RaineBeausoleil

"Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease. But I would have delayed-for how long postponed?-having to learn the language of public society." What I got most from this reading is the way language affects identity. I only speak English so I haven’t thought about language this way. I think this reading really opened my eyes on what ESL learners are going through. Also, I think it’s interesting to call English the language of public society. Mostly everything is in English in public in the USA, the reason why I find it interesting is because there is no official federal language in America. Yet it’s treated like the only language people should speak in America, especially in public. A lot of Americans also don’t learn a second language. “But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then. Gone was the ...

I think an important part of this conversation is to talk about the power education holds. “When rich children get empowering education nothing changes. But when working-class children get empowering education you get literacy with an attitude. It's exactly the kind of literacy that the folks feared who outlawed Bible reading for common people three hundred years ago. There is an important difference, how-ever. Three hundred years ago people could only imagine one social setup, the ruling class and the rabble. The fear was that literacy would make the rabble aware of the injustice they suffered, and they would attempt to overthrow the ruling class violently and take its place-same roles, same rules, only a switch in actors in the roles.” (Finn) From the preface, we talk about how education used to hold people back. It was used to keep people unaware, thinking they would overrule the top class if they were to become aware. Now seeing where we are, we can see that it hasn’t happe...

This week we looked at Kohn and his assessments on what to look for in a classroom. It seems like most of these standards put more of an emphasis on community rather than achievements. One of the standards I especially like is the one of artwork being hung up even if it wasn’t done perfectly. This point specifically encourages creativity in children. Even though it's not the exact same as the others. I also think encouraging discussions of children helps break away from the mold of question from the teacher than answer. I also think the set up of students facing each other is very important for social development in children. I think another important part of the school structure is making it a place that people, especially children would like to spend time in. If a school is cold and uninviting it makes it very hard to want to be there. I think this is where we lose a lot of secondary students' interests. Moving from elementary school to middle school I feel it often loses ...

Reading this reminded me of my elementary school experience. Due to autism I was having a hard time learning social skills, when to sit still and often couldn’t. I would even get in trouble because my hand writing was bad, because my motor skills weren’t where they should’ve been. My teachers often seemed to assume this was purposeful. While reading this writing on troublemakers it reminded me a lot of these experiences. I somewhat understand how that was seen as misbehavior, however I think about the expectations placed on kids who are learning new expectations for the first time. While some kids had the experience of learning outside school I didn’t get that, so school was new to me when I went. Then all these expectations are thrown on. Along with a teacher shortage I see how these kids get failed so often. Oftentimes teachers have to deal with more kids than most people would all at one time. This makes it very easy for the kid who is struggling with an adjustment slip through. I a...

While watching Precious Knowledge I found myself getting angry for the kids and teachers in this situation. To see and hear the ignorance they faced from people who wouldn’t even go into their classrooms but decided they could talk about what was happening and that they knew better. Especially as we have the facts, we know these programs help students. While watching this I think it highlights our need to stay learning even as educators. We should always look for how to improve our student's chances in the world, and how to push back against this hatred they’ll most likey face. “They never mentioned Whites (other than Southerners) as perpetrators or beneficiaries of racism and 80 percent believed that Blacks had achieved equal rights today.” Lewis (2001) found several White parents she interviewed to believe that talking about race would be divisive, even in the context of Black History Month, and to dismiss ethnic diversity with statements such as “We should all be Americans.”’ ...

While I was doing the reading and videos on the four I’s of oppression it brought some ideas I didn't know much about to my attention. I've done a lot of learning about oppression and how it works before but these I’s help break it down into easier categories. Starting with Ideological oppression, as the video starts Ideological oppression is rooted in the idea of how someone should be based on their identity, along with the privileged identity being better than them. Currently, I think we’ve been hearing this kind of oppression of immigrants in the media. Lately, I’ve been hearing about immigrants being violent, lazy, and job-stealers as if that’s an inherent quality that comes with being an immigrant especially if they’re from a Spanish-speaking/non-white country. Which I believe also ties in with intersectionality since they wouldn’t be facing this specific kind of oppression if not for both race and immigration status. Internalized oppression is when someone feels less th...

One of the points I want to talk about is white people only listening to other white people on terms of race. I feel like when we talk about it a lot of white people don't listen to people of color, who have the most experience with these issues. Or they only talk to the people who agree with them. Personally I think it's important to talk to people of color who have those opposing viewpoints. Especially when it comes to teaching their children. It can also help us be aware of the power we hold over students. Not only as a teacher but as a white person in society. We know whiteness is vauled in our society, this applies to the classroom too. Tying in with S.W.A.A.M.P and Johnson. We need to acknowledge the difference in order to be fair to our students. If we want students to succeed we should be talking about the challenges they face. Including ones of having less social power than others, and helping them build the tools they need to succeed. As well as helping change this po...