Social Justice Event:
Attending the Social Justice Event Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation I was able to hear an abundance of information about the changing and evolving of the education system in our society today. The keynote speaker,  Christopher Emdin was very engaging and entertaining while being very informative and eye opening as well. He used videos and pictures incorporated in a powerpoint to help prove his points about the education system today. Many of the things he said connected to multiple readings that we had discussed in class and throughout the semester. The first piece I could relate this event to was the most recent piece we read by Ira Shor titled Empowering Education: Critical teaching for Social Change. The title says it all, Shor discusses how the education system needs to change in order for change to happen outside the classroom as well as inside. The point that was made about being slaves to society and conformity was the most important part in the piece because that is exactly what people are. They are slaves to the bigger people, those who create the rules but these rules are what is causing the issues in the first place. This concept reminds me of the Silenced Dialogue. A video the speaker showed at the Social Justice Event also reminded me of the Silenced Dialogue as well. The video was of a student in the back of the classroom trying to answer a question the teacher had asked by yelling out the correct answer but the teacher would not call on him because he did not raise his hand. This video related both to the Silenced Dialogue and the point Ira Shor made about being slaves to conformity. There is a rule in the classroom about raising hands and if a student does not raise their hand they will not be called on even if they have the correct answer. The child in the video continued to put his head on the desk, feeling defeated and put down. It is the job of the teacher to make children feel welcome and comfortable in the classroom. Another point Emdin made in his presentation was the fact that people are from different backgrounds and it is important to blend these backgrounds in the classroom and make sure that judgments aren't made based on what a person looks like or their background. When the speaker asked open ended questions to the audience there were a variety of people who raised their hand and agreed with him on what he was asking, there was no one type of person who answered his questions or who agreed with his points when he asked about them. These exercised he did kept the audience engaged and it made me realize that being quick to judge someone on their appearance is not good. I already knew it wasn't good but it opened my eyes. These engaging exercises he conducted reminded me of the Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez because he talks about the young boy who grew up in an unsafe neighborhood and thought nothing of it. It is incredible was children go through when they are so young and as adults it is difficult to realize how much they go through because they don't directly discuss it. Working in the school as a tutor and listening to many stories told by classmates has made me realize how strong these kids are and the events that go on in their lives are difficult and I commend their bravery and strength every day for going to school.
There are many outside sources I could refer to relating to the speaker at the Social Justice Event. Reiterating the engaging exercises about how people have different backgrounds and it is important to be aware of that, it just relates to the many stories and personal experiences that have been shared in class. In my classroom there was a little boy who did not celebrate Thanksgiving and I had asked him about it. In doing so, I think I made him feel left out from the rest of the kids. When Emdin discussed the education system as conforming and not changing I thought about what Fred had talked about in his blog when he discussed the many children who were incorrectly classified with disabilities and how this has been going on for years, even more so now. Another connection to the conformity of the system was when Emdin showed pictures of classrooms and how they are set up and how class pictures are taken. All the students usually stand in rows and the desks are placed in rows as well; he used pictures from years ago and pictures from today's classrooms and there were not any differences. This struck me very hard because as a future teacher I do not want to give in to society's ideas of a perfect classroom and having the desks set up differently is important so the children can engage with different students. When I attended the presentations throughout that day I analyzed how the desks were set up and in the Henry Barnard school there are circular tables with chairs around them and in the Fienstein School on Broad Street there are square and rectangular desks with chairs around them but in my English class here the desks are lined up in rows. It was interesting to compare the classrooms and I thought about how boring my English class is and how that could correlate to how the desks are lined up. Overall, he was very informative and entertaining throughout the presentation and I enjoyed it.

Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change
By: Ira Shor

EXTENDED COMMENTS

I have decided to base my blog this week on the blog that was written by Wesley because I enjoyed his comparisons he used and the points he picked from the article were the same points I enjoyed reading as well. He posted a very interesting Ted Talk about critical thinking and how that is the way teachers should teach their students and how anybody should teach. I loved how the speaker, Steve Joordens mentioned that anybody can be a teacher, not just the adults in classrooms with an attendance sheet.
There was a point made in the video about being slaves to society and slaves to certain systems and slaves to conformity, I found this interesting because it made me think about how sometimes I choose not to speak up about certain topics because it is not the most popular opinion I have. Joordens then continues to talk about people with different opinions; he called these people opinion odd balls and he said he loved them. I think everybody is an opinioned odd ball but sometimes people don't like to show that.
Also, In Wesley's blog he discusses points made in the article. In particular I love his topics...in his words called PAPSMDDDRIA but this means 

• Participatory

• Affective

• Problem-posing

• Situated

• Multicultural

• Dialogic

• Desocializing

• Democratic

• Researching

• Interdisciplinary

• Activist 

I really enjoy how he emphasized how important these roles play in every day life as well as in the classroom. As future teachers we have to acknowldge that we will run into issues with politics and there are no ways to avoid running into these issues but there are ways in solving them and dealing with them appropriately. 

