If I Were a Music Teacher....

Imagine… you’re a new teacher and you walk into your classroom with rambunctious, rude children that are all on their cell phone and you try to keep talking to the class but they are too busy talking with each other to even notice you. Well that is how the new history teacher felt in the mockumeatary “Chalk”. In the end he went with the traditional ways of teaching that Friere talked about with the banking concept. Friere says in his essay, the Banking Concept of Education “On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.”  A lot of times in school you find that teachers try to control every piece of what students learn and how they learn by teaching by the book. I find this way of teaching boring and keep the students from being interested in what they are learning. If I were a teacher, I would break tradition and let students have control of what they learn in class by choosing what they learn in my classroom.

          

             If I were a teacher and could choose any subject to teach, I would be a music teacher because I feel music can add fun into anyone day. On the first day of class I would have non- classical music playing in the classroom when they walked in. it would be a song that the kids would know from the past year.  The student would sit down in the rows of chairs and begin to talk. I would stand in front of the class and smile then ask them to stand up against the wall. I would separate the people who were talking and set them back down in the rows. That takes care of the issue of talking right off the bat and lets students know that you are stern before you are fun. To introduce myself I would say my name and my favorite song and why. Then I would have the students do the same. I would write it in my notes.  I would then ask them songs that they want to perform in front of their peers and tell them that I am giving them full control of what we sing as long as it is appropriate. I would tell them that I am not like most music teachers and I want to teach them what they want to learn and mix technique into the song we love and still have little personality into the song. I would tell them “I don’t want the choir to sing stiffly on stage with no personality like you see the most the time. I want you all to have fun in this class and remember it because you had the control of choosing what you learned.”  I would also tell them that these privileges would be taken away if I was disrespected in class or there was too much chatter. Mr. Escalante did this in “Stand and Deliver” when he told the boy to leave the class because he wasn’t taking the subject seriously. Later the boy looked at what he had done wrong and cleaned up his act to be part of the class. Then I would have them write a list if the songs that they want to learn and write the song on the board and have the class vote one their favorite five and tell them I would have sheet music for them in the next week. I would also tell them that the concert is optional and is not part of their grade. I think that all grades should be counted only if they are during school hours and requiring student to do something after school is ridiculous because students may have something going on or do not have the resources to come, like uniforms. Also I would only want them to come if they want to be there because if they don’t want to be there. For the following days of the first week I would continue to connect to my students by listening to music, introducing them to my favorites, them introducing me to their favorite, playing games like musical charades and musical chairs, and trying to get to know them better while trying to break down the teacher student barrier slightly. My students would enjoy my class because for once they would fell in control of their learning in school. Acosta says in Arizona Bans “it was about whom we were, who our students were. Young people being empowered is scary to many people…” what Acosta says is true but I feel that students should have some power over their education so they know how to control their power when they are older and have to control bigger things in their lives like their job. It also gives them some freedom in school that they are not going to get with other subjects.

            To create a fun open environment that welcomes students in and makes they want to listen to what has to be said because students always seem to become interested in class when they are put in a welcoming teaching environment. I would also want a give and take relationship with the students where they feel I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I’ll listen to them and always give helpful feedback. I will always have a smile on my face when students walk in and not ignore them when they walk up to my desk. If I need a minute to finish something I will tell them. I will tell students that they are welcome to come in at any time and that I can always talk if they are having a problem, school related or personal. Students need to feel like their teacher cares about them and what they teach to their students. It is the main reason why students act out in class is because they are bored. My walls will not be white. They will be warm inviting colors that create the feel of an exciting environment. When I teach I will not just stand there I will move about the classroom and bring students up to the front and get them involved in what I’m teaching. If student do a good job of if they get in front of the class they should be rewarded. This can be with candy or stickers or just being told good job in a warm and sincere way. If a student does something wrong, they will not be looked down upon. They will be told what they did wrong and their mistakes will not be announced for the whole class to know.  Jerry large from the Seattle times says in his essay Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed that a big part of building character is overcoming failure and that if we don’t have failure then we will not have enough grit. While think that this is partly true I feel that just because we fail doesn’t mean that it has to be announced to our peers. I feel that is a mistake today’s teachers make because it makes students feel worse about them.

         

    I would know I was successful in my teaching if the students enjoyed coming to my class and looked forward to performing in front of their peers and actually go to the concert for their parents, unlike most student who are taught the traditional way and see the concerts as a joke and only come because it affects their grade. I would also know I’m successful if I hear from parents that the students talk about how much they like me or my teaching style and I see them again, whether it a visit or in my class the following year.

Works Cited

Aronson, Deb. "Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program." Ed. Natinal Council of Teachers of English. Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program (2012): 21-23. Web.

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, and Sharron Haragan. Mockumentary, 2006. DVD.

Freire, Paolo. ""The Banking Concept of Education"" Pedagogy of the Oppressed. N.p.: n.p., 1970. Chapter 2. Print.

