Selfinterests at School

Reading Review #10: Meyer et. all

selfinterests — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:08:42 +0000

The interesting aspect of this reading to me was the inclusion of the Maori voice. It gave us the ability to put the reading into real term concepts. This gave the concepts a voice instead of it being theories and studies produced by professionals. There are times in these readings that I often wonder the bias of the professionals who create these studies. The addition of a personal testimony adds the value to the dilemma of the oppressed. It is wonderful that special education seems to be leading the way in social inclusion and multicultural issues in the classroom. The ability of a system to change shows that it should be accomplished across the board. I am am not too amazed at how we deal with individuals who don’t fit into the “norms” and place them into segregated categories. This is typical of the schema effect that we learned in 150. I think that this is a result of teachers and admin who are learning as much as the learners are in school. We are constantly updating are pedagogy and this results in trying to assign labels or types to individuals. The best analogy I can think of is that we are given a group of individuals as “snowflakes” each one completely different. the end goal is to turn that group into a snowball and send them in the wintry wonderland of the word. the problem occurs that when you apply “heat” (education) there are those that lose their form and become water. So we label them as water. The problem is that they are not all just water but the formation of many different crystals that have formed. We need to learn how to apply education correctly to give them the ability to stick together and form a snowball that will hold. I really appreciated the part about trying to earn trust and getting parents involved. This goes back to our earlier reading about classes and the different ways parents interact with teachers and professionals. It only makes sense to involve ourselves into a child’s life so that we may gain the trust of those who are responsible for them. I would propose to take these meetings to the homes or relatives of these individuals. It may be a slight inconvenience for those involved but it it a slight inconvenience for the parent to make time in their day to come to a “cold” meeting that is plagued with uncertainty. Give them the option of comfort in their setting and with whom they want to involve. This will not only create trust, but may become more engaging and beneficial to not only both parties but the main party in question, the child… I also think that highlighting individuals in a classroom gives an individual a chance to show off more than the one-dimension that has is evident and to dispel rumors from classmates.

Reading Review #9:Heward & Cavanaugh

selfinterests — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:53:32 +0000

This reading was full of informative history on the struggle of individuals with disabilities for equality in the educational system. I was shocked to hear how badly some individuals were treated prior to legislation such as the IDEA. The story about Aiello as a teacher who’s class consisted mainly of children from a lower income class that hadn’t developed good reading skills was horrifying. To think that children were simply shoved into a room in the basement and “forgotten” about was an injustice. I know that my family has benefited from these new programs in the past. Some are still not up to par yet. My mom had issues with the special education programs that my brother would attend. He was label ADHD but he had some severe learning disabilities that he had to overcome. There were times my mom had to talk with those in charge just to get them to do the job they were supposed to be doing. Sometimes his teachers just didn’t follow through and would let him self destruct academically. He did manage to graduate after finally getting some of the assistance he needed. As in the article his transition into adult life has been hard and it just proves that this part of the educational system has more room for improvement.

Journal #3

selfinterests — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:27:20 +0000

2008.10.13

My third visit to Everett High was somewhat similar to my first couple. Some of the learners are a little more familiar with me now. Learner A was still in her group of friends that seemed to using the time as a social hour. I still persisted and tried to see if they wanted any assistance with their work. Once again I was shut down and they soon left without opening a book. The teacher then got caught up in questions and I asked him who he wanted me to work with. I ended up with two female learners that seemed stuck on their Geometry. Learner D and E were both working on the same thing so we tackled it as a group. Learner D was a little more frustrated than E in her progress. We kept with it and when the teacher was done he jumped in with us. I noticed that Learner B was in and out of the conversations and she seemed to like to talk herself up. It was not excessive bragging, but a simple vying for attention. Her an Learner E were back and forth about practicing for their MEAP. Meanwhile, Learner D was still struggling through her Geometry. She was having trouble with remembering her supplementary and complimentary angles again. So I reminded her of the relation of a compliment and supplement to pounds as I had done the other day. This time I think it stuck with her as she was able to work through the rest of her problems without much hang up. Later we were reviewing with the teacher about reflexive, transitive and symmetric properties of equality when I came up with an analogy to help remember them. Reflexive is angle A = angle A so imagine if some one hit you then your reflex is to hit them back. (not a nice way to think but effective way to remember) Transitive is if A=B and B=C then A=C. So if you think of transitive as a transition, transport, or transaction you think of something moving from on place to the next and to the next. You essentially are moving similar things from one place to the next to find that they are all similar. It’s a stretch. Symmetric is pretty self-explanatory: A=B so B=A. The girls seemed to catch on to the concepts. At the end of the day I approached the teacher a relayed my concerns that I felt I was still not being effective or helpful. He laughed and reiterated that I was doing just fine. He did offer me some advice though. He said that he had noticed I was asking learners if they needed help. He then told me that I should try just asking them what they were working on and ask if you could check their work for them.

