Barack

I went to see Barack Obama speak in Dubuque, IA. I listened as several questions were brought up about education and if he was elected what changes would we might see as the general public. This is one quote I found very relevant to ed psych: "Our public education system is the key to opportunity for millions of children and families. It needs to be the best in the world. Of particular concern is the growing achievement gap between middle and low-income students, which has continued to expand despite some overall national achievement gains." Throughout the semester we have discussed this growing gap in our nation and by not addressing it on a national level we are greatly hurting our nation. While the Busch administration has tried to answer this with No Child Left Behind. I found Obama to have more realistic answers that start on small scales and work towards the larger goal to continue to be the best, while Busch has everything happening right now. I am a supporter of Obama and with an change in office, changes will take place. I conclude with hope that Obama will be successful in his attempts to become president and then more successful in his attempts to clean up our education system for our future generations.

Gustar

I attended the April 10 Gustar concert. This was a soft-rock group that attacked hundreds of Luther students, friends, and roadies. I thought how this event might connect to school. First, it creates a culture of students who follow bands, driving hours on school night and not meeting their beds until the morning hours. Thus, creating an even tired student body. Next, I thought about the time and money some parents put into these concerts. Yes, parents were standing in the crowd dancing right along with 14 and 15 year old, attempting to be the "cool" mom or dad. Would it be possible that students would be more excited about school if parents took off work to be at academic events? Or get just as excited about their child's good grades? Our society needs to re-exam family structures and ask ourselves if pushing education to the back burner for a chance to jump around intoxicated college students and then drive home staying up until possibly three am and then being tired the rest of the school week, if the parents even makes the student go to school the next day.

Ethnic Arts Festival

The Ethnic Arts Festival had a variety of booths with "experts" at each, explain about the country. This was a useful experience because it not only educated me about unfamiliar countries, but it also gave me the awareness of all the diversity in our world and made me think how I could possibly bring that to a school. Listening to foreign exchange students, or Luther students who have studied abroad to these countries, I realized this first hand experience it truly creates a sense of appreciation of the respected cultures. These students eyes lit up when talking about their experience or home. While I will try my best to bring my own passion and excitement for different cultures into my classroom, I will always look for those who have more experience then I do, so my students can hopefully get a taste of how, when, and where others live.