Sunday, February 19, 2012

Poverty in Education

This article was very inspirational to read.  Francis Sachdev didn’t let it bother her that almost her entire class was considered to be in the poverty level. Although it was upsetting to hear that, “by age 4, the average child in an upper-middle-class family has heard 35 million more words than a poor child,” she still did her best to teach every student. I also learned a few extra strategies to use from reading this article. She used her surroundings and the community around her to help educate these children. I liked that she took them outside and on field trips often and used street signs as vocabulary.  Plus, she had students reflect on their field trips, like the one to the parking garage.  The children were also asked to expand on their background knowledge because she would ask them to make predictions before they went on a field trip. Overall, I thought this article was great. It taught me that even though many important resources may be lacking in a school environment (involved parents, money, school resources, etc.) that any teacher can still use the tools and people in their community to create long-lasting learning experiences.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Educational Differences

In this article I learned that the financial status of a family has greater affects on students more than the racial status. I know that how much money caregivers have to spend on a child's education, the better that education is likely to be. This is because the student will be able to afford more enrichment activities such as tutoring or student organizations. A students racial ethnicity doesn't have a very big impact on their grades like it used to.I think this is because we have fortunately moved past segregation as a society and now the main factor is a student's financial status.