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This video provide a handful of facts upon how students that live in poverty are effected in a variety of ways. First, economic segregation which is students whom are categorized based on their or their parents income.. (first, middle and high class) Some other disadvantage's are opportunities, lack of technology, lack of vocabulary, lack of supplies, confidence, help, clothing, support etc. According to the video, statistics show that students in poverty start with a disadvantage and end with a disadvantage. I agree, as most teachers say.. learning begins at home. Unfortunately, how can this be so grounded when some students are coming from poor, broken and dysfunctional homes? What does these students need to achieve? They're not no different than the others, but they may need more assistance, interventions, help, attention and support. More so, parent involvement! Even though students are already strained at the fact that they come from a home that's not as supportive, they may attempt to strive at school but still have no parents involvement! Which creates a huger problem with the teachers and staff because the teacher and parents can come up with strategies and work together to help better guide and support the child. Overall, I like this little video because it touched bases on a lot in only four minutes!

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So... I have chosen my book for Rethinking Elementary Education and the book I chose is the New Teacher Book. While reading this book, I have learned a lot about incoming teachers, or teachers who have been teachers for 5 years the most. NOTHING WILL BE PERFECT, BUT IT'S POSSIBLE TO PERFECT YOUR CRAFT. I am personally happy I chose this book because it helped me learn a lot about incoming teachers and the issues may face coming into education..  However, not to go off into my book. I'd like to cover the true meaning of Rethinking Elementary Education. What's so rethinking about it? What are you rethinking? Personally besides the fact of rethinking how to maintain yourself as a teacher, you're rethinking critically upon educators, skills, etc. Back to my book, I learned how the set up of a classroom structures how you teach as a teacher and how your students gain from it. How do you make your classroom a comfortable setting for all of your students? What strategies do you provide that can help them excel? What do you do as a teacher in a scenario when you may have students who need extra assistance? and have a hard time understanding certain criteria? How do you introduce everything to your students? These are some important questions for a teacher because it's not easy at all. Overall, the whole mindset of rethinking elementary education are just different ways to say or think ahead of how you will fix, structure and build your career as a teacher that will benefit and help you along the way.

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I went over this topic for my discussion post and my brief, I find this topic very interesting. As a student while attending school you aren't worried about your school closing, not feeding you etc., because you may feel as if " Hey! it's a school.. They're rich!!?" Not! This link I provided above touch bases upon public schools and charter schools. While reading, the first thing I asked myself was, what's the differences between charter and public schools? Charter schools are more flexible and quite frankly provide a different way of learning with a variety of different opportunities due to the funding. Public schools offers specific curriculum, rules, standards and the funding supports a whole district between different building and age groups. In the article, it is asked how are these charter schools affecting public schools? The public school district suddenly had a decline in their enrollment over the years, this resulted in a lay off requiring 300 or more teachers and staff to lose their job. What's the purpose? During this decline, their was a increase of public school students attending the charter school, but Is it because Charter schools offer more? Reading how this increase isn't a good thing and could put the public schools in a bad predicament with the withdrawal of students and money/funding. Overall, this just goes to show the challenges schools deal with amongst other schools and school districts, I look at it as a competition of course.

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Ever seen an old, worn-down punching bag hanging lonely in the back corner of a run-down gym? That's Camden, New Jersey, which has repeatedly suffered blow after blow following years of negligence, public corruption and gross incompetence.

It was delivered another body blow late last week, when news broke that in an effort to cut costs, Camden School District will lay off about 400 people, 300 coming directly from schools.

Noted in the news was the fact that enrollment has declined by nearly 1,000 over the last five years, making the current budget unsustainable. That decline isn't serendipitous or surprising - kids are increasingly being shifted to the 10 charter schools operating within the district. Four more charters have been recently approved.

In fact, back in March 2013, then-interim superintendent Reuben Mills told school board members that while he wanted to do everything possible to keep students enrolled in traditional schools, he expected about 900 students be lost to new charters.

In 2012-13, Camden's charter schools enrolled 22.4 percent of all public students, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. 3,644 students are enrolled in Camden charter schools, up from 2,545 just five years ago.

There are your 1,000 students, meaning Mills was right on the money. Unfortunately, families in Camden should expect things to get worse, not better, for their public schools.

The state has taken over Camden's schools, replaced most of its administrators and installed Paymon Rouhanifard as its superintendent, reinforcing the city's shift towards charter schools which Gov. Chris Christie and his Democratic allies have supported.Thanks to the Urban Hope Act, KIPP (the Knowledge Is Power Program) will open the new KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy - New Jersey's first renaissance school - in Camden next year, eventually enrolling up to 2,800 students. Mastery Charter Schools is also slated to open in Camden next year, proving room for another 1,944 students. And so on and so on.

