Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Promising Practices

The day did not start of well. I woke up late and I wasn't in a very good mood so I was rushing around the house to get ready and get up to RIC. My mother and my brother were both up asking me about the night before and I really didn't have time for them. Their questions just made me more aggrivated than I already was, but eventually I got out the door. I headed up to RIC with a stop at Dunkin Donuts because I was definitely going to need my coffee.

When I arrived, the curriculum fair was being set up and I got in line to get my registration packet. I was a little disappointed in the sessions that I got because they were like my third choice. I didn't even remember picking them. After I got my packet, I sat and read over the materials and waited for the first session to begin.

The first session was about art and multiculturalism in the classroom, with a focus on Diego Rivera. The presenter could not get the powerpoint presentation to work so we had to follow along in packets that she gave us. She seemed very nervous about presenting, but I enjoyed what she was talking about. I thought that her presentation was interesting, but it would have been better with the powerpoint presentation. She talked about projects the students did on the American Revolution and it connects with Anyon's idea about creativity in the classroom. Also the students learned a little about the Mexican Revolution by studying Rivera. The subject also reminded me of Collier a little, in that studying a different culture allows students of different ethnicities to feel a part of the curriculum. The session went by quickly and we all left to go back to Donovan. I walked around the curriculum fair and then sat with some of the other members of our class.

The second session I was in was the power of numbers. It was about how important it is to know numbers in real life. It is very easy to be taken advantage of if you do not know how to do simple math like figuring out interest and percents. The presenter was interesting to listen to and she had us interact. We took a poll and worked with a partner so it was more interesting then listening to a lecture. This article that she included was about how hard it is for english language learners to talk about money. It was interesting to hear about language barriers in math. I wouldn't have thought that it was an issue in numbers. She had great videos and links that we used during the presentation. The one posted below is about an independent film made a couple of years ago. It was interesting and powerful.



I did not get to see Tricia Rose speak because I had a previous engagement that I could not be excused from. I hope to watch it in the library when the DVD comes in. From what was discussed in class on Tuesday, I could see that there were all kinds of references to Johnson and Delpit as far as being the change and power in the classroom or school setting. It sounds like she was a very powerful speaker and I'm interesting to hear the exact wording of the pledge. The event that I had to go to turned out to be miserable for me so I'm disappointed to have missed her. I'll add another post once I watch the video.

1 comment:

  1. I am gald that the day worked for you, though I am so sorry you had to leave before Rose's talk. I wish you took a little more time making the connections with our course texts and developing the links into substantive additions to the post, as well.

    ReplyDelete