Hey yall! I just wanted to state a blog about the activity in class on Tuesday. I just wanted to hear how everyone felt. I was in the executive elite group, so obviously I did not complain about the way I was treated but I just want to hear more about the way that some of the other groups felt.
In addtion to this I wanted to ask a question about the classroom. When we all become teachers how do you think that you are going to deal with a student who is in the working class and you can tell it it effecting their learning. For example, if a kid is from such a bad background he.she can not stay up in class, is behind in all of their work, never has much lunch money, etc. This is a big issue that I have thought about for a while now and just wnated to know yall's input.

In the class activity, I was in the working class and the way Dr. Turner treated us was very different from the other groups. We had to work individually and had us to write our answers on a separate sheet of paper and she took it up. Then she wrote our answers on the board and gave us no feedback. I have also thought about how I am going to treat children that are from a lower income and honestly I will try to do my best to help them without treating them different or worse than the other children. I am from a working class income and even though I did not have a lot of money or parents that could really help me with my school work, I was not disrespectful in anyway to any of my teachers and I always got good grades so I do believe that some working class children will have some difficulty but I definately do not think all of them will. I will help them as much as I can but of course they will have to be willing to take help.

I thought this was a really different type of activity. When she first sent us out I had no idea there was going to be a difference between the groups, I just thought we were going to report on whichever class she gave us. It wasn't until we started presentations that I realized that everyone in each group was treated different. I wish that the people in the working class would have talked more than the did to really figure out how she treated them. The activity really made me think that I want to treat all my students the same way and that I don't want class to dictate everything about my teaching and my classroom. It made me think of two movies, Freedom Writers and The Ron Clark Story, showing how they didn't let their students socioeconomic status change anything. They kept high standards for all of their students. Thinking of it make me think that if I am half the teacher they both were I am going to be doing pretty good.

Gayle's activity was definitely an exaggeration of how children are treated differently, and I caught on as soon as I saw the "upper class students" got supplies to present their material and the "working class students" had their information on the board before we'd even came back into the room.

I think a teacher who educates children from a lower-income background needs to take extra care to not let a child fall by the wayside. They should treat each child with a certain modicum of respect, no matter what they've heard through other teachers, students, or parents. They should translate this attitude to their students in a concise manner, emphasizing equality in the classroom. As a future teacher, I will always try my best to be impartial towards my student's social class by giving each one of them the same amount of respect.

It's important for a teacher to keep their personal views and beliefs on social class out of the schools, otherwise children grow up learning that treating people of different classes in different ways is an acceptable thing to do, and it isn't. At least it isn't acceptable to do within the context of the classroom, where all children deserve a fair chance at receiving a meaningful education.

I also agree that the teacher's personal views and experiences should not influence how they teach their students. By approaching teaching for the lower class as what we were reading about, where they do not treat the students as well as students from an upper class household, just creates more problems. As we discussed in class today about tracking, kids on the lower track stay in the lower track. They do not have much of an opportunity to move up if they are not exposed to something different or treated by the teachers differently.

Well I was in the working class group so I guess I'll explain more of what happened so yall can understand. She went around the classroom with a very negative tone asking if people had their books or if they had even bought them. Then she wrote questions on the board that we had to answer but we could not work in groups, even though we shared the books we could not talk. She even snapped at the other group and told them to be quiet so they did not interrupt my group. I got up to blow my nose and she gave me a mean look when I sat back down. We then told her our answers for the questions and instead of letting us actually talked, she summed up our opinions and wrote them on the board and then told us to sit quietly until all the other groups came back into the room.

I honestly feel like I would try to do anything possible to help the student in my class who does not have lunch money or can not stay awake in class because they had to take care of the family all night. Instead of making them feel lower than everyone else, I will do anything to give them the confidence in the classroom that they deserve.

I was in the working class group and like Karie said, we were treated very differently. She specifically asked every person if they had their book and even implied that she was surprised we had actually bought them. When she told us the assignment she went through each part we had to find and even wrote them on the board, implying that we did not understand or would not remember. We weren't allowed to work as a group even though we were in groups because we were sharing books. We each had to write our answers on our own papers and she just summed up our answers. We were scolded for talking to loud and at the end she told us we just had to sit there and be quiet while we waited for the other groups to come back. I thought this was a really good activity because I am sure that there are unfortunately teachers out there that treat their students differently based on class. It definitely did not feel good to be treated that way especially when it was obvious that the other groups had been treated better and with more respect.

I think this just shows us the importance of treating everyone equally. All students deserve an equal chance at getting a good education and the economic class they come from should not effect how they are treated.

I was in the affluent group so I was right below the elites. Initially I didn't notice that she was treating us differently because after we were given our instructions we were allowed to prepare for our presentation out in the hall. My group chose to prepare in the lobby which is also where the elite group was working. I remember wondering why we only had one sheet of paper and they were given the whole notepad. I just assumed that she had torn off sheets for the rest of us. When we got back to class and the presentations started, I really noticed a difference in the way that our information was presented and in the materials that we were given. I wish I would have been around more in class to see the reactions of the other students and so that I could notice other things that made our groups different. I think that this activity was beneficial to understanding the difference in attitudes of students when they are obviously being treated differently. We are all college students, but the activity still triggered a little bit of a behavior problem and eventually could have caused disorder in the classroom. It was definitely interesting.

I really thought this was an interesting activity in that it really made possible situations clear. I was in the Affluent group and I really would say that I had no complaints about the way I was treated. I would say to answer your question I would face this type of a situation with a calm and helpful attitude. I would try to do everything possible to help that student catch up in class and as for not having lunch money well I think that I would just try to keep a hidden fund in my classroom for students who do not have lunch money or I would try to get that student on the North Carolina Free and Reduced Lunch program. And if the lunch money thing became a regular occurrence I would speak with my principal and hopefully figure out the best way to resolve the problem.