Chapters 5-7

For the first part of this blog I'm going to talk about what the author meant by failure being an option. He means that schools should embrace the fact that failure happens, instead of being seen as a horrible thing. "Failure is inevitable in life. Unfortunately, in school, children have been brainwashed into believing they aren't supposed to take plunges into uncertainty." In all of school whenever someone gets an "F" its a big deal. The parents are disappointed and of course want an explanation from their child of why they're failing a particular class. But the ironic thing is "There's no success like failure." Besides plenty of people failed at doing something before succeeding. Look at Thomas Edison, he said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work." The thing is we don't necessarily learn from when we succeed, but when we fail we learn from our mistakes. The author was trying to bring out how when we make failure not an option it puts a lot of pressure on the students, and for that matter we are discouraging a vital way of learning, learning from our mistakes. I also completely agree with his opinion, if failure wasn't looked at as such a bad thing people would take more risks, which in turn would lead to more exploration and learning.

The author also talks about how we do big things, and when he says "we" he means us, as in America, specifically the U.S. so like I said, "us". When he was talking about U.S.' accomplishments he focused on our innovative spirit. "In America, innovation doesn't just change our lives. It is how we make our living." Innovation is a huge thing in America and that's obvious, it shows because on the list of the world's most innovative companies of the past year 9 of the top 10 were American based companies. What does that tell you about innovation in America? Since innovation is so important in America why don't we teach it in schools? That's my question, because after reading about America's innovative spirit, I now know how important innovation is in this country.

In chapter 6 the author talked about different subjects in school and how they aren't being taught the right way. One subject he talked about was math, and how in the school system we take the fun out of it. We make it about formulas, and just that. So from a students' perspective it doesn't make sense why they would need to learn it, if more than likely they won't use it. "We need a mathematics curriculum that is grounded in real-life problems." Therefore emphasizing the need to make math out of everyday life, make problems where students have to use math to figure it out. To me it would almost be like Cyberchase, remember that show? The kids in the show would go on missions to save Cyberspace and they would have to use math skills to solve problems. To me the author would want things like that going on in school instead. He talked about we make history boring by just focusing on memorizing facts. That we could improve the subject if we got rid of the textbooks, be willing to teach about controversial topics, and going deep into topics instead of just scratching the surface of multiple topics. Bring competition into the class, let the students research things in history they're interested in and write a paper on it, and finally actually take the students to historical places. The last subjects it talked about where reading and writing. How in reading instead of just assigning the same old books that have been used for years, look into assigning relevant books that the current students would be interested in. Also when it comes to writing instead of just drilling in grammar, focus more on the students actually writing. Then he said how the arts should be included in all schools because that class could be the bright spot in a student's day. "Perhaps, it may even prevent a kid from dropping out." I agree with his opinion on all of these subjects, the only question is will the school system listen?

Finally in chapter 7 he talked about how teachers are treated. He brought up points about their salary and how over the years it has gone down. However, in other countries teachers are seen as heroes, people who "build nations". Being a teacher is held in high regard, in fact, "if I applied to a graduate education program, it would be more difficult to be admitted than medical school." But over here teachers are on the bottom of the education food chain. They don't really get a hand in the decision making process when it comes to standards and curriculum. The more I thought about what he was saying the more accurate I realized it was. I mean think about it, the "best" teachers go to the rich schools, and the other schools get the left overs. But in reality we should be making sure that all the teachers are the best of the best because they are teaching children, and children are the future.

Feng Shui Articles

Today we had to read some articles on Feng Shui. The reason why we were reading about them is because we are using the bagua map, which is a big part of Feng Shui, and we are suppose to see how we're using what the article is saying. In the first article I noticed that we are going to add lamps in one of our rooms and getting rid of the fluorescent lights, which is something that the article suggests so we're doing good there. We're also going to get rid of the clutter, and that's a big part of Feng Shui to be as uncluttered as possible. Finally another thing I noticed that we are doing is having everyone participate, and keep students aware. We've been communicating well enough that everyone knows what changes are going to be made and everyone is helping out, which is nice to see.

