Unlearning the Myths

Being the Mom of two daughters’ I have had these conversations both in and outside of my head. What to “let” them watch, how to help them have positive body images, etc… I thank having a fairly feminist sister-in-law who had a daughter before me for her example. My niece’s favorite Disney movie, of all time, was and still is Ariel. How??? From a “feminist”?? What my sister-in-law did, and I do, is use the movie to teach about how girls don’t really look that way, it is a cartoon. We can use what is there to also show what is not, if that is what we are looking for. I was a little shocked to think that some parents might just plop their child down in front of a movie (or cartoon) without previewing it first to see if it is deemed “acceptable” to that families values. I also think that our entertainment industry is trying to change along with the times and that they are slow to adopt new values within our society but can be used to see, collectively, where we have come from. I have taught my children to be skeptical of anything that is on TV. And actually other media also. A joke in our house is “the TV said it, it must be true!”. Even our news is sensationalized and biased. We have done over a year without TV also and they still know things that we never taught them (I blame the kids on the bus). Anyway I guess that my overall point is that we can teach them to view the world tentatively and try and consider the source, politics and such surrounding an item and that this is a healthier way of refusing to just swallow what they media is trying to sell us, and that these are transferrable life skills, as opposed to getting all PO’ed at Popeye who was probably quite progressive during his time, just not so much now! “Look how far we’ve come baby!” We will not be there to shelter them forever let’s help them develop the skills necessary to scrutinize the beliefs that they internalize.

Evans, Hill, and all

Wk 12

I think that Hill has hit the nail on the head so to speak. If we are to be granted the privilege to teach the children of a neighborhood then we must involve the members of the neighborhood. I have been reading “Waiting for “Superman”” and this issue is also addressed there. We must be trusted, reliable member of the community of our children’s lives in order to be able to teach the children. I intend to have a classroom mission and vision. I think that it grants accountability when these are placed in writing. I intend to involve any who want to be involved.

Hill demonstrates how lucky we are to live in an age where we have sooo much access to so many different technologies. Everything from paper and pencil to films complete with sound track. How could we not find something for every child to excel at? I appreciate the idea of each student producing one major project in which we can embed many, many lessons as opposed to producing many, many little lessons that are not necessarily real world connected. This just seems to me to be less of a contrived environment and a more sound learning environment. Evans also refers to this idea of extending of a lesson by recreating a text in a different mode.

“The Silent Stage” stresses the importance of us as teachers being willing to involve our students in the process of their learning. “I needed the system to meet me half way, to collaborate, to include my thoughts and feelings” (p.16). If we are to be granted the privilege of being allowed to influence a student we must first respect their right to learn about what they are interested in, what stimulates them.  

MGRP

I love the MGRP formats. I love to be creative and I really enjoy the freedom that comes with being able to "think outside of the box". I actually found that I had more ideas for genres than I had time to create projects! I love it. I think that I could come up with an example of just about every genre in our MRGP book with the info that we gathered. I like that some genres allow us to be lees formal and more wordy than the traditional research format while others require us to be more concise and detailed with our words. I hope all had as much fun as I did.

MGRP 5&7 and Amir

I cannot wait to create a class character!!! I am picturing a cardboard cut out sitting in the corner! Well or hanging on the wall, or climbing the pole, something. I loooovvee it!!! The children get to create it and all can use it and no one has to worry about offending anyone in their real lives so they can use the full spectrum of descriptive words without inhibition. Wow. Allen says “Our students become the resident experts on their topics”(p.63). Wow, how cool??

For me the essence of Chapter seven is “ When we allow students to write in multiple genres and incorporate the finr and performing arts, we help them express their ideas in ways that tap alternative thinking processes. They now have a broad repertoire of entry points into their topic”(p.86). Facts are facts and this is the research part. But… if we open up the door to different presentations of those facts then we can work in more of a strengths based environment and that is always more rewarding! And usually more creative too.  

Amir

I find it interesting that he seems to believe that there is an “American” way of being neighbors where there is an underlying rule about not getting to know your neighbors but yet he, who is from India also does not know his neighbors. He is very satisfied that the garden has helped to build a sense of community in his neighborhood. All participants are more willing to see each other more in the light of a new role (fellow gardener) and this allows for more acceptance and less preconceived ideas about what people are based in their past experiences and/or believed knowledge about the person.