Media- Photoshop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP31r70_QNM



We want to be like these girls in magazines, but in reality, it's all fake, due to photoshop. It is not even the real person in the magazines. It's all fake and make believe. We can't be looking at the media, and have them to try to influence us. I always wish that I was pretty enough to be photogenic, or to have a nice picture of myself. It didn't help me by comparing myself to other magazine artists. What they are in magazines, are not what they are in person. People just have to be happy for who they are as a person, and just have confidence. In reality, we are the natural ones, and the prettier ones. We have no need to become photoshopped.

Nas- I know I can

Nas- I know I can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nA3PhHXGCUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nA3PhHXGCU



I feel like this song, influences children to not give up on their education, and to not give up on their dreams on what they want to be!

Talking Points #10-Education is Politics- Shor

1) "School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in community colleges. Moreover, testing policies are political choices, whether to use student-centered, multi-cultural, and portfolio assessments, or to use teacher-centered tests or standardized exams in which women and minorities have traditionally scored lower than men and whites." 


      I do not think it is fair that people would rather give more money on the upper class instead of the lower class. The lower class needs more money than the upper class. How do people want lower class schools to learn the same as upper class schools, if lower class schools do not have the material they need to teach. We should be more considerate to the the lower class because they need more help financially than the upper class. That is just not fair.


2) "People begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience."


    I agree 100% with this quote. Children need to experience and see what is out there for them. They need to learn for themselves without anyone telling them. The more experience they have with the world they have around them, the easier they will get things and the knowledge. Children are not dumb, the are very intelligent and they learn really fast. The key word is being involved and participating. When someone participates, it actually means that they get what what they are doing. 


3)  "If the students task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted."


               When a student learns a material, it is not all about memorizing. It is about understanding and practicing the material. A student is not going to learn something when they memorize . When students practice lessons, they are also getting a hands on environments. Meaning, it is not all about learning from a book. It is learning from a book and putting into reality. 

Final Days at West Broadway

   Tutoring at West Broadway for the past three months has been such an experience. It made me realize that it is not going to be easy on becoming a teacher. It is all about having patience, and believing that you can make it and do it. I enjoyed working with my six students. I liked getting to know them, and I enjoyed watching them improve throughout these three months. We are at different times and at different generations. My elementary school years were completely different from what they are today. This also has to do with where you live, your community and environment. I never realized that there is a big population   of hispanics. It is amazing to see how generations are changing, and they are going to continue to change, up to and including we become teachers.
    I personally would not be able to do elementary education. As much as I love children, I would not be able to control them. At least with high school students, they know how to behave and know when to stop. With elementary, I have to teach them all those steps. It was although a good experience, because there was a point on where I wanted to do elementary education, but was not positive. I enjoyed working with the little kids, because they always  put a smile on my face. It was an excellent experience, and I hope that I will get a chance to do the same thing, but with high school students.

Nas- I know I can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nA3PhHXGCUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nA3PhHXGCU



I feel like this song, influences children to not give up on their education, and to not give up on their dreams on what they want to be!

Media- Photoshop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP31r70_QNM



We want to be like these girls in magazines, but in reality, it's all fake, due to photoshop. It is not even the real person in the magazines. It's all fake and make believe. We can't be looking at the media, and have them to try to influence us. I always wish that I was pretty enough to be photogenic, or to have a nice picture of myself. It didn't help me by comparing myself to other magazine artists. What they are in magazines, are not what they are in person. People just have to be happy for who they are as a person, and just have confidence. In reality, we are the natural ones, and the prettier ones. We have no need to become photoshopped.

Talking Points #9 Citizenship in school- Christopher Kliewer

1)"Education is considered a dual process of group and individual transformation through which children 1) establish together a unique  community in thoughtfully planned activities, projects, experiences problems 2) support one another's membership in that community."

  This quotes makes me think of the movie that we are watching in class which is Freedom Writers. The children all become close to one another, and start getting involved in the community. They planned activities and got the lady who hid Anne Frank to go their school. Everyone in that class had problems, whether it had to do in being in gangs and fighting. The teacher made them get that idea out of the students head, and introduced them to the Holocaust, to see what other people went through. The guest speakers really touched the students, and changed them into more respectable people.

