School Visit

I went to my school yesterday and worked with my third grade class. I started Debbie off with some poetry, which was her first time working with me doing third grade work. Since she's very behind on her reading, I gave her two short poems to read to me, each one she had to read twice. Although there was a few words she needed help with, she did very well. Curtis read some of the longer poems, and he read very well. He's gotten much better at showing expression when he's reading instead of just reading "like a robot," which is when you read the words off the page without fully understanding them. I made him repeat both of his poems as well. After that we played candy land, and even though they usually don't play well together and get worked up if the other one is winning, they were very relaxed today and had fun with the game. Debbie kept answering my questions in Spanish, which she's been doing a lot lately, but then she usually re-translates what she's saying into English because 75% of the time I can't understand her.

Christensen talking points

In this article, Christensen talked about media and how it affects children and their opinions. It talks about how the media teaches children about race without them knowing it, and how the T.V. shows discriminate over different races. The article's first point is that there is no black Cinderella, and that most blacks in T.V. shows don't have leading rolls. However, now there is a black Cinderella. Brandy played Cinderella in a non-animated version of Cinderella. Also, Disney just had it's first black princess in the movie "The Princess and the Frog." Also, the article mentions Popeye. Popeye is a big strong man who always has to say Olive from danger, and she relies on Popeye for everything. Popeye also shows other races as being stupid or inferior to him as a White American man. However, what I found most interesting was when Christensen discussed the Ninja Turtles. The article said that the TMNT showed children the message that violence was okay, and teaches children that problems can be solved by fighting. After reading this, I immediately thought of the little boys that I used to babysit for, who would watch the power rangers and jump around the house trying to karate chop the furniture. This shows just how greatly the media can influence us. We, children especially, get hooked to T.V. shows and movies and try to mimic them in some ways, and they do affect the way we think about certain things. The media has influence on what we buy, the way we talk, and our attitudes on certain things or even people. Such as if something we see on T.V. is something that we buy, if somebody doesn't have that particular item then they could be very unpopular and could be made fun of.

Education is Politics

"In a curriculum that encourages student questioning, the teacher avoids a unilateral transfer if knowledge. She or he helps students develop their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions of society. Empowered students make meaning and act from reflection, instead of memorizing facts and values handed to them."
I completely agree with this quote. I think that students should understand what they've been taught, and have their own individual opinion on it. A student should be free to speak out in class and ask questions, and not be taught just to memorize facts and be done with it. That's not learning.
"The teacher is the person who mediates the relationship between outside authorities, formal knowledge, and individual students in the classroom. Through day to day lessons, teaching links the students development to the values, powers, and debates in society."
I also think that it's a teachers job to get children ready for society. Teachers aren't only to teach children the material in the text book, but also help them get ready to go out into the world. However, when they prepare them for society, they shouldn't prepare the lower class students for a life taking orders, all children should be taught and prepared for the future in the say way, with the possibility of every child going to college and getting a high paying job.
"While a participatory classroom cannot transform society by itself, it can offer students a critical education of high quality, an experience of democratic learning, and positive feeling towards intellectual life."
I fully agree with this quote. I think that this quote sums up exactly what we as future teachers should be aiming for. It's important for us as teachers to give our students a good education that they can understand and grow off of, and also something that can prepare them for going out into society.

School Visit

I went to visit my school on Friday, and it was a normal day. I didn't spend too much time on reading since both of my third grade student have finished all of their readings. However, I've been working with Denise on second grade level work and I want to see how she does with third grade work for my last visits. I'm a little behind on my hours, since there's been so much school canceled on Fridays and so many vacations, I have to try and go extra days. I'm going again on Wednesday for an hour, and my full hour and a half on Friday, and after that I'll be just a half hour short. I went last Wednesday to do extra time, but my teacher was absent and my class wasn't available to tutor, so I had to go home. Working with my kindergarteners was fun, and the substitute was very nice and taught very similar to their usual teacher, only the sub was a bit more strict with them. The boy I helped, Elliot, was a little hyper on Friday and couldn't sit still, but when he finishes his work he gets so excited that he's done and she just has to show the teacher how well he did.

Anyon's talking points

1. "In both working-class schools, work in language arts is mechanics of punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, exclamation points), capitalization, and the four kinds of sentences. One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use."
- This quote bothers me a little bit because it shows the attitude and the expectations that the teachers have for the students. The teacher's attitude to me says that they feel the students aren't going to need to know a lot about grammar because they won't be going that far in life. It seems that at the working class school the expectations for these children are very low and are expected to grow up being in the middle class and they won't get any higher.

2."Work tasks do not usually request creativity. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form."
- I think that this is a problem because all children are different and you shouldn't ignore their creativity or differences. All children learn in different ways and have a lot of interesting ideas and they should be able to voice and talk about in class what their ideas are, because a good way to learn is by learning other people's stance on things and getting other people's point of view.

