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About half way through my post, my computer started acting up and it keeps shutting of on me every 30 seconds or so. I can't finish posting my talking points tonight so I will finish tomorrow night. Sorry theres only half so far. :(

Talking points # 9 Kliewer

1. "Acknowledging students with Down syndrome as thoughtful, creative and interested learners with personal identities that distinguish them from all other people suggests an individual value that enhances any context containing the child."
I took this quote as a way of saying that Down syndrome students should be seen as creative thinkers just as every other child in the class is seen. They should not be held back from certain activities because it can only be for "creative thinkers", but should be told to engage in these activities because it may actually help them become thoughtful and creative. It will also keep them interested in learning because they would be able to participate and engage in the classroom conversations and activities. While letting the children engage in the activities, teachers also have to realize that these students may have different ways in expressing their ideas and they have to take it into consideration and include it into the classroom.

2. "Through citizenship, they came to recognized as thinking, creative individuals who added unique and valuable dimensions to the group."
I think that this was a really good statement to sum up alot of the article. These children were lucky to have people who cared enough to help them and see them as creative individuals who do have a say and have ideas about life and learning. If it weren't for this, these children may not have had such success as they did and would still be seen as individuals who cannot or are not capable of creative thinking and important ideas.

3. "The metaphor of "spread" illustrates the image of defect blanketing the unique humanness of students charged with the differences that matter. What is hidden under the cloak of incompetence is the individuality and personality of the human being.Teachers who valued their children as citizens recognized each student's individuality."
This quote reminded me of class today and how we talked about putting the child first and then the "label". A child should be seen as a child and an individual before being seen as disabled. If a teacher just labels his/her student with a disability, they are more likely to become distant with that student and the child will just fall farther behind. If the teacher embraces the student as a child and individual before seeing their disability it will help them to become comfortable and not be shut out. The teacher will never know what the child is capable of if they are blinded by the child's so-called disability and they will never show their knowledge if the teacher does not give them the opportunity.

I really enjoyed reading all the stories in the article. It helped me keep interest and it also is the sort of topic for stories. Seeing children face everyday life in school when they are labeled with disabilities, is much easier to understand than someone just saying, oh children that are labeled with disabilities have a hard time in school, period. He helped us see differences and similarities in didn't students experiences of going to school with a disability. I really believe that if all teachers and schools accepted disabled students into the classroom just as they do with the typical students and include them in all the classroom activities, more students with disabilities would advance and come out on top.

Promising Practices

Promising Practices was an interesting day for me. I was exhausted when I first arrived at RIC and was not looking forward to the long day ahead of me. I got there are went to go get my folder and walked around for a little while, checking out some of the tables with a few girls from class. Then Tara and I headed off to our first session. The first session was the Teaching Transgender in schools. I got a lot out of this session. I only knew a few things about transgender and knew even less about children who are transgender. The first thing the presenter explained to us was the way people feel when they are trangender. They feel "that they were born in the wrong body". Then she told us a story a little girl who is transgender. She was biologically born a male and at six years old realized that he was "supposed" to be a girl. Now after undergoing his changes he is known as Josie and goes around to schools and gives speeches so that people will be able to understand how to accept children who are transgender and also to explain a little bit about it so that the children won't feel so ignorant to the idea. Two things that caught my eye in this session were the fact that Rhode Island was the second state to make gender expression and gender identity part of their school policy. The second thing that caught my eye was the statistic that she gave us; over 50% of transsexuals will have had atleast one suicide attempt by their 20th birthday, some as young as seven. That just shocked me. Most of these attempts are because they weren't being accepted and didn't feel comfortable. It was defianlty a shock that the statistic was that high.

