Literacy and me

The article discussed disruptive behaviors in students such as students with ADHD. The idea was that students with such disorders would perform worse on test later in their elementary career. This was proven wrong because many of the students with psychiatric disorders such as ADHD performed equal to that as a ‘normal” student. The discussion then lead to the idea that ADHD might be a cognitive disorder that children grow out of. I can understand this, but I also see this as there are different types of ADHD. I know a few adults that were never diagnosed with ADHD until later in their life. As a person that has grown up with a learning disability, I feel that if a behavioral/psychiatric disorder can be over come not just by drugs. I think that they are necessary for helping a student, but will only help mask a problem. A child needs to learn to coop with their disability so that they can overcome the difficulties that come with a learning disability. Maybe they are not having brain changes in the sense that they are all of a sudden growing out of having ADHD, but just learning to work with their disorder producing the equal scores in test in fifth grade.

I never before really thought about the effect images have on a student’s perceptions. My favorite picture book as a child was the stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid. They way the words were arranged on the page, the size of the fonts, the colors used were all in emphasis of the actual text. This is such an important element in any type of book. In a science book it is so important to get the diagrams and other illustrations perfectly matched to the actual text. Many times images are hard to understand and it too much time to sit there and decipher the language of diagrams. If only ever author took the time to pay attention to what they are putting in their books. I feel that all to often that science people just stick graphs on a page and think its up to the reading to make sense of it.

This article was about New York City schools and their ratings in this new rating system. It is a blunt A through F rating that each school is giving that is not primarily based on grades, but also on student improvement. This was done in light of the no child left behind act. These principles of the D and lower schools are not going to be fired, but rather asked to prove a plan of action to improve their status. As a teacher this is very interesting. Is it not what we have been discussing the idea of look at individuals based on these one tests, one rating system and never going any further. Do we not say that you can only see one dimension of a person when you do this, that information is always skewed when you look at it though one lens? So why is it that we think that you can look at a school through this bias lens? I think that those schools should be looked into that received a D and F, but to automatically punish them or ask them to begin to make changes based on this one test is highly unpractical. Why is it that these schools have been rated poorly, especially some schools that were thought to receive a high score and in return made only a D average? I think as well educated people we should be more critical of a new data is reported with a new measuring stick.

The conference was interesting. Knowing about the book and seeing how others interpreted it is always a great insight. I wish we had more time to discuss what they thought rather then listening to them each read off what they had written in the class. As presenters I think that it would have been more beneficial to have bulleted points and talk about what they believed the book had to say. It is always hard to listen to someone just read a paper or read off a power point, it makes it less interesting and harder to follow. Although, I did like some of the points people made and their ideas on Frankenstein were very different from mine.

The readings That were assigned were rather interesting. I liked the ideas that were given about book clubs. It is a shame that more schools do not have time or make time for such a club. As an avid book worm it would have been nice to have a more relaxed book discussion based “project” of some sorts rather then the assigned readings of english classes. The idea that reading a book in a content such as english was much beyond my complete understanding until I went to my school on tuesday. The teacher had given articles to the students to read. It was an independent reading assignment of sorts. They were to pick ones that interested them and made them want to read and then do a short summery on what they liked about the article. As i sat there watching them i realized how the book club setting could ahve been implemented at that moment with the articles. The students needed a more interactive setting to really understand some of the articles. Bouncing ideas off one another would have benefited them greatly. One boy had no idea what cloning ment and the boy next to him looked at him and said it means to make a copy. Yes, it was good that they were reading articles, but how much better it could have been if they were able to help eachother understand, in their own words.

Therapy is something that many people within the United States rely in to fix emotional problems. The only issue with therapy is that when do you know enough is enough? It is hard to see when you have surpassed this need to be pushed through an emotional crisis and when you have finally reached the other side. This relates to schools in the ideas of school councilors. When does a councilor know that they have reached a student and they no longer need the physiological assistance? It is a hard to make but a necessary one. A person goes to therapy in hopes to find a way to live their lives eventually without it. It’s a way to gain independence. Stepping away from therapy is a very large step but a important one in being able to live a functional life.
The article advises a person to discuss the effectiveness with friends and family about their therapy first. Then with positive feedback ask your therapist about ending the sessions. It is important to attain many points of view when making a final decision.
It’s like a crutch for a sprained ankle. Let it go to soon and your back at the doctors getting x-rays. Don’t let them go soon enough and you end up with sore underarms. It’s a balance that is nearly hard to pinpoint on your own.

What is there to say about self assessment that already has not been said in the assesment? Well, it is hard to look at oneself objectively. I am very critical of myself and tend to over analyze. At first I was not sure where to go with writing this, but soon I opened up and the words came pouring out of me into a puddle onto the page. Of course I did not leave it that way, organization is my best friend. When it was all said and done I felt proud of it because it was how I really felt and what I really knew. I think the last paragraph was my favorite part, mostly because I used a really good analogy and I do love a good analogy.

This article was about the power one entity would have if they controlled all the electronic books of every major library in the country. The worry was that it would be a monopoly and that the said controller (which was Google in this case) would then use this power to do things like charge users and other commercial gains. Although, the libraries that are against it (the Smithsonian and Boston public library) do want to have a widely used Internet base, but the commercial gain is holding them back. Google is refusing to budge on any conditions that the libraries are asking for making the negotiations even more difficult and Google even more suspicious. This is to bad for a teacher because think of the books someone could reference when researching ideas. It would be amazing to look at a book from the Smithsonian or Boston library, which own some of the rarest books in the country. If this works out it will be a teachers dream to have these archives at their students finger tips.

Diabetes research has found that Diabetes may have a new factor. It was thought that the pancreas, liver, muscles and fat were the main contributors to insulin production and regulation. The new information based on mice is that a hormone giving off by the bone marrow may be a Key contributor. This may change the way diabetes is treated and may help treat those who seem unaffected by older treatments to live healthier lives. This relates to schools because it may effect the way school run their nursing department and also could be a new treatment that nurses might want to look into when consulting families about the issues of diabetes. These new medications might be a thing that families might want to look into or could be something to be weary of. New is not always better.

The readings were about poverty and literacy mostly. I feel that the article about rigor and support had a very good idea about education and poverty. The ideas were that many places within the USA are impoverished. The problem I had with the Education research article was that it took what I felt were small parts of a whole when talking about the USA as the whole. 100 schools do not account for a large percentage of schools within the country. Also, the education research article compares the USA with other countries. How can you ever do that when our ideals on education are so completely different from any other country. In the major countries in Europe what do you think special education is? I know from talking to many people that here we do so much more for students that are not succeeding then in most any other country. In China there are tests you have to pass to be able to attain higher education such as high school. Can you really compare that to the USA when we have mandated that every child until the age of 16 must go to school and receive an education? I think not. The last article was a story about a mother discussing her daughter and the education she received. I felt it interesting because she seemed to feel that sending her daughter away as she did created this barrier that she was unable to break. I sometimes see education as this emotional break down that is not necessary to learning. I here at college had a teacher say to me that I was to emotional to be in the sciences, but i felt this a sad statement. What is a person without there emotions especially a person within the sciences? I mean do you want your doctor to be completely devoid of feelings when preceding in medicine.? I know i don’t. I have always said and firmly believe that it is better to a life without logic then live a life without feeling.