Entry 7

After listening to cult of pedagogy podcast, I started to think about how pronouncing the student’s names correctly and knowing their names it’s important to the students, which is something that I never put attention before. Being able to pronounce their names correctly makes the students feel care and value, growing up I personally have never had a problem in which the teacher or even the substitute, couldn’t pronounce my name. So, it’s something that I didn’t really put much attention to it, but I do remember how my classmates, sometimes names were mispronounced by the teacher. There was one time where the teacher would pronounce a student last names differently, then she liked, and she was bother by it, but she also never mentions it. Which after listing to this podcast, I see how just pronouncing the student’s names correctly is important for them. It’s something that I want my students to feel in my classroom, I want them to feel appreciated and know that I care enough, that I would do everything to not just know their names, but learn how to pronounce them correctly.  

Entry 6

After researching the members of state of board of education in Texas, I was able to see how about half of the board committee members have a background in teaching or have taught before. Which is really concerning, since they are the ones making the decision regarding the curriculum standards and the reviewing and adopting of materials. They are the ones who say what we should teach and how to teach it to students, which is ironic since most of them have never taught before. They don’t know what teachers learn, and what they need, to be able to provide the students the best education possible and how children learn in different ways. Most of them have a background in politics, they see the education of the students as political, and are most worry about the money that goes into the districts, rather than the student’s education. This is a wake-up call to start making changes, to demand that people who are on the board of education, were teacher or have a teaching background. The people who are making the decision regarding the education of students, should know what teachers do, and what they need help with, what changes need to be done so that children are successful in their education. 

Entry 5

After reading Ch.1 of A Young People's History of the United States, I remember how I learn about Christopher Columbus and what he really did in high school. In elementary I remember reading about how he discovers America, and how he was portrayed as a good person. They never talked to us about what he really did, and how he was anything but a good person. There is a lot of thing that teachers in elementary don’t talk about because, they think it might be inappropriate for the students. Which is something that I notice when I started to learn about more people and what they did or what really happen in high school. But when I went to my observations, I saw how the teacher I was observing was reading a book to the children about a person who was a slave and what she accomplishes. The teacher explain to the students what was slavery and why it was wrong, at first I was surprise that she was talking to the students about slavery since they are first graders, but the way she explain it  to them was age appropriate, in a way that they understood it, without scaring them.  Which is something that all teacher should do instead of avoiding talking about these topics, we should let them read about them, but also taking in consideration that they are still children.