Large, Jerry. "Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed." The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca. By Ramon             Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos,Estelle Harris, and Mark Phelan.             Warner Bros., 1988. DVD.

paper 3 rough draft

Rough draft: how I would run my classroom on the first day…. add class readings and sources later :) 

A lot of times in school you find that teachers try to control every piece of what students learn and how they learn by teaching by the book. I find this way of teaching boring and keeps the students from being interested in what they are learning. if I were a teacher, I would break tradition and let students have control of what they learn in class by choosing what they learn in my classroom.

I would be a music teacher. To create a fun open environment that welcomes students in and makes they want to listen to what has to be said because students always seem to become interested in class when they are put in a welcoming teaching environment. I would also want a give and take relationship with the students where they feel I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I’ll listen to them and always give helpful feedback. I will always have a smile on my face when students walk in and not ignore them when they walk up to my desk. If I need a minute to finish something I will tell them. I will tell students that they are welcome to come in at any time and that I can always talk if they are having a problem, school related or personal. Students need to feel like their teacher cares about them and what they teach to their students. It is the main reason why students act out in class is because they are bored. My walls will not be white. They will be warm inviting colors that create the feel of an exciting environment. When I teach I will not just stand there I will move about the classroom and bring students up to the front and get them involved in what I’m teaching. If student do a good job of if they get in front of the class they should be rewarded. This can be with candy or stickers or just being told good job in a warm and sincere way. If a student does something wrong, they will not be looked down upon. They will be told what they did wrong and their mistakes will not be announced for the whole class to know.

            On the first day of class I would have non- classical music playing in the classroom when they walked in. it would be a song that the kids would know from the past year.  The student would sit down in the rows of chairs and begin to talk. I would stand in front of the class and smile then ask them to stand up against the wall. I would separate the people who were talking and set them back down in the rows. to introduce myself I would say my name and my favorite song and why. Then I would have the students do the same. I would write it in my notes.  I would then ask them songs that they want to perform in front of their peers and tell them that I am giving them full control of what we sing as long as it is appropriate. I would tell them that I am not like most music teachers and I want to teach them what they want to learn and mix technique into the song we love and still have little personality into the song. I would tell them “I don’t want the choir to sing stiffly on stage with no personality like you see the most the time. I want you all to have fun in this class and remember it because you had the control of choosing what you learned.”  I would also tell them that these privileges would be taken away if I was disrespected in class or there was too much chatter. Then I would have them write a list if the songs that they want to learn and write the song on the board and have the class vote one their favorite five and tell them I would have sheet music for them in the next week. I would also tell them that the concert is optional and is not part of their grade. I think that all grades should be counted only if they are during school hours and requiring student to do something after school is ridiculous because students may have something going on or do not have the resources to come, like uniforms. also I would only want them to come if they want to be there because if they don’t want to be there it shows on stage. for the following days of the first week I would continue to connect to my students by listening to music, introducing them to my favorites, them introducing me to their favorite, playing games like musical charades and musical chairs, and trying to get to know them better while trying to break down the teacher student barrier slightly. my students would enjoy my class because for once they would fell in control of their learning in school.

             I would know I was successful in my teaching if the students enjoyed coming to my class and looked forward to performing in front of their peers and accually go to the concert for their parents, unlike most student who are taught the traditional way and see the concerts as a joke and only come because it affects their grade. I would also know I’m successful if I hear from parents that the students talk about how much they like me or my teaching style and I see them again, whether it a visit or in my class the following year.

chalk notes

• teachers have non detailed lesson plans
• students get in fights
• PE teachers that are female and have short hair are asumed to be gay
• students skip class
• "i care about you" but teachers dont want to have a friendship
• teahcers bring up stupid phrases that students are not going to listen to because they are talking at the students not to the the students
• teachers work long hrs that effect personal relationships
• teachers being to strict about policy and teahceres that dont follow policy
• students dont take teachers seriously
• teachers walk out on students
• teachers help students gain confidence when they want them to perform better
• teahcers argue and talk about personal lives at school
• teachers dont always understand what teachers say so they make students act dumber so the teacher doesnt look stupid
• students make sexual jokes
• teachers try to make things lively
• teacher become interested in other teachers
• teachers get mad at student accidents
• teachers accuse other teachers of stealing and doing things they are not suppose to do
• teahcers bottle in feeling and talk to other coworkers about them
• tricking students into thinking that they are going to get punish by thier parents
• teachers ask about personal relationships of other teachers
• 6 out of ten kids walk away with a college education
• parents dont believe wwhen their kids do something wrong at school
• teachers dont like it when a student's cell phone goes off in class and sometimes over react
• teahcers lose the inspiration to teach and their job get to become a burden
• teahcers go out for drinks after work
• teachers talk about bad students outside of class
• teahcer of the year: teahcers that dont deserve it feel like they are better than the rest
• parents hit on teachers and try to help their kids by drinking with the teachers
• teachers argue about policy
• teachers have opinions about people in higher power
• teacher use students to get information on other teachers
• teahcers sit at desk doing nothing while students work
• teachers over react to small issues and yell at students for not saying the right thing when the teacher is not happy about something that doesnt even have to do with the student
• teachers do events for student entertainment
• teacher are willing to have a laugh with sudents  the last few minutes of class
• teahcers notice when other teachers are doing a better job

waiting for superman notes

·         teachers put on contracts that make bad teachers not able to be fired and they do the “lemon dance”

