The first topic that I chose was The Frame of Reference: The Anti-Achievement Dilemma on page 288. The first line of the article says, "Many students avoid academic excellence because they fear their peers will label them nerds." This statement is very sad but true. Children, for the most part, do not want to be known as the nerd or geek in the class. Due to this many students intentionally answer questions incorrectly. So many children are worried about their appearances in school and it is a shame. Peer pressure is also another driving force behind this epidemic. They do not realize that school is very temporary and real life success is so much more important. I chose this topic because it relates to me, personally. My freshman year of high school, I was in the academically advanced classes. I soon realized that the student's in that type of class are not the most popular and are not well liked, so I started to goof off and hang around with the 'cool' crowd. My grades, obviously, started to slip and I ended up in the general education classes. Hind sight, I would have continued on and I would not have cared what the other students' thought about me.
Resource: I googled searched the words anti-achievement dilemma. I clicked on the first link and it was actually the web-tivities of our book. I then clicked on the 'click here' link and it was a story about a young African-American girl. I never would have thought that she would receive the most harassment from children of her own culture. They were saying things like, "Why are you trying to be white? and calling her a sell out." It is horrible that jealously and insecurity cause people to be so cruel to an otherwise successful student.
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The second topic that I chose was Arab Americans: Moving Beyond the Stereotype on page 295. I chose this topic because it is a very sensitive topic for many Americans. In my opinion, there has always been some form of dislike towards people of Arab decent even before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Unfortunately, this event helped confirm many negative beliefs Americans about that culture. I know I was guilty of feeling uneasy when I boarded a plane shortly after the attacks. I said," I would get off of the plane if there were someone of Arab decent aboard the plane." That was a very stereotypical statement and I am not proud of having said it. People have to learn that combining a whole group of people into one statement is just wrong. For example, saying all black people are bad and all white people are good. That is just crazy. There are good and bad in each and every race and grouping them all together is just ignorant.
Resource: www.Tolerance.org/teach/current/event.jsp?cid=249 I clicked on the link that said "Who are Arab Americans?" It brought me to a classroom activity. The website said,"This activity is designed to increase student knowledge about Arab Americans and to challenge misconceptions students might hold about Arabs and people of Arab descent. It also promotes critical thinking of media, government, culture and history." The activity is said to take between 1-5 class periods to complete and there is a quiz to go along with it. I think the quiz is a good idea because it would show exactly how their views were skewed.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Module 6
Dear Congressman McIntyre,
My name is Sarah Gurney and I am an education major at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Due to the fact that I am going to become an educator in the future, governmental policies and practices hold more importance to me than ever before. I do think, however, there are many policies that need to be reformed and I am hoping proper reformation will happen.
I was just reading your website pertaining to your views on education. I agreed with three of your four interests of education reformation. (1) Reduction of class size. (2) Modernization of educational facilities. (3) Installing of better technology.
(1) I have attended a few different colleges throughout my college career. Initially, I went the community college route and I found the smaller class size improved the professor/ student ratio and the interaction between faculty and students that typically does not occur in larger universities. I then attended a large university in Raleigh, NC and soon realized a setting of that kind was not right for my educational needs. I then began attending classes at UNCP and this close nit community was exactly what I had been looking for. The moral of my story is that I had the opportunity to relocate to different schools in order to better suit my own personal needs. Children growing up in inner city schools or kids located in under achieving school districts have fewer opportunities to find the setting that works best for them.
(2) I do think that if we can work from the inside-out our schools would have a better chance. Improving the cosmetics of a building, may seem to some as a waste of funds, but I think even a fresh coat of paint can help improve the attitudes of the people who have to look at the chipping paint daily.
(3) I also liked your stance on installing better technology in our classrooms. Smart boards and over-head projectors are very important tools in educating visually based learners. Computer education is essential for our future generation’s success.
I was also reading the section on the No Child Left Behind Act and I was wondering where you stood on this issue? You did say, “…this act will be reauthorized this year and I will continue to work with my colleagues to improve the amount of funding appropriated to our schools.” I do think funding is extremely important but I would like to know your position and how you would vote on issues such as standardized tests? I am an opponent of such testing because I do not think the results are completely accurate. My vote for you largely depends on your stance on these types of issues and I would appreciate a response informing me of your position.
Thank-you,
Sarah M. Gurney
My name is Sarah Gurney and I am an education major at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Due to the fact that I am going to become an educator in the future, governmental policies and practices hold more importance to me than ever before. I do think, however, there are many policies that need to be reformed and I am hoping proper reformation will happen.
