Monday, November 15, 2010

Promising Practices Convention

I must say I was not too thrilled to be waking up at seven o’clock on a Saturday morning to go sit through a six hour conference but I am glad I did. Walking into Donovan I went and got my registration packet, I got both of my second choices for the workshops. I found our class and starting chatting it up, seeing who was in what workshop and things like that. The conference started a tad late but as soon as the introduction was done it was off to our first workshop.
The first workshop I went to was presented by Elizabeth Rowell on LBGT, a topic that we have covered in class. I was sort of nervous about this session not really knowing what to expect but as Rowell got going I was very interested. She was so passionate about the subject and really was just a top that kept spinning but it was very entertaining and informative. She started by showing a power point that gave facts on LGBT. Some of the facts were that 84.6 percent of LGBT students report being verbally harassed at school, 18.8 percent reported being physically assaulted, and one of the most horrifying facts that she gave was that 50& percent of transsexuals will attempt suicide before the age of 20. That is a terribly high statistic and really stuck out in my mind.
Rowell informed us about a variety groups supporting LGBT some include GLSEN, The Trevor Project, COLAGE, MERMAID, and even RIC RAINBOW. She talked about people’s views on homosexuality and what can happen because of bullying and teasing-skipping school (30% of LGBT students missed school because of feeling unsafe), poor grades, and even bulling that leading to suicide like the student from Rutgers.
In this session we also watched a couple of videos. First we watched a YouTube video that was done by New York City’s Youth Pride Chorus (below) and the whole point of the song was to get the message that “It does get better” across. I thought it was really a moving song. They shared a generalized story about their individual lives and what they have been through incorporating being part of the LGBT group. They all said that it had gotten better for them in life and this song just describes their feelings.
Another movie we watched was “It’s Elementary” which is what we watched in class. I thought it was beneficial, though, to revisit this video. It’s shocking to see what children hear when they hear the word “gay”, things like “ew” “25 cents” “sex” “gross” coming out of children’s mouth is kind of disturbing if you really look at it.
The last movie we watched was from a TV show called “What Would you do" (below).This video was very interesting. It set up a scene on a busy pier and had four male actors create a scene where a gay male was being picked on by 3 guys. The point of the show was to see “what would you say”, how would people react. It was kind of shocking that some people just walked on by as this poor kid was getting pushed around, having his bag ripped out of his hands, being called “faggot” or “homo.” Some people did stop but it irks me that not everyone did, is that what society has really fallen to?
I thought this workshop really fit in well with our FNED class especially with Dennis Carlson's "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community" Dennis Carlson, argues that schools use their power of influence to keep gayness 'hidden', 'in it's place', and not to be part of the 'normal' that is accepted in our society. He feels that it is a major problem for these children that are in fact homosexual, to go through school feeling they need to hide or stay 'in the closet' to be a 'regular part' of their educational journey. It begins in the schools, and remains in the eyes of the society, especially in the earlier years, to be socially wrong and unacceptable (Alicia’s blog on Carlson). I feel that this  workshop really tuned into what Carlson was trying to get across. 
I also thought this workshop showed this “hidden education” very well that went with "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" by Linda Christensen. Homosexuals would not be seen as different and strange if there was never a norm in the first place. If we, as a society, didn’t have a set standard of beauty or perfectness because of media or magazines then gayness would not even be an issue because it would just be normal.
I really enjoyed this workshop and thought that it was a perfect start to the day. My second workshop, on the other hand, was not as enjoying as my first.
The second workshop I attended was non problem solving in mathematics and I was really disappointed by the way the workshop was set up. It was not engaging, more of a lecture, and I found that the presenters focused their attention on the table of teachers sitting in the front of the room. The only thing I got out of the presentation was from the last problem we solved. It was about a flower bed and needing to separate flowers into certain beds and how many would they need. It was funny to see the kids response because some ddin’t know what a flower bed was. Some children drew an actual bed, which makes sense when you think about it. This reminded me that I need to be aware of the backgrounds-kjust like delpit would want-while I am teaching.
The last part of the conference I must say I was not in tune to. I think the ideas that Dr. Dennis Shirley have are remarkable ones and I have total respect for him but I must say I could not stay with him. I tried to take notes but found myself easily distacted but maybe if I read his book it would be more beneficial and I would understand the concept of mindful teaching more.
Overall I thought the conference was a great expirence and I think I’ll be attending next year.  

1 comment:

  1. Great links and connections... hope you will come back to the conference next year. :)

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