Quote I Try to Live By

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
-Carol Buchner

I found this quote during my year as an educational assistant. This immediately stuck with me and was what I was almost already living by. But it put it so nicely into words that I wrote it down immediately. This quote has become the foundation of my philosophy to teaching.

I strongly feel that the connection we make with our students is a huge part of classroom management, attendance and environment in our classroom. I think that if our students connect with us and respect us then they will have an understanding in the class towards us and their fellow peers. I always appreciated teachers who treated me well and respected me. I wasn't a behavior issue in my classes but I partially think that I felt the need to respect my teachers because who they were, as well as the connection that they made with me.

This is my motto not only during my teaching life, but I have always tried to follow this in every interaction. Now I can't claim that I am the best person ever and always follow this but I do try to keep my reactions in check. I think that the feeling that you get when you think of someone is more so what comes to mind first (especially with me) than what they may have said or taught me. Feelings are important, that is why we have them and I think therefore we need to be aware that they can get hurt and that will affect the people we interact with, more than anything else.

I would love to have teachers all read this and really take it into account with how they interact with students.

Scoring is Scoring!

During our last class of the semester we talked about Failure Models and Professor Runte talked to us about the students that were challenged to put as many balls into the garbage can as possible. Runte told us about how the mothers of the children who stood close to the basket were crying and feeling like they were failures as mothers. But I really must question this over reaction to the children out smarting the game.

I have to question us, as students- if we had a test and we could choose to use our notes and books would we? or would we use just use our brain? I feel like this is a similar situation. We can make it easier for ourselves to achieve better or we can try to stick to the norms of test taking and only use our brain. Especially as education students I feel that we would want to do our best and go for the "A".

I think that the mothers of those students should have not been upset, proud if anything. Creative ways of thinking should not be punished and honestly, they were being intelligent about the best way to get the reward. If the function is to get from point A to point C do you have to go to point B first?

I have read in a few different articles that state that education is stunting creativity in our students/kids and I think that this is a prime example. Why can't students do the same activity in different ways, if it is all about the product what does the process matter? I think that with some things there are only one way or maybe a few but with some things, when there are few restrictions, why can't there be multiple ways of doing things. And furthermore, why does one or more of them have to be wrong.

I wonder why some of the mothers (and please note that mothers was stated, not parents or fathers) responded the way they did. I question if there was one mother that was over sensitive (to put it politely) that did not like that her child wasn't doing exactly what every other child was and was upset by that. What if that was an influence on the other mothers, seeing that that mother felt she was a failure for something completely different. I am not sure if the mothers were shown individually to be honest, if they were than this could not be a factor, but had they been in a group then maybe it could.

I think one of the current issues with our education system is that we don't necessarily accept different processes to the same goal. We have to only get there the one way, I can understand that some subjects don't necessarily leave a lot of room for variation but there are subjects that have a lot of room, e.g. language arts, social studies and more.

Creativity is an important part of every child, I can honestly admit that I am not creative. I like the step by step process, I don't really think of creative things (I am sure you have all noticed throughout my blog).

I think the parents needed to just realize that these kids thought through the concept of what needed to happen to get the reward and the best way to do it. Hats off to those kids deciding they wanted the most chocolate bars possible or the most success at getting the ball in the garbage can and then solving the best way to have a high percentage shot or the best way to get the most candy.

My job choice/path

I am currently in my final week of university life. I still have my final practicum to go, but as for university time, this is it. I can recall days in high school when I thought this day would never come (being almost done with education), until I choose to once again further my education.

Remember filling out those forms in grade 1 stating what you thought you wanted to be? I know that we have watched the UP-series, but what about in our personal life. Were we right about what we wanted to be? I can't remember for sure what I wrote, but I am pretty sure I wrote teacher, I am sure my mother has it somewhere. Now for myself, I have swayed on what I wanted to be for a while in school. I thought about all sorts of things, coroner, veterinarian, nurse... but at times I look back and question WHAT WAS I THINKING? Coroner, for example, I couldn't imagine seeing a dead body. Yet for some reason I thought I would enjoy attempting to solve the mystery of what caused the death of that person. Again, I shall repeat WHAT WAS I THINKING??? As for the other ones, they were a bit more reasonable.

But for the people who have never changed their ideas of what they wanted to be, I must question why? I feel that I, as a child, adolescent, and now adult, I am very different and have gone through many phases. I am different than I was, and I did at times change my mind about the focus of where I wanted to be in the job force. But for anyone to have not swayed the opinion or looked at different options I question if they are even allowing for other possibilities.

I understand that some people just know what they want to do, but the whole time? I guess maybe I just am not good at sticking to a decision but I can't understand not ever considering something else. I know that our older generations didn't have all the exposure to the jobs we do. I think this would also have influenced our thought process on which job we would want to have. If we were a part of the older generations we wouldn't have had as many job options or had the ability to know about them as much. I think this is a positive thing for a few reasons, we won't have to just fit into the common every day job, we can explore paths that are right for us as individuals and be able to do different jobs.

I know that my career is very fitting for my individualness and I am hoping to have a long career as a teacher. Did any of you change your career paths during your education?

This experience

Blogging has been a completely new experience for me. I honestly never thought that I would use this technique after the day we did it in our technology class during PS1. I honestly didn't know what to expect from this activity.

I have shockingly enjoyed this assignment more than I thought I would. I liked that classmates could give their perspective of what they saw in class or took from the reading. I know that the class and I have had some debates about the simplest of concepts about why they are simple, or why we choose or accept them. This has been a completely different world for me, before this class I didn't read blogs; I partially was unaware of what they really meant.

I still feel uncomfortable about my views being out there for the world to see and someone taking my views in with their past history influencing what they take from what I am saying. I still don't actually like this factor because I am not the best at expressing what I am trying to say in to words. I don't like my inability to immediately say, that isn't what I meant if someone misunderstands me. I don't like confusion!!! haha Therefore I don't always just simply put my point of view out there without the background information which I am sure you could especially see in my last blog posting about the farmers needing aid or assistance.

