Today April 30 was my ninth visit at the elementary school. I realized that this week that since I get early to the school now, I would really take the time to notice things inside the school that could relate to the readings. One thing when I first walked in the door there was a big banner saying be responsible, be respectful, and be ready to learn, with the name of the school underneath the message. I found that this related to Delpit. I felt that this is relating to Delpit because when I was working with my group on the service learning project one thing that Delpit talks about is rules that are inside of the classroom. I feel that this banner is telling the kids that enter how to succeed in school and telling the rules of the school. After I saw the sign I went into the office to sign myself as usual and walked down to the class. I got to the classroom as the kids were walking in the classroom. I noticed that before they walk in the classroom that Mrs. B stands outside of the classroom and shakes each kids hand and says good morning. I did not know what to think of it but I guess it’s was just something that the teacher always does. Since it was an hour before intervention, I decided to observe the classroom environment for a little then prepare on what I was going to do today. While I was looking around the classroom I noticed that there was a sign stating on how to be a good listener. It said to sit flat, listen with your ears, and raise your hand to talk. I also felt that this related to Delpit on how explaining the rules and it teaches them how to do something.
After I was looking around the room, it was time for me to prepare on what I was going to do with the kids today. While I was doing that the teacher, Mrs. B was feeding the classroom animals which happened to be worms. She came over and showed the other volunteer and me the worms and she happened to tell us that it was part of the science curriculum. I happened to ask her where they got the worms from and she said that that the school provided for it. I felt this was a class based thing which is talked about in Johnson because I have realized that there are certain things that the school provided for and other things where they do not provide for. From what I can tell, this is not a middle class school, based on the things I have observed. After that it was time for me to tutor my three little girls. Once all the kids were moving around for intervention, it was time for me to begin. Today I decided that we would be playing a new game today which involves letter sounds. What you had to do was give each student a list of words and have them sound out what the word was and they had pieces to put the words together. As they had to change the words, they had to tell me the sound of the letters they would be changing. At first they were not happy because they were saying that it was too hard for them and they have never played this game before even though they did this for the half of the time I felt that now they know how to pronounce words/letter sounds and make new words that are similar. After that I decided to read with them since we just did letter sounds. This helped them because they identified the words that we played in the game. I felt that they were happy with themselves because usually when I read with them they get discouraged and do not know the word. I feel that since I have helped these kids that they have learned more and they seem to be happy with it. It was time for me to leave and I told Mrs. B that I would be back next week because I am a half hour short of my hours and she was happy to hear that.
I was going to my first grade class and I was not sure on what I would be doing because I feel that I am always unorganized when I teach these kids. Today was different because of what was ahead of me. When I walked me the kids ran over to get my box and I decided to go over and get games that the teacher had in the classroom. I decided that I would play a similar game that I had done the last time I was there. With this game you had to put three different letter flash cards on the table and I would hold up a picture and they would have to tell me which categories to put the picture in. As I was signing the kids in on their sheet, the teacher, Mrs. R came over and told us that we would not be tutoring the kids, but she told us we could stay and observe the mini lesson that she would be doing with her students. By the time everything got back situated there was only ten minutes left until lunch time. She decided that she would have different words on the board and the kids would have to tell her a word that would rhyme it. It really was not much because of intervention being cancelled because of two of the teachers being out. It was time for me to go and I told Mrs. R and my kids that next week would be my last week coming because of school ending and the kids seemed sadden by me leaving next week.
Overall today was good day and I noticed more than I would ever have. I felt from today that me helping out the kids have benefited them from the experience they had with me. I will be saddened to leave them next week but this experience has been unforgettable. I cannot wait for next week even though it will be sad to leave the kids that I have had a bond with.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Shor: Education is Politics
Quotes:
1."“If the student’s task is to memorized rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.”(page 12)
I feel that getting by in school by memorizing and having existing knowledge will not help as you continue education in college. Questioning things in school is a very important thing because I used to just get by in middle school, but one of my closest teachers told me that I need to start to participate more and not to be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is helpful because it helps you understand things more and in a way you get your own opinions out there and you have an equal say just like everyone else in the class. Thinking back on previous education before college, I think I should have questioned some of the things that my teachers said because I always took it in what the teacher said instead of questioning their knowledge. As I continue my education I have questioned more of the teachers/professors knowledge because this helps me in understanding what is going on inside of the classroom.
2."“Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education, and their futures.”(page 16)
This quote stood out to me because this is talking about people who are in possibly honors classes and I feel that people who are in empowering classes, believe that they will have better expectations than someone who is not in empowering classes. I feel that people who are in empowering classes are expected to have a successful future ahead of them which sometimes can be misleading. In a way this reminded me of the Delpit reading but with the same concept. In the reading Delpit talked about the cultural of power and how the whites control society. I feel that it relates to the quote because it’s basically talking about one group of people and saying that they will do better than another group of people. I feel that this was saying people with a higher education should have high expectations for themselves and their futures which is not always true because someone with a lower education can do just as good with someone who has a higher education.
3.“Participation was an educational and political means for students to gain knowledge and to develop citizens. Only by active leaning could students develop scientific method and democratic habits rather than becoming passive pupils waiting to be told what things mean and what to do.” (page 18)
I feel that this quote is important because participation is a big part of schooling. I feel that participation is a big part of learning and you can ask questions if you run into a problem you do not understand. Active learning is a good thing because you develop skills that you will need in the future and you will understand things that happen in and outside the classroom. From my own experiences, participating in a classroom really benefits you because when you get out in the “real world”, there are not always going to be people to tell you or spoon feed you what is going on when your are the one who should understand. Becoming a passive pupils are people who are always waiting to be told what things mean and what to do. I feel that is being lazy and it really is not getting anything accomplished. Growing up I always tried to be and active learner because it helps when you are active in what is going on instead of having the teacher tell you what is going on, and it does not help you later on life. Later on in the future it will be harder for you to learn if all you were used was your teacher telling you what to do because you never really understood what was really going on.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall I thought this was a good article, but there were a couple of parts in the reading where I got mad at some of the things that were stated. Personally I feel that you cannot say how someone can be successful based on the education they get. I feel that I got a good education and I was not in any of the higher classes that were offered at my school. Sometimes people just judge on what certain people have and I feel that in the readings that we have had whether it was Johnson, Delpit, or even S.C.W.A.M.P, there is always a group of people that are superior to others which is false. I felt that this was an interesting reading because it has reinforced things that I have been improving on in my education.
Growing up I have always been reinforced to always ask questions and that is one of the best advices that I have ever received. Sometimes when you state your opinion, it can turn things around and sometimes your own opinion can say a lot. I feel that people just get by in their education but look they have trouble later on because they never really understood what was really going on. Think about it, how is that people who have a higher education are always the ones that can succeed, but people who do not have the privilege to do that cannot be just as successful.
1."“If the student’s task is to memorized rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.”(page 12)
I feel that getting by in school by memorizing and having existing knowledge will not help as you continue education in college. Questioning things in school is a very important thing because I used to just get by in middle school, but one of my closest teachers told me that I need to start to participate more and not to be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is helpful because it helps you understand things more and in a way you get your own opinions out there and you have an equal say just like everyone else in the class. Thinking back on previous education before college, I think I should have questioned some of the things that my teachers said because I always took it in what the teacher said instead of questioning their knowledge. As I continue my education I have questioned more of the teachers/professors knowledge because this helps me in understanding what is going on inside of the classroom.
2."“Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education, and their futures.”(page 16)
This quote stood out to me because this is talking about people who are in possibly honors classes and I feel that people who are in empowering classes, believe that they will have better expectations than someone who is not in empowering classes. I feel that people who are in empowering classes are expected to have a successful future ahead of them which sometimes can be misleading. In a way this reminded me of the Delpit reading but with the same concept. In the reading Delpit talked about the cultural of power and how the whites control society. I feel that it relates to the quote because it’s basically talking about one group of people and saying that they will do better than another group of people. I feel that this was saying people with a higher education should have high expectations for themselves and their futures which is not always true because someone with a lower education can do just as good with someone who has a higher education.
3.“Participation was an educational and political means for students to gain knowledge and to develop citizens. Only by active leaning could students develop scientific method and democratic habits rather than becoming passive pupils waiting to be told what things mean and what to do.” (page 18)
I feel that this quote is important because participation is a big part of schooling. I feel that participation is a big part of learning and you can ask questions if you run into a problem you do not understand. Active learning is a good thing because you develop skills that you will need in the future and you will understand things that happen in and outside the classroom. From my own experiences, participating in a classroom really benefits you because when you get out in the “real world”, there are not always going to be people to tell you or spoon feed you what is going on when your are the one who should understand. Becoming a passive pupils are people who are always waiting to be told what things mean and what to do. I feel that is being lazy and it really is not getting anything accomplished. Growing up I always tried to be and active learner because it helps when you are active in what is going on instead of having the teacher tell you what is going on, and it does not help you later on life. Later on in the future it will be harder for you to learn if all you were used was your teacher telling you what to do because you never really understood what was really going on.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall I thought this was a good article, but there were a couple of parts in the reading where I got mad at some of the things that were stated. Personally I feel that you cannot say how someone can be successful based on the education they get. I feel that I got a good education and I was not in any of the higher classes that were offered at my school. Sometimes people just judge on what certain people have and I feel that in the readings that we have had whether it was Johnson, Delpit, or even S.C.W.A.M.P, there is always a group of people that are superior to others which is false. I felt that this was an interesting reading because it has reinforced things that I have been improving on in my education.
Growing up I have always been reinforced to always ask questions and that is one of the best advices that I have ever received. Sometimes when you state your opinion, it can turn things around and sometimes your own opinion can say a lot. I feel that people just get by in their education but look they have trouble later on because they never really understood what was really going on. Think about it, how is that people who have a higher education are always the ones that can succeed, but people who do not have the privilege to do that cannot be just as successful.
Eighth Visit
April 16 was my Eighth visit to my elementary school. Today was going to be different because instead of showing up at the usual 930, I had to be at the school at 9. When I arrived at the school around 850, I noticed that a lot of the kids were arriving at school. I noticed that some of the younger kids were bringing in food, but I was not sure what was going on. After I signed in at the office, I walked down to my classroom and saw that Mrs. B was not there yet, so I waited until she got there. When she came to the class, I noticed that she had a whole bunch of food with her. As everything got settled down, kids from all different grade levels were bringing food in because there was a bake sale that would be taking place. Mrs. B was telling me that the kindergarten and first graders are taking a field trip to the zoo and they have to come up with money for the buses because the admission is free for them. She was telling me that they raised enough money for the buses but they were going to try and raise more money for them to have lunch at the zoo. She was telling me that people are even donating water for the kids to have the whole day and Mrs. B is even going to just buy her class little back packs to put their water in and other things. Once 930 rolled around, it was time for me to prepare on what I would be doing with the kids. I decided this week I would play a new game with them because the other games were getting repetitive and do some reading and listening exercises.
It was time for intervention and it was time for me to tutor my three girls. I decided that I would play a new game where you would have 3 words on one side of the card and on the other half there would be a letter and they would have to figure out which letter would replace the first or last letter of the word. This game challenged them because they did not know which letter to change but once they got the hang of things, they seemed to get the hang of things. I figured that this would help them in finding new words and being able to change from one word to another. After we did that I decided to go back and read a little booklet called the tin man. I remember the week before; one girl was just basically shouting out words and not following the text. Before we began reading I decided to have her move next to me because she gets distracted by the other girls easily. She got mad that she had to move, but I was hoping that it would not affect her. As the other girls were reading, I noticed that the girl that was sitting next to me was still shouting the words. I felt frustrated because she was still not doing what I told her to do. Once I talked to her about moving on to the listening exercise that she enjoyed last time, she got a little bit better at the reading. That whole time that she was reading I was thinking of what I should do whether to tell the teacher or to just forget about it. After reading we did a listening exercise. It was an exercise that we had done the previous week, but instead of having them put together the same poem I had done one, two buckle my shoe. As we were doing this, kids in other groups kept singing it and were the cutest thing. Once this was over, Mrs. B gave me my disposition form and told me that the girl I had in my group has not been doing work lately and she is working on getting her to focus more.
