Stand and deliver day 2 group

Group 1 discussion from 10-24-13.  Classroom scene:  Bad teaching. Students all get the same answer, Mr. Escalantes wrong.

The students were in the process of learning calculus from Mr. Escalantes and had been studying very hard:  there on Saturday s and staying late at night, plus summer school.  Everyone was burnt out and angry.  Mr. Escalantes is pointing at a problem on the overhead projector and asking, “What are the limits on the first quadrant bounded by the curve, anybody?” Several students answer and come up with the same answer. As each one answers, Mr. Escalantes replys, “Wrong Lupe”, “What’s wrong with you”,  Each student is coming up with the same answer which is making Mr. Escalantes more angry he then says, “You should know this. Now, no way.  What’s wrong with you? This is review! You’re acting like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.  What’s wrong with you guys?  I don’t believe it. You’re giving me a shot from the back! No way, No way!”  Mr. Escalantes then storms out of the room.  Pancho  states, “Kemo finally blew a head gasket.”  The students are correct and Mr. Escalantes is wrong.  The pressure is great for all the students and him.  He later goes to his ESL class where he has a heart attack.  But rally’s after being in the hospital and gets back with the students working towards the calculus test.  

Day 2 Stand and deliver

Field trip - computer running calculus program Mr Escalante says kids will have program program in college, other man says his daughter has it already in high school.

teachers meeting - Raquel (dept chair) thinks calculus is too much for the kids.

kids give up summer to learn calculus.

classroom is in locker room with no air conditioning.  Tells students to think cool.

classroom - given contract by Mr Escalante for learning calculus, have to come in early and stay late and come in on Saturday.

classroom - girl complains about Mr Escalante using her personal life for entertainment. He stops her in hallway and gives her a hug and she explains that it is because of the time she spends in class that she is having problems in her personal life.

Poncho having hard time figuring out math problem on board.  Mr Escalante keeps telling him it is easy and tic tac toe, then shows him how to solve it.

car scene with poncho(I don't remember when this scene happens) - "All you see is the turn, you don't see the road ahead."

Angel comes in late because he was with grandmother at doctor, and Mr Escalante kicks him out of class.  Angel comes to his house for dinner.  Mr Escalante tells him that it low.

classroom - all kids get same wrong answer to a problem and Mr Escalante derides them for it.
"You should know this. Now, no way. You should know this. What’s wrong with you? This is review! You’re acting like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there. What’s wrong with you guys? I don’t believe it. You’re giving me a shot from the back! No way! No way!" Escalante storms out of the room.

Mr Escalante is teaching adult ed class and is not feeling well, leaves classroom and has "mild heart attack" falls down stairs and passes out on stairs.

classroom - music teacher brought in as substitute teacher for class.

Hospital scene - Mr Escalante wants to go back to work, he is told he needs to wait a month before going back to work.

classroom - Mr Escalante comes in to classroom (instead of resting) and takes class back from music teacher.

AP calculus test starts.

beach - most of class goes to beach to celebrate the test.

Poncho gets passing grade notice in mail.

Mr Escalante gets plaque from students in 8th grade AP calculus

students get letters informing them of investigation into cheating.

angel ticks off police by hanging out passenger side window and flicking a cigarette at them.  Gets driver a ticket.  Driver and Angel get in to brief fight.

interrogation scene in classroom.

someone puts a resignation letter in Mr Escalante's inbox.

Dept head says essentially that she believes that students cheated

Mr Escalante says what students learned from this is that "if you try real hard nothing changes." wife says kids love him.

Kids call AP testing people to retake test.  Are given 1 day to study.

Take entire day and night to study.

Students eat dinner at Mr Escalante's house. Poncho leaves before dinner.

Students go into new test tired.  Testing begins. This time test is a harder test.

All students get passing grade on the new test.


-----
It appears that students get their original grades restored.

