Blog #9

Over the semester I have learned a great deal in the this course, even though I intend to pursue a non education major. One of the most important things that I have learned is about the different backgrounds that people come from and how that affects students in the public school system. I have seen my experiences in the education system in a new light, especially considering how my service learning has affected me. I feel that I have been able to grow personally from my experiences in service learning in a way that I could not have otherwise.

When I first entered the class I was a little daunted by the amount of work that this course required, especially the service learning requirement. While this class required the most amount of time spent doing homework, I was able to learn an incredible amount from this course. One of the things that I saw differently was inner city schooling. Before I came into this class I believed that the main cause of low performance in inner city schooling was due to students having a lower motivation to succeed, but over the semester I saw the problem differently. I saw a lack of funding, and a lack of access to good teachers. I also believe that there has been a separation of students by many white students moving to suburbs out of the inner city school districts.

A few of the bright spots that I see are the charter schools that are making it possible for low income students to have a shot at a great education. However I am very disappointed about the Milwaukee Public School system. It seems to me that the school district has a lack of urgency in addressing the problems that face the district and simply want vouchers as a way to have someone else fix their problem. Educating students isn’t easy, but who said it was? Charter schools are a great idea, but it continues to unequalize the education system. I believe that the tiers of schools in the Greater Milwaukee area go something like this

1.       Suburban schools

2.       Charter schools

3.       Milwaukee Public Schools

This is an inherently unequal situation. I believe that the one of the major civil rights issues of the 21^st century will be equal access to education.

Blog 7

This week I completed the twenty hours of my service learning requirement. Reflecting back on my experiences at Windlake Academy, I have found that I have really made a positive impact on the students there and on myself. I have had an amazing opportunity to contribute to their education and I hope to be able to continue to be there next year. I am even planning on getting a bunch of stuff from the admissions office and take it there when I get back from break.

                Finding out some of the backgrounds that these students face and the doors that this charter school is opening for them is truly amazing. Throughout the semester I have been working with three of the lowest performers in a sixth grade class in math. They were placed into a lower track but since they are still working on the concepts of math while the rest of class is still moving ahead, but they are still in the more advanced class. I have learned that one of them has never lived for more than two years in one place and another has family problems. I can now see how these students have had such a hard time achieving in school because they have so much other stuff going on in their lives. I was very proud of one of them when I was working with him on learning mixed numbers. I took a visual approach to teaching them about the subject by using tally marks. I became extremely excited when this particular student was able to understand the concept behind mixed numbers even while the other two students were not quite there.

                Service learning has increased my knowledge of the world and given me a new thankfulness for what I have. I had a mom who is an educator and I never really faced the same challenges that these students are facing and will face. I now really see why programs like AVID are so necessary to ensuring that America has a well educated society.

I have felt similar to Gregory Michie when he describes his experiences in Chicago Public Schools. I have had similar challenges when trying to connect with the students that I work with, but I believe that I was still able to make a positive impact. One of my friends works with some students there in an after school program and told me that there are a few boys that look up to me which really makes me feel good. I hope that I am able to influence them to continue to be passionate about learning and maybe someday go to Marquette or another really good school.

                I still plan to continue serving in some sort of capacity at Windlake Academy next semester, however in a somewhat reduced capacity as I will be taking 19 units. I feel a responsibility to the students to continue to help them achieve and help them build a passion for learning. I have learned a lot from these student about life and how to overcome challenges.

Blog #7

I am white. I am a male. I am German and Italian. I am a Californian. I go to Marquette University. I am an Olympic distance triathlete and half marathoner. I am a Lutheran. My favorite food is key lime pie. I am an identical twin.  

All of those phrases define who I am. Some I can change others I cannot. I am proud of who I am, of the uniqueness of my being. Some people I am similar to, and others I am not. I share experiences with some and differ with others. There are people I agree with and disagree with.  

My identity is about who I am, the things I like to do and what makes me unique. I am very proud to be unique just the way I am. One of the quotes that I heard a few weeks ago was that "God made you just the way you are, there is nothing to be ashamed of."  That quote really sums up what it identity is: the uniqueness of one self. In talking with some of my friends they have argued that race or ethnicity should not matter in our society. I think it does matter, we need to celebrate our differences, not look past or around differences. We are all human and mostly alike but we are very different at the same time. 