I wonder if these blogs will affect me in the future. I am currently contemplating whether I should delete these posts post grading or if I should leave them here as something to remember my state of mind during this process? To help me reflect on things I was going through and that I was learning about.

I hope you all enjoyed this experience as much as I did! I hope that I gave a different perspective for you to see the issue from and perhaps even sway your opinion or at least open you up to my point of view.

I think I can admit to you all, I never would have thought that I would actually blog a day in my life! My family was like what??? You are blogging? Weird!!! But now that I have done it, I am not opposed to the idea of using it in my class.

Alberta is Nothing???

In class the other day Professor Runte stated that most of the world saw Alberta as nothing. The idea that our big province, with plenty of resources was seen as nothing makes me extremely sad. Now I know that when it comes to a political perspective that our province gets the shaft or denied all the time, or at least a lot.

I feel that the issue that faces a lot of the people from my area have been ignored or at least not given the attention they deserve. Farmers, they are very important to the world! But they are continuously denied the help that they need (not every farmer needs help, but currently a lot do). I have watched many farmers and ranchers for that matter struggle to make ends meet and even have to give up a lifestyle that has been passed down in their family for generations. Farmers and ranchers produce the food that we eat, yet we deny them. I feel like we are biting the hand that feeds us?!?! Isn't there a saying about that... that tells us NOT to do that?!?!?!

BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), droughts and hard years continuously affect their ability to put food on the table for their families and yet we ignore them. They have a tough life and they are an important part of our stability when it comes to food. Why are we ignoring them? I guess this issue might be closer to home because I hear about the families that are struggling. One of the neighbours to our farm had to give in last year, he sold all his cows because he couldn't afford to keep the lifestyle going. Farming and ranching isn't just another job, it is a lifestyle, and a hard one...

I initially didn't agree with Professor Runte saying that Alberta was nothing, but after thinking about how issues like this are ignored, I can't help but wonder if he is right.

Alberta is an awesome place! I don't think it should be ignored; we have a lot to offer and frequently do. Alberta deserves respect and I think we should start demanding it!

First Nations Only School

First Nations Only School

It was brought up in one of my classes that Manitoba is considering creating schools that will only be for First Nations students. I was a little shocked to hear this, I was not in history class and we weren't discussing back in the day, we were discussing a possible future event, it didn't make sense to me.

Is this not madness? I understand that there are issues, that we are struggling to keep our First Nations in school and we are struggling to make a connection for First Nations to see the importance of education. I don't think that creating a school for only First Nations is the way to solve this issue; this will only further other issues that we are currently trying to solve.

If we support creating schools for only certain races, how will we learn to interact with different races? Will this not further the cultural barrier that we are trying to break down? Does this not take us back decades? Why will this work better now than it did back in the day?

I think we need to do some homework and try to find ways to make connections with these students to keep them in school and have the priority of education. James Fuller, who is currently doing PS3, has taken steps in the right direction. He is currently doing a study to see where First Nations students feel they are (in many different categories), and then comparing that with where the teachers think these students are. I think this is the type of work that needs to be done, the creation of different schools is not the right direction.

A peer in my class proposed that this was a good idea, yet I am reluctant to see the merit of this idea. I don't think races need to be separated...

Canada isn't a melting pot; it is a stew- with lots of great elements that makes it delicious. A stew is a combination of things, it isn't like a 3 course meal where everything is served separately. Part of the appeal of the stew is the mixing of flavours! I don't want a 3 course meal, I want the STEW!!! :)

Do you like stew?

What's hip with the kids these days?

A lot of our teachers have mentioned that it is important to stay current with what the students are into and what is cool. I think that staying current is definitely an important thing to do. However, sometimes it can be quite rough, during my PS1 I was in a rural elementary school. Can anyone guess who was really cool at that school? Hannah Montana, so my friend (student teacher as well) who was in the same school, 2 grades up, sat down and decided we needed to know what this intense love was about!! We made it through about 5 minutes of the show before questioning what was going through our kids' heads? I am guessing we watched a bad episode, I have seen a snippet before that was not that bad, but for the mass love of the show, we were confused.

I understand that I probably went through those phases that teachers also didn't understand, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (just discussed it today actually), Rugrats, Alex Mack (she was touched with toxic waste and then could just disappear because of it)Home Improvement, Step by Step, and I could probably go on for quite a while (I am currently feeling really old so I will move on). I wonder what my teachers thought of these shows when I would talk about how great they were.

I wonder if our generation was as influenced by the television as the current generation is? I had a student in grade 1 who did not own a ball. Can anyone honestly say that any of their friends didn't own a ball? Any form of ball! I think that this generation is so far removed from physical life that it is hard to relate my life to theirs. I know we can always make a connection, but sometimes it is irritating to me that they have moved so far away from the physical activities and to a sit on the couch and watch a box or look at the computer.

I may be more irritated by this currently because I am taking Physical Education for Non-majors and am seeing disgusting statistics about obesity! It is disgusting to learn how many children are obese and that the new generation may be the first generation in a long time, that won't have a longer life expectancy than their parents, it's crazy.

Now to come back to the real issue at hand, we need to realize that students are obviously influenced by their peers and popular culture, so we need to use that to our advantage. We need to show good examples of popular culture or connect it to what we are teaching. Ie. Miley Cyrus teaching dance moves, that can be connected to physical education or just some point in class when you need a bit of movement, perhaps a class project?

I think as a teacher, I will need to buckle down and experience some of these activities that the student enjoys, so I can relate a bit better to my student. I think I have got quite a good thing going with this Twilight series, I enjoy it and so does most of the world! Maybe my students will call me hip :)

Technology

If you have seen the movie, Napoleon Dynamite you may remember a cute little song that I will entitle "I love technology". It is from the wedding scene at the end of the movie when LaFonda and Kip merge their lives together.
Today during class, when we were all watching Tony as a 28 year old and a couple times when he was younger we found that the visual stayed the same and almost kept shaking back and forth as though someone was turning it on a turn table, just a bit of new stuff, back to old, forward, back and so on. This irritated me, as I am sure some of you felt the same. Why is the audio continuing but not the picture?

