We started to talk about culture last week, and we will continue to talk about it as we read world literature throughout the semester. Our class will have a culture too. What do you think we should create as the culture of our class? I know this is a vague question (Emma...), but think specifics about purpose, beliefs, and rules. For example, "reading and writing about world literature" is vague as a purpose. What do you want to get out of doing that? Do you want to gain another perspective or a larger worldview? What is the benefit of that? What do we want to hold as the beliefs of our class? What is important to us? For example, do we want everyone to have a voice? What does that look like, especially when some people are more comfortable than others speaking verbally in class? Are there other ways that people can have a voice in class besides speaking verbally? And what about the rules? Does it work well to have people raise their hands before they speak? Does it work well to have people sit where they want or to have assigned seats? What kind of rules have worked well for achieving the purpose in other classes that you have taken?
These questions are meant to give you a starting point for the discussion. Feel free to take it in other directions, but I encourage you to stay focused on the topic of creating the culture of our class. I also encourage you to make this a discussion by responding to what other people have written.
29 comments:
Culture can be defined many ways depending on whose actually telling it. We are a very diverse class with many different view points as it can be seen in our "technology debate". being that we are all seniors, we should be able to sit where we want with somewhat restrictions such as sit where you can learn and no one will distract you from learning!!! Everyone should have a voice in our class, regardless of whether they choose to use it or not. it all comes down to the individual. like me (sunchips) for example!!! i tend to speak alot and joke around but i still stay on the subject!!! Working together make us more social and we can see who has or needs social skills!!!
Our class culture is very different. Getting to know everyone will help doing group work. It will also get to giving people confidence and not be so shy.
Well first off I would like to start out by saying in order to have a better culture within our classroom and to be able to create a togetherness with everyone being able to voice their opinions and beliefs accordingly it would be nice to be able to figure out a way we can use the space we have to our advantage..now I don't know what that entitles but right now the way our room (the sewing room) is set up we are so spread out that its hard to hear someone across the room but at the same time when we are in a circle it tends to be too crowded, so that is my first thought on our classroom..any ideas?
Culture really diverse. Different learning habits and social skill. One should try to participate to show what he/she feels. We should be able to learn from ones answers and questions. There are no limits to what we can learn. "The Senior" has spoken and shared his ideas.
(Chinese Philosophy)
I think that every one should have a voice in the class. Knowing we've been in high school for about 4 years now, we should know what's good for our education and what's not. People should already know what distracts them from learning and what helps them from learning. It's nice how there's so many variety of cultures at Como that there are so many different points of view. I think that debating and activities like that makes us speak more abouto our opinions and what we think. ;)
I think that this can be a way that everyone can come together. People will learn to respect others instead of thinking "Why is she dressed like that?" or "why does he look like that?" Also then you can hear everyones opinion on the topic.
Culture is different in lots of ways and its fun getting to know about other cultures. Many people dont know how interesting it is to learn about different cultures. Our class has students with different cultures and everyone should get to know eachothers culture because it can be really fun and exciting.
I think it is better if u try to have poeple raise their hand by for they speak but it does not always help the discussion. for debates and thing it is more help full to let poeple choose which side they want to be on. assign sits don't help because people then would try to discussion thing at their tables
Everyone in any class should have a voice, and should be able to voice their opinions on any topic. However, that also depends on the person. Some people like to debate and discuss things, while others do not. The person may feel strongly about the topic being discussed in class, but they may or may not feel the need to "join in" on the debate or the discussion because they simply do not want to dicuss their opinion and views with the rest of the class.
I think that there should be a connection with everyone in the class, and we should all work together and get to know each other. And we should also be able to sit wherever we want free of choice, and not be given assigned seats, because I think people work better when they're seated with people whom they know and like. And group work gets finished easier and more smoothly.
Everyone is talking about voicing their opinions and making a togetherness; Well I think thats easier said than done. Most people, if they're shy now and don't speak up in class now arn't going to change that over night, most of us have been in some of the same classes for almost four years now and if people were going to become more open it would of happened already. Yes; people do change and there have been times when a quite person suddenly becomes talkative...it's unlikely though. Thats why I think maybe having more online discussions will help make people more comfortable talking with their classmates about different topics, which could lead to being comfortable in real life. I'm probably just restating what everyone's thinking right now and I'm kind of getting off topic....oh well. Besides that I think all classrooms usually have a similar...(feel) or...culture to them, you can't really change it, so I'm sure ours will be like that, a place for learning...and talking if that ever happens. It's hard to say though, because anything can happen.
Well, our classroom culture is quite diverse in personalities, opinions, and contribution. We should respect each other’s space and not demand everyone to speak if they don't want to. Rather yet, we should hold smaller group discussions. Then, it's not so intimidating to talk to one another and hopefully everybody’s' voice will be heard.
