Dealing with Race and Standardization

I thought Jervis' article on dealing with race posed some interesting points to take into consideration before becoming a teacher. Too often people worry about how awkward or inappropriate discussing racial issues is going to be. I think if racial issues or concerns are talked about, especially within a classroom or school community, the issues can be talked about and improved. This article does a good job pointing out the fact that if the staff would have interjected during certain points some issues could have been resolved before they were escalated. Race issues are out there and it is important that the staff in a school discusses issues or problems and deals with it instead of ignoring problems in order not to create even bigger problems.

Reading about standardization is really very frustrating for me. It also makes me think of No Child Left Behind Act. I think it is very risky to teach students to a test. It is also implying that if a student can't perform well on a test and didn't know that exact information they are not smart enough. Although I understand the pupose of standardizing education and making sure that students are receiving the education they deserve and need to function in our world, standardized tests is not the best route to ensure this. Personally I have always done pretty well on standardized tests but I have had friends that I know are very smart not do well. The scores that they get back on those tests often make them feel stupid. There has to be better ways to distinguish if students are meeting necessary requirements besides a random test.

Student differences that can have an impract on their education

I thought both Chapters 22 and 25 focused on students that are often excluded in schools. One of the most interesting points in “Lesbian and Gay Adolescents: Social and Developmental Considerations” is the lack of lesbian and gay adults in the school environment that can help mentor and support gay and bisexual students. At an elementary school in my local school district many parents were concerned about the principal because he was supposedly gay. This should not even be an issue as far as I’m concerned. A person’s sexual orientation does not affect their ability to be a good principal or any career choice. Although everyone likes to say they are supportive of people’s own sexual decisions, it is obvious that there is a still an issue with it in mainstream America and society. The classroom should be an environment where gays and lesbians are comfortable with themselves. This could be difficult however, since many are uncomfortable with themselves to begin with. I don’t think it would be that hard to create an environment where everyone was equal. It is really easy however to exclude groups of students if their subculture does not align with mainstream society.
“English Only: The Tongue-Tying of America” really stressed how unfair the educational system in America is for non-English speaking students. I am not really sure how I feel about this situation. Of course I feel that every student should have the right to the same education and by in this case it means that non-English speaking students need assistance in their language in order to receive that education. I do not necessarily agree with this because I do think that English is the language that is used within this country (even though that Spanish is definitely creeping up there) and now we put it up as the school’s responsibility to help teach it and of course pay for it. I think it’s a tough situation. Everyone should have that same opportunity at education but should responsibility be put on anyone else (maybe parents) instead of the schools to help children and themselves learn English. ESL is not a decreasing trend and it will be interesting to see how our schools change as the number of non-English speakers increases.

Bad Boys

I thought the article "Bad Boys" was a really interesting view into education. I think that it can be very dangerous to judge students on their culture, dress, language and identities. Although it cannot be avoided some times it really does impact the education that the student will receive. I thought the importance of reading an article like this is to become aware of how a student can be perceived and from there work to avoid using it in your classroom. Considering that a student can be deemed "unsalvageable" is really sad. To consider them not worth limited resources is also sad to think about. If they are not considered to use these resources and hopefully become suscessful, how will they ever break the cycle of being unsuccessful in school. The black male student is in a vicious cycle and in order to break it resources are going to be needed and used because obviously what we are offering to them now is not working and creating more problems socially.

Identities in School

The one article that really stood out to me was "Free for Some, Discipline for "Others": The Structure of Inequity in Education". I thought the comparisons of the two Chicago area schools really demonstrated how unfair our school systems are set up. The rules and regulations set up at Groundview Techinical High School were very strict. The students are set up to be alienated the second they walk into the door by being searched. I am torn on this issue because of the saftey concerns. My question to the schools would be what made them put the metal detectors in place? Were weapons an issue in the school or is it only for precaution? If weapons were being brought into the school then I think it is a good thing but if not it makes the students angry that they are being treated like they have done something wrong without even doing anything.

One thing that really bothers me about the militaristic approach is the fact that students at Mountainview had a lot of freedom. From roaming around the school grounds to picking out class, these freedoms allowed the students to feel important in their own education. Groundview was complete opposite. Thinking back to my own experiences if I didn't have any freedoms in picking classes or felt restrained I would have retaliated and been bitter about education as well.