I have made up my mind to win Learner A over with kindness and just acknowledge her when ever I see her. As for learners D and E I enjoyed working with these girls. Learner D is a white woman who struggles with focusing and gets frustrated easily when it comes to math. Learner E is a black woman who seems to catch on relatively quickly and adapts to the newly learned methods. They both seemed to respond positively when I gave them real word concepts to help them remember mathematical properties.The teacher’s advise was great and I realized quickly that most high school learners do not necessary want to be “helped”.

I am starting to think that some of these girls are buying into the sexist concept that math is not a subject that they can do well at. The problem is not that they are not smart enough, however, it is a matter of putting the material into a schema that sticks.

Reading Review #8: Blumenfeld

selfinterests — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:58:46 +0000

Blumenfeld opens with a great personal story about dealing with his own sexuality and his family. It shows how difficult life can be for not only the person who’s sexual preference is discriminated, but also how much it hurts a family member to have to turn their social back on their own blood just to maintain some “face” with their peers. No one wants to have to choose between family and friends. While my own situation does not compare, I would occasionally stand up for my brother when kids teased him about his weight. However, there were times when I didn’t and it hurt me to feel like I had betrayed him in some way. I cannot imagine that feeling magnified many times over to equate to their situation. This and the part in the article that spoke about how it hurts everyone really struck a chord with me. It especially made sense when he depicted Fredrick Douglass’ memory of slavery. The fact that power over someone desensitizes us to that human’s plight and deprives us of our humanity is profound. We cannot truly understand until we crawl down from our pedestal or break though the walls of seclusion and force ourselves into another’s shoes. Even when a person musters the courage to “come out” to his family, the family has a hard time with accepting them in public. It is sad to see that a country so bent on “family values” creates a rift amongst families through heterosexism.

Journal #2

selfinterests — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:50:23 +0000

2008.10.06

Today I felt a bit out of place in the class room. I walked around asking if anyone needed help at the start. I had noticed a group of learners that were sitting talking without any work out. Learner A was part of this group. So, I utilized a technique that my TE 150 teacher taught us. I walk quietly over to them and asked a few how they were doing and I they had any questions I could help them with. At one point I asked one of Learner A and a group of her girlfriends. One replied pleasantly that she was fine and didn’t need any help. However, Learner A had an annoyed look on her face. Then Learner C, who had just entered the room in time to overhear my question, piped up exclaiming that she would like a hand with some Calculus. She had been absent for a week and need to catch up on some homework. She pulled out a bunch of copies from the book and a few handouts. I soon realized that she was working on Trig and not Calc. We studied a problem set for a while trying to figure out what her teacher had taught as it was hard to discern from the handouts. I knew a way to find a solution to her question, however, I had remembered learning the technique late in my Trig class. So to avoid teaching Learner C something that was way out of context I ask the teacher what his opinion was. We went back and forth for a few minutes but finally came up with the solutions. I continued helping her for a bit longer until she had to leave for practice. I had one more opportunity to try and help Learner A as she was asking for the teacher’s assistance while he was busy. She listen to me start to explain and then in frustration exclaimed that she didn’t know and called for the teacher again. This time he responded and I let them be. The rest of the afternoon I spent listening in and helping the teacher explain Geometry to Learner B and Learner D. Most of the learners had left by that time so there was not much else for me to do. At the end of class I talked to the teacher about how I felt like I wasn’t being much of a help to him. He adamantly denied that and said that it was great that he had an extra person on hand. He felt that my assistance helped to quell some of the distraction that happens when multiple learners have questions at once. He also complimented me on going through with the service learning, saying that not many people actually show up to help.

Learner C was fantastic as a learner. She tried to figure out what line of thinking I was approaching to her problems. She offered possible solutions and was legitimately there to learn. I found drastically different responses to me from two African-American women in Learner C and Learner A and also her friend that was apparently more pleasant. I don’t want to conclude that this Learner just has an attitude problem as this seems to be what everyone else does. The learners have a lot of fun with the teacher. He also keeps most of them on task.

This session did not have much that related to the material we cover in class. The only thing that is, is inconclusive as of yet. I think the reason Learner C’s response was so much more positive than A’s, was that she may be from a different socioeconomic class. The way she was involved and helpful as well and she came in immediately knowing what she needed to get done. The concept of feeling insubordinate in terms of socioeconomic status, may be what Learner A is feeling. She relies on the teacher for constant guidance and feels angry and helpless.

