Article about teacher evaluation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-zini/one-is-not-enough-lets-ge_b_790295.html
this is the link to the article ^

I liked this article a lot for several reasons:
1) it recognized the importance of evaluating teachers on how well they are doing their jobs
2) it recognized that standardized testing only paints a portion of the big picture and should not be the only method used to evaluate teachers
3) it gives examples of other ways educators can be evaluated so that a more effective picture is drawn
4) it recognizes that test scores do not show what is actually going on in the classroom

Talking Points 10

Education is Politics
By: Ira Shor

1) "If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted."
     -I liked this quote a lot and totally agree with it.  How can someone fully understand something if they do not question where it came from and why it is what it is.  By just taking notes and memorizing facts, students forget how to be creative and do not use their full capacity to learn because they are not questioning the material or forming ideas/opinions about it.  Students need to really take things apart and analyze them piece by piece and ask questions and share their thoughts because that is what learning really is.  Discovering answers through their own questions that they had formed all on their own.
2) "A curriculum that does not challenge the standard syllabus and conditions in society informs students that knowledge and the word are fixed and are fine the way they are, with no role for students to play in transforming them, and no need for change."
     - I loved this quote so much and it really stuck with me because I hadn't ever really thought about learning this way before, but it totally makes sense.  Education is not only about learning facts and the way life is, but it also is about what we can do as the upcoming generation to revise it where needed and add our own spice to things.  When discussing something in class, like a law for example, the students should be allowed to form opinions and decide whether or not that law is working and if it is not, then how can they fix it.  School is not just the vacuum effect where kids just go and suck up information to retain, but have no thoughts or questions about any of it.  Rather, school should be where kids CAN question things and form ideas on how to improve things in life.  Nothing is ever perfect and everyone has ideas and opinions and by sharing them in the classroom everyone benefits and gets to express creative thoughts and gain some from fellow classmates.
3) "People begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings.  Children naturally join the world around them, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience."
     -I am a firm believer in active learning and participation.  I think getting the kids up and thinking and questioning something that is a fact in life really helps them to learn how to create critical theories and ideas, which is so important in furthering education.  If someone just sits like a lump on a log and is absorbing all this information, but then does nothing with it is teaching the kids that they have no part in this world and that school is not preparing them for anything.  School and education should be about learning how to create ideas and how to argue a fact and sharing ideas with others.  These are the things that are needed in life, not what year the french and indian war was, but interactions with others and voicing and creating opinions.

Talking Points 9

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer

1) "It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label.  We're all here- kids, teachers, parents, whoever- it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is.  Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail."
          - I liked this quote a lot because it shows what a different perspective and approach the people at this school were taking on and how they were reaching outside the labels and expectations set upon these kids by society.  Here at this school they understand the kids and they are teaching them what everyone should be taught- that working together and being able to help and perform together is what is essential to be successful in life.  When you get out into the work force, it isn't going to matter if the answer was C and that you knew it; rather, what is important is being able to work with your peers and create functioning relationships with them in order to progress in life.
2) "They didn't think it was realistic, that she could handle that job.  Here they have her educating America's future, but they're scared to let her work at a movie place."
       -This quote literally made me laugh out loud because it was so ironic and she made a really great point saying that the board was afraid she was not going to be able to succeed in a movie store, but they let her teach children.  It goes to show that the idea of disabled people going out into the work force and working under a set system, such as in a movie store, seems impossible to many people, and may even scare them.  What bothers me is the plain fact that they didn't even want to give her the chance to let her try to work in this video store, even though movies were her passion.  They had no faith in her just because she was considered mentally disabled and they did not think she could succeed anywhere else but this little school.  People need to be more open minded and accepting and give everyone the same chance to do the job they want to do and have faith that they will succeed.  In fact, this particular person went to work in a video store and she did just as good as all her co-workers and loved it.
3) "Instead, she saw incompetence as a perception ascribed to a child by others who misunderstood the meaning of the child's performance."
        -I liked this quote a lot because it recognizes that if someone does not fit society's mold and norms in how people express intellect and understanding of material being taught, then society immediately labels them as mentally disabled.  When in reality, the student does actually understand, but they have a different way of expressing their comprehension of the lesson and people misinterpret it as nothing of substance.  Society needs to be more open to diverse ways of displaying an understanding and explanation of materials and lessons discussed in class.  So in other words, it is not the student that is incompetent, rather it is society that is incompetent in not broadening the scope for different ways of showing understanding.