Yeah, it would help if people raise their hands before they speak, because it signifies our respect for one another to have an equal opportunity to raise our opinions. Also, it’ll help organize our debate to be more civilized, than just intensely arguing (shouting) over each other’s opinions. (Just throwing an idea out there: ) Rather than debates, we could draw or play Pictionary to get a visual representation of the concept. If you want us to be content, give us the choice to choose where we want to sit, because life is all about making decisions, let us be independant and make our own choices. If it's the wrong choice let us face up to the consequence ourselves.
I think it would be nice to be able to create a collaborative piece on this, but I'm not sure if blog comments is the best way of doing it. We are going to have a class wiki though, and maybe that would be a good way of actually 'combining' our thoughts.
Learning about other cultures and their writing will help the classroom understand that not everywhere does things the same as in our culture.
Sitting where you want in a class doesn't necessarily take away from getting to know other people.
I think our classroom is very diverse. We have a lot of different views, thoughts, and beliefs of things. To be a culture as far as in our classroom we should all just be able to hear each other out without getting defensive. We should be able to come together and agree on things as a classroom. I feel like everybody should have a voice it makes it interesting to hear different opinions on a topic. As far as sitting where we want and picking groups we should be able to conduct that on our own. Us being seniors we should know how to interact with one another and behave in a group of our choice.
well cuture is different in many ways no one is the same no matter how hard u try u cant be like someone else. its always hard being the new person or different from everyone else but if u weren't then don't u think life would be boring? i do. so i say we should all speak up and be heard set aside our differences and become one.
I feel that it is a great idea to study about other culture instead of just our own because we could understand more of what others beliefs are and why they do things the way they do. Also, learning about other culture will help us gain more knowledge of life.
Some people doesn't have a voice in class because they are too shy to raise their. I think it is better to have small group work together so people would be less shy and speek out more.
I think that smaller group discussions will help people gain more confidence for when we have a discussion as a class. Changing the people in the groups will also help because that way we can get to know each other little by little. Yes, I know that people can be very shy and I'm one of those people but what helps me overcome that is knowing a bit about everyone. Yet I also think that if you have more to say the the other person then say it because not everyone will want to speak what they think. No one should be forced to speak if they don't want to, but you stay quiet forever!!
Well, most of us are seniors now and we must act and be treated like mature people! I think that most of the classes have the same type of rules in the school, I like some and dislike another.
I think that in any class, it doesn't matter what the subject is, it's always better and more helpful to work in groups and communicate with your classmates.
The rules of a classroom are to learn. That should be our goal. All other rules should revolve around that goal. As a culture we should work together to accomplish said goal.
That is the more boring version...
Each class is unique. We will just have to wait and see to discover how our class culture will shape itself.
Inside our class, there are many ways that makes us a culture class. There are the colors, the laugage and the way how we intereact with each other. Not just that but the way how we teach each other.
Ithink that the class culture will assemble itself as the year progresses.
I think I learn faster about culture when we study with student different from each of us.
I like when i hear different languages from my friends.
When you around with student with different culture from you, you already learn their culture.
I think that the ore freedom you give teen students the more they will respect you. I'm not saying let us do whatever we want to but we should be able to sit where we want so we can feel comfortable in a learning environment. Our class culture is varied and learning more about the culture of our fellow class mates will let us get to know each other in a different way then the class room survey that every teacher does.
i think raising your hand in class to answer something doesn't wok that much. some students would love to say thing that come to their mind without raising their hand. and that works all the time for them.
I think the culture in our class is very diverse. There's very many different people who have a lot of different opinions in everything. I think everyone should have a voice in class even if you are a very quiet person all opinions matter even if people aren't always gonna agree with you. There are always way that people can speak or show what they are saying even if it wasn't speaking verbally. There's paper where you can write on, sign language and acting. People who are able to do this are speaking in their own language.
I think rules are something that should be enforced to those who are always disrespectful because it's not always the class' fault because of that one person. When raising your hand as a rule its always different because those who would like to speak more will always raise their hands more and no one will get the option to really say anything because they are scared to raise their hands or they're just not used to doing it. As seniors i believe that we should not have our seats chosen for us. Its just that if you obviously can't handle yourself you SHOULD get an assigned seat. I think that every teacher should have their own rules that apply to that class.
I agree with Chiara. I think in order to accomplish more in this class everyone needs to speak up. We all need to have a voice. I would also like to add that our room situation is not helping at all. If we were able to organize better, the class would be much more productive.
just testing this out.
I believe in our class we have people from different cultures and may have different believe as well. i do think people should respect people from different backgrounds. and should raise our hand when need to speak.
I agree with lots of my classmate that our culture in the class will progress throughout the year. Our class is diverse so we are already starting the process of culture. As for me, raising the hand will work best because some people talk to much and others don't get a chance to speak.
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