl in the class wrote the script, and the class acted it out. They put the sound on themselves. They read stories of those days. They wrote essays and stories depicting the lives of the people and the societal and occupational divisions. They chose from a list of projects, all of which involved graphical presentations of ideas: for example. "Make a mural depicting the division of labor in Egyptian society."
Affluent Professional School; in my words Comfortable Qualified school. Hmmm… Sounds pretty interesting must be nice to have a school that provides you with all the proper tools n order to succeed in this society. I wish I had the full support of my teachers. I remember when we turned Hamlet into our own play. We read the play first and we made a remix, it was not anything big but it was really good. We used songs from the present to get the point across and performed it for the whole school. We all learned hamlet and we made it something of our own. I will never forget that. Many teachers in our school were surprised because they did not know how the teacher made it happen but she let our creativity show and with that we went to extreme measures. It was something fun and we all could relate to it. There are so many doors that teachers can close by not giving the students the opportunity and always wanting to teach them. There are certain things that teacher do not know and the only way education will become a good experience for students is if there given the chance. This school is in Providence and there was no rich kids in our school, but since we had the support of the teacher who made the learning environment fun and interesting for all of us we over excelled and we learned Hamlet in a very unique interesting way. WHICH STUDENT OR PERSON YOU KNOW DOES NOT LEARN IN A COMFORTABLE AND FUN ENVIRONMENT??
TAKE A LOOK AT MY VIDEOS!!
These parts of the article stood out to me because I went through a similar situation and consider myself one of those students who attended a working-class school. The word working-class is pretty funny. They cannot make it seem more educated like the others, even middle-class school sounds a little better. It’s like the working class will never reach the expectations as an executive elite school because the opportunities are very different. The value of education takes a whole new meaning. The value of education in my eyes is best described with saying that it’s not the quantity of the things you may know but the quality and knowledge of things that will make you a highly educated person. I grew up in public schools; my mother started her own housekeeping business which was really hard to get going since she knew absolutely no English. That blue collar job was what provided for us and lead to us not seeing my mother until the late hours of the night. My two oldest sisters would make us food until my mother would get home, it would be us alone and we managed to survive. I was taught proper punctuation growing up but I never really understood it and probably still don’t. If it was not for Microsoft Word then I would not correct my errors because I probably would not be able to tell. Is that really my fault though?? I don’t think it was my mother’s idea to put me in English classroom when it is my second language. Don’t you think that if I would have been taught the key essentials of my first language I would be able to understand the English better? English is now my first language but because Spanish was basically forced out of me. It is now that I see that my education has not been the best and maybe that was the reason of my lack of interest in school growing up. I was never a good student because I was never given the chance to express myself. I feel as if, teachers lied to my mother and me, about how good I was doing in school. I feel as if the only reason they decided to put me in resource in elementary school was because they realized that they had made a mistake and if they did not do the necessary to correct their mistake that I would be an illiterate. At least I can read!
“The children had no access to materials. These were handed out by teachers and closely guarded. Things in the room "belonged" to the teacher: "Bob, bring me my garbage can." The teachers continually gave the children orders. Only three times did the investigator hear a teacher in either working-class school preface a directive with an unsarcastic "please," or "let's" or "would you." Instead, the teachers said, "Shut up," "Shut your mouth," "Open your books," "Throw your gum away-if you want to rot your teeth, do it on your own time." Teachers made every effort to control the movement of the children, and often shouted, "'Why are you out of your seat??!!"
I picked this out of the article because I feel as if teacher in the working-class schools instead of having a close relationship and focusing on key teaching components instead worry about all the unnecessary factors. I remember teacher talking to me like this and it got really annoying after a while and really made the class uncomfortable. It was if we couldn’t do anything, like incarcerated juveniles. We knew that nothing in this school belonged to us but the teacher always felt like if she needed to remind us every day. We never really had belonged to us because there just simply was not enough. I believe that students go to school to learn and receive help from professionals whose main purpose is to teach, educate and make students succeed in life. If that was the case, why do we have teachers yelling at students? I believe that discipline is something parents have fully responsibility of and students do not go to school to get yelled at and made look like bad students. Teachers do not have respect for students in a working-class school, therefore students don’t respect them which inhibits every bodies learning experience. Instead of teachers having patience with students and helping them they just push them off to the side and let them figure things out. Where not all geniuses some instructions in certain things are needed. I always felt as if I was under surveillance. A classroom flows so much better when you have input from the students and the students feel as important as the other. The singling out of students is really embarrassing and certain students just shut down because the teacher wanted to send a point to the class. It does not help learning. I had several classes that ran so smoothly because the teachers trusted us and really depended on us to make the best of the class. We did not need textbooks to learn, an overall good communication between classmates and the teacher empowered us all to learn things that I still remember. There are certain teachers that believe strongly in having full control of the class and being the one that students hate because fully expressing who you are is against the law.