Talking Points 8

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work
By: Jean Anyon

1)"During that week that two-digit division was introduced (or at any other time), the investigator did not observe any discussion of the idea of grouping involved in division, any use of manipules, or any attempt to relate two-digit division to any other mathematical process."
       -this really bugged me because I hate that there is no room for creativity or deeper understanding of the materials being taught.  I feel like a huge part of learning something new is knowing why it works and how it works, not just the fact that it works.  There are no real world connections being made and no ideas are being formed.  The students are being taught to not ask questions or make inferences, they are being taught to follow a system and to not veer from that system.
2) "One teacher explained to me, 'Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use."
        -I was shocked when I read this.  It made me so mad to see a teacher not expecting anything more from her students than for them to only ever use simple punctuation.  Is it not the job of the teacher to expand a student's knowledge and help them grow as people so that they can become successful?  The fact that this teacher was so convinced that her students would never amount to anything really made me mad, but the fact that she was okay with that was even worse.
3) "In the middle class school, work is getting the right answer.  If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
       -I feel like too many schools do this, the goal of getting the right answer is the most important thing.  I feel    like understanding the concepts and being able to form conclusions is what should be important.  Being able to identify C as the correct answer to a question that was from a book or lesson is so primitive and unprogressive in really pushing brain activity and forming ideas and creativity.  These kids are not being shown how important it is to make ideas or formulate questions and that it is not always most important that the right answer is the absolute goal in life.

Talking Points 7

"Teaching Boys and Girls Separately"
Elizabeth Weil

1) "Leonard Sax represents the essential-difference view, arguing that boys and girls should be educated separately for reasons of biology: for example, Sax asserts that boys don't hear as well as girls, which means that an instructor needs to speak louder in order for the boys in the room to hear her; and that boys' visual systems are better at seeing action, while girls are better at seeing the nuance of color and texture."
         -I thought this was a pretty interesting and cool fact because I never knew that boys didn't hear as well as girls and that boys and girls visual systems were different as well.  I guess these differences would have an impact on learning, but really how big, and how hard is it to appease both genders? I don't think schools need to completely separate gender in their classes because of hearing and seeing differences, just have the teachers speak up all together and try to use visual aids and exercises that reach out to both boys and girls.
2) "Yet Denckla doesn't see any need for single sex public education; she thinks mixed grade K-1, 1-2, and 2-3 classrooms are a better way to deal with the developmental differences among school-age kids."
       -I kind of agree with this statement because both boys and girls struggle with different, but also sometimes similar things so teaching them separately really is not necessary since not every kid will fall under this biological stereotype.  I think schools need to concentrate on what the students are struggling with specifically because every kid is different and special, no matter their gender differences.  There are plenty of times that gender differences do not even effect or enhance students' learning.
3) "...Giedd says, is that when it comes to education, gender is a pretty crude tool for sorting minds...There are just too many exceptions to the rule."
       -This goes along with the previous quote and I mainly agree because there are too many cases where these gender segregated classes actually did not do much better since it was separated.  It is just too broad of a separation to apply to all children  and their learning abilities.  Every child learns differently because of who they are, not necessarily their gender.  I'm not saying that gender has nothing to do with it, but I don't think it is an important enough aspect to split up classes over.  The specific challenges that children are facing in the classrooms are what need to be narrowed in on in order to help them increase their learning abilities.