2) Community requires a willingness to see people as they are different perhaps in their minds and in their bodies, but not different in their splits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosaic of society."

Everybody is different, and that's why the community wants to see them for who they are and not for anything else. They want people to accept them in the community for what that individual person is. They do not want to be judged, they just want to fit in. It's good for people to be different, and for people having their own type of personality. 

Talking Points #8: Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

"Scholars in political economy and the sociology of knowledge have recently argued that public schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes"
 I agree and disagree with this quote. I believe that no matter which class a student is in, they still learn the same education as from the upper class. The schooling is probably different because the higher class may have different materials and better textbooks than the lower class. The only difference is that higher class schools have more textbooks and more materials to learn, then from a lower or middle class school.


"The foregoing analysis of differences in schoolwork in contrasting social class contexts suggests the following conclusion: the "hidden curriculum" of schoolwork is tacit preparation for relating to the process of production in a particular way. Differing curricular, pedagogical, and pupil evaluation practices emphasize different cognitive and behavioral skills in each social setting and thus contribute to the development in the children of certain potential relationships to physical and symbolic capital,¹¹ to authority, and to the process of work. School experience, in the sample of schools discussed here, differed qualitatively by social class."
 Every school has their own way of teaching a lesson. Every school is different in the way they teach, and every school has a different curriculum. The students still learn the same curriculum, in a different way or lesson plan. The way a person is brought up really makes up the way a child learns. It does not really depend on the type of class you are in. It honestly depends on the student itself.

Teaching Boys and Girls Separately by Weil- Talking Points #7

"One reason for this, Giedd says, is that when it comes to education, gender is a pretty crude tool for sorting minds."
 When I read this quote, it made me laugh. Male and females think differently from one another. They both have different opinions on different aspects. I feel as though we should not separate male and females due to the gender of them. When we both have males and females together, there is a different environment as if there was just males and males; females and females. When there are males and females together, it is a good way to understand concepts on where male and females come from. It is also a good way to ask why they have both have a different way of thinking. 


"The data do not suggest that they’re clearly better for all kids. Nor do they suggest that they’re worse. The most concrete findings from the research on single-sex schools come from studies of Catholic schools, which have a long history of single-sex education, and suggest that while single-sex schools may not have much of an impact on the educational achievement of white, middle-class boys, they do measurably benefit poor and minority students."
One of the things that I noticed even before I read this reading is that the majority of single sex schools are catholic schools. I still do not understand until this day of this concept. Is it because of the reason due to to abstinence. Having two single sex schools has nothing to do with this concept, because either way males will stay date females and females will still date males. From the last time I recalled, I do not remember anything from the bible that said about having single sex schools. I personally do not think it's right. Why do parents have to waste thousands of dollars for their children to go to a single sex catholic school, where chances are they are still going to find a person to date throughout their high school years. If parents think that's the best way to go, then they are wrong. Students get the same education when they are in a male and female school.


“Coed’s not working. Time to try something else.”
I personally disagree with this comment. I have to admit that I sometimes get bored at school when I work with all girls. It's interesting to hear at times what's on the males minds, since they think differently than us. It's good to hear on what they have to say, since they think completely different than us. I personally feel that coeds does not work because the females and males do not make an effort to listen to each other's ideas. I feel that it has to do on teamwork and working as a team. Once they figure how to do that, it will be fine cooperating. 

A Particularly Cheap White Wine- Wise: Talking Point #6

"According to a national study by the General Accounting Office, less than four percent of scholarship money in the U. S. is represented by awards that consider race as a factor at all, while only 0.25 percent (that's one quarter of one percent for the math challenged) of all undergrad scholarship dollars come from awards that are restricted to persons of color alone (1). "
    When I first saw this quote, I was in complete shock to look at the percentage. It makes me sad that we still have this racial thing going on thinking that the whites are better than anyone else. White people automatically get scholarships before black people do. I feel like our world still lives in this old fashion mentality, to the point where people need to face equality. It bothers me to the point where it comes to scholarships. Scholarships is about the grades and education of the person, it should not be based on the color of that person.


