Dear Diary,
Mrs. Wallace* is officially my new favorite teacher at my new school. Not that she wasn't before but my other teachers aren't like her. They don't try and understand us like Mrs. Wallace* does. They stand at the head of the class and read, then write some notes on the board, check to make sure we're doing them, then read some more. It's like they're robots with no brains. Kinda like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. I love that movie. Anyways, they do the same thing in every class. Nothing changes. That must be pretty boring. But Mrs. Wallace, she's different. I feel like she really gets us. It makes learning so much more fun because I feel like each assignment was especially designed with me in mind. I love it. And it makes me really enjoy that class. In my other classes I always wanna sleep or text or go to Mrs. Wallace's room. Shouldn't I want to learn?? Isn't it their job to make me want to attend school. I feel so bad for them. They must know that the kids find their classes boring. I just don't understand them. Its like there is this giant wall between us. Its a glass wall so I can still see them. But I can't hear anything they say so I can understand anything they want me to learn. Mrs. Wallace jumps right over that wall. She grabs our attention. She makes me feel like its okay to learn and have fun at the same time. I wish all my teachers were like that.
Signed,
Christeen
John Dewey changed the view on education from engineered mechanism to progressive learning. Children learn experimentally. Learning is natural. If you present a problem to kids, their natural curiosity will help in their cooperative learning. Script reading, like most teachers are doing nowadays does not interest the kids. Therefore it doesn't benefit the kids who will eventually stop caring. It is our job as teachers to grab their attention and make them want to learn. And if that means taking the road less traveled and going against the school systems scripts, then its what we MUST do. The future is in our hands.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Day #5
This isn't a diary entry, as you can tell. However, I felt as though 6th grade Christeen could not answer this question. I have actually spoken to Mrs. Wallace* about parent involvement in her classroom. She states that it is extremely rare for parents to involve themselves in the curriculum she has planned for her students. She has tried many forms of contacting the parents including phone, email, snail mail and even facebook. However, she feels that you cannot make a parent interested in their child's education. The few times she has actually spoken to parents, she had interesting stories to tell. Few parents were interested to know how their child did and was grateful for Mrs. Wallace's* added effort to contact them. However, more often than not, parents didn't spend the time to talk about their child's grades or didn't even know they were taking a performing arts class to begin with. This reminds me of the 'Silence Dialogue.' Although Lisa Delpit referred to the unspoken dialogue as a sort of silent agreement not to argue about different races, I feel like there are many important things that are silenced just because of the absence of participants. Lisa Delpit states that eventually people of color just stopped trying because they feel as though they will never get passed the thick headed ways of the white people. I feel that its the same way with teachers. There are only one teacher for 25 students or more causing the parent ratio to double, sometimes triple, depending on the family situation. I feel as though teachers have given up. They have stopped trying to involve parents because its like talking to a white person about racism. Parents aren't adding their opinions to the school districts about THEIR child's education. Education is important. Some people dedicate their whole lives to improving our nations schools. If things aren't discussed, no one will ever know there is a problem. Silence doesn't solve any problems. It does however make the issue seem to disappear but it will never completely disappear. Only talking about the problem can make the possibility of solving the problem more solvable. As a teacher, I would love to have my parents involved as much as possible so they feel welcomed to talk to me about their children and what they are learning. However, I feel as though that is a dream all teachers have. But I've been blessed to see many forms of the nightmare that is the reality of education. Even if the kids are a joy to teach and they grow so much as little people over the year that you get to impress education upon them, it will still be hell to involve the parents. As the director of an elementary after school program, it is extremely important that I speak with the parents about transportation, the students progress and participation as well as performance details for the nights of the show. I have trouble speaking to the parents and have tried many methods including phone calls, facebook, and hand outs. Nothing seems to work. I only hope that this isn't a prediction on my future classrooms as a teacher.
Day #4
Dear Diary,
I learned something new today about one of the girls in my class. Mrs. Wallace* has each student lead the daily warm up. I've yet to have my chance but today was Yen's* turn. She got up with her partner and they started warm ups. "Stretch up! Flop down! Toes, floor, toes, swing! Toes, floor, toes, swing!" I love doing the warm up. Its so fun. But while I was stretching down, I heard an unfamiliar voice start counting the motion of slowly coming up. I looked up and saw Yen* saying her numbers. Then Mrs. Wallace* told Yen* that she was more than welcome to count in her own language. She started counting in an unfamiliar tongue. i looked to my teacher who was smiling a big grin. I just thought Yen* was quiet. I never thought that it was possible that she didn't speak english. I thought every one spoke English. I had never met anyone who spoke another language except for Spanish. Unless they were really old. She was speaking Asian. My own language. But I didn't know it. I can imagine if I was in Mrs. Wallace's* shoes, I wouldn't know how to interact with Yen*. But I stayed after class to ask Mrs. Wallace* about Yen*. She told me that Yen* can understand most English. She told me that Yen* is slightly uncomfortable to speak English because she is hesitate that she will say something wrong. I felt bad for her but Mrs. Wallace* told me not to. She told me that this is a learning experience for her and that she doesn't want to be singled out. I guess I can understand that. She told me she had three other ESL students in my class. I asked her what ESL meant. It means English Language Learner. . But I give a lot of credit to my teacher. I'm horrible with other languages. But maybe my new friends can help me adapt. I'm always up for learning new things.
