#11 3 things I will remember

After looking back at all the things that we have done this semester, I believe that the three things that I will remember the most are when we learned about the reading Aria by Richard Rodriguez, Troublemakers by Shalaby and did the five tricks game. I feel that these topics will be the most memorable for me due to the fact that they made me think about my future self.

Aria by Richard Rodriguez

To learn and hear about Rodriguez's experience was incredibly sad to hear but also made me very curious about if others have had a similar experience.  We learn that Rodriguez and his family are originally from a different country so their home language is Spanish.  At home with his family he speaks confidently to his parents using their language but when he goes to school his confidence begins to spiral down since they want him to learn and speak only in English.  Since he was not speaking very much at school due to this new language his teachers decided that it was best to speak to his parents and tell them that they needed to speak English at home too.  Rodriguez's parents , only wanting the best for him, encouraged him to speak English from now on.  Rodriguez began to speak confidently within his learned language but he slowly lost the connection between him and his parents due to him not speaking much Spanish anymore.  

I will remember this because If I work with students that speak a different language I want to be a teacher that will encourage them to continue to speak and learn within their language.  If I have students that can speak a different language I would ask them to teach me or I would take the time to learn a bit of it so that way they can feel comfortable and accepted within my classroom.  Today, in my placement I handed a student a survey that was in Spanish and she got so excited because she speaks Spanish.  I want to continue to bring that joy and feeling of acceptance to my future students. 

Troublemakers by Shalaby    

I think reading Troublemakers was very eye opening and makes you realize that before you act on something to really take a second to think about what is going on.  In every classroom there is at least one person that is labeled as the troublemaker. However, are they really trouble?  The "troublemaker" is seen as someone who is seen fighting or talking back against policy or a faculty member. 

This reading made me realize that instead of seeing what they are saying as a sense of fighting back but to think about what they are saying and if what they are saying is actually worth questioning. I want to be a teacher that supports my students in questioning things that they feel are wrong and to fight for what they believe in. I want to also show my students why they believe in something that they should fight until they find an answer. 

Five Tricks Game 

In class we were told that we were gonna play a game.  We were given a deck of cards and directions on a piece of paper which said how we played.  One of the rules was that we couldn't talk to each other.  Looking at the directions I figured out how to play and was trying my best in the practice rounds to explain to everyone else in my group on how to play.  However, when we got to the actual game part and could no longer talk to each other it seemed that everyone was just guessing on what to do.  As we continued to play once and once we finished at our table the winner and the loser would have to get up and go to a different table.  Once at a different table we would continue to play again.  This is when things started to get really confusing when we still couldn't talk but all were following different rules.

I quickly caught on that everyone had different rules and it was a test to see if we could all get along.  I remember some people in our class were starting to get frustrated and some you could see were very confused.  It wasn't until someone shouted out "we all have different rules" that people understood.  In a way I found this to be a little funny and a great lesson.  Something as simple as a game made people get so frustrated.  I thought that this was a great lesson to point out how in life people are quick to not listen to each other and that if we could find a way to hear each other out no matter the differences then we could come together which would be better for everyone. 

Reflection on intro to sexual orientation

 Today in class we watched a TED Talk on sexual orientation.  In the video we get two different perspectives on sexual orientation.  One point of view we get a personal experience from someone who growing up was able to get support from a summer camp and from their parents about trying to figure out who they were.  The second point of view was from a parent who was noticing their son at an early age be interested in female typical things like wearing dresses and heals from his mothers closet.  The video talked about how as a parent and as a personal experience how having support can be helpful for the child and the child and parents experiencing this are not alone. 

Blog #10

 This week’s blog posts is about reading Rhode Island Laws and Policies on “Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students”.  This gives us a look at the policies that are being followed in the state of Rhode Island and what schools have to follow.  Although in the state of Rhode Island schools have to follow these policies, I believe that as a teacher whatever is in the best interest of the student is what a teacher should do.  No matter what the teachers thought are about any of their students their job is to provide students with an education.  As a teacher we should want to do whatever we can in order to create the best environment for our students to learn. As a teacher I want all of my students to feel safe and comfortable within my classroom no matter what race or gender that they are.  As a teacher you are in charge of providing students with a strong education and if making slight changes in order to make every student feel supported and safe then you should be doing so.  I hope that in the future that I can build a strong relationship with my students that they feel safe with showing and expressing who they are and supported within their education no matter who they are.    