·         1 in 2500 teachers have lost their teaching credentials

·         “I get paid no matter if you learn or not”

·         23 public schools closed in New York

·         Students realize how much they are cheated in the school system when they go to college

·         Charter school let in 40 second graders with 729 applicants

·         25^th in math 21 in science (in USA)

·         USA students rank #1 confident

·         Students are put on tracks that determine their teachers based on test scores

·         Student are not allowed to be part of graduation ceremonies if parents cannot pay tuition

·         Students could learn math by memorizing a rap

·         Power switched from central offices to schools

·         You can have a great school until you have great teachers

·         Nothing will change unless you change the teachers

·         We know it’s possible to give every child a great education now we just have to establish that in all schools

·         Random lottery will select students at random…. Students that are not accepted are disappointed and sometimes cannot apply again

·         Put on waiting list so they still have a chance of being accepted but chances are slim

paper 2:The Role of an Educator- Ebert vs Hobaugh

All through our childhood we have teachers that we remember for different purposes. The ones that we have sweet memories of are the teachers who impact us in a way of making us a person who pursues their dreams.  My example for a great teacher is my eighth grade science teacher Mrs. Ebert and my example for my horrible teacher is my tenth grade math teacher Mr. Hobaugh. The role of an educator is to inspire the students that they teach.

            The way a teaches inspires us is by showing us that they love their job and always care for their students. Mrs. Ebert was the teacher that seemed to be everyone’s favorite for this reason. You would walk into her classroom and how much this teacher loved the subject she taught. There were fun colorful posters everywhere, weird items like sheep eyeballs and a coyote skull sitting on her desk, and a cabinet of animal bones and dried sea creatures on the left wall of her room. When she would stand up to teach she would be full of energy no matter how long the day had seemed. She tried to make sure that we all understood what she was teaching and not moving on until she knew we did. She used different and weird projects to have student’s present information to the class. One of the project was about the planets and a group did something that most students were not comfortable with… they did a remix of “You Belong to Me” by Taylor Swift that was all about Neptune. They came up with this idea after Mrs. Ebert had us listen to about the sun. The way that Mrs. Ebert got excited about this song inspired these students to go the musical route and was one of the best projects in the class. Mrs. Ebert was like Audre Lorde’s kindergarten teacher who always praise audre for her good work when she did something right and didn’t look down on her when she was wrong. Mrs. Ebert has the same mind set that students should mot be looked down upon for the mistakes they make but praised when they do some thing right.

            Mr. Hobaugh on the other hand is the complete opposite. He is the teacher you look back on and you cringe a little bit and feel bad for any of the students he will have in the future. He is a short hobbit looking man with a permanent frown on his face. He is a teacher who rushes through his work and will not slow down when his student tell him that they don’t understand. He tells them that they were not paying attention and that they should try harder. He follows very closely to the banking concept that Friere talks about in his essay “The Banking Concept of Education”. Friere says, “the solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.” and along with going with the banking concept of teaching sometimes he doesn’t even know what he is teaching. One time he used Wikipedia to teach Pascal’s triangle and still didn’t make sure that we understood after he tried to understand it himself and then gave the class a quiz on it the next day.

            Teachers are also an inspiration when they motivate you. Mr. Hobaugh was a lazy teacher who expected lazy students. His class had no structure and half way into the year some students started having side conversation because they had lost respect for Mr. Hobaugh because of his laziness and the lack of a helping success kind of attitude. He would never motivate us to be better students because he never wanted to motivate himself to be a better teacher.

            Mrs. Ebert’s classroom was fun and chatty but we as the students always knew when it was time to close our mouths and listen because we respected Mrs. Ebert and cared about what she was telling us. The reason for this is because she was motivated to help each student succeed and would go out of her way to help if they were falling behind without losing connection to the rest of the class. She strived to be a better teacher and to help her students do their best in school. Mrs. Ebert shows she is like Mr. Escalante because she is willing to put extra time in her students like Mr. Escalante when he would stay with his students in the evening to help them with their AP calculus test. Mrs. Ebert will do the same after school to help struggling students know that she believes in them and is there to help.

            Another way that teachers inspire us is to tell us to chase our dreams no matter how big. Mrs. Ebert had the mindset that told us that we could do whatever we wanted to do if we put our minds to it no matter what obstacles stood in our way. She told us about what she dream of as a little girl and how she dreamed of being a scientist, when on field studies and worked in a lab before she decided to spread her knowledge with the middle school kids that she teaches today and would tell us that all of our dreams were important, would take the time to learn what our dreams were, and talk to us about how we could reach that dream. Mrs. Ebert is like Mr. Keating when Mr. Keating tells Neil to follow his dreams as an actor because he is great at it and it makes him happy. Mrs. Ebert would always encourage her students to follow their dreams no matter how big.

