My classroom troublemaker

    Looking back at my tutoring hours this semester and reflecting it back on the reading Troublemakers I have noticed that there may be a trouble maker in the classroom.  The boy, who we will call Billy, is a child of color, comes into class dressed in clean, comfortable, and warm clothes.  Although in the reading, it is thought that these students who are seen as troublemakers are trying to question the school system and stand up for the freedom, I do not see the student in my classroom doing this just yet.  I think that this student is not questioning the school system just yet is because things that he is getting in trouble for things that are not a big deal.  This student is in first grade and is doing things such as not being able to stand in line, possibly putting his hands on others, or being a distraction during lessons.  For example the students were on the rug trying to learn a lesson of math and this particular student had to go back and sit at his desk because of what I believe is he put his hands on someone else like their shoe.  This student is not consistent with getting in trouble though.  Although he is in first grade now it makes me wonder what will happen when he gets older. 

#5 Troublemakers

 This weeks blog post is about the preface and introduction of Troublemakers.  The very first thing that is stated in the preface is “I care about the lives of children at school because I am an educator, and as an educator it is my job on insist on every child's right to a classroom experience that daily honors her, reveres her smarts, engages her curiosities, and ensures her dignity.But I also care about the lives of children at school because I am a human being, and as a human being I recognize every child's unalienable right to be free”.  I think this statement right here is so relatable and is part of the reason why I want to be a teacher.  I think this sentence for me can reflect my own personal experience of why I am going to school to be an art teacher.  I want to work with children because I care about them and want to help the next generation of students grow.  However, I also know that as a teacher I will have a huge impact on children’s life and that I believe I can recognize the rights that children should have and the way they should be treated.  Teachers have a strong impact on students and making sure that children are treated appropriately and teaching them their rights are extremely important. Another line from the preface on page 1 is "A free person can expect to be seen and treated as a full human being, free from any threats to her identity, to her cultural value...." This made me realize that I want to be a teacher that embraces students culture and who they are.  I want to be a teacher that will care and provide support for all kinds of kids no matter the differences we all share or how the student behaves. I want to be a teacher that doesn’t give up on any of their students. I want to be a teacher that doesn't believe in stereotypes and not judge my students.  I want to support my students when they are questioning their freedom and help them be treated the way they deserve to be treated. 

On page two of the preface it says " Schools value quiet children over loud ones and operate as though adults are the only teachers in the room. The adults get to speak while the young people listen. Questions are answered rather than asked. Our schools are designed to prepare children to take their assumed place in the social order rather than to question and challenge order".  This quote from the preface made me realize that I fall into the category of being one of the quiet students.  I avoid getting or being in trouble and most of the time in school I only talked when I had to or I knew what I had to say was right or important.  The students that were seen as the loud ones and were quieted by school officials were made to be seen as "troublemakers".  I think at that time I saw it as a distraction to the classroom. Although at the time I never questioned it, looking back now, they had every right to question school policies if they felt that it was something against their rights.  These students were really just trying to stand up for what they thought was right and try to find answers for questions that they had about their rights and freedom.  

#4 “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies A Research Review” by Christine E. Sleeter and A Short History of Public Schooling-Excerpt from the film Class Dismissed”.

 This week’s blog is on the reading “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies A Research Review” by Christine E. Sleeter and A Short History of Public Schooling-Excerpt from the film "Class Dismissed”. The video gives us a look at history so we can understand how things originally started compared to today. In the video we learn how before 1900 most children learned from home. The video tells us about how Horis Mann impacted school for us nowadays because he was the secretary of the first state Board of Education who believed that everyone should be entitled to the same content in school. I believe the intention of this system that was started was to create an environment for people to learn but along with creating a system that was strict and organized.  Although I think this system started with good intentions looking at it, it needs to be changed and improved.  The focus of this system was less on the intentions of teaching students.  This system prioritizes rankings and taking test.  As a future teacher, I think it is important that students are being taught to learn information and not just for how their numbers affect the education system.  Relating to be a future teacher, in the article  “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies A  Research Review In the first paragraph it talks about how a class at a community college impacted a student so much that it changed their view on school and impacted what they wanted to do as a future career.  I really thought about this experience and it just makes me realize that as a teacher that we can have so much influence on our students.  You never know how you can impact those around you.  It also made me reflect on the teachers that I had growing up and how they inspired me to want to be a teacher too.   

#3 Luna Malbroux video on "The Four I's of Oppression"

 My blog this week is on the video “The Four I’s of Oppression” with Luna Malbroux.  The video itself is only five minutes and twenty-six seconds long.  I found myself after the video wanting more knowledge about the four categories of Oppression.  

    The four categories of oppression include Ideological, Interpersonal, Institutional, and Internalized.  The video first starts off with Ideological and the stereotypes that are known with being called a “real girl” or a  “real boy”.  The video then moves on to interpersonal oppression and how we have possibly all been part of some sort of exclusion or experienced microaggressions.  Microaggressions are when something Is said and it seems like a compliment but it really is said out of being surprised.

        Just focusing on this part of the video  I feel as though everyone in some way may be able to connect to the interpersonal or ideological part of the video.  When it comes to these categories, I think that we have all been the person to say these things to others or have had someone say these things to us.  Now reflecting on my own personal experience and along with having sympathy for others, I realize that people need to be careful with what they say and to make sure they are not treating someone based on what is normalized in our society.  You never know what other people have experienced and how it has affected them. 