I was just reading your website pertaining to your views on education. I agreed with three of your four interests of education reformation. (1) Reduction of class size. (2) Modernization of educational facilities. (3) Installing of better technology.
(1) I have attended a few different colleges throughout my college career. Initially, I went the community college route and I found the smaller class size improved the professor/ student ratio and the interaction between faculty and students that typically does not occur in larger universities. I then attended a large university in Raleigh, NC and soon realized a setting of that kind was not right for my educational needs. I then began attending classes at UNCP and this close nit community was exactly what I had been looking for. The moral of my story is that I had the opportunity to relocate to different schools in order to better suit my own personal needs. Children growing up in inner city schools or kids located in under achieving school districts have fewer opportunities to find the setting that works best for them.
(2) I do think that if we can work from the inside-out our schools would have a better chance. Improving the cosmetics of a building, may seem to some as a waste of funds, but I think even a fresh coat of paint can help improve the attitudes of the people who have to look at the chipping paint daily.
(3) I also liked your stance on installing better technology in our classrooms. Smart boards and over-head projectors are very important tools in educating visually based learners. Computer education is essential for our future generation’s success.
I was also reading the section on the No Child Left Behind Act and I was wondering where you stood on this issue? You did say, “…this act will be reauthorized this year and I will continue to work with my colleagues to improve the amount of funding appropriated to our schools.” I do think funding is extremely important but I would like to know your position and how you would vote on issues such as standardized tests? I am an opponent of such testing because I do not think the results are completely accurate. My vote for you largely depends on your stance on these types of issues and I would appreciate a response informing me of your position.
Thank-you,
Sarah M. Gurney
Friday, February 20, 2009
Module 5
I am a math teacher in a middle school somewhere in rural NC. While working at the chalk board one day, I heard a student call another student a ni**er. As we all know that word is insulting to African Americans and it should not be tolerated at all.
If a situation like this happened and I was the teacher I would immediately send the child out of my class into the hallway to reprimand him/her out of ear shot of other students. I would let the child know that kind of language would never be allowed in my class and I would send him/her directly to the office. I would then set up a meeting with the principal and the parents. Although I am aware racism is learned and his/her parents could possibly feel the same way, I would still like to meet with them and inform them of what went on in my class.
Even if that type of statement was not directed at an African American, I would still feel as though something like that should never be said and that would not even make a difference a statement like that is still wrong.
I have been trying to think of a situation where I would be uncomfortable. I can not think of any situation like that. I would not have any problems teaching someone of a different race, religion, or even sexuality. I would not even have a problem if a child had homosexual parents. I have been trying to put every possible scenario into play to see if I were uncomfortable and I truly can not think of one.
An issue that bothers me is abuse, either physical, mental or sexual. If the child's' parent were abusing him/her and I was aware of it, I would definitely have to take my information to the officials, whether it be the school officials or the police. As a teacher, I would be responsible for the care and safety of the child. If I knew something was causing harm to a student, then it would be my duty to stop it and help the child in any way possible.
If a situation like this happened and I was the teacher I would immediately send the child out of my class into the hallway to reprimand him/her out of ear shot of other students. I would let the child know that kind of language would never be allowed in my class and I would send him/her directly to the office. I would then set up a meeting with the principal and the parents. Although I am aware racism is learned and his/her parents could possibly feel the same way, I would still like to meet with them and inform them of what went on in my class.
Even if that type of statement was not directed at an African American, I would still feel as though something like that should never be said and that would not even make a difference a statement like that is still wrong.
I have been trying to think of a situation where I would be uncomfortable. I can not think of any situation like that. I would not have any problems teaching someone of a different race, religion, or even sexuality. I would not even have a problem if a child had homosexual parents. I have been trying to put every possible scenario into play to see if I were uncomfortable and I truly can not think of one.
An issue that bothers me is abuse, either physical, mental or sexual. If the child's' parent were abusing him/her and I was aware of it, I would definitely have to take my information to the officials, whether it be the school officials or the police. As a teacher, I would be responsible for the care and safety of the child. If I knew something was causing harm to a student, then it would be my duty to stop it and help the child in any way possible.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Goals for Schools
The Goals for Schools survey that we had to complete this week had many important topics on the subject of "Why we have schools". There is more to school than the old slogan of reading, writing and arthimatic. The elimination of racism and hatred would be wonderful, but in reality something like that would never happen. I believe if schools were to increase diversity awarness by educating students about diversity (racial, sexual, religious), would be a good start for the resolution to some of these issues.
