HW 41 - Initial Internet Research on Schooling

IM not sure how fascinating my topic might be to others, but its interesting to me how much students allow teachers to direct there experiences in school. Most people base there experience's from school off of an event with a teacher.

"My Teacher, My Inspiration: Without even realizing it, teachers have the ability to create a strong like or dislike for the subject they teach their students. The most monotonous / serious subjects can be made interesting by an inspired and dedicated teacher." [source 5]

This quote supports my whole view on school. I posted the quote because this website doesn’t serve a main point but shows the different views of being a teacher. The most important part in the quote is how they specify, “without even realizing it”. In that sentence alone is the essence of the affect a teacher can have on a student.

"Role Of Teachers In A Student / Child's Life." contentwriter.in. 2009. contentwriter.in, Web. 1 Mar 2010. .


Just like kids have parents to nature them and prepare them for the world, kids look upon teachers to have some sort of X factor as well because teachers help them become prepared in the real world as well.

HW 40 - School Interviews x 5 & Synthesis

Part A: I went into these interviews not wanting to ask prewritten question but to ask question that would add to their last response. All of my interviews are conversations and that’s why I only have main ideas and concepts that they said as notes. I interviewed my grandmother who only made it to fourth grade; she doesn’t have much experience with school but holds it to a high pedestal. I interviewed my dad, a Hiram who just got kicked out of college, Jen who dropped out of high school, Bryan who is still in high school and Kenny who is a senior. (Sorry I know there is six I read the HW wrong)

Grandma:
-Living in poverty only allowed her to go to fourth grade. She learned how to write and read it turned out to be the only thing she really needed in life. She doesn’t really know what kids today are learning but it was always a must that her kids go and get an education. Even with her attempts her kids didn’t get very far in school but it didn’t stop them from having good lives. Overall all the lessons that she needed to know she learned outside of school.

Poops:
“I love school and I’m a big supporter”
-Teachers made school amazing for him, in his times teachers were nice and supper helpful. The only reason he stopped was so that he could get a job and help his parents out financially. In school he learned he had a passion for math, this passion mainly came from the motivation that his teachers gave him. Luckily he chose a career that worked in his favor. If one of his kids dropped out it would be unacceptable although he knows school is much different know.

Hiram:
He hates school and is having to deal with it now. The only motivation he feels to go to school is the harsh economy; his true passion is on the court. Although being a smart kid he often got bad grades because of his lack of motivation. Going to Museum left him with too much independence, if he could change school he rather go to a high school that allows students to get more experience with occupations like others schools have with nursing programs.

Jen:
When looking back on school she couldn’t remember anything except hating it, maybe that was one of the main factors of her dropping out. She hated the routine and felt above it, “waking up and going to do something you dislike feels horrible”. “When the teachers don’t care it makes it easy for a student not to care also.” She thinks having too much independence at a young age results in no good. She continued to hate school until she met the right teacher who showed her that she could do something with her life outside of school. She viewed school as just a stepping stone.

Bryan:
Hates school. It was hard to focus on anything else because he kept repeating it over and over. He views elementary school as his glory days because he was popular and the work was easy, the teachers felt like go getters to him and it rubbed off. His school leaves him no room to be creative and even gives him a dress code that they enforce. Most of his work is time consuming not challenging and that’s the most frustrating part. He doesn’t leave because he has a strong connection to his friends that he can’t give up. If he could change one thing it would be that he makes school more interesting.

Kenny:
If he could change the school system it would be so that school goes to 10th grade and after that you spend the last two years doing internships testing the waters for a potential occupation. He thinks school is a great thing but feels that people lose passion along the way much like himself. As a student he always found school very challenging and not so much hard. With all the time spent in school he feels like the only thing he will ever use is what he learned in elementary school. He says being senior is the worst thing ever and wishes the pressure wasn’t so bad. {I agree!}

Part B: To me it seems that teachers really set the tone of a student’s experience in school. Almost all of the responses included something about how teachers affect them. I really was thinking about what Bryan said when he mentioned how the teacher’s mood rubbed off in him. I think as teachers are in the field longer they lose their passion and so do we as time goes on it ends up with people hating school. I think it all comes down to how much people love to perform, if teachers enforce a more positive outlook onto things the students will respond better and gain motivation in themselves.

HW 39 - First School Assignment

Part A:
Please write 3 each of the most interesting, fascinating, powerful questions, ideas, and experiences you've encountered about school.

The most fascinating thing about school to me is how often I am allowed to prove myself. Although I don’t often deliver 100% I like that I always have the opportunity to do my best. The best experience I had in school was my 8th grade year, this year all the crap got cleared from my head and I finally realized how capable I was of being independent. On that note my worst experience of school was also in 8th grade. I was still in my cookie cutter phase and thought my friends at the time would be life long ones; with lots of gossip and drama later I learned more about myself as an individual. School does a good job of pushing people to their limits and leaving tons of time for discovering themselves in the mean time. School allows us to build a character that we live our life by. Most people who play the bully or nice role in school continue those roles as they progress through life.

Part B:
Please explore one aspect or moment of school in a 2-4 paragraphs. Show us what's strange or great or awful about it. Talk about how you feel about it - how do you think it came to be - what consequences it produces.

Majority of our grown up life we are faced with deadlines, bills and responsibilities. School is the best foundation to build these qualities that life expects us to fulfill. Its strange how when I speak to grown ups they always say the same thing, “its just like high school.” I hear this for college, work environments, bills and everything else. If life is just a rerun of school I’m not looking forward to it; it makes me think what thought process was put into making the idea of school. People haven’t changed the style that much so why are we all so focused on maintaining this standard. Overall I think pushing the standards of what school expects to produce in children is the most interesting part.

HW 38 - Art Project Cool

Cool: A Silent Film from Esther Dionisio on Vimeo.

What insights about cool does the art integrate?
Although this idea might just be completely played out I think my group and I chose to represent staying true to yourself in a unique way. The hidden message in the video is that although the girl is open to change and doesn’t mind the constructive criticism she knows there is always a limit to how far someone should go before losing that self image that we all create. There are several things I can mention that we think are cool in this video like the optimistic attitude and although the “helper” had a hidden agenda her intentions were good. Overall this video is cool point blank. I hope people will realize just how “cool” this video is and are pleased with the end result. I want people to question what limits they set for themselves.
Describe the process of making the project – how'd you do each step? If it was a group project, what did you contribute?
Making the video was the easiest part; actually trying to come up with an idea that is “cool” was the most frustrating. I would like to think Esther, Samantha (group members) and I don’t spend much time obsessing over what is cool, so to create a whole video surrounding that idea took hours to figure out. First we would create an idea and then pause and talk about the different angles we liked and what we thought might look best. Then we all became little acting coaches and would tell each other how we wanted the scenes to come out. After tons of editing on Esther’s part (much appreciated) boom! A video was created. We all did our share in the hours we dedicated to thinking about this project; I mainly just did some of the acting.
Does making art seem cool to you?
I think making art is amazing/ very cool. I don’t think being forced to make art is cool. I wasn’t joking before when I said lots of hours went into making a solid idea for this project. When having an idea for a video is natural; making the video is fun. But in this case the thought process was tiring, having guidelines like the constant reminder of “cool” was the most frustrating. We thought of so many ideas that could have been cool but when we stopped and thought about how others might view the video we would shoot each other’s ideas down and start all over again. In the end I am so happy with the end result and appreciate everyone’s hard work, making this video was the coolest part of it all!
Thank you ESTHER!
Thank you SANDY!
Thank you SAMANTHA!