EXP201.Davi.Fall05

It's a small world

Today I was at seasons' and I say one of my friends then I decided to sit with her and her other friend.  OO by the way I was happy because today I had grapes and that made me very excited to eat them. OK so then I was sitting with my friend and I started talking to her. Then I was saying how much I miss my RICE and just could not wait to go home to have some.  So she asked me “where I was from”, I responded “Springfield”  Then the girl that was sitting with us she was from Westfield which is very close to Springfield but I did not know. I knew that when I say her with my friend she looked familiar but I did not know how she was. When I saw her I got the feeling that I had seen her before some where but did not know where. Then I started talking to her.  So whatever it results that she was the boys HS manager for the

Westfield

volleyball team. I played volleyball and we were undefeated ten straight until we played

Westfield

.  So when she told me that I was pissed I could only think of the way we lost to that team which was, so bad.  They sucked but they beat us.  So then I just kept saying how much it sucked because if we had not lost to then our record would have been 17-3 and he had a better change to win the division. That sucks. But now I know one more person at Bentley and she is HOT too, so that is a plus.

This just comes to prove how many people you know but at the same time you don't know them.  it sounds complicated but not really.

Peace,

Edison

Pain and Intelligence

     One line in chapter 5 that I found interesting is "Most of them have been terribly hurt about their intelligence"(Rose 127).  This surprises me because it helps you understand that a child's development is prevented because of a negative belief that was placed into their minds early on.  Every time the student does not accomplish something they blame it on their lack of intelligence.  Each time they have difficulty in learning something the same pain that they felt before continuously returns.  One mistake that is being made is categorizing students based on how well they do such as an A student and a failing student.  There should be ways in helping the failing student make it up to becoming an A student.  If the student is not positively influenced then he or she may keep looking at his or her self as lacking in intelligence and this will keep preventing them from further development.  An example of this is shown when Mark stopped talking when all of the kids teased him about the lisp that he had.  "Rosalie speculated that his silence probably confirmed the low assessment of his intelligence" (Rose 98).  You can see in this example that since Mark stopped talking his intelligence score was low.  Being laughed at in class caused him to feel great pain inside.  Every time there after, when he tries to speak he will feel the same pain that he felt before.  To avoid this pain he stops speaking all together.  This is at the point at which his development stops and the negative belief prevents his growth in intelligence.  Through this we realize that certain events in the past can impact the learning potential of a student.

Service Learning

What is up everybody!! It's me Javier with my weekly posting. Today's service learning session, I have to say, was the best one. I really enjoyed my time there today, it was great. the activity we did today was entitled The Flying Egg, and it entailed the students to work together effectively. Their task was to contruct a container that would prevent their egg from cracking from a five feet drop. The funny thing was that the eggs were hard boiled, but they did not know. The one thing I loved about my group today was that they were so energitic and worked well together. At times, they did get too wild, but not enough to stop them from completing their task. My group worked so effectively that they finished early. During the freetime we had, the kids started talking about the egg and began debating whether the egg was a male or female, and they even named the egg "eggy." It was just an overall good time. Their actions reminded me of the things I used to do as I child and the things I see my sister do who is about their same age. I can't wait until my next visit, I hope it will go as well as it did today. 

Harold's Shadowed Past

This passage in Chapter 5 really stuck with me since reading it.

"Harold had been on a shuttlecock odyssey: his inteligence was calibrateed, his eyes checked, the rythms of his brain monitored. The journey yielded snapshots, but they were cropped of his history; comaping with is father, his solitary walks to the lake. His past was being replaced by a sterile chronicle of assessments that couldn't get to the living center of the problem: the lost father, the mother receding slowly into the dim parlor, the growing weight of the assumption of his feeblemindedness. Harold was made stupid by his longing, and his folder full of test could have never revealed that." (Rose, 127)

