Newcomer,+Richard

Module #1 Write a brief - 2- page (500 word+ or -) report describing the influences you observed and discussed. Put you first reflection on your individual wiki page. In the film American History X the main character, Derek (Edward Norton), has very strong influences that shape his personality and the way he views the world around him. Throughout the movie we witness how Derek changes as he experiences different events and establishes different relations. His strong racist beliefs, which had been taught to him and fed by his own anger, change when he finally realizes that so much hate and all his actions had not made his life any better. In my opinion Derek´s nurturing and upbringing had more to do with his personality than his nature, although is hard to tell what genetic predisposition he could of had, in the film we basically are exposed to things he was taught and his influences.

Derek´s first strong influence was his father, a very strong paternal figure, a fireman and someone who Derek looked up to, a role model. In the only scene we see him; he teaches Derek about racism and how there shouldn´t be “equality”. We can see a change in attitude in Derek from the beginning of the scene when he describes Dr. Sweeney and the book Native Son, and after his dad´s speech and his acceptance of dad´s ideas. At this point Derek is a young mind being molded and obviously looking up to his father and his beliefs.

When his father is killed in a black neighborhood, this triggers Derek´s predisposition for anger (nature) and hate (nurture). The person he idolized had been violently taken away from him, the same person that had taught him the idea of racism. And here is when his second biggest influence comes in, Cameron, the leader of a white supremacist group, who takes advantage of this frustrated and impressionable kid, creating a perfect hate leader, who other young confused kids, like his brother Danny, look up to. Derek´s attitude is extremely aggressive and that´s what eventually leads him to kill violently and premeditatedly the two black guys that were stealing his truck.

In “the joint” we witness Derek´s change. He is faced with the dilemma of belonging to a group (white supremacists) that didn´t really have principles and didn´t believe in anything. The same group that betrayed him and gang raped him. We see the importance of the relationship he establishes with Lamont, his third biggest influence, who shows Derek how wrong his beliefs are. It is in here, and with the help of Dr. Sweeney, probably the most important influence in Derek´s life, that he breaks and understands that all this hate isn´t going to take him and his family anywhere. Like Dr. Sweeney said at the beginning of the film: “What is learned, can be unlearned”. At this point it was crucial that this other role model that Derek had admired was there to support him and to guide him (nurture) in the right path, now that he could clearly see what hate had blinded before.

I believe that nurture molds a personality. We are who we are thanks to our environment, the way we were raised and the relations we establish along the way. Nature does have something to do with it, we can´t deny our genetics, but what we are taught, the way we are taught and our experiences are what make us what we are. Something to have in mind with our students, children and people we relate with.

Module #2 V iolence - Prediction, Prevention and Intervention - Myth vs Reality - Write 5 Sentences about your reaction to the statistical data showing the trend below. (Remember your initial estimate on violence in the last 30 Years.)



1. At first I thought that violence would have increased as population increased. It was a surprise to see that violence or violent crimes have decreased in the last 20 or 30 years according to the statistics and the chart. 2. It was very interesting to learn that as time goes by, each generation becomes better at resolving conflict. 3. The popular believe and the common feeling is that right now the violence is at its highest and that violent crimes keep rising, it is hard to understand how this isn´t true according to the chart and what we heard in class, when our perception tells us otherwise. 4. I would not have thought either that the crimes reported by police have stayed somewhat stable in those 30 or 40 years with one increment only in the early 90´s. 5. And the other thing that I found interesting from this class, was that right now schools are as safe as they can be. The levels of violence are low and the random killings that have occured are not the standard; but unfortunately that is not what we perseive as parents.

Module #3 Hearts and Minds Describe three things you plan to do in your teaching practice to reduce stress and win the Hearts and Minds of your students and co workers

1. Make the class projects (design and technology) more fun, entertaining (engaging) and related to student interests as possible. 2. Learn more about my student interests: sports, hobbies, professional dreams, and establish connections. 3. Making very clear relevance between class projects and the application of them in their future college or professional lives.

Module #4 Do the Personality Prototype test with another person. Discuss what the results mean. When you Teach you learn. Tell us on this site what you learned by sharing PP Results with another person

I did the personality test with my wife. Her results were: 33 points for Practical Manager and 26 points for Expert Learner. The results came out as I suspected, I was completely sure that her answers were going to tell us that. She is very organized and likes to plan everything beforehand. After she took the test, I asked her what she believed her personality was like. She also thought that the results were going to show that she is Practical Manager, so no surprise there. In my case instead, I thought I was more of a creative problem solver, but I also came out as Practical Manager. So, the idea that opposites attract, doesn´t apply in our case. Maybe that is the reason why we don´t have many misunderstandings and have been happily together for more than 20 years.

Module #5 Moral Dilemma - Develop a MD for use in your teaching practice. Outline it here. Use any lesson plan style or outline that you might have for your class / subject / or grade level. Describe your audience, age, demographic and what you will do.

I modified a moral dilemma that I found on the web. I thought it could be asked to my students in Experimental Design class. This is an elective course that deals with design, advertising and marketing. These are 12th grade students (17 - 18 yrs old). They come from wealthy backgrounds and are divided in both genders (boys and girls).


 * Moral Dilemma: Should You Recall a Flawed Product?**

**Scenario:** You discover a flaw in one of your products, but telling the public might affect sales. The flaw is not life threatening, but it can definitely harm your clients. There´s no way they can tell it was your product that harmed them, only your company would know. You have 2 choices:

1) You could say nothing, fix the flaw in your next production, earn a lot of money and your company will continue working. 2) You could do a recall and let everybody know about your flaw, but avoid anymore harm. This will affect your company’s sales and it will take a long time to recover.

What should you do?

