I often struggle when it comes to making choices. The reason I can take awhile is not so much that I can't make a decision; but that I haven't decided if my gut choice is that right choice. I completely agree that almost everything we do is the result of a choice that we have made. I remember when I was in high school and worked at a daycare. I got the flu on birthday, I was pretty bummed and would have never chosen to get the flu on my birthday. However, I did choose to spend the majority of my day every day with young children who were constantly getting sick. So in all reality I did cause myself to get the flu. I love my job so I didn't care how many kids were out sick that week I went into work as usually and CHOSE to play with the kids. Thus, causing me to pick up the germs that gave me the flu.
I currently still make my decisions on what will make me happy, and for the most part, keep me safe. We only get one life so I'm not gonna let the thought of getting the flu keep me away from the thing I love most. I think that it is important to make choices that satisfy you, but also satisfy God. You can live the most protective life but God's plan for you will happen no matter what. While it is often our choice whether or not to go somewhere or do something. God's choice is the final one. His plan was for my cousin to die her senior year of high school. Yes it was her choice to go to a football game that required her to ride in a car, but it was not her choice that another driver was driving intoxicated and hit her. That doesn't mean that if she had stayed home that night she would still be here. If the Lord's plan was to make her an angel that night, it would have happened no matter what. She could have simply died in her sleep had she stayed home that night. So I think choices are everywhere and they influence so many parts of our lives. I just hope that I can make the proper choices and use my gifts and talents wisely until my time comes.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Emperor's Club
1) "Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid last forever." - Aristophanes
To me this quote seems correct of the most part. I do believe that all of those things will change as a person grows. However, I don't know how I feel about the use of the word stupid. It is obvious that as humans we will never be perfect and therefore make a "stupid" decision every now and then, so it can never fully be cured. But I do believe that as we mature and become more educated the "stupidity" begins to lessen.
2) Mr. Hundert is so shaken and altered by the experience of teaching a boy such as Sedgewick Bell because we has never had a student that behaved that way. He has never had a student talk back that way and be so disrespectful towards him. But, at the same time, Mr. Hundert is shaken because of the level that he can relate with Sedgewick. They have similar relationships with their fathers, which bring up many old memories for Mr. Hundert.
3) I think that when Mr. Hundert described Sedgewick's influence on the other boys in class as "hypnotic" he was right on the money. Sedgewick's behavior slowly started to bring out different attitudes and behaviors in the other boys that normally they would not display in the classroom.
4) The ethical dilemma and Mr. Hundert faces when calculating the final marks to determine the three candidates for the contest begins when Sedgewick just missed the cut by making fourth place. Mr. Hundert feels as though Sedgewick deserves and place in the contest because of how hard and he has worked and how much he has improved over the course of the year. So he changes Sedgewicks A- to an A+ and that eliminated Martin Bluth, whose father once won the contest, from the final round.
5) The second dilemma that Mr. Hundert faces happens at the contest. This dilemma is that he catches Sedgewick cheating to win the competition. Rather than disqualifying him, Mr. Hundert asks Sedgewick a question he knows he will not have the answer for, but the other boy will, thus Sedgewick loses the contest fair and square. Later when Mr. Hundert confronted him about it Sedgewick did not understand why he didn't call him out in front of the whole school.
6) I think that Mr. Hundert agreed to host a rematch of the contest because he still felt guilty about giving Martins place to Sedgewick only to watch Sedgewick cheat to try and win the contest. I think that this brought up a lot of emotions in Mr. Hundert because he remembered the love he had to his students and for teaching. I think the fact that Sedgewick once again cheated to try to win really hurt Mr. Hundert.
7) I do not think the film resolves this tension. I do not believe that this tension will ever be resolved. When you see Sedgewick's son Robert run out of the bathroom stall upset after hearing what it father says it makes you think that lying could never be worth it. But then you see later on in the movie and Sedgewick did not change is ways, because to him there was nothing wrong with it. I think we will always have this problem in the world because there is rarely just one view on things.
8) Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because he is reminded of his great love for it. He wants to touch the lives of more students, and try to help mold them into characters of integrity. The surprise that was waiting for Mr. Hundert when he returned to teaching was that he now has Martin Bluth's son in his class. Maybe this will be Mr. Hundert's turn to correct a wrong.
9) Mr. Hundert was very passionate about the subject that he taught. He used lots of dialogue and communication with the students. He kept the students thinking at all times, and did the best he could to know that every student was learning to the best of their abilities.
10) Studying the classics helped every boy that was in Mr. Hundert's class see that it is us who make our decisions about our lives. We control the choices that we make, and we are responsible for our actions. I think through learning about the classics they learned from the greatest of the greats how to contribute to society whether through money, work, or relationships.
