Jake Westwood. A 11th grade history teacher wakes up and goes through his organized neat early morning routine. Before leaving the house though he does a line of coke. At school he prepares for the kids to come in on the first day. Once the kids are in he starts to tell them about how this year they will be learning about the darkerside of history. The kids are full of attention. They walking away interested in what that class is going to teach.
They kids have come to like history and work hard in that class. The teacher inspires them. But his coke habit has picked up and the kids begin to see signs. Rumors spread and more evidence is see till the teacher is one day caught in the act. The students lose respect in him and no longer pay attention in class. The teacher denies hes an addict. Situation get worse.
It’s a dark night, and the teacher goes to buy some coke but is robbed for it and left beaten in the street. A few of his student s are coming home from a party and find him. They bring him home. They come back the next morning (Saturday) and tell him that they are going to make him quit. Turns out they had already searched his home and found all of his hidden coke. Starting from then the kids pat him down every morning in school and when he comes home they are randomly searching his house for coke. Weeks go buy and Jake begins to improve.
Its almost the end of the year and Jake is totally clean. His students are interested again and life is good. One day he gets a call his brother died. His brother has come up in various parts of the movie and it is clear they were close. Jake is crying in his office after school. As he cries he reaches under his coffee bug and untapes a bag of coke. He puts it into lines and rolls a dollar, camera cuts out.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
5-10 ideas
1. the teacher is boring and slow. the kids then fix the teacher (reverse of the usual teacher saves the kids)
2. kids are asked to express their world in videos.
3.some one trashes the classroom while the teacher is away for lunch.
4.one student lives in the hood and is trying to get out using education
5. have the one silent kid who makes a speech at the end
2. kids are asked to express their world in videos.
3.some one trashes the classroom while the teacher is away for lunch.
4.one student lives in the hood and is trying to get out using education
5. have the one silent kid who makes a speech at the end
chop chop chop, judo flip
My choice of readding was The Boondocks by AAron Mcgruder. The Boondocks tells the story of two kids named Riley and Huey who move from chiago with their grandfather to an all white nieborhood in suburbia. McGruder uses the scenario of the only black family in white suburbia to show us his view on the topics of racism and politics. In The Boondocks niether Riley or Huey do very good in school. Riley doesnt because he is trying to be the steriotypical gangster and uses school to show how gangster he is to the other kids. Huey is the opposite. Huey's character is a revolutionist and he beleives that the schools are brainwashing eurocentrism into the society, so he spends his time in school researching his own things. Niether character is modivated to learn because niether of them wants to learn whats being taught, so they use the school as a place to do their own thing. Students are not modivated so they see school less as a place to learn and more of a place to do their own thing.
Huey's character is the sterio typical american revolutionary. In the Boondocks he thinks that public schools are brainwashing the youth into the euro-centric capitalists. This can most easly be seen in the bottom of page 41. Huey was just caught readding a diffrent book in class and he explains his reasoning to the teacher. "{teacher} So if i understand correctly, you do not ahve your textbook with you, huey. ... because you felt there were other texts that deserved priority in your book bag?...Texts like shabazz k. jenkins How to Tell if Your Teacher is Brainwashing You With Eurocentrism. {Huey} Given your stirring tribute to Christopher Columbus last month, I beleive I made the right call" (Boondocks Right to be Hostile, p.41) Huey does not trust the school system. so he uses the time to study his own intrests. He is not in anyway shape or form modivated to learn what they teacher wants to teach him so he what he thinks he should do.
Riley, Huey's younger brother, is the opposite of Huey. He embraces the rap culture, which Huey strongly hates, and is constantly thinking about how to be more gangster. Riley uses school as a way to be more gangster. When Riley is asked to introduce himself on the first day he states "Aiiight, Y'all need to listen up to what esco got to say, word up. Don't ever in ya life confuse me for a punk that wont do some chin checkin, knaamean. I'm keepin $?%! real. Dun!..." (p.27) Riley makes sure his first impression shows off this thugness. He has no motivation for school because he doesnt think it will help him become a gangster. so he uses school for his own reasons.
