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.