Reflection 6

The invention of writing was extremely crucial to the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilizations because it, in turn, invented history and formal education. Before writing came to pass, the earliest humans developed gestures and grunts as a form of communication. Being able to write and share ideas and concepts only moved communication into a different stage. Writing, in its early stages, was merely pictures that held a meaning, like pictographs. The meaning of these pictures depicted by drawings carved into pieces of clay tablets. Without writing, people from generations so long ago wouldn’t have been able to document the things learned and developed. Of course, to develop writing a set of alphabet had to be developed as well. One cannot write sentences without first having words and letters. Similar to the age old saying, “You must crawl before you walk.” History is defined as chronological record of events of the life of or events of a people or institution. If we weren’t able to document such events we would probably have to start each civilization with each new generation that comes along. Or we would have had to pass along history by word of mouth. Yet, with that technique, things tend to get trickled down and information paraphrased and then ultimately changed. So the history they would’ve started with would have changed to another history after a while. While writing this reflection I began to think by what medium I would be able to express my own thoughts and feelings if it weren’t for the people who came up with the concept of writing. I would really have had to become a person who worked with pottery. Either these people were really cocky and wanted to be remembered long after they left the earth (which they are) or they wanted to let the people who were to come know of the things that transpired in the early days (which they did). Not being able to record events in the world would leave everything a crazy predicament. What if we weren’t able to record the cures for any diseases that we may have developed? Would scientists hire people to remember the formulas? What a world we would have! Gladly, we were blessed with the folks who conceived writing and over time, like a child, the structure of writing remained the same, but it has developed and evolved into a more effective form of communication.


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Thoughts unwound

9/10/09

Things are becoming more stressful each day, mom is breaking down. What I once saw as her inner strength is now turning into external fear. I am beginning to think that the very being of me is diminishing. When did this all begin? Was it that faint sign of pain that gleamed from her eye? Or the sheer agony of knowing that her years on this earth were coming to a close? I no longer know where my beliefs lie in this game of tug and war with life. What is to become of us?

 

 

reflection 4

One can be affected by the beliefs of others and become highly upset if and when another individual disagrees with his or her beliefs. Sometimes those of us who have certain beliefs only have those beliefs simply due to the fact that’s what we were taught to believe and understand. At the same time, I’ve come to understand that there is always a scientific explanation for all things magical, even the not so magical. By reading and learning about the evolution of man many people may become affected by what the sciences are proposing as creation of man. It was reported that at one time Christians were fighting the ideas of hominids; denouncing the theories because it goes against their beliefs. The readings were quite educational. The evolution of hominids has been one that has progressed enormously over the years. It was actually enticing to learn that the moderns human started on the journey through evolution as ape-men. It also leads me to wonder how communication is so effective in every day lives. Many years ago the common hominid didn’t develop the proper organs to produce speech. As a race, we have truly come a long way. It was also nice to know that during the evolution, classifications such as white or black wasn’t an issue of importance. It was also a good thing to learn that even though the inventions that were made by the Homo Habilis people were not as advanced as the ones made these days, there were still people stumbling upon inventions used to lighten the tasks of everyday lives as there is now. Learning that something as simple as controlling fire, (something that can be done these days by simply purchasing a lighter) gave humans the ability to move out of Africa and into cooler climates like Asia and Europe. Another piece of knowledge gained was the fact that our brains grew dramatically over time to enable certain things, like speech and memory; and to think all of the jokes I used to make about people when they would tell me that my head was bigger than theirs. My rebuttal was always because my brain was bigger and that I was smarter my head had to be bigger. All in all, learning new things always make my heart grow fonder. I’ve always been one to enjoy learning different things. Learning it and believing it, though, are two entirely different things. People refuse and disagree with things that they don’t understand. My beliefs are that Christians fail to understand that everyone won’t believe in the same things that they do, but it doesn’t mean they are wrong and must be condemned to hell. It just means that they have a different frame of reference to look through. Has your own frame of reference ever been challenged? If so, how did you deal with the challenge?
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Reflection 3