Charter schools in Camden aren't just draining students - they're draining money, close to $66 million worth in 2013-14, compared with just just $52 million the year before. Next year, Camden has budgeted $72 million to transfer to charters. There's your $75 million shortfall.

You can calculate the math on the back of a napkin. When students leave Camden's traditional public schools, the money follows them out the door. Meanwhile, the school district is left with the same staffing levels and costs to maintain. Hence the unsurprising budget cuts.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating the status quo. Who could in a city like Camden, with a history of corrupt administrators and endemic failure? After all, Camden has the state's lowest performing school district. Twenty-three of Camden's 26 schools make the state's list of its 70 worst schools and less than half of the city's high school students graduate.Nor am I saying charter schools are inherently terrible or universally bad. Part of the problem public schools have faced are the entrenched, slow-moving interests of unions, themselves handicapping the very teachers they're designed to protect. In Camden's case, corruption, public cheating on tests and unjustified cash bonuses for school officials are just some of the recent scandals to plague the downtrodden district.

Charters do have the advantage of selecting their students, allowing them to cherry-pick the best and brightest while relegating students in need to decreasingly-funded public schools. Is it any wonder charters tend to outperform their public school counterparts?

All I'm saying is don't get behind a podium and pretend the declining enrollment in Camden schools isn't premeditated, planned and encouraged by all the major stakeholders involved in determining the city's education future.

Soon, half of all Camden students will attend charter schools, a fact everyone designing education policy for your kids already knows.

So next year, when Rouhanifard approaches the podium to outlay the next round to teacher cuts, you'll know why. If you live in Camden, I hope your kid was lucky enough to be accepted into a charter. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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© Copyright 2014 Rob Tornoe, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Rob Tornoe is an award-winning political cartoonist and syndicated columnist. Rob can be reached at [email protected]

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A Case Study in How Charters Affect Public Schools

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Ever seen an old, worn-down punching bag hanging lonely in the back corner of a run-down gym? That's Camden, New Jersey, which has repeatedly suffered blow after blow following years of negligence, public corruption and gross incompetence.

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Fighting for what you believe in as a teacher. 

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Recently in class I read this article about rethinking schools. Now only did I read one article about rethinking schools, I read more than one that all had something so important in common. What was the meaning of it? What did I grab from it? How can I relate? What was the main idea? The meaning of it was the importance of speaking upon what you believe in as a teacher. I grabbed a lot from the articles provided for discussion post (that spoke upon rethinking schools). Having the thought and motive to go into the education field isn't easy. Going into a field that you're educated and is aware that the pay rate may not be worth it, low, and you'll be dealing with more than a million different problems everyday, (of course, this comes with teaching) isn't easy. However, it's not about the income, it's about the outcome. The main idea of speaking upon what you believe is right for your students as a teacher is hard because it may go unnoticed, but that's okay. The more you speak up the more results you'll see. Students need more and deserve more than many will ever know. Nobody knows what goes on in the classroom besides the teacher and the teacher knows best. What the students need, how they can advance, how their progress can increase, what materials are needed to learn different things, what strategies are needed to be enforced etc.

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I loved the Tik Tok video about the sign language because I have a variety of hearing impaired relatives and sign language play a huge role in my life. Foremost, the video didn't have any sound.. of course because it was sign language used throughout the video, but that's important! It also made me think deeply about impaired people and how they react and interact in society. Also, I am certain it causes challenges in daily life in the workplace, school etc. Something I grabbed from this video is that no one is perfect, or better than anyone! It's important to me that as we live in society day to day we respect others and their way of how their guiding themselves through life each day as well. I've attended courses here at Michigan State and have had peers and classmates that uses sign language for their way of communication and I feel relived to be able to communicate with them because I was educated on it so heavily. I love learning the different emotions and expressions in the videos as well! It was touching. Furthermore, the "You're not Autistic' tik Tok was very interesting as well. Once again, highly highlighting the fact to not judge others! I dislike social media sometimes for the way they comment and treat people with disabilities, when they're no different, but their still one of us! Human. The most important part that caught my attention throughout this video was, You don't look autistic.. How does Autism look like? For example, my sister and brother have sickle cell and they were before why they don't look like they have sickle cell anemia??!! Overall, I've just learned the cruelness in society and it makes me cringe how cruel it can be for everyone's sake.

