What's up with Welsh

How I've experienced technology in the classroom has been very diverse in my short time of student observations and practicum fieldwork. When I was in high school, we used this email system called FirstClass, which was created in the '90s and had all kinds of glitches and technical difficulties. Hell, my high school did not even have WiFi until my sophomore year (though the computers had ethernet connection), so I feel that in my high school experience, I was in the digital dark age. When I changed my major to Secondary Ed/English (the third time I changed my major), I was amazed by the new technology that was Google classroom. Before I entered SED 406, I had no idea that Google docs and all of Google's other wonderful software programs, like Google slides and Google forms, even existed! I had always loved the implementation of digital media in the classroom in my later high school experience, from documentaries on YouTube to Khan Academy, but I feel that with these progr...

If we are to be educators who implement a UDL/CRT pedagogical practice in our classrooms, we must not only be open-minded to how we can target all of our students' unique abilities and learning styles, we must also be critical of the standards we are adhering to as educators. We must be able to critically  analyze these while fostering our own pedagogical philosophy because if these are the "rules" as imposed by our future school departments, we'll have to learn to operate as pedagogues with these strictures. It's a unique and challenging rhetorical situation.  Of all the sets of standards out there, it seems to me that the Teaching Tolerance of Social Justice standards are the most in-line with UDL and CRT because it is not predicated on what/how to teach;  it is based in the notion that all students are individuals, and that they must be honored because of who they are. Not only this, it enables students to critically  think and analyze topics such as race a...

While it was a wonderful to experience JR's teaching style and to interact with the students, this is only one dimension of the overall observation that this past week has yielded. This past week has demonstrated to me that the classroom is indeed multidimensional, from the teacher's pedagogy to the materials students have, from the furniture design to the posters on the walls. Each classroom that I observed in seemed to convey a distinct energy. In room 300, where JR taught English 3, this energy, or vibe (as the kids would say), was one of illumination and camaraderie. This room had many windows, which let in a lot of sunlight. Aside from this, I felt that the room was set up in a way that was conducive to learning: the desks were organized in two sets of six rows, with 3 desks to a row. Each of these two sets of rows were facing each other with about a 10 foot gap between them, operating as a central aisle where the teacher may pace back and forth while teaching. There was...

Observing the first day of school at NPHS, for me, brought back a flood of memories from my first days of school, from students hustling to find their classes to catching up with each other after summer break. It seemed surreal, however, to observe this because Amy and I were operating in a position of in-betweenness-- as that of students, and that of a pre-service teachers. Before this practicum, I did not expect to see another first day of high school until I got my first teaching job, but this experience has allowed me to observe how a veteran teacher, JR , is able to build rapport with his students from the get-go. The first class that Amy and I observed, Kingian Nonviolence , was interesting not only because of JR's keen ability to foster community, it is a class that he developed based on URI's Kingian Nonviolence program. JR began the class by taking attendance and joking around with students that he was familiar with, which created a sense of ease and comfort in t...

Of the region of New England, I'm from; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Of Plante and Welsh, I am the bastard son,  A reminder of sin and temptations. I am from the Holy Roman Church Whose doctrines I had followed, devout.  I am from God, but in my long search, I am left with no choice but to doubt.  I am from Kent; 61 Circuit Drive, Built by Eugene’s weathered and careful hands. I am from a legacy of talent. And to uphold that heritage, I strive I am from daydreams and analyses, From many books and documentaries. These are my guides, rocks, and lords; they taught me When in doubt, pens are mightier than swords.  I am from LEGOs and Star Wars toys From lightsaber duels with neighborhood boys. I am from an afternoon of shooting a BB gun.  And from spare lumber, building forts of fun   I am of the earth, our only abode. The trees, mountains, and oceans are my kin.  As humans, we will r...

In consideration of what we learned from Prof. Toncelli and the readings, it is clear that traditional attitudes towards teaching emergent bilinguals has been inadequate to meet their individual learner needs. Instead of considering what they lack, or deficit-based, we need to consider them as assets to the classroom and "start from what students can do" (Fu 22). Requiring emergent bilinguals to communicate and write solely in English is absurd, for as Toncelli mentioned, humans only have one set of linguistic tools. Some have a more complex and stronger linguistic skillset than others, but by allowing emergent bilinguals to use their assets and knowledge of their native tongue, their English acquisition will be improved. Yet I also understand that this may be challenging for teachers. If a student's native tongue is Chinese, chances are the teacher will have no clue what their student is writing. While this might be uncomfortable as an educator, it is critical to consi...

Throughout my experiences in learning Italian, my training to become a Writing Center tutor, and my English courses both in high school and here at RIC, I've learned that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. It's a conglomeration of Anglo-Saxon, French, German, and other borrowed terms from other languages. Since it is so irregular, it is hard to pick up on, whereas other languages such as the Romance Languages of Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese are rather formulaic and much easier to learn. Yet native English speakers sadly take this for granted way too frequently. English, while not the most widely-spoken language in the world, is the language of commerce and capitalism, so it is the dominant language upheld by the dominant narrative. Because of this culmination of factors, those who are privileged enough to learn English as their native tongue and are SCWAAMP frequently look down upon those who cannot understand their language or are learnin...