3. "Language arts emphasizes language as a complex system, one that should be mastered. The children are asked to diagram sentences of complex grammatical construction, to memorize irregular verb conjugations (he lay, he has lain, and so on ...), and to use the proper participles, conjunctions, and interjections in their speech. The teacher (the same one who teaches social studies) told them, "It is not enough to get these right on tests; you must use what you learn [in grammar classes] in your written and oral work. I will grade you on that."
- What I find most interesting about this is how different it is compared to the lower and middle class schools. In the lower class schools, they only had to do simple grammar, and in middle class schools the grammar that they did was grammar that they had to use in everyday life, or for business letters and such. The were tested on the grammar they learned and that was that. However, in the elite school they grammar that they learned had to be used all the time.

What surprises me most about this reading is the difference in the way that the children were taught. It seems to me that the lower class schools were most strict with the children about what they learned and how they learned it, when with the elite school the children thought a lot about how to solve the problem on their own. Also, in the elite school the children were expected to do a lot more than in the lower class schools. They were allowed to venture out in the hallways by themselves, and they didn't even have bells for when the class was over. In the lower class schools everything was very routine and organized and watched over.

School visit today

Today I went to my school again. I had the usual meeting with Curtis and Debbie. Today they were very well behaved and personally I think it was because we didn't play candy land. Whenever they play candy together they both get too carried away and misbehave, so we just used the regular third grade word list and they were fine. After that I went to my kindergarten classroom and they were working on coins. They had to know the difference between all the coins and be able to tell how much each one is worth, and I worked with a little boy named Michael. The little girl sitting next to Michael though was constantly jumping around and not listening to directions, so i had to work with her more than I had to work with Michael. Overall it was a good visit.

Weil Article

The article I just read was about segregating boys and girls in the classroom. Personally, I think that this is a bad idea. I don't think that girls and boys should be segregated in the classroom because classroom aren't just about learning the curriculum. School is giving children the chance to get used to society and the environment that they live in, and that includes boys and girls being together. In school not only do you learn subjects like history and math, but you learn how to climb the social ladder, you learn about the community, and you learn about how to interact with other. Going to a same-sex school only teaches you how to interact and work with people of your sex, which could really set a child back socially. Everybody is different and learns in different ways, and if you separate those children they'll never learn about cooperation. I think that it's important for boy and girls to be in school together because that's where they get the experience that they need to interact and socialize with others after they finish school.

Kliewer Article

I found this reading to be very interesting and I liked it a lot. I personally am going to concentrate in special ed, and it's good to read an article on special ed children in the classroom and know a little bit more about it. What I liked most about this article was what Shayne Robbins did with her classroom, and I admire how she was able to really connect with her students, especially Isaac who went through a lot of difficulty doing things as minor as flipping a page. The way she was able to understand Isaac's behavior and learn more about the way he thought and all of his actions is very inspiring. Shayne always knew exactly was Isaac was trying to say and she was always able to make sense of his actions and what he was doing and I think that it's very important to be able to connect with your students on that level and get them to able to participate in class and such when they find it very difficult.

School Visit

At this school visit I worked with Curtis and Debbie again, and they weren't well behaved this week. They both were off the walls and Curtis didn't want to play candy land. I got him to play though. Debbie was very upset while playing candy land because the cards she got put her behind and she kept trying to cheat because she wanted to win so badly. Eventually they did calm down and it was just another regular visit. After that I went to my kindergarten room and I worked with a little boy named Elliot. Elliot needed help counting because when he has to count up to 20, he would always skip the number 16. So when he counted he went straight from 15 to 17, which became a problem because his answers were always one off. So i had to help him remember and teach him that he's skipping a number. Elliot and I finished his math packet early and then the class went to the library and my time was up.

Fourth School Visit

During my fourth school visit I worked with Curtis and Debbie together again. This week I gave them different assignments. With Curtis, I had him reading passages again and then we played candy land. For Debbie, I had her play candy land with us, but I also gave her the second grade word list, because her teach told me to start working with her at a second grade level and work our way up. The rules of candy land are similar to the word list, you pick up a colored card, and then on the card is a word that you have to use in a sentence. If you use the word correctly, then you get to move forward to the color on the card. Curtis wont the game of candy land. In my kindergarten class, the students did a math packet with the teacher and I sat next to a boy named Marcus and helped him with his math packet, as well as helped the other two children at the table.

Third School Visit

For my third school visit, I worked with my third grade students for the first hour. This time when I worked with them I didn't work with them one-on-one, I worked with both of them at the same time. I had Curtis read one passage, and then i had Debbie read the other one after. After that, they worked on the word list together, each of them having to make a different sentence for the word. I noticed that when putting them with me together, they were harder to work with because they were more rowdy than they were when they were when I was alone with them. After I worked with them, I made my way down to my kindergarten classroom. In that classroom, I was mostly observing, since they were taking a math test when I went down there. In that class one of the boys threw a big of a temper tantrum and refused to take his test, and he had to be escorted out of the classroom by the student teacher and another teacher from down the hall. I enjoyed working with the kindergarten class.

