How Gender Affects Learning at Woodbridge MS

This video shows how a school in Virginia decided to separate their students by gender because of the gaps in their test scores. What are your thoughts on separating students by gender? 

Gender and Education

While I was googling "gender and education", I decided to type "What do people think of women educators?".  The results surprised me to say the least.  While I scrolled down the page, it seemed that every other listing had something to do with women and sex.  Why is it that there are more women as educators, but they are still viewed by some in a sexist view?  I did find a great article though on women as educators and what educated women can do.
The following article that I found on google was about gender discrimination in education.  This article states that it is sad to see girls or the 'fairer sex' as they are referred to, being sidelined for no apparent reason. It was interesting to me because this article shows the reader how girls can sometimes be victimized in school and especially once they are out of school and into the real world.

In the Service of What. Hyperlink

"In the Service of What."
Kahne and Westheimer
Hyperlink

This article is a great eye opener for almost everyone out there.  Throughout our lives we are told that we should try to make a difference and to remember that even the smallest of deeds can be the biggest jester to someone who needs it.  In this article you read about the way that a few different teachers showed their students how to make an impact within their community.  Service projects can make students become active participants and at the same time it can further there academic views of the topic that they are going over in class.

The first teacher in this article Mr. Johnson, led his 12^th grade class to interact with people who are less fortunate than themselves and to use this community experience to have in class discussions.  Kahne and Westheimer state that his class was an example of someone who was stressing “charity”.  In the end, the students didn’t really get the “real” feel for what was going on out in the community.  For example, one student decided to make kits for the homeless but did not go and ask homeless people or social workers who work with them what they should have in each of these kits, another example is a students was going to work at a center for babies whose mothers had high levels of crack cocaine in their bloodstreams during their pregnancies.  At the end of this unit, Mr. Johnson’s students were never asked to write or talk about their experience and understanding of the situations that they were working with. The upper class elementary school that went into a poor neighborhood to perform a concert for them were actually surprised at what they had seen.  They realized that what they were told by their parents were not true.  They agreed that they students “listened attentively to them and were extremely polite and friendly”.  This is an example of showing students to go outside of the box and it also helps for them to develop a greater understanding of who those children are and what they go through.

Throughout the text, the authors continue on about why service learning is so important and why everyone should have to take part in it.  By taking part in an experience like this, you can’t help but to feel as if you have bettered someone else, instead of always taking care of yourself.  There are people out there that just want a simple hello from you or just to talk to you one on one because they don’t have anyone else there to talk with.  The link that I am putting up is about a forum that President Bush had on community service. It talks about the "thousand points of light" and how we all need to "serve America".

After reading this article, I feel that everyone should want to volunteer and to experience service learning.  Since I have been doing my service learning, I feel that I have made a difference in some of the student's lives that I have worked with.  Even if it is just making sure that they write a complete sentence, i know that that has helped them.