Respectful,Caring relations between students and teachers. If teachers want their students to achieve the best results, they should do so through engrossment in their student's welfare and emotional displacement.
I think for many teachers who I have had the opportuinity to work with, their job for them ends at their classroom door. Many of them fixate on the idea that they can only control what goes on in their room and what the kids do in the rest of their lives is none of their business. I do not disagree entirely with the idea that you can not do everything for your students but like the article states, authentic and aesthetic caring do not have to be mutual exclusive. I personally use my time as a coach during the school year to get to know the students better. I want them to know that as a teacher I am not just a man they have to interact with for school reasons. I am someone, if they feel comfortable, that they can go to and relate with if they have an issue they need help with.
Students become disinterested in what they view as irrelevant knowledge they do not need.
As a History-Social Studies teacher, this rings true more than in any other classroom. The way most history is taught to students leads itself to being portrayed as unimportant fact gathering. Many of these students end up feeling like history class is a structured time at the library with reference books. To some degree I feel the same way the students do. History should be taught as a living model. That everyday they live becomes another day in history.
Privileges make it difficult for these non-Latino teachers to understand the dramatic difference of the life of these students.
I had to think a lot on this issue. As a white teacher who will more than likely end up teaching a majority of non-white students, I have to remind myself that the way of life I knew and have come to know is not likely the life these students have and currently experience. How I structure homework and class expectations all relates to this idea of privilege. To me I feel the only way I can combat my own limitations as well as the perception of becoming an easy teacher is to embed a constant message that I am willing to listen even if at first I don't understand. I hope my students will give me the benefit of the doubt.
"You have to act disinterested, because if you say something and it comes out sounding stupid, everyone will think you are dumb, including the teacher."
I have witnessed and heard messages like this from the students I have worked in the behavioral program with many times. They often express hesitation on the part of their academic disabilities. For mainstream students though this is can be a similar experience. If a teacher also lends him or herself to the idea that if you say something incorrectly in class you will be humiliated for it, only pushes this notion of disinterest to self-protect.
Second Posting: Lesbian and Gay Adolescents
Homosexual Experiences
-When presented with the information regarding the ages of homosexual behaviors in adolescents, that gay males tend to experience sexual contact at an earlier age than lesbian females, I attributed this in large part to males being very physical in our sexuality. I remember being in middle school and beginning to like some of the girls I had class with. For me my desires almost always linked to a want for physical contact with these girls. I did want to be their friend or know them socially but in a sense of "desire" it was almost always for some sort of sexual contact. I feel like for girls regardless of who they are attracted to, there is a stronger want to connect with someone emotionally. I am not suggesting girls do not have physical desires as well, it just seems that for men it is the initial priority and that for women this is more often not the case.
"Lesbian women experience more heterosexual intercourse than gay males".
- I found throughout this article a keen interest to know why women tend to accept their homosexual orientation at a later age than males and I felt like this article never really gave a clear answer. I could go back to my original thoughts on women being more connected to emotional attachment than physical but that would be an oversimplification. I wonder why women feel they need to hide longer than gay males. Social experience has shown me that gay males are scrutinized as harshly as lesbian women by mainstream society so it doesn't seem to me that they deny their homosexual identity longer due to that.
"Identity crisis often occurs when the adolescent acknowledges that their homosexual feelings are seen as a negative and despised by society."
- Having spent the last five years working with the age demographic focused on in this article I have developed a better perspective on this very notion. Social anxiety is something almost every middle school student experiences. These students often go through a very natural period of self expression where most students will either cling to the cliche norms or become defiant of them. The most common identifier is clothing. From sixth grade to eight grade there is this gradual and at the same time immediate change in what clothes symbolize for these students. Many of them will go to extremes to single themselves out as unique in their clothing choice while an equal number form clicks where all their friends are wearing the same styles like some small mercenary group. Top all of these superficial and normal developments with the idea sexual recognition is almost too much to grasp. I have known students who exhibited homosexual tendencies and I have witnessed those same students go to great lengths to avoid them as the article suggests. I feel almost guilt at the role I played in middle school being one of those homophobic males who continued the unhealthy trend of not accepting homosexuality.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Gender & Its affects on achievement and motivation
Cohen's Article
"The first step toward developing interventions is to recognize and understand
the various pathways for children's developmental difficulties and the
specific areas of functioning that may be impaired along the way."
