Kahne and Westheimer, "In Service of What?"

Reflection:
I can relate this to the service learning project we are doing in class for FNED. It's a great way to give back to the community I live in and make a difference. A lot of kids does not have the attention they deserve and one teacher cannot give all the kids in his/her classroom the same amount of attention. Service learning helps the young students learn and have a person other than their usual teacher appreciate them.
I have visit my school for 4 days total now and every visit I can see see they gotten better each time because they are getting that one on one experience. I am also learning from them as they are learning from me. They taught me the values of helping others and the experience that comes with it. I have not done any service learning in the past but this one gave me new perspective on how important it is and the impact it gives for that classroom of students.
Question/Comments/Point to Share:
Doing service learning is a start for the teaching career and it gives some experience with working in a classroom. However, is there a great difference to being a teacher managing a whole classroom? I had somewhat of a difficulty talking to 5 students at once and helping them equally. I would imagine it would being really difficult for the teacher. 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120311/news/703119898/

Christensen "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us"

Argument:
Christensen argues that the media is manipulating kids at a young age. They are exposed to the racism and stereotypes that the media portrays through movies, cartoons and literature. Furthermore, at that age most kids do not question what they see and so they tend to agree with what they see. Accepting the knowledge that is exposed to them through the media makes them not question if what they see is reality or fiction.
Some examples are Disney movies with prince and princesses that are white and at the end they live happily ever after. Also, teenage mutant ninja turtles that fights the "bad guy" and never gets hurt and in reality fighting will get yourself injured in someway.
The author wants the students to analyze the characters of a cartoon and they can clearly see the racism, gender superiority, violence and other stereotypes that are related to everyday life.

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
What are the percentage of kids that are influenced by the media to a point that they grow up believing in the stereotypes that they were exposed to? The kids who are sheltered by their parents and they only thing they have is a tv. Are they questioning what they are seeing? In my opinion the ones who are exposed more to reality will be more open minded.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/

Allen et al Speaking the unspeakable

Reflection:
In a diverse classroom, everyone needs to be treated as who they are. While I think race is important, there is also the issue of sexuality. There is an absent presence of gays and lesbian in most classroom but it does still exist. It is easier to hide compared to something such as race. However, it is a person's identity and having to hide that must be really stressful on that person. I can relate this to my years in elementary through high school because as the year progress I noticed that a lot more people are more opened to their sexuality. There was even a gay and straight alliance meeting every so often in my high school. More importantly, it should be brought up more in elementary schools so kids will grow up being more understanding and not use the word "gay" as an insult. People from my generation, in my opinion are more acceptable toward gays and lesbians than a lot of the adults. They shelter their kids and not address this problem to them when it should be known in schools and at home.

Questions/Comments/Point To Share:
 I regret being so ignorant as a kid because in school I used to insult people with the word "gay". I never had anyone tell me that its acceptable to be gay and it is not a bad thing. Does anyone else had that experience before?

https://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/lgbt-youth-schools

"Why Can't She Remember That? Terry Merier

This author Terry Meier argues that reading is essential in school and classrooms. This is especially critical with diverse classrooms with many multilingual and multicultural students. Those students are very sharp and can absorb a lot of the information given to them through storytelling. There were examples in the reading where it said that some children, as young as 3 years old can cleverly use their language skills to get them out of trouble or get adults to do things for them. Much like Maria who got herself out of trouble with her father by saying she will hit every family members as a simple joke and not just her dad to cause disrespect, making him laugh.
In classrooms multilingual students also question the teacher on why he/she ask questions that everyone knows, because in their culture they are usually straight forward and do not ask the obvious questions. In addition, teachers has to engage students with books that interest them and they will be hooked into that book that they will memorize it to the core. Also make the book come alive and that will make their imagination blossom and they will comprehend the book even more. This includes using puppets to get the children to connect with the book and create a conversation with teacher.
Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
I can definitely relate to the little girl that ask the author on why her teacher is asking the obvious question when everyone clearly knows the answer to. I really hate that method of teaching because whenever that question comes up in my elementary school days, I would not raise my hands because I assume everyone knows it and it will be pointless to answer. My question is that does everyone feel the same way and is that method necessary in kindergarten level classes?

 http://www.readingrockets.org/article/literacy-rich-environments