extra blog 2

This is something we did long ago in class but while putting my portfolio together I came across it. When we worked with Carlson "Gayness, Multiculturalism & Community" we did a little activity where we all wrote our own experience with gayness and then passed the cards around so we didn't read our own out loud but someone else's. I loved this activity! The secretness of it was cool because other wise I knew I wouldn't have read mine but the best part was hearing all the other stories. Their were some shockers for me but this was a really cool way to talk about the topic. I'm going to have to remember this technique for when I am a teacher. When I saw the other persons card that I had in my folder I realized how cool this assignment really was.
...link to follow!

Ransom post

Last class Thurs April 22 I found the multiple intelligence survey very interesting. This is something I am defiantly going to tuck away and use in the future. On this survey i rated very high in the music category. I found this strange because I do not play any instruments and I have a terrible voice. But this survey made me realize it is more than just singing or preforming. Its about the way you learn. And now thinking about it I always try and make important things to remember into rhymes or songs. This was a cool assignment and I'm glad we got it because it tough me things about myself and the way I learn that I didn't even realize. I had no idea to begin with that their were 9 different types of learning. As a teacher these are very important to keep in mind becasue we have to adjust to our students. This was a very helpful assignment!

Talking Points 10

"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. "(Meier 1990) Shor used this quote then continued to explain " A school year that begins by questioning school could be a remarkably democratic and critical learning experience for students."

I liked this idea because asking a child this question really makes them think about our government and also gives them the chance to think about why school is important because their are various answers they could come up with. And like Shor said it shows the kids that we as the teacher trust them by giving them critical thinking questions where all answerer's are welcomed. When i become a teacher I am going to try and remember this for the first day of school. It is really a great way to embrace a child's curiosity.


"In a curriculum the encourages student questioning, the teacher avoids a unilateral transfer of knowledge. He or she helps students develop their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions in society. Empowered students make meaning and act from reflection, instead of memorizing facts and values handed to them."

I chose this quote because it didn't occur to me how much encouraging questioning can really broadened kids knowledge. The school i came from i was used to memorizing facts but if I were asked more deeper questions that make me think I'm sure i would have gotten more out of my learning experience. Helping students develop intellectually and emotionally is also something important for teachers to keep in mind because sometimes they shouldn't just focus on hard facts and work but embrace questions.

"Situated, multicultural pedagogy increases the chance that students will feel ownership in their education and reduces the conditions that produce their alienation."

I chose this quote because once a student takes ownership of his or hers education school becomes easy. I know when I started high school I didn't care about my grades or attending class. But after almost being held back i really woke up and took responsibility. Once I did that i realized school was way easier than i thought I just had to put the time it deserved into it. Once a child feels alienated in school it is hard for them to succeed because they feel left out. Once a child feels like that learning can be nearly impossibly because they are too concerned with issues as to why they are alienated. This is why as a teacher it is important to engage students and make them all feel welcomed and willing to speak up.

Over all I liked Shor's article. I really liked how much he embraces asking kids questions. He did a good job organizing his thoughts which made this an easy read for me. My favorite part was chapter 2 about how the teacher being the problem poser. His examples of how to use this in the classroom were perfect and I am defiantly going to take his advice for when I am a teacher.


here is a set of questions a teacher asked her kids the first day of school. This is helpful because it makes the students really think and encourages them to speak out.

Social Justice Event

Over spring break I went on a Caribbean Cruise. The ship was out of this world and every night they had numerous entertainment acts. The acts ranged from musicians, singers, magic shows, dancers, and even a hypnotist act. One night the show was called Around The World. I had no idea what would be in store at this show. When i got there the set had all the continents on it. Then the show started and it was a wide variety of different dances from all over the world. They did a Irish step dance a Asian dance, a dance from Greece, even some sort of Egyptian dance. The show was amazing it lasted an hour and a half and was non stop dancing. And every time they did a new dance they got a new set and costumes. The costumes were gorgeous and fit to the culture they were performing. The cast of the show was even a diverse group and it was awesome to watch them come together.


Here is a picture before the Indian piece started.
This is a picture of the actual theater it blew my mind that this beautiful theater was inside the ship.

