Speaker: Doan Van Dieu

On Monday evening this week, we were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Doan Van Dieu, a professor from Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy in Vietnam, speak with us. Dr. Van Dieu spent much of the time talking about education and culture within Vietnam. I thought it was really interesting to hear about how his culture differs from ours in the United States. One of the things that shocked me the most was the fact the large role of parents within their children’s education and their methods of parenting. There seems to be a large focus on working hard and for each student to perform to the best of his or her ability. All parents seem to want healthy kids, and they really stress being good students. Another thing that was quite interesting to me was when Dr. Van Dieu was talking about arranged marriages. Apparently this used to be very common in Vietnam, and is still prominent today. To many in the United States, I think this seems quite odd; however, he made an interesting argument that the way we choose our significant others is more similar to arranged marriages than we would initially think. For example, he showed us some research that shows how important it is to many individuals that their families approve of their significant other. Though many in this country are free to make our own decision of who we spend our life with, we definitely take our families into consideration, just as those in Vietnam do. Additionally, I thought it was interesting to hear about how their parenting style differed from the styles I have seen in the United States. He talked about how many parents do not praise their children because they want them to be humble and not become arrogant. Along the same lines, he stressed the importance of respecting one’s elders within Vietnam, as well as respect from elders to the young individuals. All in all, learning about the culture in Vietnam was very intriguing and seems to be one of modesty, humility, and full of hard-working individuals.

More information on Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy can be found at:
http://english.slu.cz/ho-chi-minh-city-university-of-pedagogy-vietnam

"Chalk" video

On two of the Monday evening sessions, we were able to watch “Chalk.” This video was really interesting, yet made me a little nervous for some aspects of teaching. It made me a little worried about what to do in a situation when a child does not like you or respect you, and overall how to effectively manage your classroom. However, as the movie went on, these worries began to be less prominent as I saw a couple of the teachers learn and grow. I thought that the first year teacher made the most significant improvements. Despite the fact that he was thinking of leaving the profession at the end, I think that it was a great learning experience for him and I bet he grew a lot from taking on the challenge. I did not think that some of the other characters were as impressive, especially the man who lost the “Teacher of the Year” award. He seemed quite conceited and full of himself. I think to be an effective teacher, you need to put your students first and not your own personal image. Overall, I thought that this video was very entertaining and carried some important messages with it. Ultimately I think one of the main messages was that teachers need to love kids and have a strong passion for teaching in order to do a good job at being a teacher; if you do not enjoy young individuals and do not care about their success, then you should not be teaching. That probably seems like a fairly logical statement; however, I think many people have had at least one teacher who did not enjoy children, so it is definitely something to keep in mind. I liked “Chalk” and even though it confronted many obstacles teachers face, I am still really looking forward to being able to teach someday!

More information on the Chalk movie can be found at:
http://www.chalkthefilm.com/#/home/

"Autism and Education" article

Overall, I thought the “Autism and Education” article was very intriguing and made some important points. Since so much emphasis is placed on the No Child Left Behind policy, I never really thought very much about what is being done to challenge our gifted children. After reading about Lindsley’s son and daughter, one is confronted with an extremely controversial issue. Should more money be spent on gifted children versus the children with disabilities? I feel awful debating this issue because as educators, we want all students to succeed; however, at some point one begins to wonder if money would be better spent on the “gifted and talented” students. I understand that the No Child Left Behind policy was put into place for a reason, but maybe there needs to be some changes made. Perhaps gifted students should be given just as much special attention, in some situations, as students with disabilities. This article makes me think that despite the importance of attending to the needs of students with disabilities, maybe gifted and talented students should be given similar attention in the future.