I cannot agree with Kip and his passion for technology and "chatting online with babes all day". I don't appreciate technology like he does, it irritates me. How many presentations do we give where it is awkward while you wait for something to come up, or technology is "not responding". You fumble around, trying not to panic, but in your head it is either what is going on?? or perhaps some words that I will choose not to put in my blog. :)

Technology is supposed to be this big awesome tool. But I feel like there are so many moments when it just goes wrong, and even worse, horribly wrong!!! The computer eating your paper is legit! I have never lost a whole paper, but a good chunk of work, yes. Or that awesome video clip that just explains your topic so well, it won't connect like you had practiced 4 times before the presentation.

I think our society is far too reliant on technology and we need to start being able to go back to some of the basics. How many children struggle with basic math skills compared to our parents? Calculators are a form of technology and in my opinion are used far too heavily, early on. We need to make sure math is mastered before allowing for the use of calculators which in my opinion lull the brain to sleep. What about our spelling? I wonder how we would do on a spelling test compared with about 30 years ago. Those words that your computer automatically fixes, you never realize you have been spelling it wrong all these years.

I guess it boils down to me not trusting technology! Yes it is good for some things, but I think we should become less reliant.... what do you guys think???

Norms... it can be a scary thing!

Norms are a part of everyday life... almost comforting... mostly comforting we might even be able to say. But I want you, the reader to quickly look at this youtube clip that was done back in the day by the Candid Camera crew. http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOwE3hnEWk&feature=related

Have you ever thought of facing a wall versus the open door? It doesn't make sense does it? And the factor that these unknowing participants just tried to sneakily do what the others were was kind of crazy. I would probably have done a lot of awkward laughter because of the confusion about what was going on but who knows. I could see if it was the persons' first time riding an elevator then they would just do what everyone else was doing because they don't know the proper protocol but this wasn't something new. I remember my first day going to the bus stop, everyone else put their bag down in a line, so mine added to the line. They were standing randomly around, mostly on the lawn which was kind of rude, but that is what they were doing, so that was what I was doing, I didn't know what to do.

Is that not quite scary that we would abandon what we assumed to be correct because people around us are doing it differently? This is scary!!! It doesn't have to be scary to be quite honest, fashion trends and all of those things are based on norms as well, in my opinion, most people see stuff around them and therefore they do the same things. This can be scary if a good portion of society starts losing the virtues and morals that are important (I believe to be important, we may not agree on all of them, David ;) ). For example, if a kid is being bullied and no one around him/her is doing anything, could this be just trying to fit into the norm?

Candid Camera, although it was just for laughs, raises a really great point or issue with this segment.
:)

Canadian Way

Today in class Prof Runte proposed the idea that compromising and seeing 2 sides of every story is the "Canadian Way". Is it really? I would have made the assumption that that is how things work, why wouldn't people try to work together to come to an agreement about the best way to do something or understand someone else's view point? I don't know if that is me being patriotic but I really do believe that if this is the "Canadian Way" that it is the best way!

I did my first degree in the USA and never realized that this is not what their way of doing things. Granted I was not even an hour away from the Canadian border which I have been told this does affect how similar our two countries are but even my teammates from Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland... I didn't realize any differences in their stand points, and could it not be said that maybe this is a personality issue not a way of our country?

Once again to refer back to Stargate Atlantis (I think this is one of the only shows that lets the viewer know each characters country background) McKay is the Canadian. He is the brilliant, genius, never wrong scientist. He does not look for the compromise, he is always telling other people they are wrong and he is right. Perhaps does this influence how people see Canada? Is this really "Canada's way?"

I guess my big issue is that I was raised to see both sides of the story and compromise and I know some people weren't... or so it appears. So can we really say this is the "Canadian way"? Do we want that to be how we are portrayed??? Maybe that is why everyone (exaggerating) thinks they can walk all over Canada! Maybe Canada needs to take more of a Fight it out stance... obviously that isn't best since we would most likely lose but I think you can understand what I am saying.

Canada the Compromisers - should that be our new catch phrase?

Trick or Treat! WHAT?!?!

Happy Halloween!!

This is quite an interesting concept. Knocking on doors (of strangers) and having them give you candy (hopefully, sometimes the toothbrush, apple...UGH! ;) ) with really no questions asked other than perhaps, what is your costume? Can you sing a song?

I know that some religions do not support this celebration and that is completely fine. But for the other people that do, who are different on so many levels yet are able to agree that this is something we should all participate in really throws me off. Why does everyone agree with this? What is so great about dressing up as something else? Are we unhappy with ourselves? Why do we need to dress as something else?

Young ladies sometimes take the opportunity to dress with very little clothing and have the sense of freedom that no one can judge them because it is a Halloween costume. But are they free from that judgment? Just yesterday I was in a high school in Coaldale coaching and had the opportunity to see many young ladies dressed inappropriately (by my standards). Just because it was Halloween, did not change how much or little clothing I thought a person should have on. Now I can definitely say that I am probably more traditional in how much clothing I think a person should wear for the most part, but why would a date on the calendar change the clothing standards?

I may be influenced by the fact that I am not a huge Halloween girl, I love the candy!!! but other than that nothing is that intriguing about Halloween. Last year, was probably one of my favourite ones because of the people I spent it with, not because of my costume (although it was quite great, "Fire Hose/Hoes" - 3 of us girls (hence the hoes (that isn't politically correct I know)) big rubber boats, red bottoms, and Fireperson jackets and hats from Walmart that were made for 6 year olds). I think we now need to look into why we feel the need to dress up as some random thing. Why do kids choose the costumes they do? Do they want to grow up to be Hannah Montana? A police officer? Bob the Builder? and any other characters they choose!