The second session I attended was A.L.L.I.E.D. This was my favorite part of the day. This session touched my heart like nothing ever before. A few things I wrote down in my notes during this session was, "don't use minority, used underrepresented". I think that this is a better term to use than minority, because I think that minority sometimes comes packaged with a negative vibe, when it really shouldn't be. I also wrote down something that Tara talked about during the session and we had also talked about it outside of class. It was empathy versus sympathy. I never really thought of how much a difference each one is from eachother. When Tara explained it, it totally clicked, and I actually felt bad because I think that I sometimes do show sympathy in a way that could be taken wrong, and I feel like I might have made someone feel worse before when I was really trying to help. After this I try and watch how I state things when I am talking about an emotional situation. I think this group is the best thing at Rhode Island College. It gives students a chance to vent about things that they normally hold in or feel uncomfortable to talk about with some people. This session was very personal and I loved the poems that the group members read aloud. They were direct and too the point but made their point loud and clear. I wish that everyone could have attended that session because I believe they could of learned a lot from it. When I was in this session it really reminded me of Johnson. I feel like in the Allied group they can all use the "words" that everyone is so scared to say. I think this helps them trust and understand each other. If only everyone could listen to Johnson's ideas, maybe we would be able to take a step forward and remove all of our prejudices.

I thought Tricia Rose was a great key note speaker. She mentioned so many things that we talk about in class. Like someone said in class the other day, "It was like she was their to talk about our class". She mentioned things about indivial identity and group identity which reminded me of Rodriguez even though it was a little bit different. She also gave points about Johnson and how we need to be able to say the words and be able to bring up painfulness in a situation in order to have an effect on it. Some of the things I took from the Tricia Rose speech was how she talked about people have to been seen as an individual and a group in order to be understood and accepted. You can't generalize someone just because they are gay, lesbian, latino or african american. You can understand their individualism as a person and then say that they are associate with that specific group, but they are their own person. Even though someone is identified in a particular group, doesn't mean they are like everyother person also identified in that group.
I love how Tricia was more of a story teller, than a lecturer. She had the audience engaged and was outgoing and enthusiastic. I defiantley think that she was the best picked for the key note and had much to teach us about what she knows and what she has encountered. I'm really glad I went to Promising Practices. I took a lot from it and I also grabbed a few panphlets that I may be able to use in the future.



I found this video and I had to add it. It went so well with my first session abotu Trangender. Hope you Like it.

Talking points #8 Anyon

1. "Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps."
Anyon talks about how the working class schools are evaluated differently than the other schools. She talks about how in math the kids are shown how to do a problem and aren't taught why they do it and how it relates to other things in math. I think this isn't really fair. It basically is putting children behind children in other schools. In order to actually learn something you have to understand it, and these children probably don't understand it, they are just "memorizing" the steps. I think the children also should be taught how it relates to real life situations and where you might use that math again.

2. "Work tasks do not usually request creativity. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form."
I thought this was really important to being up because creativity in a child is very important. Children all have creative minds when they are growing up. Adults tend to take that away from them, and that is actually a bad thing. Having a creative mind can help children in school and also in their everyday life. Creative thinking is part of being mentally healthy and helps them grow better cognitivly. It helps they develop problem solving and being able to see things from different points of view.

3. "In the affluent professional school, work is creative activity carried out independently. The students are continually asked to express and apply ideas and concepts. Work involves individual thought and expressiveness, expansion and illustration of ideas, and choice of appropriate method and material."
This whole section comletly shocked me. It was rediculous that this school recieved so much higher treatment and curriculum than the middle class and working class schools. They got to use their creativness and were not only shown the steps to problems and writing, but were also explained why and how they work. This school is preparing students better for life and for further school, whereas the lower schools weren't doing that, which is completly unfair because all schools should be equal.

I didn't really enjoy reading this article. It was hard to get into at the beginning and only got easier to read when it was explaining the schools. I like how the article broke down the information by type of school, but I think she could have made it a little more interesting and intriging to read. This reminds me of seperate but equal. These schools seem completly unequal and it isn't fair that just because their parents are of the working class that these children aren't prepared for white-collar jobs or anything out of the norm of their enviornment.