What I find odd is that the supervising person on the original exam was never brought into the story.  It would have been a minor thing, but if the students cheated as they were trying to claim then she was being equally accused.

On Audre Lorde's Chapter 3 from Zami.

                I will skip Audre’s mother as being a teacher as I’m assuming we are talking of formalized instruction.  Audre’s first experience that she gives with a teacher is with the librarian.  The librarian spoke kindly and gently to Audre and offered to her “Would you like to hear a story little girl?”   The librarian read stories that were age appropriate that rhymed and had pictures which would make Audre want more stories in the future.

                The second teacher that Audre had was a strict disciplinarian who was more concerned with the children following instructions than actually making sure the instructions were understood. When Audre did not do as she was instructed, instead of making sure she understood the instructions she said “I see.  I see that we have a young lady who does not want to do as she is told.  We will have to tell her mother about that.”

                The third teacher was a Catholic Nun named Sister Mary of Perpetual Help.  This teacher was “a  disciplinarian of the first order” like her own mother.  Sister Mary asked Audre’s mother not dress her in so many layers of clothing because Audre could not feel the strap on her behind when she was being punished.

Movie: "Stand and Deliver" Day 1 Group 1 Notes:

Group 1

Restaurant Scene: Mr. Escalante goes into the restaurant after Anna had stated in the class the day before that "she was not able to come back to class". Mr. Escalante the goes into her fathers restaurant to have dinner and get to know her father.  While Mr. Escalante was there he asked Anna's father if "he would allow Anna to come back to school" her father stated that "everyone in the family works here, what does she need school for?"  Mr. Escalante states, "she wants to go to school, to college and talks of medical school" ... the next day she comes back to class happy to be there and correctly answering an algebraic word question on the board.

Teachers meeting:  The teachers are gathered at the meeting to discuss the accreditation for the school, trying to figure out how to get more funding for the school. There is dialog of the teachers going on. "I'm not coming back after Christmas, I'm going to Nasa..."  "I was supposed to teach PE", Mr. Escalante states at the end that he could do more and "Students will arise to the level of expectation"... 

Movie: "Stand and Deliver" Day 1 - Notes

Well so much for note taking...

First scene in class, rowdy students.  Mr. Escalante comes into classroom.  Students are disorganized.  He talks to some of the students in Spanish to let them understand he speaks Spanish.  Mr. Escalante then has the Spanish speaking students move to the front of the class which irritates the student who was first in the classroom and who had a front row seat and had to move. After a bit a gang comes into the classroom, 2 of the students Angel (fingers) who seems to be acting like a body guard comes in behind the leader.  The 2 gang members have notes, the leader deliberately drops his on the floor.  Mr. Escalante bend down to pick up the note, and the gang leader and Mr. Escalante have a small stare down between them and the gang leader sits down then Angel sits in the back center of the room. School bell goes off early.  Students leave classroom.

Classroom scene 2 Mr. Escalante maintains order.  Let's students know who is boss makes threats in a teasing way to students. Angel tries to be tough, Mr. Escalante says that he is a gang of 1 go Angel. Makes a comment about breaking neck like a twig along with sound effect. if I remember right.

Classroom scene 3 - Mr. Escalante has on an apron and cooks hat and several students have portions of an apple.  Mr Escalante starts discussing fractions.

Classroom scene 4 the students are given quizzes

Teachers meeting:  Teachers and principle are discussing money and the accreditation of the school and that they need more money.  They also discuss the students poor grades. There is a dialog from a teacher who says he is not coming back next year.  Another teacher says he is teaching math but was hired to teach PE teacher.  Another teacher says he would not be coming back after Christmas as he got a job at Nasa. Someone says the teachers are doing all they can to get the students to perform better, Mr. Escalante says he is not and makes the statement "Students will rise to the level of expectations".

Classroom scene 5 - when giving students test a small group of students does not want to take the test so Mr. Escalante has one of the group sit in front of the class facing the other students while they take the test.

