Pages 62-103

In this section of Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell, she feels the struggles of being a teacher as well as an adult. She writes, "In the past, when I felt such a void, I could turn to my siblings for support. Unfortunately, in my new marriage, my husband didn't understand my feelings of emptiness or my attachment to my students. When I was teaching, my life seemed to make sense. I felt fulfilled. In the classroom I felt useful, but at home I felt inadequate." (75.) When the new school year begins again, Erin once again has a classroom full of the unwanted "B-A-D" students. She starts the school year off dealing with a lot of the same struggles that she had faced the previous year. She also helps some of her former students apply for college.
I absolutely love the part about the "ten former students crammed into two cars and made the pilgrimage to my apartment," (75.) When writing this novel, Erin has a way with words that makes you laugh. This act showed the attachment and dedication that these students had to the one teacher who gave them a chance; they appreciated everything that she did for them. I think that it was a really good idea for Erin to invite her brother to the class as a guest speaker, because the students seemed to really enjoy it and Erin finally got the response out of her new class that she was looking for. Her decision to deal with "real issues" was a good one, because she finally was able to connect to her new class in a way that she hadn't been able to before.

PBS Episode 3

In this episode of the PBS "School" series, it traced some of the reforms in the school systems that took place from 1950 to 1980. One of the things that I knew never was that the books that the African Americans were using were usually a couple of years behind; I had never realized that before. I also never realized that many African American teachers lost their jobs after integrating the schools. I was also really impressed with the views and stands that Lyndon Johnson took; I had never recognized him as the educational advocate that he was. He implemented the Bilingual Education Act, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Civil Rights Act. He also started Head Start and low cost college loans. Another section of this episode that was interesting to me was the piece on the Hispanics in the Southwest; their struggles is an area of the civil rights struggle that I had never really learned about. I really liked the part about the School Board being voted out and four new Hispanic members being voted in and the School Board meetings on Monday nights being "better than football."

PBS The Story of School

I thought that the episode was really interesting in the way that it described how schools responded to the flood of immigrants that came to the United States during the early 1900s. One of the ways that this occurred was in the banning of child laborers, taught vocational skills that would be useful for factory jobs, and focusing on teaching them the English language. I thought that it was really interesting in the way that the teachers tried to "Americanize" these children, trying to teach them American holidays and the American way of life. One of the things that was different was how they tried to increase health and hygiene in the students, including introducing swimming pools in order to help bath the students; along those same lines, teachers tried to teach behavior by have afternoon tea. I liked the fact that the schools opened up at night in order to help reach the community as well; this shows that the school system and community leaders cared about the entire well-being of the community.
The piece about the Life Adjustment Education was a riot; to think that young students were actually educated on things such as when to kiss and how late to stay out is baffling. I can only imagine what I would have thought as a young student sitting through one of those movies.
Along these same lines, it is sad that the immigrant school systems quickly became discriminatory and tracked by nationality and race. The piece about the IQ testing was extremely shocking: the tests were extremely subjective, and caused students to be tracked into lower levels without having any say in the matter.

Teach With Your Heart pages 36-61

In this section of the book, Erin deals with the media coverage of her bringing her class to Long Beach in order to view the movie Schindler's List. The media attention toward the field trip brings negative feelings toward the new teacher, both in the community and at school. In fact, this causes problems when she tries to organize another field trip to a symposium featuring the author of Schindler's List. However, Erin faces financial difficulties in raising the money to bring her students places, because the school is not willing to fund her efforts. However, her friend Thomas Keneally helps her find the support she needs, and even contacts Steven Spielberg about her student's stories. In fact Steven Spielberg even asks her to meet her students.

I thought that this piece of reading really illustrated the struggles that Erin begins to face and the resistance that she feels from the other staff. One of her biggest struggles at this point is the finacial struggle, because she can not get any backing from her school. I think that it is scary how alone and isolated Erin feels at this point.