talking points # 7 gender issues

When we were first assigned this topic for our seventh blog it made me think of a paper I had to wirte in writing 100 last semester. It was a paper on gender stereotypes and a majority of it had to do with so called "women jobs and men jobs". It reminded me of this because I think that this plays a big role in why there are gender issues in the classroom. Society molds our minds into thinking some jobs are better suited for women and some for men. For example; a nurse is seen as a female role, a doctor as a male, a police officer as a male and a teacher as a female. This is brought inside the classroom even though it isn't really noticed. I think that teachers should try and get a child out of stereotypes of jobs by trying to read books and do activities where the woman or man is doing a job they wouldn't normally be seen doing. They should also post pictures around the classroom of female cops, male nurses, female firefighters and so on.
While doing research I found many articles that talk about how teachers are biased and do not even know it. Many teachers focus alot of attention on boys rather thn girls, calling on boys more and giving them more encouragement. This is between male teachers and female teachers. I also came across an article that talked about how boys act out and disrupt the class when they are frustrated and girls tend to be quieter and participate less. Teachers often make the boys participate more in order for them to pay attention and disrupt more, which is taking away from the girls and making it harder to notice when one of the girls is withdrawing from conversations. Much of the material I read talked about how much more boys get into the sciences, mathematics and construction rather than girls because boys are pushed more to do better in those areas than girls. Girls are told the answer to questions in those areas where as boys are forced to come up with the answer on their own.
In order for education in schools to become unbiased, teachers have to realize that they do biased behaviors without even knowing, and they have to watch for them and change them. Many schools have workshops now for this, for the teachers and students. Some schools have even come up with clubs and organizations for girls that are interested in science and math.

Tim Wise and Brown Vs. Board

-Watching Tim Wise's videos was interesting. He made many good points on how racism still exist's today and that unless people of color are "medicore" as white people, than racism and inequailty will always exist. He also references to Brown vs. board and how it may have stopped inequailty, but it did not stop racism and racism is still a factor in today's society, which is in a way making people of color unequal. Wise also ties in Baraka Obama with racism still existing. He explains just because we have a black president, does not mean that racism has stopped. It does not mean that black people have easier lives all of a sudden and doesn not mean that people who are racist repect him.
-There are few colored people who are repescted as a higher authority, and everything about them says SCWAAMP except for their skin color. Obama for example lives by the "white power" laws. He lives in an upscale neighborhood, speaks "proper" language, is straight and married, is a male, is in the higher bracket of economic status and is able-bodied. This plays a huge role in why we except these people of color as higher authorities. I Took a class in highschool about african americans and we learned a lot about Obama and why people would vote for him. A reason we discussed is that even though he is african american, his skin is very light compared to what people envision when they think "black". I think that this is a small part in it but I think it does play a role in it.
Since I took the african american history class, I also learned a lot about Brown Vs. Board. We dd whole units on such events as this, that were seen as a turning point in african history. I agree with Tim about this subject in how it ended segregation but not racism. My dad is probably a good example of this. He grew up in the 50's when segregation was going on, and to this day my father is still racist. We have fights over dinner about racism issues and I don't blame him for his beliefs even though I think he is wrong, it is just how he was brought up and what he told was the right thing to feel.

So..basically I didn't know that we weren't doing the normal syllabus readings so I did a blog on the Wise reading instead of the video. So i'm going to go and watch the videos and blog again. Guess that's what happends when your tired. :)

Thinking Points #6 Wise

1. "Once again, white preference remains hidden because it is more subtle, more ingrained and isn't called white preference, even if thats the effect."
This quote is following the paragraphs about Michigan and how it awards points to different groups of people. It awards 16 points to students who are form the upper peninsula from Michigan. This area however, is mostly white. The quote is talking about how when anger is risen from this topic, it is always about the minorities revieving an upper hand with getting points; and what epople don't realize is that white people are getting an upper hand also. The reason people don't get angry about this is because it isn't "advertised". Whites aren't getting points because their application has a check mark next to the white box, but because they give points to areas where white people make up the majority. White preference is hidden, and even ignored because it has "power".

