EDF2085-Reflection #8

My parents always taught me to be happy with what I have. I think I am fine in my social class, my parents always taught me to share what I have with others. They taught me that we were always middle class working people because we work hard for what we have. The media makes it feel as if being high class is the way to go and is so easy to accomplish, and everything has to be labels, designers, brand name, you name it. This is why everyone tries so hard getting all these expensive things because they see how the media flaunts what they have. Everyone tries to follow celebrities because they are the famous ones. When it comes to gender, my parents always taught me that baseball, football, and basketball was for boys, and girls had to do ballet or cheerleading. This is what all the girls in my family did, we danced and cheered. My brother played baseball for a bit. But, this is the way I was brought up, that girls really weren’t allowed to do masculine things. The media teaches us that no matter what your gender you can do anything. You can play volleyball, become an actor/actress, and regardless of all that succeed in life in whatever you do. I was taught that in a relationship the guy is the one that has to ask you out, for your number, and ask to marry you. The media teaches this also through different romance movies, which is how they reinforce it. My parents always taught me the right thing about sexual relations and they shouldn’t be any done before marriage. I have learned this in my schools throughout my whole life in a private Catholic school. I was always taught that is something that should be done if you truly love someone and have certain feelings for them. You shouldn’t just go around doing that because you can get diseases, or get pregnant and regret it later. But, on the other hand the media does not teach this. They have explicit message in their songs and there are constant rumors about different sexual relations with people other than their wife/ husband. The media is the big influence for many people in today’s society. Many people think that just because it is in the media it is the right thing to do, but it isn’t actually.

EDF1005-Reflection #10

“The teacher is the gatekeeper” in my opinion is a statement that proves to actually impact. The teacher is the one that controls everything in the classroom. She/he is the one that has access and authority for the students to pass on to the next grade level. She/he is the one that unlocks the door for the next years to come in their academics. It is up to he/him to change their lives. She/he is the one that holds access to the key for that gate. They are the ones that help the children become involved and are the ones that influence what will be learned. They manage the classroom and are the ones that “direct traffic”. They choose who can talk and when to talk. It is up to them if students can interact with each other and the time and place for that. Teachers need to find a way to benefit their students with their gatekeeping. They need to find ways to make the learning environment for students somewhere fun. Sometimes they control the classroom too much and talk most of the class and they don’t give the students a chance to respond or react to the facts or situations preached to them. This will sometimes cause boredom to the students and make the students look at the clock the whole class time and it will close their mind from learning. At the end of the day it is all up to the teacher. This is why it is so important to have a good teacher you can learn from, not one that will make you tune out. They are the ones that control the atmosphere around in the classroom. It is all up to them. It has a huge impact on how the children will learn. It all depends if the teacher wants to take action and become a gatekeeper. The teacher is the gatekeeper because it is up to her if she wants her class to interact with each other or not. She is the lead of the class and has to be followed and listened to. Teachers teach to help students and make a difference in a child’s life. They ask questions to get students involved, which most of the class time consists of this talking. At the end of the day it is all up to the teacher, and her style of teaching, and if she wants to be the gatekeeper or not. It is difficult to control students to not be able to communicate with one another, and most of the time they are tempted to. This is where teachers play an important role into directing when, where and how is the best time for the students to talk in a classroom.

EDF1005-Reflection #9

Sumerian schools had to begin paying tuition which is how the teachers were paid. It mostly consisted of the wealthy because the poor couldn’t afford the tuition or time need to earn an education. The Sumerians began to learn how to write which is the reason as to why we have records of things that happened in the past. Students used to write on practice tablets which are how we now have evidence of what they did. Teachers wrote a lot about school life and their aim for the school was to be “professional”, even though researchers say at that time they most likely didn’t use it for the same meaning we do today. Sumerian schools played a huge role in different forms of writing. But, in Egypt they learned their occupation which is what they will be doing in the future. Boys followed the careers that were in the family. Some were either home schooled or trained to be scribes. The students pretty much learned on their own. They would write down what the teacher wrote or memorized it, for arithmetic for example. Physical education was only taught to the prince. Not everyone was allowed to learn all types of tasks; each person had their own occupation they were in charge of learning. The teacher plays a huge part in a classroom. He/she is the example of the room and they demonstrate how we have to play our role. It is important to be able to engage with the teacher unlike what they did in ancient Egypt or Sumerian. There needs to be a relationship formed between the teacher and the student. There are certain subjects and material that needs to be covered with some sort of explanation, not everything can be learned on one’s own. You need to hear personal testimonies and scenarios on everyday life. There are different tricks learned, ways to learn things faster, and all this is done with the help of a teacher. You need a personal relationship with the teacher for the learning to become more effective. It isn’t the same as just lecturing to the whole classroom. This is why teachers are so effective in the class in the role they play in today’s society. Now, we learn more than one subject and try to be best all around with the help of all our teachers. Women and men can choose whatever occupation they choose to do and not have to be worried to be a boy or a girl to do certain things.

