I had a few questions regarding Rolby and Fox’s reading regarding the programs. Why would English 30 not be for every single student that takes English 30? Is there not a stigma still attached for those who are required to do the workshop when speaking to their peers about workshop? Why not structure all the classes like the jumbo 130 and give students the ability to improve their writing skills in a small group. For my intern group the students are great and so is the mentor. She uses the resources she has to keep the students working in this two hour block of time. All the time is used efficiently and is clearly laid out with a few exceptions. The students are engaged because they feel as if they have control of the time they work on things because my mentor constantly ask if things are fair and if they need more time. If most groups could be constructive workshop and the university could afford to accommodate every student, this would be such a great perk to coming to Chico State.

I also believe the idea that if an administration wants students to be good at a certain thing then they should just be able to take a class in that subject. I had this issue when I was taking math I thought that taking precalculus would help me leaps and bounds in calculus because I would have been exposed to some of the concepts it seemed logical when I was picking classes. Unfortunately, to my shock and surprise when I took calculus I completely failed and every one who had simply just taken calculus were passing or doing much much better than I was. I had never thought much about the concept until reading this piece Rolby and Fox were absolutely correct there was no way I was going to be good at calculus based on taking pre calculus before they were two completely different classes. If I wanted to pass calculus I shoulds have just taken calculus instead of trying to somehow be slowly transitioned into it. This applies greatly to my workshop because the mentor is very good at making sure that the students are doing things that are a progression to the work that needs to be done in class. There are no detours just the work and working through the difficult work in order to flesh out the ideas that they are working on.

I do agree also on the fact that students do poorly due to other reasons not because they are incapable. Outside forces are a large part of preventing doing things in our education. It is extremely hard to focus on school work if everything else in your life is going amiss. Therefore the students should not be judge based on their capability without knowing the circumstance. I know personally going through high school I had been an A student until the end of my sophomore year when outside of school I was having trouble. The trouble of moving further away from school without transportation, not having food to eat, working intense hours, and family trouble. I was not until my English teacher Ms. Mora took time out of the day to sit me down and help me deal with these outside forces so I could go back and focus on school. Once I had ways of dealing with all those things I went back to being an A student because I was focused. Therefore when teaching taking into account that that student may simply need help outside of school or things are going astray instead of just deeming them a bad student and call it a day.

Hello I am Cece. I am from the LA area specifically Whittier is what I consider my home town, however, I have moved all over the place. Whittier, however seems to be the place I have always come back to and is now were most of my family has settled down. I at one point attended Cal State East Bay, but left due to marriage and a search for a new educational path. After getting married I moved to Marysville where my husband and I have decided to settle down. My husband and I have two dogs a pug named Frank (yes like the Frank that is in Men in Black), and a giant German Shepard lab mix, Kratos. I am an English Education major, and in talking with a friend of mine I heard this is one of the best classes you can take.

The passage I choose to do a close reading on was the section on “Communities of practice are everywhere”. This section is about how as social beings we are part of multiple communities whether it be church, friends, Facebook friends, Instagram followers, or your coworkers at In-and-Out. We are all part of these social communities. Within these communities we are constantly learning from how to flip a burger to learning about religion. Everywhere we go there is no escaping these communities and the things that we learn within these various communities. Therefore, because we are learning within these communities they are referred to communities of practice. Had the passage never pointed that the communities invade our lives I personally would have never thought of them this way, and how much the communities I am a part of affect my daily life. The best quote to portray these communities is, “Communities of practice are an integral part of our daily live”. So as i was thinking after reading this section so what? Why is it important to understand that we are part communities and what does that have to do with teaching?

This is when the passage went on to say, “learning in this sense is not a separate activity”. Learning is not reading a textbook and taking notes and never engaging. When learning about how to make a burger no one gives a lecture and makes you take a test. So why is that style of learning the majority of the learning that happens in the classroom. Why instead are teacher not doing away with lectures and instead creating a community where learning can happen naturally. Instead as the passage state trying to do something about learning and force it into a box why don’t we allow for learning to flow naturally as it does in every other one of our communities.

What communities are you a part of? What have your learn within these communities?