final talking point :)

1. “Democracy can only occur when no person’s voice is deterministically silenced”
This quote is incorporated where it talks about the different voices. We as educators need to make sure we hear and listen to every person’s voice and idea. It is very important that we never ignore anyone or shut anyone out.
2. "Participation is the most important place to begin because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence."
I feel that participation is one of the most important aspects in education. It is important to participate because it helps with understanding the topics being taught and it makes learning easier. I agree completely with this quote and feel that it is extremely important.
3. "If the aim of intellectual training is to form the intelligence rather than to stock the memory, and to produce intellectual explorers rather than mere erudition, then traditional education is manifestly guilty of a grave deficiency"
I have always thought that the traditional education system wasn’t the best type of education. This quote is saying that we need to change the traditional education if our goal is to make everyone more intellectual. I always hated exams and quizzes based off memorization. I never really understood the information; I was just very good at memorizing. I tended to get very bored throughout the years at school and wasn’t interested in it at all.

I enjoyed reading this article (even though it was on the plane on the way to Florida). It was a little too long and boring but I made it through it. I liked the stories that were incorporated in the article. This topic of the article was very easy to compare to sever situations that I have experienced and plan on in the future. It also helped give me new ideas of different ways to teach and really got me thinking about the future in my classroom.

Talking Point 9

Citizenship in School:

Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

by Kliewer

1."I started to notice that I didn't like the classes I was taking called special education. I had to go through special ed. almost all my life. I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry."

I have worked with some children who have Down Syndrome in the past couple of years. They always seem so happy to me, but maybe its because all we are doing is playing games and sports. I had always wondered how people with this really felt about how they were treated. This quote explains what I have always thought they felt like, but never knew.

2. "The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities."

After stating that "now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full and rich life," this is what we need to do. There should be no question when it comes to how we should treat people with disabilities. Even though they do need extra care, depending on how severe their case is, they still deserve to be treated with respect. I like how it was so easy for me to find the so what and now what parts of this article. This quote is the Now What?

3. "(1)the attribution of thinking to one another; (2) the ability to see one another's individuality; (3) the ability to view the relationship as reciprocally valuable; and (4) the attribution of a valued social place for one another."

A study was done between people with disabilities and their relationships with people without disabilities. The study found that these 4 factors were very visible in the study. I learned that without all the pre-set thoughts of the person, you can really have a normal relationship with anyone. I was happy to find that these were the four different aspects and that is what you need in every other relationship, no matter what the circumstance is.

I really enjoyed reading this article because it gave me so much insight on how people with disabilities really feel. I have a friend who's little brother had Down Syndrome, and he is just as smart and sociable as a person who doesn't have it. I know in some cases its worse than others and that they need more care than some, but like I said before if they have the respect and the treatment the same as everyone else, they will be able to succeed. The schools need to be aware of the feelings and wants of these children who want to be in regular classes just like everyone else.

Extra Blog 2

Today in class was very interesting. When we were asked what social class we were in when we were 13, I never realized how well off I really was. I decided that I was in the upper middle class when I was growing up. My father was the Vice President for a company in upstate New York, and made very good money. My mom didn't have to work but she did once we were all in school full time. She was a 3rd grade teacher at an elementary school the town over from where I lived. My brothers and sisters and I all had nice things but were never spoiled. I lived in a very white upper middle class neighborhood and had a nice house. We moved there when I was 3 and lived there until I was 15. We has a full court basketball court on our property and a pool. I grew up with other kids that were around the same social status as me so I never new any different. Once I moved to a different area I started to realize and see more of where I stand. This assignment today made me actually break down the reasons I think I am what I am and it really made me understand.

Also when we were handed out the worksheet to do I was in shock. I am so use to doing group work and I was surprised with the change. I thought that it was just a different style of teaching and that you were just trying to accommodate other learning styles. Then once you asked how we felt about it, I was sure that it was just a testing opportunity to that went along with what the reading was teaching. I really liked that because it made us all appreciate the group work more because I think we were all getting sick of it.

