Pedagogy and popular culture

I thought this was a pretty good paice. I really liked the part about adding hip hop to the poetry unit. It is a great idea. I remember having a student teacher my freshman year of high school who used rap music to teach poetry...though it was old and none of us knew any of the songs he used because he had to be sure they would be clean. But it was still cool.  It's also something I've been thinking about doing in the poetry unit at my placement. Though I want something more in today's society. I think I'll be able to find something that is appropriate as well as be something from today's music.  I think it's a great idea to incorporate music, it makes it more entertaining to the students as well. It also shows them everyday use of what we are teaching them.

I also enjoyed the part about Race and justice in society unit. I was taken a back by the fact that they showed  A Time to Kill in class since it is a very series movie. But as I kept reading it was interesting to learn how their students reacted to the movie, and how they could find things in their own lives to relate to it. I liked the idea about having a recreation of the trial. Those are always fun and makes the students think. I remember doing one in fifth grade about Shiloh, and it was fun and also showed us how the justice system works.  It still surprised me that they used a time to kill, but I have to wonder how long it took them to watch it since they spent half the class time watching then the other half discussing. That had to take at least two weeks. And that's a lot of time to spend watching one movie, although it was more then just watching the movie and included discussion and social, and almost a disection of the movie.

The critical pedagogy reader

This article was fairly dry, but informative. One of the things that stood out was the culture aspect. As teacher candidates we know that we have to incorporate different cultures, however, as much as we try to have different cultural aspect into our classroom, we don't take into account how different cultures think, and work out problems. We don't think about how the different cultures learn or educate. Or even how they feel about who holds the power in a classroom.

I also thought the part about the hidden curriculum was interesting, how students learn more then just what we intend them to learn. They learn about social situations and in the article it talks about sexism. Although, I feel the sexism isn't as bad anymore, at least I never felt that way in school. It does give me something to think about while i'm working in my classroom.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This was a difficult read. It seemed really wordy and I had to reread sentences multiple times. However what I think I gleaned from it was students should not be treated like receptacles needing to be filled. That approach will only lead to them memorizing the facts, and not thinking outside the box. If we have students engage in their own learning then it expands there ability to think, and be individuals.  Teachers who show their students how or why they are learning what they are learning have a better affect on students. From personal experience, I had a math professor here at EWU who would connect the old equations to the new ones, it helped to see how they connected and why we needed to know this new one.

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards tell teachers what they should be teaching their students. Covering a wide range of skills. I mostly focused on reading, writing, and speaking and listening. All of which I feel interlink.  Reading covers Literature, Informational Text, and foundational Skills (for elementary). I feel the Common Core is useful and helps teacher know what to focus on, as well as what will help students pass the state test. Although, Having to pass a test in order to show learning, and graduate in my opinion is stupid, but that is not what we are supposed to be writing on at this point in time. Common Core is also a lot easier to navigate then the GLE's or EALR's, There is also an app, which makes it easier to pull out and to help plan a lesson. It is interesting to see in the writing section, that an argument paper is listed first like they want it taught before an expository. I feel the expository would be easier to teach first. Teach them how to present information on both sides of an argument, without showing their point of view. Then teach them how to argue their side using the same topic for the expository. There is also a narrative in the standards which I imagine can be fun for students to write about themselves, or a story they made up. Each type of writing helps students learn different structures and styles, and allows them to explore their own writing capabilities.

Intro letter

I am a student and teacher candidate at EWU. I am currently placed at Medical Lake Middle School working with 7th grade reading and 8th grade language arts. This will be my second quater there. I feel my strengths as a teacher will be walking around and answering questions during individual work. I am currently working on having more confidence in my lessons, but the students have been great and helpful. I was placed late in the quarter, and haven't been able to teach a lot of lessons. My goal for this course is to be able to feel confident teaching a lesson on literature, and how to motivate students to read. I would like this class to help me grow as a teacher