Challenging Cultural Biases

I felt that this article was pretty self-explanatory after having this class this semester. This article was about challenging cultural biases that we have as teachers, which is a really good idea. However, I feel that we have been doing that this semester as it is. It was a good article, but I also feel that we have read similar articles during this class and other classes this semester. 

It is true that both inservice and pre-service teachers have their own cultural experiences and biases towards other cultures. I feel that in class we have conquered some of our own cultural biases that we might have had without realizing we had them. It is very important for teachers to get to know their students and use their experiences in the classroom. I also liked how the author pointed out that communities and families were valuable resources for teaching science. One of the people said that by relating what's being taught in the classroom to things they do at home, the students will be more interested and get more out of the lesson. 

I think while reading this, I was more critical of the layout and structure of the research, than of what they were actually discussing. I think that I was doing this because for our inquiry project we are reading a lot of research papers to try and get the feel of how to write them and what to include. 

Counter Narratives

I found this research article really interesting because of the counter narratives of urban schools. I feel like most articles, books or things on the news are all about urban schools and their negative aspects, never about their positive aspects. This article also discusses how it may not always be the students or the communities faults but the institutional, bureaucratic or systemic situations. It seems as though the blame is never put there, but that is where it really does belong, and not on the students or the communities. It was interesting that the author pointed out that this way of thinking can be counterproductive in the success of urban students. 

My favorite line was "Successful teachers engage in a 'different route to ensure the growth and development of their students'" I liked this point, because they were not saying that it is impossible to teach urban students, but that teachers need to find a different way to teach them. The first teacher, Mr. Jackson, used counter narratives to teach his students. He stressed the value of learning, he immersed himself in his students worlds and learned about their lives outside of school, included music in his teaching, and he dealt with the importance and unimportance of the same ethnicity. I really liked this teacher's way of teaching and I felt it related to my values in teaching. No matter where I teach, I want my students to value learning and I'll have to find a way to make sure my students do value it. I also believe in learning as much as you can about a student and immersing yourself in their lives. It's important to know the factors, so you can know what to expect and what may or may not work in teaching students. I also value the use of music in a classroom. I have always been musically inclined and find that a lot of teaching can be aided in music. For example, I am in a Kindergarten classroom right now for my internship and we listen to music every day and sing a song during the morning message. By singing and following along with the words at the same time, it will help the students learn to read. I find it beneficial to include all the learning styles in a classroom, especially music. 

Listening to What the Children Say...

I found this article very interesting because I am in a Kindergarten classroom, and I find myself listening to conversations similar to those in the article. I, am also curious to what the children are saying. Their answers and outlook on the world fascinate me. I found the concept of open-ended questions really interesting, because even when you ask questions, sometimes it is hard to accept the answers children give you, and you wait for an answer that matches your own ideal answer. That is something that I feel I need to get better with. Because being able to actually hear a child's answer as it is, is also a way of assessing what a child needs and what a child already has in their own personal database of knowledge. 

It's important when we are teaching to remember that we are always teaching children. We may be teaching math, science, reading, writing and social studies, but what matters the most is that we are teaching children. I really liked when the author said "the children were continually making natural connections, adding a structure of rules and traditions according to their own logic." That's also what education is, allowing children to connect their learning to something in their lives, so their learning is more valuable. This is similar to what John Dewey said about experiences and how all experiences need to be valued in teaching. The author also says "use this compelling material as a vehicle for examining his ideas of how the world works," is also saying to teach to their experiences. 

Another part about this article I found interesting was the issue with Frederick about the birthdays and the fact that he did not believe his mom had birthdays anymore. To me this part related to science, because Frederick had a huge misconception about birthdays. While birthdays may not be science, children still have misconceptions about concepts in science, and teachers need to work to change misconceptions. Although you cannot force a child to change his mind, teachers need to find ways to help with these misconceptions. 

Campfire Effect

After reading the "Campfire Effect", I feel that I am not prepared to teach ELL students. I did student teach in East Hartford, and although I may have had a lot of hispanic students,  not many were ELL students. Some students did have trouble with English, but they could all speak it and for the most part understand. I remember having difficulty explaining words in English because of language barriers, but for the most part we understood each other. However, that doesn't do me any good if when I start teaching next year and i have 5 students who do not speak English. I will not feel prepared to teach them in the best possible way. My only language background is French from taking 6 years of it, but I do not have any Spanish background, if any of my students were Spanish speaking. I really do feel that as preservice students, we should have a class in teaching ELL. There are a lot of areas in teaching that I do not feel prepared for, ELL students is one, as well as teaching students with disabilities, or even students with ADHD. I really feel that it would be beneficial for UConn to have a required class on ELL students or at least teach topics of it throughout other classes. 

Response to "Unemployment Training"

This article really struck home to me. At first when I was reading this article I got really angry and then the more I read, I saw truth in it. It really angered me at first, because I am a product of an Urban school system, and I do not see myself like that. I like to believe that I have a good work ethic and I will find a job and keep it.  But this article made me doubt that based on the education I have had. Maybe I am an exception to students who went to urban schools, because I don't believe that I have those ideologies about work and school. Does that make my friends exceptions to the article, too, seeing as my friends and acquaintances don't have those ideologies either and they also grew up in East Hartford?

One of the things I noticed about the schools in the article was that the teachers and the school systems seem to have no or very low expectations of students in urban settings. I believe that is one of the problems in urban school systems and especially in this article. Teachers just do what they have to do to get the students through the school system. But if you believe in the students and try and teach them work ethics, students might do better, they might even rise above the teacher's expectations. Under the showing up section, they talk about rewarding inaction and uninvolvement, but why not expect more than just attendance? Under the 'make me' section, it says that students believe the staff and faculty run everything, but why not give the students some autonomy and let them make some decisions? Maybe students would care more if they had a reason to care. 

In the section "noncooperation", the author discusses how schools do not try to improve communication among students. But I have seen peer-mediation groups be successful in urban schools. Also during my student teaching, they were using a program called "Second Step" which had a variety of student problems that might arise, and had examples that the students could act out. I used it when a problem arose in my class and it actually worked. It provided students an outlet, and they were able to express how they were feeling. It did work to solve problems. 

One paragraph said, "Urban schools accept the notion that their job is to make students learn, not simply to do everything possible to encourage them to learn." Why are urban schools not encouraging students to learn? I have a lot of unanswered questions after reading this article and I feel really frustrated. 

Where is science?

So I am still not sure what to write in this blog, if it is my feelings and/or reflection or responding to the reading. For this blog, I have decided to write what I am feeling in terms of teaching science now. Science has never been my strong point for me. But after student teaching, I realized how much I do like it (even if I need to get better at it). I student taught in 5th grade in East Hartford, where not much science was being taught. Actually, they were starting a new science program that year, but none of the 5th grade teachers had actually started teaching the new program, let alone open the boxes. I took it upon myself to start the program in my class (and open the boxes!) and began teaching science to 5th graders. I realized how important science is, how little my students knew about science and how eager my students were to learn science. The students were so interested in science and it made me think that even if science is not taught regularly, it is the kind of thing that can be taught at any point in the classroom. Those kids and their enthusiasm for science when I taught it was part of the reason I wanted to take this class. Science is so vital and every child needs to learn science. 

Now I am in a kindergarten classroom in Mansfield, and science is not being taught at all. It frustrates me to see this in a district that is suburban when I thought it was just an urban problem. Where exactly is science being taught? I want to learn more about science so I can include it in any class that I am in.