When I walked in my first grade classroom I noticed that the kids were very rowdy. The teacher was trying to control them but it was not working. She seemed relieved when it was time for intervention. I decided that I would do the exercises that the teacher said I could use from her personal pile. I decided that I would play a game where you blend words together. What they had to do was listen to me say the word and point to the beginning sounds that would appear in a milkshake picture. They seemed to know a lot of what is going on and they really understood blending words. I noticed that this game took 20 minutes because there had been a numerous amount of words that they had to figure out the sound too. After that I decided to finish up the game we started last time with having them figure out words, given the middle letters. They really came up with words that I would have never thought they would come up with. I was very surprised with what was being said out of their mouths or how they thought of the words. The whole time I was tutoring the kids, all I kept thinking about was when I first walked into the class. Most of the kids in the classroom are Hispanic and the teacher is white. For the kids to control the class over the white teacher I related this to Delpit and Johnson. I related that to Delpit because of the whole cultural of power and it ironic because Delpit was talking about how the blacks do not have the cultural of power but in this classroom they do over the white teacher. I also related it to Johnson because Johnson was talking about how whites are in a way superior but in this situation that is not the case.
Although I do not have intervention next time, I feel like it’s time for me to have a break from everything. It will be a sad thing when I only have two more visits at my school. I cannot wait to go to my ninth visit and doing intervention with them.
It was time for intervention and it was time for me to tutor my three girls. I decided that I would play a new game where you would have 3 words on one side of the card and on the other half there would be a letter and they would have to figure out which letter would replace the first or last letter of the word. This game challenged them because they did not know which letter to change but once they got the hang of things, they seemed to get the hang of things. I figured that this would help them in finding new words and being able to change from one word to another. After we did that I decided to go back and read a little booklet called the tin man. I remember the week before; one girl was just basically shouting out words and not following the text. Before we began reading I decided to have her move next to me because she gets distracted by the other girls easily. She got mad that she had to move, but I was hoping that it would not affect her. As the other girls were reading, I noticed that the girl that was sitting next to me was still shouting the words. I felt frustrated because she was still not doing what I told her to do. Once I talked to her about moving on to the listening exercise that she enjoyed last time, she got a little bit better at the reading. That whole time that she was reading I was thinking of what I should do whether to tell the teacher or to just forget about it. After reading we did a listening exercise. It was an exercise that we had done the previous week, but instead of having them put together the same poem I had done one, two buckle my shoe. As we were doing this, kids in other groups kept singing it and were the cutest thing. Once this was over, Mrs. B gave me my disposition form and told me that the girl I had in my group has not been doing work lately and she is working on getting her to focus more.
When I walked in my first grade classroom I noticed that the kids were very rowdy. The teacher was trying to control them but it was not working. She seemed relieved when it was time for intervention. I decided that I would do the exercises that the teacher said I could use from her personal pile. I decided that I would play a game where you blend words together. What they had to do was listen to me say the word and point to the beginning sounds that would appear in a milkshake picture. They seemed to know a lot of what is going on and they really understood blending words. I noticed that this game took 20 minutes because there had been a numerous amount of words that they had to figure out the sound too. After that I decided to finish up the game we started last time with having them figure out words, given the middle letters. They really came up with words that I would have never thought they would come up with. I was very surprised with what was being said out of their mouths or how they thought of the words. The whole time I was tutoring the kids, all I kept thinking about was when I first walked into the class. Most of the kids in the classroom are Hispanic and the teacher is white. For the kids to control the class over the white teacher I related this to Delpit and Johnson. I related that to Delpit because of the whole cultural of power and it ironic because Delpit was talking about how the blacks do not have the cultural of power but in this classroom they do over the white teacher. I also related it to Johnson because Johnson was talking about how whites are in a way superior but in this situation that is not the case.
Although I do not have intervention next time, I feel like it’s time for me to have a break from everything. It will be a sad thing when I only have two more visits at my school. I cannot wait to go to my ninth visit and doing intervention with them.
Misc. Post #2
Today on April 22, we had a group discussion on the Kliewer reading called “Citizenship in School.” This was not like any other discussion we had because today Dr. Joyce Stevos was not going to conduct the discussion, us as a class was going to do it. The first thing we did was we had group leaders and they had to pick the people they wanted in the group. My group contained me, Kalli, Sam, Carolyn, and Caitlyn. We mainly focused on how it connected to the Johnson reading with the discourse and we also had found quotes that each of us thought stood out to us. The quotes that we picked connected all together which we would use in the discussion. When it was time to come together we all had a lot to say, and I felt that everyone was not afraid to say their own input because we came together as a community. Everyone made valid points and I feel that I made some points too because sometimes I just talk about the articles I like and since this was one I really liked, I had more to say about it. I feel that Dr. Joyce Stevos was very happy of the whole class and this discussion showed that we can have a mature discussion about a topic that we all agree and relate to. I am happy that we had this type of class because no one was afraid to say anything and everyone respected what each person had to say.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Christopher Kliewer: Schooling Children with Down Syndrome
1. "As mentioned earlier, people with Down syndrome are joined in their struggle for citizenship by other oppressed groups."
This quote is important because people who do have Down syndrome/other disabilities do struggle in society. They struggle in society because they cannot do some of the things that people without disabilities can do. What makes it worse is that people who do not have these problems do not even give these people the time or day, which is bad because they really have done nothing wrong in society except for being born differently. I feel that this can relate to other readings because people who usually struggle in society are people who do not fit under the category of S.C.W.A.M.P.
2. “How absurd to be judged by other at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don’t listen to the voices we have.”
This quote stood out to me because I feel that no one should be judged whether someone is different from you. I think that people have their own personalities where people should not have the right to judge no matter how superior they are. I feel that people who have never experienced something/someone with a disability should not be judging because you do not know what they have to go through. I feel that sometimes people do not care about them because even I would walk past them, but as I got older and met someone who has a disabled brother, I have been open minded about things and do not judge how they are different compared to me.
3.“Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full’, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities.”
This quote stood out to me because I feel that people do need break the barriers for the people who have a disability. I feel that someone who does have a disability can learn the same things as people who do not have a disability, but they learn in different ways. For example, people with disabilities can stay in school longer/or until they are 21. Sometimes I think that people have not moved past judging people because it still takes place today and not a lot of people have been open minded about things that are not “normal” to them.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall this article was one that I really enjoyed reading. I liked reading this because I could relate to it. I have a friend who has an older brother who has Down syndrome. I remember her telling me that growing up he would get mad fun of her younger brother’s friends and she would be the one who have to say something about it. I feel that people do judge others if they are not like this and I feel that it relates to the cultural of power because disabled people are being oppressed which I feel is wrong.
After reading I have a clear understanding that it is wrong to judge people who have disabilities because they have a voice and they are like everybody else. If I could have one question it would be, why discriminate against people with disabilities. It is not their faults they are like this I feel that they were born like that for a reason and they should never be put down for something they cannot help.
This quote is important because people who do have Down syndrome/other disabilities do struggle in society. They struggle in society because they cannot do some of the things that people without disabilities can do. What makes it worse is that people who do not have these problems do not even give these people the time or day, which is bad because they really have done nothing wrong in society except for being born differently. I feel that this can relate to other readings because people who usually struggle in society are people who do not fit under the category of S.C.W.A.M.P.
2. “How absurd to be judged by other at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don’t listen to the voices we have.”
This quote stood out to me because I feel that no one should be judged whether someone is different from you. I think that people have their own personalities where people should not have the right to judge no matter how superior they are. I feel that people who have never experienced something/someone with a disability should not be judging because you do not know what they have to go through. I feel that sometimes people do not care about them because even I would walk past them, but as I got older and met someone who has a disabled brother, I have been open minded about things and do not judge how they are different compared to me.
3.“Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full’, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities.”
This quote stood out to me because I feel that people do need break the barriers for the people who have a disability. I feel that someone who does have a disability can learn the same things as people who do not have a disability, but they learn in different ways. For example, people with disabilities can stay in school longer/or until they are 21. Sometimes I think that people have not moved past judging people because it still takes place today and not a lot of people have been open minded about things that are not “normal” to them.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall this article was one that I really enjoyed reading. I liked reading this because I could relate to it. I have a friend who has an older brother who has Down syndrome. I remember her telling me that growing up he would get mad fun of her younger brother’s friends and she would be the one who have to say something about it. I feel that people do judge others if they are not like this and I feel that it relates to the cultural of power because disabled people are being oppressed which I feel is wrong.
After reading I have a clear understanding that it is wrong to judge people who have disabilities because they have a voice and they are like everybody else. If I could have one question it would be, why discriminate against people with disabilities. It is not their faults they are like this I feel that they were born like that for a reason and they should never be put down for something they cannot help.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Seventh Visit
April 9 was my seventh visit to my elementary school. I feel like I haven’t gone in a while because the Friday before was Good Friday. On the way to the school all I kept thinking was what had happened last time I had been there with the little boy and the girl. Then I thought that it was an issue that was probably forgotten about, so I should not be worried about it and not have it affect me while I teach to the kids. As usual I got there at 930, but today I had to talk to my kindergarten teacher on being able to go to the school at 9, instead of 930 because I will be short of hours if I do not go earlier. I walked in the office, did the same routine, and walked to my kindergarten class. I noticed that the other volunteer was not there, so I decided to prepare on what I would be doing with the kids today. I noticed that I got new things to do with the kids which were good because I really did not like reading the same things over and over again. There were readings that were a little bit more complex, but I knew that they would be able to handle them. Once I figured out what I would be doing the other volunteer walked in and she had been 15 mins late because of a family issue. I decided to play a game because that’s what is required to do on a Friday, also read a little bit, and then do a listening excersie where I read a poem and they have the words separated in front of them and they put the poem together. I felt that today was going to be a good day.
Once it was time for intervention I was very excited because I could not wait to get back in the groove of things since I had the week before off. As the kids started to scatter to their groups my three kids came over and it was time to begin. I noticed that one of my girls who always wear a hat was not wearing one today. It was a little different but I was not used to seeing her not wear a hat. Aside from all that it was time to begin. I started to do some reading because last time I really did not spend a lot of time reading. I decided to read a little booklet with them called Pam and Sam. Two of the three girls were really focusing on the reading but the other girl was really not trying to read. I knew that she could read this type of material because the week before that I was there she was reading perfectly. Once she really was not focusing, I decided to have her sit next to me because maybe she would focus better. As soon as she sat next to me and she was focused she was reading the story perfectly. I feel that she just needed to focus instead of just guessing what each word is and actually taking the time to look at each word. After we read, I decided to do the poem exercises. I would read a poem and they would have to put the poem together. The way I split this up was to have each girl do one line of the poem so they would get the equal amount of turns. I noticed that I would have to in a way spoon feed them what the word is because they would ask me to repeat the word over and over which got a little boring at times. Once I told them that I would only repeat the word once, they really got focused and took the exercise seriously. Lastly we played a game and it’s the same game I play with them every week because they enjoy it and it is the only game that Ms. W gave me. After I played the game with them I asked the teacher, Mrs. B if I could come at 9 instead of 930 from now on and she said that would be fine, which was good on my part because I needed to be able to get the hours done.I also gave her the disposition form for her to fill out and she seemed like it would be no problem, so I thanked her and went to my 1st grade class.
