In the Service of What?

By Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Quotes:

"service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling."

No matter what, someone in the world always has it worse than you. I think it is a great idea for students to do service learning! it gives them an insight of what is going on in the world outside of just their own homes.

"there are numerous ways in which a curriculum focused on giving provides opportunities for students to develop caring relationships, especially when compared to a traditional academic curriculum"

Students participating in service learning are getting hands on experience they need to realize that everyone has a different story. Whether they are money deprived, or family deprived, everyone is fighting a different battle.

"tudents tutor, coach softball, paint playgrounds, and read to the elderly because they are interested in people, or because they want to learn a little about poverty and racism before they head out into the waiting corporate world "

I think it is great that students are participating in service learning. Not only are they doing a good deed for someone in need, but they are learning about themselves and others while doing it!

I really like this picture because it shows how something as simple as children visiting with the elderly can make their day!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03service-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us

Linda Christensen

Quotes:

"The impact of Racism begins early. Even in our preschool years we are exposed to misinformation about people that are different from us"

This is unfortunately the sad truth. At a young age we are misguided by media, movies, and even teachers, about "facts" of other races and cultures. We have different expectations about how people that are different of us act and should be. 

when Christensen starts her project with the students she explains "I start by showing students old cartoons because the stereotypes are so blatant. We look at the roles women, men, people of color and poor people play in the cartoons". 

These stereotypes always seem to be focused most on. Men and women are depicted in a certain way they should act. Poor people and colored people are also often categorized in ways that are far from the truth and reality of who they really are. 

"For some, the lesson doesn't end in the classroom. Many who watched cartoons before say they can no longer enjoy them."

Its crazy, because once our eyes are opened up to a certain topic, its hard to not notice it everywhere. And these students are now noticing that cartoons aren't just rainbows and butterflies, and there are so many stereotypes in them. 

This is a really cool project to do with students. It opens their eyes up to whats going on around them. It is definitely an interesting thing to do with the students as it informs them but also is getting them to see beyond (for example) an innocent, clothed duck running around. 

I never even noticed that before!

http://www.cracked.com/article_15677_the-9-most-racist-disney-characters.html

This article shows and explains 9 different scenes from Disney movies/books that are racist. 

Speaking the Unspeakable in Forbidden Places

Quotes:

"The primary school is often thought of as a place of safety and innocence"

This was the first quote in the introduction of the article. Its sad, but almost made me laugh because in so many cases public schools is a place of shame and discomfort. It should be a place of freedom and joy, but in many schools there is still so much bullying and discrimination going on. Its not right, and a lot of times teachers don't even do anything about it.

"I found it difficult to decide what kind of Cinderella I would be. I didn’t want to be
completely feminine because they see loads of very feminine fairy tale characters all the
time and yet they also seem to think that all lesbians look like men so I wanted to
challenge that in them too"

I like her way of thinking. Too often princesses are depicted as perfect, pretty women dressed in puffy gorgeous gowns. These kids need to think outside of the box and realize life isn't all rainbows and butterflies, nor does everyone live this way.

"it could be suggested that by being asked to keep (or to attempt to keep)
homosexuality in the staffroom, many teachers were also being asked to attempt to
maintain the dominance of heterosexuality within the school"

No one should be ashamed of who they are. Hiding our identities to fit in should be against the law. We should be proud of who we are and and never change ourselves to fit in.

In my opinion, telling a gay person they need to hide their sexuality is like telling a women to hide her gender, or telling a black person to hide his color. We should embrace who we are.

Perfectly said ^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybAlFrV8f4

Haha. This is so cute. Its a little boys reaction to meeting a gay couple for the first time. He nailed it when he says "Your married, so that means you love each other". 

"Hunger of Memory" - My reflection

Hunger of Memory - Richard Rodriguez 

Autobiography

Reflection:

I am white. I grew up in a white town with tons of white kids and white teachers. Everyone spoke English. Spanish class is the hardest class i ever had to take, yet the Spanish i was learning was basic stuff like "hello, goodbye" and tons of other standard words that a Spanish speaking two year old would probably know. Yet, it came so difficult for me to obtain it all. They say that English is the hardest language to learn. I grew up speaking it, so hindsight its easy. 

When a Spanish speaking student is transferred to a "white" school, they are thrown into classes that it is expected of you to know how to speak English. The teacher isn't going over easy words such as "hello" and "goodbye" they are more concentrated on proper grammar and pronunciation. This would be very difficult for a young child to adapt to. They don't know what is being said and their social life is little to non-existent. It is sad. I never had to experience this, nor did i know anyone going through the difficulty of learning English, until my first year of college. 

There was a lady in one of my classes. She was in her 30's and moved to America from Puerto Rico. Her English was bad, and it was very hard for her to obtain knowledge on environmental science (the class we shared together) when she was simply trying to understand what on earth the teacher was saying. It seemed impossible. We were put into groups, and i was with her a few times. understanding her was hard, and having her try to understand me seemed harder. It seemed like a lost cause, but she pulled through the class somehow and barely passed. I felt sorry for her and the struggle she had to go through to get a barely passing grade. 

It is important for children needing to learn a second language to have the ability of having bilingual classes. It gives them a fighting chance to be able to learn. How could someone possibly learn is they cant even understand what is being taught. Its pretty pointless to have a child sitting in class and not understand a word being said. The class should only be done if it will "help the sheep", if not its a lost cause. Bilingual classes are important to young children learning another language!

http://esl.about.com/od/esleflteachingtechnique/a/lesson_format.htm

The article above shows basic steps teachers should consider while teaching English as a second language. For all of us studying to become teachers, this is a good article to look at as it shows formats of lesson plans for those learning english as a second language. 

I posted the picture above because this is probably how some children feel as they enter English speaking classrooms. It must be a scary, bad feeling.