Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Misc. post #2

Well it's the end of the journey through these readings and this course. I have to say I'm overwhelmed! There were too many connections in my journal writing my last couple of entries to even mention them all.

This class has really opened my eyes to a lot of issues and ideas surrounding social justice and teaching. The combination of the readings with the experience of the service learning enriched this experience even more. The discussions in class and reflecting in the journal really made some of the points come across even more.

But were do I go from here? I really appreciate the last two readings and how they tied most of the others together. The Ira Shor reading incorporate many of the other readings and delivered a message on how to develop them all into a teaching strategy. Again…Overwhelming when you think of all the aspects that go into teaching – obviously good intentions are not enough.

I know as teachers we will need to plan ahead with lesson and unit plans. We will need to consider the learning, physical, and mental abilities of all out students. We need to consider their safety. We need to incorporate the teachings of the “codes of power”, don’t alienate others, and be politically aware.

I was poking around on-line again trying to relate social justice education to elementary education specifically. I found a magazine called Rethinking Schools. It is endorsed by Jonathan Kozol and has advertisements for Linda Christensen’s books among others. It’s primary message is Equity but covers problems facing urban school and issues of race. The web-site gives access to a number of articles and a recommended book list. I found it interesting and certainly related to this class.

Another site that was related to our class was a post site titled A Liberal Education. It is written by Brigitte Knudson. I read a few which are all listed on the right. One post titled On Social Justice and Education really spoke to some of the points of our class.

That’s all I have to share -

1 comment:

Dr. Lesley Bogad said...

Rethinking School is one of my favorites!!! :)