Chapter 2 - What Is a School and What Is It For, by Denisse Escarcega
John Taylor Gatto: Schooling Is Not Education - Part 1 of 5
Chapter 2 brings up a question that fascinates me both as a teacher and a student – what IS the difference between education and schooling? Mark Twain’s quote, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education,” really got me thinking. How much are schools supposed to teach to their students? How much do students learn outside of the classroom? Is one type of education more important than the other? Should both types of learning be separated, or is there a way to bring them together? I came across an interview of John Taylor Gatto, an award-winning teacher and author, which I thought tied in very nicely with this topic. His thoughts on education and his approach to teaching are quite shocking and thought-provoking in the sense that he pushes students and teachers out of the comfort zone that we have gotten used to in the typical classroom. I would never dream of putting a couple of teenage girls in a truck-driver’s care for a day, but if I stop to think about it I realize that those girls probably learned more in that day than they did in a whole year of sitting in a classroom. This makes me wonder if I’m depriving my students of powerful learning experiences and opportunities by playing it safe and sticking to routines that I am comfortable with. We tend to teach the way we were taught, but are we doing a disservice to students by doing so? Mr. Gatto brings up some very powerful statements in this interview. His comments on how we are all lonely living in networks, not communities, was really interesting. I often think about the popularity of social networking sites and how we all interact with each other in a very isolated way. I also liked his thoughts about how we reward talkers – we pay “talkers” well and we admire people who are good talkers. This makes me wonder how we can go about creating and rewarding thinkers, instead. It’s easy for some to talk without really thinking, but it’s not so easy to get people to think. Mr. Gatto’s thoughts on how schools are creating people who are useless to themselves and to others as well as his thoughts on how schools are a sorting mechanism that create a caste system, complete with “untouchables”, was quite jarring. These are not things that we want to hear, much less admit to being true, but what if he’s right? How does this happen? How can we change it? Overall, I felt this interview was very effective at getting me to stop and think. As an educator and a student, I can appreciate the importance of that even if I was a little uncomfortable with hearing what he had to say.
For more information about John Taylor Gatto and his work, go to http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Erin Gruwell
Chapter 1 – Why Teach, by Denisse Escarcega
One of my biggest fears when I started teaching was working with students who came from difficult home life situations. Having been pretty sheltered all of my life and being considered a “good” student growing up, I was worried that not all of my students would feel like they would be able to relate to me and as a result would not be willing to open up to me. As it turns out, students were more than willing to open up to me if I made it clear to them that I was willing to listen. Erin Gruwell’s story really strikes a cord with me because I admire the incredible work that she did with her students. It’s very inspiring to see that she was able to motivate her students to write. In this first video clip, (the embedding code was not available, so please follow the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=799H6oMD5DQ ), I found it very inspiring to hear her say that she encouraged her students to pick up a pen (instead of a weapon or a spray can) in order to express themselves and to make their voice heard. I really like that she touches on topics such as “street smarts” and “book smarts, ” students as teachers and vice-versa, and the questions that a teacher needs to ask themselves in order to figure out how to help the students. These are extremely important issues for teachers to reflect on.
The second video clip I chose is a scene from the movie based on Ms. Gruwell’s life. I like how it shows the types of issues that teachers have to grapple with and how it spills over into both the teacher’s and the student’s home life. A teacher can’t just clock out at 3:00 in the afternoon – they take home more than just homework to grade. The fact that she is dealing with a divorce hints at some of the issues, such as depression, that come with teaching or that affect us as teachers but that aren’t talked about in teacher education courses. I also liked that the clip shows how students become attached to their instructors and how they become bewildered and look for solutions (some more creative or colorful than others) when they realize they might lose their favorite instructor.
Erin Gruwell is a fascinating and inspiring educator. Future educators can learn a lot from her work, her thoughts, and her story because it provides us with much food for thought. To learn more about her and her work with Freedom Writers, check out the following site: http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org
One of my biggest fears when I started teaching was working with students who came from difficult home life situations. Having been pretty sheltered all of my life and being considered a “good” student growing up, I was worried that not all of my students would feel like they would be able to relate to me and as a result would not be willing to open up to me. As it turns out, students were more than willing to open up to me if I made it clear to them that I was willing to listen. Erin Gruwell’s story really strikes a cord with me because I admire the incredible work that she did with her students. It’s very inspiring to see that she was able to motivate her students to write. In this first video clip, (the embedding code was not available, so please follow the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=799H6oMD5DQ ), I found it very inspiring to hear her say that she encouraged her students to pick up a pen (instead of a weapon or a spray can) in order to express themselves and to make their voice heard. I really like that she touches on topics such as “street smarts” and “book smarts, ” students as teachers and vice-versa, and the questions that a teacher needs to ask themselves in order to figure out how to help the students. These are extremely important issues for teachers to reflect on.
The second video clip I chose is a scene from the movie based on Ms. Gruwell’s life. I like how it shows the types of issues that teachers have to grapple with and how it spills over into both the teacher’s and the student’s home life. A teacher can’t just clock out at 3:00 in the afternoon – they take home more than just homework to grade. The fact that she is dealing with a divorce hints at some of the issues, such as depression, that come with teaching or that affect us as teachers but that aren’t talked about in teacher education courses. I also liked that the clip shows how students become attached to their instructors and how they become bewildered and look for solutions (some more creative or colorful than others) when they realize they might lose their favorite instructor.
Erin Gruwell is a fascinating and inspiring educator. Future educators can learn a lot from her work, her thoughts, and her story because it provides us with much food for thought. To learn more about her and her work with Freedom Writers, check out the following site: http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org
Welcome!
Welcome to our class blog. As the semester progresses, we will be posting our musings on the material we have covered as well as sharing additional information and inspiration with each other and with the world. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
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