I can relate this to our class in a few ways. The first being how Lisa Delpit says teachers and students need to work together and have the right order and power to function correctly. This also applies to how a team works together just like these dancers did in the show. Because they worked together good just like the relationship of a teacher to his or her classroom they created a beautiful show.

This can also relate to Carlson because in the show there were gay men but that didn't hold them back from being able to do what they love which was dancing. It was nice to see this diverse group work together Carlson would embrace the fact that this group worked together as one but each person had their own individuality. Much like a class room the kids can all be different but when they come together they each do their own part to make them as a whole look good.

Lastly this can relate to Johnson's idea of learning to say the words. Not only did these entertainers have to sing and "say" the words but they had to express them self with no words and just by dance. Their bodies had to tell the viewer about the emotions going on in the music. These entertainers exceed Johnson's thought and know how to express themselves in more than one way.

ANYON

I liked this article I liked jeans opening statement " It's no surprise that schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities" I agree with her. They way you are brought up has everything to do with how you learn and how you grow. Her work was fascinating to me. To make it better however i think she should have studied at a school with extreme poverty. She started at just under middle class then went up. In reality there are school where home lives are much less than middle class. I think that information would have made this article really complete.

Here are the quotes that stuck out to me.

"In the two working-class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice...When the teacher went over the examples with them, he told them what the procedure was for each problem, rarely asking them to conceptualize or explain it themselves:"

This shows that they way the students learned their assignments in a procedure form is also they way the learn to work in real life. These kids will grow up and be so used to procedures they wont have any real explainations to what they are doing. This feeling will carry on to the jobs they may aquire. When the teachers don't ask questions they leave the kids hanging and although they are learning a concept they are never fully understanding it.

"Don't cut into your clay until you're satisfied with your design."

If i heard a teacher say this I would start to get tense and worry if my design was good enough. It should be ok for the kids to mess around with their clay before satisfyed with it so they can use more creativity. Not wait and have to plain out in their heads exactly what they want. I feel like this is the opposite of what a teacher should say.

When talking about a science project "the teacher said, "It tells them exactly what to do, or they couldn't do it." "

This was sad to read because this shows the teacher has no belief in her students, its like shes saying they couldn't actually do something on their own. This is the wrong attitude to have when teaching. If the kids grow up thinking they need such specific instructions for everything how are they supposed to gain common sense for the real world?

Gender& Education

When you type this in on google just about a million search results come up. But why when i clicked on a few was the information so vague? This topic doesn't seem to have hard facts from what I found. All I seem to get is how according to statistics girls do better in school. I feel the information i looked at was completely biased towards girls saying girls are smarted and get better grades compared to boys. I though this was really degrading to boys because i know plenty of very smart boys. I think the problem is gender and education is such a broad topic that its hard to be specific about what this can mean. These two words separate have a ton of information on them so when they are binded together it seems like people are confused. The information i found wasn't from 2010 either. I came across studies from the 90's.
I'm not sure if i really understand what our assignment is. Honestly all i got out of browsing the Internet was girls do better.

Here is a video that helps to support why girls tend to do better in school.

"Between Barack and a Hard Place"

Personally this video was so boring for me. Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture but i feel like who cares. I know that Obama becoming president doesn't fix Americas issues, but lets face it he won because enough people did like him and that's what counts. I find it dumb to split racism into groups such as racism 1.0 and 2.0. To me its all the same and Obama is the president were stuck with him for the next 4 years so quit the complaining.
Overall i didn't like this video blog because i would much rather have the material to look back on a and highlight and with this video I'm already drawing blanks as to what the point it.
However when it comes to brown vs. Board of Education I think that Tim would say that we haven't really come all that far. This case was a huge step towards helping our society and it was 50 years ago now that Obama is president Tim is saying we still have a lot of work to do. So basically i feel like Tim is saying we haven't really gotten that far but however we are in the right step. I have to agree that we are moving ahead but honestly i still feel like blacks are looked at differently which is sad to say.

Kahne & Westheimer

"Relationships that emhasize charity we will call giving. Those that aim primarily to deepen relationships and to forge new connections we will call caring." Before reading this article I didnt know that service learning was looked at in these two ways. I thought that any service learning would be considered both but after seeing these definitions I realize that it can be looked at in separate ways. For me the service learning i do falls into the caring relationships because I feel like if I was to call it charity I would be showing the kids pitty and I dont think that the right way to approach the situation.

