Post 13

 Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed seemed similar to the chapter in Kuma which discussed the concept of  students being empty vessels to be filled by the teacher. The difference in Freire's pedagogy that I found, if I'm not mistaken, is that the students need to make a conscious effort to want to strive for knowledge. They should be mutual partners with the teacher to improve their knowledge. I find that the idea of oppressed people being able to have equal opportunities as those who are not oppressed is a great idea. I think the difficulty here is concerned with budget. It is ideal for all students to have equal opportunities when it comes to education. Maybe someday there will be a time when the amount of money a student's family has will not affect the degree of education they receive. This is something as future teachers we need to strive for. We must not take into account the area in which we teach. We should be the best teachers we can be no matter the environment.

Post 12

 As far as teachers being observed I would like to start by saying I feel that one time observers can never fully understand the way a teacher runs their classroom. Often times when teachers are aware they are being observed there is something unnatural about the way they go about their normal routine. For example. some teachers who normally are very organized may feel pressured to change the way the class is run to make it seem more exciting to the outsider. On the other hand, teachers who may not be such good teachers may also change their attitude just for that one class period in order to get the "okay" from the observer. I remember one class during high school in particular that may have seemed like chaos to a newcomer, but all the students were learning so much and putting it into practice. It was a controlled chaotic environment to those who knew it well enough. I do think teachers should be observed for feedback on their teaching but I feel the best way is to have another teacher who understands the material and knows the students do it. This way they can interpret more from student's reactions and interactions than a supervisor or researcher. Self evaluation should be an ongoing process and to help, I think teachers should hear feedback from their students. I believe the students hold the most valuable input to teachers. It is just figuring out how to get the information properly and use it to full potential. Considering product-oriented and process-oriented models of observation, I find the process-oriented to be most useful. This is because it is an interpretation of the goings on in a classroom, not only a description. This is helpful because the teacher knows what is going on in the classroom but may not interpret the reactions the same way. Taking into account the M & M model, I think it is helpful to have the pre and post meeting of teacher and observer. This way there can be discussion based on instances in the classroom like the example with the condo misinterpretation. That way, the teacher is made aware of mismatches and miscommunication that the teacher would not normally catch during the class period.

Final Project update

I have completed my observations and my reflections. I now need to print them and start labeling and making connections to the articles and texts.

Post 11

 I found chapter 11 to be thought provoking. I had never before thought of non-native varieties of English. The main part that stuck with me is that English does not have a home. It is an international language and therefore nobody can claim it as theirs. This means that different dialects are more than the first couple I think of; Boston, Southern, and West coast. Other countries have their own dialect of English and though it may sound improper to us, it is widely used and accepted in their society. Another part that caught my attention while reading was when it said that the people who standardize the language are the ones who control the social, political, and cultural power centers within a nation. This is true because the people attempting to standardize a language are the ones who feel that it is because the way they speak is superior based on their education of the knowledge. Truth be told, these people are trying to put a label on something that does not need one. There are a variety of Englishes spoken in and outside the United States. We need to take into account the influence of all these dialects rather than focus on standardizing the language. On a similar note, this chapter also gives two examples of countries which use their own English dialect. I compared the Indian English to my learning of Spanish. I think we put a big focus on listening to native speakers and practicing speaking with natives in order to become fluent. This is not the case for Indian English. They have native Indian teachers teaching with textbooks written by native Indian speakers. This is not necessarily the best way I would want to learn a language, but since Indian English is going to be what is spoken in their country for business and whatnot, why should they learn academic English?

Post 10

 The first thing I read in Chapter 10 that struck me as odd was that the skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing were not only separate, but ordered. It is different to look at this depending on whether the learner is learning L1 or L2. The next thing I found odd but it Kuma had rectified was the differentiation of these skills as active and passive, and then as productive and receptive. I have always thought of the skills as conscious efforts to produce or comprehend language. The idea of language skills being separated in order to learn makes no sense to me. These would not lead to very realistic scenarios in the communication aspect. However, I do believe that classes specific to reading, writing, and speaking are useful further in depth practice of an already comprehensible student. By this, I mean that a foreign language course devoted to speaking would help students improve their speech after already having the ability to communicate in this language. This is evident in our L1s as well. Many English speakers take a speech class in college. Many courses are focused on reading as well. These courses do not separate the skills completely though. For instance, a reading course may have an assessment in which the students must write a summary of what they read. Or perhaps a speaking course will require students to listen to a prompt and then respond. The point is that we should not be teaching our students to focus on these separate skills but learn to integrate them and get the most out of one task by using more than one of these skills. It is natural for students to engage in activities that involve meaningful and simultaneous engagement with language.

Post 10

 Honestly, I am still trying to decide what I thought of the movie. I cannot even say what I expected before seeing the movie, it just was not that. I must admit that before seeing it I had preconceived notions that I would not like it based on the director. In my opinion he is a bit one-sided and a little extreme for my tastes. I think the movie was more or less trying to tug on your heart strings rather than actually have a point. As it started, I expected the different families to be a part of it only for a while, but the whole movie was about these students and the lottery. I do not think there was much about what should be happening to change the way the education system is going. At the end of the movie I expected there to be some persuasive conclusion. This was not the case for me. It concluded saying that change needs to happen. It did not say how or what is expected of us future teachers. I may have completely missed the mark on this one, or my biases did not allow me to see the movie objectively, I'm not sure. I do believe it was an appeal to emotion.

 I will say there were a few things that stuck with me from the film though. When the teacher said he'd still get paid whether the students learn or not, was unbelievable to me. I wish it wasn't like that in schools, but looking back in high school and remembering the teachers who sit at their desks and hand out homework every once in a while fit this type. Hopefully something is done about this soon. Another thing I remember was about the tracking of students. In my school there were different tracks to take. I personally was on the honors track. I enjoyed the challenge these classes gave me, but I know how difficult it was to change tracks if you were not on the right one. Also if you were in honors in one class it was uncommon for you to be in regular in another. I think this separated the students a little, but it was not an issue that caused fights. I don't necessarily think that tracking is a bad thing, I just think there should be more room to budge.

Post 9

 During the poetry night a few different things stood out to me. I really enjoyed when the students from ISU read their own poetry. Many of these poems seemed to speak to me in a way that I related to more than the Black Took Collective style of poetry. It was my first time at a poetry reading and it was almost what I expected it to be. At first I almost pictured a room with bean bag chairs and bongos by the microphone. I quickly realized that happened in the cheesy movies I watched but would not be in the Prairie Room. As far as the content and language of the poems, I was surprised at first to hear the swearing and sexual content, however my shock faded fast. I realized the importance of personal expression. I personally have never thought of myself as a poet. I would never dream of being able to put myself in such a vulnerable position; on stage, talking about myself and issues that I have. The culture aspect in some of the poems was astonishing. It's great that there are people comfortable enough to share their outlooks and experiences. Hopefully in my future classroom I will be able to have students feel comfortable enough to share cultural experiences with me.