Random Blog 1

This week I saw a couple of Dr. Phil episodes that made me think of this class. They were about discipline dangers and fighting for your child. The fighting for your child reminded me of the movie we watched with kids with disabilities. There was a video that was shown that made me feel outraged. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The video shows a 14-year-old boy (non-verbal) with autism being dragged out of the classroom by some adult I don’t know if it was a teacher or not. Then he was put in a dark room. I couldn’t believe it and when the boy came home with ripped clothes his father went to the school and saw the shocking surveillance video. I was glade that the father saw something was wrong and fought for his son’s rights. Both episodes we very interesting to me and I tought a lot about this class when I was wathich them.



This video talks about if teachers should remove children from the classroom when they are acting up. In a way i think yes and no. Yes because it might be distracting to the other kids, but no because then the student you are sending out of the class is not going to learn. It is a lose lose situation because either the entire class get distracted from the less or the student you kicked out misses the entire lesson. I think the teacher should try to fix the situation first and then at the last result send the student out of the classroom.

Talking Points 10

Empowering Education
By: IRA SHOR

1.) “A curriculum that does not challenge the standard syllabus and conditions in society informs students that knowledge and the world are fixed and are fine the way they are, with no role for students to play in transforming them, and no need for change.” (pg12)
~I don’t think a student would try if they thought they play no role. In a classroom a teacher should challenge the standard syllabus and make their own syllabus to include the students participation to get the students more involved in the class.


2.) “Politics reside not only in subject matter but in the discourse of the classroom, in the way teachers and students speak to each other. The rules for talking are a key mechanism for empowering or disempowering students. How much open discussion is there in class? How much one-way "teacher-talk"? Is there mutual dialogue between teacher and students or one-way transfers of information from teacher to students?” (14)
~ I think it is important because I can remember having classes were I just sit and listen to the teacher and I don’t feel empowered to try and learn on my own. I use to just listen to the teacher and I think I would have got more from the class if I would have felt empowered to learn.


3.) “A participatory pedagogy, designed from cooperative exercises, critical thought, student experience, and negotiated authority in class, can help students feel they are in sufficient command of the learning process to perform at their peak.” (21)
~If students think they are in control of their learning the students will feel more empowered to learn. Instead of just sitting at a desk hearing the teacher go on and on the students will be able to participate in their learning.


I thought this article was good, but it was hard for me to read because I couldn’t stay focused. I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it. In the beginning of the article when it talks about how students should question “why we go to school” it made me think about my writing class. I had to write a paper on the importance of education. Before I was told to write that paper I never really questioned why I went to school. I think that this is something all kids should think about because if you don’t you will just be going to school because you are forced to go not because you want to go. I think if children want to go to school or at least know the reason for why they are going to school that they will learn better. When the article was talking about participation it made me think of this class and how it is important to participate. I think that participation is something classes need to have, but sometimes is hard for some students to do. For me I think it is getting a little easier to participate in class.

Social Justice Event

When I first went to my event I didn’t even think of it as a social justice event, but when started to analyze it, I could see some interesting ways that I could connect it. I think by being in this class I am more observant and I defiantly analyze things more. In a way I kind of like it because I feel like I now can see the truth.
Well, getting back to my event it was a Titanic exhibit at Foxwoods. It had a ton of information about the titanic and it also had different artifacts that they retrieved from the Titanic. It also had two actors there in complete character. The woman was from first class and the man was from third class and he was Irish. They were so in character it was amazing. I tried to stay away from them, but they kept coming up to me and asking me questions. Even though I didn’t like it I think it really made the experience better because I learned more and it brought me into the moment. There was a mix of people there and a lot of families.

*I found this picture online and it is kind of like the people in Character that I talked to, but they were dressed different.



