Week of 3/22

Class this week was interesting, and the Equity & Diversity Awareness Quiz, that can be found at http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/quiz/quizNEW.pdf was really eye opening. I got 7 out of the 15 correct. I have to admit while taking the quiz I was telling myself to go with a pretty extreme answer because these facts wouldn't be so interesting if they weren't so startling. Even so, I still only got 7 correct because some of them I just really couldn't believe and didn't want to choose the extreme answer. A question that really startled me was #4, concerning a UNICEF ranking of the treatment of children,where the two countries which received the lowest ratings were the US and the U.K., I answered this question correctly but I think it is something useful to know because there are children in this country who are treated terribly and struggle and are not treated the idyllic way you would want children to be treated. Another question that struck me as interesting was #8 about the vast difference in median annual income in the U.S. of white men compared to Latina and Native American women who have the same degrees, it is just another raw, startling fact similar to those discussed in the beginning of the Sleeter and Grant book.
Lastly, a startling fact that is a segue into our reading was the first question in the test, how 40% of U.S. school have no teachers of color on their staff. That is almost half of the schools in the U.S. who do not have teachers of color. This makes me think about what can be done, and what should be done. Which relates to the human relations approach discussed in chapter three of Sleeter and grant. There are obviously need to be changes implemented into classrooms and the educational system as a whole so that there are more teachers of color, and children have opportunities to see themselves or someone of their culture, race, or ethnicity as their teacher. The introduction of more teachers of color in the classroom would not only help children of color but would show white children who may have racist or prejudiced homes that teachers don't have to be white. There are so many benefits that could arise if more U.S. schools had diverse teaching staff, and changes in schools can only snowball effect into changes in society as a whole.

Week of 3/15/10

So this week the reading that I really found most interesting, and the one I think we talked about quite a bit was the Linda Darling-Hammond reading, Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind' it really was thought provoking. Prior to this reading I'll admit I did not know that much about NCLB, other than what I had heard from the news, and then negative stories about all the harm it was actually doing. In 2002 I was in middle school, and upon NCLB being passed I can remember teachers being worried, I attended a "gifted and talented" school(debate over this is a completely different issue) but we were a school that had usually done very well on standardized tests. The teachers none the less were concerned about how the students would do and expressed that to us, explaining that we HAD to do well, etc. Because of the lack of creativity and limitations standardized tests can put on teachers I think that they are not so great. But at the same time you need some standard, and if you're a great teacher who can teach above and beyond so that when the students take the test it is relatively easy then the teacher should not worry about being held accountable.
Also something that really grabbed my attention from the article was, "For an annual cost of $3 billion, or less than one week in Iraq, the nation could underwrite the high quality preparation of 40,000 teachers annually--enough to fill all the vacancies taken by under prepared teachers each year; seed 100 top-quality urban teacher education programs and improve the capacity of all programs to prepare teachers who can teach diverse learners well........" I sometimes feel that politicians/government leaders lose sight of what is really important, I support our troops as it is an issue that hits home for me, my brother is going to the U.S. Naval Academy, but I think the education of the millions of children in school who are our nations future should get a little more attention than it does now.

Lastly, although not directly associated with readings from this week, I saw this in the press & sun today...its a nice short article about the Irish because of St. Patrick's Day but the last paragraph made me literally laugh out loud after learning things in this class...I'm just curious if people agree with the authors viewpoint expressed in his closing line. And do you think that in the future blacks will be able to write an article like this?

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100317/VIEWPOINTS02/3170307/1120/VIEWPOINTS/Irish-worked-their-way-up-in-U.S.

