chapter 22 as

When teaching, we often think of teaching acceptance as only thinking about race and gender. what we sometimes forget, though, is that homosexuals are disciminated against just as badly as people of another race. One thing that I heard from my kids in middle school over and over again was the phrase "that's gay." Everytime I heard one of them say it I would always comment to them that they shouldn't say stuff like that and it usually required a 5 minute explanation afterwards. For some reason, they have a hard time relating discrimination against people of another race to discrimination of homosexuals. When i press them on the issue, it generally always comes down to religious views being behind their feelings. This makes the topic even more difficult because now i am combatting their religion. Though I definately feel like the issue should be raised, I also feel that there is a point where I need to lay off a little bit so as to not belittle their religion. I think the best thing we, as teachers, can do is present real life examples of how homosexuals are discriminated and get them to feel some empathy for them.

testing

Here is my two cents on standarized testing. like posts i've been seeing, i will agree that standardized testing sucks; but heres the thing...I can see the need for them. Every now and then, its important to assess your school to get an idea of how well the students are learning. An easy way to do that, is by giving them a standardized test to see how well they do. There's nothing inherantly wrong with that idea, tests can serve a purpose. My whole thing, though, is how much weight standardized testing holds these days. As people have mentioned, there are a whole lot of flaws with testing; some kids do poor on tests, a kid might not being feeling well that day, they don't assess the arts at all...all kinds of things wrong with the damn things. For a system that is so obviously flawed, i don't understand why people invest so much in them.

problem based learning

I am a big fan of the problem based learning. As a history teacher, it can be difficult to think of ways to get your point accross to kids without having to bore them with lectures and readings. PBL allows a teachers to get the kids to see the practicality of history. So many times we hear from little kids that they don't understand the point of history. A PBL activity can let the kids see how the past effects their present. It might be learning about how a neighborhood became more and more segregated, how a river became more and more polluted or how and why a city ordinance came into effect...the possibilities are endless.
Another quality of PBL that I like is the research aspects that it teaches kids. In most cases, when solving a PBL activity the kids will use the internet to search for some bit of information. So many people use the internet for such mind-numbing stuff that its good to teach kids that there is a lot of valuable informaiton on the internet as well. PBL could also get kids into a library and get them to open up some of those book things they've been hearing so much about.

And i just have to say..there is nothing worse than being at the bar and realizing that you have to read and blog when u get home. its my own problem for procrastinating but damn this deadline sucks.

ch 20

I'm not too sure about this article. Some parts made total sense, others made some sense and still others made no sense at all. The first part about rules made no sense because it seemed like she was saying rules are inherently evil. She made it sound like the only reason for class rules is so you can turn your kids into mindless robots. I disagree with that. Yes, there is an argument that inner city kids are just being put through the motions of schools to turn them into low-wage workers, but I don't think the presence of rules automatically means that. Rules are a VERY important part of classroom management. Good classroom rules shouldn't be about making good workers but they should be about making good people. To me, classroom rules are about having good manners. Teaching kids how to be civil to eachother and how to engage in a conversation will help them to get a job later in life NO MATTER WHAT FIELD THEY GO INTO. Whether they work in a fast food restaurant or become a CEO, they need to know these people skills and that is why I see a need for GOOD classroom rules.

Chapter 17

This one was actually a pretty good article. I think it's really unfortunate that some people in the african american community view doing well in school as "selling out" or "becoming white". The article makes a pretty good case on its own so I won't really talk about the fact in the article, but rather extend the conversation to the stigma of doing well in school for everyone. It seems like in all schools, white or black, kids who do well in school are subject to critisism from their peers. People who do well in school are often labeled as "nerds" or "suck-ups". There seems to be something "cool" about not doing homework and getting C's. When I think back on high school I can remember certain people always pointing out bad grades they got. It was like they were trying to say, "Hey, look at me. I slack off and get mediocre grades, aren't I hilarious???" Even in college, there seems to be some kind of extra points for going out to the bars the night before and coming to class a little hungover. I can still think of instances were I get heckled if I chose to stay in and work on homework rather than going out to the bar. I guess some things never change.

Group work

So for my part of the group project I have been looking up what mental changes middle schooler's go through and how we, as teachers, can help. So far I have found that the articles I've been reading are just as boring as the other articles we read. I'm usually never really sold by any of these writers. everything they talk about is so situational based and every situation we are probably going to come across will be different. I don't see how some people can make a living out of researching this stuff. I'm not saying the stuff they are talking about isn't something that educators should be discussing, but the explanations and solutions they come up with are never very convinsing.

Emergent Middle School

This article, overall, really didn't convince me. It makes plenty of arguments as to why things are wrong in the "6-3-3" system but I wasn't sold that the way the grades are divided is the main issue. I went though a 5-3-4 system and guess what? I felt awkward in 6th grade, I felt awkward in 7th and the same for 8th. I think that no matter grades a middle school covers, its still going to be a strange and new time for the kids in it.
I think the main thing we know about what middle school kids go though is that their emotions and their actions are all over the place. Even more, there are always going to be kids developmentally ahead or behind their peers. Its too difficult of a task to perfect the middle school so I kind of see it as a non issue. I'm not saying we should stop trying to figure out how to help kids get though the hell that is middle school, I'm just saying we don't need to be having a debate over how to divide them.