“Eliminating Ableism in Education”

 

This week for my blog post I read “Eliminating Ableism in Education”.  In this reading I found three quotes that I liked that made me think about how I want to be as a future teacher.  

The first quote is “a child who has received the help he needs to walk is at an advantage in a barrier-filled world”.This quote just reminded me of how important it is to be able to help our students in the ways that they need us too.   No matter in what ways students are different from each other it is our job to be able to support any of our students and provide them an education that is best for them and encourage their minds to grow.  As their teachers we have to be the ones to provide them that help.

The second quote is “I was taught to read print, not Braille, because everyone felt it would make me more like sighted people”This quote reminded me that as a teacher I want students to feel confident and comfortable with who they are in my room.  No matter how our students are different then we as teachers should surround our students in a safe environment so that they feel that they are enough just being who they are.  I want my students to know that they are perfect for who they are.  They should feel safe to embrace what makes them different instead of feeling they need to be just like everyone else. 

The third quote from this reading is “Special education does not mean a different curriculum”This quote made me think about how it is important that students that are different and do need to be receiving specific help not only get the help they need but also not completely change their lesson from everyone else.  Just because these students may need specific help does not mean that they need to have what is being taught to them changed.  Just because students may need extra specific help does not mean that they can’t still be learning what everyone else is being taught, it just means that they need to be taught and supported differently.  I want to be a teacher that provides the adjustment to the lesson that students need in order to best fit the student but not change what they are learning so that way they are getting an education like everyone else in the class is. 

Blog #8 on Richard Rodriguez on being bilingual

For this week's blog post we had to read the quick reading on Richard Rodriguez.  In this reading Richard is talking about what it was like growing up speaking Spanish and having to learn English at such a young age and how it impacted his life.  As I was reading this it did make me think about the school that I am currently placed in to help students with math.  Although I have only picked up on one student being bilingual due to hearing them speak, I have been told from the other teacher in the room that some of the students do have a second language.  The class is also very diverse so this would not come as a shock.  Whether this is true or not,  I would never be able to tell since the kids within this first grade class all speak English really well.  Richard Rodriguez story has me thinking about all the students that are bilingual in my room, school and about kids growing up in general.  This really makes you realize that everyone has different experiences and different stories.  It makes me wonder if a lot of bilingual students do end up dropping their first language at home when learning a different language.  It also makes me question if all families have this same experience as far as losing family connections.  Although I am not bilingual, I did remember having to take Spanish class in high school.  Although I found it sometimes easy, it took a lot of studying.  Many things I found hard and now that I haven't practiced or thought about it in so long I don't remember it.  Although my experience is different, I have sympathy for those that are trying to learn English at any age.  When I am a teacher I want to do my best to make my students feel as comfortable as possibly when they are in my room.  Richard Rodriguez mentions it in his reading but prior to this reading I have always thought about how if I get students that are bilingual how I would want to learn a few words from their language in order to show to them that I am trying to learn from them, they do not have to completely give up their language, and that I am trying my best to make them feel comfortable in my room. 

Blog #7 Literacy with an Attitude

    For this week’s blog I read Literacy with an Attitude by Patrick J. Finn.  A little background about Finn is that he is from the south side of Chicago and part of a blue collar, Irish catholic big family.  Finn was the eighth out of nine children.  Unlike the other men in his family, Finn was the odd man out and went to school to be a teacher and not a plumber like his brothers.  After reading this article from Finn there are many quotes that I find important.  However these are the three quotes that I connected with and wanted to share about. 

1.) “The reality was that as the year wore on there were spaces available in the “lower” classes to dump troublesome students from “higher” classes.

I chose this quote from the article because not only do I find lowering kids into different classes because they are troublesome is wrong for the student but it is also wrong for those teachers.  Just because a student may be “troublesome” does not mean that they should be lowered from the class that they deserve to be in due to their intelligence.  This is not only unfair for the student because now they are not getting the education that they should be getting.

