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Blog 11- Reflection

 For our final blog we were asked to reflect on three things during the semester, I am choosing these three.  1. Kohn Classroom Chart One of the things I enjoyed and will refer back to is the Kohn Classroom Chart. I think the chart is a good guideline to look at how a classroom is being run and set up. I enjoyed breaking down our own classrooms in our placement and directing the chart. I will use this chart when I become a teacher and found it to be very beneficial. 2. Woke Read alongs The second thing that stuck with me is the two woke read alongs we watched. I found both of them to be completely off-putting and inappropriate. There is no reason that these topics belong in a Kindergarten classroom. I think they could be approached at a much older age with equal success and less confusion.  3. Discussion time For my final one I am going very broad and saying all discussion time in the class. Many of the other students in this class made me feel like I could not have a dif...
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BLOG 10- Woke read aloud

I watched the "Woke Kindergarten" read-aloud of   They, She, He: Easy as ABC   by Christina Gonzalez. I found the video unsettling and unnecessary. This reading is presented for Kindergarteners. In absolutely no world is this something that should be taught to young children. It is confusing.  I am a 19 year old that has grown up with these terms. I still get confused and I have a sound understanding of grammar and identity. Trying to teach the concept of the pronoun "they" while simultaneously trying to teach that they is plural for a group of people is so confusing  Tree  is a noun, not a pronoun, and using it in this way disrupts basic sentence structure. If I find this confusing as an adult, I can only imagine how unclear and perplexing it must be for a five-year-old. Especially students that are not English first language.   Including non-standard words like these in early ...
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Blog 9 - Ableism

  Challenging ableist assumptions implies that disability is an ordinary part of human variation, something that doesn't need to be fixed. Thomas Hehir notes that the largest barriers faced by students with disabilities are often the product of social opinion and school policy that underestimate their capacities or rely on limiting stereotypes. In my own experience in public schools, I’ve seen how powerful it can be when students with disabilities are welcomed and fully included in the classroom. When teachers encourage inclusive and supportive environments, strong, respectful connections develop, benefiting everyone and creating long lasting success. As a counterpart to inclusion, how instruction is organized matters immensely as well. Hehir refers to planning lessons ahead of time with varying learning needs in mind, rather than waiting until trouble arises and scrambling to attempt to adapt. Planning for students is part of the job. To be prepared f...
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Kohn- What to look for in a classroom

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When  we  walk   into  a  room , what tells us  that  it   is  a  good   room  to learn  in ? Alfie Kohn's "What to Look for in a Classroom" gives us  an easy   standard for  asking  that question,  changing   much  of the  old  schooling  assumptions. Instead of focusing on order, compliance, or rows of silent students, Kohn encourages us to look deeper. Inviting classrooms, are spaces where students are active participants in their learning. You’ll find children working together, exploring real questions, and engaging in hands-on activities that spark curiosity. Kohn also  points   out  student choice. In great classrooms, students  get  to  pick  what they're  studying  and how they demonstrate what they know. I see this in my classroom, the students are working on a project where they get to choose what they are researching....
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Ted talk

I really enjoyed this ted talk. It was a new perspective on the things trans kids and their parents experience. The fact that the mother spoke truthfully about her struggles and feelings while dealing with the process made it much more impactful. 
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Blog #8

  A reflection on Richard Rodriguez's 'Aria' Rodriguez in “Aria” talks about that one's identity as well as their  assimilation is often associated with the languages they use: Spanish, a "private language," being used inside the home for comfort whereas the outside world requires English as a "public language." This was however the turning point for him, as public confidence when speaking Spanish to English, but the result was that his home quarters were left distant. In his home, Rodriguez's parents insisted they speak English but were encouraged by the teachers and nuns. It turned upside down what initially seemed a very well-intentioned bit of effort. "Father," that figure, who spoke Spanish, once the man to whom silence was unsafe, now didn't speak English. Rodriguez has stopped his affectionate Spanish words toward his parents simply because he couldn't find equally meaningful English equivalents. The warmth of his languag...
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blog #7

 Literacy With an Attitude  Patrick J. Finn, claims that the United States educational system fosters social inequality through the dispersal of several kinds of literacy among different classes—enabling literacy to those who are powerful and domesticating literacy to working-class people. Finn specifies that although literacy has always been thought of as a democratizing force and access, in practice it has historically been used to perpetuate social hierarchies. He differentiates "empowering education ," which allows individuals access to sites of power and influence, from "domesticating education ," which renders individuals competent to work on their own effectively without challenging existing power relations. The education system, he argues, reinforces such stereotypes by constructing learning environments and students that empower or domesticate the students based on class. Working-class students learn an education of compliance and work day utility, not one ...
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