Firey Freire

Before I even getting into the meat of Paulo Freire's theologies about the pedagogy of oppressed people and how teachers are cultural workers, I was blown away by and drawn to the introduction by Joe L. Kincheloe. He writes about the affect Freire's words had on his life. He is from the Appalachia mountain area in Tennessee. Before this fall break, I was not too sure what all that entailed, but now am aware of the systemic poverty in that area that has a greater affect on its people than anyone other than these oppressed people can imagine. I met a few of these families when working with the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) for a week and saw first hand how lack of education and job opportunities impacts people. I have been on mission trips to Mexico and some of the poorest villages in Guatemala where I expected to see tragedy, shattered integrity, and extreme poverty, but I have also thought of the United States of America as the land of opportunity where everyone has the chance to be successful and live a happy, fulfilling life. I saw first hand that with the current political, economical, and educational system, this is not the case. The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. As Freire suggests, it is our job as teachers to be aware of this issue and its oppression on people and alter our teaching theologies, pedagogies, and practices in order to help end the terrible cycle.

Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate

In Chapter 13, Kuma wraps up his book about teaching methods and material by stressing how important it is for teachers be self-reflective of everything they do and constantly evaluate not only their students, but themselves as well. This is the only way to improve and learn from past mistakes or failed attempts. If you don't even recognize your faults or weaknesses through self-reflection, there is no way to fix the issue. Evaluation are extremely important for this process as well. Teachers should not only evaluate themselves, but also have their students and whoever has been in the classroom evaluate them so they become aware of other points of view. I personally do not remember filling out an evaluation forms for any of my high school teachers, but since starting college over three years ago, I have evaluated every instructor that I have had. To be honest, up until this year I have not put any thought into those evaluation forms. I simply fill in the bubbles as quickly as I could so that I could leave class earlier. Sometimes I would skip the short answer questions on the back completely. However, this year, after taking reading Kuma's book and learning more about teaching methods, theories, and practices as well as the importance and value of evaluation and constructive criticism, I actually put thought into filling out those annoying forms because I do not find them quite as annoying as I used to...

Final Project Udate

Not much has changed except that I have observed for nearly 80 more hours at Kingsley Junior High School. I have been taking notes and drawing pictures religiously, but I still need to write more reflections about each week. Then, I am planning on writing a final paper about how my observations and classroom experiences have changed me. Is this what I am supposed to do?

"Waiting for Superman"

What can I say? I am not even sure how I feel after watching the film "Waiting for Superman" about our current education system. I was really excited to see it, thinking that it was going to greatly impact my life and someone inspire me. I guess it has, but not exactly how I suspected it would.

I knew that our education system was poor. Worse than poor. I know that it has been failing students and than there are a lot of politics involved that have corrupted it. One sad fact about me, however, is that I do not follow politics all that well. I know I should. But I don't. Therefore, I am not well versed in all the laws and legislation involved in our education system. This film really opened my eyes to some of the politics. For example, I understand the idea of tenure, but I never really saw how terrible it can be for a teacher to have all the power that goes along with that title. The scene in the film when Michelle Leeds is at the Teachers' Union in attempts to sway its members to accept a pay increase instead of having tenure, and the mass refuses to even vote on the issue, made me sick to my stomach. I understand that directors of films, such as this one, put specific scenes in certain lights, but I just felt like every teacher in the audience appeared to be pure scum. As if they knew that they were terrible teachers and did not deserve their jobs, but were holding on with all their strength to not be fired. I was disgusted by them, and I honestly still am if I think back on that scene.

But maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am disgusted in the wrong people. Sure, some of those teachers are probably worthy of my disgust, but perhaps the others are good. Maybe it is just the whole education system in general that has corrupted some teachers into lazy, uninspired "educators" that care more about themselves that their students. If so, the education system includes countless people and factors. Where do we go from here? How do we fix it for good? Is it by getting rid of all the "bad" teachers? What does the rubric for that teacher grading process look like? Is there something above teachers that needs to be changed? I am not sure. I am also unsure if I should take it upon myself to answer these questions, or if I should just sit back and wait like everyone else appears to be doing.