The other article I liked the most. It had different settings for the classroom, and I hope that we can do some of those settings in the future. In fact we should be able to because we're going to add casters to the table to make them movable. The article had different classroom settings for different activities. For example there was independent work, group work, and more. It also talked about how the students will be able to get an idea of what's going to be discussed by the setting. For example, if a class was set up to where all the desks were close to each other the students would know more than likely they'll do something as a group rather than individual work. I think its cool how different classroom settings of just moving around the tables can have such a strong effect on what the students think they're going to do.

5 Habits of Leaders Who Create Workspace Culture

We had to read this article, I'll give the link down below. But pretty much it was talking about 5 habits to create a workspace with a good culture. One of the habits that I was thought was cool, was when it talked about thinking urban. How looking at cities can give you inspiration. I'm going to be a lot more observant now of my surroundings. Another one I liked was bring play into the work place. I think for our school we should get a ping pong table or something of that nature. I think that's important because then you have something fun to do in your area. I'm not mentioning all of the details but the final point I liked was what it said about that not everything works for everyone. That's very true, you're going to have circumstances where people don't like their environment. I really hope we keep this in mind as we change our building and we make it in a way to where it has something for everybody.




http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2013/05/12/5-habits-of-leaders-who-create-workspace-culture/

New Insights from the Book

We're still reading the book One Size Does Not Fit All. We just finished chapters 3-4 and of course we need to blog about it.

At the end of one of the chapters the book asked: "what if school wasn't school anymore?" It is an interesting question isn't it? But what if that was the case? Well in my opinion I think  if school wasn't school anymore it would make the childhood of children more enjoyable. I think it would help release stress and from children. Think about how much stress and pressure is put on children to go to college get straight A's, and get a good job. But the book has brought out many times how acing tests doesn't guarantee success. With that being said even if children take care of business in school that doesn't mean they'll be successful in life, which means they could've taken it easier during school. If school wasn't school anymore, and there wasn't such emphasis put on it children all over the world would take a big sigh of relief.

I think we can tailor education to every child by taking in consideration their interest. Maybe we make a curriculum for each interest, that way children's curiosity isn't extinguished; after all "the future belongs to the curious." I think we could tailor learning to individual children by finding out what kind of intelligence they're best at and doing things that have to do with that field. Besides there are only eight intelligences, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intra-personal intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, linguistic intelligence, and logical mathematical intelligence. If we could asses which child is good at what it would be easier to tailor some sort of curriculum that would fit that specific child. Once we get the right fit for each student they would want to learn more. Hence leading to better results.

With there being high emphasis on education it leads to high emphasis on testing. This regime is dangerous and inappropriate. The reason why is because too much focus is on just getting good grades on the test and not enough focus on learning. "Never let a school that flaunts test scores trick you. If a a school boasts about its test scores parents ought to immediately respond by asking what had to be sacrificed from their kids' education in order to make that happen." Instead of schools focusing on helping kids learn its more about helping kids memorize facts that will help them ace the test. All the schools with good test scores become is memorization camps. Plus a lot of different schools succumb to cheating to make sure that the government doesn't shut them down. "Testing scandals have rocked New York State." New York isn't the only place either, there have been cases in Atlanta and others where teachers' jobs have been put on the line over test scores. This is why high stakes testing is inappropriate.

Creativity can be taught by first off getting rid of grades. Encouraging kids to explore and question things. Stop having kids just memorize pointless facts and being robotic. Stop "spoon feeding kids answers." Make them work for what they want to know, let them use the technology that we have for learning. Why should they want to learn facts that they can look up quickly on Google? Why make them learn things that won't help them in life? Businesses want people who can come up with things not rewrite things they memorize. We can teach creativity through critical thinking. Putting kids in situations where they have to come up with different answers to solve problems. In addition to that make the problems relevant, and realistic.

I think we can reinvent the teaching profession by doing something similar to what Finland does. They give specific requirements of what the children need to learn and the teachers make a curriculum that's engaging but still covers those topics. If we could change teaching to more of a guiding role than just strictly teaching as in lecturing it could revolutionize learning. Another thing that could help is stop making everything about tests, when we do that in schools we tie teachers' arms behind their back in the sense that no matter what kind of teacher they are, it won't matter if their students have bad test scores. If we give teachers more flexibility to cater curriculum to their students it would be more efficient. After all who knows the students better, the state or the teacher of the class?