             Mr. Hobaugh was very much the opposite. Any “inspiration” he tried to give us was a sports analogy that we all couldn’t relate to because we all were not in sports but all his talks seemed to finish with the same basic message that we were all nobodies and could not successful in life unless we got a degree in engineering or sports because everything else was unimportant. He shot down any other views of success and called us all burger flippers even though he never took the time to actually get to know us and learn what our dreams were.  In the movie stand and deliver, the teachers had similar opinions of their students. Mr. Escalante would tease them about the same concept but he would mean it in a joking manner, “you’re good now, but you’re going to end up barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen!” Mr. Hobaugh approach was interpreted very differently because it did not ever seem like he was joking. He would say his beliefs with such conviction that we all knew he meant every word he said and some of us resented him for it.

            Mrs. Ebert is a prime example of an inspiring teacher who loves what she teaches, loves to motivate her students, and tells them to follow their dreams. She is a teacher any student would be lucky to have and is well loved by her past students. She follows the concept of my thesis because she follows the ideal image if an inspiring teacher. As for Mr. Hobaugh… get out of the class while you still can.

Works Cited

Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. By Tom Schulman. Perf. Robin Williams, Rober Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen, Dylan Kussman, Allelon Ruggiero. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, 1989. DVD.

Freire, Paolo. ""The Banking Concept of Education"" Pedagogy of the Oppressed. N.p.: n.p., 1970. Chapter 2. Print.

Lorde, Audre. "A New Spelling of My Name." Zami. N.p.: n.p., 1982. 65-73. Print.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca. By Ramon Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos,Estelle Harris, and Mark Phelan. Warner Bros., 1988. DVD. 

rough draft for compare/contrasting teachers

All through our childhood we have teachers that we remember for different purposes. The ones that we have sweet memories of are the teachers who impact us in a way of making us a person who pursues their dreams. The role of an educator is to inspire the students that they teach. My example for a great teacher is my eighth grade science teacher Mrs. Ebert and my example for my horrible teacher is my tenth grade math teacher Mr. Hobaugh.

The first way the teacher inspires us is them showing us that they love their job and that they care for their students. Mrs. Ebert was the teacher that seemed to be everyone’s favorite for this reason. You would walk into her class room and how much this teacher loved the subject she taught. There were fun colorful posters everywhere, weird items like sheep eyeballs and a coyote skull sitting on her desk, and a cabinet of animal bones and dried sea creatures on the left wall of her room. When she would stand up to teach she would be full of energy no matter how long the day had seemed. She tried to make sure that we all understood what she was teaching and not moving on until she knew we did. She used different and weird projects to have student’s present information to the class. One of the project was about the planets and a group did something that most students were not comfortable with… they did a remix of “You Belong to Me” by Taylor Swift that was all about Neptune. They came up with this idea after Mrs. Ebert had us listen to about the sun. The way that Mrs. Ebert got excited about this song inspired these students to go the musical route and was one of the best projects in the class.

Mr. Hobaugh on the other hand is the complete opposite. He is the teacher you look back on and you cringe a little bit and feel bad for any of the students he will have in the future. He is a short hobbit looking man with a permanent frown on his face. He is a teacher who rushes through his work and will not slow down when his student tell him that they don’t understand. He tells them that they were not paying attention and that they should try harder. Sometimes he doesn’t even know what he is teaching. One time he used Wikipedia to teach Pascal’s triangle and still didn’t make sure that we understood after he tried to understand it himself and then gave the class a quiz on it the next day.

Teachers are also an inspiration when they motivate you. Mr. Hobaugh was a lazy teacher who expected lazy students. His class had no structure and half way into the year some students started having side conversation because they had lost respect for Mr. Hobaugh because of his laziness and the lack of a helping success kind of attitude. He would never motivate us to be better students because he never wanted to motivate himself to be a better teacher. Mrs. Ebert’s classroom was fun and chatty but we as the students always knew when it was time to close our mouths and listen because we respected Mrs. Ebert and cared about what she was telling us. The reason for this is because she was motivated to help each student succeed and would go out of her way to help if they were falling behind without losing connection to the rest of the class. She strived to be a better teacher and to help her students do their best in school.

Another way that teachers inspire us is to tell us to chase our dreams no matter how big. Mrs. Ebert had the mindset that told us that we could do whatever we wanted to do if we put our minds to it no matter what obstacles stood in our way. she told us about what she dream of as a little girl and how she dreamed of being a scientist, when on field studies and worked in a lab before she decided to spread her knowledge with the middle school kids that she teaches today and would tell us that all of our dreams were important, would take the time to learn what our dreams were, and talk to us about how we could reach that dream.