EDF1005-Reflection #8

The state passed down several laws to change and improve education in schools. These laws were called the three waves of educational reform. The first wave reform saw schools as a national defense and economic competition. Many companies were complaining that their employees didn’t know how to read or write and do basic skills that they figured were supposed to be known. Students were scoring poorly on international state exams. They believed that if they were to establish new schools that they would perform better. Corporations were frustrated with the fact that their employees didn’t have the basic skills of reading and writing. The second wave reform started with a couple of important educators. They wanted to focus on school practices, and suggested teachers should cover fewer topics but more profoundly. They wanted to create more potential for the school principals and give them more authority to form structure as well as in the corps of the teachers with things like salary and creating more trained ones. The third wave noticed the needs of those children that needed help financially and didn’t have a family structure at home to help them continue and do well with their education future. They formed full service schools which would provide these students with transportation, health care, and different social services. School policy was replaced by children’s policy which would react to the multiple needs of children instead of just education. This wave provided a variety of community services. In my opinion the one that has been most dominant has been the first wave which is said to still be in use today. Almost the whole population knows how to read and write which is why they have their jobs. I believe it is a necessity to know these basic skills in order to stay stabilized in a company. If not, then you will be constantly transferring from job to job because you can’t deal with it. Also, students are improving in standardized testing which is the result of grading each school as an A, B, C, D or F. This is a huge part of that grade, and teachers are also preparing their students throughout the year for these types of tests. This wave is important because without a good score on most of those tests you wouldn’t be able to precede to the next grade level nor get a decent job.

EDF1005-Reflection #7

Early Egyptians were sometimes trained in the home relating a lot to the modern home schooling that exists today. Many of the sons took on the inheritance or profession of their fathers, a lot like we do today with family businesses. All parents tutored their children except for the King. Their lives were a lot like the adults and they didn’t have much of a childhood. They had to take on responsibilities early. The less wealthy were taught craftsmanship, fishing, and so on. For the girls it was sewing, spinning, and cooking. You would ensue whatever occupation your guardian did and if you were less wealthy you learned how to harvest, sow, and catch fish. They would be sent out on apprenticeships to learn all these tasks and they were taught by colleagues. If they failed, they had to return any payment made by the father. The students that were learning to be scribes however had it tough. They were disciplined by being hit, had to sit Indian style, attended school from morning to afternoon, and learned different styles of writing. The Egyptians had many temples that had been discovered but none of them were public or open to everyone as they are today. Only the priesthood or King was allowed to enter the sanctuary or ceremonies. They all had a particular duty. The Sumerians which settled in Mesopotamia developed the cuneiform style of writing. On the other hand, Egyptians developed something called hieroglyphics. The temple schools for the Mesopotamians were where the children learned how to write cuneiform since it was very difficult to learn. In Mesopotamia the main people that they wanted educated were the priests and scribes. They learned everything from writing to medicine and religion unlike the Egyptians. Apprenticeship was covered in the Code of Hammurabi. The Mesopotamians recorded everything as soon as they began to write. The teacher would write it on one side of the clay tablet and the child would copy it the same exact way on the other. This is very familiar to what elementary school teachers do nowadays for children to learn how to write their name or what not. They either write it on the board and they have to copy it or they write it in their notebook for them to trace. This is how the school for scribes worked out.

