Michelina's blog

  Aria- Richard Rodriguez      Rodriguez talks about his transition from using Spanish at home to learning and using English in the classroom. He talks on how adopting English, the "public" language, and separating himself from Spanish, the "private" language, causes him to feel less intimate with his family. He says, "I became... the confident student, academically successful. But, diminished, in my family's eyes." This highlights a typical experience for bilingual students, who frequently struggle to balance maintaining their cultural and linguistic heritage with thriving in an academic setting where English is the primary language.      Students from non-English speaking backgrounds could experience difficulties comparable to those Richard Rodriguez describes in Aria, where the transition to an English-dominant environment affects their cultural self-perception and familial relationships. These students frequently feel torn between upholding their c...

Compare and contrast Finn v.s Shalaby Shalaby's Troublemakers and Patrick Finn's Literacy with an Attitude examine how societal attitudes of students from underprivileged backgrounds contribute to educational inequalities, though from distinct perspectives. In Shalaby's Troublemakers, the author looks at how young children, especially African American students, are branded as "problems" in the classroom, which results in harsh disciplinary measures that worsen exclusion rather than promote growth and understanding. Shalaby emphasizes the human cost of these designations by highlighting how adult views of deviance eclipse children's innate potential and need for nurture. She argues for compassionate teaching methods that accept kids for who they are, understanding that actions classified as "trouble" are frequently the result of systemic neglect and a lack of support rather than personal failings on the part of the kids.   In contrast, Finn's Lit...

    In my opinion, I believe that every student learns differently, and has their own strength and weaknesses in the classroom.       Kohn includes in his " Stuff " category he states that there should be a "sense of clutter" in the classroom including supplies, posters, and other educational items. I agree with this to an extent. Personally, If i notice something is messy or cluttered, it is all I focus on until it is organized to my liking. In middle school I had this one teacher who had his entire room covered in newspaper articles, photos with his student, educational posters, decorations from every holiday, flags from colleges, stacks of papers and homework all over his desk and cabinets, and basically anything he found around the school. There was so much going on that for the first few weeks of class I would get easily distracted due to something that caught my eye in the classroom. This would cause me to fall behind as I struggled to grasp a full at...

  “Our schools are designed to prepare children to take their assumed place in the social order rather than to question and challenge that order. Because we train youth in the image of capitalism instead of a vision of freedom-for lives as individual workers rather than solidary human beings-young people are taught academic content that can be drilled and tested rather than understanding literacies and numeracies as forms of power, tools for organizing, fodder for the development of their own original ideas.” Trouble Makers- Preface This quote questions the essential goal of education in the modern world. It implies that obedience is frequently given priority in schools over critical thinking, with the goal of preparing students to fit into existing societal institutions rather than inspiring them to confront or question such structures. This viewpoint brings to light a serious worry: rather than fostering true understanding and empowerment, education could work to support capitali...