Please post on this blog for classes Nov. 4 and 9. Also, you can post about any of the research papers at any time. The latest group of papers have been from a nice array of subject matter and given us much to discuss. We've heard about the shortcomings of First Nations education and government policy, and also about how teachers ought to be given more professional development to utilize what is now termed "ubiquitous computing". Also, we were given an inside look at the Montesorri educational system, and in another paper, what some of the factors are in becoming an ideal teacher. There was also evidence given about the harmful effects of sleep deprivation, and another paper looked at the deadly connection between bullying and teen suicide. We also learned about the benefits of small vs. large class sizes, and another topic raised our awareness of how we are but pioneers in finding ways to teach digital ethics. The last paper explored the link between educational attainment and socio-economic factors.
Please continue to do the readings in our textbook; this week we are looking at teaching as a profession. Also, please note we have no class on Thursday, Nov. 11 due to Remembrance Day. See you soon.
The ‘helicopter parents’ term brought up in a comment last week was something that stuck out with me this week. Not only because it is a stunning clever visual, a hilarious metaphor, but it is disturbingly familiar term. I think we can all imagine it. It catapulted me into thinking about my mother’s family, she was one of six kids and my grandmother describes them just leaving for hours and not knowing what happened between. I also had a lot of freedom as a child, which was probably largely attributed to the semi rural area where I grew up and my parents’ resistance to caller id and cell phones. Technology aside, I think they… just trusted me.
ReplyDeleteLast year I did some research on the millennial generation. It is the generation that starts after 1982 and would attain to majority of people in our class. Generational profiles can be taken lightly but there are some trends that I do think apply. One bit of information that made a lasting impression was they were discussing how we are the most surveillanced generation to date. How does this translate into how to educate? Is this surveillance something that we need to incorporate in education or is it something the kids will push back against?
Yesterday there were many discussions regarding stereotyping different genders through internet or even music. I believe this was the way we were taught and brought up. At school, girls would wear dresses and guys wear pants; girls play the piano and guys play the violin. Maybe because it has always been this way, thus, we are immune to it and not realize what controversy it has developed. I played the piano when I was young, and I remember my mom telling me, this is what girls should do; play music and be artistic. I was quite confused at first because I remember my parents dressing me up as a boy when I was 2 or 3. My Chinese and English name have been viewed as a boy before but to be truthful, it did not bother me as much back then. I remember a parent told me when she first saw my name, she thought I was a boy; I was surprised but was not too offended, maybe because it was the first time.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is too mysterious since everyone can do whatever without any supervision. As for music, I’m sure the history, the pitch, and the size of the instrument does contribute to the decision whether a guy should/ can play this or a girl should. Regardless, in today’s society, we are more open-minded then the past, thus, even if someone calls me a guy, I’ll just take it as a joke. Sometimes in life, living as simple as you can without causing or allowing comments and criticism get to you would make you and others more happy, stronger and free.
When I read the textbook and throughout this class so far, I notice teaching is pretty tough job than I used to think. These days, there are many issues regarding students’ life which affect learning environment. Compare with a few decades ago, teachers are spending more time to non-subject things. For example, there are more bullying and some students commit suicide by it in Japan (I’m not sure in Canada). Even I was in grade 1 through 12, it was not realistic. It is one of the huge social issues. How to approach it? I have no idea honestly, but one thing I can say is parents are heavily relying on teachers about their kids and also the neighbourhood relationship is being weaker compare with a few decades ago. So, this may be one of the causes that we cannot find the way to approach.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in previous paragraph, parents are heavily relying on teachers these days. Since the number of single parents is increasing dramatically, teachers are considered as similar to childcare by some parents. This is one cause of misbehaviour by students. Students in elementary school especially need to be taken cared by parents because they are absorbing many things from outside. So, parents should be aware what is affecting to their kids and select and teach what is good and bad. Otherwise, no one notice until the situation that we cannot treat.
