Education Is Politics : Reflection

In Education Is Politics by Ira Shor, he talks about how we can and must empower students
by not only engaging ourselves but also by encouraging students themselves to ask questions about pedagogy, for them to be curious as to why education pretends to be non-political when in reality it actually is.

The education system tends to shape student's knowledge and behavior. This doesn't allow students judge the social issues that affect their learning and lives. Why does the system do these things? What good does this even cause? In reality all it is doing is creating molds or "robots" for this society. I understand that in someway students should be taught how to behave and so forth, be quiet when someone is talking, wait your turn, how to act with a group of people, etc. But why is it that we are teaching these children that their creativity is nothing? Awareness in students can help them in the future society of overcoming the political "status quo".

The moment I began reading this article I thought of the TED video we saw in class awhile ago. In the TED talk Ken Robinson talks about how the system wants the ideal man or women. Also, creativity is as important as literacy in the educational system. I believe this is so true, as future art educator I feel as all students need any sort of art, not just painting or drawing but music and cooking in their lives. Children are not suppose to be sitting in a chair for the majority of the day, without movement how is the blood suppose to go everywhere? Have teachers ever thought that sometimes a little music in the background while students are working on something might have a little help or impute on them being able to focus. Perhaps a student is a dancer and cannot keep still just like Mr. Robinson brought up during his talk, and enrolling them in a dance school is the best thing to do.

Thoughts:

Do students have a say in all of this?

Or does this only happen once they are in college, graduate and being educations that things can change?

 

 

 

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v5n2/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/education-politics_b_5308328.html

 

Citizenship in School: Reflection

In Citizenship in School: Re conceptualizing Down Syndrome by Christopher Kliewer, talks about some very eye opening things. At the beginning Kliewer talks about a child who is special needs and what goes on. When the teacher incorporates Where The Wild Things Are into her lesson plan I was very intrigued. There is a line that really hit me in one of the very first few pages when Kliewer talks about the teacher of the classroom. He says, "Shayne felt that she broadened and strengthened the learning opportunities opened to all her children."

When reading this article, I personally felt as though I could easily connect. For my service learning project, I am in a classroom with special education students. I have seen them on their good and rough days, but at the end of the day they are the sweetest kids you will ever meet. When I was reading some of the situations I thought of my day last week. One of the kids was having a rough day and he kept throwing pencils, crayons and lastly his shoe at one of the other volunteers. It was tough to be in the room and witness it but we later corrected the situation and he went in the "thinking seat". The thinking seat was something my teacher thought of and when they are in there they have to think about what they have done and apologize directly to the person they did it to. Just like Vicky on her blog, I related it to the Silence Dialog as well! I just think it's crazy that some children will never really have their voices heard. Every child has a mind and with that mind they have a great imput and thoughts.

Personally this article in relation to my service learning has open my eyes so much. Never in a million years did I think I wanted to work with younger children. I initially thought of middle and high school aged students but know I really enjoy working with kids in elementary school. The great thing about being an Art Education major is the fact that I am K-12! How cool is that?! Being able to any of them.

thoughts: Have any other students have siblings or someone close to that they know with a disability? Do you feel as though the have been or seen things differently?

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/the-common-core-is-tough-on-kids-with-special-needs/283973/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/11/20/365282978/are-nola-schools-failing-students-with-disabilities 

Literacy Witn An Attitude : Argument

In Literacy With An Attitude by Patrick Finn, argues that schools need to learn how to handle children of the working class. Finn goes on to explain that because he too grew up in a family of nine children he understood what these children were feeling. His father was a plumber and the rest of his siblings became plumbers as well, but because he had a little disability he decided to stay in school finish high school and go to college to become a teacher. People do not give enough credit to these children / students.

I believe that he is telling the truth. A line that stood out to me was when he was talking about how the principle or either the teacher would walk by his classroom very slowly and observe what his classroom, and he were doing. My favorite thing he said in that statement was, "What can be to our students." Finn believed in their potential, he believed that they were betters ways then being locked in a strict system of rules on how to teach and how the children should behave. This is so true, throughout my life the majority of my teachers teaching styles have been the same. Only a select few have been very different. This goes as well to students. Not every student is the same. Each one has their own pace as they learn, and some learn quicker or slower than others.

