Freedom Writers

I just met with Sammi and Mack to talk about how we were going to approach our presentation tonight, and he told us that instead of watching "Freedom Writers" he watched "Freedom Riders" having mistaken that film for the one that we were supposed to watch. It was kind of awesome.

Now this film was an example of the kind of education and educators I agree with the very most, and it looks like I'm not the only one based on the reception of this film. Don't let this go to your head Benjamin, but I saw quite a few parallels between our class and Mrs. Gruwell's class in the film. In the end they wrote a collective story for change. The used stories from their life to ask for that change, and when it came down to it, it made a change even if it was just in their lives (and quite frankly that's a huge accomplishment). We were asked to address issues that were relevant in our lives and to do so using a story or medium that we were familiar with. And addressing the issues that are important to the class is one of the greatest ways to connect with them and get them to perform at their highest level. For example, this semester I was extremely pressed for time and I didn't think that I would be able to make a very good story for change, and though I was still not completely satisfied with the final product I made time for it because it was something that I cared about. Once it became relevant to me on a more personal level I dedicated more time and effort to it. If a teacher can do that for a student then I think that teacher is doing their job right.

Friere talked a lot about formal education being a system where the teacher comes in and puts information into the students brains so they can later regurgitate that information. It's entirely accurate for the majority of teachers out there. He talks about all the disadvantages to being enrolled in formal education and the fact that it puts one person in a position of authority above a much larger group of people who have thoughts to contribute. I think that sometimes the teacher needs to fill this role so that the class knows who is directing the discussion, but I like to think of the teacher as more of a director. A person that is directing where the discussion goes, what the class does, and directs their attention to bigger ideas. The teacher, rather than filling their minds, needs to open their student's minds through though provoking questions, stories, comments, and ideas. Teach the students to teach themselves because once they are out of school it's almost all they can do. Teach them to become thinkers not regurgitators. Teach them to care about what they are learning. Teach them passion in what they study. My favorite teachers all through school did these things, and though they still taught us the curriculum they asked us to challenge it and see for ourselves whether or not we agreed with it. They got us thinking about greater issues and ideas rather than simply the class curriculum. It's amazing what a good teacher can do. There was a moment in the film where Mrs. Gruwell is asking the Principal and other faculty members if she can stay with her kids and teach them through their Junior year. The faculty is against it and don't see why it's so important to her. One, after Gruwell accuses them of not even caring about the students, says that caring is not important to teach them. It's funny how often that happens in schools yet once we hear it said we understand how ridiculous it is.

If there was one thing I learned during the course of this semester from this class is to challenge ideas and to look more critically at what I am learning and why I am learning it. And that is a life skill that I plan to hold on and continue doing.

My Teaching Experience

Teaching was one of the more exciting and cool things I had to do all semester. It was particularly great because of the people I got to work with. Sammi and Mack were fantastic to work with, and I feel like the three of us were able to play off of each other really well that the students couldn't help but pay attention to what we were saying and participate. We met the day before for two hours and went over our lesson plan to make it was a success. We decided that it would probably be most effective if we broke it up into three parts: Introduction, Explanation, and Application. That's probably a formula for teaching somewhere, but I did come up with off the top of my head and I was feeling pretty good about it. We decided that within each part of the lesson we would break it up so the students would never get bored with one person talking.

Sammi started things off by introducing the topic of research since that's what their class curriculum called for. She explained it really well and gave a nice introduction to what research is and why it's important. She then handed it off to me and I asked them a whole bunch of questions to get them involved. I asked them what they were interested in and how they learned about that interest. We had a girl that talked about her interest in dance. I asked her where she learned to dance and he mentioned that her mother was a dancer and that she learned from her at an early age, then went on to take dance lessons. She also watched films and tutorials on the internet on sites like youtube to better understand dance. I asked her where else she could learn about dance and she said in class and a few others talked about books, magazines, and websites on the internet as sources for learning. Once we had made the talked about all of these places as possible learning sources we told them that doing all this was research. And that they learned about the things they enjoy doing by doing research on that topic. It was mostly to make the point that research can be fun. After this short introduction we headed into the explanation phase.