I found the narrative on the Montessori school very interesting. I am amazed that there are children, as young as 4, who are self-motivated and able to accomplish the educational curriculum with minimal direct instruction from a teacher. I would not have thrived in the Montessori style of education as a child, every single report card from elementary school my teachers wrote that I like to “visit with my neighbours”. Although I cannot speak from personal experience, I imagine that students from the Montessori school program must have a certain level of independence and self-discipline to succeed in the self-taught curriculum, both of which I lacked as a child. Even after the presentation, I find it hard to understand how a Montessori classroom in set up, because I am constantly trying to analyze how it relates to school structure that I grew up with. However, the idea of giving children the freedom to guide their own learning while having a teacher there to support them and to direct, the students when they need it, is brilliant. Dr. Montessori’s research for her method of teaching included children with disabilities, proving that all children can be included in a positive and succeeding class environment. From what I understand of the Montessori educational system, it could be beneficial if the regular school system in British Columbia could be expanded to include parts of the Montessori school structure.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative that explored how people assign genders to certain musical instruments really forced me to explore my own ideas and gender perceptions. Although, I have been socialized since childhood to see certain objects or colours as male while others as female, I never analyzed how this need to categorize objects by gender extended to music. I always thought of music as form of art that had equal opportunities for all genders, clearly I never looked into this topic any further. If someone was to give me a list of instruments and asked me to assign which gender was most likely to play it I think I could easily have completed in based on my assumptions. I view the clarinet as the male counterpart to the flute. I would have also assigned the bagpipes as male, tambourine as female and an electronic synthesizer as male. Although, I would never limit who would be playing these instruments by which gender I assigned each one I am now able to recognize my own biases.
The issues brought up about gender were quite fascinating, since I do not have much of a music background other than playing the flute in grade 3 music class. I was oblivious about musical instruments being assigned genders. I wonder how this came about; it must have had to do with societies and norms at the time these ideas began to form. Gender stereotypes have been passed on from generation to generation; we are automatically exposed to gender stereotypes from the day we are born. It starts with what colors we wear the types of toys we play with, even what types of behaviours are expected of us.
ReplyDeleteAs we age this becomes part of our identity, because our behaviours, thoughts, hobbies and even career choices are unconsciously the underlying product of the expectations society has from our gender. Why do we have gender instilled upon us? I think a way to answer this question is because as humans we have a need to categorize everything, when we categorize people as one gender vs. an other we provide them with codes of conduct which we implement ways of behaving and we assess them by how will they fit into those categories or how well they perform according to the standards set by their gender. Now imagine what the world would have been if we did not have such categories.
Every single presentation covered an interesting topic, and further brought up interest for more research.
ReplyDeleteIt was really hard to listen to the bullying and suicide presentation. Unfortunately it is a fact that bullying and suicide are linked together. I find it so sad that a teenager finds it is necessary to end his/her life. What we as a society can do to help youth who have depression, and do not see a way out, is to have counselors at every school. A variety of people that a student can contact is he/she is having suicidal thoughts. Therefore, I believe that it is very important to be close to students, and as a teacher have great passion for ones work, and also enthusiasm. Students recognize this and immediately connect with the teacher. Teachers must also be open to communication, and let their students know that if they have any questions to ask. Help lines are also beneficial, especially anonymous ones. Another gesture that would help stop bullying is for parents to teach their children that it is not polite to bully other children, and that it can cause the child to feel depressed.
If everyone does their part with great passion, there would definitely be a decline in youth suicide.
Another presentation that I would like to comment is the Music and stereotyping one. It is so normal for us to stereotype. When I think drums I usually think a guy is playing it; however, I do not think there is anything wrong with a girl playing it. If this topic was not brought up I probably would not have really thought about music and stereotyping.