Extra Blog 1

I was thinking about one of the classes over this semester and how it was one that is stuck in my head. Every time we talk about or i hear the saying, "in one of the previous classes", I automatically think back to this one. The class I referring to is the class when we discussed Christensen. I really disliked the article when I read it the first time, however this class completely changed my mind, as did the class we started talking about Delipt. I thought that is was so wrong to critique everything I loved to watch as a child and when Christensen stated, changing up some of the stories and their characters and the themes along with it, I was completely against it. I thought that there was no way a child would watch it, that it wasn't interesting enough. But then I realized, with the help of our class discussions, that if its not there for them to watch and they never have heard of it, they wont miss it. I loved the movie Cinderella, and when I realized that really the only messages that were being put out there were that you have to have nice things for people to like you and you need a man to be happy.
The best thing about the class was when we watched clips from Beauty and the Beast and the other music videos. I learn visually so seeing clips then discussing it really made me understand it better.

Talking point 8

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

by Jean Anyon

Reading this article, I wasn't very shocked with the facts that i was presented. I pretty much was aware of the difference in the schools and educations of different social class communities. In higher social class communities they better prepare their students for desirable jobs, like Anyon says, and this doesn't surprise me. I like how the study she did was over an entire year and not just a short time and how she chose all the same grade classes.

1. "fifth graders of different economic backgrounds are already being prepared to occupy particular rungs on the social ladder."

This quote is so true. Like I said before, it came no surprise to me that this is already happening. I just feel like this is why people stay in the social class they were born into, because they aren't given the chance to change or even any encouragement.

2. "teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned."

This quote is explaining the working class schools. I feel like its the reason students don't care about education because they don't have any teachers that motivate them to learn or even explain why they are being taught what they are being taught. This probably makes the students not care about it because they don't know how they will use it in life or even the significance.

3."If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."

This is how I was taught in school. The more answers I got right the better grade I got. This doesn't give the students the want to learn the material, just to understand it or even memorize enough to get correct answers on a test. The education is not valued and it effects the students in the long run in their education.

Social Justice Event

On Easter Sunday I took part in my diversity event. I watch a family of 5 kids every Saturday and they are all wonderful. There is a 13 year old names Anthony, a 10 year old Jacee, an 8 year old Isis, a 6 year old Jawarie, and a 3 year old names Romello(Mello). The father Mike is African-American and the mother Rana is Latina. The kids as well as both parents speak both English and Spanish. I was invited to their home for an Easter celebration. After I went to church with my family, I went to their house and there were so many people there. Both family and friends were there and there were about 20 kids there. I spent half the time with the adult and half the time with the children. I had an awesome experience and really loved being part of a different cultures traditions. They had certain ways and orders of doing things through out the day. There were some similarities to my families Easter celebrations, but many differences as well. A huge difference was the types of foods they were serving and when they were serving them. With my family we eat a lunch and a dinner, at their home the food was all put out at noon and was out all day. You could eat as much as you wanted and there was such a variety of foods that people brought. I have traveled to many different Spanish countries and have experienced some different foods. One of my favorite snacks are plantains. They had fresh plantains that Rana's mother had brought and they were so good.
At around 1, we had an Easter egg hunt with 100 eggs and it was crazy! Kids were everywhere and it was very hectic but very fun. I was on the porch with Rana and some other women and we were all talking about the kids and how cute they all were when all of a sudden Rana started yelling at Jawarie in Spanish. He was too close to the road and she was telling him to get away. As soon as this happened i thought about the code-switching that Collier talks about in her article. Like she says "when bilingual people use both languages in speech, alternating the two, they code-switch." In the chart that is found in the article about code-switching, i feel like my example would fall under the situational switches pattern. This is because we were all talking in English and as soon as she went to yell, Rana yelled Spanish.
My second example is from McIntosh's article. I went to play with Isis and some other girls her age and they were playing a Barbie game on their WII. While picking what their Barbie looked like I noticed that there were only white Barbies to choose. When McIntosh lists all the things that he never has to worry about I saw number 20. This states, " I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race." I couldn't help but wonder if the girls really think about the fact that none of the dolls are the same color as them, and if they even care, because I didn't notice anything. I never thought about this before taking this class and now I feel like it bothers me more than them.
My third example is from Linda Christensen. Now that I am aware of all the amounts of secret educations in cartoons and kids shows I notice it. As the night was starting to wind down, the kids who were still there were watching Spongebob Square Pants. I have heard many things about the content in this show and even the names of things in the show. The place where all the characters live is called Bikini Bottom. This is a very inappropriate name for a children's show. Also there are many things about the roles of women and people who are different then the norm. All the parents were with the kids while they were watching this show and as Christensen says "young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother or father's lap." All these readings really have effected my thinking and its so interesting in how i notice everything.