There was some crossover between the explanation and application parts of the lesson in the way that we approached it. Both Sammi and I explained why research is important and how we can effectively do research, but we also tied it into our story for change this semester and how research influenced our choices in how to portray our social issue. I told the class about corruption and how I had to research that issue and what I did to apply my research. Sammi did the same thing with feminism. I was quite surprised at how intently the class listened to this part as it could've felt a little boring. We then tossed it over to Mack and he stole the show with his story for change. And a little shout out to him for changing the content of his story for change to fit the maturity level of the people we were teaching. We did talk about it, but the fact that he was willing to change the video from graphic intense deaths to Disney deaths was very respectable. He's a good man.

Once we sucked them in with the video we went into the application phase where we had them apply what they learned. We asked them to remake or change the ending to a story whose ending they didn't like, and to do so in a creative manner. It could be a drawing, a short written change, origami, or whatever they decided to do. We had some interesting changes for sure, but overall they were great. I was impressed at some of the changes that were made as well. One girl had Rapunzel become friends with her fake Mother instead of having her fall out the window to her death. I thought that was respectable and realistic.

Now as a whole I thought the teaching experience was wonderful. We had great participation throughout the entire lesson, and the kids were more than happy to share their thoughts. I felt like they actually learned something as well and we were able to help them see the importance of research and how great it can be. The second we said that watching films can be an effective way to research they were sold. A few kids came up to me after the class and said how much fun they had learning about research and what we had taught. I also feel like we were successful in our activity. It was a little tricky coming up with something we could do in 15 minutes with everyone, but it worked out just fine and I think they got the point.

This is something that I would love to do again, and I have to give another shout out to my partners Mack and Sammi. They had some fantastic ideas that worked seamlessly in the lesson and between the three of us I feel like we came up with an effective way to teach and get our message across.

Participation in Learning

It looks like there's a reoccurring theme in education. At least one that I've noticed is the more responsibility and hands on experience you give to students the more they learn. I've been in that situation many times in my life, and one of the greatest learning experiences I've had in film was at Salt Lake Community College. I had a film teacher where everything we did in class was hands on for at least an hour of the two hour class. Sometimes I was lost, but I did get considerably better as the class went on. I figured some things on my own, and those that I couldn't my teacher was there to help me out. As we watched the the film this last week, especially the segment on the kid learning to do film, edit, and create content for his school was very relatable. The scene where the teacher picks his video apart and says that it's plain and kind of boring was great because instead of simply accepting the video, giving it a grade, and moving on he asks the boy to do it again and make it more interesting. A week later when they came back it was sooo much better! It was also something that he cared about so he wanted to make it better and improve the video, and once he began to see his potential he took it seriously and made it what it was.

Next example was the girl starting her own business. (Sorry I can't remember any of their names). She was fantastic, a little odd, but she was determined and was learning and working on something that she cared about. There were real consequences and real deals that were going down which automatically forces an individual to take it more seriously. She was also learning on the job which is a big deal. You learn, in the field, what works and what doesn't work. She was determined and what she didn't know she was forced to figure out and ask people. It's a very effective way of learning.

The class that took part in welcoming an old circus elephant had a pretty cool opportunity there. They had a real duty that they were taking seriously and they wanted to learn because they knew that they would have to implement the things that they were learning. I had another teacher that did a lot of that. He was a science teacher and there were certainly real consequences if you screwed up. It reminded me of Harry Potter a little because if you screwed up the formula (potion) it might just blow up in your face, and nobody wants that.

This teacher would teach us the proper way to do things, or rather, the theory behind the experiment, and then expect us to implement what we learned. We quickly found out who was paying attention, and who wasn't. It also exposed those that didn't quite understand and it forced us to ask questions so we wouldn't screw it up. I'm sorry about the randomness of this post, but I feel like I talked a lot about this subject in my "Teaching Philosophy" post.

Anyway, I think the greatest learning happens when it's hands on. That's all.

Teaching Philosophy

I've been thinking about all the different teachers I have had in the course of my lifetime, both conventional and unconventional. Scholastically I have somewhere around 100, which sounds absurd but is absolutely true. Then when you add in all of the different teachers in church settings, my parents, and even private lessons in different fields of interest. The list is just about endless. Yet there are only a few teachers that I can remember for their teaching. I have mentioned Mr. Moyle... That man is a miracle, not in such a great way. I remember him for being an extremely bad teacher. Then there are teachers like Mrs. Lambert, Mrs. Potter, and Professor Spencer Blake. There are three teachers that changed the whole game of learning for me. They made it interesting, fun, and I held a level of respect for them that made me want to remember what they were telling me. They were some pretty great teachers and something that they all did in their class was make sure that the students participated. We were expected to participate and we knew that the teacher wanted to hear from us. They were encouraging and didn't take things too seriously. My personal philosophy is that there needs to be in class discussion and participation. How else can a teacher tell whether or not learning is going on. It's like a doctor who hasn't asked a patient what the problem is before he starts treating him. In order to help people learn there needs to be communication to find out where they're at and where they're struggling.

