Public Meeting Post

Stress Management Workshop:

I went to a workshop at the La Quinta Inn about stress management. At this workshop, me and a group of other La Quinta residences discussed how we deal with stress, and the group leader also talked about how we are affected by stress. Stress, of course, is not healthy for anyone in large doses. In small doses, it can give us that extra boost that can help get something done on time. In large doses, it can make us very nervous and frazzled. She said that if we learn how to control stress, we can take more control of our busy lives. A key tool that is used to battle stress is relaxtion, and she said that we should all find time to relax in our lives to balance out the excess stress college students are exposed to. After the discussion, which everyone there took part in, she showed us some stretches that can help relax us. They were pretty basic yoga postures, but they still made me feel good after we were done. Next she showed us a breathing excercise, which was basically the same as the breath pattern for meditation. Then she gave us all a certificate that said we passed a stress management workshop.
This workshop was only somewhat helpful for me. Having ten classes this semester, I had to figure out pretty early on in the semester how to handle stress effctively. I went to this workshop thinking that it would be a lot more informative then it actually was. I picked up yoga over the summer, and combining that with some meditation every so often has been very effective in handling my own personal stress. This workshop went over everything I already was aware of, but the other residences there seemed to be getting a lot out of it. I was surprised that so many residences actually went to this workshop, mainly because I did not think they would be interested in it. But there were at least 20 people there, and they were all engaged in the activity.


Thanksgiving Day game at Freehold Township High School:

On Thanksgiving day, I went to my high school’s football game. The Thanksgiving game is always a popular game to go to, mainly because a lot of alumni go to this game. The stands were very packed, and it was impossible to see if people were in seperate cliques. It was just one giant mass of people sitting on the stands. Before the game started, everyone looked very happy to be there. But once the game started, and my high school threw two interceptions that led to two touchdowns in the first quarter, the crowd started to turn somewhat negative. But it was not the sorta of negative that is at a Giants game when they are down by 50 points. With the amount of alumni in the crowd, they were more interested in socializing than watching the less than stellar football team throw away a game. By the end of half time, the crowd diminished only slightly, seemingly only leaving the visiting almuni left. Though the home team was loosing, the crowd was positive. The Thanksgiving game at Freehold was entertaining for me as well, because I also got to see people I have not seen in a long time.

Video Games and Music

My Inquiry project will be on the effect of violent video games and music on student behavior, more specifically if there is a negative impact. I have been exposed to violent media since I was very young. When I was in the 4th grade, I was already playing Doom and Castle Wolfenstein, the two most violent video games out at the time. Personally, I think that they do not have a negative impact, because my exposure did not make me more violent I don't think. I never did anything malicious towards anyone, and I am an all around peaceful person. It has always made me mad to see Dr Dre and Doom get blamed for causing a school shooting, because to me that is just ridiculous. On the other hand, most of my sources support the argument that violent video games and music do have a negative impact on students, and that they are in fact to blame for the rise in violent student behavior. I need to do my own research when I observe a classroom, because just seeing who owns what type of violent media will give me insight into what kind of affect it really has on a student.

Education websites

I found some information on the education websites that were given to us in class last week. I found info about what the Abbott decision is, which was a case in New Jersey about funding in urban school districts. Essentially, the case was about equal education oppurtunity for every student that lives in an urban district. One thing that the Abbott decision that I got from the article is that the schools that are part of Abbott have to offer pre-school. Universal pre-school is a good thing for any school district, because it lets students start learning earlier rather than later.
The NCLB section of the ed.gov website was interesting. The government is trying to reauthorize NCLB, and they are hoping to make some improvements to it. They want to close the achievement gap, they want to better prepare students for post secondary education and the workforce, and they want to restructure underperforming schools and give parents more options. All of these things sound good, but I am not certain about how well this will be received. Our discussion last week in class about how idealist ideas about how to fix our education system sometimes don't pan out when it becomes policy. I believe a way more pragmatic approach to NCLB would make more sense, rather than throwing niceties at the reader and telling them "this will work".