When I was at the exhibit I saw a women talking to one of the people from the exhibit and her daughter came up to the woman and tried to ask her a question. At this time I figured out it probably was her mother. Her mother looked at her and said “ you don’t interrupt when to adults are talking because that is rude” then the girl just stood and waited for her mother to be done talking. At first I just brushed it off and thought nothing of it. Now looking back at it I can see I had a Delpit moment. A mother teaching her daughter the rules and codes of power. I think that this goes against Delpit because she says that teachers should teach there students the rules and codes of power because they do not learn them at home. This mother was teaching her daughter the rules and codes of power.
Going to the exhibit made me think about the Titanic movie. I remember when I was young I saw the movie and I thought it was so cool that two people could fall in love on the Titanic. When I talked to my mother about it she told me that part of the movie was fiction. I couldn’t believe it, why would a movie with the Titanic in it lie. When I told my friends at school they didn’t believe me and thought I was lying. I think this is like Christensen because she sees the underlining themes or secret education in movies. In the Titanic movie I think that the secret education could be many things, but the one I thought of was that Learning about Titanic was the secret education. I thought this because if the made a movie on the Titanic alone they wouldn’t have a had blockbuster movie. I think that the people who made the movie thought that a movie just about the Titanic would have been boring so they added a love story to make it more interesting. When people went to see the movie they would go and see the fictional love story, but end up learning about the Titanic and how so many people died.
On the Titanic there was discrimination based on the peoples social classes. From the first class to third class there was a big difference. This social class made a big difference because it all depended on how good of things you got. Like your meals and rooms. The room size in first class was far bigger and nicer then the rooms in third class. In the exhibit they had two example rooms one was the first class and the other was third class. The food that was eaten was far better then the food eaten by third class. The first class menu had about ten courses for dinner and third class had about five courses for dinner. In the exhibit they also had a set of fan blades they got from the titanic. The women in character from the exhibit told me that the first class rooms got the fans and that the third class passengers didn’t get them. The thing I found interesting was that third class rooms were warmer and they needed a fan more than first class. In a way I think this is kind of like Anyon because Anyon talks about the effects of school children, but I think it still relates a lot to the differences in social classes. It shows how the different social classes are treated. If you had more money you would get more and better things.
When the Titanic was sinking women and children were told to go on the life boats first and I could understand why they did it. I found this website that told how many people survived and who went out on the life boats. The website was about the Titanic’s demographics. I was surprised to see on the website that on the first life boat that went out that over half the people that were on the boat were man and most of them were not even traveling with there love ones. I was so shocked and couldn’t believe it. When I looked at the percentage of people who survived and found that the women and children percentages were higher then the men’s survival percentages. The women’s survival percentage was 72%, the children’s survival percentages was 50% and the men’s survival percentages was 18%. So I guess women and children did get off the Titanic before most of the men.

Talking Points 9

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Kliewer

1.) “[Community] requires a willingness to see people as they are-different
perhaps in their minds and in their bodies, but not different in their spirits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosaic of society. It requires the "helper" to have the humility to listen for what the person says he or she needs. Also, the "helper" must see that the interaction "helps" both ways.” (pg73)
~ I liked this quote because I think it is true. Even though someone is thought to be different it doesn’t mean they are not a human being. I believe that Shayne had the right idea in how to teach her students to have a classroom community.

2.) It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here-kids, teachers, parents, whoever-it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's
what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to Fail(75)
~ I think every child has a different way of learning and you have to figure it out as a teacher. You(as a Teacher) should never label a child because then they think that they are bad at it and will always do bad. A teacher should never let a student fail you have to try your hardest so no students fail. I think this quote is also talking about the classroom community.

3.) The psychologist, who knew little about him, defined Isaac's actions as manifestations of cognitive defect separating the child from the intellectual norm. Shayne, who knew Isaac well, defined his actions as a complex, sophisticated, symbolic response to a difficult situation, one that transformed the context into a more meaningful and thoughtful experience. (85)
~ I think that this psychologist was wrong for thinking that just because Isaac didn't follow the exact directions that he not the intellectual norm. when I read the part about the psychologist I got a little angry. I think the way Isaac thought was different, but correct.

