Hw#49-Film

For the film my personal contribution was being in the film and trying to improvise with other people in the film also. I played the role of one of the four students who come to his classroom after a school dance and find out about their teacher Jake Westwood drug addiction to crack cocaine which later helps Jake realize that the drug addiction is not the way to go. The students and i go on about how we are proud of him for stopping and staying clean. In addition to his fanazcing ideas in history.

Honestly i do not really know exactly what the message of the film was but i think that the message was that if someone is seeking need, help them. The tone of the film is very serious at the same time sympathetic towards Jake Westwood. Showing how the students helped him and he did not relapse and how serious he took the situation especially when the four students were gathered talking to him when they caught him. He realized he needed change.

Compared to the other films it was different. This film was showing the students in the classroom taking a stand and helping the teacher. Unlike the other movies the teachers were stuck teaching rebelling teenagers who came from the ghetto and felt they were going nowhere. In the end the teacher was able to teach the students and they grew on each other. In the film we did in class the table were turned and the teacher was the one in need this time but in the end he could not do by himself.

This film connects to real life in school because lots of times teachers try to be the heroic figure (not all some) and try to help those kids in need. On the other hand that does not always happen and in reality the teacher needs help. The teachers who do not show much appreciation to the students is the reason kids nowadays the way they are because teachers do not allow themselves to open a relationship with a student.

Hw#50

6 Lessons

Gatto is saying why bother with school. I think he is saying its like a prison just to tame children. He does not believe in typical teaching that is done in school. He says that the school system messes up our kids and why should they be put in a place they do not like or truly enjoy. Also being forced to learn things they do not want to learn. We are basically prisoners in our own homes and we simply just follow rules like slaves. Gatto does not believe in the school system he believes the opposite of the school system. In this article he puts the school system in 6 different components in what they go by.

I agree with Gatto i think that schools are very robotic "do this, do that". Teachers are the enforcers and we have to listen what they say because they "have the upper hand which i think is kind of unfair. I like Gatto teaching how he opposes the school system. I think it is kind of interesting. "In any case, again, that's not my business. My job is to make the kids like it -- being locked in together, I mean -- or at the minimum, endure it. If things go well, the kids can't imagine themselves anywhere else; they envy and fear the better classes and have contempt for the dumber classes. So the class mostly keeps itself in good marching order. That's the real lesson of any rigged competition like school. You come to know your place." I believe this is true you are below the teacher and you do as you are told.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

He is saying that education is just memorization. The students just memorize things and repeat it from the teachers they learn it from. Also that they are not actually fully developing any learning skills just the basic four times four is sixteen but is it really? He also says that the student is a slave towards the teacher giving the teacher existence and silent themselves not knowing that the teacher is learning from them.

I agree with Paulo on some level i think the way teacher teach are just a process of memorizing things and repeating it over and over again. "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the “banking” concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store." This whole paragraph i agree with we are collectors collecting information and we save it but there is not is not a "WOW" factor and its misleading us.

Interview with Lisa Delpit

In the article Lisa Delpit is talking about finding the brilliance in the students no matter what kind of background they come from. If you judge them from they come from how are you going to teach them and make them better. She wants to provide urban kids to have a opportunity to show their brilliance to the world and what they can accomplish. She also says that the art department can help these children and can open doors for them. This can expose them to poetry and other things can appeal to the children.

I agree with Lisa, i think it is a good idea to give children in the urban communities a chance to better themselves when the people and neighborhood around them may not be doing the same. It reminds me of my old middle school Kipp Star who gave me and other of my fellow classmates to learn above and beyond and experience college experiences and being exposed to new ideas just like the arts that Lisa Delpit was talking about. "I think teachers must believe in their children’s brilliance. If teachers make judgments only according to the tests being inflicted on the children by the schools, then they can misunderstand their children's brilliance. The biggest thing is that despite what you have read or been told about these children that may indicate otherwise, these children carry a brilliance that you have little access to. You have to figure out how to bring that brilliance out. I don't think we do a good enough job of showing teachers how to uncover the children's strengths" i agree with this and i believe its true, its kind of judging a book by its cover.

Mr.Fanning Speech

Mr.Fanning was talking about the basic structure of School of the Future and how its an liberal arts school. He said SOF embodies students as individuals learn social skills. He talked about juniors to pull up their grades because the seniors were going downhill. Right now grades are not good and students are failing.

I think what Mr.Fanning said is true and that as a school we need to pull ourselves together and get better grades. Lots of kids today are not doing what they should be doing and do not have their priority straight.

Hw#48-Treatment of Savior/Teacher Movie

Emily Robinson an experienced teacher for 2o years raised in a small town and worked up in the surburan area walks into the classroom and witnessed the kids she was going to teach. There were jocks, preps, popular kids, rebels, all you could think of. They were all looking at her dumb-founded. She has on her a white blouse and a high-waisted a pencil skirt and a pair of 3 in heels. She walks up to the board and writes her name on the board "Ms. Robinson".



