Mona Lisa Smiles v.s. Stand & Deliver the Schools

Mona Lisa Smiles and Stand and Deliver both are very different schools. In Stand and Deliver the students were rude and disrespectful, but in the Wesley school the girls are well behaved and even over achievers. The girls in Mona Lisa Smiles School had read the whole text book. While the students in Stand and Deliver I’m sure had never even opened a textbook.

Also in Stand and Deliver the school is breaking down there is not enough seats for all the students in the classrooms either, while Wesley school has nice photos on the walls and they amazing huge classrooms this plenty of seats and in fact extra seats.

In Mona Lisa Smiles the young woman go to a wealth school and are wealthy. In Stand and Deliver the school in poor and lots of the students are poor and come from a very different life then the young woman in Mona Lisa Smile. The girls in Mona Lisa Smiles go to an all-girls school and it is a college. In Stand and Deliver it is both a girls and boys school and it is a high school not a college. Plus the girls there are not all prime and proper as they are in Mona Lisa Smiles. The young woman in Mona Lisa Smiles live to get married and have children while the woman in Stand and Deliver live in the moment and not so much for the future.

 

I think the biggest difference in the schools is the image. In Stand and Deliver the school image is broke and that all the students are thefts. While at the Wesley school the image is high standards, they young woman are smart and expected to get super good grades.  

How Escalante and MacFarland are Similiar

One of things I notice how they were similar is there are both a little nerdy. They both had silly things about them. Like their clothes were odd. They didn’t seem real to the students at first. MacFarland set the standard high for the kids as Escalante did “we wrote three of four essays a month. He gave us a quiz on the reading every other day.” Mr. MacFarland did a similar thing as Escalante in the fact that they gave quizzes often. They often times had class discussions; both the teachers would do different activities to evolve the class in the lesson. Mr. MacFarland kept the kids in line by teasing them, Mr. Escalante did the same. They make sure that his students are respectful to them and others in the class. “Here was this egghead, for gosh’s sake, keeping some pretty difficult people in line.”  They both were similar in the fact that they were able to give their students motivation to make them feel good about themselves. “I started reading again as I hadn’t since elementary school.” They both pushed their students to go to college. “December of the senior year, Mr. MacFarland asked me wher I was going to go to college.” As did Mr. Escalante were he would mention to his students that they would be doing this in college. And he told a father to let his daughter further her education. Both of them cared for their students outside of just school they both took the time o go above and beyond.

Using Examples and Detail Question 1-3

1.       Over all Escalante was a good teacher because he truly believed in his students but, he also did much more than that. I am going to list of the examples to you because I have so many. I think one big thing you have to have with being a teacher is passion. Escalante for sure had passion in his work in fact he had so much drive and passion that he pushed himself over the top at one point. You can see this in the scene where he falls down the stairs at one point because of a heart attack. He was staggering down the stairs while he had sweat pouring down his face. He was bragging his chest in pain. He was trying to catch his breath has he fell face first down the stairs. Patience is another good thing. He had patience with his students in teaching and learning. But sometimes he didn’t have so much patience or tolerance of being late, or absent. Being able to take criticism is a big thing. I think he was able to take criticism he didn’t always follow the advice. But, he thought about it and was respectful of it. You can see this in the scene where one of the teachers told him that he would push the students to far. He thought about this for a while. But, then he also still knew that he was doing what was best for the students.

2.       Brown says that a good teacher can be made by “district, state, or federal education policies. Education policy has a tremendous impact on the ecosystems where teacher and students operate.” I got from this that you have to have a good support group in a way. I think that Brown would think that Escalante was a good teacher because he didn’t really have much support. From the principal at least. There were a few scenes were in his co-workers looked down upon the students, you could see that they didn’t care to educate them. They would show disbelief on their face and almost horror that Escalante would want to push the students that hard, and how he could care so much for these kids. At one point a teacher mentioned that “if they try and don’t succeed we will shatter the little self-confidence they have.”

3.       I think that Robinson’s criteria’s were mostly that he wanted the students to be supported in whatever activity they may be a part of. I don’t think that Robinson would say that Escalante I think he would say that he pushed the students to much into doing mathematics and not letting them explore other areas of study. I don’t think he would have support the time where Escalante didn’t break up a fight in the school yard. Fights were flying like bullets in the air. But instead of Escalante running to break up the fight. He bragging one young man’s arm to prevent him from joining the fight. While doing so he pushed the young man’s face against a gate. I believe that Robinson would have wanted to have Escalante not only stop the boy from joining the fight but stop the fight as well.

Escalante Sources

http://www.biography.com/people/jaime-escalante-189368

Jaime Escalante came into the United States wanting a better life style. He became one of the most popular teachers in America. After Garfield Escalante went to teach in Sacramento, he retired from teaching in 1998. He got many awards in education one of which included, The National Teachers Hall. He struggled with cancer for lots of years but, then died in 2010.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125398451

"You have to love the subject you teach and you have to love the kids and make them see that they have a chance, opportunity in this country to become whatever they want to," he told NPR several years ago.

Jaime inspired youth to see themselves in a new light in their potential not how others had judged them to be. 