If students' voices were seen and heard as human beings it would make them feel more appreciated. It doesn't feel good when people see you just as a number and all they care about is how well you can memorize. Also it would help teachers do a better job because the student knows what he or she is interested in, or how they focus best. Also if students were given the opportunity to speak their opinion they would be more open to listen to teachers and principals. They wouldn't feel as if they are getting beat down all the time. Instead they would feel like people care about what they have to say, so they have no problem listening to others. It could also help with stress; when you hold something in for a long time and don't let it out it can hurt you. If students have things on their mind and they can't voice it to the teachers they'll hold it in and there will be bad results. These are all things that could happen if students were students and not numbers.

New Book

In class now we're starting to read this book called, One Size does not Fit All. Right now we have to answer some questions based off the introduction and the preface. The reason he wrote the book was because he doesn't like the current school system. He said how the school he went to zapped his creativity out of him. He was a great student in the school but he figured there were better schools, outside of New York where he lived. When he was 15 he went to India and to do research because he "always believed that the Indian school system was far superior to America's system, because students were tested more, received more homework, and were in school many more days than American students."

He went there to interview the students and after going over what he found he put that thought of the Indian system being better in his back pocket so to speak. He talked about how the world is changing and a lot of labor and service jobs could eventually be eliminated, for many reasons, whether it gets programmed in a computer or there's no need for that particular worker, when the boss can tell someone else what to do for a less amount of money. He said how since day one we're taught how to follow directions and not to think for ourselves. He talked about how the world has changed but school hasn't.  Regarding the way the work world works he said "All the rules are gone. We have failed to convey the severity of the situation to our children. We have lied directly to their faces." He out right said "School is not working."That since the work industry is demanding more why shouldn't we teach it?  He said that students don't have a voice and he wants this book to be the start of the revolution. That's his reason behind writing this book, to show the world schooling through the eyes of a student. He wants to speak for those without a voice, so hopefully at some point the system can change.

In my personal opinion even though I haven't read the full book I think its good. I think it has a good message to convey. Sometimes as humans we are scared to face the truth so we turn the other way. Instead of making the needed changes we sweep the dirt under the rug. He's right, school isn't working, if traditional schooling was so good there wouldn't be so many people with a high school education, or a college education without jobs. The fact is when you're mainly taught facts and forced to memorized them only to later be tested by it, how does that measure intelligence? It doesn't, it shows how much you can memorize. I can't wait to read the rest of this book, I'm very intrigued by it and want to see what further details it goes into.

Connect the Dots

We had to solve this puzzle in five minutes. It was where you had 3 dots in 3 rows. You had to connect the dots with four straight lines and you couldn't lift your pencil  off of the paper. You couldn't retrace any line, and the lines could cross if necessary. No one in the class could figure out the paper. No one was thinking outside the boundaries.

The reason no one thought outside the boundaries is because we're taught to stay within set boundaries; or at least that's why in my opinion. At a young age we are given rules, you could say "boundaries" that we aren't suppose to cross. If they aren't any boundaries set in front of us we make them on our own. Even though there wasn't a rule saying you could past the dots, the assumption was made that you couldn't. Since the focus on the problem was on the dots you would assume you can't go past said dots. But the ironic part is that you have to go past those "boundaries" to solve the problem.

This is the same concept as what is required from us when we work with someone as different. When we work with someone different we can see things the same way but we still have to except why they're different from us. Just like in this puzzle you have to except the fact that you have to think out of the box to solve it. When you're working with someone who's different from you have to put any differences aside to get the task done. In this puzzle you have to get past the fact that you can go outside of the "boundaries" to get the problem done. The problem is to connect all of the dots with four straight lines, by any means necessary. If you don't focus on just that then you won't solve the problem. Just like if you don't focus on the problem when you're working with someone different you won't get it done.

To me this puzzle can relate to point of view because of all the lines end up on the same point; or rather they have the same beginning. You have to start at one point and end at the next. Plus you have to use straight lines, which is like point of view because if you focus on one point in the room you can see the lines that come from that point. Same things with the connected dots, they all stem from the same one point. In this puzzle you start at the one point and that's how you make the four lines. At least that's my opinion of how they this can relate to point of view.

