Troublemakers by: Carla Shalaby

    This week our FNED 246 class was able to read Troublemakers by author Carla Shalaby. Shalaby explores how prisons can compare to a school system. Teachers should get to know their students instead of making judgments and stereotypes about a student. In the school system, the children want to feel accepted not being pushed around.   As a future teacher, I believe getting to know and learn about your students is very important. I don't want to be the kind of teacher who is careless about the students you teach. I work at a daycare so it's important to build a relationship with these kids and guide them through their day. If you walk in with a smile on your face going to work the students will have a smile on their face and be happy. They will mirror your energy and if they see you doing something they will also do it. You need to be mindful of your body language, facial expressions, and how you interact with others. 

Quotes:

"I asked teachers to identify the children presenting the most challenging behaviors in their classrooms. Interested in freedom, I needed the children who sing the most loudly rather than those who follow orders for quiet. These are the children who do not always cooperate, who cannot or will not comply with the demands of their teachers. They are the children who make trouble at school--the troublemakers. They have been my teachers and, in these pages, they will become yours"(Shalaby, pg.5). When a teacher takes the time to build a relationship with the student it makes the student want to come to class. It can also create a positive and welcoming classroom for your students so they can succeed in school. By gaining their trust chances are the students won't act up in the classroom and they can grow from an education standpoint and for their well-being. 

"These troublemakers-rejected and criminalized-are the children from whom we can learn the most about freedom. They make noise when others are silent. They stand up against every school effort to force conformity. They insist on their own way instead of the school's way. These young people demand their freedom even as they are simultaneously the most stringently controlled, surveilled, confined, and policed in our schools They exercise their power despite being treated as if they have none"(Shalaby, pg.6). These children are being treated like they are criminals and instead of regular human beings. This is a school, not a jail cell. 

Ethnic Studies

    This week in FNED 246, I got the chance to read, Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies by Christine E. Sleeter. It consists of, how ethnic studies can drive students to participate and engage in the classroom environment. As a future educator, it's meaningful to learn and understand your students in the classroom. Students want to learn and they want to feel like they belong in the classroom. Sleeter says, "It is important to recognize that ethnic studies grew from a desire to counterbalance both inaccuracies and the predominance of Euro-American perspectives that underlie mainstream curricula. Because of this bias, mainstream curricula contribute to the academic disengagement of students of color. Ethnic studies can reverse that disengagement, as the remainder of this paper shows"(Sleeter, pg 6). In education, teachers should involve students' cultures in their curriculum to engage students and learn about others. 

   For the past few months, I have been working at a daycare. During the first few weeks, it was crucial to get to know the kids. I learned their likes, dislikes, their behaviors towards certain things, and what family means to them. It is important to learn about your students and they will teach you something every day. In every classroom at the daycare there are pictures around the room of the children's families and the students tell the teacher or their friends who they are. 

    I can relate this reading to a video analysis that we did in class, Precious knowledge students wanted to learn and the teachers would make the ethnic studies more engaging in and out of the classroom setting.  The teachers were making a community with the students and treating them like they were part of a family. All the students wanted was to have an education and the ethics studies class helped them break out of their shells and go into the world and advocate for what they believe in. As a future educator, it is important to give your students a high-quality education and a feeling of togetherness. Build a community for your students so they can break out of their shells and express their feelings and opinions. 

 

The-Four-Is-of-Oppression

     In my FNED 246 class, we were assigned to read and watch a video on The-Four-Is-of-Oppression. The reading talks about oppression in social groups while other groups have the privilege. It is horrible that people think it is okay to treat others poorly. Anyone could be going through something that others don't know of. It's unacceptable to mistreat someone for their thoughts, opinions, race, gender, and culture. We live in a world that is filled with hatred towards others and where people think it's okay to walk all over someone instead of helping them out. People can be so disrespectful to others and can make them feel like they don't belong without letting them get the chance to speak for themselves. Everyone comes from a different background and could be raised differently than you. Why go out of your way to make someone's day worse? Instead, uplift someone and make them smile. A positive comment could have an impact on someone's day. 

-Ideological Oppression: "Is rooted in value systems that allow people to dehumanize, exploit, or harm other individuals and groups"(p.2).

-Internalized Oppression: "Addresses the way individuals absorb belief systems that then contribute to feelings of false supremacy or false deficiency within themselves in relation to others–especially those who are not part of the dominant social group"(p.2).

-Interpersonal Oppression: "Is the way internalized oppression is expressed between individuals or groups, both intentionally and accidentally. Interpersonal oppression has a wide spectrum of expression, from thoughtless comments (“women aren’t decisive leaders”) to violence"(p.3).

-Institutional Oppression: "Is the way oppression perpetuates socially through policies, laws, and social practices"(p.3).

Other People's Children By: Lisa Delpit

    In Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit examines that educators will teach their way instead of finding ways to support students by teaching a different way. If a student was having trouble in a lesson the teacher should find a way to explain it or teach it differently to help the student succeed in the lesson. She gave examples of what went on in a teacher's life “It’s really hard. They just don’t listen well. No, they listen, but they don’t hear- you know how your mama used to say listen to the radio, but you hear your mother? Well they don’t hear me. So I just try to shut them out so I can hold my temper. You can only beat your head against a brick wall for so long before you draw blood. If I try to stop arguing with them I can't help myself from getting angry. Then I end up walking around praying all day “Please lord, remove the bile I feel for these people so I can sleep tonight.” It's funny, but it can become a cancer, a sore. So, I shut them out. I go back to my own little cubby, my classroom, and I try to teach the way I know will work, no matter what those folks say. And when I get black kids, I try to undo the damage they did”(Delpit, p21-22). Educators need to find different approaches to educate students that have different learning needs. Knowing your students needs could help them throughout their education and years further.

    As a future educator, you need to know your students and learn their strengths and weaknesses to support them through their educational journeys. Educators should never assume or judge their students by their backgrounds or their culture. When you get to know your students you learn how they want to be taught and what part of learning they are struggling with. It's important to never make assumptions about your students but instead be there for them and learn from them. You never know what a student could be going through. You always want to help your students and gain their trust to help what they are going through.