It was time for me to go to my first grade class and I was hoping everything would go very smoothly today. When I walked in I noticed on of students was absent, and the ones that happened to be there was the boy and girl that got into a predicament the week before. When I walked over it seemed that they had forgotten about it. When I looked at the materials that I had in my box, it seemed like it has not changed. I knew it would be the same thing that I would be doing from the previous weeks. As I was in the middle of playing the games with the kids, the teacher came over and told me that she has her own personal exercises/games for the kids that I can use from now on. That had been a relief because I felt that the kids were getting sick of doing the same thing over and over again. As it was time to go this one teacher was yelling at a student. At first I really did not know why she was but she said that she was yelling because the student was not saying a word right. It happened to be that the student was Hispanic and the teacher was white. I felt that connected to Delpit with the whole cultural of power and how the whites are the superior and things are their ways.
Overall I felt that this was a good visit and now next time I have to arrive at the school for 9 to get my hours done sooner. I cannot wait for my 8th visit.Thinking back on this I have realized that I have to be more focused with the kids because I feel that they can do the work if they are focused and ready to learn new material.
Once it was time for intervention I was very excited because I could not wait to get back in the groove of things since I had the week before off. As the kids started to scatter to their groups my three kids came over and it was time to begin. I noticed that one of my girls who always wear a hat was not wearing one today. It was a little different but I was not used to seeing her not wear a hat. Aside from all that it was time to begin. I started to do some reading because last time I really did not spend a lot of time reading. I decided to read a little booklet with them called Pam and Sam. Two of the three girls were really focusing on the reading but the other girl was really not trying to read. I knew that she could read this type of material because the week before that I was there she was reading perfectly. Once she really was not focusing, I decided to have her sit next to me because maybe she would focus better. As soon as she sat next to me and she was focused she was reading the story perfectly. I feel that she just needed to focus instead of just guessing what each word is and actually taking the time to look at each word. After we read, I decided to do the poem exercises. I would read a poem and they would have to put the poem together. The way I split this up was to have each girl do one line of the poem so they would get the equal amount of turns. I noticed that I would have to in a way spoon feed them what the word is because they would ask me to repeat the word over and over which got a little boring at times. Once I told them that I would only repeat the word once, they really got focused and took the exercise seriously. Lastly we played a game and it’s the same game I play with them every week because they enjoy it and it is the only game that Ms. W gave me. After I played the game with them I asked the teacher, Mrs. B if I could come at 9 instead of 930 from now on and she said that would be fine, which was good on my part because I needed to be able to get the hours done.I also gave her the disposition form for her to fill out and she seemed like it would be no problem, so I thanked her and went to my 1st grade class.
It was time for me to go to my first grade class and I was hoping everything would go very smoothly today. When I walked in I noticed on of students was absent, and the ones that happened to be there was the boy and girl that got into a predicament the week before. When I walked over it seemed that they had forgotten about it. When I looked at the materials that I had in my box, it seemed like it has not changed. I knew it would be the same thing that I would be doing from the previous weeks. As I was in the middle of playing the games with the kids, the teacher came over and told me that she has her own personal exercises/games for the kids that I can use from now on. That had been a relief because I felt that the kids were getting sick of doing the same thing over and over again. As it was time to go this one teacher was yelling at a student. At first I really did not know why she was but she said that she was yelling because the student was not saying a word right. It happened to be that the student was Hispanic and the teacher was white. I felt that connected to Delpit with the whole cultural of power and how the whites are the superior and things are their ways.
Overall I felt that this was a good visit and now next time I have to arrive at the school for 9 to get my hours done sooner. I cannot wait for my 8th visit.Thinking back on this I have realized that I have to be more focused with the kids because I feel that they can do the work if they are focused and ready to learn new material.
Jean Anyon: "Social class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work
Quotes
1."In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
School is not all about getting good grades. I feel that school is bettering yourself and making sure you are ready for college. I feel that getting the right answers is not always a good thing because anyone can get the right answer and not know what is going on. Like I went to a high school where as I was leaving they cared more about understanding than getting the right answer, which is how things should be. I feel that people need to start understanding things better because they really cannot just get by in life getting the right answers if they did not know how to get them.
2."It's no surprise that schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities, or that they better prepare their students for desirable jobs. It may be shocking, however, to learn how vast the differences in schools are - not so much in resources as in teaching methods and philosophies of education"
I feel that this quote is true/false in certain ways because wealthier communities/people do go to better schools and they pay more money to go to those private schools. Sometimes people who are in poorer communities do get a better education because they are smarter than those who are in wealthier communities. Sometimes schools do have a better education for the kids but the kids that understand things better will exceed more because like I said before it does not always matter about getting the right answer. Sometimes I also feel that it is the teachers way of teaching things because if you have a smart teacher and they are not really putting things in a persons perspective, then they will not understand it.
3."The teachers were very polite to the children, and the investigator heard no sarcasm, no nasty remarks, and few direct orders. The teachers never called the children "honey" or "dear" but always called them by name. The teachers were expected to be available before school, after school, and for part of their lunchtime to provide extra help if needed."
This quote shows dedication by the teacher because the teachers want to help kids more. I remember when I was in school some teachers really never took the time to stay after school for extra help or even after class. I feel that these are the types of teachers that have the cultural of power because the kids get to do what they want.This is a good way of having them learn because it is their own way of learning and they understand things in their own way.
Overall I thought that this article was eye opening because this was something that I will always remember. I feel that it does not matter you grow up, it matters the effort you put in and the way you understand things. I relate this to Delpit, because of the cultural of power. I wish that people would really look at the picture of things. I enjoyed reading about what Anyon had to say it was very influential.
1."In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
School is not all about getting good grades. I feel that school is bettering yourself and making sure you are ready for college. I feel that getting the right answers is not always a good thing because anyone can get the right answer and not know what is going on. Like I went to a high school where as I was leaving they cared more about understanding than getting the right answer, which is how things should be. I feel that people need to start understanding things better because they really cannot just get by in life getting the right answers if they did not know how to get them.
2."It's no surprise that schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities, or that they better prepare their students for desirable jobs. It may be shocking, however, to learn how vast the differences in schools are - not so much in resources as in teaching methods and philosophies of education"
I feel that this quote is true/false in certain ways because wealthier communities/people do go to better schools and they pay more money to go to those private schools. Sometimes people who are in poorer communities do get a better education because they are smarter than those who are in wealthier communities. Sometimes schools do have a better education for the kids but the kids that understand things better will exceed more because like I said before it does not always matter about getting the right answer. Sometimes I also feel that it is the teachers way of teaching things because if you have a smart teacher and they are not really putting things in a persons perspective, then they will not understand it.
3."The teachers were very polite to the children, and the investigator heard no sarcasm, no nasty remarks, and few direct orders. The teachers never called the children "honey" or "dear" but always called them by name. The teachers were expected to be available before school, after school, and for part of their lunchtime to provide extra help if needed."
This quote shows dedication by the teacher because the teachers want to help kids more. I remember when I was in school some teachers really never took the time to stay after school for extra help or even after class. I feel that these are the types of teachers that have the cultural of power because the kids get to do what they want.This is a good way of having them learn because it is their own way of learning and they understand things in their own way.
Overall I thought that this article was eye opening because this was something that I will always remember. I feel that it does not matter you grow up, it matters the effort you put in and the way you understand things. I relate this to Delpit, because of the cultural of power. I wish that people would really look at the picture of things. I enjoyed reading about what Anyon had to say it was very influential.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Elizabeth Weil: Teaching Boys and Girls Separately
1. "Scans of boys and girls brains over time also show they develop differently. Analyzing data from the largest pediatric neuro-imaging study to date-829 scans from 387 subject’s ages 3 to 27-researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health found that total cerebral volume peaks at 10.5 years in girls, four years earlier than in boys."
To me this quote stood out to me because when people usually compare boys and girls, it seems to be that boys are better than girls. I feel that girls can do anything a boy can do and with other readings they have the boys being superior to girls but in this reading, I feel that they are not judging a boy or girl; they are basically stating facts about scans that have been tested about boys and girls about their cerebral volume peaks. I feel that they do these tests all the time so I feel that these are right but not going against a certain gender.
2."One of Sax’s core arguments is that trying to teach a 5-year-old boy to read is as developmentally fraught as trying to teach a 3 ½-year-old girl and that such an exercise often leads to a kid hating school. This argument resonates with many teachers and parents, who long for the days when kindergarten meant learning how to stand in line for recess, not needing to complete phonics homework."
I feel that this argument Sax says is probably one of the reasons why boys and girls are separated because boys and girls or even anyone learn at a different level at different times. I feel that kids really need to learn things at a young age because these are the years where kids learn mostly everything they need in life. The parents and teachers are a big part of the kid’s life and they need to realize that they are the ones who have to set ground rules to make sure their kids get an education. Also these two people have big responsibilities in what they teach kids because if they don’t teach their kids when they are young they will never want to learn.
3."65 percent of boys complete high school in four years; 72 percent of girls do. Boys make up two-thirds of special-education students. They are 1.5 times more likely to be held back a grade and 2.5 times more likely to be given diagnoses of A.D.H.D."
From this I really like picking out statistics from this reading. I feel that from what I can see is sometimes when boys are in high school they tend to get frustrated and quit school. From what I can recall from high school more boys dropped out than girls did and I feel that girls like school more and sometimes from what these statistics say, boys just don’t have the patience’s to sit in high school all day. Also I think that most special education students are boys because one girl in class stated that she teaches a classroom full of all boys who are in special education. I feel that from what she said and my own experience it is true but there are also girls who are special education students.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Before reading this I never really knew that public schools separated boys and girls. I feel that it may be a good thing and a bad thing. From what I can tell from this reading is that girls learn faster than boys do but I feel that some boys can learn faster than girls. I also found interesting was that boys make up two thirds of special education. I relate this to my own experience because in high school there were a lot more boys than girls in special education and I question why this may be the way it is. I feel that this text is making girls seem smarter than guys but then I think to myself, how come all of the other text we read they have the boys being superior and above girls when in this text, girls learn faster than guys and are less likely to be diagnosed with A.D.H.D. Another thing I thought caught my eye was some of the things Sax said because he never was in a classroom before and I really got frustrated with him at times because I feel that you need to have the experience before you can really say you know something. Overall this was a good reading and it opened up my eyes to see what kinds of school setting they have for the kids.
To me this quote stood out to me because when people usually compare boys and girls, it seems to be that boys are better than girls. I feel that girls can do anything a boy can do and with other readings they have the boys being superior to girls but in this reading, I feel that they are not judging a boy or girl; they are basically stating facts about scans that have been tested about boys and girls about their cerebral volume peaks. I feel that they do these tests all the time so I feel that these are right but not going against a certain gender.
2."One of Sax’s core arguments is that trying to teach a 5-year-old boy to read is as developmentally fraught as trying to teach a 3 ½-year-old girl and that such an exercise often leads to a kid hating school. This argument resonates with many teachers and parents, who long for the days when kindergarten meant learning how to stand in line for recess, not needing to complete phonics homework."
I feel that this argument Sax says is probably one of the reasons why boys and girls are separated because boys and girls or even anyone learn at a different level at different times. I feel that kids really need to learn things at a young age because these are the years where kids learn mostly everything they need in life. The parents and teachers are a big part of the kid’s life and they need to realize that they are the ones who have to set ground rules to make sure their kids get an education. Also these two people have big responsibilities in what they teach kids because if they don’t teach their kids when they are young they will never want to learn.
3."65 percent of boys complete high school in four years; 72 percent of girls do. Boys make up two-thirds of special-education students. They are 1.5 times more likely to be held back a grade and 2.5 times more likely to be given diagnoses of A.D.H.D."