Media Analysis #3

selfinterests — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:58:02 +0000

For my final print I chose an interesting piece that screams genderfication. It shows two women dressed as prehistoric cave women chasing down shoes. There are two things they do right which is put weapons in their hands which gives them the appearance of strong women who don’t need men to do the hunting. They also picture a white women and black women which gives the appearance of biracial. There is, however, no other races represented as if the race for survival is on and it is down to black and white. The black woman is also in the leopard print and the white women in fur. This is similar to the concept we heard on “Tough Guise” where black women are often portrayed in prints. The furs represent something the white woman has conquered and draped on her body. The black woman is dressed in skin as if she is an animal herself. Another observation is the backdrop for the whole ad. It is presented in an African safari setting. The concept that this is prehistoric equates the fact that Africa and its inhabitants are backward and prehistoric. The obvious point of this is the inane idea that beauty is a prehistoric concept that women posses. Finally this is a Dutch or German ad, which means these stereotypes are worldwide not just bread here in America.

From my first media to the last I have dug deep into the philosophies that are being presented. It has given me a better understand how ingrained these ideas have become. The first two gave me an understanding of how white male privelage is previlant in ads. The last gave me the understanding that gender as well as race are defined in many of the ads we see everyday.

Journal #1

selfinterests — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:43:12 +0000

2008.09.29

Day one as a tutor at Everett High provided me an opportunity to cut my teeth on secondary education. I met the teacher first off and asked him what I could do to assist him. He pointed to Learner A, who was calling for his attention at that moment, and told me to give her a hand with her Algebra. It took a minute to adjust but I began to realize the assignment we were working on was missing some variables. We flagged down the teacher and he informed us that we were working on the wrong assignment. Then I introduced Learner A to the (x,y) graph and how to read a story problem to look out for inputs that can be substituted for x. She then asked if I was talking about x as a dependent variable and y as an independent variable. To this I exclaimed yes without fulling thinking it through. I continued to my explanation as she wrote down what I affirmed. As I was explaining, I realized what I had confirmed and had to stop and correct myself. We managed to get through a story problem but she was very distracted as she was trying to make sure she had a ride home after the session. We worked together on a few more problems and she had to take a call in the hall. In the mean time I assisted Learner B with a question on her geometry. When Learner A came back in the room she was even more distracted by texts and her frustration with having to be there. I seemed to repeat myself several times and found it difficult helping her discover the steps to breaking down an equation. At one point Learner B came over and interrupted me with a problem that required some in depth discussion. I started to help her and then stopped realizing that Learner A might take offense at my distraction. So I asked her if she was all right trying a couple problems herself for a minute, to which she replied she was, and then proceeded to help Learner B. It took about five minutes to help her but in the mean time Learner A had gone to the teacher to get assistance. She sat with him for a while going over exactly the same thing I had just gone over earlier. I helped with a few questions until the teacher had to help another student. After a few minutes, Learner A needed assistance again and I sat down with her. It was only a matter of one problem and she started texting again saying it was her mom again. I commented that I had thought she had sorted that out in the hall. She gave a brief explanation that her mom worked and would not be there after the class ended. I sat a minute while she texted but then asked her when it was that she needed to have her grade improved. Learner A had mentioned something earlier to the teacher that she needed to improve her grades by the following week. She stopped texting and turned back to her work, frustrated. Then she asked the teacher if she could leave. I then sat and listened to the teacher try to explain to a couple girls how to remember supplementary and complementary angles. They were having a little trouble capturing the concept so I asked if I could interject. I told them that while this was not a very PC way of thinking, that if you change the degrees to pounds which would you more likely get a complement on? There response was 90 lbs. vs 180 lbs. Thus 90 degrees is complimentary. Then to remember 180 degrees as supplementary, you still use the pounds method. Think of a football player wanting to bulk up. He takes supplements to do so. Thus 180 degrees is supplementary. They seemed to buy it. That ended day one.

The situation with Learner A made me a little frustrated as she chose not to pay any attention to myself and even the teacher. She would not try to think for herself unless coaxed. I think that I did lose some of her trust when I first got confused the dependent and independent variable. From then on it seemed as if she put a wall up. The teacher seemed to have a better understanding of how to get her and a few others how to produce. He was very repetitive and raise his voice just enough to let them realize the sense of urgency.

I am not sure how to “classify” Learner A’s reaction to me. She is an African-American woman; so I could conclude, that since I fit the profile of a white, middle class male, then I am the oppressor until proved different. The other thought is that the possibilty of class difference has her more worried about how she is getting home when her mother is at work. There is also the possiblity that she doesn’t have a father figure as she never mentioned that as an option of getting home. New men in her life have to earn her respect or tolerence. The only other observation was the amount of girls in a math help class.

