PSA Phase One

While working on my final portfolio I noticed that some of my projects needed some touch up work.  The phase one of project one needed some work in reorganizing sentences and making it longer to meet the requirements. I watched the PSA video again and I realized i didn’t bother to look up the African-American men who had these brilliant ideas and made them into inventions. I researched it today and found out some interesting facts, so I wrote this paragraph about these inventors.

“After watching this PSA for a second time I decided to search the inventions and learn more about these inventors. The traffic light and the mailbox were the first objects that were shown with the thought bubbles around them. I found that the traffic light was patent by a African-American man named Garret Morgan, who also invented the gas mask. At first the gas mask was used to help trapped miners but later he made them for the U.S. Army. The second thing I found was the mailbox was invented by an African-American man named Philip Downing, he invented a street letter drop mailbox with a hinged door that closed to protect mail. I also saw that the bag blood was highlighted with a thought bubble, at first I did not know exactly what that meant. After researching it I found that the bag of blood represented a blood bank. Dr. Charles Richard Drew discovered that plasma lasts longer in storage  than whole blood. From this his idea has saved countless lives. These were just some of the examples from the PSA. After researching these inventions I noticed that all these  inventors had a good educate and all had an idea in common.”

Now, I would like to use this some where in my portfolio because I feel like it is a good addition to this PSA, i just do not know where to put it. I don’t know if I should add to the actual project or would it be okay if  I used it as part of my narration for the multi-genre text?

Selling lesson plans online

Buying and selling lesson plans online immoral or just a good business?

When I first read the title of this article I immediately thought teachers are being more lazy and only want to do have the work. As i read the article i realized that some of these students were using the profits from selling lessons online for themselves.Margret Wisnant made $750 a month for her lessons on the “Outsiders”. These profits helped payed for her kitchen renovations. This to me is immoral, selling lessons for profit is not what teaching is all about. I feel like teaching is not about earning money, but its to educate and help others. Also on the opposite side, teachers share lessons with other teachers, which to me is selling lessons with out the money involve. So is selling lessons online a new thing or did some become smart and got money involved? Ms. Perecca sold a 56 page lesson plan on Macbeth, including quizzes and tests earned $540 and spent $140 of it on books and cookies for her students. Selling lesson plans might be a great to earn profit for classroom needs or for students but using profits on yourself is wrong. I feel like buying lesson plans online is taking away from making each teacher an individual. Each teacher has their own way of teaching and through lessons a bit of their personality come out of it, forging another teachers lesson takes away from that teacher originality. Also, teachers are always drilling students that forging and copying others work is bad, but these teachers are do the exact opposite of what they are saying. Like Rafe said, students watch a teachers every move even when they think students are not watching. This can be very confusing some students. There are thousands of websites online with ideas and suggestions of  how to teach different subjects, this should be enough for teachers. Sharing may almost be the same as buying lessons, but it takes the business out of it. Also by sharing ideas teachers can put their own spin to the lesson instead of taking the entire thing for themselves.

a breif critique

I found this anecdote almost contradicting to Rafe, he opened up in a very humble manner in saying all the awards won did not compare to the rewards of teaching, but at the same time he talks about he taught he’s 10 year students to act like adults. As a fifth grader, I know that response would not have come out of my mouth, all i worried about was gossiping with my friends and discovering boys don’t really have cooties. ( well, some do.) Rafe teaches his students to act very polite and well-mannered when out in public, this maybe a good thing to teach students but to a certain extend. where is the fun in that? I think students can be well-mannered and still have fun. the ticket- taker and Rafe are too extreme opposites, the ticket-taker says the students should be loud and crazy and Rafe says the students should be polite and quiet out in public. I think that they should meet in the middle, i imagine Rafe’s students standing in a single filed line, blank faces, and hands at their sides, this would be so boring! I know I have good manners from my parents and as a student in college I wouldn’t want to behave like a robot.

Another thing that caught my attention was the fact the student told Rafe ” he is just a ticket-taker.” Rafe teaches his students to be polite but allows his students to make comments like that. I feel like everyone has to start somewhere, and these low wage jobs are a great way to get people in the work field. I work at a pool at my park district for minimum wage, but this teaching me the value of a dollar and that not every thing will be handed to me on a silver platter. when Rafe was telling this story I chuckled to myself, as i thought about it more I thought the comment was a bit rude. For Rafe to allow that kind of confused me.

My Plan for the Final Portfolio

Since I am  procrastinate I realize that I have a lot of work to do for this final portfolio. To be honest I really don’t have a plan other than I’m going to lock my self in my room or the library until I get this done and get it done right. The first thing that I have to do is read about the first two projects since they were done awhile back ago, then I’m going to read my final- for – now drafts of those projects. I just skimmed the first one and realized that I could do much better than what I did. After revising the final- for- now drafts  will help me synthesize projects one and two together. This might be a little bit difficult considering that both projects are two different topics.