If you were to look at my folder of tests, the question of why I ever was admitted to a prestigous business university might arise. From an academic standpoint, I am no star, perhaps I don't study enough, or study effectively. I try very hard, but still my grades slip beneath the cracks. I have a learning disability, and receive accomodations as a result. When I read this passage, I tried hard to relate to Harold. Here is what I came up with. We both have a deceased father, and a sketchy mother. Harold on the other hand, has been a victim of assumptions; second guessing his smarts based upon trivial evalutations and pyschological assessments. Might the evaluators recognize the damage a deceased parent may have caused, or maybe Harold was just having a bad day. Eventually, if someone tells you that you are stupid long enough, and your efforts yield poor results, then unless one has great personal drive and self determination, the assumptions and grades can leave a permanent mark. Contrarily, I have always been told that I am smart, that I have great potential, and great self-awareness. If this is so, then why do my grades suffer now while I am in college. My math grades are quite poor, and I can't help but feel inadequate. The worst part is, I take the nessesary steps to better myself, but still, the efforts translate to C's and D's and worse. Much of me dosen't want to return for a second semester. I am looking at alternative options for my educational future, because I can't see myself being successful in a college setting.

Harold, I feel for you

Cheers

Christopher James Fraser

Chapter 5

In chapter 5 of Lives on the Boundry, Mike Rose talks about Enligh textbooks concentrate on the gramatical analysis. Students memorize the gramatical parts of the english language, take the test,  but never really  learn how to apply it. I like how MIke Rose explors the meaningful part of Enlish. The part of English students use in their everyday life: creating narratives. No matter what your age, people love to tell stories about themselves, and hear stories about ohters. We are a fudamentally very socail society. I think the student who is able to play around with words and sounds will be able to write better narratives. I think we need more teachers like Mike Rose in our schools. Teachers who know how to teach outside the box. Teachers who dont only use the dry, mundane textbooks. I think students learn better when class is fun and its somehitng they look foward

Missed Service Learning

So i missed service learning today. I was napping and it totally just slipped my mind. Jessica called and asked me if i was going to make it today. I really wanted to go, but i didnt want to keep them waiting for me becsaue they would be late. I feel horrible that it slipped my mind. I feel like i let DAvi down and i let the kids down. I feel like im really slipping. I really need to buckle down and get my priorities straight. And the fact that i didnt even have a good reason to miss service learning. I was napping... thats the worst part. If i was sick or had something really important going on then it would be a diffret story. I think its the fact that service learning isnt part of my daily routine that i forget about it. I know that doenst justify anything... so i thought i would just make this post to appologize

Capitulo Cinco

In chapter five of Mike Rose’s Living on the Boundary he states many things that he wants to do with the students he was assigned to teach.

He is doing something like what we are doing for service learning 2+2=5.  He was to go to an elementary school and see how the teacher is working with the students.  As he is there he finds out the surroundings of the school which are not too good, the students go to school”Shops and small industries had built up around the schools, causing poor neighborhoods to slide even further.”  Basically on all four sides of the school there was trash and what people left over. 

            This reminds me of Chesterbrook not as much as the surroundings but the reputation the home and the students have because they go there.  The students at Chesterbrook are minorities and they are viewed as students that are out of control.  When in reality they just are regular kids that have so much energy and need to get rid of some of that energy.  Like in the school in Rose’s book there is always that student that in a way is smart but is shy thinking that the quality of work they produce is nothing but just work.  Some of these students do not give themselves credit for what they can do. 

             The state of mind of a person has to be that they want to learn and they want to change something the littlest thing makes a big difference to the students.  To the students in the book the only thing they needed was someone to push them and they produced work.  They were doubts that they would not do anything but they did do something shocking the teacher, everybody. 

            It is interesting how his first class he was so nervous but how he describes.  The class sounds like it was great, nothing wrong with his way of teaching. The writing from the students seemed interesting most of it dealt with cultural experiences. Things they had seen or heard about.  Things that happen were deep but when they are said by a child they sound twice as deep, because you know what they are learning and are feeling. 

            All these aspects did not come into affect when the students are under performing. The aspects that psychologically mess them up the development of the mind.  The school’s backyard, the people, issues, and the city itself was all screwed.  What is the expectation placed on students that are in these places?  They are considered the lowest, and people do not believe they can succeed in this growing society.  So who is going to help these people?  In the book it was Rose.  Hopefully, we in the service learning (2+2=5) are helping out these students.  That is one of my motivators and that is why I chose to write about this Chapter.