a funny comedian names stereotypes...she just gets them a little connfused

Talking Points 6

"A Particularly Cheap White Wine"
By: Tim Wise

1) "In truth, only 3.5 percent of college students of color receive any scholarships even partly based on race, suggesting that such programs remain a pathetically small piece of the financial aid picture in this country, irrespective of what a gaggle of reactionary white folks might believe."
     -This just adds to the whole idea of white privilege and the culture of power because Wise is saying that even though scholarships that have anything to do with race are so small in number, yet whites are still trying to eliminate them.  This shows that the ones in power want to stay in power and those without need to be stripped of even more power.  It's a parallel idea to, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Just because all the other scholarships out there aren't specified as "white" based scholarships, who are they mostly targeted to/for?
2) "Fact is, there are plenty of scholarships for people who are left-handed, or kids whose parents sell Tupperware, or the children of horse-breeders, or descendents of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, among many thousands of such awards."
     - Firs of all, why would you ever institute a scholarship for kids whose parents sell Tupperware?  That has NOTHING to do with merit at all, but you don't see these people arguing such ridiculous scholarships as this.  Anyway, this quote coincides with my previous quote perfectly because it answers the question of who are the recipients  of all other scholarships.  It goes along with the idea of the white privilege and those with power gaining more and keeping it from those without.  None of these scholarships have anything to do with merit and more than likely they all are targeted to white students who do not need scholarships with titles that fit perfectly for them.
3) "...in truth, the standard is simple, straight-forward and singular: persons belonging to groups that have been systematically marginalized in this society, should have opportunities targeted to them so as to allow for the development of their full potential which other wise might be restricted by said marginalization."
     -This quote followed perfectly behind my other two because it directly addresses the problem in this system of issuing scholarships and the irony of the opposer's complaints.  There needs to be scholarships for students of color and race other than the majority's because they more than likely went through school with many difficulties and challenges that whites never had to face.  White schools get better teachers, better programs, and better scores because of it, while predominantly black schools do not receive such a good education or advisement, leaving them severely behind white students in their academic abilities.  Therefore, these scholarships targeted to those of  color or different race are necessary and should be accepted because these students did not receive all the perks that the white students did and they need these scholarships because of the culture of power, white privilege, and disadvantages made by whites.

Talking Points 5

"In the Service of what?"
By: Kahne and Westheimer

Quotes/Comments:


1) "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of the students."
         - I agree, I think service learning is a really great thing for students to participate in because they can not only be helping a person, or a group, or the community as a whole, but they also learn more about real life situations within their communities.  Both parties are able to learn from each other and I think that is the most important aspect of service learning.  If you do not learn something new about someone or a group of people that you did not know before, they you did not fully achieve service learning.  There are two parts: serving, and learning from it.  Both aspects are important to be met and recognized.
2) "These curriculum theorists and education reformers wanted students to engage in service learning projects so that they would recognize that their academic abilities and collective commitments could help them respond in meaningful ways to a variety of social concerns."
        -This quote expands what I was trying to get at with the previous one.  With service learning, you need to have a response to either whom or what you are serving.  In other words, you must gain something from those you served, whether it be recognition of an aspect of society you were unaware of, or just a personal lesson about life and how different it can be for others.  It is really vital in service learning that both sides gain something out of it, but not just charity.  They must also gain knowledge and life experience from their service learning project.
3) "Unfortunately, in many service activities, students view those they serve as clients rather than as a resource."
        -This quote stood out to me because it opposes what I have been saying all along.  It is very important that those performing service learning not only gain the satisfaction of charity, but also recognize that those they are serving can teach them something about life that they did not already know.  They are getting a secret look into the lives of people who may be very different from them, and instead of just helping them, they need to learn from them as well.  Service learning is a two way street, where both parties must gain from the other, in more ways than one.

