Presentation #3

Group 3 did their presentation today on chapter 6 which is Education in the
United States and It's Historical Roots. I think the presentation was informative, and gave a good history lesson on education in the U.S. After the presentation the professor expanded on the topic of assimilation involving the American Indians. We watched a short video on how American Indians were forced to go to schools run by white teachers that tried to force the population to conform to the "civilized" way of life. The whites made the American Indians dress like them and talk like them, in an attempt to take away their own cultural identity. In the end it didn't work, the damage was already done, many American Indian lives were already ruined. The American Indians started their own schools and kept what culture they could alive.

Intercultural Developmental Inventory

I have the scores from my Intercultural Development Inventory Test. This test is designed to measure the stage of my Intercultural Development. This is an important topic in education today, as diversity in public schools is increasing all the time, and teacher's need to be able to teach more diverse group of students. They use a scale ranging from1 which is denial to 5 which is adaptation. According to my IDI report, my perceived orientation score indicates how I rate my own capability in understanding and appropriately adapting to cultural differences. In this category, I scored a 114.93, which is between minimization and acceptance on the scale. My Developmental Orientation score was 74.78 which falls between denial and defense/reversal. Needless to say I was a little upset by this until I saw what was on the back sheets of the packet. The packet has some questions and answers on the back that were part of the test. One of the things I noticed first was that it says is that I am a member of an ethnic minority which is not true. So I looked into it further and noticed six other questions were also answered differently than I remember. I also answered that I never took a foreign language and have never studied abroad which are true and I’m sure count against me. I actually had no choice in foreign language in high school because I had to give it up for Time Management. I also would like to study abroad if I get the chance. Because these answers are different than I remember putting it makes me feel that these scores are different than they would be if my actual answers were. If I were to use this score though I would need a lot of work in trying to learn new things about different cultures and be open to new experiences.

2nd Presentation

My group presented on 3/2/2011 and it went really well I think the way we all pitched in with ideas and were willing to listen to each other was a huge reason it went so well. We had our printouts of select pages of an IEP, we had questions for the class to think about, and our power point was ready to go. Each of us was ready to talk about our part and I think it all went well.

Unequal Education: Failing our Children

3/15/2011

We watched a video today about two students going to two different schools blocks away from each other, but both were very different. One school was called Riverdale and it was a predominantly white school. A student named James attended Riverdale and the documentary film crew followed him throughout a few of his school days. The other school that was compared to Riverdale was called South Fordham a predominantly black school, and the student that the documentary followed from that school was named Lonnie.

At the beginning of the video, Lonnie was afraid to go outside to dump the garbage at his own apartment building. Lonnie’s mom talked about how just days earlier a little girl got into a fight outside in the street. When we visited James house, however, he said he liked his neighborhood and his house was much larger than Lonnie’s family apartment. I can’t believe that those two homes are as close a few blocks away like the video said, because the neighborhoods are so different. I was also sad to see that one of Lonnie’s teachers was teaching a subject that he was unqualified to be teaching. Along with the unqualified teacher, Lonnie did not have access to microscopes in science class or other materials that are beneficial in a classroom. While at James school, he could use microscopes and many other things Lonnie did not have at his school. I don’t think school funding should be based on the amount of taxes paid in the area of the school district because it creates issues, shown in these two schools. It gives a head start and an unfair advantage to the children in richer areas. Both kids had the same ambitions, but one had a greater potential to achieve them just because his family lived in a richer area.

Education Nation Chapter 4

Chapter 4 was dedicated to showing how education is not just something that happens in school but is something that is important in everyday life. It talked about relating school learning to real life and how variety in learning isn’t a bad thing. Also that it is good to explore your own curiosities and learn on your own.

The five points that affect me:

1.       Learning doesn’t stop when the bell rings at the end of the school day.

2.       Learning does not stop over the summer break, especially if you encourage students to learn more about their own interests over the summer.

3.       Learning from others who are learning the same subject is important because by teaching other what you know helps engrain it in your own mind. It also helps develop social skills needed in the real world.

4.       The idea of “School life = Real life”.

5.       Time is limited during a class period, but using technology you can bring that learning home to the student.

Education Nation Chapter 3

This chapter is about how education has not kept up with technology. The idea is that students can’t reach their full potential if they aren’t allowed all of the available tools to succeed.

The five points that affect me:

1.       Embrace technology and change teaching styles accordingly, because technology can take education outside of the school setting.