Peace,

Edison

Chapter 5

Chapter five as a whole gives a nice glimpse into education and how much influence teachers really have on their students. The chapter depicts the influences of from other sources and how they can easily overtake those of the teachers. In some cases, the outside influences seemed to put labels on children which were unreversible.

I found the influences very interesting, but what caught my eye most was Rose's description of how he began to understand the foundations of teaching. On page 102 he says "teaching, I was coming to understand, was a kind of romance." He goes on to say how teaching is not just giving facts but rather finding relationships and connections to terms.

I feel that many teachers do agree with the fact that teaching is more that just reiterating facts. Thinking back over my schooling it seems that there was less and less "creative" teaching as I got older. For example, basically all my classes in freshman year were just listening to a teacher, writing down the facts said and the regurgatating them back onto a piece of paper for a test. I think that even though we are college students if the majority teachers had the views of Mike Rose on teaching the college experience as a whole would be more enjoyable and I would take more out of it.

In GoD W3 PrAy....

Sometimes its nice to think that things happen for a reason. But what do you do when is you mother the one on the line?...The one you love and raised you how you accept her death...you don't...You hope that it will never get to that point....My mom wasn't feeling well this past weekend and it hurts me to see her this way..I wish I can do something for her...I went to pick her up from work yesterday and on our way back my mom couldn't Breath...She was bleeding from her mouth and her nose..N I was driving...Caught up on a red light..I didn't know what to do..I was going for the hospital and speeding the whole way through but she resisted...She was trying to scream telling me that she just wants to go home..But I wasn't sure that was the best thing to do she needed to go to the hospital ASAP...But she wouldn't listen...I was crying and couldn't stop..I was Scared..Never in my life would I have thought this could of happen to me...It's not fair..My mom is extra nice and a hardworking person..Why does she have to go through this?...When we got home she fell asleep for about an hour...meanwhile I prayed with my boyfriend and his family hoping that she would be okay..I also called all of my aunts notifying them of the incident..Hoping that they can  do something because she wasn't listening to me...They all came but she said she was feeling better and that she would be Fine that this always happens that it will go away shortly....I looked at her and I couldn't withstand my emotions I started bursting out in tears...Scared to leave her alone...Hoping that everything will be fine....My mom was operated from her head a couple of years back and she barely made through the operation ever since then my mom has been having sideaffects like headaches and bleeding from her nose..But just the fact that she bleed through her mouth its not okay...There soemthing wrong and I'm scared to lose her..I love her...and she doesn't deserve this..I just wish I can make things better..I hope it was me in her shoes..I'll take all the pain for her..I'll sacrifice myself if I could...because I can't take seeing her like this..and I hope that everything will be okay..and I will pray for her health everynight....because I love her......and I need her......

In chapter six of “Lives on the Boundary” Mike embarks on a new journey where he begins teaching adults, who were once members of the United States military.  This chapter discusses his encounters with different individuals while teaching, and how he dealt with each of them.  However, while reading the chapter, I was intrigued by the story of one of the students which Rose taught.  Willie Oates was a quiet student who sat in the back of Rose’s class.  He was muscular man who built up most of his muscles during his stint in prison.  Oates was a former soldier who ended up in jail, when he returned home to his old neighborhood after his time in the service, and stole a car.  However, massive muscles and a “tuff guy attitude” was not all that Oates gained form prison sentence. During his time in jail, Oates developed his reading and writing skills.  These skills are what attracted Rose to Oates.  Rose and Oates worked closely together during Oates’s time in the program, and Oates turned out to be one of Rose’s most successful students.  He went on to a community college and then on to a state university, where he earned his degree.

The story of Willie Oates is one that I am somewhat familiar with.  Throughout my educational career I have encountered many individuals who have similar characteristics to Willie Oates.  In fact some of the brightest individuals I know are ones who wouldn’t typically be described as “socially normal.”  Some have had difficult backgrounds and have made many mistakes in their lives.  I feel that our society shouldn’t cast away these individuals away.  Their experiences throughout their lives have only increased their knowledge of different kinds of people and how to deal with certain situations.  Their knowledge is valuable to people from all walks life and should be cherished instead of forcefully hidden.