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, "progress," as defined by technological advancement, has been exponentially growing. First came new means of power, and through that came new means of production, and through both, new technologies are created, s(t)imulated, and promoted. Even since the birth of the Internet, technology has grown exponentially, and will continue to do so. In the podcast "The Internet of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," danah boyd communicates that as an early internet kid who was first exposed to the internet through her brother's frequent use of the dial-up modem, the rapid growth that has resulted over the subsequent decades has been incredible. But should this necessarily be surprising, considering the data trends? Thereby, the birth of the Internet is a natural fallout in this renaissance of technological development. As technology in general has grown, means of interpersonal communication and information sharing became streamlined. I...

Personally, I believe writing comes from the heart. I believe that writing makes one vulnerable, as it forces one to reveal their thoughts and preserve them in paper or pixel. Often what follows with thoughts are emotion, for emotion informs and influences thought. Yet because of this, the best writing is writing informed by thought and emotion, for we as humans are emotional creatures and thus best understand each other through our thoughts and feelings. Therefore, how do we teach students to reign in the fire that are their emotions and create pieces that are meaningful to them? As Christensen suggests, and as I've come to believe, "teaching students to write with power and passion means first immersing them in curriculum that matters, getting them fired up about the content so that they care about their writing," because "when students write for the teacher instead of writing out of a compelling need to speak out, the writing is often tedious, not worth writing,...

Generally speaking, I don't really know how I feel about standards. I know that there is an obvious need to have benchmarks for measuring student learning and growth, but teaching is such an interpersonal act. These benchmarks must be evidence-based and data-driven to validate student growth and learning, but how can they account or adjust for the interpersonal emotion-based interaction that is teaching? As a "pre-service teacher" who is learning how to develop his own pedagogical philosophy, I find that the NCTE standards outline what teachers should do, such as teaching students to read a variety of texts across genres, apply their understandings to new texts and interactions, and use their knowledge for their own personal use in the future. I believe that these naturally accord with what an English teacher should do as a dedicated educator, and I find that it also accords with Bloom's Taxonomy through verb similarities; an important thing we must unpack as Wormel...

Since yesterday was my first attendance at the Rhode Island Writing Project, I was not sure what to expect. I knew only a few details--that teachers from across the state would be in attendance, that there would be workshops, and that lunch would be provided. Not only were these ignorant and vague expectations met, they were far exceeded. Upon my prompt arrival (a rare occurrence), I was met with a plethora of people, many of whom I knew. I saw many of my past professors, fellow peers, colleagues from OASIS, and in general, some of the brightest people I've met in my academic career. For me, this was an excellent opportunity because not only was I intellectually interacting with peers and professionals, we were all engaging in the collective task of bettering our practice of social-emotional pedagogy. When I read the program, I was immediately taken aback by the workshop offerings. I had assumed that we'd be doing workshops as a whole group (like in previous professional de...

The American education system is broken. Private testing companies make millions of dollars off "testing" students on their "competency" in given subjects. They promote ideals of what should be learned, which advocates a dominant narrative of education that is not inclusive to all students; rather it is exclusive to new ideas and new approaches to teaching. In the field of English Language Arts, the educators hired by testing companies communicate that the best writing is streamlined writing--the Five Paragraph Essay, the TEETH approach, this approach not unlike a mathematical formula-- is the best way to turn students into sufficient communicators in society. What utter horsesh*t. The fact of the matter is, there is no cookie-cutter method to deliver effective writing. Sure, all one's paragraphs should have a point, and one's essay should communicate a major argument or "thesis," but to box it up and simplify it with a formulaic approach like th...

Up until recently, I never cared much for poetry. To me, writing (had) has rules--one must put commas and semicolons in the correct place, never start a sentence with "and," or always make sure that everything you write is coherent. And yet (see what I did there?) as I learned in ENGL 433: Modern English Grammar, I learned that the English language is always in flux. The rules, regulations, and norms of this dominant language are always changing, so as long as  meaning  is communicated, one's objective is met.  This has been my longstanding issue with poetry until I became an English major. I could understand the inherent beauty of poetry that had meter and rhyme, such as John Keats' " To Autumn ," but for poetry that defies conventional rules, I never quite understood the appeal. The meanings were vague, and because of this vagueness, I could not understand them. However, through gradual exposure to poetry that defied norms like "Knock Knock,...

RESPONDING TO JESSE HAGOPIAN’S STUDENT ATHLETES KNEEL TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD AND CHRYANTHIUS LATHAN’S DEAR WHITE TEACHER Jesse’s writing on the students’ football team kneeling during the national anthem to protest against the “crisis of police terror in Black communities across the country…” in support of Colin Kaepernick who also knelt down during the national anthem, shows the power of youths in fighting for justice.   The Garfield High School football team and other high schools across the country taking a kneel is a way of making their voices heard as young kids, just as Garfield football player Jelani Howard said, “It really affected people and we showed that kids can actually make a difference in the world.” Also, Kaepernick told the Seattle Times, “We have a younger generation that sees these issues and want to be able to correct them… I think that’s amazing. I think it shows the strength, the character, and the courage of our youth. Ultimately, they’re going to be ...