Quiz #3

reflection paper#5

Intellects such as Charles-Arnold Van Gennep have pointed out that practically all human societies use ceremonial rites to mark important conversions in the social status of any individual in order for them to join cults, groups, sororities and etc. As stated in the article Rites of Passages are highlights and validated changes in a person's status, predominantly on the occasion of such life-changing events such as birth, marriage, parenthood, puberty and death, but also may occur upon taking a political office or joining a secret society or group. According to what I’ve grasped from the article I believe initiation rites and rites of passage ceremonies have a massive association with teaching and learning. First and for most, when you initiate something/one you are giving them a formal admission or acceptance into an organization or club e.g. an adult status in their community or society. In order for them to take full accountability for it they must be taught certain things such as rituals, promises, oaths, pledges, etc. After they have learned and processed it all they are then symbolically killed (reborn, and nurtured as they take on the new social status) and then reborn into society as new and different persons. One example the article used was segregation, which was the universal beginning stage of rites of passage. The People who were involved in such abhorrence experienced rituals meant to shred them of their identities and separate them from their preceding social statuses. They were also forcibly moved geographically and transformed in appearance (their clothing, hair, or other physical markings of their previous selves). Another example stated in the article was that of young women whose heads were shaved and eyebrows removed on the first day of the koroseek initiation ceremonies among the Okiek of Kenya. Initiates seldom go through sacrament and torment intended to redefine their social reputation. One thing they also do is endure a variety of body adaptation procedures, including haircuts, tattoos, and scarification. Male circumcision and female excision also usually marked rites of passage. An African tribe in Kenya removed an initiate’s lower front incisors during initiation rites. Clothing and ornaments also indicated the loss of their previous statuses. Different cultures have different rites of passages that they abide by. They are taught things that they didn’t know before joining a cult, group, society or whatever it maybe. Learning and teaching falls hand in hand in theses ceremonies. The whole purpose of the ceremony is to become a different individual, and the only way that’s possible is by being taught something new.

Reflection paper#4

From reading the article Early Human Phylogeny I learned about Hominid Species which are referred to as humans and/or our immediate ancestors by archaeologists and paleontologists. The word “hominid” refers to a limb of the zoological (related or pertaining to animals) family, Hominidae. Hominidae include all species initiated after the human/African ape ancestral divided. That includes all species of Australopithecus (bipedal hominids) and Homo. While those species differed in many ways, hominids shared a matching set of characteristics which defined them as a group. The most conspicuous of these traits is bipedal locomotion, or walking upright. I can’t moderately say I see eye to eye with it all and reckon the fact that they did exist, but I did find the readings to be very captivating and well put together. One specific section in the readings that captured my attention was the Australopithecus africanus: The Taung Baby. Raymond Dart discovered the first early hominid species in Africa. His discovery led almost everyone to believe that human origins and earlier life development started off in Africa. Raymond Dart named this newly discovered species Australopithecus africanus, or "Southern Ape of Africa." It was actually a small skull the size of a new born infant. It looked really amazing and neat. Reading the story of Lucy changed my thought of early Humans just a little because I realized it all made sense when I did my own individual research. I didn’t realize how much she looked like a human till I found out that she was bipedal. The article described how Lucy's bones were common with evidence clearly pointing to her being bipedal. They knew Lucy was feminine because of her size and bone structure. The male hominids were larger than the females which made it easier to distinguish them. They don’t know how she died the only injury they found on her bones were a single carnivore tooth pierce mark on the top of her left pubic bone. They say it was a peri-mortem injury, which is an injury that usually occurs after death. I thought the story of Lucy was very interesting. At first I didn’t want to read it but as I continued on into the story I found myself doing some research on it later on and even bringing it up into my everyday conversations at work. Overall the article was efficient and effectual to my learning.

Reflection Paper#3

My elementary and secondary education was a mixture of both the Contribution and the additive approaches. As a child I was enrolled at a Christian Academy called Ebenezer Christian Academy (ECA). ECA wasn’t really diverse in nationality because it was a Haitian-American school and most of the students were Haitian-Americans. The principal most of the teachers were Haitian-Americans as well. The students didn’t refer to the teachers as teachers instead we called them supervisors because they didn’t teach us everything. Most of the teachings came from the textbooks we worked in independently. We called them supervisors because they administered unto us as we worked and if there was something we didn’t comprehend then they would be of assistance. If there were 150 students enrolled at the school about 5 were African-Americans (non-Haitian relations), 3 were Hispanic and the rest were Haitian-Americans. With the contribution approach, which is the approach multicultural education usually begins with according to the textbook; the school admired important holidays, great heroes and essential cultural elements e.g. Black History month, Martin Luther King’s birthday, Presidents Day, Thanksgiving and/or New Year. Admirations mostly went towards prophets and apostles in the bible and God of course, since it was a Christian school. Using the additive approach, added onto the schools curriculum without changing its structure were days of contribution and merriments for the cause of such events and individuals. Going back to the contribution approach, one cultural element that was greatly appreciated was May 18. May 18 is Haitian Day and on that day we went all out in celebration. We dressed up in Haitian colors, food was brought in by the parents and staff and things that we didn’t know about our Haitian ancestors were taught on that specific school day. I was always excited to attend school on that day not only for the imperative tradition but for the scrumptious Haitian Food as well. If I could go back to ECA the approach that I would want the supervisors to take would be the Transformation Approach because I believe that it would’ve been very beneficial to the little 5% of non-Haitian students we had at the school that knew so little about the culture.