Huey's character is the sterio typical american revolutionary. In the Boondocks he thinks that public schools are brainwashing the youth into the euro-centric capitalists. This can most easly be seen in the bottom of page 41. Huey was just caught readding a diffrent book in class and he explains his reasoning to the teacher. "{teacher} So if i understand correctly, you do not ahve your textbook with you, huey. ... because you felt there were other texts that deserved priority in your book bag?...Texts like shabazz k. jenkins How to Tell if Your Teacher is Brainwashing You With Eurocentrism. {Huey} Given your stirring tribute to Christopher Columbus last month, I beleive I made the right call" (Boondocks Right to be Hostile, p.41) Huey does not trust the school system. so he uses the time to study his own intrests. He is not in anyway shape or form modivated to learn what they teacher wants to teach him so he what he thinks he should do.
Riley, Huey's younger brother, is the opposite of Huey. He embraces the rap culture, which Huey strongly hates, and is constantly thinking about how to be more gangster. Riley uses school as a way to be more gangster. When Riley is asked to introduce himself on the first day he states "Aiiight, Y'all need to listen up to what esco got to say, word up. Don't ever in ya life confuse me for a punk that wont do some chin checkin, knaamean. I'm keepin $?%! real. Dun!..." (p.27) Riley makes sure his first impression shows off this thugness. He has no motivation for school because he doesnt think it will help him become a gangster. so he uses school for his own reasons.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
hirsch vs sizer
In the open debate on school systems, there are two names that can not be ignored. Hirsch and Sizer. these two men can be compared to two warlords with their armies facing off. Born in 1932, Sizer founded the coalition of essential schools. Before starting the coalition Ted Sizer went around and studied high schools. He interviewed watched classrooms and interviewed various people around school. The end result was Horace's Compromise. In this book Sizer discusses many of the common problems of schools. While he mentioned things such as too much focused on sports, his main philosophy was that schools shouldn't just skim over a lot of subjects. they should go deeply into a few. Thus he created the habits of mind to achieve this goal. he stated he want to create schools where " students clearly exhibit the mastery of their school work."
Its hard for me to generally beleive in this idea even while attending a essintial school, infact its because I attend one that I'm not keen on the idea. While doing deep into a subject is good, it can backfire. It backfires when the students dont care about the subject. When students have to dive deeply into a subject they dont care about, the feeling can be described as beatting your head against a wall. We can all see why that isnt good.
On the other end of the battle field is E.D. Hirsch. Hirsch, born 1928, believed more in cultural literacy. He beleived that students would do better in life if they knew about many diffrent things, even if they werent experts in the subbjects. A jack of all trades master of none kind of thing. He says that students need a understanding of common cultural refrences. As an example he uses the sentence "Jones sacrificed and knocked in a run.". Now if you dont know baseball that sentence makes no sense. But understanding baseball will allow you to make sense of that sentence.
I prefer this philosophy better. High school's job is to prepare you for the future. A way to do that is to widen ones view of the world. If you take two students, student A and student B. student A learns about three subjects in depth. student B learns about 5 subjects but with only half the depth as student A. While student A knows more about those subjects, student B knows has a more spread out knowledge. Student A doesnt know about the 4th and 5th subject that B learned about. What happens if subject 5 enters his life somehow later, he wont be as prepared as student B. Another thing to think about is the more you learn about the better chance you have of finding something you like. Mabye student A would have loved subject #4 and want to turn it into a career, but because he spent so much time learning 1-3 he never got a chance to expirence it.
Its hard for me to generally beleive in this idea even while attending a essintial school, infact its because I attend one that I'm not keen on the idea. While doing deep into a subject is good, it can backfire. It backfires when the students dont care about the subject. When students have to dive deeply into a subject they dont care about, the feeling can be described as beatting your head against a wall. We can all see why that isnt good.
On the other end of the battle field is E.D. Hirsch. Hirsch, born 1928, believed more in cultural literacy. He beleived that students would do better in life if they knew about many diffrent things, even if they werent experts in the subbjects. A jack of all trades master of none kind of thing. He says that students need a understanding of common cultural refrences. As an example he uses the sentence "Jones sacrificed and knocked in a run.". Now if you dont know baseball that sentence makes no sense. But understanding baseball will allow you to make sense of that sentence.
I prefer this philosophy better. High school's job is to prepare you for the future. A way to do that is to widen ones view of the world. If you take two students, student A and student B. student A learns about three subjects in depth. student B learns about 5 subjects but with only half the depth as student A. While student A knows more about those subjects, student B knows has a more spread out knowledge. Student A doesnt know about the 4th and 5th subject that B learned about. What happens if subject 5 enters his life somehow later, he wont be as prepared as student B. Another thing to think about is the more you learn about the better chance you have of finding something you like. Mabye student A would have loved subject #4 and want to turn it into a career, but because he spent so much time learning 1-3 he never got a chance to expirence it.