"Additionally, to suggest that race-based scholarships are some unique and illegitimate break with an otherwise meritocratic system is preposterous. Fact is, there are plenty of scholarships that 
have nothing to do with merit per se, but about which conservatives say nothing: scholarships for people who are left-handed, or kids whose parents sell Tupperware, or the children of horse-
breeders, or descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, among many thousands of such awards (3). "
   I personally knew that there were these types of scholarships before, but I just think that it's interesting how they come up with these types of scholarships. Honestly, what is the point on having a scholarship for being left handed? Whatever happened on receiving scholarships for academics and studies? I just think that it's interesting how we live in a world that to me is giving out free money to pay for a tuition to go to school. The purpose of a scholarship is to earn money for what you deserve because of school. I mean if I could, I could apply for a left handed scholarship since I'm left handed.

"In effect, these are not scholarships based on race, but rather, scholarships based on a recognition of racism and how racism has shaped the opportunity structure in the U. S. Because race has
been the basis for oppression, and continues to play such a large role in one's life chances, it is perfectly legitimate to then offer scholarships on the basis of that category which has triggered the
oppression. If people of color have been denied opportunity because of their race, then why is it so hard to understand the validity of remedying that denial, and its modern day effects, by also

making reference to their race? After all, that was the source of the injury, so why shouldn't it also be the source of the solution?"

    Honestly, I find this 100% discrimination. Scholarships are suppose to be based by how well you do in school, not by the color of your skin. I feel bad for the black people because they can't really do nothing about it. I feel like society will never  change. It's always something that has to relate to discrimination. I don't understand why America and our government can be equal, and just have equality to both sides. African people need more of the scholarships than us because of the poverty, and the cost of the education. 

In Service of What?- Kahne & Westheimer- Talking Points #5

   I found this article very interesting because it relates to the topic of service learning. Service Learning is a way to help out the community, and to also help children who need help. There were a couple of quotes that I found interesting from the article.

 "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students". I personally enjoy doing service learning. I get to work with children that face a little bit of difficulty in the area of rhyming and learning their syllables. I just love the look on their faces when I teach the first graders a technique on how to rhyme, and their faces just bright up. It makes me feel so good about myself because I am helping them face a challenge that they have a problem with. While me being a service learning tutor, I am helping the community by going to the elementary school and by helping them tutor, and spending some time with them for an hour and a half. 

 "Recognizing the potential of service learning, policy makers, legislators, and educators have promoted initiatives at the local, state, and national levels." I feel like there are more service learning projects now than there were five years ago. There is always some type of service learning project to do. There are more people and children that need more help now a days, and this a way of helping them. Service learning came a long way from how it was many years ago. When there are people tutoring children for to improve their knowledge, it is making a difference in the community. When more people tutor children, the more children are improving and learning fast.

  "Moreover, when asked what they gained from the experience, many students said simply that it taught them "that people can be different" from what you expect." Service Learning makes us think in a different way because of the location on where the elementary school is located. At first, when someone goes to an elementary school, the first thing that they notice is where the elementary school is located, and by that, people tend to judge the elementary school. I must admit that when I first saw the elementary school, I was in complete shock. Just by the location of the school, I thought the students were going to be mean. I was completely wrong by that theory. I absolutely love them, and I am glad that I got the chance to do the service learning project. Tutoring little children is one of the best experiences that I have had. Just seeing them improve weekly just makes me really happy. It is like I am helping them, and that is a good feeling. 

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us- Christensen: Talking Point #4