The presentation on sleep deprivation was interesting – especially since it confirmed the often mentioned benefits of eight hours of sleep ! The opportunity to obtain this much rest for those who study and work, and who may have other commitments, can be practically impossible. In particular when exams come round and when papers are due. However disciplined we think we have been, somehow it becomes necessary to work into the night – and sometimes through it - to get things done.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if we were to be disciplined enough to log how we spend our time for just one week, we may be surprisingly enlightened as to how we often mismanage it. Being in the library, or at the computer does not necessarily mean we are being productive. It’s not where we are, but what we are doing when we are there. Using a day timer to plan the week ahead takes 5 to 15 minutes. We know we have classes and work at set times during the week, but these also should be noted down. There is a ratio of class hours to out of class study. We should block this time off in our day timer; so we make an appointment to do them. That way these things don’t end up being done ineffectively, in a hurry at the last minute. Write down 8 hours of sleep (for at least 4 nights a week). What ever is left can be used as leisure, exercise etc. But sticking to the core items is essential for good time management and maximum benefit. It may sound too restricting, and we may fall off the wagon sometimes. However, there is real satisfaction in sticking to a schedule that makes us more productive. Getting work done more efficiently will provide peace of mind that will help us to actually go to sleep for 8 hours, because we won’t be worrying about what we should have done. Simple, no ? (You think ?).
I think we are and continue to be gendered in all aspects and stages of our lives, but this is to say that gender is a social construction. Some say that our sex determines our gender. Since we are biologically different as males and females therefore our behaviours are automatically different. Yes, this is true, we are biologically different as males and females, the same way that we are individually different. What I mean is that there is just as much difference between the larger category of gender as there is within each category of male and female. Let’s makes this clear that sex does not mean gender. Sex is biological where as gender how we identify ourselves as masculine or feminine. Gender provides us with a way of acting and being. In other words gender is learned. The social construction of gender is problematic because it does not account of everyone, particularly those who do not or chose not to ‘fit’ into the binary category of either masculine or feminine. Gender also becomes problematic when it dictates ways of being and behaving for each gender, because we than start to attribute certain characteristics to each gender and we use those characteristics as a standard for comparison. Gender is also problematic when we attribute all that is good and powerful to masculinity and all that is weak to femininity. For example we say that men should be strong, apathetic (not emotional), and in charge (aggressive), where as women should be nurturing, nice and pretty. When we define gender in these terms it becomes even more problematic because we hold people to those ways of behaving based on their gender and penalize or discriminate against them when they don’t nicely fit into our ideas of gender (being masculine or feminine). By defining genders in this way we create sexism because than when who are not ‘masculine enough’ because they are not physically strong, or are emotionally competent they are attributed female characteristics as a form of penalization. They are called names like “sissy”, “girl”, or they are told things “don’t be such a girl”, “you throw like a girl” all of which are noting that women are subordinate to men and therefore being a girl or female means to be emotional, and physically weak. Gendering takes other forms as well. For example when you visit a toy store all of the girls toys are either pink or purple, they are mostly domesticated duty toys (such as being a mother) where as the boy toys are more colourful, have a greater variety, and are more interactive. As presented in class gendering does not end at the toy store it continues on to other parts of our lives even in music, in which even gender instruments by allowing or encouraging boys and girl to play certain instruments.
ReplyDeleteI’m curious to know if people think that we can have a gender neutral society? And if so what would that it look like? Also what do you guys think is the difference between and “action figure” and a “doll”? (compare Barbie doll and wonder women action figure)
The sleep deprivation is a very important topic, and I have also done a research on this issue so I want to share some of my insights and why it is so harmful with the class. Sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly effecting a person's behavior. Especially, the cerebral cortex is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of "quiet readiness". Certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the cerebral cortex while other stages of sleep seem to be used for forming new memories and generating new synaptic connections.
ReplyDeleteWithout sleep our brains deteriorate and our behavior suffers accordingly. Sleep deprivation can harm our brains and behavior in a profound level. Many of us think by sleeping in on the weekends will repay and restore back our energy, but it does not work that way, because bouncing back from chronic lack of sleep is not that easy. One or two solid nights of sleep are not enough to pay off a long-term loss. It is a wake up call for all of us. Now we should really make sleep a priority and get at least 8 hours of sleep every night.