To me this quote seems correct of the most part. I do believe that all of those things will change as a person grows. However, I don't know how I feel about the use of the word stupid. It is obvious that as humans we will never be perfect and therefore make a "stupid" decision every now and then, so it can never fully be cured. But I do believe that as we mature and become more educated the "stupidity" begins to lessen.
2) Mr. Hundert is so shaken and altered by the experience of teaching a boy such as Sedgewick Bell because we has never had a student that behaved that way. He has never had a student talk back that way and be so disrespectful towards him. But, at the same time, Mr. Hundert is shaken because of the level that he can relate with Sedgewick. They have similar relationships with their fathers, which bring up many old memories for Mr. Hundert.
3) I think that when Mr. Hundert described Sedgewick's influence on the other boys in class as "hypnotic" he was right on the money. Sedgewick's behavior slowly started to bring out different attitudes and behaviors in the other boys that normally they would not display in the classroom.
4) The ethical dilemma and Mr. Hundert faces when calculating the final marks to determine the three candidates for the contest begins when Sedgewick just missed the cut by making fourth place. Mr. Hundert feels as though Sedgewick deserves and place in the contest because of how hard and he has worked and how much he has improved over the course of the year. So he changes Sedgewicks A- to an A+ and that eliminated Martin Bluth, whose father once won the contest, from the final round.
5) The second dilemma that Mr. Hundert faces happens at the contest. This dilemma is that he catches Sedgewick cheating to win the competition. Rather than disqualifying him, Mr. Hundert asks Sedgewick a question he knows he will not have the answer for, but the other boy will, thus Sedgewick loses the contest fair and square. Later when Mr. Hundert confronted him about it Sedgewick did not understand why he didn't call him out in front of the whole school.
6) I think that Mr. Hundert agreed to host a rematch of the contest because he still felt guilty about giving Martins place to Sedgewick only to watch Sedgewick cheat to try and win the contest. I think that this brought up a lot of emotions in Mr. Hundert because he remembered the love he had to his students and for teaching. I think the fact that Sedgewick once again cheated to try to win really hurt Mr. Hundert.
7) I do not think the film resolves this tension. I do not believe that this tension will ever be resolved. When you see Sedgewick's son Robert run out of the bathroom stall upset after hearing what it father says it makes you think that lying could never be worth it. But then you see later on in the movie and Sedgewick did not change is ways, because to him there was nothing wrong with it. I think we will always have this problem in the world because there is rarely just one view on things.
8) Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because he is reminded of his great love for it. He wants to touch the lives of more students, and try to help mold them into characters of integrity. The surprise that was waiting for Mr. Hundert when he returned to teaching was that he now has Martin Bluth's son in his class. Maybe this will be Mr. Hundert's turn to correct a wrong.
9) Mr. Hundert was very passionate about the subject that he taught. He used lots of dialogue and communication with the students. He kept the students thinking at all times, and did the best he could to know that every student was learning to the best of their abilities.
10) Studying the classics helped every boy that was in Mr. Hundert's class see that it is us who make our decisions about our lives. We control the choices that we make, and we are responsible for our actions. I think through learning about the classics they learned from the greatest of the greats how to contribute to society whether through money, work, or relationships.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Educational Influence
It is said that every little even t and experience in our lives shapes our personality and character. These events can be major life experiences or small little events that would never be expected to impact a life. One of the first experiences I remember that significantly influenced my education is something we did in elementary school. In fact it started before I entered the kindergarten. In my home town there is one day at school where each kindergartener is encouraged to invite someone they know that is going to be entering kindergarten the following year to attend school with them for a day. This is one of the first, but not last, time that the teachers at my school went out of their way to make things comfortable for all students. I will never forget how much easier the first day of school was having been there before. But that was only the start of student-student relationships.
Once we were in elementary school they teacher all had a system to interact the grades and help build relationships amongst them. This system was called the friend system. Kindergarteners were paid with 3rd graders, 1st graders with 4th graders, and 2nd graders with 5th graders. To this very day I remember being a kindergartener and meeting my 3rd grade friend. I felt like I was on top of the world. We could periodically have lunch dates and go on field trips with our “friend” throughout the year. While this seems so simple it honestly made a huge difference in my life and the lives of my friends. It was nice to have that relationship with an older student when you are new; and to be able to lead a younger student when you are older. This is one of the many reason I want to be an elementary school teacher, so that I can help student learn, but more importantly feel comfortable and safe.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Paulo Friere's Banking Concept of Education
1. Paulo Freire used the concept of "narration sickness" to describe how education is suffering most, referring to the relationship between the teacher and the students. Narration sickness is defined as to the traditional mode of education in the classroom where the teacher simply talks on and on and the students must sit patiently and listen like little receptacles of knowledge.
