Haiku

When reading this assignment, I remembered and took out the book filled with Haiku's I have written in 1995 when I was 14. There was so many Haiku poems about so many things, in fact, there were even some poems about school too :)

One last year of school,
between my future and I
of teaching others.

This is an incentive poem that made me think that only one year stands in the way of me and the future of the children that I will one day be able to teach and make them prosper into better children for this world. Putting this into perspective makes me realize that everyday is one day closer to my dream and what I want to ultimately do in the process of helping children learn. It is a long and hard road but it's finally coming to an end and if I keep my focus and dedication a little bit longer it will be a huge payout for me in the end and be rewarding as well. Now by reading this during class will make me understand what I need to do in getting through each class day and make me one day closer to my goal.

Racism made from the word "race"

I want to comment on class last week about the topic when the teacher wrote on the board the different names for all the races that we are so familiar with seeing on applications and so on and so forth. I left class last week and I was still thinking about the one comment a student made that was the question of why are we so caught up and concerned with labeling people in races if we are all supposed to be the same? Well this was a hard question for me because I do not think that it will ever change. My opinion is that by nature, human beings are racist, not by definition, but by the fact that they know something is different than themselves and it must be not right or tainted. It's funny but I just remembered a comment made some years ago regarding this issue that it was stated that if children had a choice, they would all play together happily; all different races and no problems. I think this is a false statement because I feel once these children grow up a bit they will come to their own conclusions that something is different and that's were racism will start. It sounds so depressing and impure to view this way, however, I think that humans are not perfect in the sense where we can totally abolish racism in the world and it is a sad thing to think about but it surrounds us everyday when we are still faced in filling out boxes that determine "what we are."

Schools For Our Citizens

After reading Schools for Citizens, it left me with some thoughts that I had highlighted regarding some of the ideas and messages in the writings. It was a long read but it still had many good points to make.
First off, it was very true and I agree with the statement the Jefferson, Clinton and Mann said when they were trying to say that an uneducated individual was an untrustworthy individual of rights and liberties but a properly educated one would be able to recognize and distinguish ideas needed be to stabilize society and preserve freedom. Without being educated denies a person the broadened knowledge that they deserve being a human being. Their goal was projected into the far 20th century as it is today.
A few other pointers I that caught my eye was that Mann wanted all moral teaching to be based on the Bible. This was interesting knowing that are country founded on being Protestant.
I thought it was interesting that even then, they wanted citizens to study heroes and patriots. It was looked at as that these individuals talents and virtues would be able to be the cause of patriotism for the country. I like that idea, in theory. I remember in Study of History class that we were taught "jacked up" history which was history made to be taught in a way that highlighted the good parts of a particular event or person not the entire truth of history. I guess who eventually tells the story has their particular spin on things. This made sense considering stories are usually told with their best face forward.
One of the important stances in this article that compelled me was the fact that it was stated that English was essential to be learned. I agree with this the most because I feel that the United States should declare its language as English. This is my opinion because, not only be reading this statement, but because when immigrants came to this country more than one hundred years ago, they were required to learn English to be able to live and prosper. Now it seems that one does not ever need to learn English but still manages to get by in this country by living around people of their own language. Some people may have a different opinion on this, however, I feel that I stand strong on this topic.
I think these educational and motivative leaders before us were very right in their ideas of what a good citizen is considering many possibilities and ideas. I feel we need more people in our current day that have the future of this countries interests best in mind as these great people did so long ago.

Primer vs. Hodgkinson

After reading two of the handouts that were assigned for class, it was interesting to compare as well as to interpret and describe what I got out of the readings for myself.
I noticed that when I read through the forty page Primer, it happened to be a lot of statistics and information that was purely just being relayed to the public about the type of classroom expectant-wise dealing with races and children numbering for post, present and future classroom. I liked the fact about reading the Hodgkinson article that it was more of a just cause reading and when I say that I mean that it was an introduction of what an individual themselves can make of it their own way. It gave terms that are very important to understand on the meaning so that people, teachers as well as parents can understand to better prepare and see the future of classrooms for students.
Although I felt a lot of it was or should be common sense in understanding, it was refreshing to get a better idea of what words mean. For instance, the part that read about inner rings and the people that live in them and the circle that happens repeatedly, was interesting and does hit home where I can place in the experience with in Clifton. Because Clifton is surrounded by two urban towns, Passaic and Paterson, this has caused the people of these towns into moving to the suburban town of Clifton, which over time, has become urban itself. I have seen it recently within last years fight over the issue of building a school on a park in the town and the comments surrounding the people saying that the town is going down and the people will be moving out because of the overcrowding of different racial families that are forcing us to build more schools. Just to add one more connecting piece is the fact that ten years ago to the present year today, the school systems ethnicity of children has grown immensely and is widely noticed and bothered by the people of Clifton who have lived for years.
It is good to understand all this information because it makes each of us more aware both educational-wise and also informative-wise. By doing so and educating each new person who comes into the teaching world needs to be aware that things are constantly changing and need to be aware of the topics and issues at hand so that they will be able to promote it better when in the classroom.

Martian Play

What are schools like and how did they get that way?School s is divided into districts and each district has their own standards and rule for how the school is run. Students must attend school a certain number and years and days per year. They are required to fill certain criteria of what they need to study and the number of years they are required to study each subject this criteria is set federal government and state districts. There are different types of schools including public, private and charter schools. The majority or 88% of the students attend public schools which are free of charge to attend as opposed to the 12% of students who attend private which require tuition to attend. The majority of the funding for the public schools is provided by the district and state taxing. The schools offer a variety of supplemental services such as lunch programs, health programs, humanities and social science requirements. These services provided are to help children function in the community and society.

Who are the students?The students are made up of all demographics throughout the country from the highest to the lowest income ratios. The students are made up of all different races and backgrounds. They consist of not only American children whose first language is English but also 19% are immigrants and 10% are English language learners.

Who are the teachers?The majority are experienced and have advanced degrees in there subject areas. This is to ensure a great understanding in their specific area so the student has the greatest possible understanding of the information provided. This is not the case in all demographic areas in high poverty areas teachers are not always highly qualified in their subject area. Most teachers seem to be young white females. Reasons for this might be that the mind set of American citizens is to make more money, considering the low pay of most teachers may be the reason for this statistic. The high rate of teachers changing and leaving the profession is a question of how the education system is run.

September 18, 2007

I want to comment on yesterdays assignment that we as the class had to do. I think it was a good exercise, however, it was a little rushed and with so many ideas from the other group members it was hard to write all of them down without a longer amount of time. I did understand what we had to do for the assignment but at the same time it came across a little vague to me as well. I did like very much to comment and read the other blog of the person who was a second year teacher. I found it very invigorating knowing that a teacher does feel the same way as I do about students outside of school and even that the teacher felt the need to express it. Even if teachers may feel like that as well they do not seem to express it or come across that way that they even care, in my opinion. I enjoyed reading that and look forward to reading some other blogs as well.

First Day Of Class

Interesting. A good word to describe what may be happening to me during the rest of this semester of this class. The teacher is pretty cool. Lives in Clifton, or so I remember. May be running into her a bit over the next few months. My first impressions of this class was that it was going to be exciting. Finally a class that actually teaches and prepares you for teaching. I have all these classes but none seem to really put you in front of a class and know what to do. Going to Newark is going to be interesting since it will be live subjects and give the environment of a true teachers day.