Share your reflections on our visit to the Little Village community and our day with the 7th graders at Eli Whitney.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
A day with 7th graders at Eli Whitney
Share your reflections on our visit to the Little Village community and our day with the 7th graders at Eli Whitney.
Dr. Pedro Noguera on equity and education
Share your reactions to the talk by Dr. Pedro Noguera, "What It Takes to Leave No Child Behind: Creating Conditions that Promote Achievement and Child Development."
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
"The White Method: Cheating"
So I don't know how many of you like the show South Park, but it is one of my favorite shows of all time. Tonight (Wed 4/8) was a new episode of its 12th season and it couldn't be more relevant for our class. The episode has 2 stories going on at once but the one I'm talking about is a complete parody of the movie "Stand and Deliver." Eric Cartman (the fat one) takes the role of Mr. Escalante and goes to teach in a inner-city school in Denver. He dresses like him and pulls a fake Latino accent and teaches them the meaning of being white, to cheat. I urge you to go on http://www.southparkstudios.com/ and search the South Park episodes (its Season 12 named "Eek a Penis!" the title is from the other story, as you probably could guess) to be able to fully understand what I'm talking about. (You may have to wait a day for the video to be on the internet, you could also search YouTube.com)
The short version is Cartman does well taking over his class mates and lets the students find Mr. Garrison's (the teacher) answers to the test. The principal is impressed by the class's scores on the test (that they cheated on) and asks Cartman to go to Denver to teach and "reach these kids" as best as he can. So he goes to Denver and teaches in your stereotypical urban school classroom. And he teaches them how he taught his classmates, to cheat. They make fun of him reaching to the one boy that resists the teacher in the movie and persuading the one girl to keep up with her education (or cheating) like the movie. The students end up cheating on their Standardized and Advanced Placement test for college. They monitor them to make sure they don't cheat, but Cartman has taught them so well that they are able to cheat on the big test and succeed. (All 24 scored 100% on the test) And they praise Cartman by teaching them the White Method: which was to cheat.
Overall, the episode is VERY controversial. If you want to watch I urge you to watch with an open mind.
Disclaimer:
This episode not only has coarse language and controversial views but the 2nd story that is happening within the episode is about a trans-gender teacher and his/her search to become a man again. (Hence the name of the episode)
The short version is Cartman does well taking over his class mates and lets the students find Mr. Garrison's (the teacher) answers to the test. The principal is impressed by the class's scores on the test (that they cheated on) and asks Cartman to go to Denver to teach and "reach these kids" as best as he can. So he goes to Denver and teaches in your stereotypical urban school classroom. And he teaches them how he taught his classmates, to cheat. They make fun of him reaching to the one boy that resists the teacher in the movie and persuading the one girl to keep up with her education (or cheating) like the movie. The students end up cheating on their Standardized and Advanced Placement test for college. They monitor them to make sure they don't cheat, but Cartman has taught them so well that they are able to cheat on the big test and succeed. (All 24 scored 100% on the test) And they praise Cartman by teaching them the White Method: which was to cheat.
Overall, the episode is VERY controversial. If you want to watch I urge you to watch with an open mind.
Disclaimer:
This episode not only has coarse language and controversial views but the 2nd story that is happening within the episode is about a trans-gender teacher and his/her search to become a man again. (Hence the name of the episode)
Friday, April 4, 2008
Race and representation
Following up our conversation about race and representation from last class, Amanda A. posted a response in which she connected the historical images of African American and Native American people we viewed in class to the current controversy over the Vogue magazine cover with LeBron James and model Giselle Bundchen.
Many have criticized the cover for perpetuating, or reviving, stereotypical representations of Black males -- the image of a wild, dangerous, "animal" who is a threat to white women. Dismissing such ideas, a spokesperson for Vogue said, "We think LeBron and Giselle look beautiful together and we are honored to have them on the cover." But several writers have pointed out what seem to be intentional echoes of old posters -- one an ad for the U.S. Army (above), one a poster for the movie King Kong (below). What do you think? Is the image of LeBron problematic? Is it racist?
Many have criticized the cover for perpetuating, or reviving, stereotypical representations of Black males -- the image of a wild, dangerous, "animal" who is a threat to white women. Dismissing such ideas, a spokesperson for Vogue said, "We think LeBron and Giselle look beautiful together and we are honored to have them on the cover." But several writers have pointed out what seem to be intentional echoes of old posters -- one an ad for the U.S. Army (above), one a poster for the movie King Kong (below). What do you think? Is the image of LeBron problematic? Is it racist?
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Teachers' Pets
While going through the Sunday Trib's magazine, I came across an interesting I found incredibly interesting/ inspiring:
At the Michael Faraday School on the city's West Side, volunteers from the Sit Stay Read! program come to listen to the 2nd grade children read. Participants of the program are blind, and they bring their seeing eye dogs along on their visits. Since the volunteers are blind, they cannot correct the young readers; they simply listen and enjoy the stories. The article states that on average, a child growing up in a middle-class family will experience as many as 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading, before he or she enters school; compared to a child from a lower-class family who enters school with 25 hours. The goal of this program is to help students become more comfortable in their reading and to gain confidence. How cool!!
Sound interesting? Check out the article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/magazine/chi-080330kogan-col,1,4602652.column
Personally, I think this article is awesome! I would love to have something like this in my classroom someday! What a great confidence builder! I think this is a great way for students who might not have the opportunity to read aloud to work on their reading skills and improve fluency. It makes sense to me that children would be more comfortable reading aloud to someone who is unable to catch their mistakes. Also, I think it would make students look forward to reading! Plus, I think that it is a great way to help students learn to accept people who are different from them at an early age, and I'm sure that the volunteers feel great about being able to help these kids as well. As far as I can tell it's a win win for everyone involved!
At the Michael Faraday School on the city's West Side, volunteers from the Sit Stay Read! program come to listen to the 2nd grade children read. Participants of the program are blind, and they bring their seeing eye dogs along on their visits. Since the volunteers are blind, they cannot correct the young readers; they simply listen and enjoy the stories. The article states that on average, a child growing up in a middle-class family will experience as many as 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading, before he or she enters school; compared to a child from a lower-class family who enters school with 25 hours. The goal of this program is to help students become more comfortable in their reading and to gain confidence. How cool!!
Sound interesting? Check out the article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/magazine/chi-080330kogan-col,1,4602652.column
Personally, I think this article is awesome! I would love to have something like this in my classroom someday! What a great confidence builder! I think this is a great way for students who might not have the opportunity to read aloud to work on their reading skills and improve fluency. It makes sense to me that children would be more comfortable reading aloud to someone who is unable to catch their mistakes. Also, I think it would make students look forward to reading! Plus, I think that it is a great way to help students learn to accept people who are different from them at an early age, and I'm sure that the volunteers feel great about being able to help these kids as well. As far as I can tell it's a win win for everyone involved!
CPS students rally for tougher gun laws
Here's a follow-up of sorts to the story I posted a few days ago about the number of Chicago Public School students killed by guns this year. This past weekend another student, 17-year-old Chavez Clarke, was shot and killed, prompting his classmates and other Chicago teens to organize a rally to raise awareness and to push for tougher gun laws in Illinois. Read the Chicago Tribune's account here.
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