Blog 11: Reflection

 1. Precious Knowledge: 

- Working with this documentary was quite interesting for me. I had never explored those ideas until that point, so it was cool to see what a high school could look like given the resources to explore ideas and history that isn't mainstream curriculum.

2. Asperger's Syndrome: 

- Towards the beginning of the semester, we explored topics surrounding oppression and mental disability. In one of the readings, I found out that Asperger's Syndrome has not been recognized as a mental illness since 2013. This is ridiculous to me, because now it has been conjoined with the rest of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. I have a close friend who has Asperger's, but now he can't get any help if needed because it's not longer recognized. 

3. Education Paradigms and The System Wasn't Designed this Way:

- These topics were especially important considering the decrease in quality in the current education system. The decrease is not subjective either, it's from kindergarten up to college from what I've seen and experienced. The modern education system is creating drones, not creative, interesting people who can go into the world and bring their skills to the table. Our standards are falling, to include math, literacy, and science rates being some of the worst in the world. For reference, we are ranked 31 out of 203 soverign states for our education rates. That sounds good upfront, but when the USA is a global superpower, we SHOULD be in the top 5, though we're not. It comes down to what we're willing to do, and right now, the USA is in a really bad place, and it's going to be up to us to fix it. 

Link to education statistics: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country

In Class Reflection 4/16

While I don't necessarily agree with transgender ideology, I can say that some individuals do need support to grow into the best person that they can be. After watching the video, I see that the speaker, whose name is Reed, has fully transitioned and is seemingly much happier for it. She was confident in her history, and wanted to tell her story to those around her to spread awareness of the encompassing issue. The other speaker, who is a mother of two boys, had dealt with the other side of transgender ideology with one of her sons. Her oldest had always been infatuated with more feminine things, such as clothes and American Girl Dolls. With this, she had to navigate the potentially difficult path of her son's journey. Her son grew up as a gay male, but that shows the hardship of this territory. 

Blog Post #10: Woke Read Aloud and RI Schools Trangenderism Guidance.

I’ve been hearing a lot about kids' books that focus on feelings, identity, and being yourself. In the woke read aloud, the book "It feels Good to Be Me" is read and discussed in detail. It’s meant to help kids feel good about who they are, no matter what they look like or how they feel inside. Some people call these kinds of books “woke,” because they talk about topics like gender, race, and acceptance.

"It Feels Good to Be Me" is about kids being proud of themselves. It says it’s okay to be different and that everyone should feel happy being who they are. Teachers sometimes read books like this out loud to help kids understand each other better.

Rhode Island schools have rules to protect transgender and gender non-conforming students. The state says schools have to:

• Call students by the name and pronouns they choose

• Let students use the bathroom and locker room that match their gender

• Keep a student’s gender identity private if the student wants that

• Let students dress how they feel comfortable

• Allow students to join sports and activities as the gender they identify with

These rules are meant to make sure every student feels safe and respected at school. Some schools, like in Westerly, didn’t follow all the state’s guidelines. They thought some of the rules went too far, especially when it comes to bathrooms or what parents should be told. So, not every district in RI is doing the same thing.

Books like It Feels Good to Be Me and these school rules are about making kids feel accepted. The goal is to help students feel good about themselves and treat others with respect. Some people support it, others have concerns—but the conversation is happening in more schools now.

Blog #9: Hehir and Butler

This week's video/article talked about ableism in education and the world. 

The video showed two women, one in a wheel chair, and the other walking beside her. Their discussion centered around the idea that just because someone is disabled, does not necessarily mean that they are incapable of doing regular things in their day to day lives. For instance, the woman in the wheel chair says that she can get coffee on her own by using her mouth to pick it up. However, she then stated that society has deemed this "irregular", which granted it is, and so she isn't able to do that. 

I can see how people would find that action to be weird or even make some people uncomfortable. That said, it doesn't make sense to not allow something to due societal standards. There are no rules in place for that specific instance, just the comfortability of the other people around her. She had to bend to their comfort in order to complete her task, even though she could have done it on her own.

In the reading, the idea of the video is explored in greater detail. 

Towards the middle in "The Education of the Deaf", Butler points out that while there has been education for the deaf for the last 150 years, it took a great hit in the 1880s which set it back quite a bit. Ironically enough, the man that our building is named after, Horace Mann, was a large proponent in this set back. He was an advocate of oral teachings and methodology, as well as lip reading and speaking. He believed that sign language was a hinderance and took too much time. 

True as that may be, we have come to learn that it is the best and most accurate way for the deaf to communicate with us. Additionally, Alexander Graham Bell was a huge supporter of oral teachings. He even went as far as saying that sign language education should be banned from being taught to the deaf. He also was a advocate of "the enactment of qugenics laws to forbid the intermarriage of deaf mutes", an ideaology that would have stopped those from marrying who they wanted based soley on a disability. 

I do believe that we should work more to better accomodate those with disabilities. They didn't ask to be born that way, and it should be our duty to help those less fortunate than us when they ask for it. 

Blog #8: Rodriguez and Clinical Observation

Richard Rodrigeuz speaks on a central point in his texts. He describes becoming billingual as almost a bad thing. His whole point is that there are two, or maybe more than that, ways of teaching students in schools when it comes to language barriers. I think that students learning a second language is absolutely crucial to their development, and it should be mandated in schools. However, his take on the matter seems a bit extreme. 