I think schools taking this strict military approach need help. From what the article expresses this approach is not improving student's achievement. It would be interesting to research if it would be possible for a school to move towards a more open environment for students. This would require a lot of trust in the students as well as giving them responsibility to handle it. I don't think a lot of schools are willing to take this risk, however, if nothing is done where will all these students go in life? It is obvious this approach is not working.

Research

Misbehavior is an issue that every teacher deals with and that every future teacher dreads. My research has focused on ways to address misbehavior in the middle school classroom. I have found some very interesting approaches. One of the most interesting approaches is using student interventions in order to promote good behavior. Using school wide approaches and giving teachers the tools to handle behavior issues is key to not having problems in the classroom. With less problems in the classroom, more learning will take place.

For the past school year I have been working at Custer High School in Milwaukee as a tutor. I spend a decent amount of time there and have been able to the dynamics of the school. It has been really interesting to see through my research how behavior issues are best addressed as well as how to prevent them. The rules at Custer do not reflect these strategies at all. It is a school that is struggling academically and I feel like part of this is because of the huge amount of behavior issues that happen both in the classroom and throughout the school. My question is whether teachers and administrators at this school are aware of these approaches or have attempted or considered them. It is a school that continues to fail so it is interesting whether or not proven strategies that improve behavior could help a school like this.

Middle School as a Turning Point

After this week's readings I was most captured by the article "Turning Points". "Middle grade schools- junior high, intermediate, and middle schools- are potentially society's most powerful force to recapture milltions of youth adrift, and help every young person thrive during early adolescence. Yet all too often these schools exacerbate the problems of young adolescents" (170). This quote was really surprising to me. I guess I never realized that middle schools were failing the way they were before reading this articles. I was lucky enough to attend a very good middle school so many of these issues never occurred to me. The article continues with recommendations to improve middle schools. I think they are all essential to a successful school, especially a middle school. One that I thought was really important was having faculty at middle school that are experts at teaching that grade. This seems like one of the most pressing issues. Maybe many teachers end up teaching middle school when they had been originally trained to focus on elementary or high school instead of that unique age group.

An interesting point in "The Emergent Middle School" was the fact that scientific research results often come 25 years later. By the time valid conclusions are available they are no longer true. This creates a big problem. I think middle school has changed a lot since I was there 10 years ago. Maybe if districts, teachers, and communities started focusing on the issues that are present in their schools now and experimented with possible changes more improvement could be made. Waiting 25 years to learn new strategies of what works and doesn't will not help fix the problems that have been created since then.

Being a Teen in American Society

Both of the articles for this week bring up some important issues regarding American teens. Some of the problems that American teens are viewed as having including sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, and eating disorders to name a few. I agree to an extent that these are major issues. I think it is interesting, however, that adults are so surprised that teens have these issues. To me I think they stem out of the mainstream culture. Sex and violence are everywhere in media. It should be surprise that American children who are exposed to this at a very young age grow up almost thinking that these activities are normal and not exactly undersanding the full picture. It's unfortunate that teens are blamed for these problems that adults have influenced upon the teens and also are resonsible for the majority of the issue.

In the article "Nymphet Fantasies" I thought it was really interesting to look at how these young beauty queens are often made into "mini adults" by their parents. It;s their parents dream and these young girls do not get the chance to be little kids. This phenomonon has also been put into many tv shows in the last few years who show how crazy these moms (and sometimes dads) are . They create little 3 year old girls to look like they are twenty and its just weird and creepy. Although I know there are young girls who dream of being in paegents, this craze has gotten way too out of hand. We have to think about what the implications will be when these little girls grow up to be teens and later adults.

It is a hard and confusing time for children in America to grow up in. One one hand they are seeings and hearing things in the media and all around them but if they act upon them they are suddenly in the wrong. It is important to think about what a student deals with in their personal life at home and what society is like for them to really understand them. It is also important not to be too judgemental when working with students. Maybe they have a violent past but you do not necessarily know the circumstances or what they have been through. To them it may seem like survival. Teenagers are teenagers and shouldn't be feared because the media puts bad images on them, after all they are only modeling what has been set up for them to follow.