Chapter 6 Kathleen White

Creative Connector

My first response is in reaction to most of the chapter, focusing on the new class created by Mr. Michie (Media Studies) and the quote he used “No Zombies Allowed!”

            I loved seeing this new class offered to Michie’s students. Not to say that they weren’t into his class before but just the subject matter of this course will add relevance and interest to the class. Taught properly there can be so much learning that happens here!!! This is the sort of thing I want to be able to do in my own classroom – help students to deconstruct what they’re seeing around them, posters, music, TV, etc and look at it objectively. What are they really saying here? What do they want you do think? Through my art class I want to increase student’s visual literacy, how well they interpret and make meaning from an image, as well as teach students about different art mediums, creation and expression. What Michie is doing is helping these students to think critically and to think for themselves in a world where it is so easy to sit back and be led by media and persuasive speaking. If you look at WWII and the Nazi propaganda, Hitler and the Nazi party used images, rousing speech and years of indoctrination to convince young men that their place in life was as a soldier killing Jews. I’m not brazen to think that the only reason men become soldiers is because they are easily convinced and don’t think idependantly, I know this is untrue. I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if there was more of a moral force (possibly teachers) who could say to these men – think about that poster, that short film, that speech, what are they REALLY saying.  We’ll never know for the past, but I know I’ll be doing my part in the future to create students who are visually literate.

“So sometimes when I think I have a problem I feel guilty, because I watch the news or talk to people at school who don’t have a mother, or whose heating just went out….and I feel dumb I feel like I have no right to complain.” Pg. 116

            We all experience this world differently and I’ve come to realize, as Paloma is so eloquently putting it, that there is always going to be someone who’s problems are bigger than yours. This fact does not decrease the value of things happening in someone’s life, or the impact these things have on that individual. I realize that comparatively to many of the students in this book or students I will teach, my life experiences in 22 years are probably only half of the things my students will have experienced by the time they’re 18. It is not our place as teachers to assume we know what’s going on in their lives, feel sorry for students or to make exceptions or have lesser expectations – we do, however, need to be understanding of extenuating circumstances, flexible, and above all we need to know our students.

In response to a student’s question about why she needs to wear a uniform but the teacher doesn’t : “And [the teacher] said ‘I’m not a teenager. I’m not in a gang.’ So I told him ‘ I’m sorry,  but I’m not a gangbanger, either. I don’t write on walls. I don’t sell drugs. I’m not affiliated with any of that. Why do you have to stereotype?’ “

            You know that they say about what happens when you assume… It is beyond true, you make students feel embarrassed because you are falsely labeling them and creating a victim, you make yourself look ignorant and mean because instead of asking questions and understanding your students you stereotyped them. It’s an extremely hard thing not to let our biases affect our teaching – I think its important that we acknowledge our biases to ourselves and always try to be aware of them. I love that Paloma had enough courage to stand up for herself in this situation, I know that as a student I wouldn’t have said anything because I was so shy, and that as a beginning teacher I would have been flabbergasted if someone did this to me. From where I sit today this was AWESOME! I want a student who is comfortable enough with me to respectfully tell me when I’m mistaken, I will admit my failures to the class (I have no problems owning my faults) and hope to create an environment of open communication and one with as few biases and as many personal understandings as possible.

Essence Extractor

Students need to be able to think critically about the world they live in, they deserve our best efforts in modeling and teaching this.