EDF2085-Reflection #7

Rites of passage are stages of your life, like becoming an adult or getting married. It is what separates you from your previous “stage”. They represent many cultural aspects. Usually the most common rites of passage are the evolving into adulthood, which usually includes initiations that last for some period of time. To the Sambia’s the most important part of a man was his semen and the most important part of a woman was her menstrual blood. They believe when the woman gets her menstrual cycle for the first time it means she is ready for sex, marriage, or to give birth. The men on the other hand are said to be born with nothing, they begin to produce the semen during adolescence but with the help of a certain process they have to undergo, an initiation that takes several years. An example of rites of passage is that when the young boys reach 7-10 years old they are taken away from their mother/home. They then live with men who teach them the key acts of maturity and show them ritual secrets. All this happens for ten years or so. They teach them all these different ways and things they are supposed to know at this age which relates a lot to formal education, because in the end they see if they are finally ready almost like a test. Just like formal education, they are tested at the end of the year to see if they’ve learned all the material and are ready to go on to the next grade level. Facing Mt. Kenya they circumcise both sexes as their way of uniting them into the organization. They include dancing and singing ceremonies before the actual operation. The girls are put on a special diet before the initiation and have to have their head shaved as well. A race is performed and a boy is the judge of who wins, the next day the operations occurs. In Sitting Quietly the two boys had to kill something in which would bring them into the life of adulthood. They were frightened and tired when they had to face it, but they would not show it. They finally overcame it and were known as “men” in the city and no longer “good for nothing”. Rite of passage shows you and teaches you how to do things into becoming an adult or becoming more superior just like education does. A formal education helps you for the future, into becoming an adult, and teaches you what you need to know to progress.

EDF1005-Reflection #6

With the invention of writing we have been able to discover ancient civilizations due to the language recorded or form of earlier writing such as pictographs. The establishment of writing brought about the alphabet, advanced language, and different forms of communication including pictures. Everything in today’s society develops and advances more and more as time goes by. For example, I’m sure in the future we will have virtual teachers, or even flying cars with no gasoline used. The invention of writing progressed and began to build civilizations and bring people together. The Sumerians used tokens to keep track of their inventory of merchandise and it helped them economically to label things. In other civilizations glyphs were used to record different events. Thanks to all those pictographs and symbols used to represent sounds we have developed to the invention of writing which takes place in today’s world and I don’t know where we would be without it. Everything around us is revolved in writing, from text messaging, writing letters, television, billboards…almost everything around us! Writing gave us written records of what we have today which is the most important thing in society today. This is how it became so crucial to ancient civilization because they began to learn from other civilizations and people began to grow more knowledge about things. Civilization began to develop more and more as time went by. It is said writing began in Mesopotamia, and an earlier civilization invented the alphabet. Without writing we wouldn’t know what the earlier civilizations invented, therefore we wouldn’t have developed anything or become such an advanced society like we are today. We have to give appreciation to writing and the invention of pictographs and hieroglyphics we know what happened in the ancient times. It has lead us to many great things in the world. Each culture or civilization for example like the Chinese, South Asia, Egyptians, Sumerians, Mesopotamians—each had their own form of writing that they invented. The Egyptians began hieroglyphics and from there many things arose.

EDF1005-Reflection #5

Initiation rites and rites of passage ceremonies have a relation to teaching in which they both accept new people into their group, society, and classroom. They welcome all the newcomers, just as teachers do. It is the coming of a new member. But, sometimes initiations are done for different purposes. For example, they may be done for an introduction to a group or a transformation that has come about such as becoming an adult. Initiation rites relate to learning because when an initiation occurs, you may have to learn new things, customs, beliefs, or even new responsibilities come about. The new members and old member both learn the same way it happens with teaching and learning. When you are teaching someone something they are learning the material or technique, but you are also learning something new about them that you never knew before over this period of time. You get to learn a new experience, and we learn through our experiences that form paradigms. An example of a rite of passage is the Sambia, they used their strong men for war, and men who were able to reproduce were to be put with women. It is the same thing as if you were in a classroom. For example, it’s the first day of school and you don’t know your teacher, she welcomes you and shows you her customs, technique, and way of doing things in the classroom. You begin to learn all these things and master them which help you develop. It is just like an initiation, you are shown the new customs and way of doing things you believe in, and then you learn, succeed, and begin to grow in the hierarchy. Mount Kenya also has a strange ritual that deals with girls shavings their heads and carrying a bell around there calf, then they have to race to a tree and are considered sacred. Most of these initiations are traditions that have been passed for a long time, and we have continued them to keep the culture going. Everyone has different ways of celebrating occasions or different parts of a person’s life. In my family we don’t do any crazy initiations but I have heard that Jews for example celebrate when the boy becomes a certain age. Everyone has a different way of doing things in life, which brings us back to what culture is all about.

