Social Snapshot: Women

She's not a disney princess because she pointed out that beauty isn't the reason the guy should marry the girl. 

Most movies about fairy tales will make the princess the "fairest of them all" and that beauty is for the delight of their prince. Most women want to be a princess and live happily ever after, but only the beautiful ones get to do that.



Even heroines have to be the sexy type. You can't even defeat bad guys without full on makeup and a tight leather suit.

A popular trend now is to post faceless photos.

We love our pinterest and clothes, but faces and personalities might ruin our ideal outfit.

 

The ever present battle between what men want us to be and feeling bad for wanting to be anything other than that.

The main shot here is the body. Our bodies and how they look are what is most important to our health.


We can't be trusted with credit cards. We, again, value our looks more than anything.


It's almost impossible to understand what we think, so go with the easiest thing to do and just look at us.

What is being portrayed?
What most of the artifacts depict is that looks are all that are important for women. It is almost to the point where we can't do anything but care about that. To be a woman in America you have to care about your looks or you won't get anywhere in life. You have to be a certain size jeans, have impeccable hair, and be flawless in everything, in order to succeed. Also, women are seen by men as overly confusing and difficult to work with, which can be ok as long as you're drop dead gorgeous.

What are the consequences for children?
In our society, girls are expected to read and know these fairy tales of a beautiful princess who has a happily ever after. They want that happily ever after, so they have to become that princess in order to get it. Also, boys who are interested in their looks are thought to be "girly" or a "sissy" and are often made fun of. These kids will grow up thinking that the things that go along with looking good (shopping, becoming models, taking a long time to get ready, etc) are exclusively a large part of women's lives. Girls worry about how they look so much that they may lose self-confidence when they aren't the models in the magazines or in the movies.

Why is it important for teachers and others to understand the counter argument?
Understanding the counter argument is important because it gives women the power to show that there isn't a single story. It gives us power to say, being a woman will not stop me from being what I want to be, whether that be a scientist, a mother, an artist, or a CEO. There have been moevements to eradicate things like photoshopping in order to make the portrayal of women better, but I think those movements are missing the point. We end up with things like the unphotoshopped, plus sized model, swimsuit edition, sports illustrated magazine. What we really need to do is start telling the stories of different women and give girls role models. Those stories need to reach the general public, not just the women who are educated. It's a problem that when asked what great female role model in science, politics, or history they'd like to meet, people don't have an answer or can only think of a few women. It's not that there are only a few, they just aren't heard about. We need to talk about those role models so girls will stop worrying about their looks and worrying about how to become the best they can be. As teachers we need to encourage girls to think beyond their looks and start lifting each other up to do great things. Because we can do great things.

Imagined Classroom

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Tables to easily maneuver around, concrete floors for easy cleanup if accidents in labs happen, and windows because I like the light, make this an ideal classroom.
Also, internet access for research and activities is a plus. 

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Students will get to be heard a lot in the classroom. If they talk more than I do, it was a successful day. 

Lecture is not the go to form of teaching. I'd much rather be doing things and having students explore the concepts they are to learn. 

Tide-pooling field trips and marine research projects would be done in my imagined classroom as often as possible and when relevant to lessons. I may even get to teach my own marine biology course.

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Specimens that students are able to interact with during appropriate lessons will be all around. 

In my imagined classroom, there would be at least one wall with lots of windows to let light in. There would be all sorts of fascinating specimens that students could handle when appropriate. We will use what we can find for experiments pertinent to the lesson. Hopefully there will be access to the internet for instructional videos and examples of any experiments we can't perform ourselves. Close by to the school would be the ocean, forestry, and possibly a nearby science museum or college campus, where field trips would enhance certain lessons.

Typical students would be adolescents around the age of 13-14. I can see myself teaching in a rural coastal town, some smalltown, USA or any other country. There may be some "hick" students if it is an american small town and ranging anywhere from poor to upper-middle class backgrounds. There would be surfers, swimmers, maybe some students really into the school track team, and some interested in the musical theater performance that I help the school put on. There may be some students with crushes on each other. Maybe they will be assigned lab partners and get married later in life. If the lesson required some lecture, they would be seated in a seating chart that was switched up every so often. They would be at least alert if not engaged in the lesson because they wouldn't know who would get called on next to answer my next question. If the activity had groups they would be moving about, collaborating with their group as well as with other groups, teaching each other and learning together. There may be students who don't want to be a part of the class. They may do everything in their power to not try. They will be hard. But I won't mind. They will be my students and I will try to help them see the fun in learning.