        The video goes into institutional oppression which talks about when school systems are being funded more than others or how we have to have laws so that people with different mental health diagnoses can go to work and be supported. The last category is internalized oppression.  Internalized oppression is when messages may not be explicitly stated.  For example when we see things in movies and you can clearly  see a character that is outside of the societal norm.  

    Just like the first half of the video I feel as though everyone can possibly relate to this section. Everyone can experience different things or have different feelings from what is seen as normalized.  Overall I think that this video sheds light on reality.  I feel like these categories are overlooked as being hurtful or not being impactful on someone's personal experience.  I think this video was nice to reflect on my own life and what has impacted me to be who I am today.  This video also made me realize that you never know what has shaped a person into who they are.  After this video, I hope that people can be more understanding of people's different experiences along with trying to not make people feel as though they have to be someone they are not just to fit into the societal norm. 

#2 Lisa Delpit Reading Connection to Alan Johnson.

After reading Other People’s Children from Lisa Delpit I connected it a lot with Alan Johnson’s writing  “Privileged Power and Difference”.  There was a quote from each article that I found connected in a strong way.  “How can such complete communication blocks exist when both parties truly believe they have the same aims” was a quote that I found In Lisa Delpit’s writing on page 23.  This quote stood out to me because it got me thinking about how all teachers have the goal to help students learn but how they can all do so in different ways.  In this section before this quote is mentioned, Delpit is talking about how professors, teachers or other school staff of color have felt that they have been left out of dialogue about how best to educate students of color.  This quote makes me think about how if teachers all share the goal of wanting students to learn no matter what their race is then why are our teachers of different races being ignored in these conversations.  I believe that no matter someone's race, when it comes to the goal of working together to help create a positive outcome then they should be able to allow each other to open up and listen to each other's ideas and suggestions.   As a future teacher I would want to hear others' experiences as a teacher and of teaching all sorts of kids so that way I can make sure that I am doing my best in order for my kids to learn. The connection that I made to Alan Johnson was when in his writing he said “For all our potential, you’d think we could manage to get along with one another”. These quotes I found connected with each other because both quotes focus on how we can share similar thinking and greatness as humans but we stand in our own way from allowing this greatness to show.  We may have similar thoughts and goals but due to our differences we allow ourselves to judge others.  

Overall If people could be more open to listening to each other and their experiences along with being able to accept each other’s differences then the world could be more positive. 

#1 Quotes from Alan Johnson's Privilege Power and Difference reading!

 This week's blog post is about the quotes from the reading Privilege Power and Difference by Alan Johnson.  Overall this reading is about differences that people have and how these differences can have an impact on people to have different experiences from each other and that having these differences can cause us to have different opinions. Within the first paragraph on the last page of Alan Johnson’s introduction, he says “What I don’t know from my own experience I have to supplement by studying the experience and research and writings of others….”This quote I found extremely important to emphasize because I think that although we can be discussing tough topics such as racism, class standings, preference in sexual partners, sexism, and privilege, everyone can bring their own experiences no matter what to the discussion.  This allows for different point of views to be seen no matter what the discussion is on.  This would be able to create a safe space for people to be able to relate to each other or see how people are experiencing different things on the topic of discussion.  I think that this quote of Alan Johnson also expresses how when you do not know something that it is okay and that you can inform yourself on what you don’t know by being open to the idea of researching others thoughts and opinions. 

Another quote that I found to be important in Alan Johnson's reading is when he says “For all our potential, you’d think we could manage to get along with one another”.  After reading this quote I stopped reading and sat with that thought for a few minutes.  I thought about how yes as humans we do have great potential and ability to do great things but what is stopping us from treating everyone with human decency?  Personally, I think that differences in opinions is the cause of most reasons why people are not being treated with decency.  This quote really makes you stop to think about how great some of the things that we can do as humans are and how due to different opinions and not being open to listening or learning is what can stop us from being able to treat people with decency.   

 The last quote that I am going to talk about tonight from Alan Johnson from this reading is “we are not prisoners to some natural order that pits us hopelessly and endlessly against one another”.  This quote points out that there is nothing besides ourselves standing in the way of being able to come together and discuss and create change within these hard topic conversations.  This quote points out that we do not need to be against each other if we just open ourselves into learning about other people's experiences and acknowledge our own experiences. 

From this reading I have gathered that we are all different and that it is okay but if we could learn to open up to each other and learn from each other's experience and understand why things can be harder for others than ourselves, then maybe we could be kinder to each other.  The image below is to represent how if we come together and accept each other and our different experiences we could create a more positive world. The Image below if from https://stockcake.com/i/unity-in-diversity_740331_822539

About Me!

 Hi! For my very first Blog post I wanted to share a little about me! My name is Samantha Laurent.  I am twenty years old and I am from Warwick, Rhode Island. I am in my sophomore year at Ric and I am an intended art education major.  As of right now, I believe that my concentration will be in graphic design.  Graphic design is something that is familiar to me since in high school I graduated with my certificate from the graphic design program from a career and technical center.  For the future, I would love to be an elementary art teacher.  I have loved art since I was younger and I have known since sixth grade that I wanted to be an art teacher.  Other interests I have besides art include watching movies.  My favorite movies include The Hunger Games series or most of the Marvel movies, Spiderman being my favorite.  My best friend and I have a tradition to going to the movie theater together every time a new Marvel movie comes out. Another thing that I enjoy includes going to concerts.  Although I like all kinds of music my favorite genre is definitely country music.  The past year and upcoming year I have be thankful to be able to attend some pretty awesome concerts.  Other things that I enjoy are reading, going to the beach, and hanging out with my boyfriend, friends and my family.