I could easily relate this to the Indian Father's Plea reading we did. The teacher underestimated Wind wolf and his father was upset that the school system was calling his child "slow." Things like that are heartbreaking. Imagine being the parent of a child and finding out/ receiving a call/note saying that they think your child in mentally behind in school compared to the other children.

Thoughts:

 What can we do to help students learn better?

How can teachers teach better?

Why do teachers teach by the rules nowadays?

What caused this phenomenon?

 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/great-teachers-do-not-teach-ben-Johnson

http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/textonly/docgen.asp?tbl=mr&ID=117

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc This made me very happy.

 

 

 

Becoming Something Different : Reflection

In the article Becoming Something Different by Colleen Fairbanks and Penny Mason Crooks, it talks about the pressure Esme suffers via school and home. I thought this was extremely interesting especially the part when it said that she thought of herself as more American then Mexican. The school that Esme attended was majorly filled with other Latinos. And when she was at home her parents tried their best with helping her with homework as best as they could.

When I was reading this chapter, I thought of my own life. I am first generation Mexican American in my family, the first to also be able to attend college. From a very young start my parents have always pushed me to do good in school because "America" is known as the land with promise / success. They came to the United States so their future children would be able to experience something that they would have never had the chance to, they wanted their kids to live a better life. And I am so incredibly grateful for that. I remember that the habit my mom had was when we came home from school we were to do our homework for an hour. She was a stay at home mom at the time while my father was working (he always worked, 24/7, I remember we would always be with him on the weekends and he would do everything with my brother, mom and me). Because my mother's English wasn't as natural as it is today she had a little trouble and whenever I did my homework she would make a copy and do it with me. She always said practice makes perfect. We would both teach and help one another. She has this binder of all the words she learned and it's incredible to look at!

Just reading that little part of Esme made me think about my own life. The only thing was that I feel as though perhaps because my parents ambition for us to do good in school and them helping in everyway possible made school enjoyable for me. I love going to school and learning new things and I believe it's because of them always telling me to be grateful that I have the honor to attend school, while many children in the world do not get that chance.

A text that I connected this article to was Rodriguez's Aria. I think it was because they both came from the same background, they were of Latino decent. I find it to be really interesting the lives that Latinos live, and the struggles they face(d). I personally didn't experience all of these things that they did but I can relate certain things to my life.

Thoughts: Do white's experience some of these troubles? If they do is it because of their social class or not?

http://www.hawkeyenewsonline.com/student-life/2012/01/05/home-life-vs-school-work/ 

Promising Practice Confrence 2014

So on Saturday November 1st, I attended the STEM conference. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I did know that I signed up for a hands on workshop in Session 1 and a Comedy in the Classroom workshop in Session 2. The minute I walked in I had to pick up a little name tag with my name on it and sat down, listened and ate breakfast until 9 o'clock came around.

9 finally came and I was off to Gaige! I was excited, it was time for hands on learning. I thought hey perhaps they are going to teach us how to be more hands on in the classroom and that was a ultimate bonus because I wanted to be a future art teacher. I found out that my friend Kassidy was also in the same workshop so that made me even more stoked. This day couldn't get even more better! Finally time for the workshop part to begin: we started of by learning the teacher was a science teacher. I thought not bad, science is cool, I kinda liked it, it shouldn't be bad. We ended up watching the teacher do a water bottle pressure experiment. Honestly it was a bit boring because she ended up doing all of the work. We were literally just there sitting watching her. First thing I thought of was the Hill and Johnson reading, In The Future, Diverse Approaches To Schooling. I thought in the future, perhaps when we are educators how will we be doing hands on learning with technology or online? Will students have to watch the instructor do the experiment like I am doing right now? Are they going to be feeling the same discouragement that I am? I feel like when you are doing something that you've never done before you need to experience it, not just be a bystander. After that first experiment, we did a Pressure block one. It was basically the same thing except we could actually do something, YAY HANDS ON ATLAST! The purpose of the second experiment was to see how pressure changes with height and horizontal / variations of pressure. Actually doing that experiment made sense, but like the first it went straight back to her doing it and it just being about pressure and not the hands on portion. I felt pretty disappointed with my session 1 Workshop, I felt lied to and it was so not what I expected. I thought this was going to assist me but in reality I felt bored and thought this is probably the same feelings students go through on a day to day basis.