The elementary school that I attended was a magnet school and it happened to be the school that was in my district. I grew up in a tough city in the suburbs of Boston, MA. My school district was considered the "good" side of town. The idea of magnet schools in my city was a really good opportunity for those that were receiving a lesser education. Our school would send buses to the "bad" side of the city and pick of students that either had certain needs that their district school was not serving or smarter students that were not being challenged enough at their local school. This made for a very diverse learning experience. We not only had the students who lived in the good district, but we also had some of the less fortunate children from a lower socioeconomic background.
In our small, but largely populated city there were three junior high schools. Due to the fact that I lived the better side of the city, the junior high that I attended was the best of the three. Although the school I attended still had fights and drugs, there were less at my school than the other two schools. Being subjected to the problems with society at an early age, in my opinion, helped to shape me as a person. I saw things that I was not going to become i.e. homeless, a drug addict, a gang member, etc. While reading about home schooling and other alternatives a major issue that advocates had was violence and negative things they did not want their own children to be subjected to. I have to say, I was subjected to all of those things and I did not fall into those categories. I think my parents and my family definitely had a lot to do with helping me to succeed. But overall, it was me who had to turn down the peer pressure and no matter what my parents had taught me, it did not matter, it was up to me and me alone.
I think an effective teacher really makes the students want to be there and want to learn. I think I will incorporate different things and activities that I enjoyed as a student. Teachers that tend to lecture the whole period usually loose a lot of students along the way. I want every child to succeed in my class. If some do not, then I will have not done my job properly. If a teacher can make class fun and interesting, then chances are the success rate will increase.
The elementary school that I attended was a magnet school and it happened to be the school that was in my district. I grew up in a tough city in the suburbs of Boston, MA. My school district was considered the "good" side of town. The idea of magnet schools in my city was a really good opportunity for those that were receiving a lesser education. Our school would send buses to the "bad" side of the city and pick of students that either had certain needs that their district school was not serving or smarter students that were not being challenged enough at their local school. This made for a very diverse learning experience. We not only had the students who lived in the good district, but we also had some of the less fortunate children from a lower socioeconomic background.
In our small, but largely populated city there were three junior high schools. Due to the fact that I lived the better side of the city, the junior high that I attended was the best of the three. Although the school I attended still had fights and drugs, there were less at my school than the other two schools. Being subjected to the problems with society at an early age, in my opinion, helped to shape me as a person. I saw things that I was not going to become i.e. homeless, a drug addict, a gang member, etc. While reading about home schooling and other alternatives a major issue that advocates had was violence and negative things they did not want their own children to be subjected to. I have to say, I was subjected to all of those things and I did not fall into those categories. I think my parents and my family definitely had a lot to do with helping me to succeed. But overall, it was me who had to turn down the peer pressure and no matter what my parents had taught me, it did not matter, it was up to me and me alone.
I think an effective teacher really makes the students want to be there and want to learn. I think I will incorporate different things and activities that I enjoyed as a student. Teachers that tend to lecture the whole period usually loose a lot of students along the way. I want every child to succeed in my class. If some do not, then I will have not done my job properly. If a teacher can make class fun and interesting, then chances are the success rate will increase.
Friday, January 23, 2009
How do we learn?
I think schooling helps with a childs personal growth. I believe that a person's basic social skills are learned at a young age and school is a major contributer to this. Growing up in Massachusetts I had never heard of home-schooling. That was something that I guess is not prevelent up north like it is in North Carolina. Upon moving here, I met a family who prefers home-schooling and in my opinion, I believe that they are doing a disservice to their children. I was there one day during "school" time and honest to goodness they spent one hour working on school work and then they were done. What kind of education is that? It is a pretty pathetic one, in my opinion. Their children are also receiving a bias education, when it comes to religion and sciences. Just because you may not believe in something, does not mean that you should not learn about it (evolution). They are also lacking social interaction with other children. They only interact with their siblings on a daily basis. They do, however, have what is called Friday school, which is a meeting of a group of home-schooled children on Fridays. That is the least that can be done for those children. School is definitely not only about academics, the bus ride to and from school, after-school sports, lunch in the cafeteria, etc. all of these elements of school are very important to the personal growth of a child.