EDF2085-Reflection #6

It must have been really tough for the “Little Rock Nine” to consistently be rejected from a school. It must have been so difficult for those nine students that year to accept any one since no one decided to accept them in the first place. I can just imagine wanting to go to school to learn and not being allowed in because of your race. I really would not have liked to be one of those students at the time. I believe this was really unfair; they should have integrated those schools in Arkansas the same way almost all the other ones in the other states had began to do. I would have been so angry with the way they were treating me, especially with all the screaming and shouting as if I were some sort of alien. I wouldn’t have done what they did in the cafeteria because that’s just not something I was taught to do. But after so much frustration that had be held in for so long I’m not going to say I wouldn’t have done that because I probably would have if I was in their position. I probably would have just kept walking and tried to ignore them, even though this is easier said than done. I don’t think I would have shouted anything back because it really wouldn’t solve anything, they most likely would have just laughed. It must have been a terrible position that I would have not wanted to be in. I would have been super frightened to know that I needed to enter the school with armed guards. I wouldn’t have felt safe at all because you never know if you are going to be someone’s rival or target. I believe there was no reason to have armed guards with them to enter. What were they going to do that no other white student would not have done? Thankfully, the Supreme Court passed a law and the Little Rock School Board committee resigned and the case was solved after more than a few years. . Finally, after insisting and fighting for their rights they finally integrated the schools. I admire the “Little Rock Nine” because they did not give up; they kept fighting for their rights until they got them. They struggled a lot but in the end they got what they wanted and deserved. This is the problem nowadays. Most people have problems with something and it is super unfair and no one does anything about it because they were denied or rejected the first time.

EDF2085-Reflection #5

I learned that culture isn’t just where we came from or just our customs. It is what makes us individuals in today’s society. Culture is experiences, laws, customs, and morality all put together. To some experts, such as Lewis Morgan, he saw culture as a pattern that happened over and over. Every culture is valued the same, not one is more important than the other. They are all given the same evaluations. There can be different meanings of culture. It could be a variety of things such as different customs, attitudes, groups, and rituals. As well as things learned and new things formed because of our experience. I also gained insight on culture being something you learn, not something you are born with. I always believed culture could be being Cuban for instance, something you are born into automatically. For example if you are a Jew, you are not born a Jew but you learn and are taught to be one. Culture isn’t something that is individualized; it is something that is shared amongst others. We learn with others’ conflicts, the way they communicate or solve their own problems. Intercultural competence is being able to accept other cultures other than your own. In order to be able to fulfill this you must learn to be nonjudgmental. With all this comes knowing how to communicate correctly with others. It is important to be able to listen to our peers because one word might mean something else to someone else in their culture for instance. The way in which we interpret messages listened or received depends on our culture on how we react towards it. Responding and communicating the message is shaped by our culture. Many words or phrases we use might mean something different to someone else of another culture. I learned every culture has behavioral constraints and emotional constraints which are different ways of reacting when angry, sad, mad, or customs done. For example some other cultures might think we are crazy for crying and screaming when we are mad and frustrated. These constraints affect communication. All theses expressions are different and vary from culture to culture.

EDF2085-Reflection #4

I have not had many experiences that have me prepared for diversity, but I have had a few encounters here and there. I attended a school from Prek-4 through eighth grade in Hialeah. The school consisted of all Hispanics; almost eighty percent of everyone was Cuban or American. I grew up being surrounded by people that were just like me, but this isn't how the real world is. There are all types of people out there nowadays, far beyond the ones that are exactly like us. But, of course after eighth grade High School comes into place, and this is where everything changed. I attended a High School that was located in Opa-Locka and had a diversity of cultures attending. There were Hispanics, Americans, Africans, and Asians. At first, I didn't know what to expect since I wasn’t used to the diversity of ethnicities and cultures but as soon as I started everything was fine. I had friends from different races, and none of that mattered because we were all the same on the inside. It was a Catholic school but there were other religions involved as well. In my perspective, none of this mattered to me or changed anything because we were all young adolescents in school for the same reason. This childhood experience will now help me for the near future and the present time I’m living in, with things such as attending college and for my career. I hope to learn more about how to approach this with students when I will have my own classroom, but to me diversity doesn't make a difference and every child is the same. I am a very fair and equal person and will take this into the classroom and look beyond diversity of religion, beliefs, learning styles, or cultures. Diversity class is really important because it teaches you how to approach certain problems that may come about in the classroom that you may not even know about because you have never experienced. It should be necessary for preparing for a major in education because you are faced with challenges teaching in a classroom that’s filled with children from all over the county and/or area. Sam should have learned why it is useful, and so far I’ve learned a couple of things I would have never known you may encounter in a public school classroom so this has been really useful, now I know the importance of it.