To claim that his family was torn apart (to some degree) by having to learn a second language is a bit dramatic. What did he expect to happen when he came to America? That would be like me going to Italy and expect their school systems to start teaching in English because it would have made me feel, "...less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease". He makes it sound like it's a bad thing. 

While I agree there is a time and a place to speak one's native language in school, I think that it's more important to learn the language of the country that you are presently in. For instance, I'm currently studying French because it's a dominant part of my heritage, and because I would like to visit French speaking countries in the future. So, I haven't gone to any of those countries yet because I cannot speak their language yet. To me, it's disrespectful to go into someone else's home and expect them to bend to your will. 

I'm not saying that he believes that, but to me that is the message that was conveyed. He did, however, bring up a very good point in the beginning of the reading. He states that his classmates in first grade could have become billingual easier than him. I can't speak to whether or not they would have had it easier, but I can say that children are much more susceptible to learning a language when they're young. This is because the brain is still heavily developing, so it is open to more things. The older you get, the less open you brain becomes. This is why it is so difficult to learn a language as an adult. 

I don't believe that he wrote those texts with malintent behind them. To me though, it just seems a bit dramatic for the scenario that he is describing. 

School Observation:

I have been working with a second grade class at Frank D. Spaziano Elementary school. For the most part it has been quite educational for me. There are a couple stragglers in each class, but out of roughly 45 or so students, that's not too bad. I help with two classes technically. Since the school I'm at is ESL, my class gets switched between English and Spanish throughout the day.

The hardest part is helping the kids that speak little to know English. I try to use my phone to help translate, but some of these kids are totally lost, which isn't their fault. Most of the kids can speak good English, which helps me tremendously. 

There isn't a whole lot more to say. Working with elementary school students wasn't my first choice, but I have definitely learned a lot these past several weeks doing it. These kids are completely innocent for the most part, so I've learned how susceptible they are to any mannerisms that we may give off. I also know now how hard it really is teaching elementary school, so I have a newfound appreciate for elementary school teachers. 

Blog #7: Video, Oakes, and Finn

Between the video and the two readings there is one central idea: grouping students by their "ability" can be detrimental to their future instead of beneficial. 

In the video many students are interviewed and questioned about the idea of advanced placement, honors, and regular classes in their school. The school had tried a new system in which the students were allowed to go against the better wishes of their teachers' recommendations as to what class they should be placed into. 

As a direct result, these students chose where they wanted to be, and in turn had their own successes and failures. For the most part, the students did very well. Towards the end of the video, one of the teachers mentioned the fact that a parent had complimented a student by saying that they were very bright. Little did this parent know that that student had previously been labeled as special needs. The video is a great representation of the idea that there is more than what meets the eye.

The two articles supported the same theme. While I do agree that "tracking" or grouped placements for students can often be biased, I will add my personal account on the matter. 

When I was in high school, I struggled in 9th grade English. I opted to take an honors English the following year, and I did well. This was partly due to the teacher, as she was known to be a little less harsh than others. However, after that year (10th grade English), my teacher did not recommend that I take another honors class. 

When I got into my 11th grade college prep English, which was the standard class, not honors, I was immediately bombarded with work. To this day it was the hardest English/literature class that I have ever taken. My point behind this is that that class was a CP class that my former teacher had recommend I take. So while sometimes it may be good for students to branch out and challenge themselves, other times it's a good idea to take into account what the teacher has recorded for notes on that student and go from there. 

Here is an article that I found supporting the claim of the video and the two articles: 

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/getting-children-off-the-track/ 

Blog #6: Kohn and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Our classrooms are a respresentation of us: what we like, how we think, or even how we function outside of our classroom. 

The guidelines that Kohn gives in his document are just that; guidelines. Though most of them are good, some are subjective. For instance, one of his guidelines states that "Textbooks, worksheets, and other packaged instructional materials predominate; sense of enforced orederliness" is a red flag for classrooms. He also states "Room overflowing with good books, art supplies, animals and plants, science apparatus; sense of purposeful clutter" is a good thing to see in a classroom. While too much of both can be seen as a bad thing, I believe that it is a subjective matter. You wouldn't expect to see art supplies or animals and plants in a high school classroom. Alternatively, you wouldn't expect to see a bunch of textbooks, worksheets, or heavy educational material in an American elementary school classroom. This is why I believe the guidelines, while made with good intention, are subjective to the environment that they are placed in.

The video on culturally relevant pedagogy approaches the matter from the elementary level. A nice quote that I liked was, "sutdents approach learning not as cultural blank slates". The narrator then explains that sutdents already have their own background to build off of. Most schools use the "one size fits all" method as the narrator explained. This could be detrimental to students because not every student will learn the same way. Looking back to "Precious Knowledge", those students were given a Chicano studies class. Before the class, the drop out rate was over 50%, and the graduation rate was terrible. The students felt like they didn't belong, and that the school didn't care for them. After the class, however, those rates started to change. Less students were dropping out, and in turn more were graduating. This shows a direct correlation with students who learn with the influence from their cultures did better than those without.