Classroom rules will be spelled out in the beginning of the semester. My number one rule will be to respect the students and respect the teacher. Students will then come up with rules together that are more specific, as well as consequences if any of the rules are violated. I will help and adjust any rules or consequences as I see fit, giving the students a reason for any changes I make to their suggestions. There will have to be safety regulations for any labs we do, and I will have those listed and placed on a wall where everyone can see them. Disciplining will consist of one reminder of the rule they are breaking and if it continues, enforcement of the consequence for that rule. If it continues after that, the student will stay after class and call their parent to tell them what they did. If the behavior continues after that, I'm guessing I will have to involve someone like the principle.
There will be regular homework assignments to help students prepare for activities we do in class. These would happen maybe once or twice a week. The homework would be geared towards mastery of concepts, so they would be able to turn it in as many times as they need to get it right, until they take the test for the material the homework covers. 

A typical lesson would start out with me greeting the students in an excited manor and going over what we will be doing in the lesson that day, a reminder of any upcoming assignments, and any announcements. There would be a quick engaging activity to remind the students about what we talked about last lesson and get their heads in the scientific mindset. Questions could be asked during this activity if there are any concepts they still don't understand. Next, I would introduce the topic of the day with either a short presentation, a lab, or another activity, depending on what we needed to learn that day and what would best teach the concept. Student participation would be heavily required in everything we did. I would be constantly asking the students questions to make sure they understand the material.
In any lesson though, I'd like to do the least amount of lecturing as possible and have the students be learning, discussing, and teaching each other, with me as a "guide on the side" to clarify concepts, challenge them, and maybe even inspire a little.

One specific lesson, we'd learn about predator and prey relationships. The main thing they would take away from the lesson would be how prey and predators have characteristics that help them survive. This would tie into how living things adapt to survive and add to their understanding of how evolution works. Why do students need to know this? Because then they understand a little better of our relationships with animals.

In my predator-prey lesson, I would first show some pictures of predators and prey and ask the students to notice and write down characteristics they see in the picture. From those pictures and the characteristics they see, I'd have them write down what kind animal this is (predator or prey). They'd then have 10 seconds to talk to their neighbor about their answer. I'd be walking around the classroom, in between desks or tables, raising the students level of awareness. Then I'd ask the class as a whole to tell me what they picked (predator or prey). After a few examples, if we had access to a computer lab or they had their own access to the internet, or even if I just had a bunch of identification books, I'd have the students get into small groups and quickly research an organism and be prepared to present that organism. We'd then have a competition between the groups and discuss who's organism would survive the longest, based on the characteristics presented. So, I as a teacher would be mostly giving directions and bringing the students together when needed. I'd be prompting questions when needed but I'd ideally be free to walk around, help students when they get stuck, and direct discussions where they hash out their learning themselves. I'd sit down in the back of the class among the students when other students were presenting their organism.

We would most likely have to do a unit on classification. An activity to go with that would be to have the students classifying with toys. Students would be split into small groups and given 10 or so toys. They would give the toys a scientific name from a list that I give them. Then, they would sort the toys into groups, creating a chart of how the groups split up. This would give them a feel for how scientists classified organisms before genetic mapping, while keeping them engaged.
Another activity would be learning about density. There would be three tests where students make observations and predictions and say why they make those predictions before we do the test. First would be dropping different rocks in a tank filled with water. After doing the experiment the students would write down the results and discuss why they thought it happened with their neighbors. Then, I'd have three volunteers drop different cans of soda in the water. The students would again write down the results and discuss them. Last, I would find a video on the two different bowling balls where one floats and one doesn't. After the students write down the results, we'd discuss all three experiments as a class. This activity shows the students how things that look the same can still be different because of their mass. We'd then give a name to that, calling it density, so then they would have an activity to tie to the new word.
Another activity that we would do is making a cell using the students' bodies. Students would get into groups that were assigned an organelle. They would then find out, using the internet or a textbook, what that organelle does. We would then either make room in the classroom or find an open area within the school to call our cell. The groups would then make a formation with their bodies that represents their assigned organelle in the cell. Then we'd go around and explain the organelles and correct any out of place organelles. This activity gets kids up and moving and thinking of the cell as a 3-D object and thinking abstractly, instead of just looking at a picture and learning the terms.

The first step would be to ask questions during the lesson. Then, there would be daily, simple, low stakes quizzes over the material they learned in class that day. I would tell them the questions they missed and they would write them down as part of their personal study guide. If I notice that most students miss the same question, we will review that topic again with a different approach. Once a week homework assignments or mini projects will be given as well. Projects can't be turned in later like the mastery homework. There will be larger tests that are more points and cover a unit of material. This will be when the mastery homework can't be turned in anymore. A general study guide will be given and students will quiz each other while reviewing for the big tests, using their personal study guides as well as mine if they need it. There will also be a science fair project they work on throughout the year, to test their abilities to think critically and logically.