Chapter 4

I just finished reading chapter 4. I liked the chapter and how it suggests readings for students. I did love a part of the section titled Classics vs. Contemporary Works. It talks about a "windows and mirrors" theory which I found to be great but I thought beyond it and will explain after I quote it.

"Some of what the kids read in school should hold up a mirror to them, by including their story, their culture, their experience. This is a way of saying, you and your family are important, you are part of us, part of our country and culture. But other books should act as windows, where kids look out not at their own reflection, but upon other peoples, other time periods, other stories, and values, and ways of life."

So the quote does makes a point, or a small analogy, with the mirror and window. What I believe is that this window can be used as a reflection also. You can look through a glass window and see what is outside but then again, you can also concentrate on your reflection. I see it as looking at the world and reflecting on it. It is possible to look through a window and also look at yourself. One can reflect on whatever is put in front of them. I don't think a book can only be used specifically for a reflection of one's self or specifically to have insight into other people, time periods, stories, values or ways of life. It can be done at once without have too much emphasis on either. I like the thought of a combination of both the mirror and the window analogy.

I hope you guys get what I'm trying to say, if not I'll explain in person. Thanks for reading.

Scavenger Hunt

I finished my scavenger hunt and a lot of these things where really hard to find. I learned that there is a lot of history behind it with battles that went on. The clock tower is really old, from what I read it was an Indian lookout during the years 1675 and 1676. I mean I really think about it and I don’t think the people of Central Falls know about the city’s history. I think about my own experience and I didn’t know anything about Pawtucket’s history up until last semester. I went to Charles E. Shea High School and never was taught anything about Pawtucket’s history. The one thing that is eating me away is that I wasn’t able to get the answers to the first couple of questions. Other than that I think the scavenger hunt went well.

As I continue my journey from student to teacher I think about how my content will be of use in the students’ community. The students should know more about their communities and be active within them. Personally, it would be awesome for my students to be able to walk into a Hispanic restaurant and order their food in Spanish. I hope that eventually the students will take what they’ve learned and help others in their communities that don’t speak English and are only fluent in Spanish. If they aren’t able to reach fluency in Spanish, I would love for them to understand that if a person is lacking English fluency, it doesn’t mean  that the person lacks intelligence. There are many that confuse lack of fluency with lack of intelligence and it would be nice for students to know this. Not speaking English doesn’t make a person inferior and it would be beautiful for every student to know that.    

The following are the answers to the scavenger hunt. Take a look at number 30 you might find it useful.

4.) There are six schools in Central Falls which are the following: Captain Hunt Early Learning, Margaret Robertson Elementary, Ella Risk Elementary, Veterans Memorial Elementary, Calcutt Middle School, and Central Falls High School. 

8.) There is one post office in Dexter St.

10.) There is not a movie theater in town.

12.) There are four public parks: Jenk’s Park, River Island Park, Peirce Park, and Lewis & Hunt Park.

15.) There is a World War II memorial between Jenk’s Park  and the church of Jesus Cristo é o Senhor. (That's what was written on the church, it's Portuguese for "Jesus Christ is our Lord" but I don't know if it's really the name of the church.) 

16.) There is one supermarket in town and it is Price Rite. The meat market I found is the International Meat Market. There are two Colombian bakeries called La Sorpresa Bakery and El Antojo Bakery.

17) When people dine out, a well-known restaurant to go to is El Paisa Restaurant. They specialize in typical Colombian cuisine.  Their website is elpaisa.com .

 22.) The first mayor of Central Falls was Charles Moies.

26.) In 1904 Cogswell Tower was built due to a bequest by Caroline Cogswell.

29) Moshassuck Cemetary, at Lonsdale Ave. Central Falls RI 02863 is a historic site that was the scene of the conflict between the National Guard and United Textile Workers in 1934. National Guard troops were federalized and commanded by General Douglas MacArthur at the beginning of his career.

30) Other: Diaz Tire Shop is a good place to go to if you unfortunately end up with a flat tire or need your old tires replaced at a cheap price. Don’t be fooled by Town Fare Tires into buying tires for around $120 each when you can get a good tires for half the price here. It is located right across Calcutt Middle School. I just thought I should share that. 