Points to bring up in class: Although my post is late and we already discussed the article I would have loved to touched upon this video and what other classmates thought of the speakers points on critical thinking and the difference it makes in classrooms when teachers think outside the box and outside the curriculum.

 

http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/buchanan/

Citizenship in School: Re conceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer

REFLECTION
I chose to reflect on this piece because I have learned more from this piece than any other article we have read. I want to become a special education teacher and reading this made me think about the many situations I will have to face inside the classroom and with other students and teachers. There will be students with many disabilities, besides Down Syndrome and I need to learn how to handle these students and teach them and inspire them in the classroom. There were many points brought up about the importance of spoken word and communication and these points reminded me of the Silence Dialogue article and how these students will never be understood unless they are heard somehow. Some of them cannot physically be understood but by observing them and watching what they enjoy to do, teachers are able to communicate with them in other ways besides oral words or listening to them speak. I am affected by this article because the teacher that incorporates Where The Wild Things Are into her lesson plan is really inspiring. She takes one interest of one student and uses it to follow many standards that are required for the children to learn; they are able to be artistic in the making of the play and they are able to practice their reading and writing skills in reading the story and writing a script for the play. It is so important to keep all the students happy and I think it is especially important to listen to those students who may not have a strong voice in the classroom, those with disabilities unlike the other students. I hope to work in a classroom with mainly special education students but learning how to work with special education students as well as not disabled students is equally as important.

Points to bring up in class: Throughout school there was a handful of students that I knew who were disabled for many reasons and they were put in mixed classes as well as classes where there were only disabled students. My questions are only for them because I would not be able to answer it. I really wonder what it is like to be in a classroom different than the ones I have grown to know. Some students had an aide with them all through school, others only had the aide for certain classes. How long are they able to have the aide? What did the aide do?

I have added a link describing that the number of babies born with down syndrome has actually decreased over the years.

http://www.downsyndromeprenataltesting.com/gone-150000-fewer-people-with-down-syndrome-in-the-u-s/

Tracking: Why schools need to take another route
By: Jeannie Oakes

QUOTES

"Perhaps as important as student's access to knowledge are critical instructional conditions in their classrooms, that is, the quantity of time spent on learning and the quality of the teaching" (178).
This quote is relevant because as future teachers and educators we have to realize how important our job is, not just to us but to the students. It is our duty as teachers to lead these students to a successful future. This quote is mentioned in the section on Uneven Opportunities and I think it is crucial that we recognize the opportunities that we create for every child and how every child seems to have different opportunities depending on their abilities.
"Creating constructive alternatives to tracking presents technical as well as political problems. Despite promising research findings about heterogeneous grouping, little is likely to be accomplished by simply mixing students up. To be effective, alternatives will probably require fundamental" (179). This quote is relevant also to the fact that we will be teachers and educators and we have to adapt to the changes that occur all the time with the tracking systems and testing alternatives. Tracking as positive and negative affects and can lead to many issues as well as many successes, for the children and the system. I think tracking pressures students to do better but it also makes them feel too pressured and eventually they don't care where they stand. Personally I did not like having a rank in my class because it made me feel poorly if I were below.
"Some rules of thumb can help teachers judge whether the lessons they plan are likely to help students of all ability levels succeed" (180).
Another aspect of teaching that we will have to get accustomed to is creating lesson plans and making sure they work for all types of students. This is a difficult task because it is difficult to figure out what type of lessons work for every student and we have to adjust and accommodate to all the needs of the students. It is helpful to have a student teacher in the classroom at the same time so they can work with students individually on certain subjects that they have issues with.

Points to bring up in class: Although this article was mainly discussing the differences in abilities in students and how different classrooms and teachers accommodate many different students, I want to know the opinions of my classmates of how they plan on working in the system.