Body Image & Media Awareness (National Eating Disorder Information Centre)

Talking Points 4

"Unlearning the Myths that Bing Us"                                                                               Kayla Brown
By: Linda Christensen

Quotes/Comments:

1) "Then students start to notice patterns - like the absence of female characters in many of the older cartoons.  When women do appear they look like Jessica Rabbit or Playboy centerfolds- even in many of the new and 'improved' children's movies."
       - This quote interested me because I hadn't really thought about it before, but it is very true and it is misleading to little girls and boys who watch these cartoons.  It gives the idea that boys should like girls that look this certain way and that girls should look this way because it is what they are being exposed to on television.  It is kind of scary to think that this is where we get some of our preconceived ideas about the way things are supposed to be.  I knew that media had a big role in influencing people, but I didn't really think about little kids seeing these stereotypes and then understanding them to be true to life.  It is disheartening and frustrating to see that little kids are being taught such negative things at such a young age through the thought to be harmless cartoons they watch.
2) "Both of these tales leave young women with two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption- in their case, through new clothes and a new hair style."
          -This quote is taken the from the part of the text where Christensen is talking about having not only a white cinderella, but an African American one too; yet the same basic ideas and goals of the characters remain the same.  As a female who grew up on disney movies and disney princesses, it kind of came as a surprise to me when I realized that Christensen was right; all the disney movies that I loved and watched repeatedly as a child all told the same story: if you are young and pretty you will get the guy and that is all that you need in life to be happy.  I now see how this idea is so deeply, yet subtly inserted in all these disney princess movies and it irks me to think that little girls are being taught such narrow ideas about how to achieve happiness.  The standards of beauty that these movies set up are high and uneasily met by many viewers, not because of their lack of beauty, but because of the ridiculous standards set.  This really bothered me because a lot of little girls unknowingly look to these movies as reality and if they try to live within such a vain and unrealistic world, they are likely to feel more hurt than happiness.
3) "They accept the inequalities in power and exploitative economic relationships.  Their acceptance teaches me how deep the roots of these myths are planted and how much some students, in the absence of visions for a better world, need to believe in the fairy tale magic that will transform their lives- whether it's a rich man or winning the lottery."
       -I thought this quote showed how deeply rooted within us these ideas become and that they literally transform our views of the world and what are goals in life should be.  This is pretty serious and I think that because of these ideas children get from the media and movies is the reason so many people today have self esteem issues and so on.  I think if more parents became aware of the messages these movies are sending to their children, they would more closely monitor what their kids watch.

Talking Points 3

"Gayness, Multicultural Education and Community"
By Dennis Carlson

Quotes:

1) "Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are disempowered and represented as deivant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways "abnormal."
       - This quote bothered me so much I cannot even describe with words how angry it made me.  The people that populate this country are simply ignorant and ruthless if they think someone is neurotic or sick just because they are homosexual or black.  I hate how disgustingly true this quote holds to be and it makes me lose all hope that this world will ever get better in accepting everyone.  To label someone as "lacking intelligence" just because they are gay or female is absolutely absurd and to think that being a woman makes me "lazy" or "criminal" boggles my mind.  Yet, there are people out there who believe this crap and it just infuriates me.
2) "...analysis needs to proceed through an account of the specific techniques and apparatuses of power that have been employed in the school to keep gayness 'in its place' as an invisible presence."
       -This quote really made me mad because it is saying that schools feel it is important to keep gayness to a minimum and hide it as much as possible.  Why? What is so important about a person's sexuality that an entire schools system would try to keep it concealed and out of public eye?  It just really gets to me that a school would really try to cover up something that really should not make a difference.  So much for this being a free country.
3)"Throughout this century, one of the primary means of ensuring that gayness was an invisible presence in the school was through the dismissal of teachers who were found out to be homosexuals."
      -This quote was the bottom line for me.  I cannot believe that some schools will actually go to the extreme of letting go a teacher just because they found out he/she was gay.  That is just ridiculously stupid and immoral that a school would actually do such a thing just to keep gayness hidden from their students.  Well folks, just because you're trying to hide it does not make it go away.  After I read this part of the article I was too frustrated to continue reading.