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So, I totally enjoyed this podcast because it reminded me so much about the schools I have attended throughout my K-12 academic years. The main thing this podcast pointed out was how schools basically enforce prison's into children. For one, schools and jail intuitions have a lot in commons, even if they aren't trying. Schools suspend students, expel, give out detentions, suspend them from academic opportunism, make them hold their hands a certain way, put them in timeout, take away lunch, recess, lock the bathrooms etc. For example, metal detectors.. I have personally attended schools where metal detectors were sectioned in the front entrance of schools where students enter and some school where metal detectors weren't provided. Can you guess where I attended school at when I experienced metal detectors? In the ghetto, low funded, poverty and poorly public schools. I attended schools in the township which was located in great areas where it's beautiful, quiet and the school is funded more than well. What's the difference? From my perspective, the schools that do provide metal detectors provide them in schools that enrollment percentage's are high amongst African American students; sad but true. Furthermore, I am sure everyone has a glimpse of how jail is or look like, the main focus in this podcast is how jail is enforced in children when it shouldn't be! I watched peers of mine fail and get left behind because teachers think it's normal to expel a kid who can't stay still and popcorn read for an hour.

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2/15/22. The importance of Pedagogy and Politics in Education.

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2/15/22. The importance of Pedagogy and Politics in Education.

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Last semester of my sophomore year I intended on taking the course te 101. I learned so much about social justice in equity with education, and I touched bases upon different aspects of Education into deeper depths. Now, in my second semester I am taking te 102, and I am learning about pedagogy and politics in education. Both courses have a lot in common and truly teaches you a lot about education in pedagogy, politics, justice, power and equity. The main importance of pedagogy I learned throughout this course is building focus and learning of the students. The development of their skills, progress, and attitudes as learners is important. When it comes to politics, there are many roles such as curriculum, funding, practices and policies, teachers, board, staff etc. For example, learning about Freire's critical pedagogy, I learned the importance and levels of how teaching should challenge learners to examine their powers and patterns of inequality and reconstructing the curriculum of the classroom.

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How do you make yourself feel enough? So, I feel as if self care is a huge topic, especially for college students that I rarely hear about. Now, as an African American young adult female, I can happily say, enough is never enough or good enough. According to this conversation I had with my sister earlier, she attends college at an HBCU, and I attend a PWI. I love the diversity and chance to meet people from different heritages, cultures and backgrounds. However, me and my sister were having a conversation about self care, and she stated how she don't know if she's well or not because she feel as if the people around her (African American) are identical or similar, so she feel as if their energy rubs off each other. My response was different, I attend a PWI, and I feel different, like an outcast, like I over dressed, didn't dress well enough, don't meet the standards, criteria, I'm not prepared, I switch my hairstyle every week etc. on top of dealing with personal self care issues. Long story short, according to the website posted below, what do you take from this personally?

Alarcon, Taylor B. “5 Ways to Engage in Social Justice Through Self-Care.” Https://Aninjusticemag.com/5-Ways-to-Engage-in-Social-Justice-by-Taking-Care-of-Yourself-364adb9ed0e, 6 June 2020.

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I feel as if I am doing great this semester!! I looked deeply into microaggressions today because my roommate had a horrible encounter with another student today. After she explained to me the altercation, I explained to her that it was labeled as or she could label it as microaggression. She wasn't fully educated on this term, so of course I helped her! Being African American attending a PWI school or college can take a toll, and make you feel unwanted. However, you have to look past that, after my te101 course I learned to mold into a person that I never thought I could be. I learned a lot about myself and even other's around me. How would you feel if this was you? How are micro aggressions suppose to feel? I can answer that. It feel like a huge block. You don't know how to respond, but you must keep in mind that sometimes no response is a good response, and sometimes it's okay to correct people. I look at micro aggressions as deep disrespect, and I don't tolerate it at all, but who would? Why would you want to tolerate it? I remember my 2nd day working at my job on campus, a student came to the service desk and asked for an access card. I greeted him with respect and everything, and couldn't understand how I failed to receive a slight rude comment by him after checking him out. Before he walked off, he told me "Thank you, but when did they start hiring people of all sorts?" I had to grasp because I was at work, but in my mind I spoke to myself like... REALLY??? Where's the respect? Or kindness? Why not just NOT say nothing at all? In so many words, micro aggressions is disrespectful and shouldn't have to be avoided.

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What is the impact of privilege in a classroom? Well, it's normal that every classroom has it's differences with students uniqueness. In my perspective, privilege play a role in a variety of categories, and can be categorized. Again, speaking upon the differences in race.. In addition to education, there's privilege. I remember growing up, I attended the low class/poorest public school you could think of. Our buses didn't always run, lunch wasn't always hot, textbooks wasn't always updated and field trips was earned. Fast forwarding to my middle school years, I transferred to attend school in the township. Long story short, transportation was lovely, lunch and breakfast was 5 star, field trips was every other week, projects was every week, teachers and staff actually cared. The difference in the schools was of course the sides of town, one was high class and other other was low, but I also noticed another difference. My low funded school was rationed out to have a percentage of 98% African American enrolled students. The school in the township was rationed out to have 18% African American, 78% White, and 4% Hispanic. If you're reading this, what's your thoughts?

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My birthday is February 18th!!:)