2.       Don’t use one teaching style when you can use them all.

3.       Lectures are pointless when you can use more meaningful and exciting ways to present the material.

4.       Use technology as a way present and convey ideas.

5.       Online learning elevates and levels the playing field.

Education Nation Chapter 2

This chapter was mostly about hands on learning and how lectures just don’t cut it now that technology is around. The book also touched on how the feelings, ideas, home life, and many other things can affect a students learning and will to learn.

The five points that affect me:

1.       If at all possible provide project based learning, and use experiences that are relevant to student’s lives.

2.       Use and strengthen active-learning practices.

3.       Video, images, and music are much more powerful than just words alone.

4.       If a student’s heart isn’t into learning than their mind won’t be either.

5.       It’s not only about what’s going to be on the test, but about what will help a student in the real world.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in tongues is a documentary we watched in class that followed four students in the         San Francisco public school immersion program. The students shared how they felt about the program and learning in school using another language. Families talked about how proud they were of their kids, and how they know another language that will allow them to have more opportunities throughout their lives. The documentary showed how it is important to be bilingual in the world today, because the world keeps getting smaller all of the time. I like the idea of the program and I wish it was available when I was younger. These schools are a stepping stone toward educating our children to be competitive in the global market.

2/24/2011

The group that was assigned chapter 4 in our book gave their presentation today. The presentation was about exploring diversity in the classroom. The explained what culture was and what culture actually meant and all of the dynamics of it. After explaining what culture was it was easier to understand what they were talking about when they said that it can be difficult for someone of a different culture to learn the same way in the classroom as another student of a different culture? The videos they showed were excellent and informative, and it gave all of us an idea of what we needed to do to become a teacher in that aspect. They also added in a jeopardy game at the end with questions that were directly from the presentation. Overall it was a great presentation which makes it hard for my group because we have to follow them.

2/22/2011

On this day in class we split up into groups and discussed the meanings of the following terms.

Culture

Multi Culture

Diversity

Intercultural

Competencies

American Culture

In our groups we discussed what we thought these terms meant and then the entire class shared what their groups came up with.                           

We then watched a video on Intercultural Competence, what it means to be culturally competent, and why it is so important to be intercultural competent.

2/15/2011

We took an online test called the Intercultural Development Inventory in class today. The test is designed to measure our stage of development in cultural competency. The reason it is important to know where you are on the scale is because classrooms are getting more diverse every year.

2/10/2011

We watched news a broadcast on popularity and social cruelty in schools. The segment started by defining what makes a child more popular than another. After defining who was popular and who wasn’t they looked into what type a power a popular child has over others. They went on to talk  about children with no friends and children with few friends, and how every child needs friends and children without friend may need help to get them. The next topic was a piece on bullying and how sometimes it isn’t seen by the adult supervisors, also what bullying does to a child’s life. They ended with a group of students putting together an anti bullying campaign. After the video we broke into groups and formed our own “Anti Bullying Campaign”. We made posters that had our ideas and slogans on them and presented them to the class.

2/8/2011

At the beginning of class we practiced our listening skills. We found a partner and talked to them for one minute while they said nothing, and then we switched so we had to listen. After that we moved on to chapter three in our class assigned book. Chapter three is about schools and society, but we spent most of our time talking about bullying and cyber bullying. We then watched a movie called bullied. The movie was a true story about a young man from Wisconsin that was bullied in school because he was gay. He recounted all of the struggles he went through with the school faculty that would ignore the fact that he was getting beat up, and the emotional struggles he dealt with during that period. I then when home and ordered a free copy online for myself.


Today I watched the movie bullied and as a future teacher I plan to combat bullying by educating students on how words and actions mean alot more than they think. I think less people would be bullies if they knew how bad they made people feel.

2/3/2011

During class we talked about an organization called Teach for America. Teach for America has the goal of bringing quality educators into low income/urban areas. The teachers that go through the program get placed in these areas to try and give the same quality education to the students that are given in middle to upper class schools.

We watched a video featuring Tony Wagner, who wrote the book, The Global Achievement Gap. I the video Wagner talked about how even our top of the line schools aren’t teaching our students the skills they need to succeed in the job market today.

1. Critical thinking and Problem Solving.
2. Collaboration across Networks, and Leading by Influence.
3. Agility and Adaptability.
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism.
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication. 
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information.
7. Curiosity and Imagination.

According to Wagner effective oral and written communication is one area that employers say our graduates are lacking. As someone that is four years removed from high school, and has been part of the workforce since then I can say that I agree.

