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Showing posts from 2016

Pecha Kucha

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17nbm-Kf8SDLQF5xBDIAE3XTycZbiWpk9kWL4_MslVxY/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=20000

Empowering Education

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Ira Shor Quotes "Education is more than facts and skills. It is a socializing experience that helps make the people who make the society" (Shor 15).  Schools today have become more about who has the highest test scores, or who can memorize the facts. In reality the education you receive at school should be how to socialize with other human beings because those are the people who are going to makeup the adult society. While reading this article it mentions that when   children are trying to learn they communicate to adults to find out when they want to know. Once these children become school aged they are then supposed to learn by memorizing facts and taking tests and eventually they lose that concept of socializing to find out when they want to learn. "Participation is the most important place to begin because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and deep intelligence" (Shor 17).  Our cla

Literacy with an Attitude: Quotes

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By: Patrick J. Finn "We worry instead that the low levels of literacy among them make them a liability for the rest of us. The idea is that if we could raise their level of literacy they would join the haves. America would have no poor, just rich, richer, and richest." This quote stuck out to me because it does just seem so true to what is going on in our school systems. Although everyone has their own level of literacy some students don't even get the chance to become great at it. The skill level of literacy is easily shown by social class . If students can't get to the best education they don't have any other choice but to go to that school. And they wont have the chance of the best education coming to them. They have to deal with what they can get based on what they can afford. While students families who have the economic fortune of choosing the schools they want to go to can go get the education they feel like they deserve because they have the money for

Mapping the Authors

Map the Authors

Promising Practice Overview

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The two workshops that I chose to participate in for Promising Practices were Promoting Resiliency in Kindergarten: How Mindfulness and PBIS can Work Together and Building Resiliency Through Play. When I originally picked these two workshops I thought they might be a little similar because they were both dealing with younger children, and I was wrong.   The first workshop about being mindful and PBIS, and it was run by a counselor, a psychiatrist, and a kindergarten teacher who all work at the Henry Barnard Elementary School. In the first workshop about mindfulness I learned about how children aren’t always mindful of not only others, but themselves. The psychiatrist talked about different exercised that can be done to help a children become more mindful of themselves. One exercise she actually did with us was she rang a bell and we had to raise our hand when we couldn’t hear it anymore. She did this a second time, but this time we didn’t raise our hand when we couldn’t hear it.

"This American Life", Hebert, and Brown vs. Board of Education

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After listening, reading, reviewing these three pieces I've come to realize they all have the same argument that they are trying to get across. They argue that even though we are considered an integrated country, we clearly aren't completely one. While listening to "This American Life" and hearing about how the parents were talking about the student who were coming from Normandy at the town meeting in Missouri I would have never thought that the things that were being said would have been from when I was alive. Then to even hear one of the parents say that it wasn't a race issue. Of course it's a race issue when 1,000 students from a lower class school are now coming to a school that is 85% white. The Normandy schools were still open, but the students who were looking to get an education from an accredited school could go to a different school, so obviously the children who are looking to better their education are going to travel the 30 miles to the "wh

"In The Service of What?" By: Kahne and Westheimer Reflection

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While reading this piece I had a hard time staying focused. I had to read some pages even 3 or 4 times before I understood what I was reading. What I got from this article was the importance of doing some kind of service learning in a community. They give examples of two different age groups in school who do some kind of service learning. The older group, which are 12th graders they go out and get themselves their own services they can do for their community. While the 7th grade class comes up with something together on what they could possibly do for their community. It's mentioned that even though these are two different approaches to getting children out into the community they are both ways of getting children out of the classroom and into the community. There were a couple of things that I found interesting that this article mentioned. The first thing I found interesting was when it was mentioned that students who talk about their service learning get more out of it. It m