EDF2085-Reflection #3

Paradigms are the way in which we see reality and things going on around us. We have others to influence these paradigms and change how we see reality. Paradigms are put into different categories in our brain and it affects how things are interpreted. It is our interpretation of what is right or wrong that has been engraved in our head since we were young. In order to replace a paradigm or change it, which is difficult, you must replace it with another one. You have to try really hard and really want that change. We can change these views of paradigms through our own experience or those of others. Different experiences and scenarios sometimes change our paradigms or the paradigms of others. Paradigms help us make decisions and are made from previous experiences and things we have learned. I believe I have been stuck in a paradigm because I have attended Catholic school since I was a child; therefore I have been Catholic all my life because this is how my parents brought me up. I live by the rules and Ten Commandments and feel this is the right way of living life. This an example of a paradigm because it is what I know that is “right” through my perspective and those of my parents. This paradigm can be changed if someone shows me something different and I believe through all the paradigms I have built, for example. A paradigm shift is a change of the way of thinking. Just like the story, a paradigm shift occurred with the evolution of the first human species. Paradigm shift is when something changes and evolves into something else. Almost like something that is seen in a different perspective. It is important for teachers to experience a paradigm shift because it is good for them to see things from different perspectives because not all of their students are going to think or act the same. They have to change the way they think for their students, and they should learn to put themselves in the student's place. Many student’s have problems at home or learn faster a certain way. I believe the teacher needs to take time to get to know each of his or her students individually and encounter their needs.

EDF1005- Reflection #4

From reading all these articles I have learned that we have all descended from another species, each time becoming more and more different from the other. Each time they would advance more than their previous species. This is also a lot like today’s society, each and every day we are growing with more knowledge and new and better equipment. We have increased from the size of the brain, to the feet, height, arms, etc. The earlier form of humans used to be very short, about 3 ft. It is also incredible how archeologist know so much about these species only with studying the bone or fossil which allows them to know how long ago they came about. I learned there was a species they named "Lucy" which resembled the modern human a lot in which she didn’t limp like the chimpanzee and the pelvis and bone structure was made almost like ours. She walked like a human being, also known as Hominid. We are all known as Hominids because we walk on two legs. "Lucy" was had many characteristics like a chimp and the A. Afarensis has been the most recent discovered species and was considered apelike, not a human being. The small skull capacity and bipedal upright walk shows evidence somewhat of the apes. The first human species had appeared in the world in Africa. None of this has affected what I believe because I still think that Homeosapiens are the closest to modern humans. I still believe we are all connected and do form some sort of family tree, but we all branch out into our own species which has been developed over time. I never knew though that Homoerectus survived for almost a million years, if only we were to live that long! I also discovered that many of the features of the skulls and bones found represent those of the ape, which is the previous species that is most similar to us. The teeth of the different species also say a lot about the age of these fossils and artifacts found. Many of these craniums and skulls found were discovered in Africa where the first humans were said to have began to be developed. Scientists have discovered that they can trace back also with the DNA and chromosomes through a test.

EDF1005 -Reflection #3

My elementary and secondary schools were multicultural in the sense that we would celebrate Hispanic Heritage week where we would taste different types of ethnic foods and listen to their music. Every single year we would have this. As well as having these activities we would also learn a little about each of them in class also. We also had Black History Month in which we had a group of performers come and dance tribal dances for us and they would bring their culture food as well. All this occurred so that we may see different customs, and experience a taste of the different varieties of ethnicities we have. I have learned a lot on how every culture is different and everything they do represents something or has a meaning which is why they do it traditionally. I believe teachers should have taught differently for different learning styles for all types of students. Every student learns differently, not everyone is the same. Easier said than done, but they should try to walk in some of their students shoes. Most of the time they assumed what they believed was correct instead of watching the outcome of it. They should have seen which one worked best if most students were doing poorly in the course, especially in secondary school. My experience I would say would be the contributional and additive approach. The contributional approach because they would always make contributions to the important people of the past who made a difference and changed the world, as mentioned before. The additive approach incorporates all those special holidays and months into the curriculum but doesn't change it either. I believe some of the teachers I had should’ve taken a more transformational approach to teach their students different perspectives and to see through different paradigms. This approach would’ve helped other students who maybe were taught a different way since they were young and were used to it and were never introduced to any other way. Social actions would have also been an interesting way to apply those problems and try to solve them ourselves in modern day life. It could help us apply ourselves and try to use different approaches from those we learned.