Kohn's What to Look for in a Classroom

 When reading the post “What to Look for in a Classroom” by Alfie Kohn I learned that there is more to having a successful learning environment than just a wonderful teacher. Alfie Kohn highlights the key physical factors of a classroom environment. He describes the goods signs and the possible reasons to worry about within a classroom. From this I notice a big difference between elementary, middle and high school. I remember in my elementary school my classes had almost everything Kohn lists in the good signs columns. We had furniture besides tables or desks, on the walls there were many posters from educational posters to students' work and other decorations, the teacher was never in one spot the whole day, she or he would be moving around the classroom work with larger groups, smaller groups and independently with students. As I moved on to middle and high school these physical factors were seen less and less. The teacher would stand or sit at the front of the class all day and lecture. You almost never see the students' work hanging in the hall or classroom. In every classroom there are uncomfortable desks lined up in rows. Even the teachers' demeanor changes from elementary to high school, their voices go from respectful, genuine and warm to controlling and harsh. There is a video that was created years ago that has always stuck with me. I will link it below, the video is called “I sued the school system” created by Prince Ea. In this video Prince Ea is in a courtroom where modern day schooling is on trial. He mentions many great topics about the school system and how it has not changed over the years, and how every kid is different and learns in different ways. He mentions how there are so many kids who struggle in class because of the difficult or impossible tasks given to them and they are never able to find their gifts or strengths. One part of this video that I believe really relates to Kohns reading is when he shows the court the difference between a modern day cell phone to a phone from 150 years ago, a car from today to a car from 150 years ago, there is a big difference. Then he shows a picture of a classroom from today and a classroom from 150 years ago and there is no difference. Students in a room at desks lined up in rows facing a chalkboard. It's weird how after all of these years the school system and society have not figured out how to properly teach and prepare each and every student that enters the classroom, so many students fall through the cracks because each student has different strengths and dreams but are all taught in the exact same way.

https://youtu.be/dqTTojTija8?feature=shared

Blog #2 Reflection on Delpit & Lake

Both of these readings made me think about my own personal experience in school. From elementary school to about my junior year of high school I was kept out of history lessons and/ or was not allowed to take history classes, because I needed extra help in reading. Because of this I always felt different and not good enough. And now I'm struggling with the history classes I need to take in order to graduate. I was never formally diagnosed with a learning disability even though I strongly believe that I do have a learning disability. I can connect to "An Indian Father's Plea" because I wish that my school had cared enough to have these meetings with my parents to share their concerns if they even had them. I understand that it was the school who made the decision to pull me from class and put me in a different room for extra help but I feel like there are so many better options they could have done to help me, have me miss the english lessons something that was in a way related to my struggles. I also feel that if the school were to reach out to my parents about their concerns about my struggles, I think my parents would have been very defensive and think that the school was trying to say there was something wrong with me. But in fact that's not what they are saying but because most parents aren't properly educated about learning disability and the true meaning of having a learning disability along with the fact that there is a stigma around those with learning disability. In "An Indians Fathers Plea" Wind-Wolf's parents obviously felt that he didn't belong there and didn't need it so they fought for him so he wouldn't be separated/"over helped". I agree and disagree with his parents, yes of course Wind- Wolf should not be separated from his classmates, it will only make it worse for him. They will just make fun of him even more than that already are. But because he grow-up learning things differently than the rest of the class he may actually be struggling with the way the school system makes teachers teach. The teacher obviously sees that he is struggling, and may need extra help but didn't know how to give him the help he needed or she didn't have the resources to help him herself. This just proves that the school system is very disorganized, they have schools full of students who all have their own struggles and challenges, but they don't know how to properly insure each student is succeeding and getting the proper help they need.