This student does not like this so decides to go back to her desk and take the test.

Restaurant scene Mr. Escalante dines at restaurant.  After he is done eating Anna's father comes to ask how they liked their dinner and Mr. Escalante ends up asking why the father won't let Anna come to school anymore.  The father relates that he started off as a dishwasher there and now owns the restaurant and all of his family works there and that Anna does not need any more school.  Mr. Escalante relates to Anna's father Anna's desire to continue school and go to college and that she wanted to go to medical school.

Classroom scene 6 principle and math teacher come into classroom to observe.  Mr. Excalante is giving a algebraic word problem to the students asking them to solve the problem.  Several students try but have the wrong answer, then Anna comes through the door answers the question correctly.

What is good teaching?

Good teaching takes place when both the teacher and the student are open to new ideas.  A teacher may have academic knowledge or skills, but it is possible that a student might have specific or unique experiences that can be brought to the learning environment.  Good teaching needs to take into consideration limitations or needs that a student might have that need to be considered.  Learning environment affects good teaching also, as an environment that is not conducive to teaching will affect the learning of the student.  The teacher needs to control the environment as much as they can to provide a good quality learning environment.  Encouragement or inspiring by using positive not negative prompting is also a must.  It is much easier to promote learning when using kindness thereby invoking a student desire to learn.

I could give a several examples of bad teachers that I had as I had them through numerous grades in school.  In one case when I was in the first grade our class had a creative writing assignment and I received a poor grade.  My mother had read what I had written and as a college teacher she knew that what I had written was good.  When my mother confronted the teacher about the assignment it turned out the teacher had not even read what I had written but had assigned grades based on sex.  The teacher told my mother that boys to not write as well as girls do and she assigned grades as such.

I believe a teacher needs to have more than a passing knowledge of the subject material.  I had several incidences with math classes.  In a third grade math class I had a teacher that could only answer math questions if the answers were in the back of the teachers edition of our math book.  This teacher did not know math well enough to answer simple arithmetic questions unless she had been provided the answers by the book.

I have other examples that I will not give, however I will say that in elementary school I learned to dislike school a great deal.  By the time I graduated high school I had at least learned to tolerate being in school. 

What to take from my most important educational experince.

What to take from my experience is that a person needs to consider other peoples points of view in a learning environment if they really want to learn.  They need to leave their ego outside and be open to others view points to make the best use of the educational experience.  In an environment like boot camp where what you are learning is a new way of life everything that you do may be a lesson whether it is learning to follow directions or taking care of your clothing to make it last longer or survival.  Not all learning environments are in a classroom setting where the obvious teaching takes place, sometimes the learning is in doing the little things that are just tasks that are assigned.

Group discussion from 10/1

Analyzing All of the Educational Narratives

1. What do all of the education narratives do?
All of the writers describe how they began from ground zero in their individual situations, taught themselves, and reached a point where they were satisfied with their abilities.

2. What are some of the features present in some but not in all?
One of the essays featured screenshots of the author's aforementioned examples. Two included links embedded in the text. One essay had an emoticon among the text. The first two essays were sure to make the separations in the text clear with subtitles and bold text, while the others "blended together."

[Lack of answers to last three questions due to limited time.]

Assessment of the Two Narratives and the Three Blogs, and which I liked best.

Malcolm X's autobiography excerpt has historical information as well as an emotional link.  You can get an idea of his feelings as you progress through his writing. Malcolm starts with his frustration of not being able to read, and progresses through how he learned to read the effort and dedication involved in learning to read as well as he did. Malcolm goes on to share his feelings of how his people were marginalized in the history books and how he was unwilling to accept that.