Second School visit

When i went to my school for the second time, My visit was cut short. For the first half hour i worked with a boy named Curtis, and i had him read short passages and paragraphs, and then we worked with the third grade word list. With the word list, he had to read the word and then make a sentence with it. After he was done, I worked with a little girl named Debbie. With Debbie i did the same exercise, but she had more trouble with it than Curtis did, especially with the silent Es and words that couldn't easily be spelled out, such as "caught." After that my class has gym and I obviously cannot go to gym with them, so I was supposed to be moved into another classroom for the remainder of my time. However, when I went to ask where to put me, the head of the volunteers forgot that I had to be placed somewhere else. She put me in a kindergarten math class for the next week and sent me home a half hour early.

Talking points on Carlson

1. "Within normalizing communities, some individuals are subject positions get privileged and represented as 'normal' while other individuals and subject positions are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways, 'absonormal.'"
This quote means that we have a serious problem when it comes to the respect that we lack for other cultures, and that society needs to change the way that we view people.
2. "Aside from being an absence in the curriculum, gayness has been made visible in some various limited and marginalized contexts. To the extent that gayness is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum, where it is associated with disease.:
This quote is one that I find to be incredibly important because it shows us how little we teach about homosexuality, and what we do say about it is negative. I believe that we are sending out the wrong message about gay people and that it shouldn't be so avoided by people.
3."The official policy in most school districts is in the identical to that of the U.S. Military, namely: 'Don't ask, Don't tell.'"
I think that this quote is important because although it is an improvement of the way that we treat homosexual teachers, it is wrong to try and avoid the truth. Gay people shouldn't have to hide who they are in the classroom as if they are ashamed of their sexuality.

I found this article to be a real eye opener on the way that some people treat homosexuality, and that we should change the way that we treat the topic of homosexuality. We shouldn't try to hide and avoid it so much because there's nothing wrong with it, and there are many more people these days who are "coming out."

Meier talkng points

1. 40% of the total U.S. public school population is made up of students with color.
- I think that this is important because that's such a high number of colored students and it's almost equal.
2. Many children who are unused to books and being read to find it difficult to sit still for the time it takes a teacher to read even a fairly short picture book.
- This is important being it shows how not being familiar with reading can really set a child back and also make a distraction in the classroom. Every child should have an experience reading and with books.
3. If books are not compelling to children, then no amount of time spent on rhyming games, phonemic awareness exercises, or any other kind of literacy activity will result in their becoming proficient & empowered readers.
- This is important because it shows how much we need to keep the children interested in learning and in reading so that they can progress and learn more. Children need to want to learn and have a drive to learn new things or else they won't try, and in result they won't do well or do as well as they could.

School visit

Friday was my first day visiting my school. Meghan and I carpooled there and we arrived at 9 a.m. At first I was a little nervous, but then as i entered my classroom I got very excited to be there. My teacher that I'm working with is named Mr. Willie Wonka and I'm in a third grade classroom working with two boys on reading. There is also an assistant teacher in my classroom named Ms. Bucket. While I was there, my class went to the book store and browsed for quite a bit, and then when they got back to the classroom it was time for a school assembly, and since I didn't get my training done right away, I didn't get to work with the kids at all. What I did do in the classroom before my training was I helped Mr. Wonka file papers and put children's worksheets in the appropriate folders. Overall, I think it was a good first visit and I am eager to go back when they children get back from their vacation.

White Privilege

Talking points on White Privilege, by McIntosh
Casey Martel
1. "As a white person, I realized I had been taught about
racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage."
I think that this statement is important because it shows that her eyes have been opened up to the possibilities that have been granted to her and not to others because of their race. She takes into consideration all of the choices that she's had and all of the privileges that she could have recieved that she had never notices before.
2. "The pressure to avoid it is great, for in
facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country;
one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own."
This quote is important because she is talking about how it's wrong for others to not get the same privileges in life as others. She thinks that everyone should get the same chances as everyone else and that people should be able to climb the social status by the work that they've accomplished and not by the color of their skin.
3. "I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in
individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in the invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth."
In this quote, she's talking about how she feels racism is not just being mean to somebody who is not white, she is talkign about how racism could be to ignore the fact that when you are born of a certain race, you get certain privileges. She feels that this privilege isn't known by many white people because they are born with it, but she feels that it is wrong and that things should not be this way in our society.

This article made me think about how we need to change the way we treat other people of different races. I think that we are born with a privilege that is higher than other races, and that we should give other races that same standard. I think that everyone should be treated equal and that the same doors that are open for one race should be open for all races. I think that McIntosh is right and that it is time for a change in the way we handle other races and the opportunities that we have over them.

My First Blog

My name is Casey Martel, and this is my second semester at RIC. So far my classes this semester are going pretty good, I can't complain. When I'm not in class I like to hang out with my friends. I love Meghan Haggerty. Also, on Wednesdays I volunteer at an elementary school in East Providence. There, I help my roommate run a theater program that runs from after school at 2:30 until 4. This year, they are performing the play "The Wizard of Oz." That's pretty much it.

Bye. :]