 Mr. Hobaugh was very much the opposite. Any “inspiration” he tried to give us was a sports analogy that we all couldn’t relate to because we all were not in sports but all his talks seemed to finish with the same basic message that we were all nobodies and could not successful in life unless we got a degree in engineering or sports because everything else was unimportant. He shot down any other views of success and called us all burger flippers even though he never took the time to actually get to know us and learn what our dreams were.  In the movie stand and deliver, the teachers had similar opinions of their students. Mr. Escalante would tease them about the same concept but he would mean it in a joking manner, “you’re good now, but you’re going to end up barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen!” Mr. Hobaugh approach was interpreted very differently because it did not ever seem like he was joking. He would say his beliefs with such conviction that we all knew he meant every word he said and some of us resented him for it.

Mrs. Ebert is a prime example of an inspiring teacher who love what she teaches, loves to motivate her students, and tells them to follow their dreams. She is a teacher any student would be lucky to have and is well loved by her past students. She follows the concept of my thesis because she follows the ideal image if an inspiring teacher. As for Mr. Hobaugh… get out of the class while you still can.

Banking Concept and Standarized Testing

Freire’s views on standardized testing is that it is not efficient for students because in today’s society we use a system called banking education which basically means that teachers teach a one way path that follows the standardized test. Students think more than one way which means that a kid that is smart could fail the standardized test because they don’t think in the form that the standardized test is written or may not understand the way that the teacher teaches the subject. Freire says “the solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.” Freire would agree in a system where many methods are used and where students aren’t judged on how much they know through a standardized test. I agree with him because I do not believe that it is fair that special needs kids and students that do not know and understand English well are expected to do the same test even though they think a different way.

notes from "Dead Poets' Society" day 1 and 2

·         Neil’s Father is demanding and only wants it his way

·         Mr. Keating does not seem like other teachers because he does not have his students in the classroom and cracks a few jokes and is not boring and doesn’t seem like he’s all about perfection

·         Has students rip a page out of a text book because he says you can’t explain poetry in the way the guy in the introduction does

·         Has students interact with him

·         “we don’t write poetry because it’s cute, we write it because we are the human race”… say this when explaining why some who plans to go into business or medical needs to study poetry… what will your verse be

·         Other teachers don’t think students should be free thinkers

·         Dead poets society was a poetry club that administrations did not  approve of so it didn’t exist anymore

·         Group of students want to restart the dead poets society

·         One guy doesn’t want to read but is still invited to listen

·         The boys sneak out of boarding house and try to go to old cave down the road. They successfully make it out of the school and to the cave. The first meeting starts and goes pretty well but they don’t focus on poetry that all tell horror stories to freak each other out. Then tell poetry

·         Stands in different places to see world in different way (stands on desk)

·         Try to push students out of the box and make show they are useful and that there is a poet in all of them… tries to teach them life lessons with the poetry

·         Mr. Keating was warned to stop his unorthodoxed teaching methods

·         Neil killed himself because he felt like he was a disappointment to his dad and that he couldn’t do what he wanted to do in life

·         Friends and Mr. Keating are all in shock and grief… Todd wanted to think that Neil’s father murdered him just to think that he didn’t commit suicide

·         Neil’s death is breaking trust between friends and is ruining a lot of relationships because everyone is having a lot of grief

·         Mr. Keating gets fired because he “encouraged” the boys to start the dead poets society and went against Neil’s parents’ wishes and “lead him to commit suicide”… none of this was his fault

·         Students begin to rebel and stand up for Mr. Keating by standing on their desks and yelling “Oh Captain, My Captain” as he begins to leave the classroom because he was fired…. At the end he says “ thank you boys” and that’s where the film ends

differences between Garfeild and Welton

The schools are different because Garfield was a public school and Welton was a private school. Garfield was coeducation and Welton was an all-boys school. Welton was a boarding school and Garfield was not. Teachers at Garfield were not well educated in their subject and at Welton teachers were well educated and some of them were prior students at the school. Students at Garfield were more openly defiant while students at Welton were more reserved even though they wanted to be defiant. No bar was set at Garfield but at Welton perfection was expected. The pressures at Garfield were to give in to not caring or your nerd and the pressures of home life where the pressures at Garfield were to be perfect and live up to your parents’ expectation. Another difference was that they tried at Welton to make school their whole life and the students wanted to push away from school and try other things and at Garfield school was seen as a joke and students in the end wanted more education.

what I value in a teacher

A lot of teachers think that the only way they can teach is by standing in front of a class and lecture it seems and it makes the class not interesting and makes students not care because it gives off the impression that the teacher does not care about the students. This makes students not want to do homework and not try on class assignments which can effect their grade. What I value in a teacher is that they know how to connect and engage with the students. It makes it harder to learn if they are boring and seem like they have no interest in you as a student.it makes it easier if the teacher is not all business and know how to make the class fun but still have structure in the class and still play the role as a teacher. I feel students pay more attention and learn better that way because they don’t want to fall asleep in class because it not interesting or talk the whole time to their friend because the teacher doesn’t care and there is no structure. If students truly enjoy the class for these reasons they are more likely to succeed in the class and have better grades.