2. "Very telling is the oft-heard comment by whites, 'if only I were black, I would have gotten into my first choice college.'"
When I read this part I was amazed. I can't believe that white students actually believe this. I know that white priviledge isn't acknowledged, but to think that you didn't get into a school because someone who applied was black and had gotten in over you is rediculous. Whites have the highest chance of getting into college over any other race that applies. The reason this students probably don't get in because they didn't meet the schools criteria. I also like how Wise explains that not only does the quote state that the student didn't get in because they lost their spot to someone of color, but it also indicates that the white student doesn't believe that they would have any negative effects on their life if they switched their race. As if their life would stay exactly the same except for getting into the school.

3. "ask a fish what water is and you'll get no answer. Even if fish were capable of speech, they would likely have no explanation for the element they live in every minute of every day of thier lives. Water simply is. Fish take it for granted."
I really liked this quote that Wise put in when I read this. I thought it was a great comparison for the white priviledge. It tells exactly what it would be like to ask a white person about white priviledge. They would most likely have nothing to say about it because they don't really realize it is there. It reminded me of the McIntosh article we read and how everyone in class and even she didn't realize how much white priviledge we have in everyday life until she wrote it down. It sad that how so much power whites have because of their color, isn't even noticed.

I really enjoyed this article. I think it was easy to follow along and he had a lot of good points. His fish comparison was great and I don't think anyone would be able to come up with a better one. I also think that this article went along with McIntosh's article alot so that was another reason it was a good read. I could make alot of connections to things we have talked about in class and articles we have read. I think that in order to change the white priviledge, we need to teach it and analyze it in our schools and communities.

Thinking Points #5 Kahne and Westheimer

1. "Educators and Legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling".

I picked this quote because I think it is the main point of the entire article. I do believe that the service learning program does affect the community and classroom. It allows people in the community who like to work with children and feel that they would be a huge help in the classroom, to be able to share their knowledge and help inside a school. It also allows the teacher to have some help when they are the only teacher inside the classroom. It also gives students a chance to be helped by someone who is not their normal classroom teacher and helps them understand manors towards new elders they have not worked with.

2. "In the moral domain, service learning activities tend toward two types of relationships. Relationships that emphasize charity we will call "giving." Those that aim primarily to deepen relationships and to forge new connections we will call "caring."

This was interesting to me because I never thought of it this way. I always thought of it as giving back to the community and caring came along with it. But after they explained it I kind of understood what the difference was between them and why they are seperate.

3. "Currently, the most broadly supported goal for the service learning activities is to convey to students the importance of charity".
I think this quote is really important to the piece because it gives meaning to service learning. It explains that there is a legit reason for students to cooperate with it. It also explains how important it is to give to the community through charities and helping out.

I liked reading this article, but it wasn't the most intriguing article we have read this semester. I didn't have alot of feed back while reading it, so it made it sort of difficult to stay interested in it. I did learn some new things from the article that may come in handy with the conversations we will have tomorrow.

Talking Points #4 Christensen

1. "Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live and dream".
I picked this quote because it is exactly true. So many things in our society depict what we should live like, look like, and act like. Christensen mentions the cartoons and children's movies like snow white and cinderella. These stories all show that everyone should be skinny and beautiful (to society's means. i.e. blonde hair, skinny, perfect features) and never lets children know that everyone is beautiful in their own way. If you don't look like snow white, cinderella, or bell, then you are not beautiful is basically what they show. I really believe that media has a huge role in not only children's self-esteem but also adults who carry around doubts about themselves.

2. "When women do appear they look like Jessica Rabbit or playboy centerfolds- even in many of the new and "improved" children's movies".
I picked this quote because it took my words right out of my mouth. As soon as i read about how women are rarely seen in the shows, it popped into my head that when they are present they are portrayed as sex characters most of the time. Wearing sexy little dresses and not appearing to be very smart.

3. "Many who watched cartoons before we started our discussion say they can no longer enjoy them. Now, instead of seeing a bunch of ducks in clothes , they see the racism, sexism, and violence that swim under the surface of the stories".
I think that it is important that these students finally see the cartoons like this because if we don't notice this going on through everyday media we will never be able to change it. The younger you are the more suceptable you are to images and these children are learning this stuff through the cartoons that entertain them. If we are teaching our children these stereotypes, how are we ever going to make a difference in society when its starting so young.

