Gender Play

We have talked a lot in class about how issues of race, language, ethnicity or sexuality impact the teaching and learning that goes on in classrooms.

What about gender?

For decades, researchers have documented how schools shortchange girls. Girls have been called on less often, rewarded for good behavior rather than good work, and discouraged from pursuing interests in math and science fields. This has happened both in the classroom, and on the playground as well where girls have had fewer opportunities to explore their athletic interests or be taken seriously as a formidable athlete. And what about the boys?

How do issues of gender impact schools today??

This week, I want you to go find the texts that we will discuss in class. Learn as much as you can about the history of gender differences in American schools and abut the current issues as they play out in 2011. You can search the web, the library, youtube, itunes, your SL classroom, etc to come up with some ideas about how and why gender matters. Some search terms to start with:

Title IX
Gender and education
Gender and schooling
Girls academic success
Boys and schooling
Gender differences in school
Single sex schooling
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Sexual harassment and schools
Gender and dress codes
gender bias in education
Supreme court gender school
gender school policies

Post about some of these on your blog and bring at least one printed text with you to class on Tuesday.

Have a good weekend!

LB :)

"Readings" for March 29/31

The readings for this week are not exactly readings, but things to check out online. This week marks a shift in the syllabus. Up until this point, we have been reading about broad theories about diversity and difference including the Culture of Power and issues of White Privilege. Now we are going to start to look at historical moments where these topics came into view in our schools.

Our topic this week is about Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), the historical supreme court decision that made the segregation of public schools unconstitutional.


You have FOUR tasks for this week:

1) I want you to explore this website to give you some background on Brown v. Board of Education.

2) Then I want you to watch these two videos that highlight the work of Tim Wise, author of "Between Barack and a Hard Place." Take notes while you watch so that you can refer to specific quote in your blog post and in class.





4) Read this very short article from last week's New York Times.
How do the issues that Bob Herbert raises shape how you think about Brown v. Board of Education?

3) Now blog about it.
What is the relationship between the historical issues you see in the website on Brown v. Board of Education and the contemporary issues of race that Bob Herbert and Tim Wise raise here?

Leave comments if you have any questions...

LB :)

Final Project Resources

Here are some of the resources I talked about in class, as well as a few others that might help you in planning the digital aspects of your Service Learning Final Project:



McIntosh Video

Photostory Software

Camtasia (for taking on-screen video)

Other free video editing software

Hope everyone had a good spring break!

Don't forget to bring your journals to class on Tuesday. You should have at least three journal entries by now... we will be working with them this week as we talk about the Kahne and Westeheimer piece. How are you thinking about your SL project -- does it feel like a Charity Project or a Change Project?

See y'all on Tuesday!

LB :)

I hope you enjoyed the Linda Christensen article for this week. If you want to read more about teachers who work for social justice in their classrooms, you should check out the journal Rethinking Schools where Christensen is an editor.

So why media literacy?
What does media literacy have to do with Schooling in a Democratic Society?

There are lots of folks who are invested in thinking about this questions... check out Media Education Foundation, the Center for Media Literacy, the Media Literacy Project (out of New Mexico), and even some corporate interests that are asking questions (see the Dove Real Women Campaign).

And I see that several of you have already started trolling on youtube to find the many people who are exploring media literacy work on their own. I am looking forward to talking about all of this in class on Tuesday!!

LB :)

Midterm Letter and Blog Assessment

When we meet tomorrow, I am going to hand you two midterm assignments.

First is a Blog Self Assessment where you can check yourself and your blog posts to get a sense of how you are doing with this part of the class assignments. I will look at your self-assessments and give you some formal feedback on your blogs over spring break so that you can use that feedback to enhance your posting for the rest of the semester. This is due to me on Thursday, March 10 (this week).

The second is a midterm letter that you will write to me to give me a sense of how the course and your learning in the course is going for you. These letters are anonymous, giving you the full freedom to write about the course without worrying about being judged or graded for your thoughts. I will accept these on Thursday also, but if you want to work on them over spring break, I will take them on Tuesday, March 22.

Just a heads up....

Jonathan Kozol is sick...

Just an FYI that apparently Jonathan Kozol is under the weather and will not be speaking tonight. They will have a replacement keynote instead. :( It will still be an interesting conference on charter schools, but you won't get what you were going for. Bummer!