Talking Points 2

"Why can't she remember that?" by Terry Meier                                                   Kayla Brown

Quotes:
1) "Book knowledge becomes, in essence, part of these children's sense of identity in the world."
         -Basically saying that if the children are read to and are familiar with books, they will be more likely to succeed in the classroom and on.
2) "Even children as verbally sophisticated as Lem are in danger of eventual school failure if their teachers are unable to help them extend their love of the spoken word to an equally passionate engagement with the written word."
        -Writing is an essential asset in life and if a child starts out from a young age not being able to connect a verbal story to paper and create a written story, then that child is at a great disadvantage with his/her education.
3) "It is difficult to overstate the importance of choosing books that connect to children's lives."
        -At such a young age, it is very important for the teacher to choose material that the kids can connect to so they develop a deeper understanding and connection to the literature.

Comments:

This reading really opened my eyes to something that I hadn't really thought of before, but Meier makes lots of great points.  I think it is really important for the teacher to choose stories that reflect the students in the class.  If there are mostly African American kids in the class, obviously the teacher should read books that contain African American families for the majority, and vise versa.  Little kids like what they can relate to and if they cannot relate to a story because the people in it are not "like them" then they are not going to enjoy the story.  I also liked Meier's point that if the class is diverse, then the teacher should also try to pick out books that contain parts of two languages, to let the bilingual students see that both of their languages are important and should be heard about.  It was also interesting to see the different ways kids of different ethnicities got out of trouble.  I thought it was funny how one little boy made up a poem, that rhymed, right on the spot.  It just goes to show that children are all being raised differently and that the teachers need to try to incorporate as much diversity into their lessons, especially those dealing with literacy.

The Privilege of Paleness

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack                                                
by Peggy McIntosh                                                                                                   Kayla Brown

Quotes:
1) "White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks."
           -This quote struck me because it makes sense to me; being white is not thought of as a privilege to a white, yet we have all these secret little hints and helpings through life that non whites do not always receive.  The thing is, we do not even think of these tips and helpings nor do we consciously recognize them; instead we just think of them as a part of our lives, not something special or additional, even though they actually are.
2) "I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will."
          -I liked this quote because it shows that whites do not recognize themselves as having privilege in life; rather, we feel we need to put in time and hard work to made any advances or make any accomplishments.
3) "I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitudes. (But) a "white" skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us.  Individual acts can palliate, but cannot end, these problems.
         - This quote really made me think about the big picture and it kind of made me sad to think that there is not a way for us as a society to fix this issue of white privilege because the individual acts are not enough.  I am a little more ambitious than McIntosh in thinking that there is definitely a chance for change and that one day there will no longer be a privilege of one color in this country.  How long that is going to take, however, is a totally different discussion.

Comments:


The McIntosh reading really opened my eyes to the idea of white privilege that apparently not many others recognize either.  It is not something I wake up in the morning knowing I possess.  Rather, it is more of an idea rooted deeply into the society of this country and it is sort of understated in the sense that it is not a tangible privilege, but more like a birth given and not spoken of privilege.  I do not like the idea of one race holding special privileges above any other, but the society is so deeply set in its ways that it is hard to completely uproot something that is burrowed so far into this lifestyle.  I would like to disagree with McIntosh when she says that there is no way for us as individuals to change the way society is because this country has already come a long way and the new and upcoming generations have different mindsets than those that are currently in control.  I do believe that eventually, one day done this very long and winding road of race privileges that people of all colors can be evaluated on the same playing field.  Just by not believing we can change, is already making this journey more difficult.  People need to be more open to new things and more accepting of others.  As soon as we can do that, we can begin to chip away at this large boulder blocking the road to equality.

My first blog!

Hello! My name is Kayla and I am a sophomore at RIC majoring in Secondary Education with a concentration in English.  I'm a full time student and work part time as a manager at Yankee Candle and I also do some part time babysitting on the side.  I love anything adventurous, although I haven't done anything really crazy just yet.  I love traveling and go on as many vacations as I can each year.  I love to swim, play sports, and go ice skating in the winter.  I like to stay busy with school and work, but enjoy a lazy day off every now and then.  I can't wait to get started in the VIPS program this semester and am really looking forward to this class! :)