Christeen
This reminds me of an article written by Claude Goldenberg. Should ESL learners be secluded?? No. Unfortunately, my assigned school just doesn't have enough funding or teachers for a good ESL program causing the children to be mixed in. I believe it is a learning experience for them. Teachers should want to rise to the challenge of teaching a student who may not understand everything they are saying. It could be a learning experience for all, teachers, child and classmates. I would be nervous about teaching an ESL student, but now I am only more eager to start my career in hopes that I will be challenged in more ways than one in order to grow into a better teacher.
This is a video of ESL students learning their actions words.
I learned something new today about one of the girls in my class. Mrs. Wallace* has each student lead the daily warm up. I've yet to have my chance but today was Yen's* turn. She got up with her partner and they started warm ups. "Stretch up! Flop down! Toes, floor, toes, swing! Toes, floor, toes, swing!" I love doing the warm up. Its so fun. But while I was stretching down, I heard an unfamiliar voice start counting the motion of slowly coming up. I looked up and saw Yen* saying her numbers. Then Mrs. Wallace* told Yen* that she was more than welcome to count in her own language. She started counting in an unfamiliar tongue. i looked to my teacher who was smiling a big grin. I just thought Yen* was quiet. I never thought that it was possible that she didn't speak english. I thought every one spoke English. I had never met anyone who spoke another language except for Spanish. Unless they were really old. She was speaking Asian. My own language. But I didn't know it. I can imagine if I was in Mrs. Wallace's* shoes, I wouldn't know how to interact with Yen*. But I stayed after class to ask Mrs. Wallace* about Yen*. She told me that Yen* can understand most English. She told me that Yen* is slightly uncomfortable to speak English because she is hesitate that she will say something wrong. I felt bad for her but Mrs. Wallace* told me not to. She told me that this is a learning experience for her and that she doesn't want to be singled out. I guess I can understand that. She told me she had three other ESL students in my class. I asked her what ESL meant. It means English Language Learner. . But I give a lot of credit to my teacher. I'm horrible with other languages. But maybe my new friends can help me adapt. I'm always up for learning new things.
Christeen
This reminds me of an article written by Claude Goldenberg. Should ESL learners be secluded?? No. Unfortunately, my assigned school just doesn't have enough funding or teachers for a good ESL program causing the children to be mixed in. I believe it is a learning experience for them. Teachers should want to rise to the challenge of teaching a student who may not understand everything they are saying. It could be a learning experience for all, teachers, child and classmates. I would be nervous about teaching an ESL student, but now I am only more eager to start my career in hopes that I will be challenged in more ways than one in order to grow into a better teacher.
This is a video of ESL students learning their actions words.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Pictures??
For some reasons its not allowing me to post pictures. Only videos. So I feel as though i'll be adding alot of videos. Sorry
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Day #3
Dear Diary,
Today Mrs. Wallace* did something different. We finished our Pandora play and it was sooooo fun! But now she wants us to do Romeo and Juliet. I don't like Shakespeare at all. He's confusing and speaks weird. But then she made a change in the script. Instead of the old icky language, it was Romeo and Juliet in a more relate able situation. We got to play ourselves. I was laughing so hard. There were two types of students. The popular Latino students and the smart nerdy Europeans. Of course there were conflicts but the story line still contained two people falling in love. Mrs. Wallace told us about other stories based off Romeo and Juliet. One that really stuck in my mind was West Side Story because my big brother played in that at his high school. The Spanish people and the White people didn't get along. Realizing that the real Romeo and Juliet fell in love despite all the conflict between their families, I realized that all the conflict in today's world can be put aside too. It must be. There are people out there who don't care 'who' they marry as long as they love them. Love doesn't see a color or religion. Love sees straight to the depths of the soul. If everyone could just love people, I think we'd be a lot better off. But that isn't the case .I didn't know that sometimes people don't like someone because their color until my brother was called a mean word and he told my mom. In my new school, there are people like me, people of color. I feel welcome among them. But at my old school, I never realized that all my classmates were white. They accepted me. Why?? I think because we don't care. Kids don't care what color their friends are. Only if they were raised that way. My white friends weren't. My new friends don't know any better. But I don't think they would single any new white students out of the class. We have a few. And they are accepted for who they are. But why are my two schools so different?? Why can't we all be together. I think my new friends would really like my old friends. I wish my schools were the same.
