Rethink And Redefine School by Yue Zhang https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx This is a movie-book project produced by Grace Chen and Yue Zhang. Stemming from the movie To Be and to Have (2002) as well as the book Troublemakers by Shalaby, we reflect the schooling today and try to rethink school. en-us 2020-03-27 00:23:28 UTC 2024-11-03 12:02:31 UTC hello@padlet.com "What seems most important to me is to see her(or him) develop and be happy" (Mr. Lopez). yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483422563 I have seen various perspectives from the teachers in the book and the movie. Teachers' perspectives have shaped the classrooms and learners. What are the valuable and worthy contents to teach? This is one of the essential questions that many teachers have thought about. However, it is very difficult for teachers to achieve this in a classroom with various learners.  ]]> 2020-03-31 01:31:52 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483422563 Students' Haircut Standards in China yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483487915 The movie and book has reminded me how schools have restricted students in many ways. I have found the standards for students' hair style in Henan, China. This is a very common standards in many schools even when I was a student. My hair has been cut mandatorily by my advisor because it was not exactly like the standards. ]]> 2020-03-31 03:16:17 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483487915 How does difference impact educators' views of teaching? yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483503356 In the book of Troublemakers, the author showed how teachers have tried to solve/ change "troublemakers" in their classroom. In the story of the twin brothers, the brother was defined as "troublemaker", and the teacher tried very hard to change his difference. However, some of his behaviors are normal for his age. As a teacher, I often think too much like a teacher and ignore how my students think.
On the other hand, in the movie of To Be and To Have, the teacher has showed my how he respected his students' differences. Mr. Lope understands his students' needs and uses different approaches to teach his students. ]]> 2020-03-31 03:42:06 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/483503356 What's the meaning of classroom management? yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484556024 At school, classroom management expresses a demand for compliance. It gives students clues to what a "good student" is. I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a reward chart in my class. As a way of evaluation, it was to assess whether students' behaviors meet the teacher's expectations. For example, the kid who helped others could get a star while the one who talked in class would lead to the loss of stars. At the end of each week, my teacher would award the kids who had the most stars with toys or crayons. I worked hard to become a so-called "good student" defined by the school not only for the toys or crayons but also for the praise from adults, even though I had no perception of what all this meant to me.

More than ten years later, these seemingly meaningless practices, classroom management techniques, continue to play an essential role in schooling. Many teacher education programs emphasize classroom management strategies, by which teachers achieve their purpose of controlling students. However, few educators reflect the true meaning of these practices.

]]> 2020-03-31 14:28:04 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484556024 yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484585055 In this scenario, Valentin entered the class for the first time. He walked around the classroom, looking around anxiously, and finally cried. This is an authentic portrayal of many children entering the school on the first day.

From the discussion above, we rethink the meaning of schools/classrooms from a developmental perspective of child. As communities that respect individual differences, schools/classrooms are places where children grow up embracing freedom and love, and then become wholeness in society.]]> 2020-03-31 14:38:24 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484585055 What could replace the module of rewards and punishments ？ yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484613315 Undeniably, proper classroom management strategies make classes effective, while how can educators make full use of those skills without depriving students of their rights and freedom? According to Freire (2000), the education “strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality” (p. 81) is the practice of freedom, which opposes domination. The obedient culture in schools cannot facilitate the emergence of “authentic liberation.” Therefore, to cultivate students’ consciousness, the module of rewards and punishments, which mostly puts students in a passive position, may not be appropriate practice. When teachers use the module of rewards and punishments as the basis of classroom management, rules regulate misbehaviors by exclusion. Those who repel the requirement of compliance and keep their origin selfhood are marginalized, abnormalized, or even pathologized. For instance, in Troublemakers (2017), all those kids confront challenges in schools. Instead of problems, they are actually the defenders of freedom, reminding educators to make better pedagogical decisions.]]> 2020-03-31 14:48:13 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484613315 yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484974685 Ball, S. J. (2012). Introducing Monsieur Foucault. In S. J. Ball (Ed.), Foucault and education: disciplines and knowledge (pp. 1–10). London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 8, no. 4, 1982, pp. 777–795. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1343197. Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.

France Televisions. (2002). Etre et avoir.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Shalaby, C. (2017). Troublemakers: lessons in freedom from young children at school. New York: The New Press.

Team, T. V. F. E. (2018, November 12). What Is School? Rural Education in Fuwen Township Central Primary School . Retrieved from https://v.qq.com/x/page/p0790wnh86r.html]]> 2020-03-31 17:01:42 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/484974685 Reflect the requirement of obedience in schools yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485290277 Traditional classroom management strategies embody a top-down power structure, which deprives the rights of the students. According to Foucault (1982), power "brings into play relations between individuals (or between groups)" (p.786). In most relationships between teachers and students, teachers present themselves in an authoritative status, which mutes students.

Besides, these rules made by teachers and school administrators can not only limit students' behaviors but freedom of thought, preventing children from becoming creative individuals. Take my own experience as an example. When I was in middle school, when the classroom was noisy, my English teacher would punish us to sit still like idols. The punishment was torture, especially during the hot summer. In fear of the punishment, I seldom expressed my ideas in that class to avoid making mistakes. By limiting students' behavior of talking freely in the class, the teacher ruined the creativity of teenagers like me whose potential should be found by trying. If kids' voices are long ignored, and behavior limitations are taken granted, obedience will become the norm of school life. Under such circumstances, students might lose the ability to question, thus then subjective consciousness. According to Ball (2012), "In the process of schooling the student is compiled and constructed both in the passive processes of objectification, and in an active, self-forming subjectification, the latter involving processes of self-understanding mediated by an external authority figure - for our purpose, most commonly the teacher" (p. 4). The active process of self-understanding and subjectification could be veiled without teachers guidance. For instance, I found that some teachers used the expression "Catch a Bubble" when telling kids not to make any sound. Once, a 5-year-old boy said, "I don't want to do that." The teacher replied, "No, everyone is doing that." Then the boy asked, "Why?" I froze for a moment - his question was reasonable, while we all tend to view rules for granted. When students are required to comply without thinking, they are gradually losing self-consciousness. ]]> 2020-03-31 19:34:28 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485290277 Interviews yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485638199 What does school mean to you after having classes online?
“I still have to do work but I miss seeing my friends and I feel more isolated. In a way it takes away some of the fun of learning because all it is is work and there aren’t as many fun activities and there isn’t any social activity”- An American ninth grade student

