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.