As she turned around all hell broke loose. Chairs were thrown, papers thrown eveywhere and cursing lunatics. It was impossible for Ms.Robinson to calm them down. She told them all to sit down and be quiet. Obviously they did not listen and told her to fuck off. Stephanie one of the popular girl who was kind of the ruler of the classroom told everybody chill and they listened. Ms.Robinson returned to her introducing herself but nobody paid any attention except suck their teeth and continue to socialize.





She could not take it anymore so she told all the students to shut the hell up. Little did they know that she was in the miltary and spend 5 years as a Marine. Ralph one of the rebels told her that he was not going to do shit. In some way she was able to straighten him out in a matter of two seconds. One by one they student realized that Ms.Robinson is actually a tough cookie and started to give her the respect she needed and wanted. The question would be how long would this go on for and when would it stop?

Hw#47 Class Film Preparation 1

1.) Alpha male or female
2.)Different races separated
3.)"Bad Class"
4.)"Very caring teacher"
5.)Exact opposite of the movies we saw
6.)Make fun of each of them
7.)SOF version of Freedom Writers
So Far...

Hw#46 Research and Writing

I read the book The Curious Incident of the FOg in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The book was about a kid named Christopher with autism and tries to figure out who murdered his neighbor's dog Wellington. On his way trying to find out he learns a lot of things about the dog and his family. There are a lot of mysteries behind everything he does and says. He later finds out that his father actually killed the dog in defense to his neighbor which causes Christopher to uncover the real true behind his mother's "death".

The main point of the story that connects to my topic is that Christopher attends a "special school" and kids with "special needs" because they do not function like "regular kids" i guess which is different than other public or private schools we know. Compared to other schools such as private and public they have do not have the same thing. As Christopher described his school he takes some high level math and learn things out of the ordinary.

On some level the book kind of did not really connect to my topic because it talked more about austism and it did not really give me valid points but on the plus side i was able to see Christopher's point of view on things from being i would not say disable and going to a different school compared to schools i've been too and heard about. It was nice to see the perpective of another child but not of some article.

Hw#45-More Big Thoughts on School

After reading about Hirsch he's arguing that "He concluded that schools should not be neutral about what is taught but should teach a highly specific curriculum that would allow children to understand things writers take for granted". I think that Hirsch is trying to say that before you learn something you should have background on it such as war and other things before going on and reading other texts. In the text where it said "Students at the University of Virginia were able to understand a passage on Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, while students at a community college struggled with it, apparently lacking basic understanding of the American Civil War" i found this kind of interesting because compared to the community college they did not know the background of the topic they are learning about which is Hirsche is point of how concept of cultural literacy, which is understanding the back ground information.

Reading about Sizer he talked about how kids should be thinking more instead of looking at books and taking standarized test more on trying to make students use their brain instead of a piece of paper. "Schools, he argued, should abandon one-size-fits-all educational methods like standardized tests, grading and even the grouping of students into classes by age." What i found interesting is how he said that the teachers were the mentor/coach and the kids were the workers which i find to be true and that the teachers should motivate the students.

Looking at both views i think they both make valid points Hirsch believes in background knowledge and cultural literacy while Sizer on the other hand allows the students to think more and use the habits of mind rather than whats on a piece of paper. I lean towards Sizer views because i believe they are better and im used t0 what he is talking about rather than test-taking and other things. Just as Sizer said the teachers in SOF actually do play the part of the mentor which has helped and allowed students to think out of the box.

Hw#44 Big Expectations For School

After watching the Obama speech i thought that it was really good and thought he had very interesting points. I liked how in this speech he talked about how your not going to succeed the first time you try something and you have to keep trying as he referred to Michael Jordan and J.K Rowling. I like how he didn't sugar code anything and put it all out there because its true what he is saying. On the other hand, i feel that when he says its the students responsibitly to fullfill their responbitlites its easy said than done. There are kids out there who struggle everyday and aren't able to balance school compared to workign or taking care of their family for finanical reasons etc. How is that kid going to succeed compared to another kid not dealing with these issues.

Reading the article on "Where the Bar Ought to Be" i thought that Bob had a good point at the end stating that maybe the bar is a high coming from a tough surburban neighborhood. It kind of goes back to what Obama said both articles relate. So far from what i read school is primarily to get to the top and get the highest education. Also learning the impossible and having high standards which i believe is kind of hard. I think that in general we should work our way to the top at a good pace instead of shooting to the top. At the same time i think that its good that the schools are like this because it opens up the children's brain and make them comfortable not just like you have to do "this this and that".

After reading this article i agree that we just to school just to be "good employers". Like they said "Go to school and get good grades, so you can get a good high-paying job." In simpler terms that means, "Go to school to become a good employee." But there are too many employees, which is why we have an unemployment problem. Today, kids just out of school aren't finding jobs. At the same time, many of their parents are going back to school for retraining. But they're not finding jobs, either" its true and i think that it would b a good idea if we did have two systems.