After reading the text and watching the videos this week, I have realized that there is not only one proper way of teaching a child. Some children are visual learners, others learn verbally, and many need to take the hands on approach. An effective teacher uses multiple teaching styles in order to reach all of the children in the classroom.
My results from the learning styles assessment were that I am more of a visual learner. I agree with those results. I have always needed to see what I was trying to learn, it helped me. Flashcards have always been my number one tool in studying. They are very useful to me.
In chemistry class in high school, our class was told to memorize the perodic table of elements. At first glance, we were scared. A classmate and I decided to study together. Her idea was to just "memorize" the elements as they appeared in the chart. I told her that there was no way that I could do that successfully, so I came up with another idea. It may sound funny, but it worked for us. We associated the letters with a funny saying that we could remember. For example: AU is gold and we said that "gold is Always Universal as a gift" AG is silver so, "Almost as Good as gold" and so on. I can not remember exactly what grade I received, but I know that I did good. It actually turned that awful task into something that was sort of fun.
After reading the text and watching the videos this week, I have realized that there is not only one proper way of teaching a child. Some children are visual learners, others learn verbally, and many need to take the hands on approach. An effective teacher uses multiple teaching styles in order to reach all of the children in the classroom.
My results from the learning styles assessment were that I am more of a visual learner. I agree with those results. I have always needed to see what I was trying to learn, it helped me. Flashcards have always been my number one tool in studying. They are very useful to me.
In chemistry class in high school, our class was told to memorize the perodic table of elements. At first glance, we were scared. A classmate and I decided to study together. Her idea was to just "memorize" the elements as they appeared in the chart. I told her that there was no way that I could do that successfully, so I came up with another idea. It may sound funny, but it worked for us. We associated the letters with a funny saying that we could remember. For example: AU is gold and we said that "gold is Always Universal as a gift" AG is silver so, "Almost as Good as gold" and so on. I can not remember exactly what grade I received, but I know that I did good. It actually turned that awful task into something that was sort of fun.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Best and Worst Teachers!
Most people that end up teaching have ususally always wanted to become a teacher. I do not fall into that category. After graduating from a community college with my associates degree, I then started at NC State for my bachelors degree, studying to become an accountant. During my second semester I found that accounting was not something that I would "love" to do for the rest of my life. I have always enjoyed math, especially algebra, but in my opinion, teachers do not make as much money as they should. Educators have one of the most important jobs and their pay does not reflect their importance. The pay scale is one of the reasons why I did not start out studying in the education field. Now that I am older and truly understand that life is not only about money, my long-term happiness is now my focus, which I believe would come from teaching mathematics.
I have been trying to recall my best and worst teachers and it has not been as easy as one would think it would have been. They are not jumping out at me like I would have hoped. My worst teacher definitely comes to mind a lot easier than my favorite teacher. In my early college years at a community college I had a professor that was foreign and English was not his first language. Not only was there a large language barrier to cross, but his teaching skills, in my opinion, were not that good. His idea of a lecture was to show the class all of the pictures and diagrams that were located in the book, over the projector. In the end, I feel that I did not retain any of the information throughout the semester that I had learned.
My favorite teacher, on the other hand, was great. She would lecture, usually using power point slides, but she would also get the class involved with hands on activities. It was not only about taking notes, which usually affects any students attention span, our class had a lot of group discussions. I think I received a 106 average in that class, not because I had no life and all that I did was study, but because my professor made the material fun and understandable. I really learned a lot in that class and I actually still remember a large majority of the information to this day.
I have been trying to recall my best and worst teachers and it has not been as easy as one would think it would have been. They are not jumping out at me like I would have hoped. My worst teacher definitely comes to mind a lot easier than my favorite teacher. In my early college years at a community college I had a professor that was foreign and English was not his first language. Not only was there a large language barrier to cross, but his teaching skills, in my opinion, were not that good. His idea of a lecture was to show the class all of the pictures and diagrams that were located in the book, over the projector. In the end, I feel that I did not retain any of the information throughout the semester that I had learned.
My favorite teacher, on the other hand, was great. She would lecture, usually using power point slides, but she would also get the class involved with hands on activities. It was not only about taking notes, which usually affects any students attention span, our class had a lot of group discussions. I think I received a 106 average in that class, not because I had no life and all that I did was study, but because my professor made the material fun and understandable. I really learned a lot in that class and I actually still remember a large majority of the information to this day.
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