Those teachers that I listed were also very organized in their teaching. When I say that I don't mean that they were Nazi's at sticking to their lesson plan, but they planned so well that they could lead the discussion in such a way that we learned what we needed to in the given time frame, and they used students answers to questions to lead into different topics of study. They were all experts in what they taught whether or not it was 3rd grade math, 7th grade science, or college Sociology. They all knew what they were talking about and in the case they didn't they all came back to class the next meeting having read and learned about it so they would be more prepared to help the class. Being able to deviate from course for a moment and find a way to return seamlessly is something that can only happen when the teacher is both prepared and organized.

One of the greatest things I learned while I was on my mission was the power of understanding and respect. I served in the third world country of Mozambique where the average individual had a 6th grade level of learning and a lot of life experience. Though they were not the most articulate bunch, they understood life and what it was all about. Something that I needed to learn was that even though their speech and their way of life was sometimes juvenile, these people had experience and they were not dumb. When I began to understand this I started to respect those I taught a whole lot more, and I never talked down to them. Once I started doing this it was interesting to see the effect it had on everything. People were more receptive to our message and they liked us a heck of a lot more. Thank goodness this was something I learned early on, because I saw how it affected the areas of those missionaries that thought they were better than those they taught. It's funny how far something as simple as kindness can go.

I just mentioned that I served my mission in Mozambique where the average level of formal education was 6th grade. Sometimes teaching was a little bit of a struggle because the people were not super familiar with a lot of scriptural terms, and the Book of Mormon is a rather difficult read if you're not used to that kind of reading or writing. Something I got really good at while I was on my mission was teaching for understanding which I define as this: Simply teaching the What, Why, and How of a certain doctrine, principle, or in this case, subject. What is it? Why is it important? How can we apply it in life? It works like a charm, and good explanations are priceless. You have to teach at the level of the learner, which doesn't mean treat them like a child, but create the best environment for them to learn.

All in all teaching is extremely difficult, and I don't consider myself a great teacher by any means, but I do feel like I've had the chance to observe many teachers in my life and gain a better understanding of how it is done most effectively. There are several things that I have left out as well that are wonderful things to do as a teacher, but for the sake of time I won't go into those. I also feel like there is a lot to learn still about teaching and how to convey your message in the very most effective way possible. (One last thing is to ask insightful rather than "no duh" questions. I was reminded of that as Mack, Sammi, and myself planned out our lesson for last Thursday).

Resolved

So... resolved was awesome and I wanted to make a fiction film about the two boys from California that more or less revolutionized debate. It was extremely informative as well. In all honesty I had no idea how debates were held, but I am now informed and feeling much better about that subject. Now our in class discussion was fantastic. I think I talked about Mr. Moyle in class and the frustrations I had with the man, but it was good to see and hear that I'm not the only one that sometimes struggles with institutionalized education. But now that I've had a whole bunch of time to think about it I've decided that it really boils down to the person enrolled in classes wanting to learn. If you are interested in a subject then you will find a way to learn about it whether it's through a library, school, internet, etc. Yes I do agree that there is privilege. I would be a fool not to agree because it's a fact. But I do believe that when there's a will there's a way. As a matter of fact that's how I first began learning about film.

When I was younger I was really interested in film but there were no classes offered by the school that I had attended. So instead of enrolling in classes I got a camera and began reading different blogs and doing workshops online and I started teaching myself. I took my camera everywhere, and I began to learn what works and doesn't work. Once I had the chance to start taking film classes I was interested and whether or not the teacher was good I made it a point to teach myself.

Back to resolved. I have noticed that when there are dedicated people to teaching and learning- there will be learning. One of the most impressive things I have seen in a while was the California boy's debate coach and teacher. You could tell that he cared and wanted the best for his team. He did his best to prepare them with the little resources they had, and they dominated! Where there are dedicated people there is learning.  