“Schooled to take orders, to replace their parents at the bottom of the economic heap” 

This quote I found to be important in showing that as teachers it is important to encourage our students to dream big and reach for their big dreams no matter their background.  It's important that students are aware of their career choices and realize they do not have to do what their family is known to do.  I believe that as a teacher it is important that we encourage students that they can do and be successful in a career path that they want to be in if they work really hard.

“They’re lazy. I hate to categorize them, but they’re lazy” “Because children in this school don’t know anything about the U.S, so you can’t teach them much”. “You can’t teach these kids anything. Their parents don’t care about them, and they’re not interested”

These were all a bunch of quotes that I found in the same paragraph describing what teachers have said about their students.  I think that these quotes are important to look at to see how as a teacher you should not be talking about your students in this way.  I feel that what is being said within these quotes is assumptions being made about students and their families.  As a teacher, you shouldn’t be making assumptions that all your students feel a certain way about their education.  Although some students may fit in this category of not being interested in learning or even lazy it does not mean that all students are.  I also think that it is unfair for a teacher to assume how much a student’s family cares about them.  It is important to keep in mind that students are all going through different life situations and that you never truly know what your students are going through outside of the classroom.  Just because a student may act a specific way does not mean that they actually don’t care or have a family that doesn’t care about them.  They may just be going through a hard time that makes it difficult to be in a good head space for learning and hard for families to support their children’s education at all times when there could be bigger issues going on. 

#6 Alfie Kohn's What To Look for In a Classroom

When looking at Alfie Kohn’s What’s to look for in a classroom it goes through what are good signs and possible reasons to worry when it comes to categories within a classroom.  In class this week we looked at this chart within our groups based on the schools we have for our placement this semester.  In this blog I will be looking at each of the categories and explaining where my placement classroom falls under each category.  The categories in the charts are furniture, on the walls, student faces, sounds, location of teacher, teacher’s voice, students reaction to visitor, class discussion, stuff, tasks, and around the school,  

    Starting with the first category furniture I would say that my classroom falls under the good signs category.  In the good signs category it says that the chairs are around table that facilitate interaction and that there is open space for interaction.  My classroom falls under the good signs category because within the classroom there is an area in the front of the room where students can gather on the rug to learn together along with having their desk in groups allowing them to interact with each other.  Looking at the one the walls category my classroom also falls under both the good signs and the signs to be worried category.  My classroom falls under the signs to worry classroom because my teacher does have a reward system for the class as a total. If the kids do something really well they can earn a little reward that fills up a jar and when they reach the top of the jar they can earn extra recess or a choice in a different reward.  The class also falls into this category because of some of the poster in the room are commercial posters.  However, the classroom also falls under good signs because it does have student projects and work on the walls too. 

When it comes to the category of students faces, sounds, location of teacher, teacher’s voice, and students reaction to visitors all fall under good signs in my placement classroom.  These categories mean that my students are excited to learn and are welcoming to others that are invited into the room along with the teacher moving around the room to work with students and is also respectful and nice to her students and to visitors.  Every week when I enter the classroom I am greeted with a few hugs and waves from my students along with a positive greeting from the teacher.  Each week I go it has been nothing but a comfortable place for me to be in.  Within the classroom you can also hear frequent noice of activity happening within the students working. When it comes to class discussion the class mainly falls under signs to worry about because in the class students are raising their hands and are waiting to be called on by their teacher and are racing each other to see who can answer the question even if they do not know the answer right away.  For categories stuff, tasks, and around the school my classroom and school falls under the good signs.  This means that the school provides an atmosphere that is pleasant to be in and that in my classroom activities are taking place and that within the classroom it is filled with good books and supplies for the students to learn.

Overall my school and classroom fall under the good signs category with occasionally falling into the signs to worry category.  Although my classroom has some signs of worry in it I overall feel that what is being shown as a sign to worry really isn’t something that is to be worried about and I find is normal to have within a classroom.  I think having this chart from Kohn is nice to not only have to look at the experience that I am currently in within the classroom this semester but also to have for a future resource on things to keep in mind when teaching and setting up a classroom.