Mike Rose's narrative describes how he was marginalized by an incorrect placement into vocational classes due to an error in reading his test scores by the administration. Mike describes the people that he became associated with as a result of this placement. Mike goes further to describe the attitudes of those people.  The way that he tells his story is almost like a novel, the way he describes things in such detail you can picture yourself in the scene with him. I did not personally feel emotions as strongly with Mike's story as I did with Malcolm's story.  I could get a sense of Mike's emotions but I was more detached to his story likely due to the respect that I have for Malcolm and the fact that what Malcolm did was not just an achievement for himself but for his people and all people during the civil rights movement era.

Joshua Romero's blog is a description of his struggles to break free from Google's data aggregation machinations on his personal information.  Joshua talks about how many different services of Google's that he uses and at first thinks that it will take great effort to break free of Google's grasp on his data.  Joshua realizes that for some of the services that it will be an easy thing to break free, but for others more difficult and questions whether or not he should on some services.  Joshua break up his blog into different sections based on the type of services that he is using and what he replaces the services with.  My feelings are more ambivalent on Joshua's blog as I had never trusted the internet much in the first place. I don't use email for more than superficial contact with people, and I only use one cloud service and that is only because Amazon now forces people to use their cloud service when they buy MP3's.  Until recently you did not need to use their cloud service, but all music that I had purchased prior to their having a cloud has been added to their cloud when they switched to that delivery method.

Feross Aboukhadijeh's blog follows his process to becoming an excellent programmer.  There is not any real emotional ties to his blog only a process (an essay?).  Feross's blog is however well organized and straight forward. I think a person could easily take his process or a variation of his process to learn most anything that they wanted to.

My favorite blog is by Cate Huston. When I was done reading her blog I wanted to read more, so I found her blog link and started reading some of her other travels then realized that I needed to concentrate on my assignment here.  The joy (is that the right word?) of Cate's blog is that she invites you into her life.  You get a look into her thought process. I feel that I have at least a minimal understanding of her as a person. Cate breaks up her blog into sections based on the specific topic that she wants to talk about in this blog and elaborates on each. I don't feel an emotional attachment as much as feeling her being an acquaintance.  You know like somebody that you met once that you would like to meet again. Cate seem's like she is a very personable person.

I suppose I should actually answer the assignment.  How do they differ?  They differ in their organisation, and how they relate or don't relate with other people.  Mike's story is his interactions with and observations of people that he was forced to associate with and his feelings and thoughts on his situation. Malcolm does not describe others so much as his own thoughts and actions. Malcolm does not mention specific people and their characteristics except in general terms.  I know he spent time in prison but other that his efforts to learn to read there is nothing about his prison life, however that may have been addressed elsewhere in his autobiography and I imagine it was.  Joshua's story is about him breaking free from the grip of a corporation intent on gathering data about him. Feross's blog is his story alone. Feross tells you who he has worked for but it does not play a part in the story other than to give you something to associate his success with. Then there is Cate.  Cate does not talk about other people except in a generalized fashion as people that read her tweets and emails. Cate does give you the impression as a reader that she really cares about you having success in your travels, in that sense although she is talking about herself she is addressing her thoughts to you.

Cate Huston's "How I Learned to Love Traveling Solo"

(A note on this blog posting. I learned that if you have one one these blogs in editing mode on two computers that is a bad thing as I lost what I had posted earlier to an older posting on my home PC :-(  This is a lesson I did not desire to learn.  The new posting is not anything like the original)

My thoughts on the way in which this blog relates to the first unit as both a blog and as a ed. narrative.  This blog is enjoyable to read as a blog.  The blog is light hearted providing an enjoyable experience to the reader as well as providing some basic information about Cate Huston's personality and on her traveling experiences.