I have posted a video about a teacher assigning seats, what do you guys think about it?!

  https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/assign-classroom-seats

Becoming Something Different: Learning from Esme
COLLEEN M. FAIRBANKS
PENNY MASON CROOKS

CONNECTIONS

After reading this piece I connected the points made to two previous pieces we read, Speaking the Unspeakable and Hunger of Memory. In Speaking the Unspeakable, there was a lot of discussion revolving around the difference between public and private spaces and how the two can be combined. In Becoming Something Different, Esme is struggling between the pressures in her home life and the pressures in her academic life. Although in Speaking the Unspeakable it is sexuality that is the main topic but I think the bigger picture of private and public spaces in everybody's daily lives is the most relevant point that is made and can be correlated with topics other than sexuality. In this case, the barrier is lack of communication between two languages. Esme constantly struggles with learning English in school and it is very difficult for her because at home her parents speak primarily Spanish. The pressure Esme feels from the school is to learn English in a certain amount of time and speak it proficiently or she is placed in special literacy classes clashes with the pressure she feels from her family at home who wants her to keep her heritage and not be like the other American children. When Esme reaches high school it becomes more evident that her parents are strict about their cultural ideas when her father does not allow her to have any boys over.
In the Hunger of Memory, Ricardo faced many of the same challenges that Esme did throughout their academic careers. He deals with the same conflicts of private and public space that Esme deals with because his family primarily speaks Spanish in their household as well. All three of these pieces deal with the differences between public and private spaces and the challenges that ELL students face in their homes and in schools. It is not only a lack of communication between two languages but lack of understanding between cultures.

Points to bring up in class: Does everybody face issues between private and public spaces? How is this a challenge? Sometimes issues at home can meld into the issues going on at school and children will miss school because of these issues but what is the big picture here. These children are not being taught equally and are being pressured by too many people.

3 R's Race Reform Rights
HYPERLINKS
There were many parts to this video that related to issues that we have previously discussed in class and to other articles we have read. There was a particular topic that related to me because of my plan to become a teacher. I feel like many of the people in this class can relate to this as well. Closer to the end of the video there was a question asked about whether having a non white teacher affects the students. I had never thought about it before but the only Spanish teacher I had was for my Spanish class and I think I have had only one black teacher in middle school science; he has since retired. This made me think about how non white teachers feel when they teach and whether it does make a difference or not. Gloria; one of the speakers said something in response to the question, "All students need to see a teaching force that more accurately represents the country." her response was clever and clear and not close minded and opened up many other questions to follow. She basically is saying that a non white teacher will not just help non white students but they would help every student. My Spanish teacher obviously helped me in my Spanish class but thinking back having my teacher in eighth grade be black affected me as well. He would actually make mild jokes about it and I realized he was one of my favorite teachers because he was so outgoing and knowledgeable....not because he was black.
I attached a video that appeared on the side bar of the original video and a picture of the logo of the Dual Language Immersion program that is opening up in schools. the video is of a Hispanic teacher talking about his experience in the classroom and how he incorporates his culture to help the students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWRriW9jm6Q
Points to bring up in class: Will we, as future teachers, be able to accommodate all children, Spanish speaking and not? Depends on school, administrations, curriculum, etc. Our experiences in the schools we are in now, I am in an ESL classroom and the curriculum is not great even the teacher complains about it.

Kahne & Westheimer, "In The Service of What?"
REFLECTION

I decided to write a reflection on this piece because I have completed a lot of community service hours in my life and service learning and community service is very important to me. I never realized there were controversial issues about this topic until reading this article but it seems it can be misconstrued that it is the "wealthy" helping the "poor" but it is just people helping people. In high school I completed the 30 hour famine where a group of us stayed at the school over night and played games that related to issues about hunger and third world countries and we did not eat for a complete 30 hours. It was not difficult because we had each other to distract us and we could sleep if we wanted to. Drinks were provided for us so if we felt hungry we drank water or juice. Knowing I can complete the 30 hour famine was a huge stepping stone in my life because I was able to learn what it was like to not have food but that was only for over a day. After those 30 hours were over I was extremely tired, my body was fatigued and felt very ill and it was difficult to eat after that too.
Another project I take part in is the One Day Without Shoes project and this takes place once a year. The point of it is to not wear shoes all day and get a feeling of what it is like to not have shoes. When I did it in high school it was raining and I remember walking to the bus stop without shoes, it was one of the most painful experiences. I could never imagine walking every day without shoes on the hard cold ground and I just kept thinking about all the diseases I could have potentially gotten. Over the years, I have convinced many people to take part in the day and it really changed my perspective on how people live their lives in other countries. I believe taking part in any community service opportunities will allow people to grow and learn and meet other people and change perspectives.
This article made me think of why I participated and continue to participate in the activities that I do. I think I may do it because I like helping people but honestly, I like changing as a person and learning. It is one thing to help others and know I made a difference in their lives but to know that an experience so simple can change myself is huge.

