How to Use Sources

On Wednesday, my group and I decided to assign different parts of our topic to each person so that we could each do our own research for when we meet again. We will put our research together next class into one PowerPoint, and combine our ideas to make the most effective presentation that we can, in what we hope will be a creative way. We brainstormed ideas on Wednesday involving quote sandwiches, and how to present these "sandwiches" in a fun way. I think our project will be completed by the end of the next class as long as everyone did their research.

Community Continued

I've given a lot of thought to the original community that I wanted to observe, which was an elementary school, and realized it would conflict with my own classes. At first I thought that I would be able to work around them, or go after I was out, but decided it would be too hard, so I went with the next best thing. The dance studio I used to go to also has teachers so I can still focus on the same type of community, just in a different setting. I have much more access to this because there are classes on nights and weekends, which would the best time for me to observe, and also the teachers are much more accessible for interviews. I also loved my dance studio and would love to get their opinions on it and how it all works behind the scenes.

Community

The community that I would most like to observe is the elementary school that my father is the principal of, Indian Brook Elementary School. I've been visiting and volunteering at the school ever since I was no longer a student, and it's one of my favorite places to be so I thought it was the most interesting place for me to observe. I want to focus on the interactions of the teachers both in and out of the classroom, and how they use media and technology both to communicate, and to teach. Not only will this be interesting to learn and write about, but I think it will also be beneficial to me in the future.

The Problem with Fitting In

One of the goals that many people struggle to obtain in life is finding a group that they fit into. In David Berreby's article "It Takes a Tribe" he gives insight to the problems that arise for those who do reach it. When a person finds people to associate with, they also find their enemies, and I could not agree with him more. When finding a group to spend time with, who share the same interests and likes, they also share their ideas on who they don't like and who to be against. This is what alludes to the ideas of stereotypes because we group our enemies into groups and judge them based on the things that we don't have in common with them, otherwise they would be part of our group. In continuing to find like groups to associate with, we continue to find people that we do not choose to associate with. As Berreby points out, it creates the idea of "us versus "them" and only continues to separate people rather than bring them together, which is ironic because the original idea is to be a part of a group not against one.