I really enjoyed reading Christensen. I liked how she explained what she did in the classroom with her children and how she tied the activities together to make them see the negativity in these cartoons. I thought it was very interesting to read. Alot of the article reminded me of the new dove self-esteem commercials and how they have the workshops for younger girls so they can think of themselves as beautiful. I am going to try and post one off of youtube when I am finished. I think that it is important to discuss this because this happens everyday; everytime a child watches his/her favorite cartoon and most parents are oblivious to it.

Thinking Points #3

1."One way that a normalizing curriculum or text works is by selecting students with a "selective tradition".
In this quote Carlson talks about how every curriculum is selected carefully. Not every tradition is brought up in curriculum and usually it has a reason. The traditions and cultures they bring up in lessons has to be productive and mainly something everyone agrees with. Things like homosexuality is not part of the curriculum because it is not seen the same from everyone, even though it is an everyday part of life. Keeping things like this out of curriculum, makes it seem wrong, which is not true at all. I think adding this stuff into curriculum would help people see it from a different perspective and it might actually make some children more comfortable. If a child has two mommys, or two daddys, they might not have to explain it to another child if the other child had already learned something about it.

2. "Some young people, particularly in big cities, are beginning to being their "out" identities to high school, affirming who they are and asserting their rights."
Carlson talks about how it is getting more popular for young gays to speak out about their sexuality. She talks about how some schools set up gay and lesbian clubs where they can speak outloud about their feelings and their sexuality. This reminded me kind of, of the club that Professor Bogad runs where people can just go and talk about how they feel, and it can be about anything. I think that these kids that set up these kinds of things in school are really smart. It gives them a place to go and talk, since school doesn't seem to give them a place to do this comfortably.

3. "5. a recent study of gay men in four cities, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburg, concluded that one third of all currently uninfected twenty year old gay and bisexual men will become HIV positive by the time they are thirty, and that the majority of twenty year old men in the sample with contract AIDS."
Carlson states this quote in her notes at the end of her piece. I was shocked when I read this. I have heard before that gay men are the majoirty of people who contract aids but I never knew how many actually did. I think that statistics like this are the reason that homesexuality is frowned upon in schools.

In conclusion, Carlson's piece wasn't as exciting to read as the other pieces we read in class but it was interesting. She didn't use stories, she used more of facts and ideas about how she feels and thinks. I liked that she talked about how the school curriculum is very specified and I thought to myself that it must be specified to the christian, whiteness ideas since that is what the power is made up of. This is another reason why we don't study homosexuality in school because it is "against" the christian belief.

Thinking points #2 Aria

1. "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease."
This quote reminded me of class. It reminded me of the day we were talking about how when a person who does not fit the scwaamp categories, scans a room when they first walk in, trying to find somewhere they feel will be comforting to sit. It reminded me of this because people scan a room, looking for people who are like them; gay, lesbian, black, latino, etc. It would make it alot easier for these people to walk into a classroom if the majority of people in it fit their category rather than the white persons. I could understand how Richard would have felt way more comfortable if he walked into class and his teacher was speaking Spanish, because that is was he was used to and that was his "comfort zone".

2. "At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an american citizen".
In this quote Richard tells how it took seven years of living in America to finally feel like an American citizen. His story that leads up to this tells that he didn't feel like one because he didn't speak the primary language. He spoke his private language at his house and that was the only language he was comfortable speaking. He shows that learning the American language, which is also white-based, is the only way he felt like a citizen. Even though he should of felt like one for seven years prior, because he technically was one because he was born in the U.S.

3. "They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individually by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality".
Richard is explaining that in order to achieve public individuality; become an individual within the American society, you have to loose your private individuality. He states that some people may think that publically and privatly individualized is the same thing, when really you can be one of two ways. And they don't realize that someone is suffering giving up their private identity to become and individual in society.

I really enjoyed reading Richard Rodriguez's story. It was an easier read out of many that we have read and it was easy to relate to. I thinked he way of telling about his life rather than just stating facts about it. He included some specific days that clearified some of the ideas he was talking about. I also could relate some of his words to stuff that we have talked about in class and some of the other stories we have read this semester. I really think this article helps in trying to understand how a bilingual student might feel while they are younger and some of the complications they might go through that teachers might not necessarily see.