I just wonder about some of the celebrations/traditions that we have in our society. Is this anyone's favourite holiday? If so, why? I would love to know :)

Elite

Today in class we discussed Alberta Education Elites. I think that the word elite has been sabotaged by my background in social studies. Every time we discuss elite in social it usually tends to turn out that those people aren't good. Think about the Tzar's of the "Soviet Union", the elite in Germany, the controlling people who want to use their power to benefit themselves.

The elite seemed to always do what they wanted and the common person always got excluded or abused in the situation. So when in class today we discussed the "Educational Elite" I immediately got my back up and wondered what their motives were. I am extremely skeptical of these people who were perhaps classifying themselves as this, now perhaps Prof Runte just named them this in passing but look at the influence it had on my perception of this group. It is shocking how 1 word can create such a feeling to arise.

The importance of word choice is apparently way more important than I had thought. Perhaps this is why presidents, CEOs,... have their speeches written for them. They don't have time to spend hours on every word that is involved in that sentence, paragraph, speech...

I need to look deeper into why this word has so deeply altered my opinion of this group. What was it about the word "elite" that has created this feeling? Elite?? is it the social background? high school experiences? sports? I am honestly shocked at how I felt immediately towards this group even though they may have great knowledge and be the best of the best (hence elite) but why this feeling? Maybe a symbolic interactionalist needs to take a look into my history and see why I have these feelings.

Elite... Evil?!?! What does it mean to you?

Gender...

Great presentation!!! I think those girls (don't know if that is bad, but you all were girls) did a fantastic job! I really thought it was great, it help my attention span really well especially with how tired I was feeling.

They asked us, what if we woke up tomorrow and were the other sex, what would change? I really struggled with this one. I think that I don't fit the stereotypical girl, I break a lot of the "rules" of being a girl. I don't really dress up to look pretty, I enjoy sports ( I play to win), I don't think I need to fit the mold that society shows me, and there are definitely times that I don't care what people think.

The slide discussing the study that was done on 15 and 16 year olds was quite interesting. I definitely could tell that they were a bit younger but it correlated with what we had brainstormed for answers too. I think it would have been cool to have collected the sheets of answers from our group and just put them up; not have anyone necessarily have to own up to them because I think a lot more answers would have been great to hear.

I think about the question posed and really wonder?!?! The thing that sticks out the most for me, probably would be that people wouldn't think that I am such a giant anymore, guys are suppose to be bigger than girls, so why am I so huge they wonder... but I am not even 6 feet tall, that isn't tall!! Maybe that is the one thing that would stand out the most to me, my going out shoes would definitely have to change, can't really see me as a boy rocking stilettos but hey?!? Maybe, I do really love my shoes!

As well, the boys that we all want to date!! The David Beckhams, I can definitely say that I used to be thinking that every guy should look like that but, honestly, now, I see that and this little warning goes off in my head and it is like you are probably a big jerk (to put it nicely) because I have encountered and unfortunately dated guys that do look like that and they aren't what you want to be around or with. So maybe I have stereotyped them in a negative why? Is that just as bad as the original stereotype? Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but for me, especially in these cases you have to prove it to me that you are the exception.

I think that as we age, (I am maybe a little older than most of the people in our class) we discover how wrong these set gender roles and images can be. It would be awesome to learn earlier but I hope we do all realize that.

This group did an amazing job of pointing out some of the obvious things that we wouldn't notice because it is right in front of our face. I have seen first hand what little statements to a girl can make. My niece no longer wanted to ever wear pants, only dresses because she wanted look like a little princess, daddy's little princess. She was in kindergarten and now grade one. A daily fight would occur because she only would wear a dress, even in winter. I actually got a chance to live with my niece this summer and I tried to point out a different view. I tried to point out that it was good to want to excel at sports (she is a strong athlete but very hesitant to show it) and it wasn't bad if you were good at them even though you were a girl. You don't always have to try to look pretty!! Be happy with the person you are. Yes these are tough issues for such a little girl to understand but in my modelling it maybe she will understand it better.

I think that because I had a strong role model who didn't try to fit the mold it made it okay for me not to have to. My sister, closest in age, is definitely not a run of the mill girl. She broke down the, what she should have to look like, she wears sweats more than I do (if that is possible), her hair is frequently everywhere, etc. but she is good with who she is (and happily married). That is the key, we need to focus on that, if you want to be the mold but you are happy being the mold maybe is that okay?

This topic was an amazing choice ladies... GREAT WORK! You have had me pondering it since your presentation!! :) Thank you!

What do we learn?

I like the idea of learning what we need to learn. That makes sense, some of the math concepts we learned were pointless (sorry math teachers) like logarithms?? When will I ever use that? Is there any point to me learning that? Math is mandatory all the way through school so it seems to me that we MUST all need math, but to that extent? Physic was not mandatory at my school, if it was I would question it as well. Yes, obviously it is helpful to know lots about the forces (drag, momentum...) and quantum physics, but it won't hinder you from surviving. Unless you think that you can jump in front of a semi and it will have time to stop, then perhaps knowing the rules of momentum might have been helpful. :)

But what about helpful classes that are options, not mandatory? Home Economics for example, not a requirement. Some of us might have got to experience a month or two during a CTS module our grade 9 year but I never had the time to take a class like that. The only class that was an option (a true option) was drama and that I feel definitely helps with teaching. My point here is this, home economics teaches kids how to prepare food, make healthy food choices. Especially in our time and age this is important. I can not really cook anything to save my life, I cook chili (and it is really good) and one pasta dish but that is it. This may be partially because I don't know if I can dedicate the time to learning how to cook something. I think of cooking as a life skill, it should be important!! Maybe our schools should emphasize this way more, so that maybe the future generations won't keep making such poor food decisions.

