Archive for year: 2014

1. Assignment title: Spot your Group

2.Assignment objectives: Students will interact with members of society as well as applying what they have learned from their chapter that was assigned to them by the teacher. Then students will demonstrate a specific situation that applies to the main message of the chapter. It will give them the opportunity to view group work outside of the class rooms and witness it in real life situations. Through this assignment students will be able to apply course concepts to real world group work, experience group roles in action, and reflect on the stages of group development.

3. Assignment description: Students will do two hours of service learning in a group setting i.e. boys and girls club, feeding the homeless, etc. Then in class they will act out what they did in service learning and apply it to the chapter given. They will pick a situation that happened during their service learning project act it out and somehow connect that to the chapter given. For example, if they wanted to go to the Boys and Girls club and had chapter three. During their visit,  maybe they witnessed a child sitting by themselves they could connect that child to an underpersonal member as stated in chapter three. They would have to act out as a group the situation where the child is sitting in the corner and then half the group would act it out and half of the group would explain the situation and connect the experience to the chapter for there fellow students. This way,  the students are able to learn about the chapter through real life experiences not only visually via demonstration but verbally as well.

4. Assignment instructions: In order to be successful in this assignment, students must fulfill the two hour service learning requirement and the students must connect it to the course. Time limit is 7-10 minutes. Must use presentation aids and have a well prepared skit.

5. Assignment evaluation: Organization, clear ideas, easy to follow, perception of team work. They have to have the service learning plan printed off the CIlearn printed and signed. This will be graded out of 50 points.

Karina Gilad & Katherine Dombrowski

Last week in class we first discussed our experiences in the Tunnel of Oppression. It seemed we all had similar experiences that the experience left a bit of a sad feeling on us. I think it was an accurate display of reality, but that many of us do not see this kind of treatment toward others on an up close basis. I know that I have not experienced the amount of, or all the different types of oppression I witnessed, albeit pretend, but I have been oppressed in some ways and to some lower level of degrees.  The sheer magnitude of it all, and the feelings I felt as I put myself in the shoes of the oppressed actors  put me in a sad mood.  We also discussed the article Lipsticks and Labcoats during class. I agree this is an issue that should, and is, being addressed. However, great strides are being made in the STEM fields by women and I personally have faith that the numbers will even out before long. I believe that early childhood stereotypes about what a scientist looks like needs to be addressed as well. Girls/women need to feel comfortable pursuing a career in the STEM fields and not as if they are an underdog. Toward the end of class we discussed our thoughts on the homeless articles we read. I mentioned that the most important thing I learned from the reading was that many homeless or financially disadvantaged youths feel as though the  higher education life is like a whole other world to them and that they would not fit in. Also, I learned, that many of these same youths do not have enough support around them to help them  through the necessary steps to become accepted by a higher education learning facility.

The reading this week on liberating ones self from oppression by Bobbi Harro was interesting in how she uses the cycle to show how we can get to the core of liberation. The cycle is quite different than her cycle of socialization in that this is a good cycle and that to join this cycle one needs to take such initial steps as to “wake up”  and to make inter and intra personal changes. I appreciate how Harro has taken upon herself to do more than teach social justice to people but to also help entire groups of people understand what it will take to make system-level changes. I like how she encourages groups to work together and in coalitions “we may organize, plan actions, lobby, do fund raising, educate and motivate members of the uninvolved public. We coalesce and discover that we have more power as a coalition. This gives us encouragement and confidence” (Harro, p.467). The suggestions given by Mary McClintock in her article on interrupting oppressive behavior were similar to the messages we heard at the tunnel of oppression exhibit. McClintock also believes that speaking up against and not accepting oppressive behavior is crucial in eliminating this from our society. I agree that if vast majority of us educated ourselves on this issue, such as the tunnel of oppression did, and Univ.349 class does, and we step up more often and interrupt the behavior, as well as support others who interrupt oppressive behaviors, we can get much closer to a civilized society that treats each other with equal respect.

We begun last weeks class with everyone sharing their views and our personal experiences that we had at the Tunnel of Oppression. It was great to hear how everyone was affected by the tunnel. I myself feel like the tunnel was a great experience, it really opened my eyes of how much oppression is out in the world and in our daily lives. Its great that Jaimie had it as a requirement for our class, it definitely  was a unique experience. The other part of the class consisted of us talking about the article that dealt with the lack of women in the STEM fields. The statistics and main ideas that were shared between our assigned groups helped to refresh the material of how women are looked down upon in these specific majors. It makes sense that women don’t choose to work towards those these STEM majors, as they fear to be looked down upon and be treated unfairly just because they are told they do not “fit in”. After we concluded the review of the article, we then moved on to talk about our readings for that week. We focused on the topic of homelessness and how students who are not in a stable home deal with completing their educational journey. It was amazing to see that although they did not have a home, they took any matter necessary in order to complete their education.

This weeks readings consisted of the cycle of liberation, and what actions to take in order to try to end oppressive behavior. In the first readings it talks about the cycle socialization and how it can be transformed into the cycle of liberation. It stresses how one particular event that an individual goes through in a way forces them to go against the status quo. The readings used very go examples from a white woman adopting a child of a different ethnicity, a individual working with a gay coworker and a woman dealing with the negative judgement that comes with receiving welfare. These individuals go through the steps of the circle of liberation like where their wrong beliefs like stereotyping, discrimination, etc are rid of. Then having to reach out and looking outside the box in order to get different experiences and perspectives for themselves, after this a community may be built where people who have gone through similar experiences are brought in and the ideas are shared upon a safe community of people. The other reading talked about how interrupting oppressive behavior can be accomplished. It is stressed that working towards social justice should always be the approach to any type of oppressive behavior. This can be done by educating yourself, stopping oppressive behavior when you see it happening and trying to educate the individuals who are taking part in the behavior itself. Although change may not come easy, it is very important to not give up on the idea that we can all be treated equally, it just takes that effort on everyone’s part.

1. I was very consistent with my blogs. I tried to watch every episode and take notes while watching and then posting my blog before Monday.  So I think I would give myself a 5.

2. I was also very consistent with posting a comment on someone else’s blog. I would always post a comment right after I posted my own post. So once again, I would give myself a 5.

3. At first I did not really understand that we had to connect the episode with the corresponding chapter, I just thought we had to observe how they were as a group and how they interacted with each other. Halfway through the blogs, I finally realized that we were supposed to relate them to the chapters…so I would probably give myself a 3.

4. I think some strengths are that I would always do them on time and add enough detail to actually describe to the reader what had happened in the episode and explaining how the tribe interacted with one another.

5. I could have improved on relating each episode with the corresponding chapter.

6. I liked blogging because it gave us a chance to see everyone’s view and read their thoughts about the episode.

7. I didn’t really like the whole idea of blogging that much because it was kind of stressful with all the other assignments we had to do. If we didn’t have that much work on the computer, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

8. I am not sure, I honestly think doing another activity would really benefit us because I know for a fact a ton of people didn’t even do these blog posts.

Hope everyone’s staying safe and dry out there.