Day 3

Malika's topic is interesting because I don't think many people know what's going on in Darfur. There are so many bad things that are happening there, and we aren't doing enough to stop it. Even though "Save Darfur" was a big organization at my high school, a lot of people don't even know what Darfur is, let alone that it's a region where there's a genocide going on right now. I thought she brought up an interesting point, that we are becoming numb, or immune, to mass destruction. We have been through a lot, with hurricane Katrina, 9/11, etc, that mass murder makes the headlines, but it is not shocking. It's not bad enough that people are getting together to do anything about it.

Lauren's presentation about ADHD was interesting too because helping a child through childhood is not just on the individual. Every party has to do their part. The student, parents, and teachers, need to contribute to the student's success. If one part is weak or nonexistent, the chances that the student succeeds and becomes like their peers is unlikely. Then there's the question of how do make it a reality. How do you change education to accomodate students? When Lisa gave her presentation, we talked about special ed. co-teachers, and that they weren't effective. So how does the education world make school a better place for ADD and ADHD children succeed?

Joyce's topic brought up a totally new perspective about non-traditional education. It really redefines what success is. The success in the Montessori and Waldorf school system is not based on grades, it's based on achieving goals and getting work done. Montessoris are focused on the children learning and doing the homework that they want to do when they want to do it. We talked about Montessoris in my child development classes in high schools, and I think they are given a packet of assignments for the whole week. The students can complete it in any order, as long as the packet gets done by the end of the week. It strengthens time-management skills from very early ages. It's a really interesting and different way to learn compared to traditional school. It would definitely strengthen your paper if you can find anything that tracks students from Montessori schools to collegiate success, to see if they do as well as traditional educated students.

April 21st Presentations

For today's presentations, Malika had a really interesting topic. I really didn't know about the genocide in Darfur. I think that this topic may be in fact harder to research but will broaden views on not only education but also Darfur and genocide. Just a thought, maybe she could compare enviornments between America and Africa? Or America and just the Sudan area? This could help with narrowing down the educational portion. I feel as though a lot could be put into this topic.

Darfur, ADHD, Holistic Education

It was another productive day of presentations. I was especially impressed by the presentation on the genocide in Darfur. A topic that I was unfamiliar with, the terrible atrocities in Darfur struck me. How was this stuff still happening?? Did we not learn anything from our history??

Interested in the topic, I looked further into the events in Darfur. I found some really interesting stuff at these websites:

http://www.darfurscores.org/darfur

http://www.savedarfur.org/

A real interesting topic, that needs to be addressed.

Wednesday, April 21 Presentations

I thought Malika had a really unique idea to write about knowledge of the genocide in Darfur. Her connection to Africa with her dual citizenship is definitely not something that very many people have! Her focus kind of made me think of Greg’s presentation on how very little Americans really know about geography, but rather, she is writing about peoples’ knowledge of the genocide. I learned about the genocide in Rwanda for a French project, and I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda. I feel like it is movies like Hotel Rwanda that help make people aware of genocide in other countries. In her paper, Malika could possibly discuss ways to educate more people about the issue, such as watching (nonfiction) films, as well as discussing what classes knowledge of the genocide would be taught in, such as current events, and as she discussed, international studies.
It was interesting how Lauren involved her own experience of her sister’s ADHD with her topic of parent and teacher involvement with children who have ADHD. Her outline of responsibility in education including in home, at school, and how they work together are really good focus points. I think that if she discussed each in separate paragraphs including information about what can be done for the ADHD child to learn in each setting, her layout would flow nicely. She could possibly include relevant information as to how the teacher can be highly involved with the ADHD student as well as the rest of the students in the class, so as to not take away any time from the rest of the class. The online activity that Joey did was a really cool example for Lauren to show the class. She presented her information very well and in a fun way.
I liked Joyce’s idea to discuss holistic and child-centered education in her paper. It was nice to hear some background information on the Montessori and Waldorf schools. The educational approach in which it is believed that learning comes from the whole child with an emphasis on the arts is a very different educational setting and experience, straying from traditional education. It would be interesting to see Joyce incorporate the possible costs and benefits of students attending a Montessori or Waldorf school. For instance, students who attend these holistic schools may greatly excel in art or theatre, but other skills and areas of learning, such as reading and writing skills, may in effect be lacking. She could also incorporate information on the balance between traditional education as well as a more holistic, seemingly more creative, approach to education, possibly toward the end of her paper in order to kind of touch on the future of education in schools.

I really like how Malika picked a topic that didnt directly connect with education, yet she could still tie her arguement to "how many people really are educated about it." Genocide is a really hard thing to talk about, especially when it is happening in a country you were born. I give her credit for picking such a sensitive topic. To follow up, becasue it is such a controversial topic it makes it really interesting and thought provoking. I really like her ideas for her paper, and I give her props for coming up with such a unique idea.

Genocide of Darfur

I was surprised today by how many people have died in Darfur. I have a friend who is a big activist but I never knew details of the genocide. To answer your question about how to analyze over summarize you could focus a little on the Holocaust. My teacher's have shown multiple videos where people have admitted to never even hearing about the Holocaust. Since the Holocaust is a bigger event than Darfur maybe you could use a paragraph to talk about how Americans don't even know what the Holocaust is. You could also relate this to how most Americans seem to be only concerned with what happens in the United States and that's why they're not concerned about Darfur. I admit that I knew about the killing and rape but I had no idea where Darfur is. This could also relate back to Greg's talk about geography and lack of knowledge on our part. It would probably also help your paper if you gave a little more background knowledge about the genocide and why exactly the people are getting killed. Overall, great presentation.