2. Narration sickness mimics/mirrors the current No Child Left Behind Act standardized testing practices in today societies in many ways. The first way is they are both making the work we learn hollow and empty. Also it turns learning into memorization and predictable. Lastly they both turn students into "containers" just waiting to simply be filled.
3. There are two different types or teachers out there, those who use the banking concept of education and those who use problem-posing education. My high school history teacher from both 9th and 10th grade, Mr. Olson, preferred to use the banking concept in his teaching method. Almost every day of class was filled with constant note taking. They have have been notes we had to copy off the board or overhead, sometimes they were note we had to free hand while he lectured, and sometimes they were notes we took by outlining the chapter in our textbook. He was the only one in the room that got to make decisions, he taught us the content he wanted to teach, not necessarily what we needed more help learning about. Not to mention he pretty much thought that he knew everything that the was to possibly know about anything!
I personally did not care of this style of teaching at all. To this very day I have a very negative attitude about any type of history class room. I can honestly say that I can't recite three things that I learned in any of his classes off the top of my head. It was just a matter of remembering enough of the information to get through the test, then let it all go to make room for the new information. I feel like if there would have been more discussion and exploration of the information it would have embedded itself into my brain more, but it was almost like he was in a race. Trying to see how much information he could get through in that one semester. His prize: confused and upset students.
4. Through out all of my years of school my life has been touched by a number of amazing teachers. There are truly been some that have helped to shape my life and who I am so much that it is hard to just pick one. If it hadn't been for these educators influence in my life I would not be majoring in education myself! One of the teachers that stands out in my mind as an excellent educator is my high school senior English teacher Mr. Ganci. He almost always lead the class as one big group discussion. There were very few days where all we did was sit and listen to him lecture. That doesn't mean he didn't, he just did it in a way that kept us, as students, involved and responsible for our own education.
Some of my greatest memories for his teaching methods is the way that he made everything fun and related to us. This English class was focused around literature. Let's be honest, what room of high school seniors want to spend their nights and weekends reading assigned books we would probably never read with out this class. But Mr. Ganci kept it fun! Rather than giving on tests on the novels or having us answer questions and write essays, he based our tests off of popular music. I can recall that for at least three of the books we read that year he would play a song by Coldplay, then they next book a song by The Killers and he would hand us the lyrics to the song. We would then write about how we thought the lyrics in the song followed the story we had just read and how the characters related. He made testing of books like "Frankenstein" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" fun for the whole class. Even with the outbreak of 'senior-itous' in the room.
5. Based on Neil Postman's "My Graduation Speech" and my knowledge of the Athenians and the Visigoths I see that one of them would embrace the banking concept while the other would embrace problem-posting education. I think that the Athenians would most likely embrace the concept of liberated or problem-posing because of their desire to learn and communicate. That leaves the Visigoths, who I think would be the most likely to embrace the banking concept because of their crude, stubborn, and selfish ways.
I can honestly say that every course I am currently taking this semester is based mostly on dialogue. I really enjoy that all of my teachers are practicing problem-posing education, at least most of the time!
2. Narration sickness mimics/mirrors the current No Child Left Behind Act standardized testing practices in today societies in many ways. The first way is they are both making the work we learn hollow and empty. Also it turns learning into memorization and predictable. Lastly they both turn students into "containers" just waiting to simply be filled.
3. There are two different types or teachers out there, those who use the banking concept of education and those who use problem-posing education. My high school history teacher from both 9th and 10th grade, Mr. Olson, preferred to use the banking concept in his teaching method. Almost every day of class was filled with constant note taking. They have have been notes we had to copy off the board or overhead, sometimes they were note we had to free hand while he lectured, and sometimes they were notes we took by outlining the chapter in our textbook. He was the only one in the room that got to make decisions, he taught us the content he wanted to teach, not necessarily what we needed more help learning about. Not to mention he pretty much thought that he knew everything that the was to possibly know about anything!
I personally did not care of this style of teaching at all. To this very day I have a very negative attitude about any type of history class room. I can honestly say that I can't recite three things that I learned in any of his classes off the top of my head. It was just a matter of remembering enough of the information to get through the test, then let it all go to make room for the new information. I feel like if there would have been more discussion and exploration of the information it would have embedded itself into my brain more, but it was almost like he was in a race. Trying to see how much information he could get through in that one semester. His prize: confused and upset students.