Christeen
Jonathan Kozol states 'schools that were already deeply segregated twenty-five or thirty years ago are no less segregated now, while thousands of other schools around the country that had been integrated either voluntarily or by force of law have since been rapidly re-segregating.' This is proof of that. In my home town, white students are the majority. In my VIPS assigned school, minorities of all kinds walk through the halls. In our society, we are economically divided. Unfortunately, that also racially divides us because many minorities are lower class. Kozel's statistics are very accurate. Segregation still pollutes are school systems. But it shouldn't. Honestly, these kids don't care. Especially if they are raised with the belief that everyone is equal. I would like to believe one day it will happen. *The Dream of a future teacher*
Today Mrs. Wallace* did something different. We finished our Pandora play and it was sooooo fun! But now she wants us to do Romeo and Juliet. I don't like Shakespeare at all. He's confusing and speaks weird. But then she made a change in the script. Instead of the old icky language, it was Romeo and Juliet in a more relate able situation. We got to play ourselves. I was laughing so hard. There were two types of students. The popular Latino students and the smart nerdy Europeans. Of course there were conflicts but the story line still contained two people falling in love. Mrs. Wallace told us about other stories based off Romeo and Juliet. One that really stuck in my mind was West Side Story because my big brother played in that at his high school. The Spanish people and the White people didn't get along. Realizing that the real Romeo and Juliet fell in love despite all the conflict between their families, I realized that all the conflict in today's world can be put aside too. It must be. There are people out there who don't care 'who' they marry as long as they love them. Love doesn't see a color or religion. Love sees straight to the depths of the soul. If everyone could just love people, I think we'd be a lot better off. But that isn't the case .I didn't know that sometimes people don't like someone because their color until my brother was called a mean word and he told my mom. In my new school, there are people like me, people of color. I feel welcome among them. But at my old school, I never realized that all my classmates were white. They accepted me. Why?? I think because we don't care. Kids don't care what color their friends are. Only if they were raised that way. My white friends weren't. My new friends don't know any better. But I don't think they would single any new white students out of the class. We have a few. And they are accepted for who they are. But why are my two schools so different?? Why can't we all be together. I think my new friends would really like my old friends. I wish my schools were the same.
Christeen
Jonathan Kozol states 'schools that were already deeply segregated twenty-five or thirty years ago are no less segregated now, while thousands of other schools around the country that had been integrated either voluntarily or by force of law have since been rapidly re-segregating.' This is proof of that. In my home town, white students are the majority. In my VIPS assigned school, minorities of all kinds walk through the halls. In our society, we are economically divided. Unfortunately, that also racially divides us because many minorities are lower class. Kozel's statistics are very accurate. Segregation still pollutes are school systems. But it shouldn't. Honestly, these kids don't care. Especially if they are raised with the belief that everyone is equal. I would like to believe one day it will happen. *The Dream of a future teacher*
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Day #2
Dear Diary,
I made friends today!! In my performing arts class we are starting a play, Pandora. Mrs. Wallace* divided us up into groups and gave us parts. I'm 'Greek Chorus.' Its kinda like the narrator except I get to rhyme! I love rhyming. The girl who plays Pandora and the girl who plays Hope talked to me today. They started telling me a little about the other kids in our class. Like most of the girls in our class, these girls were Latino. They asked me if I speak Spanish. I told them no. They were curious about what I was. I don't blame them. Its hard to tell with my background. But they didn't seem to care that I was many types of different things. They seemed to like me. There were other kids who were like me too. In this class room, no one ever seemed to see me as weird, just different. But didn't hate me for that difference. There were African Americans and even other Asians too. At my old school, I was the only Asian. One thing i noticed was not one white kid tried to be my friend. Because there are none. I noticed the cultural majority seemed to be more outgoing. Every where I looked, there were Latinos. There are only two other Asians aside from me. Yen* and Kevin*. Both are so quiet that sometimes I wonder if they speak English. I felt so guilty because I felt like I was judging them. Turns out they did speak English.
This reminds me of a movie I saw once called 'The Color of Friendship.' I grew up around many white people. I was either accepted everywhere or no where. Depending....but today I felt white. Not because I was secluded because my new friends are so nice to me but because I thought all Asians would be the same. And all the Latinos and African Americans. But they're not. They are all different. The color of friendship is about the friendship between an African American who lives a nice life in Washington D. C. and a white girl from racist South Africa. They learned alot. So did I. I learned that my new school is a fun and colorful coloring book!