From this I really like picking out statistics from this reading. I feel that from what I can see is sometimes when boys are in high school they tend to get frustrated and quit school. From what I can recall from high school more boys dropped out than girls did and I feel that girls like school more and sometimes from what these statistics say, boys just don’t have the patience’s to sit in high school all day. Also I think that most special education students are boys because one girl in class stated that she teaches a classroom full of all boys who are in special education. I feel that from what she said and my own experience it is true but there are also girls who are special education students.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Before reading this I never really knew that public schools separated boys and girls. I feel that it may be a good thing and a bad thing. From what I can tell from this reading is that girls learn faster than boys do but I feel that some boys can learn faster than girls. I also found interesting was that boys make up two thirds of special education. I relate this to my own experience because in high school there were a lot more boys than girls in special education and I question why this may be the way it is. I feel that this text is making girls seem smarter than guys but then I think to myself, how come all of the other text we read they have the boys being superior and above girls when in this text, girls learn faster than guys and are less likely to be diagnosed with A.D.H.D. Another thing I thought caught my eye was some of the things Sax said because he never was in a classroom before and I really got frustrated with him at times because I feel that you need to have the experience before you can really say you know something. Overall this was a good reading and it opened up my eyes to see what kinds of school setting they have for the kids.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tim Wise "Between Barack and a Hard Place"
One point I found interesting that Time Wise talked about was how some one of a colored race may commit a crime, it absolutely does not mean people should judge. I feel that everyone is human and anyone can commit a crime and anyone who commits a crime should not be judges whether your black, white or whatever else, we are all humans and not perfect. I feel that people think African Americans are violent people which not every single African American is violent. I feel that people do target African Americans and it is not fair because I feel that they have done nothing wrong to have people judge against. I feel that these thoughts stay in people’s mind which caused racism against these people.
Another point Wise talked about was Barack Obama being the President of the United States saying that the U.S is in a post racial era. I feel that they are wrong because in readings that we read in class there were statics in Johnson stating about whites against blacks. One thing that was stated in the reading was about job interviews and committing crimes. In the reading and from what I learned I feel that whites do get more privileges than colored people because blacks do get discriminated because of the racism that gets displayed upon them. This is utterly wrong because I feel that blacks have never done anything wrong to have them be treated the way they are. I think that Wise really sees what is going on but some of the things he says I do not agree with him on.
Lastly the point he made about how minorities are not at fault and how white people view blacks through a lens of group pathology. This goes back to relating to a post racial society. I feel that what is in the past should remain in the past because things have changed over the years and I feel that things may get better but you never know.
Overall I thought this was a good video. What got me was when the podium had got privilege on it. I thought that said a lot because the whole time he was talking about white privilege and he really made a lot of good points throughout his speech. I do agree on some points that he made but this is a not a post racial society because of all the readings that were in class and the discussion we have. Everything that we have talked about connects to what we continue to talk about each and every class. I really enjoyed watching Wise’s speech because it opened up my eyes just like every talking point we do.
Another point Wise talked about was Barack Obama being the President of the United States saying that the U.S is in a post racial era. I feel that they are wrong because in readings that we read in class there were statics in Johnson stating about whites against blacks. One thing that was stated in the reading was about job interviews and committing crimes. In the reading and from what I learned I feel that whites do get more privileges than colored people because blacks do get discriminated because of the racism that gets displayed upon them. This is utterly wrong because I feel that blacks have never done anything wrong to have them be treated the way they are. I think that Wise really sees what is going on but some of the things he says I do not agree with him on.
Lastly the point he made about how minorities are not at fault and how white people view blacks through a lens of group pathology. This goes back to relating to a post racial society. I feel that what is in the past should remain in the past because things have changed over the years and I feel that things may get better but you never know.
Overall I thought this was a good video. What got me was when the podium had got privilege on it. I thought that said a lot because the whole time he was talking about white privilege and he really made a lot of good points throughout his speech. I do agree on some points that he made but this is a not a post racial society because of all the readings that were in class and the discussion we have. Everything that we have talked about connects to what we continue to talk about each and every class. I really enjoyed watching Wise’s speech because it opened up my eyes just like every talking point we do.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Misc. Post #1
Today’s presentation in class really sums up what we have been talking about so far in FNED. Everyone had different ideas about diversity and media which really opened up my eyes to see what other people saw. What I took out of these presentations was that although people portray different media ideas differently, when you really analysis things, it shows that the media has some unfair understandings. I feel after doing this project that kids should know about stereotypes, racism and gayness at such a young age because they really do understand these types of things and they base mostly everything that they do on what they see. Working on this project helped me in understanding what really goes on in today’s world. I also realized that being a child molds you into what media portrays as being a perfect person. In the project that I worked on in my group there was a dove video and the girl in the beginning was just a regular girl no makeup and has no be exposed to the media and by the end of the video she has makeup on, dressed like what celebrities wear. This is a good example of what media portrays people as. I am glad that I got to experience this project because this really opened up my eyes.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sixth Visit
March 26 was my sixth visit to my elementary school. When I got to the school I noticed that the other volunteer that I worked with was not there. I went to the office at 915 and went to the classroom at 930. When I walked in the classroom Mrs. B welcomed me and the kids that I worked with were excited to see me. As always I had a half hour to prepare what I was going to do with the kids and around 945 the other volunteer comes in and she did not seem herself. She was having a bad morning and you could tell that by the expression on her face. After she told me what was wrong I noticed that in the box there was a poem game for the kids to play and it seemed like really fun. As the kids separated for intervention, the kids brought me to the corner table and it was time to begin.
As I waited for the other girl to come from next door I filled out the papers on what I would be doing with the kids today. I decided to do words in a sentence, play a game where the students say if the words are real words or nonsense words and end with some reading. As the other girl came over, I decided to play a new game that I have never played with them before. What I had to do was put the poem in front of them but individual words were scattered around and they had to put the poem together by me reading it to them. They really got the hang of things because it was poems that kids know at the age we did humpty dumpty, and one two buckle my shoe. As we did this game, the other kids in the room started to sing humpty dumpty and one two buckle my shoe. Mrs. B looked over at me and smiled which mad e me smile because the other kids were getting involved with something I was just doing with my 3 kids. Another game I played was having the kids roll a cube and then put the letters together then have the kids told me if the words are real or nonsense. Every time I play that game they always would roll the cube off of the table and this time I would make sure that would not happen. I told the kids before we would play the game that if they did not keep the cube on the table then the game would end. The kids listen to me and they really followed the rules because this was one of their favorite games. I was glad they listened to me because it showed that I had control over them and they listened to me. After we played that game, we decided to read for the last 10 minutes. This whole time that we read, two of the three girls really made an effort in following along with the words and it showed me that they really wanted to learn. One of the girls always does not want to follow along and I feel like I have to spoon feed her the words and she gets distracted easily. It was time to go and I realized that next time I would be at the school; I would try and have the one girl focus more because the other girls do a great job in following along.
It was time for me to go to first grade and the other volunteer and I walked down together. She was telling me that she just got a new student to tutor and he is hard to control. Next time she is going to try and be stricter about things because this student really did not want to do anything that she gave them to do. When I walked into the classroom I noticed that one of the girls was missing and I only got to work with the boy and the girl. When I went to put down my folder, I noticed that the little boy got my box for me and it was so cute because it just barely reached the box. When he got the box it was time for us to begin. I decided that we would play 2 games because that’s all that Ms. W put in the box for me to do on Fridays. The first games that we played was to have each kid read a word to the other one and then have the person receiving the word to put a counter on a card which contained the sounds that were in the word. Last time we played this game the kids were having trouble with the word sounds but maybe this time it would be different. Both of the kids that were there were sounding out the word, it was more like segmenting the word. This time they were more into really sounding out the word instead of just guessing the possibilities the word could be. The only thing they had trouble with was putting the counter on the right word sound. I feel like the more practice they get, the better they will get at it. After we finished that game I decided to have them play a game where they have to make up words with certain letters in it. Since we played this game last time they really were catching on to it but the letters that we did not get to last time, they struggled with it because they were fairly new to it. I have noticed with both the first graders and the kindergartners that with the more practice they get, the better they are.
It was time for me to go and it was time for the kids to go to lunch. Something that I never thought would happen between such young kids happen. After I got my log sheet signed by the teacher the girl that I had in group came up to me and told me that the boy would not give her a fruit snack because she was black and only white people could have them. I felt like this was the cultural of power because only the white people are superior and the colored are minority. I connected it to Delpit because she talks about the cultural of power and the colored being a minority. When I saw the boy I told the boy to say he was sorry to her and when he did, they both gave each other a hug and I left with good terms. As always I am excited to go back and even though there is no class next week, I can’t wait to see them again.
As I waited for the other girl to come from next door I filled out the papers on what I would be doing with the kids today. I decided to do words in a sentence, play a game where the students say if the words are real words or nonsense words and end with some reading. As the other girl came over, I decided to play a new game that I have never played with them before. What I had to do was put the poem in front of them but individual words were scattered around and they had to put the poem together by me reading it to them. They really got the hang of things because it was poems that kids know at the age we did humpty dumpty, and one two buckle my shoe. As we did this game, the other kids in the room started to sing humpty dumpty and one two buckle my shoe. Mrs. B looked over at me and smiled which mad e me smile because the other kids were getting involved with something I was just doing with my 3 kids. Another game I played was having the kids roll a cube and then put the letters together then have the kids told me if the words are real or nonsense. Every time I play that game they always would roll the cube off of the table and this time I would make sure that would not happen. I told the kids before we would play the game that if they did not keep the cube on the table then the game would end. The kids listen to me and they really followed the rules because this was one of their favorite games. I was glad they listened to me because it showed that I had control over them and they listened to me. After we played that game, we decided to read for the last 10 minutes. This whole time that we read, two of the three girls really made an effort in following along with the words and it showed me that they really wanted to learn. One of the girls always does not want to follow along and I feel like I have to spoon feed her the words and she gets distracted easily. It was time to go and I realized that next time I would be at the school; I would try and have the one girl focus more because the other girls do a great job in following along.
It was time for me to go to first grade and the other volunteer and I walked down together. She was telling me that she just got a new student to tutor and he is hard to control. Next time she is going to try and be stricter about things because this student really did not want to do anything that she gave them to do. When I walked into the classroom I noticed that one of the girls was missing and I only got to work with the boy and the girl. When I went to put down my folder, I noticed that the little boy got my box for me and it was so cute because it just barely reached the box. When he got the box it was time for us to begin. I decided that we would play 2 games because that’s all that Ms. W put in the box for me to do on Fridays. The first games that we played was to have each kid read a word to the other one and then have the person receiving the word to put a counter on a card which contained the sounds that were in the word. Last time we played this game the kids were having trouble with the word sounds but maybe this time it would be different. Both of the kids that were there were sounding out the word, it was more like segmenting the word. This time they were more into really sounding out the word instead of just guessing the possibilities the word could be. The only thing they had trouble with was putting the counter on the right word sound. I feel like the more practice they get, the better they will get at it. After we finished that game I decided to have them play a game where they have to make up words with certain letters in it. Since we played this game last time they really were catching on to it but the letters that we did not get to last time, they struggled with it because they were fairly new to it. I have noticed with both the first graders and the kindergartners that with the more practice they get, the better they are.
It was time for me to go and it was time for the kids to go to lunch. Something that I never thought would happen between such young kids happen. After I got my log sheet signed by the teacher the girl that I had in group came up to me and told me that the boy would not give her a fruit snack because she was black and only white people could have them. I felt like this was the cultural of power because only the white people are superior and the colored are minority. I connected it to Delpit because she talks about the cultural of power and the colored being a minority. When I saw the boy I told the boy to say he was sorry to her and when he did, they both gave each other a hug and I left with good terms. As always I am excited to go back and even though there is no class next week, I can’t wait to see them again.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Talking Points #5: Kahne and Westheimer: In the Service of What?
Kahne and Westheimer: In the Service of What?
Christina DiPalma
Quotes:
1. “Just as the difference between change and charity may provide an important conceptual distinction for those analyzing service learning curricula, it is helpful to distinguish the moral, political, and intellectual goals that motivate those who support service learning.”(page 5)
This quote stood out to me because although the words change and charity may seem similar, they really are not. I realized that change morally is caring about a certain service learning goal where as charity is giving, which is really not caring and putting time into the goal. Politically, charity is a civic duty whereas change is a social reconstruction where they are trying to fix things because they care about it. After reading that quote I look at this differently because if I believe in a certain goal then I would want to change it instead of charity because caring is more important and it means more than giving and not getting involved physically.Intellectually change is an experience that people who give to charity will not be able has a warm heartfelt experience that changes someone’s life.