Audre Lorde: comparing and contrasting teachers

Audre Lorde story was very interesting. I thought that her talking about how catholic schools talked about public schools were very much how people who go to public schools see catholic schools. Mrs. Baker changed the way Audre acted and I think that is very important to a child who feels like her parents can’t connect to her. I think Audre felt like Mrs. Baker made that connection. Mrs. Baker praise Audre when she did well and got excited when she learned to do new things that Audre hadn’t been rewarded for in the past. To a 5 year old that is important. Miss Teacher, on the other hand, seemed like she didn’t want to understand Audre’s needs and was stubborn about her ways of teaching and was willing to embarrass Audre into doing something she couldn’t do. How the article helped me was it gave me an idea of how to organize my second paper.it showed me how to compare and contrast teachers in a different way: by telling a story. I found this article very useful and will try to use its format in my second paper.

thought on Ken Robbinson's speech

Education prepares us for an unknown future because we don’t know what jobs will be available in the future. Ken Robinson says that human creativity is squashed as we get older but people who teach us it is wrong to fail. If we are afraid to fail then our creativity starts to go away.  People teach kids that they should have a career in mathematics or English because they are what create good jobs. Ken talked about a little girl who was really fidgety in class and she couldn’t think without moving so her mom took her to a physiologist and the physiologist told her mom that she was a dancer and later in life she became a famous chorographer. Now they would have diagnosed her with ADHD and put her on a pill to calm her down. Ken says that students who say they aren’t good at school and aren’t smart actually are but we focus on other subjects when they maybe good at something more artistic. The arts programs in school are the lowest paid programs. Ken thinks that they should be just as important in the school system. I agree with him and found his speech very insightful.

"Stand and Deliver" obsevations

In the first part of the film I noticed that when the teacher first walked in the room students were doing and saying whatever they wanted to and didn't care about learning. The teachers started joking around with them and would break the ice with a fraction activity that included using cut up apples. When students started to notice that the teacher cared about their learning by talking to their parents and talking about them going to college the students started to care more. In a course of 2 years the student went from 7th grade math to learning calculus and trying to get college credit. One of the things I didn’t like about the teacher was that sometimes he went too far with his jokes and hurt his students when we would talk about their personal lives. I feel that those kinds of conversations belong outside of the math classroom. I did like that he tried to connect to each student and help them succeed as an individual no matter how much they didn’t believe in themselves. He tries to make each student feel like he or she can go to school and have a career no matter their background or the color of their skin. He is a teacher that puts his students over himself and is will to work extra hard to make sure his students get the best possible education.

learning country music

Being a five year old girl with an older sister who doesn’t live with you makes you want to be like them. You want to watch the same movies as them and have the same friends as them but in my case I wanted to sing the music the music my sister Brittany, or as I call her; Britt, did. Britt and I were very close when she would stay with us and I think part of that reason is because we shared a room when she would come to visit for the summer or Christmas. We would have to deal with (and learn to like…as our parents would say) sharing dresser space and the space of the room. Britt is three years older than me so I thought it was cool to have my older sister stay with me (until I was around the age of seven) even though she probably thought I was the most annoying person on the planet.

When I was five Brittany came to visit for the summer like she always would and at the time she was involved in doing beauty pageants. Part of doing beauty pageants is coming up with routines to perform at the competitions. I remember sometimes she would perform her talent acts to my parents but I would never pay much attention to them because I was either outside playing or I didn’t want to sit still but one night I was tired and bored so I sat down with my parents to watch her perform a song named “Why Haven’t I Heard From You” by Reba Mcentire.

I always knew that she could sing because she would sing in the shower or make my stuffed strawberry shortcake pillow sing “My Little Sunshine” when I would go to bed at night, but I had never heard her sing with purpose in front of me like she was standing on a stage. She sounded beautiful with a rich voice that seemed to have as much character as the expressions on her face. I was awed by the performance and only wanted to hear more of this thing she called “country music.”  I had always learned the simple nursery rhymes in school and the songs that we sang in church but had never really been interested in other types of music until Britt performed that day.

The next day, I asked Britt when she woke up if she would teach me how to sing like her so she sat me down at the kitchen table with a printed copy of lyrics and taught me the words of the song by having me recite the phrases back to her. After I had the basic idea of what the words were she got our dad’s stereo and got a white CD with the title “Read My Mind” out of our room. At first I listened to the song. The voice on the CD was much different from Brittany’s. It had a lot more rasp and had a deeper southern accent and was amazed to find I loved the sound of it. Brittany taught me the arrangement of the notes and by the end of the night I knew the chorus of the song. Every day that week I worked on the song and listened to it over and over again. By the end of the week I had the song memorized and perfected it as much as a five year old can and I was so proud of myself. I loved the way Reba sang it and I loved how I could add rasp and be powerful with the lyrics.  About a week after that Britt asked me to sing her and my parents the song because she knew I was excited about learning it. After I was done singing my parents’ jaws seem to hit the floor. My mom said I sounded like a mini Brittany and never thought I would be able to sing too. When Brittany left she accidently left the CD at our house and I slowly began to learn the other songs on the CD. I was hooked on country music.