Prof Balderson, (C and I phys ed non-majors) told our class the other day that the younger generation is the first generation that won't out live their parents lifespan if they keep on their current track. Isn't this ridiculous? With all the knowledge and information we have, we still have people making extremely bad food decisions. Whether you can do logarithms won't necessarily affect your health, but eating McDs all the time because you can't cook just might. (not proven, just a statement, McDonald's may be a healthy place to eat... trying not to get sued!!)

I think our education system has become so worried about the skills that will help society that they have forgotten about creating a person, a well rounded person. We can even see this in sports as well. Kids that are excelling at a sport are taken to or put in a school that is about that sport and then just trained for this. What about the person in general? I am a firm believer that all the other things you do helps you with achieving your main goal. IE. myself with volleyball, that is what I wanted, but I played basketball and softball as well. Softball helped with arm strength, commitment, leadership, mental strength, team skills, all sorts of things. Basketball - conditioning, game mentality, strength of whole body, leadership, mental strength, determination, hard work. Now this may just sound like complete randomness of items that each sport helped me get, but honestly if it wasn't for the other sports I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did.

Maybe our education needs to take a look at what citizens we want to end up with and build that type of citizen, not just someone who can do a job. I know in my classroom I will be doing my best to help make a better person and not just be looking at a grade.

H1N1... extinction?

Yesterday during my C and I class for Science non-majors we were discussing H1N1 and how it is making us feel. We have had this discussion in our class the last few days, we have the habit of getting quite heated about it so our professor asked us to do some digging on it and the U of L.

One of the most interesting points that we all got heated about was how intensely the U of L is pushing awareness. I understand it is good to have the facts, however, as a few of us noted, we have stopped reading the emails. I get this might be a scary thing, it could get really bad, whoo hoo our school is prepared, but!!! We hare so surrounded with H1N1 information and facts and freaking out that it has almost made us stop caring. I may even admit that at this point I don't care about H1N1.

We all know information about reinforcement and consequence and all that jazz. I am starting to think that we have been so overly exposed to all of the information about H1N1 without any reinforcement (or scary incidents that confirm that this is still something we need to fear) that we have almost had an extinction of our response to hearing about H1N1.

Are people still very fearful of this flu? It appeared as though that class was mostly over all the drama and hype of what could be looming around the corner. I know our class had a bit of a discussion about H1N1, I wonder if we had another discussion would the feelings of everyone still be the same?

Did all the media damage the credibility of H1N1? I wonder how this would have all transpired during the time before media/news was a money making market. I want the news, not some inflated stories of what COULD have happened or ALMOST happened. I am saddened by the fact that news reports are no longer just facts, they are a "spin" of what happened.

What would the news reports say about H1N1 if they were just giving facts?

-Brandie

Beer and Diapers?

I am frequently shocked by information that Prof Runte shares with us, but when he told us about putting diapers with beer in order to increase beer sales I was BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER!! Now in previous blogs and discussions I have had some debate about how much others really care about everyone else. I think that people have our best interest in mind, now maybe the 7-11 was having the best interest of men who didn't want to be seen as whipped in mind. I find it weird that a 7-11 has done their research about stuff like this. It is a 7-11, isn't it just the quick stop for when you need something quickly?
The factor that the connection between diapers and beer was made is weird. Who would think that this would have a connection?!? Maybe that is the handiness of having computers, so that they can make random connections. Runte also discussed how every time we use our Safeway card they get information about what we purchase and then try to make connections with it. I am trying to think of anything that I always purchase and what is near it. I don't think that I am a mass consumer so I don't have a huge effect on what is advertised near where, but I must admit, sometimes I do grab something because it is near one of my normal items(but that is more about what I am craving! than handiness).
Beer and diapers?!?! It still doesn't make sense to me. Alcohol and pop, yes, that makes sense, or the gum and candy bars right near where you pay for your gas. I wonder what other crazy connections can be made from random items being purchased together. Is there a book that has these crazy connections? I think Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J Dubner may do this but I haven't actually had a chance to read it.
Beer and Diapers? what is next?? Flashy purses and 2% milk?

4% vs. 40%

I was talking with my sister while I was home this past weekend and she mentioned to me the "ticked off" and "tickled pink" section of our local newspaper. She reads the news quite frequently (almost daily) and is currently a teacher in the Catholic school system. She was saying how almost all of the items were "ticked off" and aimed at teachers. She said that most of them were angry people and parents that couldn't believe that we (teachers of Alberta) are taking a raise. People are infuriated that we could take a raise when everyone is in such hard times and what do teachers need a raise for anyway?? A contract is a contract. I could understand this uprising if really everyone in our society was hurting (which not everyone is) or if after the 1992/3 strike Ralph Klein gave the money back that teachers gave up then, but he never gave back or rewarded the teachers like he said he would.

We started discussing that we are quite shocked about how angry people were... ESPECIALLY since our government just gave themselves a 40% raise. Now for those of us who may have struggled a bit in math, the raise that the government just decided to give themselves is TEN TIMES as much as we are getting! Not to mention, think of how much they are already making and then they increased that by 40%. Our salary (which is WAY smaller than theirs) will only go up 4%. So a big number increased by 40% is a really big number and an average number increased by 4% not that much of a difference.

Our government states that we don't have money to spend on education... maybe stop giving yourselves raises!?!??! could that work?

I am currently very very irritated with our governmental choices towards money and well other decisions they are making currently. I think we need to do something about it! Why are teachers getting the bad rap while governmental officials are being GREEDY?!?

Turkey!?!?!

Hey,
Just wanting to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!!! As you are eating your favourite foods maybe question what they mean to you and why? Why do you want to have turkey on Thanksgiving? WHY WHY WHY!!!!

Enjoy!

-Brandie

Ps drive safe!

Meaning in our Life

Today I was looking at the Boggled Blogger (sorry I don't even know who that is, is your name on there? sorry for my lack of knowledge!) I was reading the blog Among the Hidden and it reminded me of a certain episode of Stargate Atlantis (yes I love that show! This may change the meaning of me in your eyes but oh well!) where the Atlantis team goes to a world where there is an extreme difference between the "royals" and the "commoners". The team couldn't believe that people would still live in such poverty when they really shouldn't have to. And how they viewed their situation,their environment and the people that they had to be serve.