I thought the article this week had some very interesting stories, but was too long and some parts were hard for me to focus. I liked the story about Isaac in Shayne Robbins’s class. I thought that Shayne had a good approach on how to understand Isaac. I never knew that you could dance to a book like Isaac did. It really opened my eyes to see that yes a kid might be called different, but it is just the way the student thinks is different. I think that Isaac’s story is a powerful and everyone can learn from it. I also liked how Shayne talked about a classroom community.
I also liked the story about the girl that wanted to be a movie director. I couldn't believe that the people in charge of her placement wouldn't listen to her and what she wanted. She didn't like young children and didn't wanted to be placed their so I thought it was great ho at the end she ended up getting placed in the movie rental store. She was doing great there too. I don’t think it is fair that she had to fight to be placed at a job she is actually great at.
I think that if you separate kids it might not be equal. I can see the pros and cons to it. If you separate kids with down syndrome then you are taking the kids out of the classroom community and not giving every student and equal chance. I also know that by their might be some pros to separating children with down syndrome. I just don’t know. So the question I have is separate equal for this situation?

I thought these two video were very interesting. Both videos are about if parents should send their children with down syndrome to a mainstream or special needs school.

Talking Points 8

"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Schooling"
By: Anyon


1.) “It will be suggested that there is a "hidden curriculum" in schoolwork that has profound implications for the theory - and consequence - of everyday activity in education.... “
~This reminded me of the hidden education in children’s books and movies that Christensen talked about. I thought this was an interesting idea.

2.) “In math, when two-digit division was introduced, the teacher in one school gave a four-minute lecture on what the terms are called (which number is the divisor, dividend, quotient, and remainder). The children were told to copy these names in their notebooks. Then the teacher told them the steps to follow to do the problems, saying, "This is how you do them." The teacher listed the steps on the board, and they appeared several days later as a chart hung in the middle of the front wall: "Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down." The children often did examples of two-digit division.”
~I think that only giving a four minute lecture on the terms is wrong how is a student going to understand the material if they don’t understand the terms. I think being a teacher you need to have all different kinds of methods for teaching. You can’t tell a student there is only one way to do a problem.

3.) “In both working-class schools, work in language arts is mechanics of punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, exclamation points), capitalization, and the four kinds of sentences. One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use." Regarding punctuation, either a teacher or a ditto stated the rules for where, for example, to put commas.”
~I was kind of shocked that a teacher would say that all the students will ever use is simple punctuation. What does she think that these kids will not need the other information she doesn’t know what these kids will become in the future.


I thought this article was a good read. I found the study that was done in this article interesting. I liked how you can really see the difference in each school in the way the kids are taught. I also liked how there were examples of every point Anyon made. The difference in the different schools didn’t really surprise me. There were something in each school that did surprise me like when one teacher told a girl that she was wrong for thinking there was a different way in making the grid they were doing. I think if a student thinks of a different way of doing an activity you should let them share it with the class because it might be a way some other students in the class learn the activity. I defiantly could see the differences in each different school. I don’t think it is right that the children’s schoolings depends on how much money their parents have and where they live.

Talking Points 7

Gender and Education

For this blog I thought it was a little difficult. I found it hard to find good information about gender equality in education.
One website I found talked about a New York Times magazine article. The article was about segregating boys and girls in public school classrooms. I think this would be a step backwards because it is saying that if you are different you can just be separated and everything will be just fine. In a lesser extent this reminds me of racial segregation. I know that there are some advantages to this idea I just can’t see it in public schools. The site says that one reason for doing this is that boys and girls learn differently. I don’t find this very accurate because I believe that everyone learns differently not just boys and girls. What if the way you are teaching only the girls doesn't work for some of the girls then what do you do. You would probably show them a different way to do the problem. So way not instead of segregating boys and girls in schools we have different ways to teach each student. I think this would be a more effective plan. A quote that I thought was interesting on this site was “Boys are nearly twice as likely as girls to be suspended; more likely to drop out of high school; boys makeup 2/3 of special education students; and are 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.”

• Another website I found had an article called Gender Equality in Education: is it possible? I thought this was a good article, it talked about the reasons why gender equality was at a halt.



• I also found a site that had a Q&A sex discrimination in education and gender discrimination overview. It talked about Title IX, which to be honest I didn't know about until I read this article. “ Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities which receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states that: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

This video tells about gender discrimination in schools. I thought it was it was short and to the point.


Gender Discrimination in Schools -- powered by eHow.com

This video was also about gender discrimination and I thought it was also very interesting.