2. “Educators who emphasize change would clearly also value the educational benefits of this approach. To tap into the full power of service activities, however, these practitioners would want to combine critical inquiry with action.”
Teachers who really talk about change should value the educational benefits. I feel that they should bring change into their lessons because I feel that if they are passionate about teaching, then they will do it. They will do it because they care and they will take action into what they do and I feel that caring is more important than giving; it’s the experience and or activities that make it worthwhile. When I am a teacher, activities that I prepare will be about change/caring and it will be all about wanting to do something and not giving.
3.“The experiential and interpersonal components of service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of “otherness”, that often separates students-particularly privileged students-from those in need. In doing so, the potential to develop caring relationships created.”
With this quote you start to see that a relationship about caring has been created with you and the “other”. It does not matter what or where each of you came from because everyone is different and what really matters is for everyone to get along. We are all human beings, we are not perfect and it should not matter what we are but who we are. Being separated into privileged and not privilege is unfair because we are all equal as being humans. Sometimes I wonder how all of this got started because it is not a good feeling putting someone down.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall I found this to be very interesting but not one of my favorites. Although it states good points between change and charity, I feel that plays a big roll into things that people do. I never really looked at change and charity as change being about caring and charity being about giving. It opened my eyes to see that when people give it really does not mean they are in the experience of changing a certain goal which now I know that the people who are about change, are the people who care. Other stuff this article talks about is that the relationships created from caring from the “otherness”. I have noticed that every reading that we have had connects to each other in one way or another and it is always nice to see what different people say about certain situations. One question I would like to know is where all of the “otherness” came from and judging people based on what they are instead of the person they are.
Christina DiPalma
Quotes:
1. “Just as the difference between change and charity may provide an important conceptual distinction for those analyzing service learning curricula, it is helpful to distinguish the moral, political, and intellectual goals that motivate those who support service learning.”(page 5)
This quote stood out to me because although the words change and charity may seem similar, they really are not. I realized that change morally is caring about a certain service learning goal where as charity is giving, which is really not caring and putting time into the goal. Politically, charity is a civic duty whereas change is a social reconstruction where they are trying to fix things because they care about it. After reading that quote I look at this differently because if I believe in a certain goal then I would want to change it instead of charity because caring is more important and it means more than giving and not getting involved physically.Intellectually change is an experience that people who give to charity will not be able has a warm heartfelt experience that changes someone’s life.
2. “Educators who emphasize change would clearly also value the educational benefits of this approach. To tap into the full power of service activities, however, these practitioners would want to combine critical inquiry with action.”
Teachers who really talk about change should value the educational benefits. I feel that they should bring change into their lessons because I feel that if they are passionate about teaching, then they will do it. They will do it because they care and they will take action into what they do and I feel that caring is more important than giving; it’s the experience and or activities that make it worthwhile. When I am a teacher, activities that I prepare will be about change/caring and it will be all about wanting to do something and not giving.
3.“The experiential and interpersonal components of service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of “otherness”, that often separates students-particularly privileged students-from those in need. In doing so, the potential to develop caring relationships created.”
With this quote you start to see that a relationship about caring has been created with you and the “other”. It does not matter what or where each of you came from because everyone is different and what really matters is for everyone to get along. We are all human beings, we are not perfect and it should not matter what we are but who we are. Being separated into privileged and not privilege is unfair because we are all equal as being humans. Sometimes I wonder how all of this got started because it is not a good feeling putting someone down.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share
Overall I found this to be very interesting but not one of my favorites. Although it states good points between change and charity, I feel that plays a big roll into things that people do. I never really looked at change and charity as change being about caring and charity being about giving. It opened my eyes to see that when people give it really does not mean they are in the experience of changing a certain goal which now I know that the people who are about change, are the people who care. Other stuff this article talks about is that the relationships created from caring from the “otherness”. I have noticed that every reading that we have had connects to each other in one way or another and it is always nice to see what different people say about certain situations. One question I would like to know is where all of the “otherness” came from and judging people based on what they are instead of the person they are.
My Fifth Visit
March 19 was my fifth visit to my elementary school and I was excited to go. Since last week went good, I knew this week would be better. Like always I was at the school at 915 and I went up to the school and rang the buzzer. When I went into the office to sign myself in, I hear the principal yelling at a student for putting his class’s attendance in the wrong spot. I found that maybe the principal should have had a different approach with the student because of the little mistake the boy made. When I walked down to my kindergarten classroom I saw Ms. W but, she was talking to someone, so I decided that I would talk to her about last week when she would come see us in the class. When I went to the classroom the other volunteer looked like she just got there. As usual she and I sat down and she was telling me that she wanted to talk to Ms. W about having more challenging work for the first graders. 10 o’clock rolled around and it was time for me to go to my students.
As usual I always start with segmenting. I only segmented with them for 10 minutes because they were really getting through the words fast. Transitioning over from segmenting to the game, Ms. W came over and she asked if everything was alright with the students from kindergarten and first grade. I told her that I felt that the kids need to have more challenging stuff and come to find out she just put new things in there and she said that the segmenting of words could stop because she said they already know that stuff.I was happy to hear that and after talking to her. I went back to playing a game with the kindergartners and they were really getting the hang of pointing out which words were real or nonsense words which I felt that next week I needed to introduce a new game to them. After the game we read a book called the tin man and they were reading wonderfully. All of the kids were following along with their fingers and they were pausing at each punctuation. At the end of the session I told them that they did a good job and to keep up the good work.
It was time to go to my first grade class and I wanted to know what Ms. W put into the box for me to teach the kids. When I walked in the kids were happy and I noticed that they did not have snacks so maybe they will be calmer than if they were to have snacks. As I brought the box over to the table I noticed that the things she had prepared for me were games. The games that were there seemed more challenging. I happened to be right these games really challenged them and they were have trouble with oy, oi, and ow sounds because they basically sound the same. The first game was having each of the kids having what looked like a bingo card in front of them and each student told another student the word and they had to place a counter on the square containing the sounds that were in the word. This gave them some trouble because some of the sounds sounded like other sounds and that where some students messed up a little but I feel that if they get the hang of it, they will be able to become more equipped with it. The second game we played was having the students make up words that have a vowel and the letter r. What they had to do was thinking of words that could fit with the vowel and the letter r. It seemed that they were struggling so I decided give them a letter and they could finish the rest of the word. This game was also challenging because it seemed hard for them to put letters together to come up with words. I feel that their favorite part of the game was writing the final word into stars on the other piece of paper. Once time was up both of the girl were very happy and they both ran up and gave me a hug. They said they were excited for next week and then they left for lunch and I was ready to leave.
Overall it was a good day and I was happy with everything except for the student that the principal was yelling at. It really bugged me when I left because he should have had a different approach with the student. I am excited for next time and I enjoy every moment I have at that school.
As usual I always start with segmenting. I only segmented with them for 10 minutes because they were really getting through the words fast. Transitioning over from segmenting to the game, Ms. W came over and she asked if everything was alright with the students from kindergarten and first grade. I told her that I felt that the kids need to have more challenging stuff and come to find out she just put new things in there and she said that the segmenting of words could stop because she said they already know that stuff.I was happy to hear that and after talking to her. I went back to playing a game with the kindergartners and they were really getting the hang of pointing out which words were real or nonsense words which I felt that next week I needed to introduce a new game to them. After the game we read a book called the tin man and they were reading wonderfully. All of the kids were following along with their fingers and they were pausing at each punctuation. At the end of the session I told them that they did a good job and to keep up the good work.
It was time to go to my first grade class and I wanted to know what Ms. W put into the box for me to teach the kids. When I walked in the kids were happy and I noticed that they did not have snacks so maybe they will be calmer than if they were to have snacks. As I brought the box over to the table I noticed that the things she had prepared for me were games. The games that were there seemed more challenging. I happened to be right these games really challenged them and they were have trouble with oy, oi, and ow sounds because they basically sound the same. The first game was having each of the kids having what looked like a bingo card in front of them and each student told another student the word and they had to place a counter on the square containing the sounds that were in the word. This gave them some trouble because some of the sounds sounded like other sounds and that where some students messed up a little but I feel that if they get the hang of it, they will be able to become more equipped with it. The second game we played was having the students make up words that have a vowel and the letter r. What they had to do was thinking of words that could fit with the vowel and the letter r. It seemed that they were struggling so I decided give them a letter and they could finish the rest of the word. This game was also challenging because it seemed hard for them to put letters together to come up with words. I feel that their favorite part of the game was writing the final word into stars on the other piece of paper. Once time was up both of the girl were very happy and they both ran up and gave me a hug. They said they were excited for next week and then they left for lunch and I was ready to leave.
Overall it was a good day and I was happy with everything except for the student that the principal was yelling at. It really bugged me when I left because he should have had a different approach with the student. I am excited for next time and I enjoy every moment I have at that school.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
My Fourth Visit
March 12 was my fourth visit to my elementary school and this time I was not running late. I got at the school at 915 and I walked into the office to sign myself in. I remembered that Ms. W would not be there so I decided to head down to my kindergarten class at approximately 925. While I was walking down, the other volunteer that was in my class was outside the door to wait for me since we both usually walk inside the class together. We both had a half hour to prepare what we would be doing today. It took us around 15 minutes to decide what we would be doing so we ended up talking about what goes on with our students. Once 10 o’clock rolled around it was time for me to meet up with my students.
When I went over to the table two of the girls were ready to learn but there was this one girl who was tired and it really seemed like she did not want to do anything. Maybe things would change when I would start, but I was wrong. Since I always start with segmenting words it seemed like she really did want to do anything. When I realized that, I decided to tell her that if she would not participate then we would not play the game and read the remainder of the time. After I told her that she participated in everything that I did for her. I decided that since she participated and did a good job with segmenting, that I would play a game telling which words were real or nonsense. I feel that really enjoy this game and they get better with this as we go on. I was really happy with everything that they did with the game but when it came to the reading that when the problems hit. The one girl who was extremely tired really did want to focus with reading. I told her to try and follow along with her finger and to pause at each punctuation, etc. Once they started to get the hang of things, I realized that it was time to go teach my first grade students. I felt sadden in a way because they were starting to really slowly follow the words in the book and sound it out. I was very happy with them and I am excited for next week because of the great job they had done.
It was time for me to leave my kindergarten class and go to the first grade class. I really enjoyed going there because the kids are livelier than the other kids and every time I leave there I always have a smile on my face. When I walked in the kids were excited to see me and I was also excited to see them. When I sat down, I started off with segmenting and I found it very boring. I felt that they were not being challenged enough with it. After the segmenting I decided to read a short story and they were good at that too. I started to feel like that the stuff that Ms. W put in my box was not at all challenging for the kids. In my head, I realized that I had to talk to Ms. W because to me the kids knew everything that I was throwing at them.After the kids finished both the segmenting and the book, it was time to play a game and they were excited about it. We played the game, and before I left the kids told me that the things we did were easy and I responded by saying that these things are easy for them and I would talk to Ms. W for them.
It was time for me to go and I had a lot of good thought in my mind. The kindergartners were getting the hang of things and the first graders wanted to be challenged more. I realized that next time I will be talking to Ms. W about the kids and that next time I will get the kids to get where they were supposed to be.
