Perspectives, practices, products

The "Three Ps" - practices, products, perspectives: Integral to interacting within a culture

http://cliviavogel.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/cross-culture-communication-experiences/

Product: Spanish films by Pedro Almodóvar

Practice: Depicting Spain and Spanish life, especially marginalized groups, at the time when Spain was just beginning to “open up” at the end of Franco’s dictatorship.

Perspective: Making what is considered marginal or taboo – mainstream. Almodóvar did a lot of work to bring to light the lives of the gay community, the drug circles, and those seen as pariahs of society.  

Product: Names – María García Lopez 

Practice: Spanish naming system – García is her father’s last name and Lopez is her mother’s last name.  When María has children she will pass on the name of García to them. When a woman marries she does not change her name.

Perspective: I’m not sure what perspective this conveys, perhaps that there is a sense that a part of you comes from your mother and a part from your father. The fact that a married woman does not change her name communicates level of independence.

I like the idea of teaching students by using the three Ps. Students could pick an everyday normal occurrence in the target culture and use the themes of product, practice, and perspective. By looking at the occurrence in this way students will be able to better understanding the meaning behind it. Students will not look at the product of a siesta and attribute it to Spanish “laziness” but rather they will dig deeper and find the possible explanation of this practice and what perspective it expresses.

Why don’t you help me?

If siesta is the product then what are the practice and perspective surrounding it?

Film: American Teacher

Film: American Teacher

NR

2011

1 hour 19 minutes

“Profiling four extraordinary teachers from diverse parts of the county, this documentary feature examines the struggles of an underpaid profession.”

http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2012/03/american-teacher.html

This film was absolutely wonderful and I think it is a must see for those considering the teaching profession. I found it on Netflix and it streams instantly – please contact me if you would like to watch it through my account.

The documentary highlights the struggles that many teachers face. While many agree that quality teachers are a necessity for our nation’s future progress there is no action to back up that claim. Teachers are undervalued and are often seen as the problem in the public education system. A good teacher can help her student achieve a grade level and a half of progress in one school year.

Even if teachers are not being casts as the villains in the public education system they are still not receiving the prestige that they deserve. Not only is it a low paying career choice but it requires long hours and garners very little respect.

Four different teachers from throughout the United States are featured throughout the film.  Jamie Fidler, a first grade teacher at Philip Livingston School in Brooklyn, New York shares some of her struggles as a teacher. In her first year of teaching Fidler spent $3,000 of her own money on classroom essentials. And this is not an uncommon practice.  Over 90% of teachers spend their own money on supplies. Teachers are willing to spend their hard earned money in their own classrooms. This is a testament to the dedication of teachers. Later in the film we look at the salaries of teachers and see just how many teachers take a second job in order to make ends meet for themselves and their families.

The statistics are shocking. 31% of teachers take a second job outside of the school system. If you include the positions of coach, advisor or tutor then 62% of teachers hold two jobs. Even still, teachers struggle to stay in the profession because the money isn’t there. Many teachers are living at the poverty level. And yet they are still willing to give up their meager wages for the future of their students.

Another issue that is talked about in this film is teacher retention. There are so many teachers who leave the field that really would love to continue teaching. They either leave because they cannot make due on the money that they make or they are burnt out. Often new teachers are given the largest and most difficult classes. This low pay and long hours work teachers to the bone. And when these teachers inevitably depart, it leaves the schools in a chaotic state.  46% of teachers quit before their fifth year and this is due to long hours, lack of support and prestige, plus the small salary.

One thing that I especially appreciated about this film is that it looked at the nations that score the highest on academic standard exams. It compared how those countries train and treat their teachers with the practices in the United States. After seeing this comparison it is no surprise that Finland does so well in Reading, Science and Mathematics when they are being taught by teachers who receive so much support and respect.

Please don’t read my summary and think that this film is asking for money. It’s not about that. It is about showing people how important teachers are and asking for action. I am obviously not going into teaching to become wealthy but I do want to be able to support myself and my future family. I hope you will watch this film and see how important it is that we value teachers in our society, that then in turn you will pass this film on to others, and we can start a revolution. This would be a revolution in which the public education system gets better, teachers are valued more highly, and our children are the real beneficiaries. 

First Language Learning Experience

In my school district all students took exploratory foreign language classes in 7^th and 8^th grade. Latin and Spanish were taken in 7^thgrade for a few weeks and then in 8^th grade we took German and French. I believe we spent a little more time in the languages in 8^thgrade. I was very excited about the opportunity to learn about these different languages.

http://maisie89.tumblr.com/page/2

As a child I had always fantasized about speaking another language. I had thought it very “romantic.” In my mind I would speak French because it was such an elegant and sophisticated language. When it came time to middle school I did very well in all four languages. Around the time of 7^th grade I began spending a good amount of time on the computer using a CD about French. It was interactive and had a lot of vocabulary targeted at travel.

When it came time to take French in 8^th grade I had some vocabulary under my sleeve and my pronunciation was decent. My French teacher complimented me on my success and encouraged me to continue studying French. That had fully been my intention until the day came to sign up for high school classes.

I have many fond memories when it comes to the French class. There was a film that we watched and one line from it really sticks out. The boy is supposed to be introducing himself in French by saying “Je m'appelle Pierre” but instead of saying it with French pronunciation he said, “JA MAPPLE PEE-AIR.” It was absolutely hilarious to our class. By making fun of speaking French with an American accent it made us aware of how to correctly go about pronouncing the words we were about to learn.