  I personally thought that this article was interesting. It shows us that the media and advertising has ways on manipulating us to believe what is in the media or in advertisement. This article covers characteristics of a person: white, pretty, ugly, black, etc. It does not just focus on one certain topic, but instead all of  these topics are combined. The teacher made the students critic cartoon characters, and to say their opinion about them.
  "A black Cinderella? Give Me a Break." She wrote: "Have you ever seen a black person, an Asian, a Hispanic in a cartoon?...."Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess." I feel that this is a racism comment because the student is trying to say that a black person can not be a main character in a fairy tale. I disagree with this comment, and the fact that the white girls will feel ugly. This also has to do with jealously. Being a main character is not just all about looks, but also how the person fits the character. I did not like how that student has that mentality of thinking like that. It is actually good that society is changing the race of roles such as Cinderella. Gives other nationalities a chance to take part of these roles. In this generation now, we are seeing all kind of ethnic backgrounds take part of big roles.
   This other student said that "Women's roles in fairy tales distort reality...These seemingly innocent stories teach us to look for our fault. As Tinker Bell inspects her tiny body in a mirror only to find that her minute hips are simply too huge, she shows us how to turn the mirror into an enemy." This comment that this girl is addressing is pointing out self- esteem. The girl is saying that Tinker Bell does not looking at herself in the mirror because she feels fat when she sees herself. In reality, this happens to young adults as well. It is not just because Tinker Bell did that, people started to do the same thing. Young adults do look at themselves and are not happy with themselves in the mirror. Sadly to say, it is very common for everyone.
    "I don't want students to believe that change can be bought at the mall, nor do I want them thinking that the pinnacle of a women's life is an "I do" that supposedly leads them to a "happily ever after." In this quote of what a student said, I somewhat agree with her. When I personally was a little girl and watched a fairy tale, all I thought about was the ending of it, and how the girl always ends up with the guy and live happily ever after. When I would finish watching those fairy tales, it would make me wonder if I would ever find a guy like that. Finding one guy, and everything would be perfect. In reality, it is not. I believe that fairy tales are too much of a dream come true. It's cute and all, but it is not realistic to some people. Some people do find their prince charming sooner than others, and that is normal. It is also about the way a person thinks as well. People need to make their own fairy tales, instead of following not made of characters and actual fairy tales.

Gayness, Multicultural Education and Community- Carlson Talking Points #3

"Within normalizing communities, some individuals are subject positions (white, middle class, male heterosexual, etc) get privileged are represented as "normal" white other individuals and subject positions (i.e. black, working class, female, homosexual, etc) are disempowered are represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways "abnormal".
 In my opinion, I just don't understand why nobody is treated equally. Everyone should all have the definition on being normal, and no one being abnormal. Everyone is different and unique in their own way, and people should just accept people for the way they are. We can't just judge people from how they act, which part of class they come from, etc. Fairness and normality for everyone.

"Being yourself celebrates individualism and the autonamy of individuals to construct their own lives according to their own values and achieve goals they set for themselves- a deep foundational value in American culture".
I feel that this explains a lot for an individual. Everyone makes up who you are as a person. Everyone individual has their own way of living, their own achievements in life, and what they believe is best for their own self. This is what makes up a persons individuality. Everyone has their own way of living, and it's all about the lifestyle that individual lives in.

"Popular culture may represent identity, but identity also is represented in corporeal form, as individuals actively" live" their identities and make these identities visible in their everyday relations."
The majority of people get their identities from they way they live with relations with people. They way the people live and make out their identity, makes up the type of person that person is. Everyday relations tie down to this because we are surrounded by people, and we are also influences by what is around us the majority of the time.

Talking Points #2 "Why Can't She Remember That?"

