Setting Straight the Myths of Our Society

            This week’s reading, “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us,” made me think of the movie "Shrek".  Beautiful, weak princesses?  Not in that movie!  Not only is Fiona an ogre, but who can forget the strength and bravery of Snow White and the gang backed by Led Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song”?  Many myths were questioned in that series of movies! 

            Yes, the old cartoons contained blatant forms of bigotry.  What a great learning opportunity!  Discuss how sad it is that people used to have such a limited view of other religions, cultures, races, etc.  Women being over-sexualized?  Discuss how silly it is.  Indians portrayed as savages?  Once again, what a limited world view.  I’ve always hated seeing black-faced entertainers in the old cartoons because I think it’s apprehensible and have made that known to my kids why I feel the way I do when that scene pops up in an old Bugs Bunny episode.  But, it is part of our history that I think kids should know about – people used to think it was funny; isn’t that sad? 

              As far as Disney’s concerned, I would hate to think that people would deny their children the opportunity to be entertained by such stories that have become so imbedded in our society.  I have watched the Disney movies endlessly with my kids and can say from my own experience that they realize that it’s just a movie.  Maybe my daughter isn’t waiting for Prince Charming because she has seen examples of strong women.  Maybe my son isn’t violent as a result of playing video games because he’s also exposed to forms of generosity and caring.  Sometimes, if a particularly horrible example of behavior is portrayed, it becomes a great learning experience (for example: “Can you believe he did that?   Doesn’t he realize how others will judge him for doing that?”). 

            Where cultural aspects are concerned, I think that the media is getting better at portraying all races, cultures, and religions in a more respectable manner, but it’s far from perfect. 

            I guess my overall opinion is don’t completely write-off fairy tales and Disney.  Enjoy them for the entertainment purposes and balance them with reality.  While we should be conscientious of the reading material we collect for our classrooms to be sure to include books that reflect people of all backgrounds in a positive way, communication is the key. 

"If everyone opened their eyes they'd see that every human is holy to someone."-Graham Nash

Evans, Igoa, & Hill

             Reading “The Silent Stage” really made me think, not so much about the use of giving students another imaginative creative outlet with which to express themselves, but more about how we interpret kids’ feelings.  For one, I hope that everyone realizes that new students often go through the same stages as immigrant children and may need for us as teachers to help them adjust to their new surroundings.  Also, I wonder if the author has a degree in psychiatry.  While I’m not completely doubting that she was able read such subtleties in the students’ stories, I’m concerned that teachers may try to do the same thing and be completely off base.  For example, sometimes a dog in a tutu is just that – a silly picture of a dog in a tutu.  It does not mean that the student’s gay.  I realize that the students were not completely capable or willing to openly communicate, but I would hate to read too much into something to the point that it creates the wrong impression of how the student really feels.  Please proceed with caution!

             On a completely different note, while reading the other two articles, it became blazingly obvious that I am not even remotely a techno-geek.  Yes, I can type efficiently, produce documents when necessary using Word, pay my bills on-line, and download photos from my camera to the computer but that about sums up my use of technology.  I did take all of the adult ed computer classes offered by MCCSC when my son first started school six years ago, but you lose is you don’t use it, and, really, I’ve not found it necessary to expand my personal use of all that’s out there.  Therefore, I am very interested to learn about incorporating these new tools into the classroom because I do agree with Ms. Evans that students not only are more motivated when given the opportunity to use these tools but also will be expected to use them in the real world. 

             The whole multimodal thing has really piqued my interest.  It makes me think of the book “The DaVinci Code”, which I had a hard time putting down while reading the original version, other than to Google the specific pieces of art referred to throughout the book.  When the illustrated version came out, I was thrilled and bought that, too.  How wonderful to have access to the pictures to help clarify the text!  Then, sadly, the movie came out.  I was not a fan.  I feel that it completely omitted the suspense I felt while reading the book.  It just felt rushed and empty to me.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a much easier time understanding concepts in P540: Learning and Cognition in Education when I watch the YouTube videos that Dr. Bonk suggests each week.  They just seem to make more sense to me than the textbook does most of the time.  There are so many ways to communicate, and it’s interesting to be going into such depth about it through these articles.

A Temporary Sign of Relief

          I’ve spent the majority of today working on my MGRP and can now honestly

say that I have really enjoyed this project.  My topic, Reciprocal Teaching, is something that I’ve always been interested in, so it was a good excuse to delve deeper into the topic.  Also, I was able to use the same research information to create a paper for P540 – I multi-genred my multi genre report!  Yay!

          Creating the multi genre pieces was fun!  I so love the creative process and believe that this project covers many aspects of writing and expression that are important for students to understand.  I wish it didn’t take me so long to complete each step, but I feel that my rationale and reflections cover the necessary requirements as stated on the rubric on Oncourse.

Overall, I’m satisfied with what has developed and was able to breathe a temporary sigh of relief upon completion of this assignment before realizing that now I need to complete my student teaching information, write yet another reflection paper for P540 before creating a 2500-3000 word “super summary”, research information for the student choice assignment in math, teach and reflect on a math lesson, create a literacy invitation,  submit one more professional development reflection, reflect on and present my science lesson, and then there’s this textbook project for math.  Anyone know anything about it?  (Or major assignments I'm forgetting?!)

Yes, it was a temporary sigh of relief . . .