Signed,
Me!
I realized our house is on fire (in the words of Johnson). Just like the white girl in Africa who didn't see what was happening in her own country, Americans don't see what is happening. I walked into a school with a 5% white population (provided by Info works) and was shocked to see the minority being the majority. In a society governed by white privilege, continual segregation is not a good pathway to take. Johnson said in just a few years the majority will be the minority race. Seeing my assigned school....I must agree, I believe it!
I made friends today!! In my performing arts class we are starting a play, Pandora. Mrs. Wallace* divided us up into groups and gave us parts. I'm 'Greek Chorus.' Its kinda like the narrator except I get to rhyme! I love rhyming. The girl who plays Pandora and the girl who plays Hope talked to me today. They started telling me a little about the other kids in our class. Like most of the girls in our class, these girls were Latino. They asked me if I speak Spanish. I told them no. They were curious about what I was. I don't blame them. Its hard to tell with my background. But they didn't seem to care that I was many types of different things. They seemed to like me. There were other kids who were like me too. In this class room, no one ever seemed to see me as weird, just different. But didn't hate me for that difference. There were African Americans and even other Asians too. At my old school, I was the only Asian. One thing i noticed was not one white kid tried to be my friend. Because there are none. I noticed the cultural majority seemed to be more outgoing. Every where I looked, there were Latinos. There are only two other Asians aside from me. Yen* and Kevin*. Both are so quiet that sometimes I wonder if they speak English. I felt so guilty because I felt like I was judging them. Turns out they did speak English.
This reminds me of a movie I saw once called 'The Color of Friendship.' I grew up around many white people. I was either accepted everywhere or no where. Depending....but today I felt white. Not because I was secluded because my new friends are so nice to me but because I thought all Asians would be the same. And all the Latinos and African Americans. But they're not. They are all different. The color of friendship is about the friendship between an African American who lives a nice life in Washington D. C. and a white girl from racist South Africa. They learned alot. So did I. I learned that my new school is a fun and colorful coloring book!
Signed,
Me!
I realized our house is on fire (in the words of Johnson). Just like the white girl in Africa who didn't see what was happening in her own country, Americans don't see what is happening. I walked into a school with a 5% white population (provided by Info works) and was shocked to see the minority being the majority. In a society governed by white privilege, continual segregation is not a good pathway to take. Johnson said in just a few years the majority will be the minority race. Seeing my assigned school....I must agree, I believe it!
Set up
As everything in my life, I'm going to do this in a different and creative way than most of our classmates are doing this blog. So For my group and Dr. August, I hope you enjoy!
Dear Diary,
Hi! My name is Christeen Hum Estrada and I'm in the sixth grade. I spent most of my childhood in the East Providence public school system. It's very American Family next door type of city. Every one knows everyone and everything. But my mom lost her job and we have to move. I've decided to keep a diary about my new life in Providence, Rhode Island. My sister says it won't be much different but I just think she's saying that because she knows I'm scared about making new friends. My sister and I are always different from other people. We're seen as a lot of different things. We are Asian American, Latino American, Italian American and Native America. That's a lot of hyphenations. It's hard to fit in sometimes. Especially at my old school. But I made friends......then. But now.....I'll have to start all over. Wish me luck!!
To my new life,
Christeen
Just as this entry was designed, all of the real me will be italicized. Please keep in mind that I put myself into my own shoes. I moved from Texas to Rhode Island in the seventh grade. Get to know my character. Don't think of adult me. Think of twelve year old me. Thanks and Enjoy!
Dear Diary,
Hi! My name is Christeen Hum Estrada and I'm in the sixth grade. I spent most of my childhood in the East Providence public school system. It's very American Family next door type of city. Every one knows everyone and everything. But my mom lost her job and we have to move. I've decided to keep a diary about my new life in Providence, Rhode Island. My sister says it won't be much different but I just think she's saying that because she knows I'm scared about making new friends. My sister and I are always different from other people. We're seen as a lot of different things. We are Asian American, Latino American, Italian American and Native America. That's a lot of hyphenations. It's hard to fit in sometimes. Especially at my old school. But I made friends......then. But now.....I'll have to start all over. Wish me luck!!
To my new life,
Christeen
Just as this entry was designed, all of the real me will be italicized. Please keep in mind that I put myself into my own shoes. I moved from Texas to Rhode Island in the seventh grade. Get to know my character. Don't think of adult me. Think of twelve year old me. Thanks and Enjoy!
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