Amber Alert on open communication!

It really saddened me to hear that the freshman girl in Amy's school is missing because of her "coming out". It is inevitable that kids will disagree with their parents. If they don't, they aren't normal, but when the child is so afraid of how their parent will react (especially if they are convinced that the action will be certain) there is a serious problem with communication. having been in a VERY similar situation myself, I can look back and say with conviction that I think that children would find that their parents care just as much about them now, as the day that they were born. Sometimes parents don't come off that way or reveal that to their children as often as they should, and it comes off as abrasive and nasty or nonchalant and dismissive. I so glad that when this father has his daughter safe and sound at home, he will have the resources that he needs to help them come to terms with one another. On a side note, if she is with this 20 year old woman, they need to handle that situation delicately, especially if the young lady has strong feelings for her. However, when that situation is handled appropriately, I hope they prosecute the hell out of her.

Homosexuality in schools

This blog is a touchy one for me, mostly because I have never learned how to approach this topic. All the books we read, all of our professors lecture on how it needs to be addressed either in the classroom or elsewhere, but they never tell you how to do it. I have could easily assign Perks of being a Wallflower and say "Now class, let's talk about sexual orientation. By a show of hands who is gay, who i straight, who is bisexual, and well... the transgenders we can figure out. " I can't do that! To be honest, I agree that it does need to be discussed, but I don't want to be the one to do it. many people believe that students should wear their sexuality like a smokin' pair of stilettos, but I don't. I mean that for everyone, I don't want to see a couple of dudes making out in the hall, just as much as a man and woman. Maybe it is the culture that we live in, by why does everything have to be so sexualized? I agree that everybody has the right to feel safe with who they are, but when people are very open about who they are and what they stand for(sexually, politically, religiously), they have also opened themselves to ridicule, and they need to be okay with that. The only part that teachers should have to do with that, is make sure that EVERYBODY'S viewpoints are welcome on the topic. This is part of anti oppressive education. Not being oppressive toward anyone, not just a select few.

PBL

I have this strange feeling that I'm either over complicating the PBL excersise, or I'm not doing enough. The problem is easy to come up with and it fits all of the criteria. It seems that there must be some huge trend in the education world with problem based learning because that is all that we are doing in all my other classes. So maybe it is just the amount of practice that I'm getting. However, this whole Bloom's Taxotomy is not my cup of tea. I've decided that if I come up with any sort of theory non anything and stick a wheel around it, I will be widly successful. Largely in part because nobody can read it, and by default must be some intelligent piece of work. I think I've seen this wheel many times before, but in far more comprehensible terms, like a snowman in Currins 545. Anyway, let the record show that I did not protest too much on this project...

My Annotated Bib

So for annotated bibliography, I took an entire day off of work, got a full 8 hours of sleep and woke up at 6 in the morning to write the paper. I couldn't believe it only took me two hours! I found that a lot of the book s that I have for other classes fit in nicely with materials like I would like to have as a middle school teacher. Most of them were originally meant for high school teachers, but I found that advice on good teaching is advice on good teaching across the board. The most difficult part of writing the annotated bibliography was actually citing the books. I plugged in the necessary information into a bibliography maker, and some of the material came out inaccurate. For example I'm fairly certain that Catcher in the Rye was not written in 1991, but the citation maker insisted that it was. Moving on... I'm actually glad that we did this project because I will probably use it later on. This is one of this first projects in my classes this semester that I founf useful!

now what?

While reading chapter 31, I found the stories that were shared, interesting and the quotes, inspiring. However, I really wanted to know one thing, now what? It was made quite clear that the lack of discussion regarding race is running rampent in the school system. It was also made clear that students, even at a young age, do not need to be told about the divisions in race, because they are creating them all on their own.
It seemed to start on as an observation, and then anger, and then grouping together with people who appear to be like-minded, thus starting a "racial clique". I understand that throughout these chapters, the point is to introduce field notes of experiences that teachers have had with particular problems in middle school, and proceed to air more grievences and statistics related to the topic. But still, I would really find it helpful if the authors of the book would give direct suggestions about what to do in these scenarios. It is emphasized in the chapter that we should be talking about race, but they really have no further direction after that. How do we discuss race, and race as it relates to students and their learning? Any suggestions?

Bad Boys

I'm not sure what to think of chapter 20. I agree with part all of it, I'm just not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. An example is the fact that many African -American children are see to have an "attitude" problem, and are often chastised for it. I have heard this first hand from AA teachers that they see this as a problem in schools. They believe that it is a cultural problem. If it is what it is, than I'm wondering if chapter 20 has a subliminal message saying that the children that are called out for their attitude problems, are disproportionate in color. If this is the case, I might agree. I do not believe that it is a cultural problem among black children, I believe it is a problem with children in general. many have not been taught by their parents that there is a time and place to roll your eyes or scoff. And school, just like any other disciplinarian institution, does demand that these behaviors be put on hold. It is normal for children to question authority (especially adolescents), and I do believe that they should be called out on it privately. So much of school culture is about showing "who you are" off to everybody, down tothe clothes you where and what kind of notebooks you have in tote. This is not a new concept, so to say that giving an attitude is merely subjective to the teacher, is simply not true. Students are fully aware that the way they wear their ball cap shows what they stand for and they also know exactly what copping attitude looks like and who it is going to cause a problem. they shouldn't be surprised when they get in trouble for it.

group project

well, our group isn't going for three weeks, so we aren't exactly in a rush. Our goal is to create a comprehensive presentation that demonstrates our desire to create an anti alcohal/drug environment in a missle school classroom. WE are thinking that we would like to have a conversation with the class about what deterred, or didn't deter, them in middle school, from these kind of behaviors. We also would like to focus how teachers can use books in their classrooms and incoorporate them into the material that would be along these topical lines. WE are going to try to engage the class in book talks etc... Hopefully it will go well!