"😯" - A Chinese eighth grade student

“Because of the epidemic, the school has become a radio and television station, the relationship between students, teachers and students is indifferent, the platform for communication is missing, students passively receive knowledge at home! The conflict between parents and children deepens! Serious lack of peer friendship and interaction, children's emotional instability, less fun to learn, self-control, excessive use of electronic products! The school has become a radio station!” - A Chinese parent

"literally online school sucks. The classes are boring especially when the teachers make you sit there staring at a screen for over and hour and then some teachers also think it’s ok to give us 3-4 assignments in one day and not consider that we have work in ever other class" - An American high school student]]> 2020-04-01 01:20:47 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485638199 Coronavirus has shaped our understanding of schooling yc3633 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485657539 Apparently, coronavirus has shaped our understanding of schooling. We started thinking that school is not only a place for students to learn but also it has many other functions. This situation definitely has impacted my people's views of education especially schooling. We have seen the positive and negative sides of online schooling. It has changed everyone's life. Thus, we started this project with the topic of redefining schoolings. 

Analyzing from the following essential questions, we have picked two elements of school to rethink and redefine school - difference as well as love and freedom.
Why do we attend school? What’s the most important thing for a teacher？
What are our expectations of students through schooling? (as teachers, parents, administrators, institution, community)
What does a meaningful class look like?
How should we prepare students?]]> 2020-04-01 01:48:03 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/485657539 yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/486736260 Different from the tension brought by incompliant kids in Troublemakers, Mr Lopez’s class is more peaceful with fewer conflicts. Although all those classrooms have rules, Mr. Lopez’s class is more flexible on regulations. For example, when students ask some questions irrelevant to the class, he is willing to talk with them. For him, “misbehaviors” as development, are also acceptable and valuable. Love and freedom are the reasons for the continuity and vitality of Mr. Lopez's classroom. For Shalaby (2017), “schools are primary sites for teaching love and learning freedom” (p. 11). Love is the center of teacher-student relationships, as well as the foundation of constructing a classroom as an inclusive community. Liberation education triggers students’ self-consciousness and critical thinking. Both of them are essential elements for schools and classes. However, in schooling nowadays, rules in different forms obscure the nature of education. For example, classroom management, which refers to various skills and techniques to organize students, is viewed cold and commonly accused as "the killer of kids' creativity." Is this correct? How can educators apply rules without sacrificing love and freedom?
  
]]> 2020-04-01 14:04:11 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/486736260 What is school? What is the school like in the future? yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/492850859 Under the breakout of Coronavirus, schools are operated remotely. On the one hand, it is a critical time when both teachers and students are confronting great challenges; on the other hand, it is also an opportunity for us to imagine schools in the future. The video below is a clip from the introduction of a rural education program, which might give us some insights.  

We believe, no matter how the form of the schooling changes, the essence of the school keeps the same. It is the place where children live and grow up with joy.]]> 2020-04-05 01:46:50 UTC https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/492850859 yz3678 https://padlet.com/yz3678/wo49rl3noqgx/wish/493890458 Care and discourses could replace the module of rewards and punishments in schools. Care and discourses help teachers get to know their students better. This is the premise to get students included in schools. At the first stage, educators are supposed to remove labels on those students who are struggling. Let me take the story of Lucas as an example. To understand Lucas, his mother depended too much on the assessment from therapy instead of trying to dig into what Lucas needed. When we label a kid as ADHD (or any other disorder), we cut the characteristics of the child into pieces and match them to the standards. However, education is not a matching game; every child should have his/her individualized evaluation, which is based on care and discourses. According to Shalaby (2017), "Sometimes everyone—his mother, his teachers, his specialists—took for granted that they knew Lucas well because he was so predictable so much of the time. This prompted people to pigeonhole him" (p.85). Therefore, avoiding pigeonholing should be the first step. The love and care from teachers might be one of the reasons why Lucas is making efforts to adapt to the demand of school-to negotiate and change himself. For instance, when Lucas said the class was a waste of time during a math lesson, Mrs. Beverly didn't criticize him but praised him for knowing measuring time. That was meaningful to Lucas because his speech was respected and valued. 

Discourses are equally important. According to Ball (2012), discourses embody meaning and social relationships; they constitute both subjectivity and power relations. There is a discourse in the movie that impressed me. When Mr. Lopez asked Jojo, “Why do you come to school?” Jojo answered, “It’s my mom who always wants me to come.” Then, Mr. Lopez asked again, “And you wish you didn’t have to? What do you come to school for?” The conversation gave students opportunities to reflect their school life, making students subjects of learning. While at school, seldom educators asked questions like that. “Education works not only to render its students as subjects of power, it also constitutes them, or some of them, as power subjects” (Ball, 2012, p. 5). The power which is exercised in schooling should be based on discourses rather than “impart-and-receive.” 

Moreover, discourses regarding classroom management construct a network of power, in which students and teachers restrict, supervise, and promote each other. In this case, teachers or school administrators are no longer the only guards - every member of the community has the right to discuss and decide how schools should be. 

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