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.

Aria by Richard Rodriguez (Connection)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.  As I was reading this, it brought me back to when I was a student  at FAU.  I was taking a TESOL class and the teacher recommended that we all go out and find an English Language Learning Center.  As most of us know, Florida is very diverse when it comes to language.  The center I went to was primarily for older men and woman who wanted to learn English.  When you asked them why they wanted to learn English, they all agreed so that everyone around them would be able to "understand" them.  But, there was one woman who I remember the most.  She was a single mother who children stopped talking to her because she was still speaking Spanish inside and out of their home.  Her children were speaking English in their classrooms and to their friends, so when they came home she had no idea what they were even talking about.  She said that she spent countless nights crying out of frustration because she wanted to know what they were saying.  She felt that she had lost the one connection that they had had together.  This was when she decided to go out and learn on her own.  At the end of her experience at this center, she was able to speak English.  Like she said it may not be the best English, but she now has an understanding of it.  Due to the fact that her children saw that she was studying English, they would sit down with her and help her to sound out her words and give them meaning.  All of this helped her to learn even more.  She was so proud that she had accomplished her goal and that she now had the connection that she was missing with her children.  The confidence that she received from this was amazing.  She also said that she would never forget where she came from or her native language, but that she was happy that everyone around her now could understand what she was saying.
During the time that I was reading Rodriguez's article, all I could think about what this woman.  Watching her from the beginning to where she is now with her English was completely gratifying.  People who have a different language than us just want to be able to be understood just like everyone else.  Bilingual education is on the rise and we as future educators need to be able to find ways to make them feel like they are at home and comfortable.

Waiting for Superman

I was watching msnbc last night and they had a town hall style debate on the education movement in the US.  I feel that all of us who want to become teachers should go and see this movie, because just watching the trailer opened up my eyes!

Waiting for Superman Official Trailer

Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace (Reflection)

Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace reading was a real eye opener to me.  I come from a small town in Rhode Island and never hear or see the things that some of these people see everyday.  Honestly, I couldn't imagine seeing that, I would probably run away from it because it is scary to me.  Reading about how they all live on a day to day basis really opened my eyes.  There was a part in the reading where a professor from NYU stated that "If poor people behaved rationally" then they wouldn't be in the situations that they are in today.  I completely disagree with that.  We don't know the backgrounds of each person, so how can you jump to a conclusion like that?  Some of these people were born into debts already and it's not their fault.  Money plays a huge part in our society and if you don't have any, then likely you cannot even get a loan.  It really bothers me when people assume that someone is lazy or that if you give a poor/homeless person money, that they will go and buy useless things or even alcohol.  Some may, but not everyone is like that.  This reading has really moved me, to realize how lucky I am to have the things that I have.  But, at the same time it makes me want to help and give back. Then it frustrates me because I don't know how I can help.  I look forward to reading more of these articles, maybe some of them can answer more of my questions.