Points to bring up in class: What community service have other people done? Why do we do it? Community service does not have to be for people, it could be for animals or the environment. The possibilities are endless. The article has many points about the different parts of service learning and the ways it affects people and the people completing it but all in all, it changes people not just helps them. I disagree with many of the points made in the article. VIDEO OF ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REXVN_aROuM
WREBSITE FOR 30 HOUR FAMINE
http://www.30hourfamine.org/?cons_id=0&ts=1414019841&signature=a7d5c2b3cb92e9feb8915a44ca2c05a6

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us- Linda Christensen
ARGUMENT

The first thing I analyzed was the title that Christensen decided to use for her piece. Before even reading I wanted to think about what I thought the piece was going to be about. I had an understanding for how media has influenced people and their actions but my eyes were opened to the multiple ways media could be used. I had always learned it was from television commercials or advertisements in magazines but it began when I was much younger as well. Christensen discusses the many stereotypes that exist in the world of Disney and one student wrote about the gender role issues that are secretly embedded in the Little Mermaid. I had not noticed that until reading this article and it made me realize how many hidden stereotypes there are in Disney movies and how those myths influenced me as a child. These are the myths that have bound me together and persuaded the way I think about certain situations.
Christensen's argument is that "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are perhaps the most influential genre 'read'. Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap. The messages, or 'secret education,' linked with the security of their own homes, underscore the power these texts deliver. As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and worldview embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge" (127). Her argument relates directly to the title she chose, the myths we grew up to accept became our knowledge and this knowledge is all we know so it does keep us together, or bind us, and we have to condition ourselves to unlearn it as we grow up because we learn that the information or stereotypes we learned to be true are actually untrue.
Comments to make in class: When I was younger there were no worries about whether I would be influenced by a movie or show, there was no paranoia that I would want to be somebody on television because I was taught right from wrong and I learned to be myself no matter what other people did or said. I enjoyed watching Disney movies, not for the stereotypes that were hidden but for the jokes and love stories and awesome characters and animation. Now we are so paranoid with what is being put into children's mind that we forget that it is not just the media that has an influence on children. So show them a Disney movie or a cartoon or read a book then explain to them the fictitious parts of it and let them enjoy the fantasy about it. This image shows the multiple influences on children and how closely related they are and how closely they affect children.

Speaking the Unspeakable: Sex Education
ARGUMENT
This writer states many valid and arguable points in this piece discussing the issues of gender identities in schools and places outside of school and how these places connect. The ideas of place and space, public and private and the combination of these is quite confusing because of the many topics that can relate to any of them. In this piece the argument was that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. This means that the idea of place is always changing and it is based on the social relations that surround it. The argument is then reiterated at the end of the piece, "the public and private boundary appears to have a permeability that challenges the notion that sexuality is necessarily contained in one sphere or another, and the notion that there is indeed such a boundary despite the fact that our own perceived ‘private’ spaces can come to take on a material existence that we truly believe in, spaces can never really be fixed, for their boundaries are always open to continuous struggle and they are continually being made and remade through social relations". The process of bringing young children to the light of reality is not an easy process and there are many things that need to be taken into consideration before teachers begin forming lessons around those ideas and plans. Many teachers decided to come out to their children in the hope of making them more comfortable discussing it in the classroom and in turn discussing it at home as well. This is proof that the public space of school and the discussions that are based in school meld over into the private places of the students homes. Both public and private spaces go hand in hand and affect the other. This piece reminds me of the video we watched in class about the teachers introducing a day in the school that is dedicated to teaching children about the differences in sexuality. It was then melded into their home lives because they would ask their parents many questions about what the teacher had taught them in school. This can create controversy because the parents may not want the child to grow up thinking a certain way. The most amazing thing in the video was a little girl who was sitting with her two mothers looking so happy and comfortable in the classroom environment. This combines the home and school lives, public and private.