When I went over to the table two of the girls were ready to learn but there was this one girl who was tired and it really seemed like she did not want to do anything. Maybe things would change when I would start, but I was wrong. Since I always start with segmenting words it seemed like she really did want to do anything. When I realized that, I decided to tell her that if she would not participate then we would not play the game and read the remainder of the time. After I told her that she participated in everything that I did for her. I decided that since she participated and did a good job with segmenting, that I would play a game telling which words were real or nonsense. I feel that really enjoy this game and they get better with this as we go on. I was really happy with everything that they did with the game but when it came to the reading that when the problems hit. The one girl who was extremely tired really did want to focus with reading. I told her to try and follow along with her finger and to pause at each punctuation, etc. Once they started to get the hang of things, I realized that it was time to go teach my first grade students. I felt sadden in a way because they were starting to really slowly follow the words in the book and sound it out. I was very happy with them and I am excited for next week because of the great job they had done.
It was time for me to leave my kindergarten class and go to the first grade class. I really enjoyed going there because the kids are livelier than the other kids and every time I leave there I always have a smile on my face. When I walked in the kids were excited to see me and I was also excited to see them. When I sat down, I started off with segmenting and I found it very boring. I felt that they were not being challenged enough with it. After the segmenting I decided to read a short story and they were good at that too. I started to feel like that the stuff that Ms. W put in my box was not at all challenging for the kids. In my head, I realized that I had to talk to Ms. W because to me the kids knew everything that I was throwing at them.After the kids finished both the segmenting and the book, it was time to play a game and they were excited about it. We played the game, and before I left the kids told me that the things we did were easy and I responded by saying that these things are easy for them and I would talk to Ms. W for them.
It was time for me to go and I had a lot of good thought in my mind. The kindergartners were getting the hang of things and the first graders wanted to be challenged more. I realized that next time I will be talking to Ms. W about the kids and that next time I will get the kids to get where they were supposed to be.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
My Third Visit
March 5 was my third visit to my elementary school and I was running late. I woke up late and I did not know if I would make it there on time and to top it all off I ended up sleeping at my house in Warwick the night before. I left my house around 900 and I had followed where my gps was taking me. As I looked at the time it would take me to get there I had a sigh of relief because it was only 10 minutes away from my house. I ended up getting into the school and situated around 925 and I knew next time that I had to be more responsible in waking up and getting ready and out on the road before 9. As I prepared for what I was going to do me and the other girl that was in the class room with me were talking about how things went last week and she said she is struggling with her kindergartners because they were shy kids but I told her to stay positive and that things will get better. 10 o’clock rolled around and it was time for me to go over to the table in the corner and begin tutoring the kids.
As the kids met me at the table they seemed happy to see me again and this week I decided to try and segment, read and play one of the games. The kids got better segmenting as we went on and we started to get through segmenting words faster than I thought. As I was segmenting with the kids, out of nowhere I hear the teacher’s aid stating to the kids in a stern voice that they really should know the sounds of letters by now. Hearing her really brought me out of my comfort zone but then I realized that the teacher is trying to get the kids where they are supposed to be and the kids need to really focus when they are at school. As went on tutoring the kids, I started to feel more comfortable and I started to play the game with them. The games consisted of rolling a dice with different letters on it, putting the letters together and then have the kids tell me if it’s a real word or a nonsense word. The kids really enjoyed it because they were all getting involved with the game. There was about ten minutes left with intervention and I decided to read a little bit of the book that I read with them last week. I decided to start from the beginning with the book to see if they remembered anything from last week and they really did not remember. Only one girl really focused on looking at the words and sounding them out. As time was ending, it was time for me to say goodbye and go on to the first grade class.
When I went out in the hallway, Ms. W was out there and as we walked down the hallway she asked us how the tutoring went. I had told her about the teacher yelling at the kids and she told me that it’s not so much yelling it’s more of letting the kids know that they need to understand this stuff now before it will get harder for them to learn. I was pretty excited to go to the first grade class because I really enjoyed going there last week because the kids really wanted to learn. When I walked in Ms. R welcomed me and I walked over to the three kids to begin tutoring them. As always I started to segment first and they started to fly by ever word I was throwing out at them, so I decided that it was time to actually read more of the book that we looked at last week. I was really skeptical on reading because I was not sure at what level they were at, but I decided to read. As each kid was reading they did a wonderful job. They got through half of the book and I decided to stop there because I remember Ms. W telling us that not to get too far into the book in the first week of reading. There was 10 minutes left so I decided to play a game where the kids had to look at two pictures and they had to find the letters of one word, then look at the other picture and see what letter they had to change. They continued playing the game till time was up and the kids helped me put the game away back into the envelope. I told them thank you and they all gave me hug.
The kids went back to the correct classroom and when the door opened it was the girl that I met the first week and she came running and gave me a hug. After that I said bye and met Ms. W out in the hallway. She told us she has a district meeting next week and therefore she will not be in the building. That means I am on my own.
As the kids met me at the table they seemed happy to see me again and this week I decided to try and segment, read and play one of the games. The kids got better segmenting as we went on and we started to get through segmenting words faster than I thought. As I was segmenting with the kids, out of nowhere I hear the teacher’s aid stating to the kids in a stern voice that they really should know the sounds of letters by now. Hearing her really brought me out of my comfort zone but then I realized that the teacher is trying to get the kids where they are supposed to be and the kids need to really focus when they are at school. As went on tutoring the kids, I started to feel more comfortable and I started to play the game with them. The games consisted of rolling a dice with different letters on it, putting the letters together and then have the kids tell me if it’s a real word or a nonsense word. The kids really enjoyed it because they were all getting involved with the game. There was about ten minutes left with intervention and I decided to read a little bit of the book that I read with them last week. I decided to start from the beginning with the book to see if they remembered anything from last week and they really did not remember. Only one girl really focused on looking at the words and sounding them out. As time was ending, it was time for me to say goodbye and go on to the first grade class.
When I went out in the hallway, Ms. W was out there and as we walked down the hallway she asked us how the tutoring went. I had told her about the teacher yelling at the kids and she told me that it’s not so much yelling it’s more of letting the kids know that they need to understand this stuff now before it will get harder for them to learn. I was pretty excited to go to the first grade class because I really enjoyed going there last week because the kids really wanted to learn. When I walked in Ms. R welcomed me and I walked over to the three kids to begin tutoring them. As always I started to segment first and they started to fly by ever word I was throwing out at them, so I decided that it was time to actually read more of the book that we looked at last week. I was really skeptical on reading because I was not sure at what level they were at, but I decided to read. As each kid was reading they did a wonderful job. They got through half of the book and I decided to stop there because I remember Ms. W telling us that not to get too far into the book in the first week of reading. There was 10 minutes left so I decided to play a game where the kids had to look at two pictures and they had to find the letters of one word, then look at the other picture and see what letter they had to change. They continued playing the game till time was up and the kids helped me put the game away back into the envelope. I told them thank you and they all gave me hug.
The kids went back to the correct classroom and when the door opened it was the girl that I met the first week and she came running and gave me a hug. After that I said bye and met Ms. W out in the hallway. She told us she has a district meeting next week and therefore she will not be in the building. That means I am on my own.
Monday, March 15, 2010
My Second Visit
On February 26, was my second visit to my elementary school. I was very excited to go back because when I got to observe the week before I had gotten excited to return again. I pulled into the school around 910 and I walked up to the building and pressed the buzzer to let myself in the building. Once again I had to go to the office to sign myself in into the white binder and then I was off to see Ms. W. As I walking up the stairs I was very anxious because today I got to actually meet the kids I would be working with for the remainder of my visits. As I walked into the room with the other people that were there too, we all waited for Ms. W to come in and tell us what we would be doing.
When Ms. W walked in she had a smile of her face because she was excited to have us work with the kids. She told us the names that we would be working with for both kindergarten and first grade and as she was giving me the names of the kindergarten class, she told me a story about one of the girls that I would be working with.She told me that she came to America with her and her family from a Bermuda refugee camp. Then she went on to tell me that everyday she wears a hat because while the family was in he camp, they would shave their heads due to severe lice they would get. Since coming to America, her family still shaves her head because they still think that she has lice. After hearing this it really did not matter what kind of person I was dealing with because I decided to go in with an open mind and decided that I would not judge before I went into the room. After she told me and the other volunteers the names of the students, she then went over on what kind of tutoring we would be doing with the kids. Our schedule each day was go to our kindergarten classroom promptly at 930 and prepare what we would be doing that day for a half hour, then go tutor he kindergartners till 1030 and walk on down to the first grade classroom and tutor them till 11. She trained us for about 15 minutes then she brought us to our classrooms.
When I went to the kindergarten classroom, the three kids that I would be tutoring were waiting for me. Mrs. B told me to to to a table in the corner with the kids that had name tags with the letter B. (I was teaching these kids different things compared to the other volunteer)The kids has huge smiles on their faces and they seemed delighted to see me. I would have 30 minutes with the students so I decided to segment words with them for at least 10 minutes, then play a game or read a story. Ms. W told us that she would like us to spend some time reading with the kids because they really need to start understanding what they are learning with the segmenting of words. On this day I decided to segment and they were really good at it because the teacher does this alot one girl had mentioned to me. After segmenting I decided to read for the remainder of the time because of what Ms. W wanted us to accomplish with the kids. Once the half hour was up, the kids said thank you to me and they were very happy at what we did that day.
As I walked down to my first grade class, I was nervous because last time I went there I really did not talk to any of the kids except for one girl, but I knew she was not in my group so I had to be prepared to meet new kids. When I walked in the classroom, Ms. R said welcome back and she brought me over to the kids. I was teaching two girls and one boy. They looked really happy and as I sat down, the two girls said I was pretty and I said thank you and out of nowhere the little boy says me too. After all that went down, it was time to begin. It was hard for me to begin with them because it was snack time for them and they were so excited to eat. Once I started, I noticed that they really were not starting to pay attention, so I told them that they had to participate with me before they could continue having their snack time. Once I told the that, we started to segment multiple words at once. After that we read a little bit from a more complex book than I read with the kindergartners. It was around 11 and it was time for me to go. Before I left the two girls came up to me and gave me a hug with a thank you.
When I walked out into the hall way Ms. W was waiting for all of the other tutors to come in the hallway and she told us that we would not be meeting with her and to go straight to the kindergarten classroom to get everything set up and prepared. When I left I was so excited because I could not wait to return again next time.
When Ms. W walked in she had a smile of her face because she was excited to have us work with the kids. She told us the names that we would be working with for both kindergarten and first grade and as she was giving me the names of the kindergarten class, she told me a story about one of the girls that I would be working with.She told me that she came to America with her and her family from a Bermuda refugee camp. Then she went on to tell me that everyday she wears a hat because while the family was in he camp, they would shave their heads due to severe lice they would get. Since coming to America, her family still shaves her head because they still think that she has lice. After hearing this it really did not matter what kind of person I was dealing with because I decided to go in with an open mind and decided that I would not judge before I went into the room. After she told me and the other volunteers the names of the students, she then went over on what kind of tutoring we would be doing with the kids. Our schedule each day was go to our kindergarten classroom promptly at 930 and prepare what we would be doing that day for a half hour, then go tutor he kindergartners till 1030 and walk on down to the first grade classroom and tutor them till 11. She trained us for about 15 minutes then she brought us to our classrooms.
When I went to the kindergarten classroom, the three kids that I would be tutoring were waiting for me. Mrs. B told me to to to a table in the corner with the kids that had name tags with the letter B. (I was teaching these kids different things compared to the other volunteer)The kids has huge smiles on their faces and they seemed delighted to see me. I would have 30 minutes with the students so I decided to segment words with them for at least 10 minutes, then play a game or read a story. Ms. W told us that she would like us to spend some time reading with the kids because they really need to start understanding what they are learning with the segmenting of words. On this day I decided to segment and they were really good at it because the teacher does this alot one girl had mentioned to me. After segmenting I decided to read for the remainder of the time because of what Ms. W wanted us to accomplish with the kids. Once the half hour was up, the kids said thank you to me and they were very happy at what we did that day.
