RE: Targeting Kids

This article is talks about what we all know is happening around us. The thing is, its not that we don’t want to do anything about it, it’s that we cant. I have heard of all the things to do, no shopping day, no buying gas day, anything of the sort don’t work. As long as I have been in university there has been days like these and I have tried to follow along with it, but nothing changes.
The point is that the media is much too strong. They know how to develop things that draw the students in and make them want-to-want things. Half the times these students don’t even know why they have decided to want these new things but they need them.
I think that the only way we are going to help them is to encourage them to be themselves and trust them to be able to make proper decisions in the end. If we inform them of the choices that they have and teach them to look at advertising through different eyes then they should be able to figure things out for themselves.

RE: BLUEBERRIES

This article was about a teacher who thought that he had full interest in his students and thought that he was that teacher who really cared for his students. He ends up realizing that they are all different and he really never noticed that before.

I am saying now that I will be that teacher!!
I grew up in a school where it was so big and the teachers never really got to know their students…almost like the U of L or other universities and we are one of the smaller ones. I hated it. I never felt like I needed to care cause my teacher didn’t. So why should I try if he doesn’t even want to teach me as a person.
Ever since then, I have started caring more, getting better grades and I am sure that it has to do with the classes where the teacher actually cares. I feel as though all students are different in their own way. As a teacher you don’t have to go to the extent of changing all you lessons so that there are 38 different lessons per class, but you can alter each day to relate to different students. I think that this would be the way to go and take time to really get to know them or be able to talk to them about something different than the lessons that they are learning. This would be a great thing because then they know that you re recall care about them and there is nothing better for the student to know then that.

ADO

I remember times like that, where we were introduced to a new Shakespeare play. I also remember every single sight that not only I let out, but that every student around me had to give…quite loudly as I remember.

Really though I also remember a time that we learned from everything around us and things were not always sugar coated or put gently so that no one was offended. If we always went around worrying about others being offended with everything that we did or said then we would never be a loud to actually be an individual. Wouldn’t it be a shame if we were not able to actually be ourselves? Does anyone remember the show Pleasant Ville? Well I remember that everyone was exactly the same and the amount of censorship was so much that there was al loss of colour. Who wants that?

So then here I sit and I have to think about what I would like to be like, as a teacher. I know that I will not censor everything; there will probably be times when I have to and don’t want to. Then there will be others when I should; but if I want the students to learn, I may just go against the judgment and not. Both ways I think that some need to and others not. I believe that as teachers we have to use our judgment and give the students a chance to learn. If that involves learning something that has a guy’s head on a spike and a very detailed version of what he is seeing in his death then that is the way it has to be.

Certain things (like Shakespeare) have made it many centuries without censorship, why should we start now. If we take away the imagination of great writers how can we expect our students to become one, I guess you could say something like this…

“Yes Johnny that’s right, you can write a play about anything you like and your
imagination is your limit, but you can’t do this or this and maybe you shouldn’t
mention this and this too. Oh, and take that out someone will get offended there
too. Other than that you have a good Idea on your hands.”

I think that will go over great!?

RE: Wash Your Glasses First

This was an excellent article. It covered what many students think about school. Not only what we think about when we are in school (Jr. & High) but also what we all think about after we graduate and are trying to decide what we are going to do with our lives.

Why do we learn about things that don’t matter to us in the future…atmospheric pressure?

Now I sit back and think first of about how we all know to wash the glasses before the greasy pans. We have been taught it by an angry parent or have learned the hard way. I really have know idea why there is not a class like this in school where we have the chance to learn about the things that really matter in life. Why is it that we have to have certain courses to gradate? When I graduated we had to have Bio. 30, Phys. 30 or Chem. 30 amongst other core courses. I understand the English, Social and some of the Math, but really Sciences!! I barely made it through them and now ask me if I remember all the parts to a cell. Nope.

I do understand that this is to teach students something that they may be able to use when they graduate and decide what they area going to do, but I think that we could change a bit of the Pythagorean theorem so that we dong have to spend a whole unit trying to figure out the Sin/Cos/Tan of things and get on to the car/house insurance bit. Not to mention it would have been helpful to learn a bit more about the credit card debt or how to start up mutuals in order to be able to retire.

It is understandable that you have to teach the curriculum, but I think that as teachers we have the ability to bend it a bit so that the students find it a bit more relatable to their daily lives. That should be our goals as teachers anyway.

RE: Race to the Bottom

So I am not actually sure what I understand about this article. As I read it I was thinking that I was not getting the point of the article.

