Chapter 9 and 10

                 Well I read Chapter 9 and Chapter 10. I wasn't as amazed as the other chapters I've read, however, there were things that I took from them. On Chapter 9 the Assessment section was what I liked the most. It made me think about how scientific we have to be: "but we are in the school zone now, where one seemingly inescapable function is to rank, rate, judge, and label kids' work." So this whole time I thought to myself everything must be proven like in science. It bothers me a little because what if there's a day that a student brings wonderful ideas and surprises you? How are you to show that by simply scoring the student with a 10? I mean there will be times that a student does excellent work and saying okay that's a 10 and moving on it just doesn't do it for me. I would create a system where students that blow my mind can get extra points. I believe it is only fair to reward students if they exceed expectations.

                 What stuck out to me the most out of the Assessment part was the Book Club Portfolio. I think it is a  great idea to have the students be accountable for what they are doing. I kept thinking about my literature circle in MLED 330. By the time we are done we have to present the book which is a nice way to know what each student got from the experience but I think I would score them individually or have both a group score and an individual score and average them both.   

                 I didn't get too much out of Chapter 10. The Inquiry Unit just seems really hard to pull off. I do know that I have to come up with a large, multi-faceted, open-ended question like it says in the book. But my problem is I wouldn't know how to guide them from there.

OBSERVATION- What? So what? Now what?

What?

The one thing that really got me thinking was Ms. N leading the students towards the desired outcome through questioning. She took in their input and pushed on so they can think about what they were saying and come to a different conclusion. Ms. N basically facilitated their thinking. She questioned why they were thinking they way they were and challenged them. It was great to see the way she handled the student’s answers and lead them towards knowledge.

So what?

              I think the way Ms. N poses questions to the students is great. I was very impressed because it wasn’t “this is the way it is or that is wrong”. She didn’t shut down any of the student’s answers. She shaped their thoughts with questions!  I thought: “Wow, I want to be able to do that too.”

              To say, “No, this is the way it is.” is completely different than to question and get to the desired result. I’ve only been pushed in Dr. Kraus’ and Dr. Horwitz's class and I’m glad they’ve pushed me to think. You might have to take a second to put your ideas together, but it is more beneficial than a yes or no answer from the educator.   

Now what?

            In the future I need to be prepared to question my students. There will be times when they answer fast without thinking things through or fully grasping an idea. It can also be possible that they have everything in their head in a way which makes sense to them but they need guidance to put it into words. So it is my job to facilitate their thinking. The questioning has helped me a lot in my SED 406 and SED 407 courses. It is that little push that has helped me ties ideas, sparks new ideas and has pushed me to find new ways in which I can express my thoughts.  I know what that little push can do for me and I want to be able to do the same for my students. I will be sure to take in my student’s input and guide them through their thinking.

Letter to Dr. Thomas Newkirk

Dear Dr. Newkirk,

            I was present during your Keynote Address at Rhode Island College on March 8^th 2014. Your ideas of literacy ease my mind. I’ve always been afraid to read out loud. I’m a slow reader and after hearing you speak I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Hearing from you that we should be more concerned with comprehension rather than fluency is wonderful. I’d much rather take my time and understand what I’m reading, it shouldn’t be a race.

 The importance of narratives is what you touched upon the most. You said a narrative is a way to express our world, that it is at the center of everything and is a basis to all writing. We tell stories in order to understand, but telling stories seems to be of less importance in education. There is an emphasis on facts. I really liked a quote you used by Stalin, “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic”. This was the quote that stood out the most to me. One death is personal, a story can be told and a person can be appreciated. One million deaths are sad, but it isn’t as touching as an individual death. I can see it as a learning experience; it is more profound to know an individual story than a factual statistic report. Narratives stay with us.

There was one part of the speech where I lost the connection. It was the video of the Asian kid making fun of an Asian parent stereotype. Not that I don’t have a sense of humor, but that is just feeding into the stereotype. I just didn’t see how it fit into the speech. Maybe I missed something. I’d like for you to help me out with that.

Lastly, the greatest part of your whole speech was the Right to Speak Paper. This is a great way to get to understand your students. You simply said it is about the experiences you have lived through and the right to speak about it because you’ve seen it. I think it is a fantastic way to express one’s self without having to prove anything to anyone through research. I believe we should provide more opportunities for students to express their personal experience and I plan on using this in my classroom. I will keep in mind the last thing you said about narratives never leaving us, because when they do we seize to be who we are. 

Sincerely,

Adrián Vargas

Can anyone tell me the point of the video with the Asian kid? I honestly didn't see a point to it.

 

Parent Panel- Feb.25

                So far, my favorite day at CFH was yesterday. I enjoyed observing a math classroom where every student was paying attention. Not only were they paying attention, many of them were also participating. I enjoyed seeing the teacher giving explanations in Spanish right after giving them in English. Her Spanish was not perfect, but knowing that she tries is great. It is awesome to know that a math teacher is putting in extra work to reach her students. It shows that she values the students’ primary language. I was glad to be in that classroom.

             The parent panel was the highlight of the day for me. I was happy to interpret the questions asked and the parents’ answers. What I got from it is that as a future teacher I need to have a good relationship with my students as well as their parents. I have to inform the parents about the students’ progress. This way, we fill in the gap that the parents don’t see while the students are at school.

One thing that I really liked was the man’s advice: be yourself, don’t be a robot. I’ve comes across many teachers that don’t connect with their students and those are the classrooms that I wished I could’ve ran out of when I was in high school.  Where I come from we say the person is “seco” or “seca”, which translates to something being dry. Some teachers are dry human beings. I don’t know if that is the word that can be used in English but it sounds perfect in Spanish. The man reminded me that my personal traits need to come with me to the classroom. I’m a really caring person and I plan on bringing that trait with me.

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.