“The school district requires the fifth grade to study ancient civilization (in particular, Egypt, Athens, and Sumer). In this classroom, the emphasis is on illustrating and re-creating the culture of the people of ancient times. The following are typical activities: the children made an 8mm film on Egypt, which one of the parents edited. A girl in the class wrote the script, and the class acted it out. They put the sound on themselves. They read stories of those days. They wrote essays and stories depicting the lives of the people and the societal and occupational divisions. They chose from a list of projects, all of which involved graphical presentations of ideas: for example. "Make a mural depicting the division of labor in Egyptian society."
Affluent Professional School; in my words Comfortable Qualified school. Hmmm… Sounds pretty interesting must be nice to have a school that provides you with all the proper tools n order to succeed in this society. I wish I had the full support of my teachers. I remember when we turned Hamlet into our own play. We read the play first and we made a remix, it was not anything big but it was really good. We used songs from the present to get the point across and performed it for the whole school. We all learned hamlet and we made it something of our own. I will never forget that. Many teachers in our school were surprised because they did not know how the teacher made it happen but she let our creativity show and with that we went to extreme measures. It was something fun and we all could relate to it. There are so many doors that teachers can close by not giving the students the opportunity and always wanting to teach them. There are certain things that teacher do not know and the only way education will become a good experience for students is if there given the chance. This school is in Providence and there was no rich kids in our school, but since we had the support of the teacher who made the learning environment fun and interesting for all of us we over excelled and we learned Hamlet in a very unique interesting way. WHICH STUDENT OR PERSON YOU KNOW DOES NOT LEARN IN A COMFORTABLE AND FUN ENVIRONMENT??
TAKE A LOOK AT MY VIDEOS!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Brown v. Board of Education vs Tim Wise
I liked this week blog because stepped away from all the reading that we have been doing in class. I started off by checking all of the sites at the beginning, they were all very interesting and all had to do with all of the readings. They all very unique. I really like the Be the Change site because that is how we started the class realizing that we need to change certain things in order for the future to be bright. Eva's blog is strong she steps out there and expresses herself. That’s what this class is about and I can also relate to her because I have expressed my feelings and my stories with the class as well. The white privilege video kind of irritated me because the girl was not saying anything, kind of felt like she was bored and just wanted to talk to someone. All she did was basically read of her document and did not clear or express her view probably because she realized that she is part of the white privilege. I felt like if she didn’t think this was a serious matter, I read the article so maybe that's why but to me it seems like this girl is clueless about what exactly this article is about. It’s not just about white privilege and if it exist or not because we all know it does since we do live in a standard society.
What is the relationship between the historical issues you see in the website on Brown v. Board of Education and the contemporary issues of race that Tim Wise raises here?
Both of these issues have to do with race and equal opportunity in education and society. They both talk about how both of these issues have happen because previous acts that have lead to these occurrences. Tim Wise talks about how close minded people our and how they remain with the stereotypes. Both issues talk about how they have had the right support of people in order for them to occur. The connection that no matter what year was living in a post-racial America is no way in sight because we will always be living in a racist society. Both of these issues have broken barriers and moved things forward. The both instill change, that this society does not know how to handle change. Even though a racist America still exist, minorities and ethnicities that go threw oppression are still able to conquer and surpass there obstacles, expectations. This country could never be a truly equal society because no matter the situation there are going to be people against it.
"Racism is not an Excuse but a reason, an obstacle"
Tim Wise said this, at first I didn't understand it but I went over it and made some sense of it. I feel as if he meant to say that Color, Race or Ethnicity is not an excuse for people to feel as if there less or do not count in a White society. That it serves as a reason to be different and a fact about life that we must use as a power source to get the best out of ourselves. That the only obstacle we have in front of ourselves is "oneself" to learn to except yourself and not let dawned by all of these stereotypes.
I also believe that both of these issues have told us to keep our eyes on change which has been said to occur but where still living in a society full of racism. Instead of seeing minorities as people that excel, intelligent and equal. We live with these stereotypes that most white privilege think that just because we look different with different beliefs were generally less intelligent, lazy, and prone to criminality, and live off welfare in order not to work. If they only new that public assistance in the United States is a lottery, that not all unfortunate families get it. At the end of the day you have to pay a price weather its finally or realistically growing up in a bad neighborhood were crack cocaine is every bodies breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think the biggest concern is that we all still live in DENIAL that we still believe that these do not happen. The Equal Society will always be in question no matter how much change is instilled.