The 3rd Presidential Debate

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There were three points that were brought to my attention while watching the debate. One of the first things I noticed was the fact that Trump and Hilary didn't shake hands before or after the debate took place. I understand that there's tension between the two parties, for good reason at the moment, but they could have at least been respectful enough to carry on the tradition. The second thing I noticed was a few times when Trump was talking he would partially answer a question and then respond with something along the lines of lets go back to the last question. I understand wanting to fully express how you feel about the topic, but once it's over it's time to move on. I feel like the public were the ones how were short changed on questions because they didn't get completely answered. The third point that really stuck out to me was when Donald Trump was asked if he would accept it if Hilary won as president. The fact that he chose not to just say yes really bot

Gender and the 2016 Election

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While reading the article on "Donald Trump, Locker Rooms and Toxic Masculinity" by Jill Soloway it was crystal clear what her argument was when it comes to gender. She points out that once two more men are together there becomes a competition over masculinity. Men discuss, rate, and degrade women who they don't know. As long as she isn't related she is up for grabs for the topic of discussion with men in this so called "locker room talk". What I liked about what she had to say was when she was describing the differences between the possible talk that women have in their locker room and the apparent conversations men are having. She points out that women will use the locker room as the way it should be, to get ready for your next adventure in your day and to talk a work out class you may have just taken and so forth, while men are apparently discussing women for their pleasure. While reading this article it reminded me the article "Other People's Ch

Second Presidential Debate Trump/Clinton

I have never really been one to get into politics, even when it's an election year.The fact that I'm watching these debates for extra credit for my class is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me, well political wise. Not that I'm going to drop my whole idea life of being a teacher to become a politician, but I actually like the feeling of being somewhat informed on what is happening in this race to be president.  On that note, I could hardly believe I was actually watching a presidential debate Sunday night. I feel like although some issues were touched upon, it was mostly a Trump is only running for president for his own gain, not for the American people, and a straight out don't vote for Clinton because she lies and she's dangerous.At some points I even forgot the question they had asked because it had become so off topic! I don't really have any knowledge on presidential debates, but are all of them like this? Constant fighting between adults

Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth:By Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. Kennedy

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Extended Comments                                                   While reading this article I didn't really have it much to connect to in my personal life. The topic of LGBT was never really brought up until I got to high school and there was a whole club for people who wanted to share that connection with others. But growing up a had a best friend and she dressed like a boy, but always had this really long beautiful red hair. I never thought anything of it, until I s gradually switched to wearing boys clothes too. She was definitely on to something, they were so much more comfortable than wearing girl jeans, and girl shirts. I eventually out grew the phase of comfortable clothes, but she didn't. She eventually came out as gay, and now has a wife. I couldn't be happier for her. But the point is it wasn't until late middle to early high school did I even realize that there were people out there who may not be heterosexual.  It wasn't until after reading Bia

Kaine/Pence 2016 Debate

Tonight I watched the vice presidential debate and I think it was almost as scary as watching the first presidential debate. The whole time Timothy Kaine was reminding the United States why we shouldn't vote for Donald Trump. All the topics that would turn people away from voting for Trump were brought up. The topics were about immigrants, Trumps temperament, how his tax return still hasn't been released, and how he has talked about women, While he was reminding us why Trump shouldn't be president he also brought up ideas of why Clinton would make a better president. I felt like the whole night Mike Pence spent time discussing the ideas of how to help America, but necessarily defending his running partner. Not that he disagrees with Trump, but I felt like he never fully said that the ideas that Trump has should be the right ideas. While listening to the people discuss after the debate they said that Kaine was there to make his point that Clinton will do the best she c

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us by Linda Christensen Reflection

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While reading this text all I could think about is my god daughter and god son watching cartoons, movies, shows, and books learning about racism, and unequal rights portrayed in these shows. It's insane to think about how early we start children with shows that give girls the idea of the perfect body, or boys the idea that they are superior to girls just because they are male. Then I began to wonder does the amount of time watching these shows make more of an impact or does just the "regular" amount of tv time cause their opinions to form. I found a website that showed that children are spending more time with the television and that they are definitely affecting a child's beliefs.  I can't say that I will never watch any of these types of movies or shows or read any of these books, but I will never be able to see or read them in the same light. One of the things that bothered me was actually reading the the only way to be happy if you're a woman is to chan

