Alfie Kohn

 Reflection blog

Growing up I never realized how your school environment affects the way students learn. In my elementary school, the hallways were always decorated according to the specific season or upcoming holiday. There were also paintings done on our walls of animals and other nature things. Each hallway was reflected among a certain grade level and in those hallways, there was student work that was displayed whether it was an art project or classroom work.  It always felt comforting being in that school and felt like a little community. Once I got to middle school and high school things changed drastically in terms of feeling like a community, the only things that would be hung up on the walls were lunch schedules and events that were coming up in the school. I feel like the environment you are learning in has a huge impact on the students learning, I have been to schools in Providence recently and observed classrooms and walked through hallways and I can see students having a harder time learning and being successful. The buildings were old, and the classrooms had unfinished construction and the schools just didn't have the resources which made it difficult for students to succeed. 

After looking at Alfie Kohn's chart on What to Look for in a Classroom, I am going to use the "good signs" that are labeled and see if the elementary school where I am doing my service learning follows those characteristics. 

Troublemakers

 For my blog, I will be using quotes from Troublemakers written by

Preface:  "That is when a child is singing loudly and sometimes more and more loudly, despite our requests for silence we might hear that song as a signal that someone is refusing to hear her voice." 

I chose this quote because the students who are labeled as troublemakers are the ones who are loud and disruptive to the rest of the class. They are seen as the kids who refuse to conform to the power of the school system and are instantly pushed out of classrooms. As for the students who always follow the rules and are compliant with the teachers' rules, they are looked at as more well-behaved and the "good kids." Shalaby is writing this to show that these "troublemakers" aren't bad kids with problems they are actually good kids, but it is their environment that dictates how they are in that setting.  

 Introduction: "I had power over him, and his success relied on his ability and willingness to accept that. I didn't much question these roles and expectations because they are normalized in teacher preparation programs and in the everyday life of classrooms..."  

I chose this quote because it signifies how normal it is for the teacher to be standing up in front of the classroom and the students to sit in their seats and obey the rules of the classroom. That is what teachers are taught to do but they don't teach teachers what to do if there is a student that doesn't respond well to taking "orders" the teacher's immediate reaction is to remove them from the classroom to solve the issue. The environment a young child is in has a huge impact on the behavior that is projected off of them. 

Reflection: I really enjoyed reading this text by Shalaby because it opened my eyes differently. Growing up in elementary school there was also that "troublemaker" in my class, and I noticed my teacher's first reaction was to try and get him to leave and go see the principal or a different teacher. After reading this article it made me realize that is not the answer in the majority of these cases. Teachers need to take the time to understand the student's individual needs and they might be trying to tell you something instead of just not wanting to learn or trying to be disrespectful. 

Remove Labels and Redefine Student Success | PBS Education 

I have attached this link that talks about why teachers shouldn't be labeling students as something they might not actually be. 

 

The Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies

Connection Post: In the reading, The Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies, Christine talks about how important ethnic studies is to students from different backgrounds and cultures. While reading this I was able to make a connection to another reading we did, The Four "I"s of Oppression, this concept is considered institutional oppression. The history taught in classrooms is by those who are in power and always have been in power, this is all-white history. Classrooms are not teaching students about black history or different cultures. This doesn't allow students from different cultures to learn anything about their background, which is why ethnic studies is important. Another connection I made was from the movie we had watched in class called "Previous Knowledge." In this film there was a Mexican American studies program being taught at Tucson High School. This program brought together so many students who didn't know where they belonged. It allowed them to learn more about their culture and specific identities. Once these students started to learn more about where they came from, they started to enjoy going to school and learning. This film connects with the reading by Christine because she talks about how important these ethnic studies are and how much it impacts a student's life. Christine talks about Carlos who just graduated high school and found school to be very uninteresting but when he ran into a friend who introduced him to a Chicano studies program at his local community college. A quote that stuck out to me in this reading was, "For the first time in his life, the curriculum was centered on his reality." And this is the very reason why so many people aren't interested in learning the curriculum because it is based on white history. Carlos went on to finish two years at the community college and completed his BA degree in Spanish.  This is a prime example of how important it is to include these studies and programs in the school system to acknowledge not only the standard American history but the history of those who come from all around the world. 

I have included a link to learn more about why ethnic studies are important from Yale University. 

Why ethnic studies matters | Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (yale.edu)   

The Four "I"s of Oppression

In the article and video, it talks about the different components that make up oppression. It tells us about how the dominant group having access to privilege and how they take advantage of the subordinate group. TREC talks about the four "I"s that are involved with oppression, ideological, internalized, interpersonal and institutional.  It has been enrooted in our cultural and historical backgrounds. I believe all parts of oppression are important but one that stood out to me the most was internalized oppression. When people who are dealing with oppression start hearing these stereotypes said about them from the dominant group it starts to become normalized. They start to accept that negative image of themselves which can lead to negative thoughts within themselves. As it said in the article this oppression has severe impacts such as anxiety, depression, self- hatred and even suicide. These feelings could turn into acts of violence if emotions are peaked. Being a part of the dominant group, we don't recognize the amount of hatred we put out into the world towards this specific group. As people who are part of that dominant group need to be more self-aware of their actions and words. 

I found this picture that shows the cycle of oppression and how it starts and continues to make an impact in our world. It shows that it starts with the fear of being different which seems to be the root of our issues. People are comfortable with what they know and when they are introduced to something that is different than what they know or see it triggers fear. 

cycle of oppression - Search Images (bing.com)