Wednesday, April 28 Presentations

I thought Maggie's presentation about disproportionality in special education was very well done. She definitely included a lot of information that helped explain all aspects of her topic. I thought it was especially helpful that she explained why disproportionality is a problem and the solutions that can help to solve it. I think that she should keep the information about the history of segregation and inequality in school systems to help her lead into the rest of her paper.
Colleen's presentation was interesting in that she included various facts that provided a good overview of deaf communication and expression. Her focus on natural gestures, learned gestures, and brain functioning provide the main focuses of the body of her paper. I thought it was really cool when she told us that signing requires flipping images 180 degrees. I would have never realized that had she not told us. It is really unique that she is relating her topic to education through her explanation of the different learning process that takes place in individuals who are deaf.
I thought Eric talked about a lot of facts and statistics pertaining to regulations for student athletes that he could use in his paper to help him strengthen his arguement. As far as "fairness" goes, I think he should define what he means by the term "fair" in his paper, since I feel that something being "fair" or not is more of an opinion than a fact. In his paper he could also explain why it isn't "fair" that student athletes aren't paid for their athletic abilities. He could also explain more about the scholarships that they do recieve, and back up his arguement that they should also get paid for their ability besides receiving money toward their education. He could also include something at the end of his paper about future plans or suggestions to make the regulations of student athletes more "fair." Eric seemed very passionate about his topic and it showed in his presentation.

The presentations were once again nicely done. Everyone had an interesting aspect of education to present today. Colleen had strong evidence supporting her argument, and it was interesting to learn the differences between learning for a deaf child and a hearing child. That information is important to have within the paper because it gives readers a background while also being very intriguing. Maggie's topic was also interesting since not only is special education a problem but also the minorities that are over-represented within this sector. There are many factors that go into this problem including class, race, gender and more. I find this topic related to my sociology class where we talk about social institutions and how that affects other people. Finally Eric's topic is quite a debate among many people. It was interesting to note that musicians and artists can receive money and not lose their scholarships unlike athletes. In my opinion, college athletes shouldn't be paid. Sports is a big part of universities and create much school spirit. They are receiving a full ride usually so that seems like plenty of money and they should be grateful for that opportunity. I think though, that the universities should focus on having their athletes finish school and do well.

April 28

I thought Eric's views on college athletes was really interesting. It's something that I've never really thought about. I think it would be helpful to include the women's sports as well to help back up your main argument. It might also be useful to interview some football or basketball players here to get their take on things.
I'm majoring in psychology so Colleen's presentation on the biological effects of deaf communication really fascinated me. I was in AP Psych last year so we focused a lot on learning and communication for children. I think you should definitely focus a big part of your paper on the biological effects. It will really make your paper unique.

Wednesday, April 28th Presentations

I'd like to congratulate each and every one of you on your work so far. It's not very easy to start a research paper and generate a topic.

First of all, Colleen's presentation on Deaf communication and Expression is a lot like Jessica's topic but should not be compared to her's. I also found it interesting that communication for deaf people varies depending on your age, like how children 4 to 6 do not act differently than children that can hear. I'd love to know how this affects children in schooling. If you are looking for more advice in your second draft, based on what you told us in class, you can express in your paper how you argue these findings. You told us a lot of information but I never learned what this did for deaf children's levels of communication versus children that can hear. If you haven't written about this, I believe it will help validate your paper.
Maggie's presentation was worth the wait. Yay, technology! Whether or not disproportionality in education is a socially-created phenomenon is something I have an answer for, but someone else may answer differently. Because of that, I believe you have a great conversation and argument going! I don't really have much advice for you, but you can always expand on your research and validate your ideas with other resources to get an extremely accurate sense of your topic. Great job!
Lastly, Eric's topic of the student athletes possibly being treated unfairly by not making money directly in their sport is a great topic to start a conversation with. Stating that, I would definitely suggest looking into the student's perspective since you personally are knowledgeable on how the system works. I would also be interested in how these lack of earnings affect their school success. There are a lot of questions to ask and answer, though, since you are engaging in a large conversation. Nevertheless, I was very impressed by your use of statistics and background knowledge on the subject.
I hope my advice has helped, and I wish you all the best of luck on your finals!

4/28/10

I think it’s really interesting that two people in out class are doing their projects on deaf students. Colleen and Jessica’s projects really interest me because I don’t have any exposure to deaf culture. Jessica has had exposure to it all her life, which helps her paper out because she knows first hand what it is like to be in that culture and everything that goes with it. Colleen on the other hand, has a different perspective because I’m assuming her family is all hearing. I bet she brings in new perspectives and they have different ideas because of the difference in experience. This could be very positive for Colleen, that she has an unbiased opinion and maybe focuses on different aspects of the deaf culture.