As I walked down to my first grade class, I was nervous because last time I went there I really did not talk to any of the kids except for one girl, but I knew she was not in my group so I had to be prepared to meet new kids. When I walked in the classroom, Ms. R said welcome back and she brought me over to the kids. I was teaching two girls and one boy. They looked really happy and as I sat down, the two girls said I was pretty and I said thank you and out of nowhere the little boy says me too. After all that went down, it was time to begin. It was hard for me to begin with them because it was snack time for them and they were so excited to eat. Once I started, I noticed that they really were not starting to pay attention, so I told them that they had to participate with me before they could continue having their snack time. Once I told the that, we started to segment multiple words at once. After that we read a little bit from a more complex book than I read with the kindergartners. It was around 11 and it was time for me to go. Before I left the two girls came up to me and gave me a hug with a thank you.
When I walked out into the hall way Ms. W was waiting for all of the other tutors to come in the hallway and she told us that we would not be meeting with her and to go straight to the kindergarten classroom to get everything set up and prepared. When I left I was so excited because I could not wait to return again next time.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Linda Christensen:Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us
"I realized these problems weren't just in cartoons. They were in everything - every magazine I picked up, every television show I watched, every billboard I passed by on the street."
When I read this quote I really thought about how stereotypes are always around us. People always judge each other based on their backgrounds, what they look like, or how they act. This is like SCWAMP because it tells us the certain type of people that do not get judged no matter what they do in life. I feel like stereotypes have calmed down over the years but they obviously still do exist because of the issues that we have today.
"Turning off the cartoon doesn't stop the sexism and racism. They can't escape, and now that they've started analyzing cartoons, they can't stop analyzing the rest of the world."
As I read this quote, all I kept thinking was that it was so true. These issues have been around for so long that these issues will always be around us. Even though over the years I feel that people have resolved some part of these issues but there is still racism and sexism. Although some people do not see this issues, they really have not opened up their eyes to see that this around them no matter if they do not talk about the issue.
"When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated."
This is so true because in reality we are not reading in between the lines of what stories are really saying. We think we are reading these nice stories to kids but in reality we are reading them something so they can be manipulated to believe that something is true when its not. These books are how children are going to thing how the world runs and that information stays with them until they find out that everything they learned is false.
I found that this was one of the best readings because this opened my eyes the most. I never realized that issues can lie even in the last place I would think of, a children's book. I have learned that what you tell a child when they are young something, that they will have that knowledge with them and they will think that it was life is when technically it is not. All of the issues that are talked about in this reading still occurs today but I feel as though it is not that big of a deal because people have calmed down about some of the issues.
When I read this quote I really thought about how stereotypes are always around us. People always judge each other based on their backgrounds, what they look like, or how they act. This is like SCWAMP because it tells us the certain type of people that do not get judged no matter what they do in life. I feel like stereotypes have calmed down over the years but they obviously still do exist because of the issues that we have today.
"Turning off the cartoon doesn't stop the sexism and racism. They can't escape, and now that they've started analyzing cartoons, they can't stop analyzing the rest of the world."
As I read this quote, all I kept thinking was that it was so true. These issues have been around for so long that these issues will always be around us. Even though over the years I feel that people have resolved some part of these issues but there is still racism and sexism. Although some people do not see this issues, they really have not opened up their eyes to see that this around them no matter if they do not talk about the issue.
"When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated."
This is so true because in reality we are not reading in between the lines of what stories are really saying. We think we are reading these nice stories to kids but in reality we are reading them something so they can be manipulated to believe that something is true when its not. These books are how children are going to thing how the world runs and that information stays with them until they find out that everything they learned is false.
I found that this was one of the best readings because this opened my eyes the most. I never realized that issues can lie even in the last place I would think of, a children's book. I have learned that what you tell a child when they are young something, that they will have that knowledge with them and they will think that it was life is when technically it is not. All of the issues that are talked about in this reading still occurs today but I feel as though it is not that big of a deal because people have calmed down about some of the issues.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Dennis Carlson: Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community
1.“I want to suggest that public schools may play an important role in helping build a new democratic, multicultural community, one in which sexual identity (like other markers of difference including class, gender, and race) is recognized, in which inequities are challenged, and where dialogue across difference replaces silencing ad invisibility practices.”(page 223)
This quote stood out to me because I feel that if people are not part of the valued culture than they are not as valued as much. I feel it does not matter what type of person you are, we are all human but society makes people who are not the considered basically part of scwamp less than what they really are, especially gays.I relate this to Johnson because in a way Johnson said about how males who are heterosexual are the ones who succeed and the others really do not matter.
2."Popular culture may represent identity, but identity also is represented in corporeal form, as individuals actively "live" their identities and make these identities visible in their everyday relations with others. Identity formation in this sense involves several processes."(page 244)
I felt when I first looked at this quote I thought it was very true. I feel that some people really cannot live their lives and your true identity in a way does involve several processes. I feel that only certain people make their identities visible because of the ways things are in society. Certain people cannot be themselves because of society having the cultural of power and how Delpit described it as being less valued than everyone else.
3."One thing we can conclude about the emerging shape of community in America is that because it is more fragmented, it is becoming more difficult to construct a "public"curriculum that as broad-based support."(page 249)
This is true because the shape of community in America has become more fragmented. I feel that it is becoming more difficult to construct in a way a public curriculum that is broad based support because of society today. Everyone is different from everyone else and the support may happen but it might not depending on the type of person you are or where you came from. This really has not been successful however, none of the social movements on the political have left.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
This reading to me really connected to other readings because this talks about the gayness in communities. I feel that you should not be judge on the type of person but the person itself. I really think that people do judge if your gay, lesbian and so forth. I feel that it was eye opening to me because it shows the inequality that is in our society without really noticing it. I feel that celebrities are gay and what not and people look at that as the same as people like you and me. People who are gay really cannot be themselves because they do get judged on how they act and basically anything they do because of their gayness. Society really needs to stop putting a bad image on gays, they are human just like everyone else.
This quote stood out to me because I feel that if people are not part of the valued culture than they are not as valued as much. I feel it does not matter what type of person you are, we are all human but society makes people who are not the considered basically part of scwamp less than what they really are, especially gays.I relate this to Johnson because in a way Johnson said about how males who are heterosexual are the ones who succeed and the others really do not matter.
2."Popular culture may represent identity, but identity also is represented in corporeal form, as individuals actively "live" their identities and make these identities visible in their everyday relations with others. Identity formation in this sense involves several processes."(page 244)
I felt when I first looked at this quote I thought it was very true. I feel that some people really cannot live their lives and your true identity in a way does involve several processes. I feel that only certain people make their identities visible because of the ways things are in society. Certain people cannot be themselves because of society having the cultural of power and how Delpit described it as being less valued than everyone else.
3."One thing we can conclude about the emerging shape of community in America is that because it is more fragmented, it is becoming more difficult to construct a "public"curriculum that as broad-based support."(page 249)
This is true because the shape of community in America has become more fragmented. I feel that it is becoming more difficult to construct in a way a public curriculum that is broad based support because of society today. Everyone is different from everyone else and the support may happen but it might not depending on the type of person you are or where you came from. This really has not been successful however, none of the social movements on the political have left.
Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
This reading to me really connected to other readings because this talks about the gayness in communities. I feel that you should not be judge on the type of person but the person itself. I really think that people do judge if your gay, lesbian and so forth. I feel that it was eye opening to me because it shows the inequality that is in our society without really noticing it. I feel that celebrities are gay and what not and people look at that as the same as people like you and me. People who are gay really cannot be themselves because they do get judged on how they act and basically anything they do because of their gayness. Society really needs to stop putting a bad image on gays, they are human just like everyone else.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Richard Rodriguez: Aria
1."An accident of geography sent me to a school where all my classmates were white, may be children of doctors and lawyers and business executives."
This quote stood out to me because I feel that the author feels like he is alone because he did not come from a high life with people who succeeded in his family. I feel that this quote shows that he is the minority, but if you really think about it,blacks are the minority in any environment. The whites are to said to be successful and the author I feel, thinks that he is not good enough to be in the same school as whites. Also, I feel that the author thinks that whites are more successful,but there are blacks that can do anything whites can do.
2. "I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds.
This quote stands out to me because I feel that the author is not happy with his success from the obstacles that he had to face to get to where he is now. I feel that his family was not there for him because his family conveyed the intimacy through private sounds. His family may have been there for him, but the physical aspect does not get noticed to him. I feel that the author should be happy no matter what but the support from loved ones makes people who become successful, happier.
3."I would dishonor those I have loved and those I love now to claim anything else. I would dishonor our closeness by holding on to a particular language an calling it my family language."
This quote in a way sums up what this reading is all about.He is saying that he would dishonor the closeness for his native language. I feel that the author really cares about the type of person he is because he would basically sacrifice things to hold onto his "family language". He also states that he would dishonor ones that he loved which says how much his native language means to him because he would give up basically being successful for his language that he grew up knowing. This shows me that the author is a strong person for doing what he does.
This article to me was very interesting and I wanted to know more about the author. The part that really caught my attention was the bilingualist part because people who come to the United States mostly do not speak English and they want to be able to speak thier native language. I feel as the years go on English is starting to become the comman language spoken in the US. I feel that people can succeed no matter the language they speak becaue the US is so diverse. Most things that you see in everyday life can be in English or Spanish. Anyones native language will always be with them because everyone is human and all of us do not need to have everything in comman.
This quote stood out to me because I feel that the author feels like he is alone because he did not come from a high life with people who succeeded in his family. I feel that this quote shows that he is the minority, but if you really think about it,blacks are the minority in any environment. The whites are to said to be successful and the author I feel, thinks that he is not good enough to be in the same school as whites. Also, I feel that the author thinks that whites are more successful,but there are blacks that can do anything whites can do.
2. "I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds.
This quote stands out to me because I feel that the author is not happy with his success from the obstacles that he had to face to get to where he is now. I feel that his family was not there for him because his family conveyed the intimacy through private sounds. His family may have been there for him, but the physical aspect does not get noticed to him. I feel that the author should be happy no matter what but the support from loved ones makes people who become successful, happier.
3."I would dishonor those I have loved and those I love now to claim anything else. I would dishonor our closeness by holding on to a particular language an calling it my family language."
This quote in a way sums up what this reading is all about.He is saying that he would dishonor the closeness for his native language. I feel that the author really cares about the type of person he is because he would basically sacrifice things to hold onto his "family language". He also states that he would dishonor ones that he loved which says how much his native language means to him because he would give up basically being successful for his language that he grew up knowing. This shows me that the author is a strong person for doing what he does.
This article to me was very interesting and I wanted to know more about the author. The part that really caught my attention was the bilingualist part because people who come to the United States mostly do not speak English and they want to be able to speak thier native language. I feel as the years go on English is starting to become the comman language spoken in the US. I feel that people can succeed no matter the language they speak becaue the US is so diverse. Most things that you see in everyday life can be in English or Spanish. Anyones native language will always be with them because everyone is human and all of us do not need to have everything in comman.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Youtube video that relates to our class topic
This video relates to what we are learning about in class because the lady Jane Elliot, talks about the nature of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. The way she did this was she took her classroom which was full of white kids and she divided the kids up in two groups based on their eye color. She then tells the kids that having blue eyes means superiority, being intelligent and being able to do extra classroom privileges. On the otherhand the people with the brown eyes felt that they were not good enough. The blue eyed kids felt the superiority and started to opress the brown eyed kids which they had negative feelings and began to have fear. This is a good video because I feel that the Johnson reading connects to this because in the Johnson reading it was saying that being a white, male, heterosexual is in a way the superiority in society. That relates to the video because when the blue eyed and brown eyed kids were seperated, the superiority started to opress and thats what society does today.