This article touched a lot on the environmental factors a child will bring to a classroom. The fact that something ingrained at home can predetermine how we interact with new people speaks volumes to my personal experiences working with students in a behavioral special education program. One of my students exhibited many of the traits discussed in this article. The lack of motivation for academic gratification or the desire to seek academic mastery plagued him through out his three years in middle school. As he got older he matured and some of these behaviors diminished. It speaks to the notion I already had; that his home life and relationships he had developed there were influencing his interaction with the world he lived in.
Maura & Raffi
Raffi's social interactions and lack of successful negotiation through them reminds me of one of my students who moved on to ninth grade this year. He also exhibited a desire for social interaction but was often frustrated with his own verbal disability. I would notice often in class that he would rely on teasing other students as a way to create humor. Many of the students laughed because they believed it was sarcastic but on many occasions he was met with animosity for the comment he made.
"Maura intellectually understands that everyone evidences some spheres of
relative weakness, though she insists on seeing her decoding problems as
proof that she is 'dumb'".
I see a lot of students respond this way to academic challenges they have even when they are aware that what is occurring to them is normal. An example would be the MCAS prep class I taught after school. Many of the students possessed a great intelligence for math. Their main reason for not receiving a proficiency on the test usually resulted from weaknesses in a specific area of math on the previous years test. Similarly to Maura, many of the girls in the class understood why they were there, but they would always refer to themselves as being a "sped student" even when many of their peers took the class with them.
"The first step toward developing interventions is to recognize and understand
the various pathways for children's developmental difficulties and the
specific areas of functioning that may be impaired along the way."
This article touched a lot on the environmental factors a child will bring to a classroom. The fact that something ingrained at home can predetermine how we interact with new people speaks volumes to my personal experiences working with students in a behavioral special education program. One of my students exhibited many of the traits discussed in this article. The lack of motivation for academic gratification or the desire to seek academic mastery plagued him through out his three years in middle school. As he got older he matured and some of these behaviors diminished. It speaks to the notion I already had; that his home life and relationships he had developed there were influencing his interaction with the world he lived in.
Maura & Raffi
Raffi's social interactions and lack of successful negotiation through them reminds me of one of my students who moved on to ninth grade this year. He also exhibited a desire for social interaction but was often frustrated with his own verbal disability. I would notice often in class that he would rely on teasing other students as a way to create humor. Many of the students laughed because they believed it was sarcastic but on many occasions he was met with animosity for the comment he made.
"Maura intellectually understands that everyone evidences some spheres of
relative weakness, though she insists on seeing her decoding problems as
proof that she is 'dumb'".
I see a lot of students respond this way to academic challenges they have even when they are aware that what is occurring to them is normal. An example would be the MCAS prep class I taught after school. Many of the students possessed a great intelligence for math. Their main reason for not receiving a proficiency on the test usually resulted from weaknesses in a specific area of math on the previous years test. Similarly to Maura, many of the girls in the class understood why they were there, but they would always refer to themselves as being a "sped student" even when many of their peers took the class with them.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Children of Immigration
Remaking Identities:
"Immigrants frequently leave behind a host of difficulties, and although in the new land other challenges are ever present, the old ones may make the new ones tolerable" (87).
"But children of immigrants who arrived when they were very young or who were born here will not have the same clear-cut frame of reference against which to measure their current situation" (88).
I found this comparative split between immigrant parents and their potentially young immigrant children to be eye opening. Tying in with the concept of white privilege, should be the idea of "U.S. privilege". The fact that these children grow up in their country viewing the United States through the media filter creates an expectation that their lives will be infinitely better once they get here. For their parents this perspective can be true due to their dual-frame of reference but for these kids, seeing affluent peers living the life they can not would make it difficult to believe that they can gain this same lifestyle.
"Stonequist contends that marginality is intensified when there are sharp contrasts and hostility between the old and new cultures" (92).
I can not imagine being a child in a new country where you are expected to adhere to the old cultural norms of your former land at home while being subsequently expected to excel in your new culture and assimilate for success. I also though about how it would feel to be an adult and have a feel of incompetency because I rely on my children to communicate for me in the public forum. This was the first time I was able to recognize why many immigrant parents push so hard for their children to maintain the traditions of the "old land".
"Social classes established in other countries can effect stratification in the United States for new immigrants" (94).
I found this portion of the text to be fascinating. It had never occurred to me as an American that an immigrant may come from a country where they were either the upper or middle class and have that identity completely flip when they arrive in the United states. The example of the educated Haitian man having to work as a custodian or the "untouchable" from India becoming and accepted and accomplished member of U.S. society.