We also read a small piece taken out of Linda Darling-Hammond's The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity will Determine Our Future. We read the piece and then split into groups to talk about it. My group agreed that if small fishing counties can go from little to no education, and then jump to being well educated in a decade by implementing new techniques that the United States should be able to do the same if people would allow change.

2/1/2011

Today Dr. Johnson went over the MTLE. This is the new test that will replace the praxis, and the first round of the MTLE is required to start junior block. We were also split up into small groups to make mind maps of chapters one and two of our text books. We used a large sheet of paper along with markers to outline the major points of each chapter. Each group was assigned one chapter and was paired up with another that would cover the other, and when we finished our posters we presented it to the other group. I think splitting the chapters up this way and then presenting them to others helped both groups understand the key points better than if we read it.

1/20/2011

We watched a You-Tube video called RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms. The video brought up a lot of good questions about how we should be educating students of the 21^st century. The video went over why some people think ADHD is an epidemic, but it also said that we blame ADHD when it’s obvious that sometimes it’s just the way material is presented. I agree with the video that we need to change our teaching style to better fit the new world.

1/25/2011

We met in our small groups to decide what our main topics from chapter five in our book we would focus on. We ended up choosing Students with Exceptionalities. We brainstormed to figure out how to split the topics up between our group members, and I chose the section on the IEP. From that point we decided to search for videos that would be connected to all of our topics and would show different perspectives. We found a video that followed a student throughout his day focusing on his struggles. Our group decided we wanted to use power point so we could start on our own slides and put them together later.

State wants online charter school shut down

The online charter school has been under investigation for two years by the state for allowing students to graduate without completing what they feel are the necessary bench marks for math and other subjects. I think the state has a real case for not renewing the schools license or even terminating it. Not all of its students are graduating without completing the necessary requirements but I think that a legitimate school wouldn’t bend the rules for a student just so they can graduate. You never know if someone chose that school to go to so they wouldn’t have to work as hard for that diploma which would cheapen everyone else’s.

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/117557253.html

NORWAY: Foreign students flock to free universities

Students from all over Europe flock to Norway for the only free colleges left in Europe. I can’t imagine free college for 2-4 years. There are only a few programs that require tuition and those are specialized or masters programs. I think that it is a great that tuition free colleges exist, but it makes you wonder why these schools aren’t available in the United States. This is a short article but worth the read if you’re a former or current college student and you want feel like you were left out of a good thing.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2011021120194112

Governor’s budget protects E-12 education, boosts early childhood programs

Mark Dayton’s budget plan been called has “honest and thoughtful” Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher. The Governor plans to invest in children’s education instead of taking money away from education to fix the state’s 6.2 billion dollar deficit. I think that’s a great idea because why on earth would we punish students and teachers by taking resources away from education. I think that would just set the state up for a future of an under educated work force. Dayton plans to increase taxes along with cutting 15 million in unspecified K-12 programs. I hope this becomes more of a national trend to pay more attention to education to ensure the United States future.

http://www.educationminnesota.org/en/news/edmnupdates/2011/021511-budget.aspx

Japanese Elementary Teachers Take On Teaching English

Starting this April Japanese teachers of fifth and six grade students are supposed to begin teaching English as a required class. The only problem is that these teachers don’t know English at all because this was a seventh grade expectation in the past. The fifth and sixth grade teachers think it is absurd that they are expected to teach English if they themselves don’t know it. I have to say I agree with them on that part, but I think it is a great idea to put the program in place once they have teachers that can properly teach the language. Some of the teachers studied English in college years ago but they can’t imagine teaching it. I think it will take some time to get done, but the end effect will be well worth it.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/japanese-elementary-teachers-take-on-teaching-english-52528.html

Education Minnesota disappointed by alternative licensure decision

The group believes that the standards are too low for the teachers getting the alternative licensure and that it will bring down the quality of teaching provided. "The key to better teaching does not lie in making it easier to become a teacher. Our society does not address issues relating to doctors, attorneys, electricians or any other professional in such a manner.” I think this quote makes a good point. Why can’t someone get an alternative two year licenser for being a doctor or dentist? Is it because we view those jobs as more important and teaching kids is lower on the totem pole? I try to imagine trying to become a teacher in two years with no prior degree or interaction with kids in school. I can defiantly say that I could not do it. That’s why I agree that there needs to be more requirements added on to this two year licensure program like a degree in the subject to be taught, or supervision from an experienced educator for a period of time. Read the article and see what you think.

http://www.educationminnesota.org/en/news/newsroom/newsreleases/2011/022811-altlicensure.aspx