This is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0
This is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0
Monday, February 15, 2010
Jonathan Kozol: Amazing Grace
Jonathan Kozol:Amazing Grace Christina DiPalma
1."Nearly 4,000 heroin injectors, many of whom are HIV-infected, live here. Virtually every child at St. Ann's knows someone, a relative or neighbor, who has died of AIDS, and most children here now know many other who are dying now of the disease.One quarter of the women of Mott Haven who are tested in obstetric wards are positive for HIV. Rates of pediatric AIDS, therefore, are high."(Page 4)
This quote above I feel captures what some of the people from Mott Haven and even the South Bronx goes through. The people who are affected by this severe living conditions are most of the people and it also affect a numerous amount of the children. I feel that 4,000 people who inject themselves is a lot and plus they already have HIV's which is making it worse on themselves.I feel that having every single child knowing someone who has died from AIDS and having them know many others who are going die from it, is not a good thing because it does affect them.Having this severe living conditions going on in a certain place really shows that this stuff can happen to people no matter where you live and it affects everyone in the community, even the kids.
2."Unlike many children I have met in recent years, he has an absolutely literal religious faith. When I ask him how he pictures God,he says, "He has long hair and He can walk on the deep water." To make sure I understand that this is an unusual ability, he adds,"Nobody else can."(page 8)
This quote to me shows that a young boy not only takes religion literally. This shows that he believes in religious faith and this shows that he believes in a numerous amount of things. This young boy brings God up in a lot of other experiences such as when he went to get a pizza and he had given a guy some pizza that he bought. After that the author asks the boy why he gave the poor guy pizza and he said that God told us to share. I feel that God is what this kid brings into his experiences. I also feel that he feels that God is always around him and tells this boy in a way what decisions to make in life.
3."I don't know how sick you have to be to qualify for SSI. My girlfriend died from AIDS in March. She never did get SSI. After she died, the checks began to come. Now they keep on coming. Her boyfriend cashes them each month. She's dead! They have to know she died. They paid to bury her. They had to see the death certificate."(page 20)
This quote talks about an experience a guy who went to their doctor and their doctor said that he should go on SSI. He continues saying that he tried to apply for it but they said he was not sick enough. I feel that this is wrong because this guy has cancer and cancer is one of the worst sicknesses you can get. This makes me sad because you have people that are collecting from the SSI, from their loved ones who are dead and then you have people who are really sick who are not getting help from anyone. The boyfriend who is collecting from his girlfriend is morally wrong because you have people out there who honestly need it because of sickness they have.
Questions/Comments/Points To Share:
This reading to me was a real eye opener because this piece talks a lot of what people go through in life and even though we are not around these types of things, I feel that at first I do not believe such things like this because I do not live in an environment like that so, I would not know first hand about the situations that occur with the type of person you are. I feel that it relates to other texts that we have previously read in class readings. The one reading that comes to mind is the Johnson reading because I feel that people from different backgrounds get certain privileges which made me think of that when I read about the guy who was getting SSI even though his girlfriend had been died while on the other hand, there was a guy who had cancer and he had been denied.
One question I would want to know is how people get more privileges than others when they have worse conditions than others.
1."Nearly 4,000 heroin injectors, many of whom are HIV-infected, live here. Virtually every child at St. Ann's knows someone, a relative or neighbor, who has died of AIDS, and most children here now know many other who are dying now of the disease.One quarter of the women of Mott Haven who are tested in obstetric wards are positive for HIV. Rates of pediatric AIDS, therefore, are high."(Page 4)
This quote above I feel captures what some of the people from Mott Haven and even the South Bronx goes through. The people who are affected by this severe living conditions are most of the people and it also affect a numerous amount of the children. I feel that 4,000 people who inject themselves is a lot and plus they already have HIV's which is making it worse on themselves.I feel that having every single child knowing someone who has died from AIDS and having them know many others who are going die from it, is not a good thing because it does affect them.Having this severe living conditions going on in a certain place really shows that this stuff can happen to people no matter where you live and it affects everyone in the community, even the kids.
2."Unlike many children I have met in recent years, he has an absolutely literal religious faith. When I ask him how he pictures God,he says, "He has long hair and He can walk on the deep water." To make sure I understand that this is an unusual ability, he adds,"Nobody else can."(page 8)
This quote to me shows that a young boy not only takes religion literally. This shows that he believes in religious faith and this shows that he believes in a numerous amount of things. This young boy brings God up in a lot of other experiences such as when he went to get a pizza and he had given a guy some pizza that he bought. After that the author asks the boy why he gave the poor guy pizza and he said that God told us to share. I feel that God is what this kid brings into his experiences. I also feel that he feels that God is always around him and tells this boy in a way what decisions to make in life.
3."I don't know how sick you have to be to qualify for SSI. My girlfriend died from AIDS in March. She never did get SSI. After she died, the checks began to come. Now they keep on coming. Her boyfriend cashes them each month. She's dead! They have to know she died. They paid to bury her. They had to see the death certificate."(page 20)
This quote talks about an experience a guy who went to their doctor and their doctor said that he should go on SSI. He continues saying that he tried to apply for it but they said he was not sick enough. I feel that this is wrong because this guy has cancer and cancer is one of the worst sicknesses you can get. This makes me sad because you have people that are collecting from the SSI, from their loved ones who are dead and then you have people who are really sick who are not getting help from anyone. The boyfriend who is collecting from his girlfriend is morally wrong because you have people out there who honestly need it because of sickness they have.
Questions/Comments/Points To Share:
This reading to me was a real eye opener because this piece talks a lot of what people go through in life and even though we are not around these types of things, I feel that at first I do not believe such things like this because I do not live in an environment like that so, I would not know first hand about the situations that occur with the type of person you are. I feel that it relates to other texts that we have previously read in class readings. The one reading that comes to mind is the Johnson reading because I feel that people from different backgrounds get certain privileges which made me think of that when I read about the guy who was getting SSI even though his girlfriend had been died while on the other hand, there was a guy who had cancer and he had been denied.
One question I would want to know is how people get more privileges than others when they have worse conditions than others.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
First Visit
On Friday February 12, 2010, I had my first visit to an Elementary School. On Friday I woke up at 815 am to make sure that I would be able to get prepared for my day ahead of me since I did not know what I would be expecting. I was expected to be at the school promptly at 930 and the only thing that went through my mind was if I was going to enjoy today. I had left Thorp Hall at 845 because I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get there on time. On the way to the school I got a little nervous because I did not know what the real name of the school because on the paper that the VIPS head person gave me, it had two school names on it. When I got closer to the school, I noticed that this school was in the area of many other schools. When I arrived at the school it was around 915 and I saw other people walking in. I noticed that I had to ring a buzzer to be entered into the building and then I walked inside the office to put my log sheet into the VIPS binder. After I did everything I had to do in the office I finally got to meet with Ms.W.
The people in the office told me to go up the stairs where I would meet Ms. W. When I went to meet her she told me to take a seat at a table and she told us what we would be doing. I was there along with five other people and she told us what the school is like. The very first thing she told us is about the name of the school and how it has two different names but its combined into one school. Then she continued to tell us that we would just observe today because it was the day before vacation and it was also the 100Th day of school which meant that it was a relaxed day. After she gave us a little background of the school, we went into a room where we had folders which contained activities that the VIPS people brought in to show the class. After that she assigned two people to a class.We found at that each week we came here that we would be going into a kindergarten class halfway through then go to a first grade class. Once she assigned the rooms to us, she took us to the classrooms.
The first classroom I would be going to was the kindergarten classroom. I was very nervous because I would not know what I would be expecting. When I walked in I met the teacher and her name was Mrs. B. I felt a warm welcoming because she seemed pretty laid back. As soon as Ms. W left she told me and the other girl I was with what the class was like and that today was going to be a "chill axed" day since they will be on February vacation the following week.She told us to look around the classroom and get a feel of things. The classroom environment was very warm and welcoming. As I looked around the room I noticed that the walls had a lot of decorations which were mainly posters that showed things such as the alphabet, and reading/word posters. I felt that I would enjoy this class a lot because the kids were welcoming and I felt that they would respect me because the teacher had control over her class. At one point when I was in there I had gotten a little nervous because the teacher started to speak in Spanish. I had a very scared look on my face because I did not know that it was an ESL class or if I had to know Spanish but she had told me that the class is conducted in English.
It was around 1030 and it was time for me to go visit the first grade classroom I would be working in. When I walked in the kids were making necklaces out of fruit loops and they put one hundred individual fruit loops on the necklace. The teacher told us to go around and interact with the kids which I did. Some of the kids were shy except for this one girl who really liked me an she was the one who I talked to the most. She was the youngest girl in the class but she was very exceptional girl. I really enjoyed this classroom more because it was an enviorment I like to be in. It was 15 minutes before I had to leave so Mrs. R asked what grade I would like to do and I told her between 1-3 grade. She told me that 1st grade is one of the hardest grade to teach because this is the grade level where they learn the most important basic information. She said after that it was a pleasure and she can not wait for next time to get me involved with the students.
So the day was about to end and I said goodbye to Mrs. R and the kids and I can not wait until next time because I really enjoyed myself there. I feel that the children are very excited about this experience and I am excited to see what will be in store for me next time.
The people in the office told me to go up the stairs where I would meet Ms. W. When I went to meet her she told me to take a seat at a table and she told us what we would be doing. I was there along with five other people and she told us what the school is like. The very first thing she told us is about the name of the school and how it has two different names but its combined into one school. Then she continued to tell us that we would just observe today because it was the day before vacation and it was also the 100Th day of school which meant that it was a relaxed day. After she gave us a little background of the school, we went into a room where we had folders which contained activities that the VIPS people brought in to show the class. After that she assigned two people to a class.We found at that each week we came here that we would be going into a kindergarten class halfway through then go to a first grade class. Once she assigned the rooms to us, she took us to the classrooms.
The first classroom I would be going to was the kindergarten classroom. I was very nervous because I would not know what I would be expecting. When I walked in I met the teacher and her name was Mrs. B. I felt a warm welcoming because she seemed pretty laid back. As soon as Ms. W left she told me and the other girl I was with what the class was like and that today was going to be a "chill axed" day since they will be on February vacation the following week.She told us to look around the classroom and get a feel of things. The classroom environment was very warm and welcoming. As I looked around the room I noticed that the walls had a lot of decorations which were mainly posters that showed things such as the alphabet, and reading/word posters. I felt that I would enjoy this class a lot because the kids were welcoming and I felt that they would respect me because the teacher had control over her class. At one point when I was in there I had gotten a little nervous because the teacher started to speak in Spanish. I had a very scared look on my face because I did not know that it was an ESL class or if I had to know Spanish but she had told me that the class is conducted in English.
It was around 1030 and it was time for me to go visit the first grade classroom I would be working in. When I walked in the kids were making necklaces out of fruit loops and they put one hundred individual fruit loops on the necklace. The teacher told us to go around and interact with the kids which I did. Some of the kids were shy except for this one girl who really liked me an she was the one who I talked to the most. She was the youngest girl in the class but she was very exceptional girl. I really enjoyed this classroom more because it was an enviorment I like to be in. It was 15 minutes before I had to leave so Mrs. R asked what grade I would like to do and I told her between 1-3 grade. She told me that 1st grade is one of the hardest grade to teach because this is the grade level where they learn the most important basic information. She said after that it was a pleasure and she can not wait for next time to get me involved with the students.
So the day was about to end and I said goodbye to Mrs. R and the kids and I can not wait until next time because I really enjoyed myself there. I feel that the children are very excited about this experience and I am excited to see what will be in store for me next time.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
First Blog Post
Hello, my name is Christina DiPalma and I grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island. I am a freshman at Rhode Island College and I am in my Second semester. I live in Thorp Hall and I would like to major in Elementary Education. So far my classes are going pretty well but i know as the semester goes on I will be overwhelmed with work. Being overwhelmed may prevent me from having a social life but i realized that if i want to get where i want to be, I will have to sacrifice things to better myself. When I am not in class I am usually hanging out with friends and having a good time. Friends are very important to me and I love just going out and doing whatever there is to do. Well i guess that is a little bit about me and I will end this paragraph with see you later.
-Christina DiPalma
-Christina DiPalma
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