Richard D. Lavoie Video

By watching the video about learning disabled children by Richard D Lavoie, it makes me realize that I've never noticed what goes on in their brain. Even though I'm not physically taking part of the "role play" type thing that they do, I am mentally a part of the situation going on. The video shows and explains a clear understanding of how those children cannot learn with negativity and pressure always directed at them. I found it interesting when he showed how those children take longer to process an answer. I didn't know that they had to process the question first then think of the answer. They take double the process thinking time than what an average student does. I believe that watching this video and taking notes about it will help me understand the learning disabled student(s) in my future classroom. With the facts given in the video I believe I could figure out ways to help those students learn and get rid of the anxiety they have going to class. I recommend this video to anyone who is striving to become teacher or an occupation involved with learning disabled students, it's very helpful.

Sexual Orientation

If there's one thing in society that I hate the most is the discrimination towards homosexuals and trans genders. So many young homosexual boys have committed suicide lately due to bullying. This isn't right at all! I have 2 homosexual friends and I don't treat them any differently than my other friends. I may sound inappropriate but I don't see the difference between two gay men in a bed and two men and a girl in a bed? The "three some" doesn't get bullied but the two gay men do? I don't see the difference but that's my point of view. I'll admit when I was younger I thought it was so gross for anyone to be homosexual but now that I've grown up I've come to realize that it's none of my business what they do and it shouldn't be anyone else's either. I find it fantastic that the ATA gives support to to students and teachers who are homosexual or transgender. I find it gives more of a safe and supportive environment for the students to learn in. I was extremely proud of the young girl who started a facebook group to support the homosexuals who have given up there life due to bullying. I was surprised to the amount of people in the college that actually wore purple on October 20,2010 in remembrance and support towards those individuals. No one should go through the bullying pain they did... bullying needs to stop, it's taking so many lives. I hope that in the future things will change and that my children will live in a safe, inviting environment at school.

Things I Learned

I learned a lot last class that I never knew or even existed. For one I never knew that there was a difference between gender and sex(not the verb). I always through that they were the exact same thing, something that defines if your male or female, your biological status. I never knew that gender was the sociocultural component of sex(not the verb).  Another thing that I never knew existed was gender development and that there are four points within it. The biological is for example your hormones while the social- learning approach is when children learn there gender through observation. The cognative development theory is when the children know that gender is stable and the gender schema theory is a more information learning approach. The points I just listened are things that I knew happened but I didnt know that they were part of a development theory. I have learned a crazy amount of information in this class!

Facts For My Mind

When I first signed up for bachelor of education I never realized what teachers have to put into perspective when they teach. Learning about diversities in education today made me realize that yes teachers do have to think about this on a regular bases while they are in the classroom and even outside the classroom when they're making their planning guide. We as future teachers need to put into perspective that each student comes to school with a different background and home environment. We need to try to relate where the student is coming from and what we need to do to teach them the material. Under cultural capital there was a trait mentioned about language. I never even thought about having a student in my future classroom who can barely speak english. I would need to think of a way to teach the child so he/she also has a fair chance at success. I've learnt that socioeconomic status is based on how much money you make which then ranks you in society. I find that odd that we do that in society. It seems strange to judge someone, I don't know it might just be me but I believe that no one needs to be labelled as the"poor one" or the "rich one", it just doesn't sit right with me. I'll have to accominate this information into my head.

Creative Children

It's very true that in today's society we are "teaching" students out of being creative. Everything is stuctured and planned and most school environments. Without creativity and day dreaming we probably wouldn't have half of the technology we have today. Without creative minds nothing would be invented. Today, if a child can't sit still for very long they usually get misdiagnosed for ADHD which isn't right. It's like the little girl that Sir Ken Robinson described in his video. If someone had put her on medication for ADHD she probably wouldn't have created the amazing dance productions that she did such as "Cats". She was a creative little girl who thought when she danced but the teacher never realized that. Her mother jump started the girls career when she placed her in that school for dance. Think of how many children are probably like that little girl and are put on medication.... would we have more creative things today if most children weren't being misdiagnosed for ADHD? I believe we definately would. Society should have a new way of clearing this up when diagnosing children that don't need to be.

NO IQ TESTS!

IQ tests are a way, in my words, of showing how "smart" you are. Personally I beleive that's a bunch of crap that can easily put down someones self-esteem. I remember when there was "Nexopia" and there was little quizzes you could post that figures out your IQ. People would brag if theirs was higher than someone elses. Even though those tests on "Nexopia" weren't official IQ tests, it still made be think of how stupid the concept of getting your IQ tested was. We all know that everyone learns differently and that everyone has different interests. So, for example, if a young boy was extremely smart in video games but not so much in school.... would he be resulted as someone with a low IQ? That's one thing that bothers me the most. Not everyone has a great interest or "smartness" in math,physics, chemistry etc. most have a great amount of intelligence in something they really like. For me it was figure skating, I could answer any question someone had about figure skating. That was where most of my intelligence went. So as you can see, I believe I have somewhat made a point that IQ tests are pure bullsh*t!

Heinz's Situation

Heinz's was placed in a very difficult decision of choosing between stealing or letting his wife live. Personally I would steal the medicine because the punishment for stealing is nothing compared to loosing your loved spoused. Some people in class made a point that you don't really know if the medicine will work for sure, which is true, but if it was me I would put my own needs away for my loved one. I think going to jail or whatever the penitly is, is much better then living a life without the person you love while having that guilt over your shoulders that you were to selfish to steal the medicine. So in that case..... HEINZ STEAL THE MEDICINE!

Erik Erickson

Learning about Erik Erickson's stages of human development today made me realize that I've made some very good choices in my life. His theory is, I find, much different than the other theorist's theories that I've learned about. His theory is set up in a way of the good life road and the depressing life road. There's a choice you have to make during each stage in your personal development that most people don't even notice what they are choosing.  I find that the theory is set in stages for the staircase you must climb in life. Each stage is a stair. It causes you to think farther down the road of who you really wanna be and how you would like to live your life. So far this theory is one of my favourites due to the fact that it makes me actually stop and think about my life and the good choices I am grateful for making.