worth the look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_no5gub0I

standardization

Standardized testing i believe is a priority that is out of whack with what should be the goal of education, teaching children to be abale to survive and prosper in the real world. Too often these tests place high emphasis on areas of curriculm that are useless and are impossible to gauge true knowledge. They do not take into consideration the many regionally and cultural differences of our students across the country. By placing a high emphasis on these tests I think we are missing the point. Math proficiency and reading levels to not help create a person that can help contribute in the real world. There are not job openings all over for people who can do algebra and win spelling bees. The social sciences are being ignored and many programs that promote creative thinking such as music and art are taking a backseat due to standardized testing pressures. The study of the socail sciences helps to teach children citizenship, how to realate to others and their cultures, how to contribute to society through politics and the economy. By placing this arena of critical thinking behind what can be easily "measured" we are failing every student who has to pass through the system. The arts are soemthing where your creativity is allowed to grow as well, I don't know about everyone but I use what I learned in my art education almost everyday of my life, it has helped me be able to problem solve and create wonderful things. When was the last time we all saw an emphasis placed on this in the average MPS school? The ones that I have been to where shamefully inadeqaute in the teachings of the arts as well as the social sciences. To what goal? A better test score? This is why the current system is broken behind all comprehension. Why do we need a standardized test? I broach this question to you all. Are they necessary seeing as they do often not really gauge your true knowledge? Not to mention the fact that one test decides how smart you are. I understand it is defininetly a huge money making system and that politically it looks good but really why shoudl we keep it? What should we do to fix it? or what should replace it?

What is truth?

An interesting thought that I found in Chapter 27 dealt with critical pedagogy and the social construction of knowledge. In this chapter it asks the question what is truth exactly? How do we as educators teach the truth? Why is it that certain things are taught more while others are pushed back? An important idea raised is that truth is not relative. what is considered truth is dependent on history, cultural context, and relations of power operative ina given society, discipline, and institution. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. When we teach we teach our version of the truth. In doing so we may be telling our students a truth that is different from their perception of the truth because of the before mentioned factors. To be a great teacher I think that first and formost we need to realize that there is no such thing as a blanket truth that is agreed upon and accepted by everyone. By acknowledging that there are different perceptions and ideas on truth we can allow for a more open and thoughtful learning enviroment. The differences in the ideas of politicals from the conservative to the liberal ideas of certain aspects is pronounced when it comes to the teachings of women and minority rights and the differences of language. These instances show the divide that exsits in our education system as we all battle to teach the "truth".

The value of other languages

I think it is important to address the major difficulties that arise with bi-lingual education. It is often hard enough as an educator to teach students who all speak and read the same language yet when kids that can not do so it raises many difficulties within a classroom. I do believe that a lot more is being done to accommodate these children as opposed to in the past and this progression is important. We as educators need to make sure that the system of educating is doing all it can to grow and accommodate those that wish to learn and face difficulties. I do think that that there is a responsibility to make sure that the understanding of English is a major goal due to the massive use of English in the world today. This does not mean however that other languages should be pushed aside or ignored because they are different. Different does not mean deficient. There is a lot to be gained from other languages and cultures and by forcing others to leave their language and then culture behind to learn English we are doing a disservice to that student and our classrooms.

The dangers of perception

I think that as teachers we all need to take time to game plan our disciplinary approaches as teachers. They need to be anti-oppressive and implemented in a fair way. I think that a lot of time our perceptions of our students often drive us into dangerous attitudes about our students and their behaviors. By relying on the perceptions that urban students in particular black males are violent and problem children then we run the risk of labeling them with a stereotype that serves no good purpose. By doing so we only continue the fear mongering that we see in the media about school violence. By taking a step back to reflect we as educators can make our own opinions about our students that are fair and accurate without using stereotypes and prejudices.

What we all need....classroom managment!!!

Our group is presenting on classroom management and effective strategies that can lead to creating a rich learning enviroment that puts a limit on distractions. I am focusing on outside sources that can be used as resources to help battle misbehavior in students, such as parents and social workers. I think we all realize by now being in UWM's education courses that teaching is not a cake walk that is full of classrooms with every student well behaved and excited about learning every day. Misbehavior occurs in a lot of classrooms and there are many strategies to limit classroom distractions that can harm all students. We will try to offer some practices and ideas that can help create great learning enviroments. Hope you enjoy it!

Young people in transition

I find these articles to be important in the understanding of teaching and learning in middle school. The idea of middle school has not been around as we know it for that long and as these articles pointed out research on the impacts of certain practices in middle schools are lagging behind. Young people in middle school are more than students, they are individuals that are dealing with a dramatic transformation into adulthood. The difficulties experienced by these students should not be overlooked. By addressing more than just math and sciences ect, we can teach young people how to be important members of society. Middle school is more than learning about certain subjects. You learn about yourself as you go through adolescence. You also begin to sue critical thinking skills that are real world applicable. It is important that middle schools be taken seriously as gateways that all children must pass through in order to prepare themselves for the future. By offering good teachers trained in teaching children in middle school who understand the many complexities that arise from that age we can ensure that children all have the same opportunities to succeed.

Upon reading this chapter I realized that adolscence and puberty are very complicated events that happen in our society and that they are in a way a reflection of our society. Not every child in the world experiences these changes the same as the difference between industrialized and pre-industrialized nations is very pronounced. I never experienced fake deaths or ritualistic scarring and others did not have to sit though sexual education class. It is clear to me that not a lot of information exists on this topic partly because of the difficulty in trying to understand how children react to their developmental changes. A lot of it depends on where they live and how they were raised. In the classroom teachers have to be able to adapt to these differences as we teach because it is impossible and foolhardy to try and lump every child's experiences together.


On a side note I wanted to mention the fact that when our book talks about dealing with sexual arousal and attraction to members of the same sex that I found the choice of wordage very interesting. In some of my other classes we talk about the impact that textbooks have and how they further steryotpes and how they often do not discuss the "real" issues and events. I find the emphasis given to "opposite sex" to be midly offensive to me and I also am dissapointed that it is included in a college textbook. I realize that not everyone can agree on homosexuality but I still think that statements like that can cause harm. As someone who is going to be an educator these are items where we need to see just how great of an impact a statment liek that can have on ourselves and our students. By accepting a statement like that as a teacher we are lumping all experiences that children have as adolescence into a heterosexual category and that is unfair to those who do not fit into that category. The impact that a statement like that can have on a child who already is dealing with the difficulties of puberty and then having to sit through those awkward classes in middle school is great. It can lead to a child feeling that there is something wrong with them for having an attractrion to members of the same sex and this can have adverse effects on their learning and motivation.

Danger of Assimilation

I found Kumashiro's article a great way to see the many issues surrounding the challenges we all face as educators.  In such a diverse world we face many instances where we need to acknowledge these differences and embrace them.  Kumashiro brings up the danger of using the assimilationist ideology.  This theory forces us to view students of color or different sexual orientation as different and inferior.  The view that they should all conform to the mainstream culture and become more like middle class White Americans.  This viewpoint is such a detriment to the classroom as it forces us to view different cultures and ideas as inferior and not worth mentioning in a classroom.  Diversity should be cherished in a classroom as it creates such great opportunities to learn both as an educator and a student.