Cairo Chronicles reflection

I went to the showing of Cairo Chronicles, an independent film by Tania Kamal-Eldin that was shown on March 12 as a part of women's history month. The film was a personal documentary of Tania's return to Cairo, Egypt. Tania's father was a native Egyptian and met Tania's mother, who was from the United States, at the University of Iowa. Her parents moved back to Egypt and were married. When Tania was young, she and her mother returned to the U.S.
The death of her father brought her back to Egypt decades later. The film was not about the passing of her father, or her personal loss, but about the changed city of Cairo Tania returned to. The city was not the same city which she had spent her childhood in. It was not a clean, peaceful city anymore. Cairo was corrupt and congested. Westernization had swept the streets of the city from the childhood, cars and fast food places lined the streets now.
The theme of Tania's film was 'reconnect and disconnect'. Tania went to Egypt to reconnect to a lost piece of her life, and disconnect from it once more.
An open discussion was held after the film where the group based the focus on changing in generations and history. The group had ages spanning from 18 to 75, which made for an interesting conversation. Something that ties into Ed. Psych. is that almost everyone is the group agreed that younger generations are lacking personal relationships today, and do not value the story of anther. This problem is all around us, and is slowly changing our society today.
The documentary, followed by discussion was very interesting and tied into many aspects of today's life.

Nancy Gibbs's Essay Reflection

I wanted to blog about the essay we read in class because I found it to be an interesting topic that everyone can relate to. Although, it may have seemed like a safe idea for many parents to give their child or children a cell phone, they have to be causing many problems in school systems. Most schools have a no tolerance policy when it comes to cell phones which can always seem controversial because it is their personal property. I believe that cell phone will affect not only the student who the phone belongs to but the rest of the classroom. Students will have their phones on them weather its a rule or not, its easy for them to text under their desk, while the teachers writing on the board, in the pocket of their sweatshirt. With their cell phones, they can withdraw themselves when the class isn't appealing to them anymore. I am guilty of pulling out my cell phone to check the time or my messages when classroom interaction begins to bore me, along with many other students of all ages. This is causing a problem with the idea of attention and multitasking.
When talking about this topic most people say, "What do they even have to talk about? They're twelve!" But reflecting back to the middle school days and withdrawing information from Santrock, these are the years, during early adolescents and adolescents, that students are trying to find their identity and determine who they are. A students social life, and friends are also very important in this stage of life, and in turn they may see a cell phone a a tool to help them identify themselves and make friends. This time in their life can be confusing and having a cell phone could harm them in the long run. I think that some solutions to the problem with students and cell phones is first of all the age and maturity at which they receive the phone. I don't think that a kid should be given a phone until they at least have their driver's licence, which seems somewhat age appropriate and incorporating the dangers and responsibilities of driving. Also setting boundaries on cell phones can alter the way a child uses his or her phone. If they feel that the cell phone is their personal property and only belong in the hand of themselves they may feel more freedom to break rules with it. In contrast, if a parent sets rules and regulations with the phone and will take it into their possession at any time, a child could realize that the phone may be held in the hands of a parent - possibly altering their decisions of how to use their phone.
There are many ideas and possible solutions for students with cell phones, but I believe, like most things, the true solution to problems such as this start with the parents and how much they are willing to become involved with their children's life and potential.

"Chalk" reflection

In the film Chalk it is difficult to tell is the teachers shown are good actors or bad teachers, it is so believable. Some parts of Chalk reminded me of my own high school. In many of the classrooms the students seemed to have control of the classroom and teachers. The students seemed to be "too cool" to be there, which is something that is very present in classrooms today.
The way some of these teachers presented themselves seemed simply unprofessional and in return unrespected. This was particularly evident with the first year history teacher who obviously had no confidence in himself, and when a student's parent immediately asked about his experience and commented on the way he presented himself-energy level, eye contact and body language, I found the encounter very real and believable.
Another teacher who stood out to me was the third year social studies teacher because he had a serious problem with being too friendly with the students and sarcasm, which is something I occasionally have a problem with (sarcasm). The way he used sarcasm in the classroom seemed completely unprofessional and quite confusing from a students perspective.
This film is very entertaining as well as educational on a teachers, "what no to do's". It is also an eye opener on how the first years of teaching and difficulties encountered.

Group Discussion

Our discussion group met and talked about the reading. We talked about positive and negative reinforcement, which we all had studied in general psychology, but we were able to apply more effectively in the environment of a classroom. We all had observed positive and negative reinforcement over j-term and talked about our teachers different teaching styles.
We talked about our personal encounters with punishment, specifically corporal punishment. We were all surprised that Canada and the U.S. were the two highest ranking countries who agreed corporal punishment was acceptable to use. Also, we talked about how surprising it was that corporal punishment was still legal for parents to use on their children.
We talked about the teacher panel that came and spoke last week. We all agreed that we wished the panel would have been broader, because we are all secondary education majors and most of us plan to teach in a significantly larger school than they taught at. We talked about cell phones being problematic and how different teachers handled this topic, and how we think we would approach students having cell phones. We talked a little bit about personal laptops and came to the conclusion that we thought laptops were unnecessary, especially at that age. We also came up with a couple possible solutions to the problem of laptops in schools, like blocking websites such as face book, or only allowing the students to use the computer during nonschool hours.