I have a pretty funny story that happened to me while at work this weekend at work. I work at Walgreens, as a Pharmacy Technician. I do not have a home store so I go from store to store. I worked at the store in Johnston, off Plainfield Street. Its pretty close to my house. We have our usual customers and then we have other that come in that aren’t the nicest of people. You see so many things working in a Pharmacy. One of our usual customers came in, I know this guy pretty well since I have helped him most of the times I work there. He knows me who I am, so he came to pick up his prescription and it had a high co pay because his Medicare benefits were almost all used up. When I told him the price he looked at me with a blank face and then said and I quote “What the fuck, I cannot believe this!! It's this Black president, he trying to kill us old people. He's a fucking communist N*****. He rather help all these Puerto Rican, Dominicans, and Black people instead of us old people. “I was surprised at my reaction I but my job on the line. I said to him Excuse me sir, I'm Puerto Rican you just offended me and disrespected my family. We have worked hard for what we have. We have never received any type of public assistance, and just for your information I have no insurance, and I have not seen a doctor since I was 18, which I’m now 20. He than tried to apologize. I said no need to apologize it's people like you that have made who I am now, and ill take that has support so I can prove to people like you that we minorities do not need help from anybody in or to succeed. I was shocked after! The pharmacy manager was on; he is a really cool guy. He pulled me to side and said you did the right thing stand up for yourself no matter who is critiquing you. I will defend what you did if anything comes up. I felt really good after that and it just so happens that were talking about President Obama this week.
What is the relationship between the historical issues you see in the website on Brown v. Board of Education and the contemporary issues of race that Tim Wise raises here?
Both of these issues have to do with race and equal opportunity in education and society. They both talk about how both of these issues have happen because previous acts that have lead to these occurrences. Tim Wise talks about how close minded people our and how they remain with the stereotypes. Both issues talk about how they have had the right support of people in order for them to occur. The connection that no matter what year was living in a post-racial America is no way in sight because we will always be living in a racist society. Both of these issues have broken barriers and moved things forward. The both instill change, that this society does not know how to handle change. Even though a racist America still exist, minorities and ethnicities that go threw oppression are still able to conquer and surpass there obstacles, expectations. This country could never be a truly equal society because no matter the situation there are going to be people against it.
"Racism is not an Excuse but a reason, an obstacle"
Tim Wise said this, at first I didn't understand it but I went over it and made some sense of it. I feel as if he meant to say that Color, Race or Ethnicity is not an excuse for people to feel as if there less or do not count in a White society. That it serves as a reason to be different and a fact about life that we must use as a power source to get the best out of ourselves. That the only obstacle we have in front of ourselves is "oneself" to learn to except yourself and not let dawned by all of these stereotypes.
I also believe that both of these issues have told us to keep our eyes on change which has been said to occur but where still living in a society full of racism. Instead of seeing minorities as people that excel, intelligent and equal. We live with these stereotypes that most white privilege think that just because we look different with different beliefs were generally less intelligent, lazy, and prone to criminality, and live off welfare in order not to work. If they only new that public assistance in the United States is a lottery, that not all unfortunate families get it. At the end of the day you have to pay a price weather its finally or realistically growing up in a bad neighborhood were crack cocaine is every bodies breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think the biggest concern is that we all still live in DENIAL that we still believe that these do not happen. The Equal Society will always be in question no matter how much change is instilled.
I have a pretty funny story that happened to me while at work this weekend at work. I work at Walgreens, as a Pharmacy Technician. I do not have a home store so I go from store to store. I worked at the store in Johnston, off Plainfield Street. Its pretty close to my house. We have our usual customers and then we have other that come in that aren’t the nicest of people. You see so many things working in a Pharmacy. One of our usual customers came in, I know this guy pretty well since I have helped him most of the times I work there. He knows me who I am, so he came to pick up his prescription and it had a high co pay because his Medicare benefits were almost all used up. When I told him the price he looked at me with a blank face and then said and I quote “What the fuck, I cannot believe this!! It's this Black president, he trying to kill us old people. He's a fucking communist N*****. He rather help all these Puerto Rican, Dominicans, and Black people instead of us old people. “I was surprised at my reaction I but my job on the line. I said to him Excuse me sir, I'm Puerto Rican you just offended me and disrespected my family. We have worked hard for what we have. We have never received any type of public assistance, and just for your information I have no insurance, and I have not seen a doctor since I was 18, which I’m now 20. He than tried to apologize. I said no need to apologize it's people like you that have made who I am now, and ill take that has support so I can prove to people like you that we minorities do not need help from anybody in or to succeed. I was shocked after! The pharmacy manager was on; he is a really cool guy. He pulled me to side and said you did the right thing stand up for yourself no matter who is critiquing you. I will defend what you did if anything comes up. I felt really good after that and it just so happens that were talking about President Obama this week.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
In The Service of What??