Reflection paper #2

A paradigm represents a well spoken shared view of events or phenomenon. It has its own set of assumptions that imposes itself to what it perceives, according to the article. I believe that most of man's inventions have turned on a switch in a room where a large amount of people has never step foot into. While reading the section on paradigms I didn't come across any mind changing premises but I did read a couple that I was able to relate my already beliefs to. For example the short versions of the story of Original Sin analyzed exactly want I study at church. It explained the story of Adam and Eve and explained the scenario of that specific story. Adam and Eve indeed did become sinners and Eve did fall prey to enticement and tempted Adam. As a child I was told that the serpent was the obsession that persuaded Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. As I became older I heard from certain individuals that there was no serpent and that Eve was lusting after Adam. For the most part this paradigm allowed me to stick to what I learned as a child. As mentioned in the article, it takes a great deal of effort to change a paradigm. Another premise that was mentioned was a fact (to me) that God is a punishing God. The paradigm mentioned the punishments God positioned for both Adam and Eve and the serpent that hoaxed them into doing what were evil. Because of their sin we as their descendents have to suffer. Men have to go out and work hard for their family, women have to endure the pain of child birth, and snakes have to slither on their bellies to move about. To many that don’t really base there life’s on doctrines and Biblical teachings I think this paradigm may be the start of a new conviction. One Paradigm that I disagreed with was the constellation of assumptions created by an atheist structured to support the decision to disbelieve in God. Everything that was written in this paradigm I disagreed with. He mentioned that God isn’t omnipotent. I disagree because that’s not what I grew up believing. According to my constellations from the Holy Scriptures God does exist and He’s an all powerful God that can do all things. This paradigm didn’t change the way I view God and I don’t think it ever will. In the Paradigm Shifts section of the article the figure-grounds and ambiguous figure illusions penciled in most of my intention. The figure ground was the profile of two faces but in the middle it was actually a vase. Looking from both perspectives I saw both the vase and the two faces. The figure illusion was the profile of an old lady with a hat but at the time it was the profile of a young girl’s back with a hat on. I thought it was very interesting to stare at.

Reflection Paper # 1

The evolution of teacher preparation programs from colonial times to present day was a progressive change in both the increasing of its professionalism and value. During colonial times education barely existed and teaching wasn’t in fact considered to be a profession. It was viewed more as a temporary employment than it was as a career. Most of the teachers never even attended secondary school, which was considered to be a ranking between a primary school and college or university. They picked up their teaching skills by serving as trainees to master teachers and a large amount of them were under a sealed agreement to pay for their passage in America by teaching for a fixed number of years. Skills for teaching were not considered necessary but the knowledge of knowing how to teach was considered desirable. People who went into teaching were primarily teenagers who taught for about a year or two. They didn’t last long because they would get fired for either drinking or stealing. When the 1980s came around all that changed for the better. Reports were sent out for the reshaping of education and the increasing of professionalism for all those longing to become teachers. The undergraduate teaching major was replaced with a master’s-level degree and not to long after that came the bachelor and master degree. Teachers were also offered the opportunity to attend school for a fifth year to obtain a teacher’s license. Today we have alternative teacher preparation programs that allow teachers to be trained in teaching “on-the-job”. In attending these programs they are given the opportunity to experience teaching hands on (in a class room setting), however they do not become official teachers till after the completion of the program. The most well-known alternative teaching program today is the Teach for America (TFA). Critics argue that TFA does not sufficiently prepare teachers with the skills they need in teaching, with that being said they argue that the students pay the price for such actions. Others see TFA as a benefit for change in the near future. They say the more training teachers get before interring the actual classrooms the better it will help them farther along in their career. Overall, based on what I’ve read from the text book, I’ve learned that the way teaching preparation programs were viewed back in the colonial times cannot compare to the way they are viewed today. Today teaching is an actual enjoyable career. Not only is it desirable, but the aptitude of it is necessary and greatly needed.

quiz #2

EDF 1005 Quiz 2
Hope you enjoyed the quiz! Your score report is presented below.
Score Report
Score »
58 out of 100
Total Correct »
19 out of 33 correct
% Score »
57.58 %
Result »
Grade E

Bio

Hello my name is Jurna Pierre and I am an 18 year old Haitian-American. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida under the supervision of both my parents. As a child I went to a private Christian academy school where I was taught to work independently, in doing so I graduated high school at the age of 15. I am currently a sophomore at Miami Dade college , working to earn my A.A in education (teacghing-early childhood).
I would also like to minor in business administration because I have a dream of someday opening up my own daycare center (family owned). What motivated me to major in education was the community service hours I did while I was in high school. The Christian academy shool I attended (Ebenezer Christian Academy) was a very small school so there was only about three classes and everyone knew each other one way or another. I used to volunteer my time in the pre-K through kindergarten class. In doing so I fell in love with the children. They were so energetic and loving. Yes, there were times where they drove me crazy, but hey, kids will be kids. After I graduated high school I began to volunteer my time at my church’s Sunday school. There I worked/supervised the toddlers and infants. Long story short, after I enrolled into Miami Dade college I found a job working as a tutor at an elementary school, which is where I currently work. There, I assist the teachers in there class activities and I tutor about 5 groups of 6 children Monday-Thursday from. I love my job and everything about it! I'm very happy about my major and wouldn't want to change it to do anything else.