Maggie’s presentation is interesting because it does seem like a lot of special education students are minorities, so in a sense they are the majority of the special ed. world. I think it’s interesting that students in the mainstream system do better, and that is consistent I believe with the presentations on autism and ADHD. It is more beneficial to the students to be with other “average” kids than to just be with other special education students.

I really liked Eric’s connection to music and art scholarships to sports because I had never thought about it before. I’m not sure that I agree that athletes, or anyone for that matter, should be paid extra while they are in college… I’m not really sure how it all works, but as far as student athletes go, being on a scholarship or a full ride is pretty awesome. That should be enough to compensate for their time. Tuition is a lot, and to have that paid off to play a collegiate sport seems like enough to me. Maybe if paying them meant taking away from coaches, I’d be ok with that. But I don’t want to pay more than I already do to go to games. Collegiate games are awesome and incredibly exciting, but there’s got to be a cap on how much we pay to get in.

final presentations

As I've said in previous posts, I really thought it was great how our class covered a such a wide array of specific topics within the subject of education. So, today it was great seeing how Colleen presented her topic, deaf communication, in which Jessica too was writing about. Even though they both had a specific subject, Colleen's focus completely differed from Jessica's. It's a very intriguing topic.

Maggie - your topic was so specific and well thought out, it was great. There are so many perspectives within this, so I'm sure your point of view will add great depth. It's controversial, too, you definitely gave me a lot to reflect upon and decide an opinion about while you presented. It's going to be a great paper.

Eric - I've never thought about this topic, just thought about the entertainment value of college football and basketball, but you have a really strong thesis. I can tell you're really passionate. If you find the right sources to back up your argument, your strong ideas will really show through.

april 28th presentations

This last three presentation covered great topics. The presentation on deaf education, although the second, looked at different aspects of deaf culture. It was very interesting to think about how deaf people's brains develop and work differently than hearing people's. That can be used as a very strong argument for needing different education. Disproportionality in special education is kind of related to my topic on ADHD and again, gave a new way to look at special education that I had not thought of. In my middle school and high school we had a very large, diverse student population so I never really noticed that more minorities were in special education. One point that was brought up was that minorities get the wrong help. For example, they may need to learn english better than going into a special education classroom. I think teachers should make sure every student they put in special education truly needs it. The topic of college sports and athletics fairness it definitely a topic that I can relate to. I am a huge sports fan and agree that those students that play football and basketball bring in a lot of money for the university. In my high school it seemed to be the same way, the big sports got more attention and more money. I cheered all through high school an fortunately we were able to get great support from our school but other school's programs were very weak. I can only imagine how much more the revenue differs in college. Funding for collegiate sports should be more fair somehow but I am not to sure how to figure that out.

Disproportionally, Deaf Communication, and NCAA

Just a few comments this time, generally good job everyone.

Maggie- Disproportionally- Great topic, I feel that your question is precise and will allow you to answer your question within the allotted page limit. I felt as though you understood the problems of subjective testing. Labeling is a dangerous practice, as they often follow an individual for their entire lives. Your paper should shed some light on the inequalities of the practice.

Colleen- Deaf Communication- I thought you were well composed, and gave a great presentation. No Real comments, good job.

Eric- NCAA- 50% of student athletes graduate for higher education. I would be interested to know the proportion of basketball and football players that drop out. I agree with your thoughts that student athletes should not be treated equally, but I am insure how to solve the problems posed. Interesting topic.

April 28th Presentations

I would like to say that all the presentations over the course of the last few class periods have been great. The topics are all so different and most of them personal, yet they still have some relation to one another. I was really intrigued by a lot of them!

As for today's presentations...
Maggie-I thought your topic was very interesting because special education and its arguments are very broad. Your topic was something I've never really thought of, and it was great that you brought that issue of disproportionality of minority students to the forefront. Great job!

Colleen-Seems like you found great information! Even though our focuses are different, if you have any questions about deaf people or anything, feel free to ask!

Eric-I was actually considering your topic for my paper; it's something I've had interest in learning more about. You definitely seem very knowledgable, like Greg said, on the system and how it works. As long as you have more of a structure, such as the history then leading up to current systems, then I'm sure your paper will be great!

Presentations Pt. 4

Commenting on Emma's topic, I think that depression is a really important topic. Depression can link to so many college students, and some may not even know. Something that could be added into her paper that I think would be beneficial would be some news articles of studies that were found on students with severe depression. Having the one from UW was a good example.