Clinton/Trump Presidential Debate

One of the major things that stuck out in my mind while watching the debate was the question about how Clinton and Trump both plan on dealing with the racial divide in our country. Clinton's idea came with a two part plan. The first part was beginning to restore trust between police officers and the community. With the lack of trust from one side to another they're working against each other instead of with each other for a safer community. Clinton also mentioned that he bias between police officers and people of the community needs to be worked on so that police officers can have a better understand about the issues going on around them. What really made be connect was when she mentioned that a white male and a black male could be doing the same thing wrong but there are different consequences because they aren't of the same race. The second part she mentioned was dealing with gun violence in our country. She feels like if you are too dangerous to be able to fly on a pla

Aria by Richard Rodriguez Quotations

"The odd truth is that my first grade classmates could have become bilingual, in the conventional sense of that word, more easily than I. Had they been taught (as upper-middle-class children are often taught early) a second language like Spanish or French" (Page 34).  In using this statement by Richard Rodriguez it shows his thoughts on having to learn a public language as a child going to school. He is put in a position where he has to learn a second language because that's the language everyone else speaks. His point is that as a young child who didn't come from a higher middle-class family he didn't already know a second language, but a lot of his peers were already taught a second language. Even still he is forced to learn a public language because his peers only use English as a public language .  "I  needed a full year of special attention. I also needed my teachers to keep my attention from straying in class by calling out, Rich-heard- their Englis

Short Clip on racism

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A one minute clip that goes along with our FNED 346 class...

"Amazing Grace" - Jonathan Kozol Hyperlinks

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While reading "Amazing Grace" I couldn't believe what I was reading. There were so many new things that my brain was trying to comprehend. Things like there is a incinerator walking distances from peoples' houses. I understand things such as "amputated limbs and fetal tissue, bedding, bandages, and syringes" (Kozal) need to be disposed of, but in a neighborhood? That was an insane thought for me to comprehend. Another thing I didn't understand was why "3,000 homeless families" were relocated to one are. I found this picture  on a website called doctorhousingbubble, which was actually comparing Los Angeles, CA density of living to New York, but as you can see that in the Bronx the population estimate is 1,438,159 people per 42 square miles. This doesn't give anyone any room. The last thing that really bothered me while reading was the conditions of the three hospitals Alice Washington talked about.  Once I read about the fact that nurses

Nicholas Kristof "U.S.A., Land of Limitations?

Kristof argues that “talent is universal, but opportunity is not”.  Throughout this article Kristoff is trying to show that even if you are the most talented person out there, the chances of becoming someone of any importance is slim. The only way this can change is if the opportunity arises for the select few who come from lower social classes. There are different aspects to having the opportunity in life move from being an average person in society to a person of higher reputation. People have their talents like Kristof said about his friend Rick, that although he was “smart, talented, and hardworking” (Kristof) he was faced with a struggle from the time he was born because of the social class he was born into. This caused his opportunities to be more limited than someone who would have been born into a high social class. And even though he was able to provide for himself and be a single father he had the life where he only had a small amount if any of emergency money in case so

About Me

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This summer I went on a mini vacation up to Ogunquit, Maine with my mother, my grandmother, and my great aunt. We made a stop at the Nubble Light house in York Maine.  This past summer I had the chance to babysit a former preschool student and her younger brother. We spent a lot of time at the aquarium in Middletown, RI. This is a picture of a Skate a few weeks after it was born.  This is my huge cat Liam. He is four years old, and is completely insane. He likes to torture my sisters cat for fun, but he is the biggest snuggle buddy.  I love to travel. I had the chance to go to Georgia and South Carolina this past April. While I was at the beach my sister and I found a starfish just floating around in the water.  I am the godmother of these crazy two. They make me so happy every time I see them. We like to do all kinds of things together, like make cloud dough, or one of our favorites go to the zoo.  This is my family. I am the oldest of four. I work a