visit 4

Visit Number 4

Today was my fourth visit to the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. After missing the previous week due to extreme weather conditions I was looking forward to getting in there and getting right to work with the children. Following my usual routine I first stopped and said good morning to Mr. Lahey and Randy. We talked for several minutes about that child Cyrus from last week and they told me he was one strike away from being thrown out of school. They went on to explain he would not be allowed back into Sunnyvale until he completed behavioral classes, but most likely the parents would just end up putting Cyrus into another school and seeing if those teachers can handle and put up with him. This made me feel bad for Cyrus for several reasons. The first is that he is troubled and doesn’t understand the image he has created for himself at such a young age. The second reason I felt pity for the young Cyrus was because he doesn’t have the benefits of having parents to guide him down the right path in life and make sure he behaves normally as a young boy his age should. After brushing off the whole Cyrus issue I finally headed down the hallway to my trailer. I walked in and was again instantly greeted with multiple hellos. As I made my way over towards Barbs desk I was asked by several students if they could come and work with me today. I felt bad having to tell them they couldn’t come over to our group because they were not on the list of students who required extra help. The kids all appeared upset and looked as if they were feeling left out on the activities we were working on. After talking with Barb about the activities and things we’d be working on I went and took my seat at the table in the back. I called up the first group of students which consisted of Ricky, Julian, Sara, and Lucy. Again I noticed they sat in the exact same way they did last time, Ricky next to Julian, and then an empty seat followed by Sara next to Lucy. I laughed to myself and then quickly moved them into the boy/girl order from last week. We then proceeded with our activity which dealt with vowels and consonants again. The kids seemed to remember most of the things we went over and even remembered the helpful hints I had given them. I was very impressed at their ability to intake knowledge and then remember and relate to other similar activities. We were able to breeze through the materials with almost no problems at all. We then moved on to an activity that involved reading a story. Barb has tons of different little stories with multiple copies which make it easier for the kids to follow along. I was again impressed at the reading ability of the young children who were cruising through the pages and only really struggling with the names of characters which were understandable because of the names were rather silly. After forty five minutes it was time to call up the second group of students and again Ricky, Julian, Sara, and Lucy all looked disappointed it was time for them to return to the normal class activities. I then called up the second group and similar to the first group Trevor, Cory, Trinity, and Bubbles came running up almost tripping over each other. These children sat in the same order as the week before and again didn’t appear affected by each other’s sexes. We did the same activities as the first group and they also remember everything we had covered previously. We then moved onto the story and were able to breeze through it without any issues, and the great cooperation of the children allowed us to actually read two stories and get more work done. I was impressed and very happy with the kids and handed them all stickers. My fourth visit was again a very successful and impressive one.

visit 3

Visit Number 3

Today was my third visit to the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. I was looking forward to getting in and getting right down to business with the kids. After stopping and saying good morning and Mr. Lahey and Randy I headed down the hallway to my trailer. As I entered I was greeted with several different “hello Mr. Josh’s” which made me feel very welcome. I went and spoke with Barb for a few minutes and discussed everything I would be covering today. Finally sitting down at my little table in the back I called up my first group of students. Ricky, Julian, Sara, and Lucy all came running over and sat down in front of me. I noticed they sat in the same exact seats as last time which was Ricky next to Julian and then an empty seat and then Sara next to Lucy. I thought it funny and then proceeded to ask them why there was the empty seat in between to which they all replied “because we don’t want to sit next to them.” Thinking nothing of it we jumped right into our first activity. Learning the difference between words spelt differently but are pronounced the same such as there, their, and they’re. I quickly noticed that the children sitting boy/boy and girl/girl was clearly not going to work out. The kids were talking among themselves and clearly not paying attention to the activity. This lead to me separating them girl/boy and girl/boy. This showed quick progress and we were able to move on with our activity. We then moved onto and activity which dealt with fluency again. We went over pronunciation and sight words. It was difficult to explain to the children the purpose of these sight words and the role they play in everyday life. After about forty five minutes it was time to call up my other group of students, the kids seemed so sad to have to go back to their seats. I called up the second group of students and Trinity, Cory, Trevor, and Bubbles and call came running over. I thought it was interesting that Bubbles did not mind sitting next to the girls and because he seemed so calm about it the girls didn’t think it was a big deal either. We jumped right into the activities and the kids quickly absorbed all the materials. During this particular visit I noticed this one child who we’ll call Cyrus giving the teacher a lot of back talk. Cyrus was one of the two white children in the classroom and the kids told me he is in trouble all day every day. The student’s desk is located next to teachers and nowhere near the groupings of desks where all the other children sit. I thought it was interesting to see this child so being so fresh to the teacher and I also happened to notice he was wearing expensive brand name clothing. After my session was up I went up to the teacher and talked to her about Cyrus. Apparently he comes from a family where he is in complete control of his parents. Whatever he wants he gets, and is allowed to behave in the manner he chooses, which explains his unacceptable behavior. Barb then went on to tell me sometimes he gets so carried away she has to call down the principle and have him deal with, and even at that it’s not always successful. She told me he is constantly sent home, and his parents could care less about the negative track record he’s already started for himself. Accept for seeing the disrespectful Cyrus my third visit was a good and successful one.