The only thing I didn’t like about the language classes in middle school was how short they were. I wanted to spend more time in the foreign language classroom. I was ready to devout myself to these classes. I think I was destined to continue language learning. I decided to go on and study Spanish because I enjoyed the language and there are so many people who speak the language globally. I have not regretted it for one moment. 

government/school reform

Public schools are held responsible by the government. And the government has many different areas in which they have to administer. It is very easy to set a goal or standard. These goals are “good” and everyone can agree that it would be great if every student graduated or if more students were learning a second language. But it is quite another thing to actually complete these goals. One reason for this is the bureaucracy that is involved in government.  There are so many channels to go through to get policies implemented. However, the major issue, I believe, is money.

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=293

As we can see right now during this current presidential election, there is much is so much drama that surrounds money when it comes to politics. Major questions include: Who should pay how much when it comes to taxes, and then once the government has the money, how should it be spent? The money received during campaigning also plays a major role in the polities of the elected official. Even though every citizen has the right to vote, in actuality, those with more money have more of a say in what happens within our government.

This being said, I truly believe that the super-wealthy dictate much of what is going on in government. These individuals do not have the same concerns about public schools as the average American citizen. Whether or not public schools are successful does not matter to them because they have the money to send their children to the elite private schools. As long as policy makers remain indebted to those who contribute to their campaign funds, then change in schools will be slow moving. The super-rich are more interested in the finances that involve big business, oil, military spending, and the like.

As we saw here in Ohio, the state government cut money to public schools. As they give less money to these institutions they continue to expect more and more out of them.   This results in a heavy burden on the local governments and landowners.  (This also helps us to understand why there is so much discrepancy between schools.)

So – what is the solution???

School reform. Government reform. These both seem like huge hurdles but I believe they are both necessary for the sake of our future. (And the future of our children.)

Sorry to get pretty political on here.

But I do believe that teachers need to be politically engaged. They need to do so as an advocate for themselves and especially for their students. 

the brain vs. the setting

In the first chapter of Teacher’s Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction many different theories, hypotheses, and approaches to language learning are discussed. I can find merit in many of these different methodologies. For me, it may be a little difficult to just choose one. The first step is to decide which camp to join; the brain camp or the social-cultural camp.

http://cdn.themogulmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/workflowy.jpg

I completely agree that humans are designed with language in mind. There is something innate about us that allows for us to communicate and at a higher level than other animals do. But I also understand that language acquisition does not take place in a vacuum, but rather in social and cultural space. This is where it gets tricky. Which direction do we choose to put the emphasis on? 

For now, what I think I may have settled on is the idea that Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory holds weight. One of the reasons I have arrived in this camp is due to the individual variability that occurs with language learning. The entire Spanish III class receives the exact same instruction (or input) from the teacher. They all read the same text and listen to the same recording of native speakers and yet their results or performance are wide-ranging. If the answer to the question of how do we learn language was simply “the brain” wouldn’t that lend itself to more uniform results.

Even with all this in mind I am not quite comfortable enough to go “all in” with Vygotsky. I feel as if there is more to know and understand about both camps before I can make a confident claim. But for now, this is my leaning. 

Pick an L2! Pick Spanish!

Background info: I am currently enrolled in a course entitled Orientation to Second Language Pedagogy. Within this course I am doing 100 hours of observation at Aurora High School, where I will be student teaching come spring semester. Here is my first blog post on the topic of advocating for my language - ESPAÑOL! 

http://miniproject1.blogspot.com/

The advocacy project enlightened me in many ways. I had never really considered the idea that I may have to defend or promote my language to “the powers that be.” If world languages or Spanish are on the chopping block then I may have to convince the administration in my school district why they should keep this subject. Or perhaps I will need to advocate for my language to get a program started. I can see this happening if I were to propose putting Spanish in elementary schools or beginning an immersion program.

I had considered advocating Spanish in the sense of promoting it to students so that they will sign up to take the program. In another class we had made posters to advertise our subject. This can be just as important as advocating to administration. Even if they give you the green light for your program, if you don’t have enough students enrolled, you may get the axe anyway. At Aurora High School this can be seen in the upper levels. There are six sections of Spanish III and only two of Spanish IV. (The numbers in Spanish IV are small that there had been a debate of whether to offer two sections or only one.) A lot of students drop off after Spanish III and the teachers were talking about why this is and how to keep the students in the program.  I definitely think advocacy will be a part of my life as a teacher in one form or another.   

I enjoyed hearing from the ladies with different language concentrations. I had never been particularly interested in Latin but I gained a better understanding of what the language has to offer. It was especially interesting to hear from the ladies in American Sign Language because I have not had much exposure to it. One conversation was difficult for me to wrap my head around. That is the value of one particular language over another. I definitely see the value in studying language, all languages, and any languages. But there is some strategy in selecting a specific language. I guess it depends on what the individual wants to do with his or her new language. I chose Spanish over French because I wanted to know the language that had more speakers globally. I would never say that French shouldn’t have a place in schools but I would also argue that we should include other languages, say Chinese and Arabic. I hope not to offend anyone by saying this. I, myself, am still trying to understand what I feel about this and how it works out.

But I will say, you should learn Spanish and speak it with me!!!