Social Justice Event

For my social justice event i was to an event at Roger Williams on drinking, alcohol, and sexual abuse. It wasn't too bad and i learned a few new things. There was a decent amount of people when i walked in. The first things that happened was a slide show just explaining all of the cons that drinking can lead to. There was a huge list of them that went on for a few pages. Rather than just talking about the cons like usual the people explained smarter ways to drink and making sure that you are controlling your habits and drinking. After all of the information and power point part of the presentation was over they did little skits to demonstrate situations that could happen when drinking occurs. The skits were very entertaining and some were comincal but it was still done in a serious way that could open up students eyes. I thought that the skits were a good way to gain the students who were there attention and keep their attention rather than just saying drinking is bad and pushing information into their heads. When the skits were all done they had few women students who had been sexually abused in situations where alcohol played a factor. The stories were pretty sad but they were also inspiring to the women that were there. They explained how to get out of messy situations like she was in and different ways to get through those issues if they had already happened. Lastly they wrapped up the whole thing by explaining places to go for help with these situations and handed out brochures that would be helpful. I enjoyed this event more than i thought i would have when i walked in. it wasn't bad at all and it had the perfect mix of education and entertainment in order to keep the whole presentation interesting.

Extra Blog #2

I decided to do my 2nd extra blog on Dr. Bogad's class as a whole. I thought it was a fun class and i was able to communicate and feel comfortable with classmates and Dr. Bogad. She did associate all of these authors into her class in a way where she demonstrated everything that they did. A few examples were Delpit's rules and code of power when he showed us how talking to a student in a certain way can help in teaching methods and Shor's banking theories by giving us that random test and not giving any instructions. That's like expecting us to teach ourselves just as pushing information into our heads and expecting us to know the answers. The group work allowed us to learn the opinion of others and see things differently in the eyes of others. It helped us all to become better teachers by hearing stories of other and seeing how they dealt with issues that came up in their classrooms. The service learning project allowed us to become more in touch with what being a teacher is really like even in the hardest of places to teach. It tossed us issues that will be just as hard as any we will probably face in the classrooms we will be teaching in so we will be ready for them when they occur. I enjoyed the class and thought that it was made fun not just a whole bunch of tests and information of what to do but demonstrations, activities, and ideas of how to do things. The best part about the whole things was NO TESTS OR EXAMS!!! Took a lot of pressure off for the rest of my classes for the semester.

Extra Blog #1

My extra blog has to do with one of the things i overheard when i was in the my little group at my school. I was teaching the children like it was any other day and they were doing their work very well. All of a sudden the children started to talk amongst themselves because they were done with their work. They talked about the environment that they were all living in. It was awful to hear how they were speaking and saying how there is a shooting in near their home basically every week and that they were scared to leave their houses and even walk home after school. This relates to the Johnson article because its an environmental issue in which the children are used to the environment that they all live in. I don't believe any child should have to go through something like that. I was just listening carefully and trying to understand just how hard that must be to deal with. I lived in a middle class area my whole life, so to hear about things like that to me is just completely mind boggling. The fact that there was a liquor store on the same street as the school as i was coming to my school for the first time just blew my mind. Things such as that just dont set up the right learning environment for a student. It is just another things for these children to deal with in their lives they shouldn't have to worry about getting home safely.