Blog Post #9

Preface + Introduction from Shalaby, TroubleMakers

Relfection

Upon starting this article, the Introduction introduces us to a student who struggles in class with day-to-day tasks, and if the assignment doesnt fall into their interests can become violent, and disruptive to the class. This is very similar to a student in my observation classroom, the student is very bright and is ahead of the whole class is every subject and cares deeply about learning with that being said if they believe a assignment is too easy, or isnt something they want to do at a set time theyll become violent and throw their books, computer etc. But when the student is intent on learning they are focused, and engaged in class. For example I did a small one-on-one test with each student, and it was meant to be like a ladder. The first test was simple and the next week we would progress to a more difficult test. With this in mind, the student walked over and looked at the test and determined it was too easy. They walked away and when i asked them to come sit down, and if they do the test theyll go onto a harder one they said 'nope too easy'. Each student was offered a sticker if they attempted to do the test, as long as they atleast did one of the problems and didnt leave it blank. This was a interesting situation because the studnet had no interest in completeing the assignment, when i asked the teacher they said its okay because she knows the student can do the math worksheet.

The text itself goes on to talk about how between pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers observe issues in the transition between the two, because one goes from unstructured to a highly structured day. The quote, "For the word obedience, where I expected a picture of a dog, perhaps, I instead found a young artist who had drawn a row of pupils at their desks sitting straight, hands clasped, facing forward." (Shalaby, xxvi). This quote in particular made me reflect on my own experience, and made me take a step back and really reflect on how obedience is taught in a classroom, and how structured a classroom is and how it may effect students. For example - for some students this kind of structured schedule is beneficial, for example growing up i had very few complaints about my day being planned excessively because it helps me to know exactly how ill spend my day. But my experience isnt the same as my peers, and for some people this structure is not helpful or beneficial. Which is why a lot of people who may struggle in K-12 go to college and excell, because college doesnt function off of such a strong structure and students can modify their schedule to fit their own needs.

The image i attached is similar to what a lot of teachers display around a classroom on listening quietly, and being obedience in the classroom. 

Comments to Share:

I'd like to share a recent experience in my observation classroom regarding teaching obedience in the students.

Video Analysis

 Video Analysis

Classroom Tour & Precious Knowledge

Blog Post #7

"What to Look for in A Classroom" by Khan & "Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" by Learning for Justice 

REFLECTION

Under the Possible Reasons to worry, in What to Look For in a Classroom it is listed,

"Students assignments displayed, but they are (a) suspiciouslt flawless, (b) only from "the best" students, or (c) virtually all alike."

This quote highlights almost perfectly alot of my classrooms growing up, I believe that the shift from everyones work being showed or absolutely no one's occurs in the middle school years. In elementary school I can recall - from my personal experiences everyones work being hung up. But once i reached middle school it became more of the 'selective best' for example in high school I had a assignment, a project of some kind and the teacher hung up the ones that got the best grades or were necessarily visually pleasing. As a result this left some students feeling left out or like their work wasnt necessarily good enough to be displayed in a classroom. This connects to a reason to worry because it can point to favortism with a teacher, or signs that a teacher may be pushing for the very best grades which can be seen in defecit classrooms. 

Under the Good Signs, in What to Look For in a Classroom it is listed,

"Welcoming; eager to explain or demonstrate what theyre doing or to use visitor as a resource"

This quote actually connects directly to my recent observation in a 2nd Grade Classroom, when i entered the room the students were all so excited to meet me. They were all saying, "Hi Mrs. Shannon" and seemed excited to have me in the class some of them even came up to me and introduced themselves and asked me if I'd be joining them for recess. This behavior continued into small groups, and all of the students were excited to be in my group. I can recall even as a young child having visitors in the classroom was always the most exciting experience and I think it shows a healthy classroom enviorment because it shows the students are excited to learn! In particular, the Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy video talks about invisible, and visible aspects, and some visble aspects i observed was crafts, but also how the students talked. they were encouraged to speak in a native language and werent penalized against it, and other students who may have a different native language were interested in learning about others. In my small group i had two kids, one whose native language was english, and the other spanish and english. We were doing math flashcards and the one whose native language was spanish and english sometimes would answer in spanish, the other student asked the student a question regarding the numbers and then started also answering some in spanish. 

REFLECTION: 

In class I'd like to share how both of these pieces of media tied back to my recent classroom visit, and how i observed different aspects of positive classroom enviorment, but also a few negatives!