"Service learning can advance other priorities, such as the acquisition of vocational skills." This is just one example of how service learning can impact people. I would have never tought a skill like this would be picked up but much more can be taught when doing service learning. At the time your working with someone it may feel like your not doing much but the end results are amazing. I can't wait to see the progress I see in the girls i work with.

"The distance between the one caring and the one cared for diminishes." This is my favorite quote from this reading because in the end the bond you create is so strong and positive you let walls down and you feel like your not helping someone they are actually helping you. I feel the goal of service learning is to build this type of bond because it will be remembered forever.


This reading was kind of dry to read. But it is good to know how much service learning impacts the people you work with. This made me feel good about what i'm doing but i felt like this reading was too repetitive.

Talking Points #4

"Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by childresn media and advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "Handles" by the media." I chose this quote because i completly agree. No one wants to admit that they have been basically brainwashed all their lives from cartoons, movies, magazines, ect But the fact is that we have to face it so we can do exactly like the title says "Unlearn" these "Myths". We first have to open our eyes to the things we've been grown to learn so that we can help earase these images from the children that we are going to be teaching.

"As tinker bell inspects her tiny body in a mirrow only to find that her minute hips are simply too huge, she shows us how to turn the mirrow into an ememy." I chose this excert becuase i've seen peter pan many times and never did i notice thats what tinker bell is actually doing. No wonder so many girls have body issues especially when a character as tiny and beautiful as tinker bell is having issues. This one issue may not lead to girls critizing themselves but it is all these little things building on one another that is the problem. It is amazing how much i've picked up on just from this article it is sad how we shaped the thoughts of these children.

"Pam and Nicole swore theyt would not let their children watch cartoons." I feel like this teacher made his students think all cartoons and media are bad when thats really not the case. What good will sheltering your children from cartoons do? I feel like his students took this too much to heart and now they will be parents that dont even allow there children to watch any TV.


This website lists and gives examples of the 9 worst disney movies with racism you may be suprised to see the Jungle book and Aladdin on the list but the examples shown are so true I completly over looked them until now.

This article was boring to me I feel like it was very repetative and a little bit out dated. I'm pretty sure the fact that media plays a role on how our children develope and learn is embeded in my brain.

Talking Points #3

"Gay identity was constructed around the experience of being a sexual outsider,deviant,and (quite literally) an outlaw."
I picked this quote because I dont like the fact that we associate gays as outlaws. I support gay,lesbian,trangender,and bisexual people so I dont like when someone refers to them as an outlaw because it makes the whole topic sound worst and makes it seem like its something that shouldnt be talked about when really it needs to be. These people cant be looked at in such different ways just becuse they are interested in something different. Different does not equal bad.

"One thing we can conclude from the emerging shape of community in America is that becasue it is more fragmented, it is becoming more difficult to comstruct a "public" curricilum that is broad-cades support." I chose this quote because I completly agree. Because of all the differences in America we are making it so much harder to come up with ways to teach and making the learing enviroment for glbt people impossible to feel comfortable in which is upsetting.

"The objective of classroom discourse is thur not so much to achieve consensus on the "true" or the "objective" depiction of reality, but rather to claify differences and agreements." I liked this because when teaching we have to focus and learn from students differences and not shun them or not be accepting. It is important to be openminded and welcome all student differences and not just with sexual orientation. Talking about diferences actually unites a class room and makes the learning enviorment much more enjoyable and help the students grow together ane be excepting of each other which really should be every teachers goal besides meeting academic requirements.


Click here to look at RIC's Rainbow Alliance Club to support all sexual orientations.