visit 2

Visit Number 2

Today was my second visit to the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. After arriving to the school five minutes early I stopped in to say good morning to Mr. Lahey and Randy then grabbed my folder and proceeded down the hall to my trailer. After talking with Barb for a few minutes it was time to sit down and meet my second group of kids before working with the first group again. This group was three boys and one girl, who we will call Trevor, Cory, Bubbles, and Trinity. We spent the first few minutes going over the same questions as the previous group. Trevor told us all he enjoyed math, didn’t like social studies, was good at gym class, and wanted to work on his pronunciation. Next was Trinity who also liked math, didn’t like waking up early, was good at science, and wanted to work on sight words. Next was Cory who told us he liked social studies, didn’t like math, was good at English, and wanted to work on vowels and consonants. Finally we got to Bubbles who told is he loved social studies and science, was totally against math, was good at helping others with their work, and wanted to work on his reading skills. After getting to know them a little and learning about their interest, we were finally ready to get to work. We started by working on an activity that works on fluency. We had a bunch of cards with different words the kids were expected to know by sight and we spent a good twenty minutes flipping through the cards until we were able to make it through without any mistakes. We then moved on to an activity involving blends of letters in words the kids should also know without having to think to hard about what they are. We worked on the blends between t and h. The words we went over were ones the kids used constantly through every day including words like them, they, these, their, and there. The kids seemed to focus well and seemed to really appreciate the extra help I was giving them. After forty five minutes of good solid work it was time to say goodbye work with the first group again. Sitting down with Ricky, Julian, Sara and Lucy we quickly got back into the activity we left off on. We were getting back into the blends activity, the same I had just finished going over with the second group. We were able to sit down and get through all the same blends words as the other group and after twenty minutes were ready to move on. We went on to the other activity I had just done with the second group. We worked on the blends and were able to fly through with almost no problems at all. After forty five minutes we were finished up and the kids were sad to see me leave. All in all my second visit was a successful day.

journal1

Visit number one

Today was my first visit to the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. I was both nervous and excited to go in and meet my literacy coach, principle, teacher, and students. I wasn’t really sure what to expect walking in, but the surrounding neighborhood appeared to be an indicator of what was to come. The surrounding houses all had unkempt lawns, trash piled on the sides of the houses and the sidewalk, and even a rundown liquor store right next to the school. This gave me the impression that this school will be full of students from working class families, and there will probably be many behavioral issues. When I went in I was shocked at what I saw. There was a young boy sitting in the principal’s office waiting for his parents to come pick him to start his out of school suspension. I sat next to him and asked him what grade he was in. He turned to me and told me he was in third grade and didn’t want to talk about what he’d done. I left it at that and went in to meet the literacy coach. She was a very interesting person and seemed to have great knowledge on the subjects to be taught. She gave us many helpful hints for teaching the kids including chin tapping, elongated pronunciation, and also many ways of making the activities fun and appealing to the students. I then went in to meet the principle of the school, who we’ll call Mr. Jim Lahey, to ask him a few basic questions about discipline at the school. Mr. Lahey was very happy to see me (a male) coming in to work the kids. After introducing me to the assistant principle who we’ll call Randy, they sat me down and explained a lot of the students needed an older role model to look up to because even at such a young age some of the children were already showing signs of heading down the negative road in life, a great example being the young student waiting to be picked up when I walked in. I was then brought to my classroom to meet my teachers and students. My teacher who we’ll call Barb is very welcoming and extremely nice lady. She introduced herself and told me she was very happy to have me in helping her with the students, and was very appreciative of VIPS sending me to her. I was given a folder containing all the materials I would need to work the students and basically left on my own to get to work. I started by looking around the class and taking note of the diversity, which left me completely baffled. There were two white children, one or two Asian students, and the rest were evenly split between Hispanic and African American students. Coming from a graduating class that was about 90% white I was very surprised, but I was in no way intimidated by these numbers. I called up the first group of children two boys and two girls who we will call Ricky, Julian, Lucy, and Sara. We started by introducing ourselves and telling one thing we liked about school, one thing we didn’t like about school, one thing they were good at in school, and one thing they weren’t good at but wanted to work to improve it. Ricky started off by telling us he enjoyed doing math, didn’t like English, was good at floor hockey during gym class, and wanted to work on his spelling, grammar, and reading ability. Next was Julian who said he also liked math, was not fond of social studies, was good at coloring, and wanted to work on his reading skills. Next was Lucy who told us she loved social studies, did not care for math, was good at English, and wanted to work on her sight words. Finally we got to Sara, who told us she liked social studies, didn’t like math, was good at social studies and wanted to work on pronunciation. After getting to know a little more about the kids we started to work on a blends activity, but were quickly stopped by a fire drill that lasted too long for us to do anymore work, and I was also unable to meet the other members of my tutoring group. All in all a successful first day.