Monday, March 8, 2010
44
The point of school is to make personal achievement easier. It is meant to give you the basic skills and work ethic to succeed in the modern society. Because of this though school is, or should be, a personal experience. The opportunity is given and it is up to the individual student to take it. Obama's speech empathizes this. He says "That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them.". He doesn't talk about what he is going to do for the student, or how the system is brining the student down. He is holding the students responsible for their own education. A school isnt a magical building that beams education into your head. You need to want the education and you have to work for it.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
41
http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/mediarelations/NewsandSpeeches/2008-2009/20090622_grad_rates.htm
This article talks about the increase of high school graduation rates. In the article they act excited that the rate is 60% (the highest in four years). 60% graduation says alot about the modivation of students. Just over half of the public school population past, this also in includes students who just barely past. so the actually percentage of students who were modivated to do well is a smaller number.
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-925/rate.htm
This website states a study that examined the drop out rate between normal school and a school that was based more toward a future career. The article states that the more focused the curriculum is, the less kids will drop out. The reason for this they state is because students have an idea of why they are learning something. Education can be explained like this: Imagen someone is making you jump up and down 100 times in one minute. If you only jump up and down 64 times, will you really care that much. It all depends if you know why you are jumping. If jumping less then 65 times results in the death of a kitten then yes. But if you arent really sure why you are jumping, and you dont want to be jumping, chances are you wont care.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/05/dropout.rate.study/index.html
This article was pretty basic except for the part where a girl talks about why she dropped out. She talks about how she lost interest after two of her friends were killed in a gang shooting. This brings up the idea of school in the big picture. Mabye kids arent motivated in school because they dont see it as that important compared to things in their life, such as staying alive.
http://diplomaguide.com/articles/GED_Statistics.html
In this source the article tells us basic facts about the GED. One interesting not about the GED is that the average age to get one is 24. That means that sometime after high school kids are remotivated and take extra steps to get where they want. Another Interesting fact is that one of the main reasons listed for getting a GED is "lack of interest in high school". I found this interesting because it shows that kids can get the end result of high school with out going through the process.
Unmotivated high school students need to personally see the connection between school and a sucsseful career and must gain the confidence to think they can do well.
This is an important topic because it has to deal with a major problem in schools, motivation. It is obvoiuse why the more kids that graduate the better it is for the society. Which would you want, 100 kids being doctors or 100 kids washing cars. I am not saying that high school is the only way to a good job, but it helps. By analyzing why kids arent motivated you can come up with a solution.
This article talks about the increase of high school graduation rates. In the article they act excited that the rate is 60% (the highest in four years). 60% graduation says alot about the modivation of students. Just over half of the public school population past, this also in includes students who just barely past. so the actually percentage of students who were modivated to do well is a smaller number.
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-925/rate.htm
This website states a study that examined the drop out rate between normal school and a school that was based more toward a future career. The article states that the more focused the curriculum is, the less kids will drop out. The reason for this they state is because students have an idea of why they are learning something. Education can be explained like this: Imagen someone is making you jump up and down 100 times in one minute. If you only jump up and down 64 times, will you really care that much. It all depends if you know why you are jumping. If jumping less then 65 times results in the death of a kitten then yes. But if you arent really sure why you are jumping, and you dont want to be jumping, chances are you wont care.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/05/dropout.rate.study/index.html
This article was pretty basic except for the part where a girl talks about why she dropped out. She talks about how she lost interest after two of her friends were killed in a gang shooting. This brings up the idea of school in the big picture. Mabye kids arent motivated in school because they dont see it as that important compared to things in their life, such as staying alive.
http://diplomaguide.com/articles/GED_Statistics.html
In this source the article tells us basic facts about the GED. One interesting not about the GED is that the average age to get one is 24. That means that sometime after high school kids are remotivated and take extra steps to get where they want. Another Interesting fact is that one of the main reasons listed for getting a GED is "lack of interest in high school". I found this interesting because it shows that kids can get the end result of high school with out going through the process.
Unmotivated high school students need to personally see the connection between school and a sucsseful career and must gain the confidence to think they can do well.
This is an important topic because it has to deal with a major problem in schools, motivation. It is obvoiuse why the more kids that graduate the better it is for the society. Which would you want, 100 kids being doctors or 100 kids washing cars. I am not saying that high school is the only way to a good job, but it helps. By analyzing why kids arent motivated you can come up with a solution.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
interview
Me:first lets start with the basics, how much schooling have you had.