        I found this article quite interesting because it talked about teaching in multicultural classrooms. Now a days, there are more ethnic students in the classrooms, then white students. The first quote that I really enjoyed was the quote: "Despite their diverse backgrounds, all children bring back to school rich linguistic abilities acquired through social interaction in their homes and communities." I personally can relate to this quote and on what the author is trying to say. When I was in elementary school, Portuguese was my first language that I spoke at home. When I would go to school, I would have an accent, and my English would not be correct. It took some time for me to improve my English. I did not go in the ESL program, I had resource help me. I was in resource for one year, until my teacher told me I did not need it anymore. The type of dialect a student has with someone at home or school affects the way a student speaks in a classroom. Since that person is already used to speaking that dialect outside of the classroom, the student is still going to bring it to the classroom, since they are already used to that dialect.
       Another quote that I enjoyed reading in Why Can't She Remember That is the quote: "Children who don't have many early books reading experiences learn their cultural lessons through interactions with family and other community members, from oral stories, and from observations of other people's behavior." Again, I can relate to this quote because I was raised and brought up without having any children's books in my house. I only started to get a children's book at the age of nine. I  would go to school, and that was where I would learn my childhood knowledge. I would also follow other classmates behaviors, since I really did not know at the time if they were bad or not. My aunt and uncle that were Portuguese with American background would try and teach me how to read and to also comprehend the story. My dad would not teach me because he could/ he still really can't speak English that well. I would be the type of girl in which I would follow other girls footsteps, and try to copy what they did. With time, I finally got out of the stage, and started to buy my own books, and I would practice reading by myself, until I got the hang of it.
          "In addition to the teacher using dolls and puppets to help read books in lively and engaging ways, children can use them to dramatize the story in the book or to create new dialogues and stories of their own." Again, I can relate to this because I felt/ still feel that I learn better with a visual, then with no visual. With a visual, children can have more of an imagination when they are reading a story. It opens up their brain more, and they have more of an understanding on what is going on. With a visual, it helps children, especially children with English as a second language have a better comprehension. Children learn faster and better when they have a demonstration of something that guides them in a reading. It is always good that teachers try helping the students as best as they can. It makes the children realize that the teachers are tying to help them.
                I so far find this article the best out all the ones that I have read. Maybe because I can relate to the children and what it was like to grow up with English as my second language. I feel like I have a better understanding of a story when I can relate to it. Teachers try as much as they can to help the students with the problem they have when it comes to reading. Speaking and reading English is difficult, and I give prompts to the children who learn real quick.

Jonathan Kozol- Amazing Grace Talking Point 1 Monica Ferreira

  In this article, I have found three interesting quotes that I enjoyed. The first quote that I enjoyed was "If poor people behaved rationally-they would be seldom by poor for long in the first place." When I looked at this quote and read it, to me it feels like it has to do with equality, and being equal. In Amazing Grace, everyone could spot the poor people. In my opinion by what this quote means, is that since the community already knows the poor people, they are rarely known for that classification as a poor person. That quote caught my eye, even though it seems like a vague quote.
  Towards the end of the article, there was another quote that caught my attention. The quote is "I think they hate you because you are not in their condition. I am in hell and you are not and so I hate you and I have to try to bring you down to where I am." In the article, this quote was referring to when the narrator passed by St. Ann's avenue, the dealers would open their hands and would ask what they wanted. The dealer would give the narrator a hatred look. I think it means that the dealer is hated by the narrator because the narrator is not in the dealers shoes for being a prostitute dealer. Maybe he would want to be poor like the narrator, instead of being in the shoes he is in.
     The last sentence of the article was another quote that caught my attention and that was, "It's not just hatred, it's as if they're laughing at theirs, and yours." Everyone  has hatred for everyone. There is always something about a person in which a person does not like. In reality, that is true. A person is never happy about themselves, and are always hating something about them, and about others. No one can just respect people, it's always about hatred.

      I personally enjoyed reading this article. It moved us from the topic of racism from the other articles we read, to more of where poor children live in a society, and what they have to deal with. It was a pretty fair reading. I understood most of it, and if I didn't, I would go back and read it over. It related to the other texts we read by showing what it feels like to be treated. The other readings were based on race and culture, and how they got treated. This article is based on poor children and their education, and it discusses on how society treats them. It's sad living in a society like this because no one ever accepts for people on who they are. If you were living where the narrator lived in the story, how would you feel? What it impact your life, or would it be a living condition you would get used to?

The Basic About Me :)

    Hello everyone! My name is Monica, and I am currently a sophomore at Rhode Island College. I want to become a Spanish and Portuguese secondary education teacher. I am thinking about taking out the Spanish and just sticking to Portuguese. I am Portuguese, and I love being proud of it. I participate in the Portuguese folklore traditional dance "rancho", and dance for the "Dancas e Cantares do Clube Juventude Lusitana." I am looking forward to this FNED class. Sometimes I have lack of confidence, and I can be shy at times. I am sensitive at times, and I can be emotional. I love to smile, and chances are you will always see my smiling! I like hanging out with my friends and my boyfriend. I am dedicated to my job. I work at Emerald Bay Nursing Home in Cumberland as a waitress. It will be 3 years in February. I love learning new things, and I like a challenge. I feel like this semester is going to be a good one. If anyone else wants to learn anything, feel free to ask! :)