From what I got was that the school system in Ontario has cut out any information about racism. Why? I don’t get the point, especially when it comes to history. I don’t agree with that at all because some students think that racism has come far enough that they really don’t have to think about it, but it has not completely dissipated.

I think that we definitely need to continue to teach the students what has happened in our history and why we work so hard today to make sure that everyone (not just women) have equal rights. In smaller cities there is not as much of a problem with races, but in larger urban centers there is a larger variety of ethnic backgrounds. This specifically is why we should still make the student understand what racial societies can become.

So taking information of racism out of the curriculum will not teach the children about the harmful effects, but it will inform them that it is something of the past and they don’t have to worry about it anymore.

RE: Girls and Schooling

First off I have to admit, that I did skip a few paragraphs here and there. I can’t help it, when something starts to annoy me I have problems sticking to it. Anyway, this will be short and sweet today. Right to the point.

So I read most of the article and I can’t help but think that yes some women have a point in what they are saying about women’s rights. Really though, even if we don’t get paid the exact same amount in all jobs, it has come much more equal than 40 years ago. We should be thankful that we are able to do what we do every day.

I tried to think back to any male teachers that I might have had that rubbed me the wrong way. I thought about the way that they treated me or the way that they acted around me. Two, yes that’s all that I could think of through at least 14 years of school. One teacher just made me a bit uncomfortable when we were around him. Did we think of doing anything about it. No, we just went on with our lives. He still teaches today, I, or one of my friends could have easily got him fired. Obviously it would have been unnecessary since he has not had a complaint about him yet.

The other one just always picked on the guys to help him with anything, always based everything on sports and all the stuff that would really upset some of the girls quoted in this article. I got through the class, not really enjoying it and now am happy.

Times are still changing. Its not something that can happen over 1 year or less. Its will take many more years to come. By the point that we actually find ourselves equal the men will have something to fight against and then all the women will have to change. It’s a life cycle.

re: BOOB TUBE

Well this article only reminds me of the fact that my parents limited my television time to only one hour a night, this was on weeknights. I think that it is not just about the television changing the child’s behaviour. There is so much going on in the world today that the next generation is confronted with that we were not. Yes some of us had to deal with divorce and other problems, but I think that there is much more to deal with now then we had to worry about when we were children. And the boob tube isn’t completely to blame.

Yes times change, as well as what weapons are used. What drugs are out their. When I was a student in Jr. High I know that I didn’t think about drugs, and when I heard about them I don’t remember understanding what anything really was. The difference is that I would hear about the ‘natural marijuana’ where as now the students can actually make whatever chemical that is the new high. That chemical is usually starting at the jr. high age, if not lower. Like I have said before and will say time and time again….It all starts with the parents and what they instill in their children.

Last but not least. What was that cut on Sesame Street? I think that the only reason why kids are finding problem with shoes like this (ex: Bert and Ernie being homosexual) is because parents or other ‘smart’ people are looking way to much into it and teaching their kids how to find something that his not necessarily there at all. We all know that if you look hard enough you can find whatever your little heart desires. Either way I attribute shows like this and many of the other ones that had ‘bad implications’ to who I am and strive to be today. They definitely helped me with my ABC’s and 123’s!!

WHY KIDS NEED VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT
I understand where this guy is coming from and he made some very strong points that I agree with.

One thing was the comment on the "over gendered under socialized, half-naked, half-witted, and raging against a frightened world” Isn’t that most of our students today. In different ways most of the student I know, or knew in school often felt that they were at least one of these. I know that there were always gender rolls that were unknowingly forced on students, and socializing was not always a choice but something that you either had or didn’t. I was always thinking that I looked funny and didn’t quite fit in and definitely never smart enough…even if I was. These comments were and are a safe way of letting out inner emotions that may or may not be accepted.

I also noticed that he was talking about Tarzan and how there was violence but that it helped his son to want to climb a tree like his friends. When I think about many of the nursery rhymes or other Disney movies there was so much violence. The important thing is that most people don’t focus on any of the violence but the happiness that over powers it.

It’s funny that Gerald says people may be just trying to pull themselves out of an emotional trap, isn’t that why we all see movies or read books. To try to ignore whatever is happening during your life at that specific point and time. Not to mention maybe the students are just reading comics for fun. I asked my husband and my brother about why they read comics. They thought that they were cool, they told a story and they were just fun to read.

I think one of the main things to do with kids is not to make such a bid deal about how wrong things like this may be. It’s like when kids swear for the first time. If you make a big deal about it then they will definitely say it again, just to get a reaction. But if you ignore what they just said, they will most likely forget all about it.