I am part of the STAR program here at Marquette where today (Monday Nov 15) we discussed bigotry and some of the experiences that we have faced. The woman sitting next to me was sharing how she sometimes felt left out and how if doesn’t wear a Marquette sweatshirt people around here may not think that she is a student here, simply because she is black.  I didn’t share those same experiences with race but still have had questions on whether I fit into the Marquette community because I am not a Catholic.  I have been questioning how Marquette's and my identity interact and support each other.  

While I was on the Journal Sentinel's website reading about the Marquette basketball game on Friday I was very disturbed about a comment I saw posted on the discussion board for the game. It is in its entirety as follows.  

I'll start watching Marquette men's basketball again when the racial makeup is more representative of the school's racial enrollment. 

The positive side of me wants to believe that the author of this post wants Marquette to diversify its racial makeup but, unfortunately that is not the case. This really shocked me that someone would factor in race into the equation of basketball. I really don’t care who's on the team, they are Marquette students who deserve to be cheered on. We should be excited that our team can play basketball well and go to school here  at the same time. Marquette is our identity and race, religion, sexual orientation and gender should not matter.

Blog #6

The United States was founded on the idea that everyone has equal opportunities, even though it took until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to finally requires that all people have the same rights. While the law requires that people are to be treated fairly under in all circumstances, this is not always the case. In the case of race people still discriminate, although not explicitly. This allows white people a huge advantage over people of other races and still complies with our laws.

Being a white male I have never experienced the negative side of the “white advantage”. I find it very hard to approach this subject because I was brought up to not to see differences in races but to celebrate them. All of my family friends were of different races and out of the five or so families that we are closest with only one family is white. I have heard of stories from some of the blatant discrimination that some of them have faced but

Unfortunately I don't think that this problem will ever go the way of blatant discrimination. It cant be legislated or ruled out of existence like school segregation. There are still marginalized portions of our population. The homosexual community, people of other races and differences in social classes all are part of how quiet discrimination takes place. One of my best friends in high school is African American and I have heard of many stories of when he has felt that he was not given all the opportunities as a person.

One of the times that I saw how this discrimination happened was when we were going to buy some supplies for a pep rally activity that we were putting on and he insisted that I stick with him in Party City. I said ok but I thought we were perfectly capable of splitting up so we could get everything bought faster. I asked him about it and he wanted me to stick with him because he didnt want to be seen possibly as stealing something. It had never occurred to me that people would even think about scrutinizing someone on the basis of race. I have learned to be more sensitive in situations where he might be affected by this prejudice.

I think that a lot of what happens is predicated on suburban views of inner city neighborhoods. The lack of funding coupled with with white flight makes it almost impossible to for minorities to succeed in our society. There are opportunities to fix these problems and we have many opportunities to make them right here at Marquette.

I think that the only way to eliminate these prejudices in our society is to celebrate our differences and make this very negative situation into a positive. We need to celebrate the different ethnic months and make sure that everyone is educated about differences and how to celebrate them. Part of the classroom education is teaching students about differences that we all have. None of us are the same, even my identical twin and I are very different people. Life would really be no fun if everyone was the same.  

Blog #5

Milwaukee has been called one of the most segregated cities in the nation and the “Selma of the North” because of its extreme divisions based on race. I am from California so I was really surprised when I got here to see so many divisions. I had never really thought about race and schooling at this point. When I was preparing for going to my service learning I went to Windlake Elementary, I asked a person who is from Milwaukee about directions on how to get there and about the busses since it has been a while since I used a bus (in California there is virtually no public transportation). She said to be careful since that part of town was the “Mexican ghetto”. This remark really surprised me, I haven’t really seen race this divided in California. A lot probably has to do with my upbringing as being very inclusive and diverse with many of our family friends being of different races and my girlfriend being Cambodian.

The second shocker that I faced was the forum on housing for my action hour paper. I never realized how segregated this city is and how the policies of the city and unwritten rules affect people of color that live in Milwaukee. The Fair Housing Council of Wisconsin played a few phone calls with blatant racism where the realtor specifically said that a African American person could not purchase a home. I could not believe that racism like this could still exist in our society.