Edit McIntosh post

I had to edit my McIntosh post because I didn't do the assignment correctly the first time I posted. I forgot to do the quotes. So I added them in. Hope you like it :)

Think Points #1 McIntosh

1. "As a white person, i realized i had been taughtabout racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white priviledge, which puts me at an advantage".
This quote is really important to the text. It sets basis that white people are most definatley priviledged, but we are taught not to see it or acknowledge it. It is not taugh in schools or at home to see that because you are white you have certain rights in society. Now the type of rights like a law, more like "control of power" rights. Like that we are able to be around white people if we wanted to be. Everywhere I go, I know there will be a white person there. Eeven places you expect there would not be very many white people, im sure you could find atleast one. So though we are priviledge, we are not taught to see it or even really talk about it.

2. " I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are overpriviledged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged".
This quote grabbed my attention because of a discussion i have had in one of my classes in high school. Men defiantley notice and acknowledge that women are at a disadvantage and are willing to have conversations about it. But if the guys are said to be the ones that are priviledged, they try to deny it. They will not accept that they do have an advantage over women. They know that it is easier to get a job if you are a high class white male, they know that we have only had male leaders in our government, but they are reluctant to admit that they are priviledged. I think that this ignoring of a priviledge is a good fact in why whites are still at a priviledge. Even though we know that other cultures and races in our society are underpriviledged, we don't look at ourselves as priviledged. We see problems in our life just like everyone else does, so that doesn't make us seem priviledged at all. But when you truley think about it and look at McIntosh's bulleted points in her text you do notice the priviledges white people have.

3. "I have come to see white priviledge as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which was "meant" to remain oblivious."
I like that McIntosh used this example of what she sees white priviledge as. She is absolutley right about the "unearned" part. Because we did not earn the rights we have as whites. What makes me earn the right to be stopped less times than a black male or female would be? I didn't do anything special to earn that right. I wasn't able to choose my race, and therefore I shouldn't be more priviledged because i was born the same race as the "rule-makers". And these priviledges aren't used by whites at special times, they are in our everyday lives, just like McIntosh states in her piece. All the bullets she states are mostly things she has an advantage in through her everyday life. Just with her sitting down and writing them down she named 26 of them. I'm sure if she actually sat down longer and with more people, they would be able to come up with more than that.

I like that she started out talking about how males don't acknowledge the priviledge they have over women and then ended up tying that into how we, as white people don't acknowledge that we are priviledged over african americans. The bulleted points she made were well used to clearify exactly what she was talking about being white priviledged. While i was reading it, i was saying, "oh yeah, i never thought about that as being a priviledge".
When i was younger i used to always play with dolls. I had all sorts of dolls; big dolls, little dolls, barbie dolls, dolls that went to the bathroom and dolls that actually ate, but i never realized thats every single one of those dolls were white. When i thought about, when i was little i never even saw a doll that was colored. Even my hispanic and african american friends had white dolls. Now i go over my boyfriends house and his little sister has tons of african american dolls. She makes all of her characters different races on games. Her parents think its really weird that she does this, but i tell them its a good thing. She has been brought up throughout school and throughout her home life to think that everyone of different color skins are equal. She doesn't see color like most of our parents and grandparents generations do. But besides that, i never really thought of my toys being a priviledge when i was younger. It defiantley was easier to go into a store and find a white colored doll rather than a dark skinned doll.
I defiantley see white priviledge a little bit clearler now that i read her piece. She was helpful in explaining exactly what it is and gave examples of things in everyday life that i could relate to. She was an easy read but a very informative.

about me :)

My name i Tiffany Godbout. I am a sophmore at Rhode Island College. I am majoring in Phys. ed. Health ed. Since I was little I played soccer, softball and basketball. I cannot play for RIC because i don't have enough time in my schedule. I do play soccer on an indoor league on Thursday nights. :)