Reading Review #7: Katz

selfinterests — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:11:17 +0000

Porn… If you were raised in the upbringing I was, you recognize this article represents most of the arguments against pornography. However, there was something that stuck out at me. There was a hidden concept when Katz spoke about his discussion groups with hetero males. They seemed to avert the conversation from actual porn and create a political discussion. To me there is an element of shame in that. It is this shame that has cloaked the ideology of pornography from two sides. The first is everything that Katz reveals which results in mens’ consciences holding them accountable or they don’t want to be labeled perverted (another form of male subordination). The second is the fundamentalist connotation of it as a sin. This shame seems to resonate into anything to do with sexuality. To me, this lack of openness and understanding sex creates more tension and attraction to the very thing that perpetuates the cycle of sexism.

I very much appreciate his addressing the concept of respect as this, to me, seems to represent everything we are doing in this class. Porn is a tool utalized for instantanious gratification, but the ramifications far exceed the outcome. (no pun intended) I have seen it break down relationships in others and have even experienced my own demons from it. The question is how do you take down a $10 billion industry? I would say start by saying something nice about your spouse or significant other. I get so sick of it when others complain to me about their “old lady” and proceed to break everything down that is wrong. I am happy!! My wife happens to be the answer to my prayers. That is an example of a celebration of relationships. We need to throw off the shame of sex. Be open about our issues with sex. Learn about how your “other half” feels about sex and respect their thoughts. This closet full of secrets has become the downfall of our nation. We have a huge divorce rate that while not all is contributed to sex, there are some whose issues could have been resolved by not having or having sex. When you celebrate the relationship, you realize the love that brought you together and with that love comes the respect for that person. A respect that can topple an entire industry devoted to the destruction of love and respect…. Porn

Reading Review #6: Lorber

selfinterests — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:59:07 +0000

me: that readin about social constructed gender tripped me out

I: what was it about

me: its started talking about instances of gender and the way we cont. the cycle of sexism….

I: like what

me: like how a baby girl will get errings…. a man at a subway will get adoring looks from ladies as he walks his infant in a front carrier….

I:whats a front carrier

me: you know.. like a back pack for a baby.. only u wear it on front

I: k

me: neway.. there r common instances where people dont realize they r genderficating a sitch…

for ex. a new baby.. what do u ask?

I: boy/girl?

me: right.. perfect example.. its not about how someone is.. its about WHO they r…

I: thats crazy how we seem 2 have 2 have evrything systmizd..

me: its totaly somthing we pass down 2 our kids as we hold them to xpectations..

I: isnt that a form of structural discrimination

me: ya… the whole concept is so ingrained that it is practically invisible to us individuals.

I: do u kno tht in other cultures there r words for m/f/other?…

me: they mentioned that in the book 2!

the native americans even had a term 4 a manly woman..

I: its so typical of r society 2 dichotimise evrything… we have to have 2 choices 2 simplify whos right and whos wrong or whos who or label everything!!!

me: hey we were born out of the industrial age… systems were the way… it just tranfered over to social life as a way 4 gov. to “control” this new thing called Democracy….

I: thats a terrible way to put it… but so true… hey gtg…

me: k… L8R!!

I: PC!

Reading Review #5: Moore

selfinterests — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:59:36 +0000

Racist is a a term that hits hard on a person, such as myself, when confronted with the thought that even with my love for humanity there may be other subtle forms of oppression I may be inflicting. In Moore’s writing about racism in the English language, he highlights terminology that has been around since fairy tales and others that are more recently introduced. At first when I started to read, I felt as if this was a bit too analytical to be classified as an oppressive tactic. However, as I read on the thought crossed my mind that if one were trying to maintain cultural domination what would be the most subtle and effective form to impose that dominance? Language. The fact is that it is the boundary that separates us more so than race. It is the most difficult barrier to cross initially. It is also a breeding ground for subtle oppression as it can hurt with insinuation but is difficult to address as concrete racism. Moore highlights color symbolism, ethnocentrism, passive tense, political terminology, comparative African words and speaking English as areas we as teachers need to consider in our daily use. This structural/institutional racism is one that is replicated not just by adults but passed to our youth. The one that was hardest to grapple was the color terminology of black and white. It is so ingrained in my head that I have a hard time believing that the Caucasian culture was the originator of the concept that black is evil and white is good. I do agree with the political terminology that has been applied to economic structures of countries. The oppressed nations had their culture stifled by imperialist nations and were forced to assimilate. Then when they were “allowed” their independence, they were label as underdeveloped because of their economic status. Even with the benefit of many factors it took the United States over 150 years to become a “developed nation.” The connotations of oppressive language seem to me a construction of the elite to drive a wedge between races. This has been especially evident in white culture. I hope to take what I have learned and adjust my language to help prevent the barrier of language from becoming more than just a linguistic challenge.