Presentations: Day 3

I thought Malika's presentation on the genocide in Darfur was eye opening. I know that I didn't have much knowledge on the subject at all really, except for the few episodes of E.R that touched on it. I would hardly accept that E.R is a good place to get information on such an important topic though. I'm sure her paper will better highlight what is happening in Africa and how the U.S should be more aware of the horrible things that happen in other countries. As for Lauren's presentation, I was more heart wrenched than I thought I would be. Most of my immediate family has A.D.D, and with A.D.H.D being so close in relation to simply A.D.D, I found her topic really important. Most people don't realize how it affects peoples' families. I know it was difficult watching my siblings struggle, especially when in the back of your mind you know that they are smart enough to accomplish the things that they have difficulties with. As for Joyce's presentation, I also thought researching alternative schooling methods was notable topic. It will be interesting to see what direction she decides to take when writing her paper. I think the more that she researches, the more it will help her narrow down her critical points and have a really informative paper

Third Round of Presentations

I found the topic of ADHD to be very interesting because I quite often hear of it's over diagnoses and wonder what the backing behind it is. I found the hands-on portion of the presentation to be very interesting because I had no idea what the average ADHD student experienced in the classroom. I also found the presentation on waldorf education to be very interesting. I'd never heard of it before and it sparked my interest. An emphasis on the arts, while important, appeared to hinder students reading comprehension skills which seems to be an important aspect of the topic to look at. I also found it incredibly interesting that they weren't graded until 8th grade.

Wednesday, April 21st Presentations

Again, I felt everybody did an awesome job with their topics -- I can see the amount of research getting higher and higher as we go by!

Malika, your topic is fantastic but I'm afraid it could be answered with a simple yes or no question: "Yes, the average person is educated on the genocide" or "No, they haven't been educated on the genocide". Therefore, whatever answer you find through your research, concentrate on why we are / are not educated enough. So if you find we are not educated on the genocide, discover why we aren't or what prevents us from knowing more. This will help give a full picture to the issue and what needs to be done in the future to raise awareness.
Lauren, you were wondering about what to do to get a counter-argument in your paper, and you suggested some parents have difficulty on helping towards diagnosis or they refuse to acknowledge their child having a problem, creating further problems within the classroom. These are great ideas to look further into -- I'm looking forwards to your findings in your research.
Joyce, I'm very unfamiliar with students in Montessori or Waldor (i don't even know if I'm saying that right) but you expressed researching the constraints of attending one of these schools. I would definitely do that. Things like overall test scores compared to public school students may give you an idea on how they do after graduation from their high schools and in secondary schooling.
I wish all of you the best of luck. I really hope your papers are amazing!

April 21st Presentations

Again, all the topics were so interesting. The genocide of Darfur and holistic schools were topics I had never even heard about, so I really learned a lot from those presentations. As for Joyce, I think that your argument you have now is great if you stick with holistic schools and relating it to higher education and colleges. I just wanted to point out that the activity Lauren included in her presentation was very helpful. Most students joke about ADD and ADHD like you said and don't really understand what it is like to have these disorders. The activity really put into perspective what a child goes through and that obviously shows that it is important that they need that help at home and at school. Also, the fact that you mentioned your sister going into high school and having improved greatly from when she was younger really shows the importance of having the extra help. If you can find other studies or research similiar to your sister's success, that would be an addition to your paper. Awesome job on the presentations!

April 21st Presentations

Once again the presentations were all very interesting and each took a very different approach to different topics in education. Before today, I didn't know anything about the Genocide in Darfur. I think Malika has an excellent topic but it is just finding a way to include all the material and relate to education. Maybe an article on genocide awareness could be used to find out how much people actually know about genocides in general. And this could focus your topic to genocide awareness in education and the genocide of Darfur. Lauren has a strong basis already for ADHD in education. To strengthen ideas I would include, like some of the class mentioned, more information regarding the over diagnosis and prescribing of medication as well as the parents who don't necessarily take responsibility to help their children. Finally Joyce has a very interesting topic that is also new to me. I think maybe in order to focus more Joyce could use non-traditional approaches to education and how these ultimately affect student success in higher education. Each presentation is very strong and everyone did a good job today!

Response to April 19th Presentations

Lisa's topic really opened my eyes to the special education program. My sister-in-law is a teacher in a special ed program here in Madison so I have some personal reasons why this interested me. Her program is not inclusion, but it still is relatable nonetheless. All throughout school k-12 we had special needs kids and for the most part everyone knew who they were. Some were more subtle, but we knew it when the got to leave class for the tests. Some were more obvious, they would have an aide with them in the classroom. I know it was inclusion because they were in the same classes as some of the most intelligent people in my class.

Inclusion was not a bad thing at all in my school. In fact, I thought it was normal for all schools. Lisa opened my eyes not only to the fact that not all schools had it but also the fact that the schools that do aren't necessarily doing what they were supposed to be; my school included. I had no idea that the aides were supposed to be helping the teacher's. In fact, I didn't even know the aides names either. Some of the aides just sat there and didn't even talk to the special needs student until the teacher was done talking. They also left during the tests to go to the special ed room and take the test.

I would like to see the focus of this presentation not only on the existing school programs vs. the conventional separation, but also on the existing school programs that are doing it right vs. otherwise.