Classroom Observation

Well the first thing that I want to talk about is the fact that I could never be a Jr. High School teacher. Even the thought of having to teach these kids scares me, and not many things scare me very much. This one does. It takes an unnatural amount of patience to deal with all of the classroom issues, and do it well. I fear for the lives of the children… Aside from that I thought it was very helpful. I kept a close eye on Reilly once I saw how difficult the kids were being. He held himself very well and didn’t let anything upset him. He took it all in stride, and was great to the kids. The funniest thing is that it’s probably a tame classroom and I’m just not used to that sort of chaos anymore. Anyway, back to what I learned:

One of the things I thought Reilly was really good at was bringing an energy to the classroom that grabbed the student’s attention, but he didn’t let it get out of hand. He started out with a question on the board and gave the students a few minutes at the start of class to think about it and write down their answer. The question was,  “What would you ask your hero if he/she was accused of cheating?” I participated in the activity and wrote down my answer. Then, using a few video clips, he showed the class what happened with Lance Armstrong. They were all shocked at the scandal, and he used his interview with Oprah to demonstrate the use of Yes/No questions vs open ended questions. It was pretty great actually. It kept the kids involved and interested, and as long as the video was working they were all pretty quiet. One of the things that I also thought was pretty great was that after thanksgiving break they would be choosing a topic of their choice to research and basically do what we did. Since it’s an English class, it’ll be in the form of an argument paper, but nonetheless it’s quite similar. I just hope they do something that’s a little more media related so that our lesson is applicable, helpful, and gives them some ideas of what they can do.

As Mack, Sammi, and I drove home we all brainstormed on how we can teach this class in the best way possible using Mack’s topic. We figure a bunch of Jr. High kids wouldn’t be all that stoked on the topics of feminism or corporate corruption. We could probably make it more interesting based on our approach, but we figure every kid loves movies, and using the movies they’ve seen to show them how the antagonist of a film is treated will instantly grab their attention. A few ideas we came up were the following:

·      Ask them what their favorite movies are and have them write them on the board.

·      Ask them what happens to the antagonist of those films.

·      Ask if they think the antagonist deserved what he got.

·      Ask if that’s how they treat people that offend them.

·      Ask them how the endings could be changed to make it nicer to the “bad guy.”

I’m pretty excited about teaching. There are multiple things that I’m nervous about, but I think ultimately it will be pretty great!

Education

“Oppression – overwhelming control – is necrophiliac; it is nourished by love of death, not life. The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophiliac. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power.”

As a student reading this particular essay it really stuck a chord. When I was younger I struggled in school. I hated sitting forever listening to what the teacher deemed “important.” I never acted out or caused any serious problems. But I would constantly wonder why we were learning what we were learning and why not something else. I think that may have come from a frustration I had with one of my seventh grade teachers. She was a nice lady, but it was the first time I realized that I not all teachers are wells of information and genius. It was a miracle she was teaching at all to be honest. There would be multiple times where she would have no clue what she was teaching and would simply have us read from the book and help each other. Then when we would ask her to explain it she would say, “I don’t know much about this part of the subject.” That was a great way to instill confidence in the classroom! The perception in society, as it’s studied in this chapter, of how teachers are placed in the realm of perfection makes sense to me, but is also the worst. Don’t get me wrong. 70 percent of all my teachers have been fine, and 20 percent of them amazing. I respect what teachers do with the upmost regard. And their job is extremely difficult. The way I see it is unfair. The classroom is a place where people go to learn. The teacher is meant to lead the discussion, but should also be willing to learn should a student bring something new to the conversation. My favorite professors and teachers have been the ones that lead a discussion rather than lecture us. Yes the discussions need to have a purpose and at least a type of agenda, but when the teacher is genuinely interested in the student’s understanding he or she will make a concentrated and solid effort to ensure that happens.

That may have felt like a little bit of a rant, but it’s something that’s important to me, and this article struck a chord with me. Although I may not agree with all of their points there were some great ones. This quotation beneath is something I agree with whole heartedly.            

“Education as the practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination – denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world.”

Education is empowerment, and if someone is using it to oppress in anyway that’s something that can and should change. It just takes a little more effort from everybody involved.

“That’s all I have to say about that.”