My Reflections

I enjoyed going to Idlewood elementary and getting to know the students and what they thought about school. What was most important is that I got to know how the young children feel that their teacher cares. My student said giving candy and no homework but I asked him what do you have to do in order to get these things and he said, that you have to behave and stay quiet. What’s interesting is that he understood what he must do as a student in order to get rewards. He didn’t expect just to get them. Talking to the teachers and former students of our program was very helpful as well in understanding how they excelled to get to where they are now and what it’s like to be a teacher now.

What stood out to me the most about Gatto’s work is intellectual dependency that people wait for experts to tell them what to do and kid’s are trained to dependent. I defintely think with the media and the government we have society telling us what to do and what is best for us. As children out teachers tell us what to do so we can be conditioned to do what our employers tell us to do.

What I find disturbing is how many schools continue to punish misbehaved children who do not academically perform well, are abused or neglected, or are from low-income families. These are the kids who really need help from schools, but instead schools ignore and do not address these children issues of what is causing them to behave in this way and are just focusing on punishing these students. In my own teaching I will look deep into my students behavior to find out their situation and what is going on in their lives that are affecting their behavior in school and do what I can to help them.

I found the articles on intelligence to be very informative as future teachers. I like how Sternberg mentions that teachers should recognize what students know and build their knowledge and teach them based on their cultural knowledge which will help students to perform better. I like Gardner’s theory in that we all have multiple intelligences with strengths in one area over another.I think this theory helps teachers to recognize students individual strengths and not fault them on what they may be lacking.

I find the pledge of allegiance in schools to be a contradiction of keeping religion separate from schools. I don’t understand why it is still okay to do in schools today. There are several religions of people that do not pledge to the flag. One reason being the pledge of allegiance makes references to god. I feel the pledge of allegiance should be taken out of schools because it causes controversy with religions and student’s beliefs.

The language and culture experiment really made me look at how some we may treat others who have other outside of our own and who do not understand our own culture. Being in the Beta culture and grabbing cards away from the poor Alphas who didn’t who what was going on made me think of how Hispanics might feel when they come to America and don’t know how to speak English or understand the English culture. I also thought about how the low wages many Hispanics are paid by some companies and small businesses who take advantage of them for their labor and hard work.

Going to the Alpha culture I got to experience how if feels to try to live in a new culture where you don’t understand the language or cultue. I felt like an outsider, ignored, and made fun of because I didn’t understand. I see now how it feels for others coming to a new culture here in the U.S. I think this experiment was very beneficial in putting oneself in another person’s shoes and is a useful technique to use as teachers to introduce and discuss diversity.

I was really excited about going to the King Center when I heard we were going. I had been to the King Center when I was about 11 yrs old so I didnt remember that much. I think what I got out of it now as an adult is way more than when I was a child.
When I saw the pictures and and the struggles for what black people had to go through and endure during the civil rights movement I felt sorrow and compassion. Looking at photos made me think of all the rights for equality among black and poor people and education MLK Jr. fought for is what we are still fighting for today. I question what ways will ever actually be effective since these issues still have not been resolved.

What really touched me the most was seeing Coretta Scott King mourning the death of MLK Jr. Coretta looked so strong holding her up high with her kids. What was really admiring was seeing the pictures of Coretta marching for the sanitation workers after her husband died taking his place in the march to continue the fight for her husband and others.

When thinking about class in America I feel there will always be a gap between the wealthy and the working class and poor. I don’t ever think America will be an equal society because those who are wealthy want to remain that way and continue to make laws and decisions that leave working class and the poor behind so that they will never get what they have. America has always been structured to have working poor and the affluent or wealthy, and will continue to be that way.

I found the white privileges video to be disturbing but true to actually see how society treats us blacks everyday and how we may feel everyday exactly how Jane Elliot treated the white people, as inferior. What was interesting were the techniques she used on the people to make her point for them to feel low and degraded about themselves. I like how she showed that no matter how much blacks try to and are force to assimilate with society, society changes the rules so that they can never truly be equal and like whites.

I really enjoyed the retreat. I felt we all had a chance to bond with one another and get to learn more about one another. I enjoyed the colors activity we did. I got to see what my personality is like and learn how kids in schools with the different personalities will be in the classroom.

One thing I found interesting was learning how the direction of education is heading toward profit gain rather than students education. I like how the Molina family are fighting for a cause to help education and that we are all able to help join and fight this cause in some way whether individually or collectively.