All posts by Hui Jin

MVP#8 I am not a guilty person. Stop searching my pocket!

October 26, 2018Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School LineHui Jin

They just stop us out of nowhere. We could be walking as a group, and they stop us out of nowhere. And we be like, you know, “What happened? What we did?” “Oh, we heard some suspicious thing in the neighborhood.”… We all get frisked. No matter what (Goodman, 2018, pg.39).

It is true that the school resource officers, which also called police officers, preserve the safety of the school environment. Definitely, because of their contributions, the schools are safe, as well as students feel comfortable, which encourage their learning without any anxious feelings. However, regards to some communities, the police officers embodied their unlimited powers and strict attitudes toward students who “looks like” suspicious. According to my field experience in New World High School, located at North Bronx, I could describe the school system as a prison. First of all, I recognized the community itself identified as the coverage of low-income families, residents of most Black and Hispanics groups, involve gang activities, etc. Since I am an Asian, which one of the minority group in this community, every person treats me as a human being without any judgments about how am I looking, the way I behave, even the way I spoke to them. But such comfortable feelings ended after I arrived in my field site; there was a plenty of police cars surrounded school every single day. Besides that, to prevent unexpected dangers to the school community, every student must have investigated by the school resource officers (i.e. search pockets, backpack, materials that they bring from outside of the school) from their head to feet. Additionally, except faculties, students have to pass the backscatter scanners, like an airport, in order to access their classrooms. If students bring “sharpened” things, the school resource officers block the entrance and students sent to an inquiry room to investigate further. (sometimes the police officers treated students in an inappropriate manner). Now, let’s positioned as we are the educators of these students, should we keep act like a bystander? On the other hand, what school environment would be if we destroy the system? Does that become more safety or worse? I believe we (teachers, students, faculties, and police officers) do need a conversation about this issue, which to enhance our school environment to look less than a “prison”.

Let’s learn through watching YouTube!

October 21, 2018Media and Technology CritiquesHui Jin

Throughout today’s education, there is nothing hesitations about the utilization of technologies. In school environments, computers/laptops and iPads becomes second resources for students to engage through their learning. Comparing with the traditional classroom, calculator was the only one technology allowed. How did such dramatic changes happen in today’s education? In other words, why should we implicate technologies in the education system?
As you may notices that YouTube is a worldwide social media (except the countries limited). In YouTube, there are plenty of media resources for people to watch based on their personal interests. It has diverse contents and some of them categized by hashtag (like in Instagram) such as, #tvshows; #gaming; #entertainment; #sport; #music; #beauty; #food; #education, etc. According to each category, most media created through the lives and it from what we called Youtubers. We could describe YouTube as a visual commutation platform, which makes connections with the people who watch the lives and videos.
YouTubers are diverse. They might be the persons who well-educated or the persons who just enjoy for lives. Especially in terms of education, you will see that some YouTubers lives for educating English, Math, Science, etc. One of my favorite YouTubers called Deeva Jessica, a South Korean. She utilized the mystery contents (i.e. ghost, supernatural phenomenon, UFO) to increase the interest in learning English. Honestly, by enjoyed watching her videos, I learned so many vocabularies that I never used in school, as well as to recognized many historical events that I never learned from my social classes. By connecting to my teaching content area, I really encourage students to enjoy the person who teaching in math in this platform because no matter the contents students learned or not, it develops a sensible recognition of mathematical thinking. Also, when students watch videos on YouTube, they could review the contents they already have learned in math class. Similarly, students could learn the contents ahead if the contents itself which haven’t learned yet. Consideration to the students who could not join school community because of certain disabilities, I think watching educational videos are another pathway of learning each subject instead of being present in school.
In YouTube, you can make comments on the specific media that you want to deliver to that specific Youtuber. Students may leave questions and thoughts about the contents that they watched. Some YouTubers might reply to students or if not, students may share that questions and thoughts into the class! By doing so, students might become one of the YouTubers if they would like to express their thoughts & understanding through the media. For instance, students have a presentation on word problems that I assigned. As we expect, students may present as the creation of poster with colors. But other than that, don’t you think recording video about their presentation is another way to achieve their task, too? It’s realistic about students who they are and how their voice sounds like, as well as how their thinking enlightens to other learners or educators in the YouTube community. Once they upload their video on YouTube, the purpose is not for having the number of likes or comments instead to understand how the others think about the contents that they presented. Of course, the numbers of likes and comments increase students’ self-efficacy of learning and most importantly, I think this is another way to develop students’ own identities, as well as be part of the communication since their thoughts and opinions are valued. Another cool feature in YouTube is the subscribe. If students willing to see more contents about what Youtubers upload, the subscribe button helps students to see more relevant contents in the future.

MVP#7 We do learn language in our math class!

October 19, 2018Differentiation as an Approach to Teaching Diverse LearnersHui Jin

Mathematics is often not included when teachers think of problems that students may have in reading, but the use of symbols both in the form of reading words and in numbers is an integral part of teaching in this content area. Thus, for students with special learning needs, the lack of higher level language development and usage, organizational and planning problems, and reading issues may be significant barriers to success in the classroom (Marinell, 2008, pg.166).
Continue reading MVP#7 We do learn language in our math class! →

MVP#5 I hope my parent understand my views

October 7, 2018Socioemotional and Psychological Development in AdolescenceHui Jin

Maintaining interdependence in adolescence and early adulthood, however, involves relative redistributions of relationship functions. Adolescents’ perceptions of parents as primary sources of support generally decline, whereas perceived support from friends in- creases, such that friendships are seen as providing roughly the same (Helsen et al., 2000; Scholte et al., 2001) or greater (Furman & Buhrmester, 1992) support as parental relationships. This process especially implicates friends and romantic interests, the indi- viduals with whom early adults most like to spend time (proximity seeking) and with whom they most want to be when feeling down (Collins, W. A., & Steinberg, L, 2008, pg569).
Continue reading MVP#5 I hope my parent understand my views →