Sunday, April 24, 2011

Shor's Education is Politics

Connections:
The two articles that I related Shor’s piece to was; Colliers piece and Christensen’s piece.   There were specific points in the article that made me think of these pieces for one reason or another.  First, was Collier’s piece.  “Piagel urged a reciprocal relationship between teachers and students, where respect for the teacher coexisted with cooperative and student centered pedagogy.” This reminded me of Collier because he talks about a language barrier and difference in backgrounds.  If the teacher and student can’t understand or connect to each other on a certain level, then their relationship is not as easy.  The students that respect their teachers the most are normally the ones who feel comfortable in that class and with that teacher.  If the student feels like the teacher doesn’t understand them and isn’t willing to put in the effort, then there is no respect at all.  This goes along with what Kliewer says about how working with children with disabilities is.  If there isn’t a mutual respect between the parent and the teacher, then the student has no hope of being included in the class outlines.
The second article was Christensen.  When Shor started talking about key questions to ask to get issues for the class started he brought up the news and the media.  Clearly I thought of Christensen and how the media distorts the images we see and therefore we are subject to discrimination without knowing it.  Kids grow up thinking something that they saw on TV is the truth, and therefore judge others until they are told that it may not be accurate.  Is there a body that regulates the ethics of newspapers? Why isn't the media more accountable for its actions?” These are questions Shor asks that directly relate to Christensen and it is done in a way that stimulates the students to be interested in what they are learning.  They become active and follow the outline that Shor gives us for a positive classroom environment between teachers and students. 
I think Shor had great ideas in how to make the classroom easier for both teachers and students.  Having a relationship based on respect, participation, cooperation and more allows for learning to happen while teaching values to the students about not only education, but about life and self.
In class I wish to know how other people motivate their students to participate when they are discouraged.  I find it very hard to do in the Providence Schools and am not sure if there is a better approach than what I am doing. 

2 comments:

  1. I also saw a lot of connections in this weeks article, nice job picking them all out and analyzing them in the context. It is very hard to motivate kids when they are discouraged, I haven’t had a lot of instances where my kids have been sort of down. I think one way of getting students to participate is explaining that if they try to do the work they will get better with practice.

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  2. I like the connections you make. I totally agree. I also liked how you made the connection to Collier, but in that same thing you related it to Kliewer as well.

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