4. Through out all of my years of school my life has been touched by a number of amazing teachers. There are truly been some that have helped to shape my life and who I am so much that it is hard to just pick one. If it hadn't been for these educators influence in my life I would not be majoring in education myself! One of the teachers that stands out in my mind as an excellent educator is my high school senior English teacher Mr. Ganci. He almost always lead the class as one big group discussion. There were very few days where all we did was sit and listen to him lecture. That doesn't mean he didn't, he just did it in a way that kept us, as students, involved and responsible for our own education.
Some of my greatest memories for his teaching methods is the way that he made everything fun and related to us. This English class was focused around literature. Let's be honest, what room of high school seniors want to spend their nights and weekends reading assigned books we would probably never read with out this class. But Mr. Ganci kept it fun! Rather than giving on tests on the novels or having us answer questions and write essays, he based our tests off of popular music. I can recall that for at least three of the books we read that year he would play a song by Coldplay, then they next book a song by The Killers and he would hand us the lyrics to the song. We would then write about how we thought the lyrics in the song followed the story we had just read and how the characters related. He made testing of books like "Frankenstein" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" fun for the whole class. Even with the outbreak of 'senior-itous' in the room.
5. Based on Neil Postman's "My Graduation Speech" and my knowledge of the Athenians and the Visigoths I see that one of them would embrace the banking concept while the other would embrace problem-posting education. I think that the Athenians would most likely embrace the concept of liberated or problem-posing because of their desire to learn and communicate. That leaves the Visigoths, who I think would be the most likely to embrace the banking concept because of their crude, stubborn, and selfish ways.
I can honestly say that every course I am currently taking this semester is based mostly on dialogue. I really enjoy that all of my teachers are practicing problem-posing education, at least most of the time!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Clergymen's Letter and Civil Rights Movement
1. Passive Resistance: Is resistance by nonviolent methods, such as refusing to comply, demonstrating in protest, or fasting. These acts of resistance are directed toward a government, an occupying power, or specific laws. It is said that The nonviolent theory was developed by Henry David Thoreau in his essay, Civil Disobedience (1849) and later adopted by Martin Luther King Junior. Other well-known practicers of passive resistance include Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Gandhi.
2.
Photo 1:
Photo 1 was taken in North Carolina in 1965. It is a photograph of Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon, James R. (Bob) Jones. He is posing after lighting the cross at a nighttime rally. The burning of the cross was to call in clans or to tell clan members to come, a signal invented by the Scottish. My initial reaction was to choose this photo because of the history South Dakota has with the KKK. May times we thing those things just happened in the South, but a klan started in Southeast South Dakota near Canton and Beresford in 1921. Within the next year there were klan out in the Black Hills; and by 1925 there were klans in almost every major city in South Dakota. Until 1928 a small town outside of Sturgis was very popular and full of klan activity; even though there is very little evidence today.
Photo 2:
Photo 2 was taken in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. It is a photograph of a group you African American youth in front a a department store so called "taunting" a white police man. I picked this photo because I found it kind of ironic that the white police officer looks slightly frightened. However if the colors were reversed I think the thought process and his view on the situation would be completely different, along with many other white Americans of that time.
3. As much as I wish I could confidently say that there isn't discrimination, whether it is racial, gender, job, or age-related, because I believe that there most definitely is here is Sioux Falls today. I am currently reading a book titled Uprooting Racism for a different class right now and while it doesn't talk specifically about Sioux Falls, it is talking about the United States in its current day and age. As Martin Luther King Junior said in the Letter from Birmingham Jail "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
4. My topic for my major paper #2 is racial discrimination in the criminal courts system. I plan to support this claim with statistics I have found on the racial groups of people arrested, and for what charge. I also plan on supporting it is real cases that the public should be slightly knowledgeable about. I think that 3 ways in which i can use ethos and logos in my next paper would be 1) referring to different law which are supposed to be stopping racial discrimination; 2) using examples about reputable cases and apply to the specific audience; and 3) refer to past experiences in the world like Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights Movement.
2.
Photo 1:
Photo 2:
Photo 2 was taken in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. It is a photograph of a group you African American youth in front a a department store so called "taunting" a white police man. I picked this photo because I found it kind of ironic that the white police officer looks slightly frightened. However if the colors were reversed I think the thought process and his view on the situation would be completely different, along with many other white Americans of that time.