“Escalante drilled them on Saturdays and made summer school mandatory. Some parents hated it, and they let Escalante know it.”

Later after he was there students were taking even more advanced tests then just math.

Escalante honestly believed that students would not be successful unless you believed in them. “You have to see the potential in your students.”

Copying Quotes

 Lorde’s sentence: “She also read me another storybook about a bear named Herbert who ate up and entire family, one by one, starting with the parents. By the time she had finished that one, I was sold on reading for the rest of my life.” 

She told me the second tail that involved a rabbit called Billy, Billy consumed a whole household, he started with the adults. When the teacher had finished, Lorde wanted her to read more to her.  

Malcolm X’s sentence: “It was sad. I couldn’t even write in a straight line.”

I was disappointed because, when I wrote it was left and right, all over the paper.

Page 28-30 Reading

To give examples of the situation really helps the reader see your point and “is aware of the specific information given.” Examples help me in the current assignment because I have to make sure I not only give reasons for why some teaching styles and techniques are good but to give examples as well as explanations.

Details really help bring the reader into the piece that you are writing, when I write this essay as well as others; I need to put lots of detail in catch the reader’s attention.

To define something or explain in more in depth, this will also be important in our essay to show why we chose specific words or meaning in our essay.

To put events in a logical order or give the paper some type of organization, this will make sure the reader is not lost while reading the paper.

When you are explaining different events in your writing you want to make sure they are not too detailed and not too vague. If your paper has too much detail it can be hard to understand your true point of the subject. If your paper doesn’t have enough detail you are letting the reader make their own assumptions which in the end can leave them confused. Unless you want to reader to form their own opinion of your subject, otherwise you need to be direct. All of these things I have mentioned will help me make connections in my paper that the reader will be able to understand. This will also help me develop a well written paper.  

Stand and Deliver Movie Notes

Very run down city. Looks very poor black people are the majority. Super poor school, looks like a lot of punk kids. That was amazing that he just randomly starting speaking Spanish. It looks like the kids who speak Spanish care more about their education and seem to be more respectful.

Wow the teacher was there for one day and he was already robbed, it seems like a super crazy school. He wants to be a teacher. I like that he jokes with the kids. None of these students know math, they are like in 4^th grade math or something. He uses cooking to teach that is what is the most interesting and cool. There was a fight right in the middle of the school ground and no one even really cared. He makes fun of the kids who are being stupid it is awesome. I like it when teachers put kids in their place.

Students will rise to the level of expectations. This is so true. One of the boys in this gang thing has a hard time showing that he is smart. I think that he will help the other guys in his gang make themselves better.

No one in class is going to take the daily quiz; I think he is going to come up with an awesome way to get them back. He uses per pressure to embarrass the students. Most of these students come from a hard family life.

One of the girls has no support from the family. Their families don’t expect anything from their children. They are bitter about their situation, but they don’t want to change it.

He has fun with his students. That is what I like and he really wants to help his students to excel. The other teachers laugh at him for trying to push his students into Calculus and moving them forward.

The school has terrible conditions to have school in. You can tell that his students respect him now, because he treats them with respect. Plus he also believes in them and trusts them.

One mother didn’t support her daughter and also said that “boys don’t like it when girls are too smart.”

Kimo the teacher really cares about his students are their personal life, which is really sweet of him. Most of these students are really good kids they just have never had anyone who truly cares about them in their life.

I almost think that Kimo is too strict at times. I think he should listen to him students a bit more at times. He is taking so much time with his class that he is taking away from his own family.

Kimo is working himself so much that he had a heart attack.  Now they had a sub, I have a feeling that they are going to lose some of the things they learned and they have their AP exam in two weeks. I think they might fail, which is going to be super sad, because Kimo has worked so hard for them. Kimo starts teaching the kids when he is supposed to be resting for a month.

After their AP exam was over they went to the beach to party! They all went in with their clothes on. They got their AP test scores back. No other high school has more students than this high school all of them passed their test. 

They think that all the students copied because they all got the same answers wrong. They are all super upset about the test. The students are losing it and going back to their old ways. They are interrogating the kids asking if the cheated or if someone did. They make fools out of the board people. Even one of the principal people thinks they cheated. Then his car gets stolen.

Kimo feels that teaching the kids was a failure. He thinks he taught them that if you try real hard nothing changes. The students stole the car then they decked it out.

He goes to the board and asks to see the student’s mistakes on the tests. They won’t show him the test; I think they are hiding something. He now is ragged and he is saying that the board is being raced.

Now the whole class is going to retake the test. He reviews the whole test with them, and he also gives them a pep talk. Poor Kimo is super nervous for his students. All the students are having trouble on the same problems. All the students pass the retake test.

Overall I think that Kimo was a good teacher he motivated his students. He truly believed in them and knew that they could do great things. I also know that he cared about them on personal level. He cares for their family situation. He was also amazing because he really wanted what was best for his students. He had a passion for what he did and he taught his students in a very fun and interactive way. I was amazed at how well he was able to change those kids and also to keep them engaged. He made learning fun and yes at times he pushed himself too much and sometimes he pushed his students really hard. He did it out of care for them, he did it because he knew that they could do something better than what they were allowing for themselves.