I can't think of another time where I had to think outside of the box to solve a problem. I'm not saying that this was the first time I've done a puzzle like this, but this is the most recent. This time was difficult, I put myself in a box. That's what we usually do and I played to the stereotype. The answer to this puzzle was really easy once you saw the answer. I enjoyed this puzzle and it can give many messages about open minded thinking.

Let's Talk Culture

Today I wan't to talk about culture. Culture consists of a lot of things, behaviors, beliefs, traditions and values. This is the final week that we are focusing on traditions and culture. We have to pick some images that represent certain things about our culture.

This picture reminds me of how my culture views nature. I had to interview my great grandmother for a documentary we're working on talking about traditions and culture. One thing she did growing up was pick strawberries, string beans, and things of that nature. So for my culture doing simple farm work like that and really making the most of the land is seen in good light. Another picture that was required was something that represented our spiritual beliefs. 

I'm a Jehovah's Witness, and I'm not going to go into too great detail but this picture is a shot of one of our Kingdom Halls; our place of worship. As a Jehovah's Witness I don't do anything that isn't supported in the Bible. Instead of going to a church I go to a Kingdom Hall, it's more of a flattish building, and isn't too extravagant to draw undo attention. 

Since I'm African-American my culture strongly supports equality. After all Blacks used to be slaves because they weren't seen as equal so its natural for me to want to treat others equally. Since those who are part of black culture understand how much of a struggle it was to be seen as equal rather than lesser, and in some cases we're still seen as lesser, it's easy to want to treat everyone the same. 

The Jackson 5 are huge in black culture. They made great music and if you look around now a lot of groups try to copy their success. Plus, since blacks have had such a hard time making a name for themselves, anytime one of "us" make it, its great to see. Seeing 5 young, respectful, black men, make good, wholesome music that everyone can relate to was great to see. The Jackson 5, along with Berry Gordy, Aretha Franklin, and the Supremes are all artists who had an impact on black culture, and are success stories that come from that same culture. 

The reason I said that when a black person makes it in a sense its a big deal, is because things like this sign held us back from being able to do many things. Segregation was a huge roadblock in black culture, along with Jim Crow Laws that helped support racism. Racism was hard for black people because they were put in positions to where if they took the persecution they lose, and if they fought back they would be seen as the oppressor. 

Washington DC has significance to my culture because of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington; where he gave his legendary I have a dream speech. This is probably one of the most powerful speeches in all of world history, and a had a huge impact. It would be great if MLK could see his dream being fulfilled to a certain extent. 

The teabaggers March on Washington | The Reid Report Blog

HowStuffWorks "Volunteer Military Officers"

Kingdom Hall - Jehovah witnesses Wallpaper (30642411) - Fanpop fanclubs 

New Government Online Cancer Risk Tool 'FOR WHITES ONLY'

New Jackson 5 Rarities Dredged Up In “Come And Get It: The Rare Pearls”

Upcoming Unboxed Worship – “All things being equal…” (20 May) | UNBOXED WORSHIP

Strawberry and tangy feta cheese on Meslun greens with balsamic reduction | Seasoned Fork 

42

Today as a class we went to see the movie of  the year so far in my opinion, "42". We didn't just watch the movie though, we have to blog about it and answer some questions, so here we go. The first question requires to analyze two opposite cultures in the movie, from a regional perspective. The two examples I'm going to use are California and New York. California wasn't in the Civil War hence they didn't have an issue with colored people, California a very accepting culture. Whereas areas such as Brooklyn still had Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws that justified blacks being treated as second class citizens. Such as not being allowed to be served at restaurants or using certain bathrooms. Places like California that never had an issue with blacks never had such laws meaning they didn't have a hard time getting rid of them; where Brooklyn did have trouble with it.

The second thing I have to blog about is talking about two examples in the movie of characters that had a struggle with changing their culture towards Jackie Robinson. One character was Eddie Stanky, he was second baseman on the team and just like everyone else on the Dodgers didn't want to play with Jackie Robinson. However, when the Dodgers were playing the Phillies and the manager was yelling insults to Jackie Robinson and Eddie finally heard enough of it and stood up for him. It took Eddie a while and no other teammates said anything, but he did.