SLAM Poetry

So I was SUPER excited when I heard that our class was going to watch the SLAM Poetry on campus. I have never been before but have seen some similar events on television and I quite enjoyed them. As we walked into the room where the event was held, there was coffee, tea, and pastries to nibble on which I personally loved. The atmosphere was pretty lively and soon every seat was filled and people were standing in the back. The first two or three acts were what I was expecting: students reading or reciting their poems. Most of the poems were about who the poets actually were and involved a lot of their life experiences. Some were better than others in my opinion, but I enjoyed them all. One person sang instead of reciting poetry which I did not exactly understand, but I guess song lyrics are a form of poetry. The last act I saw, however (because I had to leave early), confused me and made me feel awkward. I still do not completely grasp the concept of the routine that was performed by a trio from Chicago. It started with a woman reading "poetry" at the podium while two others sat across from each other at a table with laptops, typing random words and phrases as she spoke. Some of the things typed did not make much and, at times, were creepy. Other media was used like video clips shown on the screen and props and costumes used by actors. I think that the whole act was supposed to be about people's subconscious minds and how we think. Maybe? Like I previously stated, I am not sure. All I know was that I was not a fan of this last performance, but I would definitely go again to a poetry Slam. I would also recommend others to go because it really opens your eyes to another culture and gives you an inside look into other people's personal lives an histories.

Linguistic Diversity and Instructional Practices

When I first started reading Ann M. Johns' article "Linguistic Diversity and Instructional Practices", I wondered why on earth was my teacher making me learn how to better understand linguistically diverse college students and how to best instruct them? After all, I am not planning on getting my Master's Degree in order to teach at a university. My certificate is only K-12. Soon I realized that the information that Johns provides is not reserved solely for college-aged students, but can be applied to most linguistically diverse students, no matter what their age.

This article started by defining who our linguistically diverse students really are and how extensive that diversity is within each specific linguistic group. Some native Spanish speaking students, for example, were born and raised in the U.S., but Spanish is spoken in their homes while others are a part of Generation 1.5, foreign born, but not very literate in their native tongue. They do not feel like they are truly American or truly Mexican/Colombian/Peruvian/etc.  Obviously these students with different backgrounds need to be taught differently. Johns stresses that we teachers need to figure out who our students are and where they come from if we want to teach them to the best of our abilities. She suggests having the students fill out a questionaire about where they were born, what languages they can speak/write/read and how well they do so, how they would describe themselves, etc. Doing this allows us teachers to know more about out students so we can relate to and instruct them better.

As stated in the conclusion, it is easier to teach people that are culturally the same as us because we know how to relate to them and how to phrase things so that they can understand. When we add culturally diverse students into the classrooms, it also adds to the difficulty level of instruction. However, despite any extra work or thought it takes to instruct this group, it is undoubtedly worth it because it is necessary and beneficial for all. People in general-from all cultures, backgrounds, age and gender groups-deserve the best education we can offer and we should constantly be bettering ourselves as teachers in order to offer the very best.

Module 5: Learner Feedback

The concept of giving proper feedback has always been a bit intimidating to me. When should I correct a student's mistake? How exactly do I correct it? I decided to watch this video clip in particular with hopes of having my questions answered. In the end, I think I just realized that providing good feedback is something that I will learn over time with practice and experience.

The main point that this module expressed is that teachers need to make their classroom environments safe and open where students feel comfortable to speak and make mistakes in doing so. Students need to practice speaking in order to learn a language. They cannot hold back or be afraid. We must encourage our students rather than discourage them. Through trial and error, students will eventually learn a new language. We can assist them by providing proper feedback.

Before we even make any attempts to provide feedback, we must identify an error/mistake (was it a guess, careless mistake, or an error?), diagnose it (vocabulary, pronunciation, pragmatic, etc.), and then determine whether is needs to be corrected (does it hinder understanding?). When providing feedback on oral production (during a greeting, telling or retelling of a story, debating, etc.),  teachers can use on-the-spot feedback techniques which include: correction, reformulation/repetition, asking for clarification, and using gestures/silent mouthing. Sometimes recording students with a tape recorder or even video is beneficial and allows them to self-reflect and get feedback from peers and their teachers. Actually, the in ESL class I am currently observing, the teacher videotaped the students' "book talk" presentations and hey are going to do some self-evaluations. I a anxious to hear what the kids have to say.

When it comes to written production (job applications, essays, plans for the future, etc.) teachers can give good feedback through modeling, providing self-edit checklists and resources, focusing on fluency and comprehension, and allowing peers to give feedback as well. This module also provided some questions  to ask oneself before giving feedback, which I found extremely helpful. For example, if I ask myself when someone makes an error, "Are many students making this same mistake?" and the answer is yes, I would then know that is should probably teach that certain point during class so that everyone can learn. If one one student is struggling, I can go to them individually and explain to them how to correct their speech, writing, etc. If I ask myself, "Is this the first time the student has spoken up during class in a long time?" after a student makes an error in class, I would know whether or not I should correct that student  immediately or not and how I should go about doing so. Other questions include: "Is this error offensive or irritating?", "If this 'mistake' actually 'wrong'?", and "Does the error affect communication?".

Although this video clip did not tell me exactly how to and when to provide my future students with the perfect feedback in order to best assist them in learning English, it did give me some great tips and advice on how to better give feedback. I feel more comfortable with this concept just knowing that I am not alone in the struggle and that I will get better over time.