Different strokes for different folks; Or in this case, different approaches for different folks. Everyone has memories of their elementary school education. Memories that consist of early childhood games like playing doctor and cashier at the grocery store using rocks as the form of currency. Those childhood memories are also inclusive of the fun ways you learned important things. As an adult, you can now look back onto those days and remember how you were taught those things and whether or not you actually learned from it. Then, when you finally decide that your true calling is to become a teacher and you are a student enrolled in your first of many education classes and you’re instructed by your professor to reflect on you elementary education with newfound insight, you proceed to analyze your early childhood education with the bits and pieces that you truly remember. Ms. Carroll, though a first name isn’t remembered, the last name definitely holds a place in my mind. Her unique way of teaching and including each of her very diverse students into her lesson plans was something like a walk to remember. She incorporated the beliefs and traditions of different cultures into the classroom environment and never shunned these beings. In her class, students learned to respect the beliefs of others, no matter how much they seemed out of the ordinary for us. Also students learned the meaning behind different cultural holidays like, Kwanzaa in the African American community, Hanukkah in the Jewish community; and also the importance of heroes in other cultures like what Marcus Garvey meant to Jamaica, or what Nelson Mandela meant to South Africa, and even what Gandhi meant to India. It is now clear that her way of teaching would be considered the contributions approach and looking back on those days I wouldn’t change it for the world. If I could go back to elementary school, I wouldn’t ask that she change her method of teaching in the least. Secondary school education was impacted by classes that became less diversified in culture and began to be repetitive. At that point, I began experiencing teachers who taught from the transformation approach as well as the contributions approach and even the additive approach. Overall, the different approaches that my different instructors used combined lead to me really deciding that I want to become a teacher; to be able to impact the lives of people and in doing so maybe they’ll in turn, decide to become teachers.

Reflection 2

Different shifts in one’s own paradigm will lead to a different way of thinking, learning and so forth. Humans seem to rely on different tools and inventions to accomplish certain tasks, and once those inventions have been perfected (or as close to perfected as it will be), they no longer feel the need to learn theses once tedious tasks any longer.

As humans evolved, so have them brains and thoughts processes. With that, humans have invented numerous tools to aid them in their everyday lives. Take, for instance, Homo Habilis. They crafted stone tools and weapons. Its certain that these tools and were not designed but more stumbled upon by accident. These Homo habilis hunted and used these mediocre weapons to hunt small animals as game for food. I was indeed more tedious than the work of modern day hunters who have access to modernized tools and weapons like rifles to assist them in their hunt for game. They no longer have to run from animals that may be too frightening or too large to approach. The diet of the H.Habilis was based on plants from the soil of th Earth. The diets could have had more of a protein intake and clothing could’ve been made form the animal hide after the kill if only the tools they were using were more sophisticated.

Thankfully, evolution didn’t stop there. The next evolved form of man, Homo Erectus, had life a little easier for they had received the knowledge o basic tools and weapons. These tools and weapons were those they sought to advance. They had only to sophisticate and re-invent the tools and make them much easier to be used. They’re paradigms differed from H.Habilis because they had already received some help from the tools already crafted by their ancestors. The change in tools used to hunt food allowed for a more protein based diet. Red meat was said to have helped in the both the size increase and capacity of humans. The more developed weapons caused them to have more rations of food and didn’t have to go for days without eating because they were also able to control fire and cook their foods.

The bigger the brain the more capacity it can hold which then enhanced the development of emotions and feelings not to mention communications skills. Mothers also had more time to nurture and bond with their children for longer periods of time. The males in the camp were apart of hunting parties and bonded in that way. These paradigm shifts still occur in the world toda. One phenomenon is that of the cell phone. Before avid cell phone use, people used to have to remember doing simple things like memorizing telephone numbers or even simple addition and subtraction, made easier by inputting the information into the phones and getting an answer. I have also been affected by the cell phone mania because it is too hard for me to even try to remember anyone’s number. The cell phone allows for easy access on the go. They went from being really large to those the size of a credit card.

All in all, paradigm shifts happen throughout the world, from using old herbs to cure the common cold to having medicine that can cure the cold before it hits. The question shouldn’t be why paradigm shifts occur anymore, but more so how will we adapt to them.