talking points 10

"In school and society, the lack of meaningful participation alienates workers, teachers, and students. This alienation lowers their productivity in class and on the job. I think of this lowered productivity as a performance strike, an unorganized mass refusal to perform well, and informal and unacknowledged strike."

I chose this quote because it really stood out and also applies to everyday life. Students who chose they'd rather just sit there and not learn are choosing to alienate themselves from the rest of the class. this also happens to teachers who don't like to teach the material or even chose to ignore students request for obvious needs of extra help. When workers alienate themselves it causes their companies and consumers problems. People need to be feel more comfortable about participating, and alienation needs to cease to exist

“The teacher brings lesson plans, learning methods, personal experience, and academic knowledge to class but negotiates the curriculum with the students and begins with their language, themes, and understandings. To be democratic implies orienting subject matter to student culture – their interests, needs, speech and perceptions – while creating a negotiable openness in class where the students’ input jointly creates the learning process.”

I like this quote for several reasons. The first is how true it is, when these teachers show up with lesson plans, it's almost impossible to carry them out without first establishing negotiations with the students on what they are capable of handling and what they're able to do. It is also important to learn the students perspectives on the materials they're gonna learn, and their input can help in developing these lesson plans.

"Is the curriculum balanced and multicultural, giving equal attention to men, women, minorities, and nonelite groups, or is it traditionally male-oriented and Euro-centric?"

This is also a very important quote and goes along with the second one i chose. the curriculum and materials taught to the students is very important. Its necessary for these students to learn about all the different cultures, races, sexes, and backgrounds. An evenly divided curriculum allows students of these minorities, sexes, races and cultures to have a learning experience of not only other peoples cultures but their own as well

talking points christensen

“Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother’s or father’s lap.” Young children are often predisposed to the images on television, which are not meant for them to see. Children do not realize the racial undercurrents that are present in modern media, and will believe it as truth. If a child, who does not know any better, see’s a black man acting like a buffoon on television, he or she may believe that is how all black people behave all the time.

I chose this quote because i feel it applies to everyday life. Everyday there are new tv shows and movies that are aimed at attracting the attention of young children. However these forms of entertainment are almost always full of materials that are deemed inappropriate for these children. These images are stuck into these young minds and can cause children to grow up with negative impressions of those people depicted in them.

"Both of these tales leave young women with two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption."

I chose this quote because of how closely it relates to the first one i chose. These are two very wrong impressions that young children are capable of falling for. At these young ages women can develop a feeling that without a man they will never be capable of being happy or successful. the lesson about consumption to seperate themselves from harsh conditions is also one the children are vulnerable to. They could possibly not be happy with certain conditions at home that lead to them making drastic decisions following in the footsteps of their idles from these childhood films.

" Her father like so many good men, was weak for a pretty face and big legs and big hips. her stepmother had a heart of rock. The milk of human kindness had curled in her breast. But did she have a pretty face, big legs, and great big hips... Well, that fool fell right into that woman's trap.

I chose this quote even though it is not as closely related to the first one i chose.l the characteristics mentioned above that attract the man to women are ones that can be absorbed into the minds of young children, and when the time comes for them to be attracted to women, they will look for all the wrong things, which will essentially lead to a poor relationship

talking points 9

“Gardner’s work… has effectively broadened our interpretation of what it means to be smart. In doing so, he has transformed the school notion of intellect from a rigid, intrinsic commodity to a cultural construction widely shared by individuals traditionally devalued in the educational arena.”

