Jolie R's FNED Blog Spring 2019

Reading these articles, especially Kliewer's on disability, my mind started evaluating my own experiences with disabilities in my field placement.  Disabilities are far more than downs syndrome or any physical limitations.  For example, ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, and much more.  I have witnessed this first hand and these disabilities certainly have an effect on learning.  Rather than brushing off these "minor" drawbacks, they should be tended to in the best way to encourage that student to excel in school.  Below I attached some articles that relate to this topic and I found very interesting.   What ADHD can look like in a classroom.   What to look for and how to help.   The troubling cases of anxiety found in classrooms.  This link is very educational on the many forms of anxiety and how they are brought into the school and the best ways to deal with it.  This disability can lead to absences, inattention, disruptiveness and m...

Map the Authors A value I see to be prominent in my field study is kindness.  The school awards students for acts of kindness on a weekly basis and acknowledges them by posting pictures in the hall and giving out coupons to the school store.  This encourages the students to help a friend or a teacher through actions or words whenever they get the chance.  They also do donations to local and global organizations often.  Whenever I walk into the school I always see flyers and buckets for donations.  These have included money, clothes, food and more.  I can connect these acts of kindness and giving to Kahne and Westheimer.  Those authors emphasize how small actions can make big differences and also that it is never too early to enforce this in our youth.  By doing this kids develop an appreciation for helping the less fortunate and even people who just need a lending hand.  

For my social justice event, I chose a TedTalk by Angela Patton, titled, "Father Daughter Dance in Prison".  While hearing Patton speak and seeing pictures during her presentation, I got very emotional.  Not often do I realize the hardships for families separated by bars.  Especially young girls who look up to their fathers and long for a special connection to them.  A comment made by Patton that really stuck out to me was her closing statement, "b ecause a father is locked in   does not mean he should be locked out   of his daughter's life".  It is easy to take for granted the simple things such as being able to go to events with a family member.  It warmed my heart to watch these young girls and fathers get excited over the opportunity to spend time together and get dressed up.  Yes, those fathers were behind bars for a reason but that does not mean that their children should have to miss out as well.  By doing things as such...

I am constantly hearing talk of improving the segregation among races in schools, yet I never see any improvements.  As a college student majoring in education, these topics take up most of my days.  Why does society convince themselves that racism does not exist?  It very much does, especially for young students.  Doing field placements, it has become even more obvious to me how greatly lacking these poverty-stricken schools are.  In my first grade classroom of 25 kids, there are just about 10 students who fall significantly below the standards.  Guess which race they are... black and hispanic.  This should go to show that the environment they are surrounded by makes an impact.  Nikole Jones hits the nail on the head.  How will these kids progress and learn more when they remain in poverty conditions with a classroom full of students in the same boat?  Jones gave the solution in a way that almost anyone can understand.  Integrati...

Reading this article about service learning within schools was perfect timing.  Today I visited my field placement, Stadium Elementary, and they had a special morning.  Each grade had an organization of their choice which they donated items/money to.  Some including Crossroads RI, the VA Hospital and an animal shelter.  My first grade class had Crossroads.  For the last few months, they collected items such as shampoo, toothpaste, diapers and much more.  This morning, a representative from each of the many organizations came to the school to receive the donations, thank the students/teachers and explain more about what they do.  It was humbling to see the excitement on the children's faces about their success and help.  They were all so eager and had tons of questions for the organizations.  The kids really wanted to help more, one child even said, "when I get older I want to build a movie theatre at Crossroads so all of the families can wat...

I actually found this posted on facebook and I really liked it so I thought I would share! :)