In Cate's blog she starts off by describing herself to the reader, she calls herself an ambivert (something that I had never heard of before). Cate then tells the readers of the concerns she has about traveling, going through her steps to safe and comfortable traveling. Cate then tells us the best time to travel to avoid crowds. Cate's next step is to talk us about creating memories.  This process is interesting as she tells us first off how not to think of the trip as a one time trip, this would create anxiety which would not be a good memory.  Cate then tells us about taking pictures and emailing them immediately, or tweeting her experience thereby getting interaction with the people she associates with making them a part of her travels.  Cate talks of buying clothes or jewelry that she will have a travel story to talk about when people comment about them.  Cate tells us how to pack and what to take as these are adventure trips and the people she sees while traveling will not see her again.  Cate says not to stick to a defined plan, as she has built good memories doing things that were spur of the moment.  Cate concludes by telling us to manage and reduce stress to get the most out of traveling.

I enjoyed reading Cate's blog.

Pre-writing

I used pre-writing on a paper that I wrote on Native Americans.  This paper was not just for a grade, it was also for a writing competition.  There was a school field trip that was associated with writing the paper.  Only 20 students out of approximately 90 students would be allowed to go on the field trip as determined by the top grades on the papers.  The papers were graded by 3 teachers so there would not be favoritism. I previously had not been much of a student preferring to do my own thing, however I did want to go on the field trip.  I had a fair amount of Native American history books as well as access to the public library.  I researched through several books until I found a specific topic that I was interested in writing about. I was determined to get on that field trip, however I was surprised when I actually was able to go on the field trip.

The most important thing that I ever learned.

Throughout my life I learned many things to help me get along throughout life, and as with most people I learned them through life experience not from a book.  The most important thing that I ever learned I learned in Army boot camp.  The thing that I learned is that what we think is important is not necessarily what others think is important.  When I was introduced to Army boot camp I thought the most important thing in life was education and family.  I was soon to discover how wrong I was.  As I was exposed to the military life in boot camp I discovered that the sleep that I formerly thought was important was no longer important.  The shoes that I wore were just something to keep my feet covered, but I now discovered that their real purpose was to display shiny black wax.  The clothes that I previously wore were a display of my personality, but now I have learned that they are really to hide me in a crowd.  The hats that I previously wore were to keep the sun off my head, but now I know the real reason for a hat is to hold water for shaving with.  The back pack that I used to wear I thought was for holding school books, however its real purpose was to hold food and other things for camping trips.  I was under the odd impression that my body was to be used for whatever I desired to do with it.  However I learned that its real purpose was to run, do push-ups and sit-ups. I used to think that my brain was to be used to express my individual thoughts, but I now know that it is not for my own thoughts but for the thought of those who believe themselves superior to me.  These are just silly examples.

There are reasons for the things that I learned in boot camp though the reasons were not necessarily clear to me at the time.  The shiny black wax on shoes has two purposes, first to protect the shoes from wearing out early. The wax reduces the amount of water getting into the leather which would cause the leather to shrink and crack. The second and more important in the big picture is attention to detail. The effort you put into the shine on the shoes is a direct reflection on yourself.  If you are actually in a war zone however you do not put a shine on your shoes even though you do wax them.  Shiny things in a war zone are targets.  Many of the things that are done in boot camp are attention to detail items like this.  The other things that we are taught are more directly related to survival. Push-ups, sit-ups and running are fitness related so that we can endure physical hardships in time of war. There is other physical training that is related to being limber and health in general, such as staying hydrated.  If a person does not stay hydrated everything else falls apart, both the mental and physical. With all the physical activity a person can be severely injured due to a lack of water as the joints of the body require fluid to work properly.  There is a third set of things that we learn in boot camp, and this is related to mental discipline.  The mental discipline is related to both the physical health and the attention to detail.  Having the proper mental discipline allows a person to continue going even when the body is fatigued, is in pain or when the person encounters a difficult task.  Many of the challenges of boot camp are mental and having completed those challenges one time makes it nearly pointless to go through boot camp a second time.  I attended boot camp twice.  The first time was for the Army, and when I changed military services to the Navy 5 years later and had to go through boot camp again the only purpose it served me was learning the navy ranking system.  The mental games that are played in boot camp only work once and are more of an inconvenience the second time around than anything else.  The physical challenges were much less exerting in the Navy.  The only new challenge in the Navy training was swimming, however I passed the swimming pre-test so I was exempted from any further swimming in Navy Boot camp.