For more information on autism:
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer

Spring Convocation

At the beginning of this semester, I went to the spring convocation with Diane Griffin. Most of her talk was about infectious diseases as a global problem. She informed us that most infectious diseases affect children. One of these infectious diseases are measles, which can be prevented by a vaccine that came out in the 60’s. Malaria and HIV/AIDS are also some examples of infectious diseases. Malaria is the largest cause of death in developing countries. This is really unfortunate because it is completely preventable with a vaccine. Another thing Diane Griffin talked about was the fact that there is a problem of acceptance with vaccines in developed countries. After traveling to some developed countries, I think this is definitely true. I have found that some individuals are in denial or they do not want the social stigma of having a disease, especially HIV/AIDS, associated with them. She also made the point that some individuals have a problem that the vaccine is not “natural,” there are too many shots, and some are concerned about safety and the vaccines causing autism. Overall, these issues are definitely very real and a major issue in the world today. As a wealthy, developed country, many middle class Americans are not confronted with these issues; however, it does affect many individuals around the world. When Diane explained that it was a global problem, she emphasized the fact that it threatens world peace, it hampers economic development, increases childhood mortality, and it also hampers education. All in all, I think that Diane Griffin made some very important points and discussed an extremely vital topic; however, I wish that she would have spent more time talking about what we, as Americans, can do to help with this issue. Much of her time presenting was explaining facts, research, and data. I think it might have been a little bit more effective if she would have related it to her audience more.

More information on Diane Griffin and her work can be found at:
http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?faculty_id=281

Teacher Panel

On Monday evening, we had the privilege of hearing a group of Luther graduates discuss their experiences teaching thus far. I thought it was really interesting to hear all of their unique stories. From an elementary teacher, to a special education teacher, to a physical education teacher, they all have had various experiences in the real world thus far. Despite the fact that they all teach in different areas, I thought it was interesting to hear that they were all facing similar issues. They all brought up the issue of technology and how the students are so dependent on it, as well as the constant use of a cell phone by the students. As time goes on, I’m sure that this issue with technology will continue to occur. Aside from the issues that they are facing, one part of the discussion that really stuck out in my mind was the experience one woman had with student teaching. She was able to go and do part of her student teaching in Brussels. I’m sure that was an unbelievable experience and would like to explore something like that for myself when the time comes. All in all, I felt as though I learned a lot about all of these teachers and am eager to begin teaching in a few years.
Overall, I really enjoyed hearing the experiences of all of the teachers; however, I would eventually like to hear from teachers who are in a more diverse environment. These were all white teachers who are primarily teaching white students in small schools in northeast Iowa. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would like to hear about different experiences teachers are having in other parts of the country or the world. I hope that throughout my experience at Luther I will be prepared to not only deal with the white population in my classroom, but with the diverse population as well.


More information on the Luther Education Department can be found at:
http://education.luther.edu/

Paper Clips

Both Educational Psychology classes were given the opportunity to watch the movie "Paper Clips". This is a film about a group of middle school students from a little town of Whitwell, Tennessee who did an unbelievable project. Since the majority of the population was homogeneous, the vice principal decided to educate the students more about the Holocaust. By doing this, the students would be exposed to a completely different culture and they would be able to develop a better understanding of diversity and stereotypes. I was completely blown away by how captivated the students were by this topic, and how passionate they were about learning more about it. It was extremely moving and inspiring to see a group of young people care so much about the Holocaust and the millions of people whose lives were dramatically changed because of this tragic event. I thought that the teachers, principal, and vice principal did a phenomenal job instilling interest and excitement within these children. As future educators, I think there are definitely some major lessons we can learn from these individuals, and hopefully we can apply them to our own classrooms one day.
Once we finished watching this movie, we were able to talk about it within our discussion groups. One of the issues brought up was when is it appropriate to teach issues, such as the Holocaust, to children. I actually was in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic over J-term studying the Holocaust. While there, we were given the opportunity to visit five previous concentration camps, along with various museums and important sites related to the Holocaust. While trying to make sense of all of this information, it just became more clear to me how vital it truly is to educate our young individuals about events such as the Holocaust. By doing so, we can teach them what evils stem from negative stereotypes, discrimination, and hatred. Hopefully then can we help to stop an event, such as the Holocaust, from ever happening again. All in all, I was very moved by this movie and felt a great sense of hope in our young children, especially after returning from studying the Holocaust.


More information found at:
http://www.paperclipsmovie.com/synopsis.php