In this day and age there are many areas in which children can excel and be considered intelligent or smart. The school cannot be considered just an institute for education, because many children have natural causes that allow them to be more successful in other fields than just classroom testing. Some children really excel in activities such as drama or band where it takes a lot of courage and practice to perform in front of large audiences. Some children excel in areas like atheletics which also require lots of practice and conditioning.

"How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don't listen to the voices we have."

This statement is completely true. No one should ever be judged, and no one should ever feel that they have any right to judge others. People who don't suffer from disabilities, people that have problems supporting disabilities, and people who ignore people with disabilities especially should not be judging others. It is not only inhumane and in bad taste, but causes great amounts of pain and sadness in those suffering from disabilities and those close to them.

"Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full,rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities"

There is a major difference between people with disabilities and people with developmental disabilities. For people to even assume that they're the same thing is totally ignorant of them. Barries between these should not exist, and people should take the time to learn the differences between them.

talking points 8

“In a sense, some whole schools are on the vocational education track, while others are geared to produce future doctors, lawyers, and business"

I chose this quote for several reasons. The first is that even those vocational schools are aimed at making doctors and business because they all have pre-med and pre-business and even pre-law. there is not anything wrong with vocational schools, and it's not as if someone will be more successful coming out of a regular high school. I personally feel that more schools should take up vocational options, mainly to offer wider variety of courses, but also to help those students are less motivated in school. It gives these kids an opportunities to find a field of interest rather than coming to school and looking at the same lame classes everyday, they can find one they like and can possibly learn a trade and find employment in.

"Work tasks do not usually request creativity [in the middle class school]. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form."

i chose this quote because i feel its very important. If we are giving these school children everyday tasks that don't require any creativity, we will essentially be creating a classroom full of robots. There will be no individualism among these students. Creativity is a very important part life, especially at this young age. It is very important to get these kids doing activities that require large amounts of creativity.

"There is little excitement in schoolwork for the children, and the assignments are perceived as having little to do with their interests and feelings. As one child said, what you do is "store facts up in your head like cold storage - until you need it later for a test or your job." Thus, doing well is important because there are thought to be other likely rewards: a good job or college."

I chose this quote because its important and i don't like the truth in it. These kids are doing schoolwork all day for five days a week. When they're doing work that is boring to them, it makes it that much harder to pay attention. these kids will learn much better through activities that they find fun and exciting. It will also help to keep their attention on the materials they're supposed to be learning. Rewards should not be their motivation for doing work, they should be working because they enjoy it and want to learn.

talking points seven

"Principal Mansell reports that her single-sex classes produce fewer discipline problems, more parental support and better scores in writing, reading and math. She does, however, acknowledge that her data are compromised, as her highest-performing teachers and her most-motivated students have chosen single-sex".

I chose this quote because it really jumps out at he reader. At first it would appear that these single sex classrooms are a great success and that all classrooms should be separated this way. The list of achievements from that classroom are great ones that all helped the children in a positive way. the boys and girls learn differently so maybe separating them is for the better. but it leads to the problem of these children wanting to be separated from the opposite sex all throughout their lives.

"Baby boys prefer to stare at mobiles; baby girls at faces. Boys solve maze puzzles using the hippocampus; girls use the cerebral cortex. Boys covet risk; girls shy away. Boys perform better under moderate stress; girls perform worse"

I chose this quote because i feel it somewhat explains my first quote. this goes into scientific detail about just how differently these young children are learning. they use separate parts of the brain to solve similar problems. This shows that maybe these single sex classrooms can operate in two completely different learning styles, teach the same subject, and have all the kids retain the information, and the boys and girls methods to solving the problems will be different.

"Given the myriad ways in which our schools are failing, it may be hard to remember that public schools were intended not only to instruct children in reading and math but also to teach them commonality, tolerance and what it means to be American. “When you segregate, by any means, you lose some of that,” says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “Even if one could prove that sending a kid off to his or her own school based on religion or race or ethnicity or gender did a little bit better job of raising the academic skills for workers in the economy, there’s also the issue of trying to create tolerant citizens in a democracy.”

I chose this final quote because it really sums up the article and why classrooms nation wide aren't sex separated. It instills a permanent sense of separation in the children, and they grow up feeling its accepted to be separated. It taking the children's minds off of whats important, which is learning the materials, and focuses it more on who is in the class with them. At these young ages children are very vulnerable to picking up bad habits. If we start separating them now, they'll desire to be separated for the rest of their lives