Laura Palmer's Fall 2018 Blog

Reflection: "Why Schools Need to take Another Route," by Jeannie Oakes            This article talks about a lot of problems that schools need to avoid. Some points that are mentioned are uneven opportunities and unfair curriculum changes. I can relate to this article in many ways. When I was in high school I attended "normal classes." I had many friends who were in the "smart classes," such as AP. They would often talk about how much they are learning and the new material they were introduced to. They had teachers who were very passionate about their subject. Normal classes, on the other hand, didn't get that pleasure. I had teachers who acted like they didn't care.  One quote that stood out to me from the article is "In low ability classes, for example, teachers seem to be less encouraging and more punitive, placing more emphasis on discipline and behavior and less on academic learning." I have seen this first hand in my ki...

"In the Service of what? The Politics of Service Learning" By, Kahne and Westheimer  What is service learning? According to this article service learning activities "seek to promote students self-esteem , to develop higher order thinking skills , to make use of multiple abilities , and to provide authentic learning experiences - all goals of current curriculum reform efforts." Therefore, service learning is very beneficial to the kids. I learned a lot of useful information from reading this article. Before this class, I knew nothing about service learning. I have never been in a classroom with kids until now. My kindergarten classroom has taught me a lot about what service learning really is.  Hyperlink:  https://nylc.org/service-learning/ The link I included sums up this long article. It talks about what service learning is and what makes it work. I am volunteering in a kindergarten class at Henry Bailey Elementary sch...

Option One: Read These two articles (Soloway) and Stacy Abrams. Explain their arguments about how this election teaches us about Gender. Connect to at least 2 of our course texts in your post. Soloway: The Article titled "Jill Soloway on Donald Trump, Locker Rooms and Toxic Masculinity" shows us how females are divided into two different groups. One-half of these women are "good" women in society or related to the types of men mentioned in this article. These men are very mean and treat women like they are objects instead of people. The other half of women are the ones that these men attack. Donald Trump is a perfect example of one of these men with the mindset of a gender split. Billy Bush had revealed that Trump talked about his fame and how it enabled him to force himself on women. This article mentions that this scenario is comparable to racism. I agree with this and can compare it to a previous article we looked at called "Privilege, Power, and Differ...

          Safe Spaces and 11 and Gender Fluid Quotes 1. "Classrooms lay the foundations for an inclusive and safe society." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy8ODDgSBF4 This quote is from the article titled "Safe Spaces." The article mentions several occasions where students have been penalized or discriminated against because of sexual orientations. In one instance a girl got points off on her Spanish assignment because of what sex she is attracted to. Her teacher corrected her by saying "Novio," meaning boyfriend. This teacher should be ashamed assuming this. The teacher shouldn't have put a question like that on the assignment because it forces her to determine someones sexual orientation. In another instance, a teacher refused to call one of their students by their proper name. One student wanted to be called Jess because it fit his gender identity more. The teacher continued to call him by the name on their roster. I like how a...

    Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us             by Linda Christensen Hyperlinks:  This Article explains the negative effect of children's cartoons, movies, tv shows, etc. Children are very innocent and easily swayed. Watching these toxic cartoons and movies has a lasting effect on children. Children might inspire to be a princess and think that they need to look and live like Cinderella to be happy. Cinderella portrays, "Happiness means getting a man." These cartoons also display many negative aspects such as racism. In every cartoon love story, the princess is always white. One student mentioned, "I'm not taking my kids to see any Walt Disney movies until they have a black woman playing the leading role." Racism can also be found with the Indians in "looney tunes."  This cartoon fails the properly understand the Indian culture. In can be seen as being made fun of. This reminds me of the N...

                               "Teaching Multilingual children," by Virginia Collier This article states guidelines that help towards teaching multilingual children. This article is similar to another article I found interesting.    Hyperlink: https://www.spanishplayground.net/5-ways-teachers-can-support-home-language/ The link I included states 5 different ways that teachers can support different languages. I believe that these ideas branch off guidelines mentioned in "Teaching Multilingual Children." Both articles give great advice to help the learning environment of multilingual children. These children are special and should be treated differently. Both articles mention"being aware." I think that this is one of the most important ideas mentioned. Teachers need to be aware of this language gap and not ignore it. Teachers need to take action to make sure their students feel comfortable ...