3. As much as I wish I could confidently say that there isn't discrimination, whether it is racial, gender, job, or age-related, because I believe that there most definitely is here is Sioux Falls today. I am currently reading a book titled Uprooting Racism for a different class right now and while it doesn't talk specifically about Sioux Falls, it is talking about the United States in its current day and age. As Martin Luther King Junior said in the Letter from Birmingham Jail "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
4. My topic for my major paper #2 is racial discrimination in the criminal courts system. I plan to support this claim with statistics I have found on the racial groups of people arrested, and for what charge. I also plan on supporting it is real cases that the public should be slightly knowledgeable about. I think that 3 ways in which i can use ethos and logos in my next paper would be 1) referring to different law which are supposed to be stopping racial discrimination; 2) using examples about reputable cases and apply to the specific audience; and 3) refer to past experiences in the world like Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sculpture Walk
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| http://www.usiouxfalls.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3399&Itemid=421 |
Title: "Robert the Bruce"
Artist: Benjamin Victor
1) Knight
Renascence
King
Narnia
Carousel
2) I really liked the rustic look of this sculpture. It reminded me of my childhood. That may sound weird but my brother and I used to have a castle jungle gym, and we had plastic knight shields and hats sort of like the man in the sculpture.
3) I did not like the size of this sculpture. I feel like it had so many amazing details, but they were hard to see and fully appreciate because they were crammed together. If it would have been a little larger the details would have been easier to focus on.
4) I personally would not purchase this sculpture. It doesn't really have a lot of meaning to me, and it isn't really the kind of artwork I generally purchase. I do think it is a great sculpture, it just isn't for me.
5) I believe that this sculpture represents a struggle. I could be any life struggle, or a religious battle, or even just a war in society. I feel like the man on the horse is fighting his battle with pride and dignity. I think that because he looks at peace, and he has on the crown that makes him seem confident.
6) This sculptures frontal presentation is its strongest point, in my eyes. Viewing it from different angles could change the way you see it, because it is different on every side. The natural light adds some shine, but overall it is a tarnished peace and the lighting did not effect it much.
7) The work seemed very detailed and angular. I think the surface was enhanced by the texture of the metal. it was rough to the tough which seemed to make since. It was a concrete, real to life, representation of what warriors used to look like in battle.
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| http://www.usiouxfalls.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3399&Itemid=421 |
Title: "Zion"
Artist: Grant Standard
1) A quittage ball from Harry Potter
A young child's toy
A capsule
Egyptian
Sun dial
2) I really like that while the artist only used basic shapes in making the sculpture it still seems complex. I also like that it used only shapes, and the meaning is for the observer to determine.
3) I didn't really like the small sculptures inside on the larger ball because i found that hard to see. Also, the fact that the main ball is so large, I almost didn't notice the pyramid on the bottom of the sculpture.
4) I would display this sculpture if I could because I really enjoy abstract art. I like art that when you asked a person what they see, everyone's answer is completely different. Yet, they all make since.
5) I believe this sculptures subject has to do with layers. I feel as thought it is different layer of the ball all standing on one small point. This could be a representation of finding, or pin pointing, who you really are. The sphere shape also leads me to think who am I in this world?
6) The view from every angle of this piece of work is about equal in visual interest. However, at some angle one might be able to see the spheres inside of the larger one, better than they could from another angle. The natural lighting is important because it can effect what you clearly see on the inside of the sphere.
7) The style of this sculpture seems very rounded and geometric. I looks simple but up close is very detailed in all of the grooves. The bottom seems pretty smooth, while the top part of it art work seems more rugged. It is an extremely abstract piece of art and could look different to the same person depending on their mood.
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| http://www.usiouxfalls.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3399&Itemid=421 |
Title: "Katrina"
Artist: Osamede Obazee
1) Windy
Fear
Suffering
Lost
Sad
2) I like the strong emotion that the piece gives off. I saw in the leg in one of the cut out parts, the shape of a cross, and that showed that the girl has hope and faith. I think the subject matter of Hurricane Katrina is very easy to see in the work.
3) I don't care for the base of the sculpture. It looked as though there was something written in cursive by the girls feet, yet it was not easy to read. That made me wonder if I was missing out on a major point in this work of art.
4) I could not purchase this sculpture because while I do find it intriguing, it also reminds me of such a sad time. I don't think I would want something that would constantly remind me of a disaster. Also, the sculpture most likely, doesn't as much to me as it would to someone who was directly effected by Hurricane Katrina.
5) The main subject matter in my mind for this piece is Hurricane Katrina. However while it looks like this girls life is blow apart, I notice things like hidden crosses in her bodily form. This show some symbolism of faith and hope. This sculpture interacts with the view because it is almost as though are watching this happen to the girl.
6) I think that sculpture has a strong frontal view, but that is not the only view. Every way I looked at this piece I saw something slightly different. Depending on your angle of view you see what one may not see from only a frontal view. I love the work with the material because it seem rough and that is exactly what that girl is feel inside.
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