I started to think about how this group (commoners) didn't have access to outside information so their meaning would be similar to a lot of the people around them (didn't have access to other meanings). Just interaction with a new group from Atlantis changed many of the meanings in their lives; this makes me question our meanings for items in our society. The Internet alone has created access to so much more information and opinions than any generation before us. This information gives or can give us such a different meaning to many of the things we see around us on the daily basis.

Think about what our grandparents think of when we say certain things, probably completely different than what we think of. This isn't a bad thing or probably a good thing, just different. I wonder if we all have such differing views because of this? Would classrooms back ten, twenty years ago be so diverse? Would they have had the ability or opportunity to be as diverse as we are? Is this the reasoning for so much more controversy in our generation?

Can we judge a group that has had no outside exposure to other meanings? Should we even try? In anthropology, the people who go out and study the culture (group) try to have a lot of knowledge on that group. This may make them more able or more prepared to understand the meaning of certain items in that group/culture but can we really understand? During Stargate Atlantis there were moments where I felt the Atlantis team was almost being condescending to the commoners for accepting this way of life, but can they really expect any different?

I know that this blog was a bit all over the place but I just really wonder about the Internet affecting a lot of our meanings. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it affecting at all?

Symbolic Interactionism

This course has really opened my eyes to many things around me that I didn't necessarily think about. I think my favorite part of the course (that is currently sticking out in my mind) is learning about symbolic interactionism.

The sheer idea of this theory or concept seems so obvious! Obviously we all react to each object differently based on our own personal meaning to the item. This theory explains so much of society. We probably all immediately go to the red light, green light examples. Green- go, red- stop. But what about yellow? Yellow to some means caution, the light is about to be red, slow down; whereas others see it as a moment to push the gas pedal to the floor or you better hurry. Why the difference? It really is based upon what our previous knowledge and feelings are.

I believe phobias and fears are the exact same way. Some people when they see a dog feel scared and want to run away, where as other people want to get closer and touch the animal, exact same object, almost completely different responses. Why do people have such different feeling towards the exact same object? Perhaps to the person that is scared of the 4 legged animal with fur means danger, sharp teeth that can go through skin. While the person wanting to pet the dog it means childhood pet that they miss dearly.

This really should open our eyes as teachers. In my Curriculum and Instruction course for Physical Education yesterday we were playing a variety of different games and sports. Rugby was one of the sports, i saw the rugby ball and it made me extremely nervous, i felt scared. It was just a rugby ball, but all that kept going through my mind was visions of rugby tackles that I have seen in the past. I am sure the girls on the team that were teaching us rugby saw the ball as excitement and pride or at least not scary. We need to consider that perhaps students are fearful of things that we may see as not scary (e.g. fractions, balancing chemical equations...). This may assist in our dealing with students who are perhaps not so eager to start new sections of the course. I think the next step will have to be on working with the student to change the meaning of the object that is causing them stress.

Interactionists

Today during class we discussed Interactionists and a few forms that fit into that category (symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, ethnography, ethnomethodology and hermeneutics). I was quite intrigued to see all the varying systems of points of view.

During my first degree (anthropology) I had quite a few professors who had gone to live in a completely different culture and just immersed themselves in it. I found this quite strange and scary; therefore I knew that I would never really be able to completely call myself an anthropologist as the thought of doing this scared me! I did know that I could always just do studies on subcultures but it wouldn't be the same.

A few blogs ago, I considered myself a functionalist. I said that if I had to classify myself it would be as a functionalist. I don't always have a conspiracy theory about everything that is going on (conflict theorists) and I don't always have to know why(interactionist). Today during class, Professor Runte was discussing how Harold Garfinkel would be extremely annoying to be around because he always wanted to get to the basic assumption and keep asking why until he got there. During this portion of the lecture all I could think about what the little 2 or 3 year old continuously asking why? Why should I not sit so close to the t.v.? Why is it bad for me? Why should I be quiet? and so on and on!

I think that I would be one of the people that punched Harold Garfinkel in the face. I don't understand why people can't just accept things for the way they are. Perhaps this is why I might consider myself a functionalist, I don't need things explained in great depth. I choose to accept that people around me are making decisions that may affect me but choose to believe that that person is making the decision with me in mind. Now this may be my naive nature but I think that people should consider others when making decisions. I think this is the reason why I get so irritated with some conflict theorists.

Lastly, David today asked the question about H1N1 issue that we are currently having/enduring/being annoyed by. I was so happy that he posed this question because just yesterday I was debating with my sister about how big of an issue this actually is. I started the conversation with letting her know about our "Flu Registration" that we have here at the university and how I felt it was going to be extremely abused. I don't think this flu is going to be anything crazy, obviously I am not a doctor or really have any medical training. Whereas her opinion was they are sending masks to our work place it must be a big deal, they sent hand sanitizer last month, it must be bad! But I truly think it is just the media working so hard to get people all rallied up about stuff like this. **In one of my anthropology classes I remember learning that the best way to control people is with fear. Is that not exactly what is currently being done?

I am very excited to learn more about the 3 different sociological views on education in the upcoming classes.

Meritocracy & Pay Scales

The concept of Meritocracy is quite fascinating to me. I don't understand why this technically shouldn't be the best way of having a society work. Obviously it doesn't work, since the rich still get richer and the poor still get poorer (I don't think that every rich person is better than every poor person).