Since I am not sure exactly what to post, since the main page of my classes blog page has not been updated for a month, I'll just put a reaction to last weeks class up here. I thought the reading that we went over was very informative and very useful. It lays out what a teacher should be doing in the classroom to engage students in active learning. When I read the reading on my own, I did not fully grasp the ideas presented, but in class everything was broken down and explained fully. The AEIOU concept is easy enough to understand that a teacher could remember it forever, and put it to use daily in their classrooms.

Inquiry Project Brainstorm

My inquiry project will be about the relationship violence in the media has on how students act. This is a very broad topic, and there are many specific questions that I could ask. In order to gather data from my observation day at arts high school, I plan on asking the students questions about what kind of media they pay attentions to. A few questions could be: Do you watch the news at least 5 times a week? Do you own (insert graphic videogame name here)? Have you seen (insert even more graphic movie name here)? I would also have to ask the teacher, who has hopefully been teaching for awhile, if he has noticed an increase in violence in the student body over the years. If a large proportion of the students are exposed to violent types of media, and if the teacher says that the student body has gotten more aggressive during his career, then it could be said that the violent media is to blame. I would have to also gather information on research already done on this subject, since violence in the media has been a topic of discussion for a very long time.
I think violence through movies gets across to the students more than any other type of entertainment or media. I know that in my town, the movie theater was the hang out spot for everyone in school. And I know that all of my friends in high school would watch movies when they were hanging out. Also, men and women go to see movies in equal numbers, unlike if my question was focused on video games, which is primarily a male dominated market. But asking the students about other types of violent media they are exposed to would not be wasted data, because I could always use that data as supporting facts to answering my question.

The promise for all of America

The urban school system is not viewed upon very positively. When I think of urban schools, I think of movies such as The Principal or Dangerous Minds, where the teachers need to start beating the crap out of their students in order to get them to pay attention. And of course, the schools are stereotypically run down shanty houses. I'm not the type of person who wants to teach gang bangers how to do addition, so the thought of me teaching in an urban school district would scare me. "The Promise of Urban Schools" is an article by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and it's purpose is to enlighten teachers on what the urban school systems are about, and how to teach prouctively in such conditions.
This article's tips for teachers can also be applied to teaching anywhere, since they are methods that can be used on any student. Thinking about the different guidelines that the article gives (the AEIOU acronym...so witty) is a good guide to thinking about the different aspects of teaching. It states that in order for a student to properly learn something, they need to "own" the material they are learning. In order for a student to own knowledge, they need to have it associated with something that they are actively interested in. Points like this are what make this article worth reading, and worth looking back over as somebody progresses through their teaching career.

Who are our students?

Parker’s reading about idiocy in our society, and how teachers can combat this dilemma, was very interesting. Teachers are suppose to be the soldiers on the front line battling idiocy, and they are suppose to be winning. It makes sense, because every child in America is suppose to go through the school system, who’s purpose is to help turn a person into an informed citizen. Teachers have to take the students that go through the schools and mold them into these model citizens. They have to recognize the complicated times that all of us live in, and that a students life is noticeably different today then just a few years ago. Danger has been imminent since 9/11, and since then everyone has felt less safe in their country. People are drawing lines between themselves and everyone else in an increasing rate, and doing this has a negative affect on society. Parker says that in order for learning to occur, a person has to go out and interact with the public. If people start fearing each other, they are going to be less likely to learn from each other. Parker says, “It is my right to do whatever I choose, goes the argument, with the added and supposedly selfless rationalization of protecting “my” family from dangers real and imagined” (Parker 2). If more emphasis is placed on the self than the public, people will be less concerned with democratic issues that involve everyone, and society will be negatively impacted by the idiocy of these citizens. What the teacher has to do is help the students understand society more clearly, and to pierce through the veil of fear that covers our society these days.