Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Critical Inquiry Framework connections

When reading over the UN Rights of a Child I realized what kind of power a document like this could have for my students. I feel as though they are frequently told that they don’t have rights and that their rights are to simply follow directions. I can’t wait to share this document with my students as a part of our project to really inspire them and to help them feel empowered as individuals. Although I mentioned this to them as we were starting the project I definitely did not do it justice. I talk to my students all the time about how lucky they are that they have the right to come to school every day and learn but I don’t know that it has really resonated with them that this is actually a right of theirs, not just their teacher sprouting off crazy things.
I also really enjoyed reading Poverty, Peace and Action. As I read through it I realized that it resembled a lot of what I am trying to do for my project and it also made me realize that there are a lot of things I should be including to help invest my students and make this meaningful and more authentic for my students. Being a math and science teacher I sometimes forget the power of a book (yes I know this is horrible but we are just so focused on creating and experimenting). I am so excited to incorporate different literatures, both fiction and non-fiction into this project for my students. I think this will be a great opportunity to really bridge some different standards as well as mix things up a bit for them in class, which I think is always a good thing.  

Latinos for involvement in family education brought about several great points that also resonated with me as I think about my progress with my action research project. Several of my students are doing their projects based around specific things in our community and are focusing on things in the community that really matter to them. I actually have two groups of students who are focusing on helping other students with medical issues in the community and how they can help raise awareness for them and help fund research for their illnesses. My students realized the importance of being involved in the community and want to be involved in their community.

It’s Not Easy Being Flat reminds me of the importance of really explaining and helping my students digest what their rights are and why it is important to value and understand their rights. Although I briefly talked about the UN Rights of a Child before we started our projects I realize that I did not do them justice and that it is really important for my students to sit down and think about them and talk about them and discuss the meaning behind them. I want my students to use these rights as a way of empowerment, something that means something to them, something they can be proud of!

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