Another example would be Pee Wee Reese. One of the Dodger games was in Cincinnati which was almost like a home game for Reese. He got a hate letter about him playing with Jackie. But then he finally overcame the racial wall and put his arm around Jackie on the field and took in all the boos from the crowd, and finally an applause came.

42 is a great movie and I would recommend it to anyone, because its very inspirational and meaningful.

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/stats/alltime/rosters/brooklyn_dodgers/1947/byPOSN_ABRV.html

Passing on Values

Today I wanted to talk about passing on values. Since we mostly get values from our family there are nonverbal and verbal things said/seen that pass on values to us. For me personally I know one way my family passes on values non verbally would be by example. If my mom or grandparents want me to understand a certain value, say hard work for example, then they'll work hard and show me how it's done; naturally I follow that example. Another way would probably be leaving bread crumbs so to speak. If I need to learn the value of responsibility and I know its my job to put up the dishes, one thing that will happen is the dishes won't be put up until I do it. Hence I have no choice but to put this value into practice, and really see how crucial it is on a small scale. The men and women in my family don't necessarily give me different value messages. If anything the men might just give me different value messages regarding how to be a man, but other than that there isn't a huge difference.

If I have children, one family message I want to pass on to them would be courage. I wouldn't want them to be afraid to try new things, meet new people, or stand up for their values.  Another would be loyalty. Why? Loyalty is important in anything, mainly because life is a team game and you will need other people to help you in your life. If you are a back stabber no one will want to help, or even be nice to you. There are so many values I would pass onto my children I could have multiple blog posts on it. Based on that statement I think its obvious that I won't hesitate to talk about any value with them. The reason why is because my mom has always been open to talk to me about anything, that's why me and her have a good relationship. Why wouldn't I want that for my children, the ability to talk with their father about anything? I couldn't hold any value from them, in fact I won't.

Following Values

Today I'm going to talk about following your values. Sometimes its hard to stand up for your values when your friend's don't agree with your position. It's not easy to do but when you do it feels good. It feels good that you're able to withstand peer pressure to do what you feel is right. It feels good to please your parents. When adolescents' don't honor their values the parents usually aren't thrilled. First comes the disappointment that you didn't have strong enough to will power to stand up for your values, then comes a lecture about peer pressure and how no matter what you should do what's right.

What influences people to behave in a way that is in line with their values is a value, integrity. If you have enough of it you will hold your values no matter what. Another influence could be family and friends that share your same values. The same goes for influences that can make it harder for you to keep your values. Friends or family that don't support them. It can make it hard when a friend or family member doesn't agree with the things you live by, especially family.

My values will stay the same as I get older unless something incredibly drastic happens that makes me feel otherwise. One reason why is because the values you have now I've always lived by, so it's natural for me. Another reason is I don't see a huge problem with any of my values and I understand why I follow them. Those are the reasons people follow or don't follow their values and why I will keep mine even as I get older.

First blog

Hi, you may read some of my other blogs that I've done for school, maybe not. Regardless I go to the Clariden School of Southlake where we do project based learning, which means the majority of what we learn comes from our project. Right now we are working on our Fix It project. In this project we are going to learn about values, traditions, and cultures. Then after we learn about those things in different schools, and countries, we are going to find our own values, traditions, and culture we want to instill on our school. Part of this project I need to blog on a regular basis.

Today I’m writing about values. My teacher posed some questions to the class. One was “where do you think we get our values?” I think we get our values from multiple places. We first come into contact with values through our families. Based on what our family has values usually impacts what we have as ours. Or if we see certain family members show that they have specific qualities and values we copy them, good or bad. For example, I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, and a religious value that I’ve been taught is to be obedient to my faith no matter what.

Sometimes we can also get values on beliefs that come with our culture. At the moment though I cannot think of any values I have because of my culture. We also get values from our country, and living in America one value that is very important is freedom. America goes by the land of the free because our forefathers have fought for that right; whereas in other countries that isn’t necessarily a big value. There are many countries that are under dictatorship right now. Some would include, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, and Vietnam, but those are just some and there’s many more. Freedom is a big thing in America but not everywhere and that is one luxury of living in this country.

Well that concludes my post for today. We covered a lot, and there really are a lot of different places we get our values. What about you? What are your values? Where do you get them? Just some questions that we should all think about time to time.