I haven’t had a chance to look at the other parts of the portfolio in-depth but I know I have some work ahead of me.  With the remix I plan on going through all my work I have done for the class and picking out my best work. I’m going to look through blogs and the different projects. though, I am confused on how to organize this. How are we supposed to put our best work into one document? Or is it just one item were picking out?

So basically my plan is to sit at my computer until I get this done. I plan on working really hard the week before and after Thanksgiving break because I know I won’t get much done over break. although, I dont want to leave a lot of work for the week after Thanksgiving because I have other finals to worry about.

Standarized Testing

From doing this project I realized that not everyone feels the same way about standardized testing. I thought everyone felt the same way I did, standardized testing is dumb and it shouldn’t be used for college entrance or school funding. For me, taking test can be very stressful, I get my self worked up over  exams and even the smallest 5 point quizzes. Clearly test taking was not my thing and still isn’t. So, to be told I had three hours to complete a test, with subjects that were difficult for me, that would pretty much determine where I went to school made me freak out a little bit. My parents knew I was terrible at taking tests so they insisted that I went to classes to practice for the ACT, still didn’t help out. I felt like those classes just thought me strategies of the test and not the actual material. Needless to say, I didnt get the highest score out of my class my mates, but out of my class mates I did have a high GPA. For people like me the I think the ACT is a bad indicator of a student’s performance levels.

In teaching the class about standardize testing, i realized that some students didn’t care at all for it or they actually liked it and thought it was a good way to look at a student’s performance for college entrance. I honestly was a little bit shocked. After listening to their point of view I realized that the students who are good test takers like having the ACT, since it’s a big part of college entrance that would help them out greatly. I think having that class discussion helped showed all students point of view and their thoughts on standardize. Even though I hate it, it may benefit others and for right now it is the only way of measuring a student’s performance.

Not Just Extra Credit

Reading the english blog i immediately saw the extra credit opportunity. knowing that i have been behind on my blogs i knew going to see some speaker for an hour wouldn’t kill me, not to mention that going to see Rafe Esquith is extra credit in another one of my classes. walking into the auditorium I saw a bunch of  older people there very eager to see Rafe, i honestly had no idea what the big deal was, it was just some guy coming in to talk about his teaching experiences. Once Rafe started speaking i instantly knew why these other people were so excited to see him. I quickly found that he is the Opera of the teaching world.

Rafe Esquith has been teaching for about 28 years and he has changed many lives of his students and even the way other teachers approach their students. Rafe works as a fifth grade teacher in L.A., over 50 percent of the students are below the poverty line and all students speak english as a second language. Rafe has won various awards for his outstanding performance but he says the ony one that matters to him is watching a student succeed.

Rafe has many ways of teaching and these are just a few of the things that really stood out to me.

“Get rid of all fear.” In schools these days bullying has become a very big issue, it is seen more often, and kids are becoming more brutal. Students aren’t just picking on the smallest kid in the class but they are targeting anyone and everyone they can make miserable. a lot of times this might be mentally or verbally attacking someone. Rafe says with all this bullying there is enough fear in coming to school why add more by bullying school in the classroom? By yelling at a student for not turning in a homework assignment or messing up in class makes students fear coming to school even more. Rafe also said that he never raises his voice to the class, but he still gets his point across to the class. students should feel like the class room is a safe zone.

” Be the person you want your students to be”  Rafe said that students observe every move a teacher makes, even when a teacher least expects it the students are still watching very closely. Teachers are role models for their students, they are who they see for the majority of the day. When a student sees their teacher be productive and hard-working they are going to want to be the same way.

I can go on and on about what I learned from Rafe Esquith, this was not just an extra credit opportunity but this was a chance for me to listen to one of the greats give his little insights to teaching. with all the motivation and inspiration he to many educators, i wonder if all his stories are true. I’m sure Rafe would not make anything up  but I question how one guy can do all this good, change all these lives, and change how some educators teach their students.

 

Parents On Facebook

Parents with face books are annoying. a few of my friends parent have face books and seem to be always checking up on me. whenever i have something they think is inappropriate, they will be the first ones to  tell my parents. my parents know what i do, i mean i am in college. i try not to put pictures up of drinking but sometimes a beer can might sneak in there or a poster of alcohol will be in the background. these parents don’t need to be telling my parents my every move, i feel like i am old enough where i can do things with out my parents holding my hand. thank god i have understanding parents and they know what goes on. i hate being judged of  what is on my face book, i can’t help what my friends like to comment on about me. i feel like they are judging me. just because a friend a commented on my wall about staying out really late one night, commented about a funny picture, or even if a friend comment on missing class does not mean i am a bad person. i think it is so annoying i have people watching my every move from like 200 miles away. Its not like i have pictures of me actually drinking or even doing any drugs, which i wouldn’t dare to do becuase i was taught better. i understand they, at times are looking out for my best interests but then i feel like they need to grow up and watch out for their own children.