Fast forward three years to the audition section of American Idol season four. I was sitting in the living room with my Disney princess blanket eating a bowl of strawberry ice cream. As I watch the screen a small town girl from Checotah, Oklahoma with an accent that would be noticeable from anywhere. As my eyes became glued to the TV and the rest of my family disappeared she started to sing, “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Riatt. It wasn’t a traditional country song but this girl added a recognizable tone to it that had made me an excited eight-year-old girl. I told my parents right then and there that she would win the competition.  They didn’t believe me because there were other good singers but all my faith was in this small town girl. A few months later my prediction came true, Carrie Underwood was standing on stage with a smile on her face and tears of joy running down her cheeks. she was a true inspiration and automatically became my all time favorite country artist. About 6 months after that I was learning all the music off her first CD and trying to perfect every song like I had with the Reba Mcentire album. I listened and knew the songs so well that my mom took me to her concert the following summer. I had told myself I wanted to be like her when I grew up.

To this day I still listen to and love country music. It’s actually the only type of music on my IPod. I love singing with the southern twang and even though I have done musical theatre and sang more technically, something always bring me back to the raspy, heartwarming sound of country because that’s where my voice started and where I am comfortable.  If it wasn’t for my sister singing a Reba song eleven years ago and Carrie Underwood being the first country artist to win idol and go on to inspiring success.  I would not love country music as much as I do today. Country music has made a large impact me because it was the type of music I listened to all through my childhood. My mom listened to oldies, my dad listened to classic rock, and a few years later my sister moved to listening to pop music and punk and my younger sister, Sierra, has always like pop music over all. I’ve tried to like other kinds of music but I always find myself changing the radio to the country station. The dream to record and perform country music still lives today. I work on about 5 different songs a week and sometimes record them on my computer. The dream may stay a dream, but if it weren’t for Reba, Carrie, and most importantly, Britt I would not be as connected to music or be as good of a singer as I am today, and for that I am forever grateful.

learning country music (rough draft)

Being a five year old girl with an older sister who doesn’t live with you makes you want to be like them. You want to watch the same movies as them and have the same friends as them but in my case I wanted to sing the music the music my sister Brittany, or as I call her; Britt, did.

Britt and I were very close when she would stay with us and I think part of that reason is because we shared a room when she would come to visit for the summer or Christmas. We would have to deal with (and learn to like…as our parents would say) sharing dresser space and the space of the room. Britt is three years older than me so I thought it was cool to have my older sister stay with me (until I was around the age of seven) even though she probably thought I was the most annoying person on the planet.

When I was five Brittany came to visit for the summer like she always would and at the time she was involved in doing beauty pageants. Part of doing beauty pageants is coming up with routines to perform at the competitions. I remember sometimes she would perform her talent acts to my parents but I would never pay much attention to them because I was either outside playing or I didn’t want to sit still but one night I was tired and bored so I sat down with my parents to watch her perform a song named “Why Haven’t I Heard From You” by Reba Mcentire.

I always knew that she could sing because she would sing in the shower or make my stuffed strawberry shortcake pillow sing “My Little Sunshine” when I would go to bed at night, but I had never heard her sing with purpose in front of me like she was standing on a stage. She sounded beautiful with a rich voice that seemed to have as much character as the expressions on her face. I was awed by the performance and only wanted to hear more of this thing she called “country music.”  I had always learned the simple nursery rhymes in school and the songs that we sang in church but had never really been interested in other types of music until Britt performed that day. The next day, I asked Britt when she woke up if she would teach me how to sing like her so she sat me down at the kitchen table with a printed copy of lyrics and taught me the words of the song by having me recite the phrases back to her. After I had the basic idea of what the words were she got our dads stereo and got the CD out. At first I listened to the song. The voice on the CD was much different from Brittany’s. It had a lot more rasp and had a deeper southern accent and was amazed to find I loved the sound of it. Brittany taught me the arrangement of the notes and by the end of the night I knew the chorus of the song. Every day that week I worked on the song and listened to it over and over again. By the end of the week I had the song memorized and perfected it as much as a five year old can and I was so proud of myself. I loved the way Reba sang it and I loved how I could add rasp and be powerful with the lyrics.  About a week after that Britt asked me to sing her and my parents the song because she knew I was excited about learning it. After I was done singing my parents’ jaws seem to hit the floor. My mom said I sounded like a mini Brittany and never thought I would be able to sing too. When Brittany left she accidently left the CD at our house and I slowly began to learn the other songs on the CD. I was hooked on country music.

