I have been so busy with reading and doing some work on the Moodle since I first started the program. I will post something about my child and adolescent development and learning theory class. Anyways, I hope I am able to set a study schedule for each of my classes.
Last night, I had the EDU 501 class. We recap on what we should have as class norms. Courtney uses practices in the classroom through us doing stuff. Last week, we discuss what we want to have as class norms. As a class, each of us were given 5 blue dot stickers to place which of the class norms we wanted. Class norms by the way is the guidelines on how we want the class to be. They are kind of like class rules. Courtney said that this is one way to build a classroom community. So by the majority of the stickers next to some rules, Courtney knows which one is important to the class. We had a final discussion on them. Courtney will edit our responses and in next class, we will see the final version. By the way, next Tuesday, I don't have class because there is a seminar for the secondary endorsing students.
Next, we had a discussion on our class textbook called The Children in Room E4:American Education on Trail by Susan Eaton. This book is a good read because it's in narrative form. The main character is a bright, 8 year old Latino boy who loves to learn who lived in Hartford, Connecticut (where Mark Twain used to live about one hundred years ago). Here is my summary of what I read so far and my personal reflection:
I learned a lot on how the government and ordinary people made decisions that created ghettos. This trapped many poor Black and Latino families in one place where they can't better themselves and be able to live in safer neighborhoods. I didn't realized that Hartford is the capitol of Connecticut where it once was beautiful city that Mark Twain lived for many years. The Hartford neighborhoods reminded me that there are so many of them around this country like Camden. I just can't believe that mainstream America let a city like Hartford to become so horrid.
As I am reading the required section of the book this week, it's funny how many urban cities that are made for the poor or working class for people of color. These once beautiful cities are now in squalor and violence. These are the places where many bright children grow up and end up still there or end up in jail or died. It was over a hundred years ago when cities were places to go live and work because of the industrialization. Many White farm folks couldn't farm anymore because of the cost of farming and other issues that pushed them to move into cities for work in factories. They created nice neighborhoods where people are safe, children go to school, families go to their place of worship in the weekend and people working at good wage jobs. Today's world, the best neighborhoods are out in the suburbs where good jobs and schools are located.
On p. 61, a newspaper reporter's reaction about the Puerto Ricans are so unfair. Does he realized that the American government and employers who started the migration of Puerto Ricans to filled job openings in making things at factories? When he said that the Latinos should stay in downtown or "go back where they came from," his words made me mad. Over 30 years ago, many Puerto Ricans immigrated to Hartford for a better life because their homeland was having economical issues. They wanted their families to have a better life without poverty's effects of losing love ones from starvation, disease and unsafe living conditions. By 2000, most of the Latinos were born there. The youth has no ties to their ancestors' homeland because they only knew the tough streets of America and American culture. The older folks lived in Hartford for so long that Puerto Rico is just a foreign country to them. If they all moved back to their homelands with their American-born children, they will be seen as foreigners by the locals.
I had never had anyone telling me to go back to "my" country before. But I read accounts about young Chinese-Americans who were told that and how it confused them greatly. I remember back in 10th grade when an American missile shot down at an old Chinese base; I was worried. The reason I even know about this was because of my U.S. history class. My teacher assigned us a weekly commentary paper on a current event of the week. I was looking in the Oregonian to find a good current event when a title popped out at me. I don't remember the exact wording. I think it had something like "U.S. accidentally shot off a missile in China." Is China mad at this? How could the U.S. shoot a missile using an old map? It was good that no one was hurt. What if this event caused a war between the U.S. and China? Whose side am I on? Since I am born here, I want to support my birth country. But since China is the homeland of my ancestors and where my relatives come from, I just want peace. I never want a war between China and the U.S. at all.
As a class discussion, we talked about what kind of issues many students are struggling with in American society and how they can still be left behind even if the "No Child Left Behind" policy is enacted to try to protect that. In my opinion, the concept behind "No Child Left Behind" is good but the accountability and the implementation of it is done so poorly that there are so many students being left behind especially the minority children who are living in poverty.
My class came up with a short list of why many students are still being left behind:
*mobility=students are moving around a lot because they are either from migrant working families or low-income families where they caregiver keep moving around to find jobs or for other reasons.
*poverty
*continuity of care=many students don't have a stable home life because their parents are in jail and living with relatives who are probably so stressed out with no community support or children in foster care that can be bounce from one home to the next or for other reasons.
*labeling of the students=when we label kids with AHAD or whatever label, many people box them in a category that it makes it hard for the student to want to learn and be able to be productive in society. With labels, some teachers see these students as "un-teachable." This is still happening even in the 21st century.
We finish off our discussion on what make good schools:
*Healthy food options
*Enrichment programs such as field trips to the art museum or cultural museum
*Strong leaderships in the schools so teachers have the support to really educate all students from diverse backgrounds
*Community resources for students and families who are struggling
*Safe school environment meaning students are free to be themselves and not having to feel like they are stupid or be bullied by teachers and classmates
*Safe school buildings so students don't need to worry if the ceilings are falling on them and other safety issues.
I want to add to the class list because I didn't really have a chance to share much. It's hard for me to do a whole class discussion because of the time limit and trying to jump in when I don't know when since my classmates are still new to me. I prefer small group discussions which I can be heard better. Though, we do have some group discussions. Okay, here is my add-ons to the list above:
*All school staff need to work together. Have a continuity of school norms as well as some basic class norms. For example, I noticed in Woodstock School that every classroom has the same noise level rules. So if one student goes to another classroom for reading, this person is familiar about how loud or quiet he or she need to be.
*All school professionals need to get good professional development training periodically. In doing so, it will check the attitudes of school staff to remind them to have a pure belief that all students can be taught and share their believes to their students that they will learn and able to move on to good things in life. Plus the training will give teachers some techniques and resources to teach students from diverse backgrounds.
This is a lot that I shared. I didn't even covered some other things we discuss in class. I written so fast that I don't have time to really edit my posts. I'm so busy with grad school. I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say. I will focus my energy on my papers and group projects for my classes. This blog is to really keep you updated in what's going on in my learning journey as a future educator. Yes, we have a lot of issues in our education systems in the U.S. I hope some of you are going to be good advocates to help make all our public school systems fair. I know that the PPS district (Portland) is trying their best. They have made some good strides to make sure all their students from diverse backgrounds have a good education. They are not perfect but at least they are trying and learning how to be better. For example, Franklin High School had bigger numbers of minority students to graduate last school year (Class of 2011). The rate of the minority students to graduate is about the same as the white students. I am so proud of that because it's my alma mater and I had some good teachers when I attended Franklin years ago.
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