These racial divisions probably have a large effect on how the students at Windlake view their community. I think that many of them feel trapped by where they live and their race. This is why the school encourages them to think about college from such an early age and to set their goals high. In Warriors don’t Cry Melba felt a lot of desperation from how she was born.  Other students like her must have had so many high goals that they wanted to achieve but had no real way of getting there because of their race. I have always thought that it isn’t fair to categorize people on something that they can’t control and to give everyone a chance to prove themselves. As a nation we need to focus on making sure that everyone feels comfortable at school and has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Blog 4

I have just begun to get into reading my teacher story book over fall break and I can already relate to the experiences from my service learning. I am reading Holler if you Hear Me by Gregory Michie and I can specifically relate to his experiences of classroom control. In the chapter Terrible No Good Very Bad, Michie relates an experience where he has no control over his class and the students get out of control. I had a similar experience when I did my service learning. First most of the students at the school had a soccer game that afternoon that was one of the after school programs that they were in, so none of them could focus on any school work. Then they had to read a lot and get through two chapters of a story. I worked with about half of the class in the lobby of the school while the teacher worked with the half in the classroom. We did popcorn reading and literally every time someone walked by their attention was completely distracted and then two of the boys started messing with each other. I need to work on taking control of a class otherwise these students are going to figure out that I am “soft on crime” and then I will never be able to regain control.

I need to work on “reflection in action” to adjust the way I am tutoring because situations may change. For example a student that I may be tutoring might not be understanding so I need to be able to switch and identify the best way of working with the student.

But the best part about service learning so far has been working with one student who has a hard time focusing and is probably the lowest performer in the class. He was learning the metric system and was not getting it. On a quick aside this student is in a fifth grade class and I didn't learn the metric system and conversions until 7^th grade so I think its perfectly reasonable to not understand fifth graders. So we worked through a few problems and I taught him one of the tricks that I used last year on the Advanced Placement to remember the metric system and he got it. It was amazing to see him finally understand what he was unable to understand it, his face just lit up and he had a huge smile. That was probably the best part of service learning that I have had so far.

I also tutor 8^th graders in math at Windlake. I have been helping them correct problems on their tests and mainly force them to do the work. I was going to give my email address to them if they had any questions about Algebra homework that I could answer over email, because I am away from my phone a lot. I was very surprised about their response. Most of them said that they didn't have computers at home. I was astonished. I had grown up my whole life around computers (mostly because my dad is a nerd who works for HP) and I don't know how it is possible to do homework without one. I think that over the years education will be heavily impacted by the advancement of technology. But we must remember to make sure all schools have technology or we risk creating greater disparities in education than those that exist today.

Blog Post #3

I do my service learning at the Windlake Academy, working with a 6th grade class for 30 minutes and a 5th grade class for the next hour. I was a little nervous getting there the first time as I had my orientation at a different site. I really didn’t know the neighborhood that well and I was a little concerned about getting back to my next class on time. I didn’t know what I was going to be doing when I got there.

I observed a math lesson when I first got to Windlake. I enjoyed it and I actually had to remember some math that I did in elementary school when I helped some students. At 10:00 I helped out in a 5th grade classroom with reading. I ended up working with a small group of boys who had a very hard time focusing for more than 15 seconds. We were able to get through a few pages of a new book, as I attempted to make the book interesting for them. The kids that I worked with were some of the lowest readers between the two fifth grade classes, so that was a major challenge. I enjoyed the challenge and was able to be a good role model for these students.

The book that we were reading was about a teenager who had to shoot a bow and arrow and hit a target. When I asked my group of students why they thought he would have to hunt, they thought that it was because he was poor. They were connecting their experiences coming from a low income community and I realized how hard it is to leave some of the baggage that we face at home. In Warriors Don’t Cry Beals has a hard time facing the academic challenges because she has to deal with all of the attacks and harassment of the other students. It has to be difficult for these students to deal with all their problems going around them with the neighborhood that they are in.

When I first went into the class a lot of students wanted to know where I was from. I explained to them that I was from Marquette University and they thought that was the coolest thing. I hope that I will be a great role model for them and that maybe in the future there will be a few Marquette students out of that class. I absolutely enjoyed my time at Windlake and this experience may get me to reconsider my finance major or at least consider Teach for America.