I want to almost piggy back on one of the things I read in Amanda's blog, "Meritocracy - Revisiting Functionalism ". She was talking about the brain surgeons being a critical part of our society (I read a little sarcasm into that point). I have to question what some of the vital positions in our society are. Could MOST of us survive without a brain surgeon? What about the garbage being picked up? The teacher that taught us everything? The NFL football player who is paid millions a year to tackle the opposing team? Which of those four could we probably survive our normal day to day life without? NFL player??? brain surgeon??? yet those are the 2 highest paid of the 4. I think our society needs to revamp our priorities. Is it because not everyone can do those jobs? or is it because not everyone was given the opportunity to try out those activities/jobs?

Quite frankly, as a student of MANY years and now a teacher in the making I feel it is okay to admit NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A TEACHER. I think that there is a misconception about teaching - that everyone can teach. Everyone can go through the motions and maybe be a technician of teaching and I emphasize the maybe... but actually teach? NO!!! We have all had that teacher where we have dreaded the class, couldn't make it through the class, couldn't understand what they were trying to convey to us. So many things go into making an "educated" teacher that not everyone can do it. So if we are basing our pay scales on how valuable we are, teachers should be at the top of the list. Brain surgeons didn't get through how many ever years of school without teachers. They didn't teach themselves!

I really would like to get the respect that we deserve. I feel we do a very important job for this society and quite honestly, sometimes it scares me!

:) Brandie :)

Structure and Governance

Decentralized vs Centralized

I am not sure where I want to stand on this spectrum. I think that there are definitely areas of our country that would need more knowledge on certain information and other areas that wouldn't need that information (perhaps at all). So I think it would be great to have some centralized knowledge that is mandatory (a baseline of knowledge) and areas that can be used for specific knowledge required to the specific area. I think that this is basically what is going on from the observations found on page 18. What knowledge should be baseline and what should be extra would be a national level decision, but heavily influenced by teachers as well as other important representatives of the society.

One thing that I don't necessarily agree on is the differing lengths of teaching time in secondary schools. Ontario is just above 3.7 hours a day and Alberta is just above 4.4 hours a day (Figure 1-3 pg 19). This is almost a complete hour difference! I think that students are really going to be under time restraints to learn all that they are supposed to in the little amount of time they are given. As well, it really takes away from the "educated teacher" vs the "trained teacher". We can't use too much variation because we don't have the time. What about creating a learning environment, would they have time for that?

Perhaps teachers have bargained down their amount of hours to teach, but I then think that students will need more after hours help. Students need to have the time to ask questions, do examples. These students aren't in university where it is more of an independent learning setting, they are still in secondary school. This isn't the year before they go and spread their wings in university and you are just trying to prepare them for that... and even so, some aren't going to choose to go to university so is it fair to them?

One of the current issues that school boards are considering is this - 3rd Friday off or no schools in the afternoon and in some cases no classes Friday. Not only does that affect the school but what about the parents who don't have every 3rd Friday off, or have to work afternoons. Who is watching the children? Keeping them out of trouble? or at least trying to steer them away from poor decisions?

As a student I may have loved this but is it in the students' best interest? I worked at a school who only had school on Friday until 1pm or so. I think this left students up to thinking that Fridays were kind of a "blow off" day. It is awesome when sports teams don't have to miss school in order to travel (as a student athlete it could get really challenging to play catch up missing every Friday afternoon class) but what about the rest of the students? Is it possible that they think, hey it is only a half day, lets go party Thursday night. Are they getting anything out of Friday?

Please comment on how you feel about going to shortened Fridays and even no Friday class at all. From both a teacher and a student perspective.

Hope this was a little more positive! :)
:) Brandie :)

Feedback so far!

Thanks for commenting on the Blog for those of you who did! Definitely excited to start looking around at everyone else's blogs!

In regards to the comment about- what is in the best interest of the students?
I never really thought about, what I see as most important for students as not being important. (that sounds really self-centered and I don't mean for it to but I guess I never really thought about it from this angle) Is this partially maybe why we have a public and a private system of education? Public is more the basics, where as private is maybe more so to entitle them to privilege of what school them came from. Honestly, I don't have a lot of knowledge on what a private school is like, I never attended one. I am just going off horrible shows (which I love) on TV such as Gossip Girl and others like it. So maybe I should not have an opinion at all. It isn't informed so perhaps I should maybe keep it to myself until I have done some research.

In regards to Eric, (thanks for commenting!!!) I did start ranting and raving. In school I always saw the older teachers as ones who had the issues with the government and all these "social issues" . In looking back maybe they were just more aware of what was going on, they knew how the game was played... If Sociology of Education is being banished from everywhere than it makes sense that other people(teachers) wouldn't necessarily know of the issues coming out of university. I literally chalked up their "gripes" about the education system to them just reminiscing about the good ole days! or they were getting close to retirement... now I have become that (or maybe are becoming that).

In discussions with my dad this weekend, he just kept repeating - if all the teachers band together they can make such changes... (he is really against this Carbon Dioxide into the ground thing that the government is doing... they are giving 2 billion for that I believe (not for sure!!!) ) Quite frankly when I heard that my jaw dropped! are you kidding me?!?! we are losing money and the government is putting money towards this?.. it isn't even completely researched yet (from what I have been told!) I will be doing a bit of research on this a little later because I want to make sure his facts are correct... but either way, if they are putting such great amounts of money towards this maybe we don't need our education to be cut!?!?!

On a positive note, I was home this weekend and it just made me more and more excited to become a teacher and start working with kids all the time!!! I hope you all still feel excited to get out into the "real world" and I use that term loosely (since I think most of us already are)!!!

:) Brandie :)

First REAL week of Class

Sociology is one thing that I have always thought would be really interesting to get into. I like thinking about society and similar things, but perhaps I was always thinking in too positive of a way. I am not a fight the system, fight the power kind of girl. I pick my battles but other than that I don't like to really rock the boat. Now in my previous blogs it is probably quite apparent that I am getting a little passionate about some of these issues. But I think some of the reason why they are so passionate is because the writers at times I felt were just trying to rock the boat to rock the boat and maybe not necessarily accomplish anything. I am not saying that what this sociologists and economists did were pointless BY ANY MEANS, I am just wondering what their true motives behind these studies are.

