What do schools look like?

 What to look for in a classroom 

by Alfie Kohn

And 

Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

    In this article, Kohn talks about how classrooms looks, he discusses the things that are beneficial and some reasons to worry. If we notice, he tries to make us see how a classroom can be decorated, that it is more welcoming so it is easier for students to learn. I remember when I was in elementary and middle school, my teachers always decorated the classroom and that, made the classroom look nice. On the walls they put things like all the classmates' birthdays, the class also had a place for readings. I remember that when I was in fifth grade a teacher called it "VAMOS A LEER" which in English is "let's read." After that, she always asked us questions about the book we had was about. It also talks about the way the tables and chairs should be arranged, but it said that is bad that they are organized in rows. In my opinion, I think this would depend a lot on the age of the students, because when I was in school the tables were in rows and that worked well, at least in the classes that I had. 

    In the video, Geneva Gay mentions that culture can be grouped into two different categories. Visible and invisible culture, or tangible and intangible, and I think it is good that they recognize this because in schools, there are students with diverse backgrounds and cultures. It is mentioned that, it is always about students adapting to the school culture, but in reality, it is the school that needs to adapt to the students' culture in order to have a good connection with them. I think it is good for teachers to try to understand the culture of the student, because if the students cannot connect with the class material, they would not enjoy it and would not have an enjoyable time in the classroom. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8

https://www.soydocentemaestroyprofesor.com/2017/08/32-ideas-para-decorar-tu-aula.html

The Culture of Power

 The Silenced Dialogue:

Power and Pedagogy 

in Educating 

Other People's Children

    Reading the silent dialogue by Lisa Delpit, it made me think about how sometimes, it is difficult to talk about other people's culture and background, because not everyone would agree on what you are saying and most likely there would even be an argument. In the article, it mentions that black people had to try to avoid talking about things about themselves like experiences at school, college or having to ignore other people because they would not agree. However, it also says that the reaction was very different when they talked to people from their own cultures. She mentions that things like these can also have an impact on classroom learning. But she is referring to all races, she is not directly referring to only black people and white people do it.

    There are five aspects of power mentioned, which are like rules, which can occur in schools or also in workplaces. She mentions that there are different learning styles for students who have different cultural or racial backgrounds. It also implies that the study system is designed for students who came from upper class family and middle class family. There is a part in the article, where it is mentioned that in the East of India, there was a group people and they did an interview but it did not go as they thought. It was a failure because the people that were supposed to help the interviewer, started asking him very direct questions and this made him not being able to answer those questions, this shows how the people that were supposed to help him, were showing that they were the ones who had the "power." But to be honest, things like this can happen in many places and I think one problem with that, can be the language barrier because the person is supposed to be prepared for a job interview, not to be asked such direct questions from a cultural perspective or sometimes it can also happen simply because that person has a very noticeable accent.

Link to the article:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYjABUSaafTIXox9MTJCsIP1-cfVF-3j/view

A Research Review

 The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

A Research Review

By Christine E. Sleeter

    While reading the article "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies" by Sleeter. It made me realized how important it must be for teacher to focus and try to teach more about studies from different backgrounds as this involve a lot more participation from the students, because these will be topics that they would like to talk about and sometimes they might even share some experiences. 

    One connection I had with this article, was when I was in a day care for a few hours because I needed to do an assignment for my psychology class. The place is called El Bebe Day Care, where many of the children who attend speak Spanish.  The first activity they did was saying the alphabet, they did it in English, the second time they did in Spanish and most of them were happy to do it, they even said it louder. There were also other children who spoke Portuguese, but despite that, they also got excited and said the letters, even though they did not pronounce them as they sound, they tried and had the same excitement as the other children who could say them well. 

    This shows the interest that children have learning new things, no matter what language it is, even if it is a little difficult for them, they always get excited and show enthusiasm. Articles like this also help to give ideas and not only to teachers  but to other people who take care or live with children, to have activities where they are involved and can spend time learning. So this reminded me of Carlos, reding how he had the enthusiasm to learn and the take classes on Chicano studies, but we have to be realistic because his friend had a lot to do with it, because it was the friend who started talking to him about this. 

Link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xuqWXdvnACgQe6nK5JcSuAzszPE6FvQJ/view

Still Separate, Still Unequal

Still Separate, Still Unequal

By Jonathan Kozol

 In this article, Kozol explains how American public schools used to be in the nineteenth century, he mentioned that African American children used to attend to schools where slavery was illegal, but they went to a school where only black people attended. For about five years, he visited sixty schools in eleven states, and he noticed that schools where Hispanics and blacks used to attend, did not have a good education system because they had inadequate supplies. It also shows how many cities and towns had to face court orders so they can integrate schools, they wanted to do this, so schools will not have any other restrictions. In the excerpt, it also mentions that is some states the majority of students who attended public schools were Hispanics or blacks and less that 5% or 10% were whites.

Timeline.

https://emailric-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/personal/jpinedagomez_7236_email_ric_edu/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BFD34FE8C-AA42-4924-B427-60A23E772F42%7D&file=Timeline.pptx&action=edit&mobileredirect=true&DefaultItemOpen=1&ct