Aria

"No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness. Neither my older brother or sister rushed home after school anymore."
This quote made me so sad imagine being in school for about 6 long hours where you are forced to speak a langauge that is not your own and then be sent home and have to worry about continuing practing this other language when you native language just slowly dissapears. I certainly wouldn't wnat to rush home either if i had to be forced to express my feelings in ways that just wasnt natural to me.
"-mama and papa-I couldn't use anymore. They would have been too painful reminders of how much had changed in my life."
This really made me stop and think for a minute becasue not being able to call your mother and father what you call them in your language would be the absolute last straw for me these poor children are getting so confused and it is just over looked in the school systems becasue english is the right way and everything else is just secondary.
"Fewer words passed between parent and child."
How is a child supposed to succeed in something they are forced to learn when now there is no communication between themselves and their parents? The more and more english that was forced upon this family actually broke them apart and this is so sad because now they dont even know how to speak to eachother I couldn't imagaine going home and not knowing how to talk to my family but the school system is doing this to families all over.
This reading made me feel so sad for bilingual children. Being bilingual is amazing but i had no clue how painful it must be. I couldn't imagine having English be my second language and yet here children are getting a part of their culture taken away from them by being forced to use their English. I could not imagine coming home and being forced to speak Spanish but for Spanish people English is enforced so their children can do better I know if I had to speak Spanish to improve my grades my parents would certainly make me do it. This reading really opened my eyes to how one way school systems can be. I'd be appalled if someone made me speak another language before my own language but this is happening everyday in millions of homes and I never even thought about it. I'm 18 and I can't even speak two languages but now we have bilingual kinder gardens where these children are learning how to be perfect in English and just okay in their natural language. This reminds me of a girl in one of my classes in high school. This girl spoke three languages and English was her third and for the class we were in together we had to write a ten page paper. I could not imagine writing a paper in anything other than English but this poor girl had to put together ten well thought out pages of her third language. There is no way i could write a paper in another language so forget trying to write on in my third language. This reading really opened my eyes to how tough some children have it and how they are losing a big chunk of themselves when being forced to speak English. I feel like our education system really needs to adjust so everyone can learn properly and not be forced to do something in an unnatural language to get by and meet the proper"codes".

click here to see if you could understang the directions to this preschool spanish worksheet. Chances are you can take a guess because it is for preschoolers but there are words on the page i couldnt figure out if it wasnt for the picture.

Kozol & McIntosh talking points

1."At an elementary school that serves the neighborhood across the avenue, only 7 out of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches."5 of those 7", says the principal"get reduced-price lunches, because they are classified as only 'poor' not 'destitute'."

I had no clue this many children were living in such bad conditions.I feel really naive for not thinking about this fact especially when New York is only about 2 hours away.

2."White privilege is like an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."

This quote opened my eyes to realizing that I am part of the white privilege and although it is called a 'privilege' I almost don't want it. I feel like although we cant feel it in weight we can feel it in our hearts and minds I didn't realize just from being white I have all these tools in my 'knapsack' I really don't like trying being better than everyone else especially when i didn't even have to work for it.

3."DOA"-dead on arrival."If you walk on St.Ann's Avenue at night, you will hear the dealers call it out. It's like they're saying 'Come on over here. I'll show you how to end your life.'"

This also blew my mind poverty is so bad that some people just do want to end it all and the drug dealers don't care if they kill anyone they just want money. Doing drugs is such a vicious cycle and its sad instead of saving money for food and basic necessities people are more interested in getting high, and don't even care weather they die or not. This to me is just so sad.

These readings really opened my eyes thats for sure I honestly feel so uneducated becasue I had no clue such poverty and devistation was so close to us I mean we all learn about and see commercials for poverty in other countries but why until the kozal reading did I not know about such poverty in New York? I also was blown away by how the number of people with AIDS. These poor children know people with aids, have aids, or have lost someone from aids, and here I am not knowing a single thing about the disease besides it's an std. I feel greatful for being priveleged to have nice things and not worry about poverty but i also feel so nieve and that I have alot of learning to do. I Also learned alot from the McIntosh reading because I am now aware of how I am looked at by other races just becasue I am white. I enjoyed both of these readings easpecilly Kozal was interesting I literally couldn't put it down once I started. I couldn't imagaine being a school teacher in an area like the one talked about in Kozal's reading. I'm excited to hear everyones thoughts in class because I feel so blown away!

here is a link of an organization in NYC to help poverty check it out there's many ways to help!
http://www.robinhood.org/home.aspx

Hello all! As you should know my name is Alyssa. I'm a very out going girl i love to dance and hang out with my friends. My major is elementary special education. Im from a very small town in Connecticut right on the boarder of exiter Ri. I live on campus and am currently looking for a job bartending because i just finsihed bartending school. The only sport i can actually do is snowboarding and i love it! Ive never blogged before so hopefully this goes well so far i enjoy our FNED class and i'm very excited to start the VIPS program :]
thats all for now!