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Reflection 1A

Could you imagine receiving your education from someone who is only teaching you because they are a servant with many debts? Is it easy for you to swallow being taught by a teacher who has received the bare minimum themselves? In colonial times children were being taught by teachers who never even attended a secondary school. Some people who taught watched, or became apprentices of other people who were thought to be “masters” in teaching. Even indentured servants were teachers simply paying their way to America. Not too many teachers had attended a secondary school and the limited amount of people that did were normally teaching as tutors (privately), working in academies or grammar schools. It was mostly the privileged people who were still located in Europe who had such exquisite education.
There was a time where if I had a teacher/professor who looked younger than early to mid forties, there was a problem. I had always thought of teachers as people who were wise and much older than someone who looked as if they had recently finished college. If I had that idea for a teacher and we are in modern times, I’m not sure what I would’ve done in colonial times. Many teachers who started teaching at elementary levels were merely teenagers. Teenagers! These teenagers had only received the bare minimum of education and were already teaching? That is something that couldn’t have lasted too long, and it normally didn’t. These teenage teachers only taught for a year or two.
Thankfully, Reverend Samuel Hall established a start in America as far as teaching preparation was concerned. He had established the “normal school” that was a program of two years, used to teach elementary graduates academic subjects. Then, the teachers were all women who were treated less than professionally, aside from their below mediocre wages, they were to have no personal lives including to never get married. I suppose these teachers were to become nuns. As the years piled up these normal schools began evolving into state teachers’ colleges and eventually moved on to become some of today’s leading universities. These schools provided the traditional approach to teacher education wherein students studied the coursework and then did clinical. In the 1980s began a quest to remodel education. At the time, teachers weren’t considered professionals and a group of education deans, Holmes Group, and the Carnegie Forum had decided to take a stand by producing reports which called for higher standards and to increase the professionalism.
Different approaches to preparing teachers came about, including Teach For America (or TFA). TFA had recruits who learned skills of teaching by basically working as an apprentice to teachers. People who support this approach have claimed that the volunteers become excellent teacher. Yet there are those who argue that the values and the standards of teaching have been placed on a back-burner in alternative programs like TFA. These volunteers-become- teachers were assigned to schools were finding teachers was a challenge. These school appreciated and welcomed the on the job training recruits.
More or less the teacher preparation system has changed for the good. It evolved from being elementary school graduates to those who are masters at teaching. I intend to pursue my teaching degree the traditional way but if the opportunity comes along where I too can have on the job training, I wouldn’t pass it up for the world.

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A coming of age student aspiring to be an English teacher, maybe even a professor. (I never really did learn the difference between the two classifications of educators.) An individual who is in love with poetry, excited by reading, stimulated by music and still anxious to meet the rest of life. Living outside the box of conformity and loving all things ‘bad’(This of course depends on who’s perception) but most of all an individual ready to take on life by the horns and strive for the best. Early childhood memories consists of playing doctor with nieces and nephews and reading everything she could get her hands on form magazines to newspapers even to the back of the cereal boxes when she could hardy pronounce the ingredients in the bowl from which she was eating. Reminiscing on all of the times that she always dreamed of being a ‘grown-up’ yet not knowing what it truly entailed. Born to immigrants of this country who are of Jamaican-Haitian and Dominican descent Patricia Joseph arrived to this world somewhere in February (she is a Pisces) close to the end of the wonder years (the 1980’s of course!). Patricia found her love for poetry and English with the help of wonderful guidance from her teacher whom she had from grades six to eight, Kathleen Serio. A teacher who was tough but one she would come to love dearly. With her help, Patricia learned the basic fundamentals of writing and undoubtedly it became one of her favorite past times. Another past time of hers was dabbling in the underworld of spoken word poetry and someday wishes to complete a volume of poetry of her own. Somewhere between writing personal journals to completing two semesters as a biology major, Patricia realized that she wanted to teach English and show others the reasons that she has come to love it as well. Currently attending Miami Dade College, Patricia is working to earn her degree in English education. While she is still young, she is an individual who has finally planted her feet into life’s moist soil.

-over and out-
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