"Racism is here. Americans believe they are superior to other races" (96).
These statements made by the immigrant students left me floored. The students went on to identify that many of their teachers deny that they are racist but are. I think this lack of recognition exist all over the world in that every global community thinks they are superior to every other. But the major difference is that due to our overwhelming media influence or society pushes our supposed "superiority" all over the world. It makes sense that these immigrant parents would watch their children gravitating towards our "seductive" media at home and how they would fear a total immersion into U.S. culture would steal their cultural identities from them.
The Children of Immigration in School:
"The days of blue collar workers securing middle class lifestyles is over" (Paraphrased from 124).
When I think about all of the obstacles I have to overcome (loans, full time job, graduate school) in order to secure the profession of teaching I want I have to recognize that for many new immigrants coming to the United States, they will need as much schooling if not more in order to achieve the middle class dream or higher. But the reality of a non-English speaking immigrant entering this country and finding high-level, high-paying employment is rare. This reality gives clarity to why many immigrant children are pushed so hard to achieve academic success. For their parents, it's the only way their children will have opportunity in the U.S.
I didn't personally know how to respond to the data that revealed differences of opinion to school between first generation immigrants and second generation immigrants. I wasn't surprised to see that most white students had a more negative regard for authority. What did surprise me was the huge drop off between first and second generation immigrant groups. It went from being overwhelmingly positive to more like the white students. I was curious as to whether this was a result of cultural influence from the mainstream or if realization of inequalities in this country led these students to be less receptive to school.
"Immigrants frequently leave behind a host of difficulties, and although in the new land other challenges are ever present, the old ones may make the new ones tolerable" (87).
"But children of immigrants who arrived when they were very young or who were born here will not have the same clear-cut frame of reference against which to measure their current situation" (88).
I found this comparative split between immigrant parents and their potentially young immigrant children to be eye opening. Tying in with the concept of white privilege, should be the idea of "U.S. privilege". The fact that these children grow up in their country viewing the United States through the media filter creates an expectation that their lives will be infinitely better once they get here. For their parents this perspective can be true due to their dual-frame of reference but for these kids, seeing affluent peers living the life they can not would make it difficult to believe that they can gain this same lifestyle.
"Stonequist contends that marginality is intensified when there are sharp contrasts and hostility between the old and new cultures" (92).
I can not imagine being a child in a new country where you are expected to adhere to the old cultural norms of your former land at home while being subsequently expected to excel in your new culture and assimilate for success. I also though about how it would feel to be an adult and have a feel of incompetency because I rely on my children to communicate for me in the public forum. This was the first time I was able to recognize why many immigrant parents push so hard for their children to maintain the traditions of the "old land".
"Social classes established in other countries can effect stratification in the United States for new immigrants" (94).
I found this portion of the text to be fascinating. It had never occurred to me as an American that an immigrant may come from a country where they were either the upper or middle class and have that identity completely flip when they arrive in the United states. The example of the educated Haitian man having to work as a custodian or the "untouchable" from India becoming and accepted and accomplished member of U.S. society.
"Racism is here. Americans believe they are superior to other races" (96).
These statements made by the immigrant students left me floored. The students went on to identify that many of their teachers deny that they are racist but are. I think this lack of recognition exist all over the world in that every global community thinks they are superior to every other. But the major difference is that due to our overwhelming media influence or society pushes our supposed "superiority" all over the world. It makes sense that these immigrant parents would watch their children gravitating towards our "seductive" media at home and how they would fear a total immersion into U.S. culture would steal their cultural identities from them.
The Children of Immigration in School:
"The days of blue collar workers securing middle class lifestyles is over" (Paraphrased from 124).
When I think about all of the obstacles I have to overcome (loans, full time job, graduate school) in order to secure the profession of teaching I want I have to recognize that for many new immigrants coming to the United States, they will need as much schooling if not more in order to achieve the middle class dream or higher. But the reality of a non-English speaking immigrant entering this country and finding high-level, high-paying employment is rare. This reality gives clarity to why many immigrant children are pushed so hard to achieve academic success. For their parents, it's the only way their children will have opportunity in the U.S.
I didn't personally know how to respond to the data that revealed differences of opinion to school between first generation immigrants and second generation immigrants. I wasn't surprised to see that most white students had a more negative regard for authority. What did surprise me was the huge drop off between first and second generation immigrant groups. It went from being overwhelmingly positive to more like the white students. I was curious as to whether this was a result of cultural influence from the mainstream or if realization of inequalities in this country led these students to be less receptive to school.
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