Points to bring up in class:
In the piece there was a lot of discussion about the staff room and how it becomes a more private place for the teachers to discuss issues but they are in a public place, the school still. I wonder, as a future teacher how I will react to such an environment and if I will face these decisions one day also. I would also like to talk to the parents in the classroom about how they plan, if they haven't already, to talk to their kids about gender identities in the public and private spaces.

I found an article describing a disorder that is Gender Dysphoria:
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/gender-dysphoria-symptoms/

Hunger of Memory: Richard Rodriguez
HYPERLINKS

This piece, being an autobiography was more moving than other pieces we have read in class because it is not a person writing about or referring to another person but every experience was a first hand one and what he experienced as a child and even as an adult is truly eye opening. I think everybody can relate to his situation in some way, maybe not experiencing the same situations but knowing somebody who has. We all have grown accustomed to certain societal beliefs about immigrants and how and why they travel to the United States. We have forgotten the purposes of them being here and why it is so crucial to help them adapt and help them channel their heritages to add to our "melting pot" or "salad bowl" of a country.
I related this piece to another class I am taking right now, CEP 315 and in this class we have recently been discussing language barriers in schools and how programs are being created to help those who are not native English speakers. Rodriguez talks a lot about his home life and how comfortable he felt inside his home, despite it being in the US but it was because of the language that was being spoken that made him feel so at home. His parents and three other siblings always addressed him in Spanish and this was his norm. On his first day of school his teacher addressed him as Richard instead of Ricardo and every student in the class were native English speakers. There is a program that is developed in the D.C area that is about incorporating the English and Spanish languages every day in the classroom. In our CEP 315 class we watched a video about the program. After reading this piece I began to think about if the program existed when Rodriguez was in school if it would have made a difference for him.
There is second video I posted that discusses the status of education programs and how bilingual education programs are becoming more popular throughout the country. The history of immigrant flow and the relation that this has to the current issue is extremely relevant. The number of immigrant children affects whether or not programs like the Dual Language Program will work.

Personal thoughts/comments:
I believe it will benefit all children, those who speak English as a first language and those who do not, to have multiple language programs in schools. I think we start learning another language way too late in life and miss the opportunity to actually understand and comprehend what it means to learn another language. It was very moving to read about the experiences a young child had in school and relating that to their home life as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6PwrSSZ3co

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIppleeIjk

An Indian Father's Plea- Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzlybear)
CONNECTIONS

I have decided to choose the topic of connections for this blog post because I have realized that everything we have discusses in class is connected, from SCWAMP to Delpit's "Will it Help the Sheep?" and the piece titled "White Privilege" Discussing SCWAMP, this letter mainly relates to the whiteness (W) because the school that Wind-Wolf is attending is all white people and the authorities use this fact to their advantage when dealing with people who are culturally different than themselves. In Delpit's "Will it Help the Sheep?" the main point that was made was if changes in the education system will actually help the children or are the changes just for the authorities. This is the same point that is a underlying issue in the letter to the teacher in the school which Wind-Wolf would be attending. It is one thing to think about how the teachers will help him but all the teachers are thinking about is if Wind-Wolf would benefit them. I feel most decisions are made with this type of attitude and this is why the education system is as corrupt as it is. The people in charge are not thinking about the interests of the child but mostly of their own interests.

Other than the authorities not doing the right thing when it come to their students, there is the other issue of racism and this relates to the "White Privilege" piece. The list of the daily affects of white privilege that McIntosh writes is completely eye opening and I think it is very relevant to the letter that Wind-Wolf's father wrote. The administration, as well as the students in the school judge his child because he is not like them. He is a different color, has a different hair style and different customs but this does not make him different. We are all human. This is the main fact that everybody forgets. Humans are all equal. We all have human rights. The human rights are extremely violated in this case and in many cases that we have read about. It was brave of McIntosh to write about how she is involved with the point of White Privilege and as I read over these points it made me realize how many times I experience the same things every day. The same braveness was used when the father wrote the letter to the teacher, he was patient and calm and sounded very well educated and not very angry at all. This proves that he is educated and is the bigger person in this situation.

Points to discuss: HUMAN RIGHTS!
I had a class last year that was focused on human rights, which I had no idea actually existed. There are many articles that state are freedoms as HUMANS. Not as, white, rich men but just for living and existing on this beautiful planet we are born with rights. I added a link to the Human Rights page, listing every article and a Venn Diagram depicting how Human rights are violated.

