Blindness

Although I have not seen the movie Blindness, I have heard so much controversy about it. After we watched the trailer for the movie in class, I could only laugh at how ridiculous it seemed. I could not believe that this movie seemed so intense and scary because people started to become blind and did not know how to be civilized when all confined together. I can understand how those who are blind may feel about the movie or those who are against the movie for using blindness as an epidemic. The article, "Blindness Gets Bad Review From the National Federation for the Blind" states that one of the characters does not become blind and "she is portrayed as physically, mentally, and morally superior to the others because she still has her sight." This quote was very interesting to me because, although I have never seen the movie, it doesn't seem as though the producers put much thought into the controversy it would cause. It seems as though they came up with a plot and went with what they liked. I do not think that this movie was meant to cause the feeling of being inferior to those who are blind. Looking at it from a different perspective I can see how those against it do feel. I would like to see the movie because I would like to see all of these issues brought up against the movie and be able to make a decision on my own.

LGBT Meeting

I attended the LGBT meeting and I learned a lot of new and interesting information from this experience. The meeting incorporated LGBT into the field of education and there was a panel present. The people on this panel had very different experiences from one another. I found it to be interesting as each person on the panel talked about their experiences and how others react to their homosexuality, or how they reacted to another persons homosexuality. I found this meeting to help me as a teacher understand other's views on the topic and gave me some good ideas of things to pay attention to in the classroom. Sometimes you just don't think about children having parents of the same sex or being lgbt themselves. The panel suggested that teahcers be aware of these types of things in the classroom so that you do not offend any student or students family. They talked about Mom's and Dad's days that might be hard for students who have two moms or two dads. I think it is important to make a parents day or a loved one's day as one of the panalist's suggested. I found that to be a very good idea. Many people expressed their concern about talking abou this topic to students in the classroom and how to explain it to children. One girl suggested that many parents may not appreciate a teacher talking about lgbt in the classroom because that may be their decision of what they want to teach their child. I think that it is important that students are aware of this topic and that they have an understanding with no negative feelings. One man also talked about a pink triangle he placed on his classroom door to make students feel safe in his "safe zone", but he was unaware of the controversy that this would cause. The panel discussed the issue and offered him some advice of who to talk to which I thought would be really helpful if I needed the information. I found this meeting to be very interesting and beneficial to take with me in my future experiences as a teacher.

Insider/Outsider Debate

I think that it is very hard to determine who should write multicultural/diverse literature because there is so much to think about when discussing this topic. I do think that both insiders and outsiders should write about multicutlural/diverse literature. Although, many outsiders get the material wrong about a specific cullture, they may not always be incorrect. I think that outsiders can do a lot of research to make sure that what they are writting about is correct and it is nice to read books from an outsiders perspective. I think it is also a good thing for insiders to write literature because we must know that perspective from the inside view. I think that outsiders may have just as much correct information as insiders do and the material that they write is just as correct. I do not think that there should be a rule about who writes multicultural/diverse literature but I do believe that there should be much research done on the topics to find the correct information. I think that a book written to reflect a specific race, religion, culture, etc. should have the proper information about that race, religion, culture, etc.

Sara Graef

Response to Blogging

I find the blogging to be going well and I think that they are useful. Blogs are a great way to read other people's ideas about specific subjects. So far, we have been able to communicate through the blogs as a class and respond to questions that have been asked. We are able to read others responses to these questions and get an idea of what other people have responded. We are able to communicate with each other about topics that affect each one of us and express our opinions.
I could see myself using blogging in the future in the classroom. I could post questions and have my students go home, think about the question and post a response any time they need to. I could also have a free blog spot where students are free to write about anything they want. Like a journal. I think this would be appealing to many younger people since they use blogs so much today.