I’m screwed.

So… I’m basically screwed.

This whole semester i put off my english work and now it has come back to haunt me. Since this class really has no due dates and blogs are done at our time I kept putting them off and saying ” oh I’ll just do it next week” but clearly that was not a smart idea. now it is the end of the semester and time for everything to be turned in and perfected.  a couple of weekes before the semester is over i have a whopping twelve bogs out of thirty.   Needless to say, i have not been keeping up with my blogging. So my plan is to just blog away about everything and anything.

with the ” final for now” deadlines i thought i could just turn in some paper i wrote in five minutes and go back to fix it later. But for me later never came, until now. i realize that all my projects are not the best i can do, i am not the best writer in the world can i know i can do much better than what i have been doing. all this procrastination has hit me hard, now i have to figure out a way to get eighteen blogs and finish my final portfolio. all i can say is im going to have an awesome Thanksgiving break sitting in front of my computer the entire time.

Workshop

Banking Concept VS. Problem Posing

Bank Concept Education

• Students retain information instead of understating why
• Students “receive, memorize, and repeat” all information given to them
• EXAMPLE:  In elementary school students just memorize the times tables but don’t really know how or why they go that answer
• Teachers think they are all knowledgeable and students are ignorant
• Teachers act like they are higher than students and that students wouldn’t be anywhere without them
• Out of this comes libertarian education where both are the teachers and students. Students can learn from teachers but at the same time teachers learn from students
• “oppression – overwhelming control – is necrophilia”
  • Necrophilia = obsession with death and corpse
  • Oppressed students student have no opinion, they are no creative so they are almost dead themselves
  • Teachers expect students to be this way

Problem Posing Education

• Exact opposite from banking concept
• Whatever problem is coming up the answer is always changing
• Problem posing stimulates creativity  and true reflection
• From this students grow, they move forward and look ahead to the future by understanding the past

Final For Now

The PSA ad opens with soft subtle music, a women walking down a side walk to drop some mail off in a mail box; at the same time a man is stopped at a traffic light. The traffic light and mailbox are with a thought bubble making viewers think why this is. The first time I watched this video I knew that it was to support minority education, but if I didn’t know what it was for I would have been slightly confused. The few seconds go without any dialog, the man stares at the woman who is going to drop off her mail in the mail box, if I did not know what the add was for I would have thought it was for something entirely different. This is another I think it grabs viewers attention. After seeing the man go through the traffic light a narrator comes in and explains the PSA.

“Support minority education today so we don’t miss out on the next big idea tomorrow.” Quickly after the dialog comes in viewers learn that the thought bubbles come from just ideas, and ideas can come from minorities or any African American. To me, the test is telling me that by giving everyone a chance to learn we can all benefit from this in many different ways. We can all grow from these ideas and we don’t know where we would be without some of these ideas.

Some elements that grab viewers’ attention are the slogans that are said at the very end of the PSA. The first one is “support minority education today so we don’t miss out on the next big idea tomorrow.” This slogan is easy to interpret by watching the video, we can clearly see that all those inventions came from just ideas and without proper education to minorities there would be none of those inventions or even ideas.  The next big element is the very last text of the PSA, “a mind is a beautiful thing to waste.”  This is also the motto for the UNFC.  To me, this means everyone has ideas or thoughts and everyone has the right to express them. By education minorities we can get more of those thoughts or ideas out there. By putting “fund the UNFC” in the middle of the two slogans is a good way to make viewers want to support minority education. The viewers first think about is by helping support  minorities now will help them get a proper education so they can put ideas out there, and it also gives everyone a chance to do so. Then viewers can hear and see the motto of the UNFC and have more reason to help support the UNFC. The first dialog the narrator expresses is “things we count on everyday come from ideas, ideas from the minds from African Americans” I think this explains what all the thought bubbles are about and explains the PSA.

Even though there are no written words the text until the very end, to me is the little thought bubbles around the traffic light, mail box, or lawn mower motor. This describes a piece of communication the PSA is trying to portray to viewers. By putting thought bubbles around the different inventions the viewer learns that from the dialog that all inventions come from just an idea. Later in the video viewers learn that those inventions were invented from African American or minorities but most minority education are not property funded. This is where visual text comes in telling viewers “help fund the UNFC, the mind is a beautiful thing to waste.”  

This PSA did several good things to grab the viewers’ attention. At first there was no dialog and just subtle music that brought the viewers attention to see what the thought bubbles meant. A few seconds into the clip the narrator started to explain that all those inventions cam from just thoughts and thoughts could not have been expresses with out a proper education. Later he uses the slogan “ a mind is a beautiful thing to waste” which captures the viewers attention even more by making them think about helping to fund UNFC. Also by adding in the image of the little African American boy at the end puts a picture of the message into the viewers’ minds.