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Johnathon Kozol: Amazing Grace
Quotes.
Kozol writes about his experience in New York, more specifically from Manhattan and the South Bronx. He rides the train from one of the wealthiest towns to one of the poorest towns in New York. He speaks with a particular family about what they have been through while living in what was described as "one of the largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in the nation" (3). 
There were a few pieces of information that resonated quite strongly with me in this piece. One of them belonging from a child's perspective, one whom lives with his mother in a cockroach infested apartment. 
"'I saw a boy shot in the head right over there,' he says a moment later, in a voice that does not sound particularly sad, then looks up at me and asks politely, 'would you like a chocolate chip cookie?' 'No thank you,' I say (6). This quote stood out in the article because it surprised me how casually Cliffie, the boy whom Kozol was speaking with, he could talk about such serious matters that he had experienced somebody getting shot in a public area. His confidence and positive attitude is what surprised me the most about the whole interview. He did not shy away from sharing such personal information about the events that occurred in his neighborhood and nearby streets. A main topic that was discussed in this article was the astounding amount of people with AIDS and how they cannot be treated because of the amount of people that occupy the hospitals. This was another point that I was shocked by because I personally do not know anybody with AIDS and the people speaking in the article seemed nonchalant about the issue. "I ask how many people in the building now have AIDS. 'In this building? Including the children, maybe 27 people. That's just in this section. In the other building over there, there's maybe 20 more. Then there's lots of other people have it but don't know, afraid to know, and don't want to be tested. We're livin in a bad time. What can I say?'" (13). Kozol is speaking with a nurse who visits a tenant in an apartment once every month. The fear of finding out whether someone has AIDS must be the scariest part of living in the neighborhood, other than the fear of getting shot outside the doorway of course. I have never feared of a disease so serious before and realizing people have that fear everyday makes me appreciate my health and the town I grew up in. Granted, I was sheltered and even being exposed to situations that occur in these neighborhoods is extremely eye opening for me. I had to read these facts over a few times to make sure I read them correctly because I was so shocked. Kozol wanted to reiterate these important points because something has to be done about the health and well being of the people in these places. There was a brief point at the end of the article that relates to the diseases and terrible habits that people develop, "'If poor people behaved rationally,' says Lawrence Mead, a professor of political science at New York University, 'they would seldom be poor for long in the first place.' Many social scientists today appear to hold this point of view and argue that the largest portion of the suffering poor people undergo has to be blamed upon their own "behaviors" a word they tend to pluralize" (21). This is the same point I have heard all my life, whether or not it is right to give homeless people money or never to keep the doors unlocked on my house. Now I understand the real fear. There are situations I believe that people could have prevented if they were to make more righteous decisions but there are also different people who just happened to fall into bad luck and awful timing. As the economy gets worse, there is no hope for anybody in the area whether it was their fault or not they all need help.  

Point/Question to share: I have always been told, never judge a book by it's covers or never judge someone on their appearance. I never understood why until I listened to everybody's stories in my life. There is no way to know what someone has been through just by the way they look. The strength these people have is unbelievable and the hope that Cliffe has for the future is not just seeing life through a child's eye but knowing that just because bad things are happening around you, it does not make the world a bad place. My questions relate to what happens to them in the future, where Cliffe ends up living or if he ends up being another burning body? I also wanted to share a link to an organization in Harlem, New York. It is a non profit program that helps children and gives them opportunities to participate in sports year round with other children. There are many organizations similar to this one and without these there would hardly be any hope for future generations. 

https://www.harlemrbi.org/About/who-we-are.html

Hi there! My name is Vicky Alves and I commute from Cumberland where I live with my dad and will soon be getting my own apartment yay. I love to write but more often than not do not write in complete sentences. I am from Narragansett, RI and that is where I try and spend my weekends if I do not have work. I work at Angelo's Palace Pizza in Cumberland as a take out/cashier, come in and try the pizza it's delish! I am loving this class already, I love discussion based classes because I am very opinionated and sarcastic. The blogging part of the class and posting on blackboard is a bit confusing but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm counting down the days until winter break because I will be going to Florida for a week, by then my tan will be faded :( I am going for Elementary Ed witch a concentration in special ed and hope to travel the world some day. I've made it to many states in the US and Mexico and Spain. I have also considered speech pathology as a career but for now I'm just trying to make it through my classes! :) ...I think I wrote too much...did I mention I talk a lot?