Now back to my original statement, the most important thing that I ever learned is that what we think is important is not necessarily what others think is important. All the things that I learned in boot camp were things that I did not think were important, however they were all important.  Some of the things that I learned were of relevance only in the military, but others in every aspect of my life.  I am an introvert, however I learned to live with and get along with people of varying demographics and life styles as we were all in the same boat so to speak in boot camp.  I was somewhat arrogant before I went to boot camp, but I learned humility.  I learned to work as a member of a team instead of just being an individual.  I learned to accept orders from more senior personnel and that has helped me with my current civilian job.  As you can see all of these things that I learned in boot camp while not important to me at the time were important things for me to learn and will help me throughout my life.  I learned them in spite of them not being important to me, and that is what makes my original statement true and not just for me.  The most important thing that I ever learned is that what we think is important is not necessarily what others think is important.  Those people that trained me knew that these things were important.  Everyone has things that are important to them and their experience and knowledge affect what is important.  The more experience and knowledge a person has allows them to see beyond their own desires and limitations and find new things of importance.  What I did not think was important before, I can now say is important and can share that knowledge with others.  I can also add to that my patience and understanding as I try to impart my knowledge to others.  I can explain why things are important so that whomever I am teaching can understand and not be so resistive to learning things that they do not think are important.  To boil down what I learned is that when a person does not perceive that something is of benefit to them directly they are more resistive to learning something that may be of real benefit to them.  What I learned is to try and understand why someone else thinks something is important not just reject it because I don't.  When I was young I was smart, and that made me somewhat arrogant and resistive.  I thought I knew better.  As a result of Army boot camp I gained the wisdom to understand the limitations of my knowledge and I try to impart that to my children as they resist their school work.  

Earlier I wrote that the most important thing in life was education and family.  That is still true as a lifetime view point.  In boot camp that is not true, the most important thing to learn in boot camp is how to survive.  That includes adapting to new situations, and learning to think from others perspectives.  If you don't learn that then you won't live long enough in war to benefit from a family and education.  

Malcolm X vs Mike Rose essay comparison.

Mike Rose's essay was not quite as easy to read as was Malcolm X's essay.  Mike's writing was more complex like a novel whereas Malcolm's writing was more straight forward like an autobiography which is what it was. In my opinion Mike occasionally used words that although maybe more descriptive about his thoughts are not words that an average reader would likely be familiar with. I can appreciate his style however as his descriptions are precise enough of what was going on that one could almost visualize being there with him.  Malcolm's story is more personal as it describes just his feelings, motives, and experiences.  I preferred reading about Malcolm however that preference may have a lot to do with the fact that I wrote a paper on him when I was in high school.  Malcolm did not write much to describe the people he associated with except in general terms probably because there would have been current knowledge of his associates at the time of his writing.  More important to his writing are the historical references that he presented and the way he felt after reading those references.  This information he provided builds a description the how and why he became the man that he was.

Personal Comparison

I found Feross Aboukhadiejeh's story interesting as it is similar to my own story of how I learned to program computers.  I started programming when I was 12 years old.  I learned the basics from books, but also from experimenting with changing things in other peoples programs to see what each command did and how it would affect the programs.  I wrote a program in the Navy that was used for at least 20 years by the Navy Submarine Fleet and may still be in use. I did not work on any web pages until I was stationed in Japan in the Navy.  My work with web pages however was only experimental to see how it was done, after I had successfully created a few interactive web pages I went back to doing my standard programming.  Currently my job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has me programming some fairly complicated macros for data processing/data aggregation in Microsoft Excel. Oh and yes, I am one of those who became obsessed with programming. I have spent large amounts of time programming and generally have a lot of side projects.