Week of 3/8/10

This week in class I think the most interesting reading was in the Wayne Au, Rethinking Multicultural education book. I hadn't read all the readings for class, but after coming home and reading them I understood why the Nathaniel W. Smith chapter was such a thought provoking chapter. I think it is great of Mr. Smith to try and teach his affluent, mostly white students about race and everything that surrounds it. Although I think that without having the juxtaposition of black students in the classroom to describe what it is like to be black, these students only understand half of the issue. Yes Mr. Smith brought out "complex challenges that exist on all sides of the race definition" but at the same time I think I myself was a little confused at the message he was trying to get across. He didn't want his students to run with the principle that "race isn't real" but didn't want them to accept the classifications that are present concerning race in today's society either. I think he made the discussion of race an interesting one, and exposed how you cannot assume racial identities, but in the end I think without clarification some students just might have been more confused.

Another topic we discussed in class, in an attempt to have a real discussion on race was the N word. (I personally don't use the word so I won't type it.) This clip below is a speech I found by Tim Wise, an anti racist writer and educator, and I just really think he is an intelligent guy and makes such a valid point about using the word. He argues that white people in general should not use it because history shows that whites have used it in a negative, pejorative way. He also argues that whites should stay out of the conversation concerning whether using any form of that word is appropriate because whites do not have the privilege to do so. Its just an interesting argument and I agree with it. I will say, (even though Tim Wise says whites should stay out of the argument), I don't think that the n word should be used by anyone whites or blacks, but I also understand how some groups choose to change the implication and meaning of a negative insulting word by using it positively. Enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLXZ6_PW9A

Week of 3/1

I really liked class this week, especially the learning style worksheet where Prof. Smith spoke in patois. I was cracking up, as was most of the class, but looking at the situation seriously its scary to think that for non English speakers that is how a classroom can be for them. An environment where they don't understand the language, are afraid to speak up for fear of saying the wrong thing and just an uncomfortable situation. It was a great way of expressing how serious that concept is.

Not only having English as a barrier, but having a different learning style can most definitely be a barrier for young children in classrooms. For the most part I think I do believe in Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, I do think that children (and adults) learn different ways and for a student who needs hands on experience to fully grasp things sitting and just listening in a classroom would not be an effective teaching tool and vice verso. But, on the same note I do think that almost all children would learn better, or concentrate better if they were not just sitting listening to a teacher, but rather moving around, doing things for themselves. Children learn on a daily basis just by watching or observing and then trying it for themselves. I think a great example of this is a hands on museum like the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. I went there when I was younger, maybe about 10 which was a little too old to really be involved in the museum activities but I enjoyed watching my younger cousins. They spent over an hour in the supermarket section, walking up and down an aisle putting food in their shopping cart and going to the cash register, interacting with another child who was the 'cashier' restocking shelves and everyone switched roles many times. I feel this is a perfect example of how a child models, my cousins were not taught how to shop in a supermarket but after going to the supermarket with their parents they knew what to do when they were put in a "my size" supermarket environment. Because of this natural ability to model I think most children would succeed in a classroom if they were given the opportunity to do everything and learn and try, maybe fail and try again for themselves and not just sit and listen to a teacher.

This link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WON2VnQOKaE&feature=related shows a classroom in the UK and the use of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Although only a glimpse at one classroom facilitating this type of learning it did bring up concerns for me. If you have a classroom where you assess the students on how they learn best and then separate them into groups to do activities that are geared towards their skills this can in a sense be a form of tracking and stereotyping. A student who is given the title of a logical-mathematical intelligence who focuses on numbers and reasoning to understand everything I believe is not getting the full experience of learning a concept. I think it is important to try and find ways to reach as student and push them in their zone of proximal development, but I think you can do that by pushing them to understand a concept in a way that does give them difficulties and isn't always easy.

At the end of the youtube video some questions are raised as to whether Gardner's theory truly is a great theory and tool that must be used by educators. And I believe that it is a good theory, but one that must be used as an educational tool only in the correct way. Teaching a student in a way that they can understand and relate is important but children do have the capacity to learn and understand in many more ways than in an assessed and distinct category. I think as a theory it is great and should be studied more and more practical guidelines established with time so that hopefully with addressing different learning behavioral styles all children can reach their full potential.