Workshop 2 finally came. I was a little nervous and hesitant. I thought if this is like the first one I feel like it's going to be a waste, why have these workshops? They are not helping me in being a future educator. The minute I went into Comedy in the Classroom I was in a totally different world. The minute I walked in a group of 10 students were standing right at the door introducing themselves and giving a great big handshake. I thought, 'Wow I've never experienced this before. These kids seem so much more grown up and alive to be doing this right now.' And these children were 100%, they gave off such a lively, energetic vibe it was awesome. The minute we went to go sit down, the instructor told us to stand right up and make a big circle. We did cool handshakes and clapped, and thanks to this the whole classroom had such a positive energy it was awesome. We couldn't stop laughing and smiling and to think we were all strangers just a few moments ago? How rad is that?!?!?! the major purpose of that workshop was to show us future educators that we must not take life so seriously. That we need to laugh and enjoy being in the classroom. If we are too serious we will never make a child's experience in the classroom memorable. One little thing you say or do effect a child, we must take advantage of that. For the rest of class we got into groups and did little skits, some about math and why we didn't like them or how education was good for us. This workshop made me think of Kahne & Westheimer's In Service of What? piece. I thought of how this workshop is something that people need to attend. These teachers had their students provide us older students with a rich education that we never thought of. Giggling and having fun does SO much. It changes us. Just like the Service Learning Project I am doing or Community Service, it made me so happy and I felt like it make me think more about others, I felt like I cared more. I've never enjoyed something so much as that workshop and recommend it!

Finally came the grand finally. It was Dr. Christopher Emdin time to talk. And boy was it really good. He spoke with such wisdom and truth. I cannot empathize on how much truth he spoke. He began by saying that we have no changed our education and how we present/apply it to our students since the 1980s.  It's basically a mix of re-segregation based on social economics. That teachers now a days come off babysitters and not teachers. They do not literally say "I am going to be babysitting you right now" but they do come off that way. All I could think of was in my old school they seemed to be more worried about how females dressed. Was it too reveling, was it too see through? Now a days my old highschool even has a thing of Yoga pants/leggings being too provocative for school. Can you believe that? Girls were them because they are comfortable, not to be sexy. Look at this campus, the majority of girls wear yoga pants, do we care-NO. This lead me to think of Will It Help The Sheep? by Lisa Delpit. Are yoga pants or leggings really effecting a students learning? The answer is no. No it doesn't they are just clothing that are comfy to wear, and to be honest if you go get them at Victoria Secret they aren't super cheap. Emdin brought up that school is basically making us into robots. We are sitting down for the majority of the day and are expected to be alert and attentive. If were to simply stand around like I did in my workshop 2 class or perhaps listen to music while we are learning something it can help.

I feel as though I did learn a lot during this Conference, it was a real eye opener. And also even if your first event, class, or whatever wasn't good chances are that better things will follow.

 

 

READ THIS: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/temple-grandin/the-importance-of-handson_b_4086423.html

http://mypasa.org/afterzone-middle-school/afterzone-scholars-expanded-school-day-program

http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~shumow/itt/forreview/keepinginterestintheclassroom.pdf

I thought that these links were super interested and were SO true. My favorite has to be the first link. As a future art teacher I feel as though students need these classes. Sometimes these are a students time to finally be able to let their creativity out and explore their interests. I know they did so for me. I will admit I was on the honor roll, perfect students, did all my work and more. But the class that I adored since I was little was art. And I knew from the beginning that it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to be the person who helped a student feel the same way as I do now about art. They may not have the support or encouragement at home but in the future I want them so be able to forget about the world and enjoy and influence their creativity into joy.

Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama : Reflection

In the speech Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama by anti-racism activist Time Wise, talks about how no matter what you say, do or think, racism is always there. It's a main topic that we have discussed in class. When  I heard Tim talk I automatically thought of our readings: An Indian Father's Plea, Aria, White Privilege, Why Can't She Remember That?, and Privilege, Power and Difference.

When he started describing one of his experiences when he was traveling to Iowa in 2004 I couldn't help but laugh a little with him. He stated that when he travels he always looks into the cockpit to see the pilot for reassurance. When he looked in he saw that the pilot and co-pilot were both African Americans, and was in total shock. I personally was shocked too! I travel a lot during the summer and I don't think I have ever had the opportunity to witness such a cool thing. What he described was that even though he was against racism, the first thing that popped in his head when he saw them was "oh god, I hope everything on this flight turns out okay." Seconds after he realized what he thought, he completely shut down the idea and thought "NO. These people had to work 2X harder then the rest of the White classmates they had, that they knew better." This is so true, regardless if you are colored, or white, you by accident think stereotypical things. It's your job to not display it and be rude. We live in a diverse country from people all over, our family members perhaps are from different parts of the world. We need to embrace peace and love, we need to be accepting. How would you feel if the role was reversed and it was happening to you?

How many of us have caught ourselves thinking stereotypical thoughts? How many of us realize that we need to hear or see something 11 times until we think "Hey I need that" or "That's so true."

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/08/eight-more-things-you-didnt-know-are-racist/

http://thoughtcatalog.com/erin-cossetta/2014/04/quotes-that-perfectly-explain-racism-to-people-who-dont-see-color/

In The Service of What? : Reflection

In the article, In The Service of What? by Kahne & Westheimer, it talks about how service learning helps improve the classroom. I believe that this is very true. I feel as though service learning helps a student, or anyone to be exact see different perspectives about life or scenarios. Every year, I try to do at least 1 or 2 community service activities. A few years ago I volunteered at the YMCA with birthday parties and the kids room. I helped the staff set up, help organize the party, and helped clean up afterwards. For the kids room, I had to be in the room and play/keep the children entertained. The room had a bouncy house and a bunch of toys in it to keep them busy. The energy that room gave off was incredible! Kids were always laughing and having so much fun that you couldn't stop smiling. Children would come up with you and ask if you could play cars with them and you would. It was a really great experience. And thanks for having a ton of fun at the Y, I applied and got hired as a Membership Staff for my first job! (It was super easy, I greeted people and had to help them sign up and pick classes)

A second activity I did recently took place in Mexico. My entire family is from Mexico so when we went down over the summer for the first time is was really fun. My service wasn't involved with an official organization but instead with my grandmother and her neighbors. I speak fluent Spanish so it was not difficult to communicate. I helped in sewing some school uniforms for children in the area. Also, I learned how to wash them too. Washing the clothes was a bit different over there because they didn't have washers and dryers so we used this big tub and a washboard. That act was something that I will never forget. Seeing the kids faces with their shiny clean clothes  made me so incredibly happy and I learned that washboards are a very good source of exercise too! While I was there I  also helped them learn English. A good amount of children and I would sit in my grandmothers yard and I would help them with their homework. I felt like a teacher and that made me so happy.

Everything that I experienced over the summer has made me the person I am today. When I was reading this article I thought of the Johnson piece, Privilege, Power and Difference. Every time I think of it I think of the line, "Change how we think so we can change how we act." This is so true: we need to change how we act. Thanks to do community service and the service learning requirement my eyes have opened a little more. I am seeing the world with more experience and want to help others out even more.

Thoughts for class: How many of us have done community service? Does it change your life? Do you feel better after doing it? What types of community service have other classmates done?

https://students.ucsd.edu/student-life/involvement/community/reasons.html
https://www.teenlife.com/blogs/articles/50-community-service-ideas-teen-volunteers