UbD - Understanding by Design

         What I understand from the readings is that a clear goal has to be stated before planning to do anything. There is a need to know the destination before deciding which paths to take in order to get there. Paths because there should be more than one way to arrive at the destination. What I really liked was the idea of enduring understanding. Applying what has been learned to situations outside of the classroom is wonderful thing.This leads me think about a quote from one of the readings that stuck with me because of past experience. The following is the quote:

In fact, one thing that has always disturbed me is that kids tend to focus on their grades rather than their own learning. Perhaps the way I've used assessments- more for grading purposes than to document learning- has contributed somewhat to their attitude. (Understanding by Design, p.16)   

       I was a student that just focused on the grade. The reason for it is the fast pace, having to retain material and spit it back out without having any of your personal input. Freire's Banking Education is what comes to my mind: the idea of students being empty passive beings and teachers depositing facts into them and withdrawing the facts whenever needed to prove learning has happened. If learning was based more on reflection, rather than facts, then students would walkout with knowledge they could incorporate into their lives. Leaving a classroom with a B or A isn't the same as taking knowledge and applying it outside of a classroom.
         I think about my own teaching and I want that A or B to really mean something. I want my students to really be able to apply the concepts learned in my class to their lives. The A or B should reflect actual learning that they can take beyond the classroom. I've been in ton of classes where the good grade doesn't mean much because I don't leave with anything useful, and I don't what my class to be the same way.

Literacies Profile: Weightlifting

When I was younger I was never active. I wasn’t interested in sports. All I did was study hard and get good grades. I was a great student but my self-esteem was very low. I was an overweight child and I didn’t feel good about my body.  A huge factor that played into my low self-esteem was that I was constantly picked on and I had to fight bullies because no one would stand up for me. By the time I was in my late high school years things started turning around. Little by little, I started losing weight and gaining muscle by weightlifting. Today I can say that I’m literate in weightlifting.

It all started during my time as a 11^th grader. I felt that I needed to get in shape. I didn’t want to be the fat kid in class anymore. Another drive was that I wanted more strength to be able to defend myself against the students that got silly in the school. Both my weight and how I was treated by some bad students at school lead me to weightlifting but my role model was my father. My biggest influence was my father because his arms were big and as hard as coconuts and I wanted arms like his. He always told me I could get arms like him but I never chased it until high school. I started lifting in 2006, but it was a learning process. There were mistakes I made along the way, and there’s one I regret until this day.

Back then I used to go to the gym with my cousins and my best friend. I had gotten used to bench pressing with ease, however, I wasn’t used to doing a variety of lifts. One day we were doing shoulder presses with dumbbells. I was new to the shoulder press. My cousin’s older brother who is my half cousin was pushing us to work harder. He had just gotten out of jail and came out thinking he was physical trainer. Well, he had us doing 35lbs dumbbells. I wasn’t even used to picking up 20lbs and he pushed me to go from 20lbs to 25lbs, 30lbs, and then 35lbs. When I got to lift up the 35lbs dumbbells I did about 3 reps. On the 3^rd or 4^th  rep I lost control of the weight that was in my left hand and my arm snapped back. I was in really bad pain, I dropped the weights, stood up and I almost fainted. I sat down on the ground and handed my best friend my car keys and told him to drive me hope since I wasn’t able to drive back. I just sat on the ground for about two minutes waiting on the dizziness to go away. I got up and left with my best friend.     

By the time I turned 17 I was a little bigger. I gained muscle but I wasn’t working on every part of my body. For my graduation I got to see my father again after 3 years of not seeing him. He wrote out a workout plan for me and told me that everything had to be worked on and that I shouldn’t overlook anything. He also said that proper form and controlled breathing is necessary.  I followed the workout plan for awhile and modified it as I learned new exercises from videos and articles online.

My weightlifting literacy helps me understand that success takes time. I remember that right after high school I would wanted to do everything at once. When I was a student at CCRI I loaded my class schedule but got poor grades. Today I just take my time with what I have to do and try and do the best I can in every one of my courses and so far it has paid off. Another thing that I learned from weightlifting that translates to school is working hard on everything and not overlooking anything. This one is definitely true to looking at a syllabus and not taking an assignment serious because it doesn’t weigh as much as the others. Every assignment needs 100% just like when lifting every muscle group needs to be given 100%.  From my weightlifting literacy I’ve also learned that I can’t measure success by the achievements of others.     

On my future as teacher I can say that my weightlifting literacy will impact my expectations from the students. I will know to get them ready before I challenge them with an assessment. I will be sure to have realistic expectations. I will reflect on my progress and modify what I must just like I do with my workouts. The number one thing about my weightlifting literacy that will have an impact on my future as a teacher is learning. I’m always looking for new things to learn and add to my workouts and there’s always something new to learn in order to improve as a teacher and as human being.