Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I have heard about this book in a few of my other education classes, but it was just a mere mention.  I think all future teachers need to read this book as it is very insightful.

The second chapter was interesting.  In this chapter the banking models is described which is were students are empty bank accounts that should be kept open to deposits made by the teachers.  Freire disagrees with this approach because it dehumanizes the student and the teacher.  Paulo Freire has a big problem with this approach because it stimulates the oppressive attitude talked about in chapter 1.  He suggests instead to look at the student AND teacher as incomplete.  In this case Freire is using education as a way to shape a people and the society.  We are to learn together and from each other.  In today's society many people feel there are smart and dumb and you can't learn from anyone how is not as smart as you.  I think Freire would disagree as he feels all people are incomplete and everyone needs education to change the society.

Kuma Chapter 13

This chapter made me a bit uneasy.  It was interesting to read the classroom dialog and then see the analysis of what had occurred.  However, this is what made me so uneasy.  While reading the dialog I thought of some instances where the teacher could have done a better job explaining or could have asked the students to explain but she didn’t.  When reading the analysis I didn’t catch as many mismatches as the observer had, that worries me.  While reading I was thinking of myself in the teacher’s situation, would I know the mismatches taking place, would I be able to address them or would I need an outsider to tell me what was wrong.  I don’t want to fail my students by not noticing learning opportunities, especially in an ESL classroom.  I am just a bit worried I will be more worried about my lesson than what happens during the lesson to build on (as a first year teacher).  I know from all my classes to pay attention but I’m afraid when I get in front of the class and have an agenda I may forget!  Kuma has really good exploratory projects to help teachers evaluate their teaching acts.  I think for me it is most important to remember I can always grow as a teacher and always learn from what happens in the classroom (observations don't mean I'm doing a horrible job!).  The M&M is a really good way to observe and I am sure to use it in the future.

Kuma Chapter 12

Raising Cultural Consciousness is an important issue with the growing number of immigrants in the United States.  Critical Consciousness according to Kuma requires the recognition of a simple truth.  The simple truth being there is no one culture that embodies all and only the best of human experiences; and, there is no one culture that embodies all and only the worst of human experience (271) (Whoa).  Think about that for a second.  No one culture that is better or worse than another, how many minds is he blowing with this statement.  I wonder what the world would be like if we all actually believed in this.. This chapter was really insightful.

Kuma talked about the classroom as a multicultural mosaic.  I think this is a really nice analogy.  Even if we teach a mainstream classroom with students who seem to be the same, they aren’t.  They all bring different aspects to the classroom, different life values or choices, and lifestyles.  We are all different regardless of how we appear to be the same. I also thought the microstrategies and exploratory projects are excellent for cultural consciousness in the classroom.  I could see myself using most of them in my classroom with adaptations to my students.

Progress Report

I am still observing at Oakland Elementary School on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Two weeks ago a taught a lesson on bar graphs to four first grade boys.  The previous day the students made the bar graph with the teacher.  When I taught the students we talked about which category was the most favorite or the least favorite.  I asked them to tell me about their graph.  At the end to review I asked them to tell me how the whole process works becuase I had never made a bar graph before.  Each boy gave me a step and then I asked the boys to do a writing for me about the most favorite and least favorite of their graph.  I had sentence strips to help them.

Kuma Chapter 10

When I first saw the title of chapter 10 I was curious as to what the chapter would be talking about.  When the chapter started talking about the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) being taught separately I thought THAT’S CRAZY!  Who thinks this is a good idea?  In every education and TESOL class I have been in, we have talked about how activities should include all of them or some of them but never really only one of them! 

Then I read about the strict sequencing of the skills, first listening, then speaking, then reading, then writing.  That sounded silly to me as well.  Then I remembered learning Japanese.  I was in elementary school and had a private tutor so I would be able to be friends with the Japanese students at my school.  I wanted to read Japanese so bad but my tutor said I had to first learn to listen to her and pick out parts, and then I could start speaking.  Only after I had mastered speaking would we move to reading and writing.  I was allowed to write my name in Japanese but that was it.  For me, not being able to read or work with the skills together, is probably what made me lose my interest and eventually stop taking lessons.

Looking back at that experience I can understand how important it is to use authentic materials to aide the use of all language skills.  I feel like this is a very important concept and it is important for teachers to remember students can learn without the textbook.  The textbook should be used more as a resource or a guide.

Waiting for Superman

My head was spinning after watching "Waiting for Superman".  I had been very excited to see it but in the end it let me down.   I was hoping it was the answer, but that was silly of me and the movie certainly didn't provide any answer.  The movie focused on the charter schools and bad teachers.  Getting rid of bad teachers may help yes but charter schools certainly aren't the answer.  In my psychology class we were told documentaries take one side and go to the extreme with it and that is exactly what happened with this movie.  I do feel the movie helped to explain what charter schools are and glorify their positives but what about their negatives.   What about their ability to accept whomever they want, to turn children away for their race, or language ability, or even their capabilities.  I think some of the charter schools positives such as their graduating rate or amount of students entering college is worth looking at.  Is it possible to incorporate some of their methods to help our failing schools?  I don't know where to go from here.  The public school system is having a terrible time and this movie presented a nice looking out, but aren't outs short cuts, don't they have "strings attached"?  And if charter schools were really what they seem, wouldn't their be more?  Isn't that where the nation would have taken us?  

Who knows?

Poetry

This event was very interesting for me.  I have never been to poetry event....ever.  The entertainer was just that very entertaining.  On the other side, the poems read were very serious and very touching.   The works were written about identity, trying to figure out WHO YOU ARE.  The piece presented by the TESOL minor student gave me goose bumps.  She had a lot to say about growing up Asian and some of the racist events she has had to go through.  When she talked about being stuck on an elevator with 10 white male students and they called her asian and a chink, I could feel the hair raising on the back of my neck.  I just couldn't believe it.  I think her whole writing connects with bell hooks nicely.  She explains how racism still exists, how she can't get away from it.  She talks about how it is cruel but it is what rules.  bell hooks   talks about how people think racism doesn't exist anymore, well here is a perfect example that it still does.  bell hooks chapters were a call to action and I feel this poetry reading about identity is a call to action as well.   Everyone struggles with identity, it is up to us to look beyond the stereotypes of identity and find out really WHO these people are.  It is not are place to decided that by the color of their skin, by their cultural heritage.  It is our place to dig deeper,to discover the WHO, not the label attached, and to celebrate  differences.