Presentations Round 3

I thought Joyce's topic of alternative forms of education and their outcomes was a great topic. Like I had said in class, I have a little cousin who goes to a Montessori school Chicago and is already way ahead for her age. That had always lead me to believe that those kinds of schools usually had students coming out further ahead than other kids at their age level would (at a public school). After hearing Joyce's presentation and comments about how some the students fall behind or aren't used to the pressure of grading when in college, I realized that it is a more controversial form of education than i had originally thought.

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.