“Servicing Those in Need” (page, 3)
I picked this quote because it stood out to me when I was reading it because these service learning cases talk about real life things that can enhance this project and make it a learning experience for everyone. It really grabs the attention of the students. It gibe students an opportunity to learn out side of the classroom. It also serves a major purpose as future teachers because we can see the things that kids can relate to and make the relationship of students grow outside of school. The students that do know each other in school might need each other out side of school. These service learning experience shows the people that your helping that you care, that you have compassion for there needs and it shows the students that there is always a way to help out. In my case I feel like if the kids are the one teaching me because I did not have a chance to learn all these things. I feel like this is my second chance, and I’m grateful for it because without this class I dont think this would be capable.
“Giving, Caring” (Page, 5)
I picked the table 1. Service Learning Goals which helped me understand the difference that they were trying to show us between Charity and Change. When I hear the word “Charity” I think about people that have a lot of money that give to the less fortunate to promote themselves and make themselves look good. I feel as if they give because they feel some kind of pity to those less fortunate. I feel as if the only reason people give is because they see others doing it so they feel forced to or obligated to do so. The addictive experience therefore is not a good one but a negative one because as the less fortunate I see that people that do charities really don’t care about the people they’re helping. I have had a chance to be a part of certain charities and really the only people that really care about charities are those that are emotionally connected. I feel has those that instill Change are those that are most successful. The its important to care about the people that are in need instead of the caring about individual accolades. That instilling change and caring in people lives will have and end result of a person social reconstruction so that there lives can change. As for charity ere things are only good for a short time period, change can turn a person life around for the long run. That by changing a person outlook and experience will have an end result that will transform you but most importantly those that need it the most.
"In the service of what?" is a question that inevitably merits the attention of teachers, policy makers, and academicians who take seriously the idea that learning and service reinforce each other and should come together in America's schools." (Page, 13)
I was lucky enough to have and internship program at my high school. I had to complete 30 hours in order to graduate, it was a very good experience because I knew I wanted to be a teacher so I interned at my own school as a Physical education teacher. It was a great experience because not only did I have fun with fellow classmates but I got to teach and it felt really good to realize that it was what I wanted to do as my career. I was experience that really helped me get over certain fears and see the type of things that teacher go through. I had to teach my own lesson plan and it was rally fun teaching my fellow classmate’s things they did not know but I did. I believe strongly in service learning and event though its time consuming and it may makes thing challenging I have enjoyed the experience and I have talked to my teacher to see if I can continue for the whole school year.
I picked this quote because it stood out to me when I was reading it because these service learning cases talk about real life things that can enhance this project and make it a learning experience for everyone. It really grabs the attention of the students. It gibe students an opportunity to learn out side of the classroom. It also serves a major purpose as future teachers because we can see the things that kids can relate to and make the relationship of students grow outside of school. The students that do know each other in school might need each other out side of school. These service learning experience shows the people that your helping that you care, that you have compassion for there needs and it shows the students that there is always a way to help out. In my case I feel like if the kids are the one teaching me because I did not have a chance to learn all these things. I feel like this is my second chance, and I’m grateful for it because without this class I dont think this would be capable.
“Giving, Caring” (Page, 5)
I picked the table 1. Service Learning Goals which helped me understand the difference that they were trying to show us between Charity and Change. When I hear the word “Charity” I think about people that have a lot of money that give to the less fortunate to promote themselves and make themselves look good. I feel as if they give because they feel some kind of pity to those less fortunate. I feel as if the only reason people give is because they see others doing it so they feel forced to or obligated to do so. The addictive experience therefore is not a good one but a negative one because as the less fortunate I see that people that do charities really don’t care about the people they’re helping. I have had a chance to be a part of certain charities and really the only people that really care about charities are those that are emotionally connected. I feel has those that instill Change are those that are most successful. The its important to care about the people that are in need instead of the caring about individual accolades. That instilling change and caring in people lives will have and end result of a person social reconstruction so that there lives can change. As for charity ere things are only good for a short time period, change can turn a person life around for the long run. That by changing a person outlook and experience will have an end result that will transform you but most importantly those that need it the most.
"In the service of what?" is a question that inevitably merits the attention of teachers, policy makers, and academicians who take seriously the idea that learning and service reinforce each other and should come together in America's schools." (Page, 13)
I was lucky enough to have and internship program at my high school. I had to complete 30 hours in order to graduate, it was a very good experience because I knew I wanted to be a teacher so I interned at my own school as a Physical education teacher. It was a great experience because not only did I have fun with fellow classmates but I got to teach and it felt really good to realize that it was what I wanted to do as my career. I was experience that really helped me get over certain fears and see the type of things that teacher go through. I had to teach my own lesson plan and it was rally fun teaching my fellow classmate’s things they did not know but I did. I believe strongly in service learning and event though its time consuming and it may makes thing challenging I have enjoyed the experience and I have talked to my teacher to see if I can continue for the whole school year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