Talking About Their Generations, Harnessing the Power of Millennials

Abstract: This article identifies the different generations: the G.I. Generation, born from 1901-1924; the Silent Generation, born 1925-1942; the Boom Generation, born 1943-1960; Generation X, born 1961-1981; and the Millennial Generation, born since 1982. There are several differences between the generations, such as the ways they were raised, what values were important, and the emphasis put on education. As each generation gets older, the generation produces new types of ideas (as well as educators) who are very different than the people before them. When the last of the boomers retire, which will be in about 10 years, the educational system staff will be consist completely of Generation X and Millennial teachers and administrators. Newer education strategies must be put into place in order to reach the younger generations coming up.

Reflection: I thought that this article was helpful in my understanding of the different generations. I never actually knew where one began and the other one ended. I think that it is very important to promote respect across the generations, because newer people can learn a lot from a more experienced person. However, many times there will be situations where the newer person might feel held back or restricted because of their lack of experience.

Diversity Synthesized

Abstract: This article focuses on the importance of diversity, the need to teach tolerance for diversity, and the fact that as educators, we will face it everyday in the classroom; it expresses the theory that culture may influence a student’s learning style. The article expressed these ideas through research done to examine the similarities and differences between cultures and learning styles. The research was done in three ways: through observation, data and discussion. This information was then simplified and presented to make educators aware of these findings and how this information impacts students in our classrooms. Some of the diversity issues and research are controversial, due to stereotyping or other “achievement differences” that have been presented in the past. There are several connections between culture and the way that a student learns, included how they were taught the basics by their parents, language, and their preferred method to learning something new. However, whether the culture and learning style connection theory is accepted or not, teachers from all backgrounds and cultures will have to work consistently to provide equal opportunities to learn for all students.
Reflection: One useful piece of this article was the reminder that it is important to understand our students and their learning styles if we want them to succeed in school and life; by getting to know our students and their learning styles, we understand that not everyone learns the same way, so it is our job as teachers to figure out how to help our students learn. The fact that most researchers believe that learning styles are a function of BOTH nature and nurture reminds us that steps to accommodate must be taken; as educators, if we do not take diversity and culture into mind, certain students outside of the dominant culture may be left behind, feel left out, and their grades will suffer because of it. It is the educator’s responsibility to take every student into account. However, we must be careful because the information could be useful in some cases, but it may allow stereotypes (even unnoticed ones) to enter the classroom.

Diversity

This article focuses on the importance of diversity, and the fact that as educators, we will face it everyday in the classroom. Some of the diversity issues are controversial, due to stereotyping or other “achievement differences” that have been presented in the past. There are several connections between culture and the way that a student learns, included how they were taught the basics by their parents, language, and their preferred method to learning something new. Culture is an important piece in explaining the different cognitive styles of students, as well as performance patterns. Classroom expectations, teaching lessons, and learning styles will all be influenced greatly by the culture and the diversities that are present in any given classroom.
I found this article to be very useful in reminding us that we need to be aware of the diversity that is present our classroom; this comes in to play with designing performance tasks and other assessments. As educators, if we do not take diversity and culture into mind, certain students outside of the dominant culture may be left behind, feel left out, and their grades will suffer because of it. It is the educator’s responsibility to take every student into account. In this article, I especially liked the piece on how most researchers believe that learning styles are a function of BOTH nature and nurture.

Teach With Your Heart pages 1-35

This first section of Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell began the introduction into her establishment into the classroom. It illustrates her shock on the first day, as well as her self-struggles with herself as a teacher and why she chose the profession. Erin was shocked with the visible segregation in the school as well as the lack of attention and labels that her students have received, and recalls her idealism in her young life. Erin starts to try to bring her subject to life to her students, such as bringing them to the Holocaust museum. However, she struggles with resistance from the administration as well as from more experienced teachers.

I thought that some of the tactics that Erin uses are very good ideas, such as moving the problem students to the front of the classroom and trying to separate the cliques. As an inexperienced teacher, I can understand her struggle on the first day of class and well as her longing to connect to her students. It is hard to read this and understand why the older and more experienced teachers act the way that they do, such as the resistance that you see in the piece about Erin trying to bring her student's to the Holocaust museum.