Social Justice - My take

So when I started this assignment I had in mind my own idea of social justice, one from the point of view of  a former military combat soldier, a father and someone who believes in standing up for the little guy. I looked around quite a bit trying to find a very impartial view of Social Justice and it seems that everything that I found was either from the right wing or left wing political party. Here is the funny thing though, the basis of their definition was pretty close.
"Social Justice is teaching kids to question whoever happens to hold the reins of power at a particular moment. It is about seeing yourself not just as a consumer of information, but as an actor-critic"(Bill Bigelow Rethinking Columbus"

From the conservative voice "social justice teaching is shorthand of opposition to American traditions of individual justice and free market economics, it teaches students that American society is an inherently oppressive society that is systemically racist, sexist and classist and thus discriminates institutionally against women, nonwhites, working Americans and the poor."

The more I read about what different people considered social justice and their extreme views it made me feel that in my classroom I want to teach my own version of social justice. My definition is as follows: Social Justice is the ability for one man to look at the wrong and right of what is going on without looking at differences in race, color, sexual identity or religion, and make the best decision that will benefit all and attempt to exclude or alienate none"

This may seem kind of a rose color view but in my experience and my beliefs you teach young men and women to be fair, be honest and not judgmental to one another, For young men being a gentlemen is proper and young women should learn to be a lady, We are never all going to get along but if you can find a common ground you will be able to find a way to make thing work.

Critical Petagogy

For me, in today's classroom if you are not taking advantage of modern media and technology to grab the attention and introduce today's youth to classical text you are missing out. I feel that there are so many incredible mediums out there and reworkings of the classics that allow students to relate to them without struggling with language barriers.

The article presented me with some ideas on how to incorporate modern renditions of classics and even how to use current music and pop culture to relate to some of the concepts of reading, writing and understanding poetry. I feel that as a teacher you must be able to look at your class and understand that not everyone is going to be able to pick up a text of say "The Great Gatsby" and in their mind be able to understand the picture of this man and his struggles the way that Fitzgerald meant for them to. But if you were to include parts of the current version of Gatsby and have them correlate the movie with the book you would have more success.

Critical Pedagogy

I grew up in a small farming and logging community in central Idaho. It was a town where you were expected to work, go to school and play sports. There were very little, if at all any, minorities in our school and to me it seamed as if everyone wore one of two styles of dress. You were either into rock and roll t-shirts or the more conservative prep look. Dress and appearance guidelines were specifically spelled out and for us students it appeared the norm.

Was this my schools attempt to control us, to only allow certain manners of dress, to forbid students from having facial hair and from the boys in the school having pierced ears. For the teachers school was there for us to learn and expand our minds, not to grow our social circle or gain our next conquest. Were the teachers mindfully attempting to oppress us or were they more or less dictating an environment that they felt was the most productive and helpful to us in our quest to become educated.

Now 26 years later I look at the struggles and conflicts within the schools and how the teachers are forced to pick their battles as to not offend someone or some culture. The environment within the schools has changed drastically and in such it is necessary as an educator to change with them and adjust to continue to educate students and prepare them for life after high school

CHAPTER 1 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

Wow, this was one of the most difficult articles that I have read in quite a while. Not just with the manner in which it was written but the intensity of the subject matter was pretty heavy. I will be honest the first time that I read through it, I was exhausted and to really delve into the information I had to go back and reread and do a bit of research on some of the quotes.

This is a pretty heavy subject, especially when you start taking the content and applying it to the environment we are in and in dealing with a diverse group of students that come from varying social and economic backgrounds.

The premiss of this article deals with oppression and how it is the responsibility of the oppressed to rise up and remove themselves from the situation. The oppressor cannot fix the oppressed. In this manner we look at bullying and it is the responsibility of the bullied to stand up and make a difference in what is going on their lives and they cannot rely on those who do the bullying to change the situation.

I will need to reread this a few times to get the full gist of it, but from what I am understanding at this point, I think that this theory has some valid points and can be used as the basis for change.

Discussion in a Democratic Society.....

I love a good discussion and getting students to take a look at their own values and opinions and have a forum where they can have an open discussion with only a prompt from the teacher and no bias as to the instructors feelings. I grew up in classrooms where discussions were not very prevalent and teachers had a way of throwing in their opinion to their out and influencing students. We never had a great venue to talk about issues and when the teacher would provide prompts for discussion it was to be written and not talked about.

When teaching lit to young adults there are always going to be subject matters that arise that are going to have varying opinions and where students will have questions and are looking to have meaningful talks. It is my desire for my classroom, whether it be Social Studies or English, to be a venue for discussion and debate. I feel that this environment is critical for student growth and development. I want to keep my views and opinions to a minimum and allow the students the opportunity to find their own voice. I hope that as in the case of teacher Steve, I too will be surprised and proud as my students pave their own way.

Pleased to meet y'all......

Good morning my name is Sean Pelfrey and I currently a student in English 493, fall quarter at Eastern Washington University. This quarter I am enrolled in 25 credits, in addition to 493 I am also enrolled in English 350 (Shakespeare), English 270 (Intro to Fiction), English 459 (Grammar) and CTED 300 which is for my CTE endorsement. This is my last quarter of classes before student teaching which I will be doing at West Valley High School. My major is Social Studies and I am also getting a English and CTE minor. I am very comfortable with my ability to teach Social Studies and CTE primarily because of my military and engineering background. English though, I will admit, makes me a bit nervous. I feel that I have a good grasp on the literature aspect, but even after taking my comp course, teaching the writing aspect still gives me a bit of apprehension. Growing up I enjoyed writing until I had a teacher who made me feel that my ability to write was sub-par, and I for one doe not want to do that to a student. Though there are some aspects of teaching English that have me cautious, I am looking forward to taking on the challenge. With this course I am really looking forward to getting some great ideas from my peers on good quality YA lit that I can introduce to my students and also looking at some of the mini lessons and also the 15 day lesson plans and stealing them for my own personnel toolbox.

As for the rest of my life, I was carer military for 23 years as a combat engineer in the United States Navy. I have traveled extensively throughout the world and have completed numerous combat tours. I am married to my wife who is a first grad teacher at University Elementary in the CV school district, I have an almost 11 year old son who is in the 5th grade, plays Lacrosse and is pretty fun to hang out with and loves going on random road trips and adventures with me. I have competed competitively in sports since I was about 10. I started out in martial arts and moved on to team sports such as football and baseball, I also steer wrestled and rode saddle bronc in the rodeo, played rugby and now compete in the Scottish Highland Games. I am a avid reader and am always looking for that next great book, and though I have read volumes and volumes, I have yet to find that one book that has given Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird  as my all time favorite book.

Interview with Anna Pabst

Today I was given the opportunity to sit down and speak with a local icon , veterinarian Anna Pabst. Anna is a third generation veterinarian following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, and began her love of caring for animals at a very young age. In fact Anna feels that she was born to be a vet when I asked her how long she had been vet she replied "Going on 25 years". We discussed the pros and cons of being a vet and for Anna there are some very rewarding times especially when she comes across a difficult case and is able to help the animal recover. But she stated that there are some difficult times also and she doesn't like it when she has to put a family animal down. When asked about her favorite animal Anna told me "I love horses, they are relaxing and really help me unwind." Dr. Anna Pabst a local treasure who is ready and willing to care for the animals in the community.