School to prison pipeline video

Hey everyone, today in class we watched two similar movie trailers about public schools students from middle to high school become targets from the law enforcement in their schools to go to jail over little things that they may have done. I find it interesting that both trailers targeted a certain group of people, which were in urban areas with low income or middle class people. Why is it that other schools in different neighborhoods such as white or asian aren't having students go to jail? I know that not only black, hispanic, or any other known minority groups are the only neighborhoods with students in schools that are doing bad things.

The first trailer, Book Em': undereducated and overincarcerated, was about a high school being next to a prison. This is so crazy to me because, why would anyone want to build a school next to a prison and vice versa. This type of environment is not healthy for any student, and the staff knew that. The bigger picture here is that students are being sent there for doing things in schools such as tagging, fighting, and a whole bunch of over similar factors.

My first tutoring experience

Hey everyone, so today was very interesting because my classmates and I were able to tutor students in an ENG101 class. It was a good first experience, because I got a chance to test the skills that I learned in class and from my own past experiences. Overall, I was comfortable and confident because I knew that I was going to do try my best to help the student that I was paired up with; however, I was a little nervous about how I would go about doing the tasks.

When I met the student,  we both introduced ourselves which is a good way to start a conversation with any new person that you meet. Anne Marie, was the student that I was paired up with and after I sat down we began to talk about her paper. The topic of her paper was about biculturalism, and I asked her her to explain a little about it to me. She said, "it is the study of more than one culture coming together and integrating one another." We both decided that there were both good and bad aspects of being born in the US, and having background customs from other countries. Anne Marie wanted to focus on the bad aspects of being from a certain group and living in America. I asked if she wanted to combine the good and bad things, and she said she wanted to just focus on one theme. She decided to focus on blacks, muslims, and hispanics because she felt they are all the groups that are targeted the most in the US, and talk about the disadvantages that come with it. I noticed that she had a ll of these good ideas but nothing to back it up with, so I played the "why" games, and asked her why she felt those groups were being discriminated, because in any essay the writer has to back up whatever it is they are saying. As she told me her reasons, I wrote them down so we could be organized. Anne Marie had an introduction which was good, because it gave us something to work with and build from there. After she read her intro to me, I told her as writers we need to grab the readers attention, as professor said punch your readers in the face with your opening paragraph.

How was my tutoring observation?

Hey everyone, yesterday was my first tutoring observation at the writing corner in the school. Before yesterday, I had only gone there once during my freshman year when I needed help starting a essay. My own experience there was good, because the tutor I had was very helpful in breaking down what my professor wanted me to write in the essay. This time around was different because I was there to observe how the tutors use their own techniques to help such students like myself improve their writing assignments.

Coincidently, I was assigned to observe to ENG 101 professor. I was already familiar with his style of writing, and what he expected in his essays. When I was in his class, he taught me the "sandwich" method with constructing a proper essay, and I still use this method to this day. When the tutor, student, and I sat in the cubicle he did not waste any time getting right into the essay. I could be wrong, but I wish he would have asked the student how he was doing just to get him more comfortable. Instead the tutor just started to read the comments which the students' professor wrote on the paper, and began to work from there. The tutor read the assignment sheet which was good to me, because as tutors we will come across topics about everything, and it would be a little easy for us if we read the students'  assignment sheet. At first, I wanted the tutor to talk to the student outside of the paper just to see where he was in the paper. He did that towards the end of the paper by asking the student questions, and having him write his ideas down which he would add to his paper. This was good because that is how the student will remember what to put in their paper when they are rewriting it. The tutor didn't really focus on grammar, he actually told the student "don't let grammar stop you from writing, because any errors will be fixed at the end." I liked that the tutor told him that because he may know that a lot of students get distracted with worrying about their grammar, and it stops them from writing their paper flowingly. The student became a little more relaxed after he was told that, and I knew he would keep that statement in mind whenever he writes more papers.

What is my pedagogy?

Hey,

Pedagogy is a word that is most used in the educational field, but I feel that we all have our own pedagogy because we are teach others and we also learn from each other. Pedagogy comes from Greek roots, and it is basically the art of teaching children to the best of your abilities. Teachers exercise their pedagogy through context, and finding different ways to incorporate in their lessons when you are teaching children. They understand that not every child will grasp information at the same pace nor the same way, that is why it is important for teachers to really plan their lesson plans wisely with the intent that they will not stop until every student understand what is being taught to them.

Recently, I saw a TED video with Sir Ken Robinson, and in the video he had some really good valid points about the state of education, and what needs to be done to improve it. TED events are where educators go and talk to people about how they feel the educational system is going, and who better to know that then actual educators. One aspect he touched on was the idea that schools strip students of their creativity. This is true because there have been less programs within schools that offer different forms of art.