Yesterday in class we discussed being able to "anticipate the trends". How do I do that? If I have to figure the trend out before their is talk of it in legislation or by government, how do I do that? I can't even figure out fashion trends, something that is meaningless. But education?? How can I predict that stuff? I am all for saving education and making it the best that it can be! I fully say give our students that extra $2000. They deserve it, they will put up with hardships in the future, why not give them a little extra if we have it?

Currently I am very frustrated with our government. I believe this may be in part that I am taking Social Issues and this class but it is shocking how greedy our government appears to be. I am still very proud to be from Alberta and will most likely live here all my life but I am really wanting to start be a fight the system kind of girl in regards to our government. Why keep stealing from the hand that feeds you government? Who pays the taxes? What if we no longer are able to get a good enough education to get a great paying job because you guys kept cutting and cutting at the education budget. This is a vicious cycle! If you keep taking our money away from education -->education quality will be lower--> students will be less likely to get great jobs--> which means less tax money for government --> therefore where do they take money from???... EDUCATION!

Wowza, that was a crazy rant! I am shocked at how passionate I am getting over this stuff... maybe I am overloading on the social issues and education issues this semester! **I will definitely try to lighten it up in the next few blogs...

(Thought I should maybe put some information about our text up... just in case!)
Barakett, Joyce & Cleghorn, Ailie (2008). Sociology of Education. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc.

Theories of Schooling and Society

In this chapter I found myself questioning it a lot... for instance about bias and then why no female perspectives but then it all came around.

The Bowles and Gintis perspective when they started discussing how education creates students that "are docile and complacent" this hit home for me. In my either freshman year of sophomore year of university I wrote a term paper in one of my anthropology classes about this. At the start of our test we had a few minutes to discuss with our peers and all of a sudden this idea hit me about in school we do teach the students to just listen and do as directed. I was writing in regards to the military though. (the time frame of my paper was during the start of the "war on terror") (yes I am OLD)

My paper went on to talk about how the president would not want the soldiers to do anything but what they were told. Wouldn't want someone to question the motives behind the attack or anything else really. I wrote this and I believed it. But I don't know if I do anymore.

Yes, I would love it if all my students did what I told them to do, when I told them to do it. But I don't want mindless drones for students. Isn't critical thinking part of almost all curriculum? In Social Studies we were always taught to think about all the angles, what else could be playing a role, or effecting the situation? So no longer can I agree or even not get infuriated that Bowles and Gintis think that this could be a part of educations purpose.

As well, during this chapter when I pictured education the way that they were portraying it I couldn't help but picture kings and queens holding the strings of education. But I don't agree! Perhaps I am naive in my belief of the good of man but I think education is in the best interest of everyone. People in control of education want the best for the students, if they didn't why would they be a part of it?

If I had to label myself, it would be as a functionalist. I don't completely agree with functionalism, however, I do think it is functional to have everyone educated. Imagine a world of uneducated people. Would we be where we are? I definitely would not be reading critiques of education if we had no education because I would not have the skills to do so... and no one would have the skills to write about it.

At times I think that Alberta because of our economy may be the exception to some of these theories. If a student gets how to play the game of education then they get a higher education and therefore will be more successful and have a higher social status. Where I am from lots of people who didn't get how to play the game (didn't make it through or didn't graduate) got jobs that were VERY well paying. Working in the oil field where I am from pays really good money. Now perhaps that isn't the highest of status job but it brings in a lot of money and money is a huge deal in our society. This in turn causes problems with cultural capital and academic capital. If these students who didn't learn how to play the game have got great paying jobs where does their money go? Because academic capital is suppose to come from the people who mastered playing the game. So what does that mean for the future of education? Is their capital not good enough? Will it go to an inferior education system called the public system?? I wonder how education is going to look a few years down the road, especially in a city like mine that is heavily employed by the oil industry.

I think this chapter opened my eyes to a lot of things, however, I don't feel negative towards education and feel that social status is going to play the role that they believe it will in my classroom. I feel that it will be EXTREMELY important for all students in the lower grades to make sure they all stay on the same level and are all excelling! And that no one is slipping through the cracks, this will help make sure that later in their education careers that economic status can't or won't play as much of a factor that some of these sociologist believe it to.

Excited to hear the debates on this tomorrow in class :)
Hope this wasn't too dismal or depressing for you readers!

First Impressions

**All of my references to the "text" will be regarding Sociology of Education by Joyce Barakett and Ailie Cleghorn. Class references will be Education 4320 with instructor Robert Runte**

This was one of my most interesting first reads of any class. I was delighted by the reviewing of some of the basic sociology terms. I think this will make for a much easier understanding of the concepts that we will be addressing and therefore will be able to get much deeper into the actual "meat and potatoes" of the controversy versus trying to decipher all the jargon.

While reading the paragraph about notions of what girls and boys should act like it made me wonder or question if there are even defined ways to act anymore. In reflection upon classes that I have either been a student in or have been teaching, actions are varied in many different aspects. Kids used to always raise their hands if they had anything to say, is that the status quo anymore? Does that happen in all of our classes? Shouldn't we be completely trained? What about all the variation in teachers as a whole? Are we all the same? Do we all have the same exact ways of doing things? *I don't think we can say that students in the present, especially a gender separation, have set ways to behave.

The text almost stated (perhaps I was a bit too offended) that elementary school was basically a facility to watch the kids while the parents were away. If elementary school is just a place to "babysit" the children, why is it then that children learn how to read? do basic math? Learn pretty much every basic skill that is needed for every grade after elementary school!?!?

Honestly, I think that elementary school teaching is most likely the most important and hardest age level to teach. Students do not yet have the skills to teach themselves, read, make informed decisions or even interact on the "accepted" basis. I was quite irritated by the way the text portrayed elementary school or teachers as a "custodial function".

That seemed quite negative, however, I did feel quite positive about this text. I am intrigued by what I will read next. :)