To this day I still listen to and love country music. It’s actually the only type of music on my IPod. I love singing with the southern twang and even though I have done musical theatre and sang more technically, something always bring me back to the raspy, heartwarming sound of country.  If it wasn’t for my sister singing a Reba song eleven years ago I would not love country music as much as I do today and the memory of her teaching me to sing “Why Haven’t I Heard from You”  always comes to mind when I listen to Reba and puts a smile on my face.

main idea of my narrative paper... learning country music

Having a sister who is three years older than you that doesn’t live with you when you’re a five year old girl means that you want to be like them and do the things they do. My older sister Brittany, who lived with her mom in South Carolina, came to visit every summer and every other Christmas. We shared a room when she was here which meant we were very close and also meant I would annoy her to death. Brittany, when she was younger, was in beauty pageants and was really good at them. She won many categories like beauty and talent. I remember seeing my sister… who was from the south… performing a song in the living room to my parents. To me, it was the best performance I had ever seen and left me wanting to sing with a twang that filled people ears with a sweet heartfelt sound. At a young age I knew the simple song that I would learn in school like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and Mary Had a Little Lamb” but had not really paid attention to any certain type of music. She sang “Why Haven’t I Heard from You” by Reba Mcentire and I was hooked on country music.

common classificaitons of food

To classify foods nowadays one common way is the food pyramid. In the food pyramid we have created different groups. These groups are grains, veggies, fruits, dairy, proteins, and fat. The USDA says “Each group has specific essential nutrients most easily obtained from foods in that group. Being aware of the classification of food groups is the first step to planning a healthy diet. “The food pyramid helps us plan a menu and make sure we are eating what we need be healthy. Another way we classify food is what the labels say on the box. Things like fat free, whole grain and low carb are a few of these labels. We classify these as healthier processed foods. Also our grocery stores classify foods by section and amount of nutrition. Healthier, not as processed items like veggies, fruit, meat, and dairy products will be on the perimeter of the store. While more processed items like bread, crackers, and caned items will be in the aisles.

Works cited

Live strong- classification of food groups- http://www.livestrong.com/article/299591-classification-of-food-groups/

Malcolm X vs. Benjamin Franklin

When reading about Malcolm X and Benjamin Franklin I noticed some similarities and differences about their education. The main similarity was that they were both learning grammar and how to read. Another similarity is that people helped both of them. Benjamin’s family and friends helped him and Malcolm X got help from the people who worked in the library at the jail by letting him check out more books than the amount permitted. A difference was that Malcolm had started off as a self-teacher and then people helped him, whereas Benjamin was put into a grammar school at a young age and always had people to help him. Another difference is how they learned. Benjamin learned from years of class while Malcolm learned from writing down words from a dictionary on a tablet and slowly learning how to read his own writing and slowly being able to read other books. Another difference was that Benjamin was given an education by his father because his father wanted him to go into the church. where Malcolm sat I a jail cell reading because he had the desire to learn and be able to speak in front of people and sound educated.

education in america

With unmotivated students and abused school budgets I think that the education in America is not where it should be.

            Students in America seem to not care as much as they should about their education. In high school you see students sleep, text, and not pay attention in class.

Students come to class without homework on time and some are ok with the lowest possible grade that will get them to pass the class. They think school is a joke and that what they are suppose to learn, for example; algebra, will not help them later in life. One problem about the students is that they are obsessed with their cell phones. It has gotten so bad that I know of people that will call other people in the middle of class when we are suppose to be working on an assignment. They text in class constantly and the teachers have gotten to the point where they don’t care because they feel students are not going to listen to them no matter what the rule is. The truth is most students don’t care what the rule is because they know they can get away with it. Students also don’t get enough sleep. They will stay up until two in the morning and will get up at six for school. They go to school unable to pay attention and they sometime will fall asleep in class. This means that they are not learning and will not be able to succeed in the class easily. It seems like students set themselves up to not  be ready for college and to go into a good career. Students dropout because they make regretful decisions and have to or they just don’t like school. Also, a lot of students have to stay in high school for an extra year because they don’t pass their classes and are pushed behind of their peers.  This is all because they are not motivated.

            Lately, because of the economy school budgets are being cut around the country. Schools can’t afford new supplies like textbooks or cant get enough for all students. Then sometimes the school says they don’t have enough money for stuff but are able to buy things that the school could have a cheaper version of. At my high school they said that they only had enough money to buy class sets of the new math text books which meant that we wouldn’t get a text book and we would have to get our homework from an online book  that sometimes didn’t work and was unreliable for the forst few weeks of school but somehow paid for 32 apple Mac computers for the web design class, a DJ to play at lunch for homecoming week, and flat screen TVs to show a slide show of pictures in the commons area. I don’t know how they separate the budget but from a student’s point of view it seems like they don’t have their priorities straight for what we as student actually need in the classroom.

            Because of students who are not motivated in school and poor budget choices the educational system in America is not up to standards but it is something that can be fixed. if you are a student you can make sure you get enough sleep, turn off the cell phone, and try to pay attention in class. If you’re a parent, teacher, principal, or a school board member you can take part in what we spend school money on by going to school board meetings and letting them know what you think money should be spent on. Then, maybe we could make a change in the educational system in America.