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.