Buisness suit man: I have a dagree in (a major that sounded made up) from (some college i have never heard of)
Me: Do you think that getting the dagree helped you get where you are
Him: yes its the only reason i am where i am today.
Me: so nobody can get to your level with out one
Him: No you need the dagree i got to get where i am
Me: so by getting the level of education you got, do you consider yourself better then some people
Him: Well i worked harder then them and i have a more important job then some people, so in a way yea.
Me:what do you do for a living
Teacher: im a teacher
Me: what do you teach
her: 5th grade history
me:is what you teach important, will they need it in years to come
her: i think so, just not directly. They will not need to know every fact just the general information. it prevents ingorance, and mabye the kid will realize they love history and become a historian.
me:what level of education do you have
hipster: I am currently going to school at bmcc
me: why community college
hipster: well i messed around in high school but then my parents convinced me that some college is better then no college
Me: what do you wanna do as a career
hipster: i dont know yet
me: so you went into college with no clear sense of direction
hipster: yea. I decided to just go in and hope i find my way soon
Me: i hope you dont go hiking with the same additude.
hipster: What?
me: nothing thank you for your time.
Me: hi, what grade are you in
Kid: im in 1st
me: do you know what you want to be when you grow up
Kid: i want to be a actor
Me: when the teacher tells you to sit down what do you do
kid: sit down
me: why?
kid: because the teacher said so dummy
me: why do you listen to the teacher
kid: because shes the boss and you always listen to the boss
Me:how much schooling do you have
brandon: i stopped after highschool.
me: do you think college is a necessity
brandon:no not really. It helps and you should. But i didnt go to college and look at me now im living in America. (brandon is my muay thai coach from australia)
The main thing school teaches you is how to do what ever you need to pass. for example, the kid knew to listen to the teacher. As you get more into school, it gets alittle more complicated. Depending on what kind of life you want to live, depends on how good your gonna do in school. If you want to be a top notch buisness man you need that dagree, so you are gonna need to get good grades. But if you want to be a muay thai coach, you dont really need to get a college dagree. Because of that all you dont really have to work that hard. I have come to the conclusion that school is not about teaching you the facts, but how to work to reach a goal. For example if you have an C but you want an A you need to figure out how to do that.
Buisness suit man: I have a dagree in (a major that sounded made up) from (some college i have never heard of)
Me: Do you think that getting the dagree helped you get where you are
Him: yes its the only reason i am where i am today.
Me: so nobody can get to your level with out one
Him: No you need the dagree i got to get where i am
Me: so by getting the level of education you got, do you consider yourself better then some people
Him: Well i worked harder then them and i have a more important job then some people, so in a way yea.
Me:what do you do for a living
Teacher: im a teacher
Me: what do you teach
her: 5th grade history
me:is what you teach important, will they need it in years to come
her: i think so, just not directly. They will not need to know every fact just the general information. it prevents ingorance, and mabye the kid will realize they love history and become a historian.
me:what level of education do you have
hipster: I am currently going to school at bmcc
me: why community college
hipster: well i messed around in high school but then my parents convinced me that some college is better then no college
Me: what do you wanna do as a career
hipster: i dont know yet
me: so you went into college with no clear sense of direction
hipster: yea. I decided to just go in and hope i find my way soon
Me: i hope you dont go hiking with the same additude.
hipster: What?
me: nothing thank you for your time.
Me: hi, what grade are you in
Kid: im in 1st
me: do you know what you want to be when you grow up
Kid: i want to be a actor
Me: when the teacher tells you to sit down what do you do
kid: sit down
me: why?
kid: because the teacher said so dummy
me: why do you listen to the teacher
kid: because shes the boss and you always listen to the boss
Me:how much schooling do you have
brandon: i stopped after highschool.
me: do you think college is a necessity
brandon:no not really. It helps and you should. But i didnt go to college and look at me now im living in America. (brandon is my muay thai coach from australia)
The main thing school teaches you is how to do what ever you need to pass. for example, the kid knew to listen to the teacher. As you get more into school, it gets alittle more complicated. Depending on what kind of life you want to live, depends on how good your gonna do in school. If you want to be a top notch buisness man you need that dagree, so you are gonna need to get good grades. But if you want to be a muay thai coach, you dont really need to get a college dagree. Because of that all you dont really have to work that hard. I have come to the conclusion that school is not about teaching you the facts, but how to work to reach a goal. For example if you have an C but you want an A you need to figure out how to do that.
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