It would be interesting to see if they do take different choices, divide them in groups according to their choice and have them support their ideas.

Module #6 Post 2 "I" messages - (positive) comment on the reactions. Post 1 "I" Message (negative or corrective)

1. (positive) Guys, when you stay out of YouTube and 9gag, you pay better attention and listen to my instructions, that makes me feel great. //Reaction: Some students said: "Mr. why are you so intense today?"// 2. (positive) Sebas (8 year old son) when you ate all your lunch and enjoyed it without complaining, your Mom and I didn´t have to continuously ask you to eat, and I felt extremely happy. //Reaction: A smile, and then he went to watch t.v.// 3. (negative) Sometimes when we have a discussion, the way in which you respond, makes me feel sad.

Module #7 After reading the chapter and filling out the forms in the "Mission Statement Builder" this is the mission I came up with:

My mission is: Keep family close Spend more time with son and wife Enjoy life Value friendship Respect others Always wear a smile Be successful

Module #8 The additional chapter I selected to read from **InStepp** was Chapter 6 "**Managing Relationships**".

I learned that we establish relationships according to our expectations and our needs. These relations could be with our parents, with our friends with our teachers or bosses (authority figures) or our more intimate relations with our life partners or spouses. All these relations have the potential for conflict, for the simple reason that we all come into a relationship with different expectations, needs and goals. Katrinas´s case study, clearly shows how her relations to her parents were very different between them and how the expectations of each parent were different then her expectations.

Chapter 6 also describes how relations change through time, depending on our experiences, maturity, interests and needs. There´s a very interesting example in the book that talks about the relation with our parents and how as we grow, the relation changes from role models to authority figures and then to friendship to end up in taking care of them. In Katrina´s case study, something similar happens with her relation with her best friend Jen. The relation had changed through time, and Jen´s expectations and needs had evolved or changed influenced by new relations and interests she was experiencing, causing the relation between Katrina and Jen to create conflict now that their expectations were completely different.

The most important part of the chapter is learning how to manage conflict in a relationship, how to communicate and make clear what your expectations are and to listen and learn what the other person´s expectations and needs are. We need to be **//assertive communicators//** to live a less stressful lifeand to maintain a good communication within the relationship. The chapter also has “//**10 Rules to Manage a Conflict**//” and “//**5 Rules For Conflict CleanUp!**//”, which if applied would help enormously in a relation conflict. And finally the chapter talks about //**anger**//, and explains that although unavoidable and the cause of a great deal of conflict, it can be managed and used in a productive way.

I found the chapter very inspiring. I am a person that tries to avoid conflict or have a great relation with everybody. I believe I could say that I am an assertive communicator, or at least try to be one. The anger section I found very important and I would like to learn more about focusing that anger into productivity.

In my class I would like to use the //**Session 2: Needs & Wants**// exercise. I am a design and technology high school teacher, so creating ads with the students were they would put their needs and wants as the exercise describes, could be done in my class very easily and would be a great way to learn more about my students, for them to learn more about them, and to establish better relations.

Module #9

I came across this PDF file online, that talks about managing conflict and anger. It has a description of different types of conflict and presents different styles in which to manage conflict. [] **(RICHARD NEWCOMER)**

This is a 28 min video in which different experts talk about kids and conflict. They talk about teaching children how to resolve conflict in school, at home and in life. [] And this video comes from a very interesting YouTube channel called: [] **(RICHARD NEWCOMER)**

A short interesting video presenting 4 anger triggers to avoid, helping in conflict resolution. These could be interesting things to consider when you realize that anger is a difficult matter to manage in a conflict. [] **(RICHARD NEWCOMER)**

Module #10

After watching the "October Sky" movie this are the comparisons and contrasts with the film "American History X":


 * 1) The role of nurture by the families of Derek and Homer:** Both families had powerful influences in Derek and Homer. Both fathers were strong paternal figures and they had a lot to do in the personalities of both main characters. Derek´s father with his racial ideas, and his strong personality influenced Derek to be a strong person himself, with strong beliefs. Homer´s father also a very strong personality, and although Homer grew up having different beliefs and goals, he was as stubborn and focused as his father. Both families showed support for the main characters at some point or another along the way. Derek´s family was there when he came back from jail and forgave him. Homer´s family was there to support him when he needed their support the most.


 * 2) The role of the mother in the development of the two main characters:** Derek´s mother was not much of an influence. She was a submissive person who´s opinions were not appreciated (scene with the father and scene with Mr. Murray). Derek started appreciating her when he came out of jail. Homer´s mother instead was supportive, she spoke up to the father, was always giving the father looks, and even threat the father with leaving if he didn´t help Homer. She was also a person that tried to maintain a harmonious family, she was always trying to smooth out situations. She was not afraid to get involved.


 * 3) The role of the teacher Murray in Derek´s life and the role of Ms. Reily in Homer´s life:** Murray was a teacher that didn´t go beyond his work. He felt overwhelmed with Derek, but he did not have much of a chance, Derek had him as an enemy, someone in his hate list. So a relationship between the two would have been impossible. They didn´t have a meeting point. Ms. Reilly instead, was a teacher who would go beyond her work. She was there to support her students in any situation, she would even stand up to the principal risking her own job. She was supportive and inspirational for Homer and the rocket kids.


 * 4) The role of the two principals in the lives of Derek and Homer:** Dr. Sweeney was incredibly influential in Derek´s life. He would always be there to try and help Derek straighten his life. He taught him how to be a better person and stood behind him all the time. He was there when Derek needed him the most and was the one who made Derek realize all he had been doing wrong. Principal Turner did not have much of a role in Homer´s life. He was a narrow minded man who thought that the kids in his school should all be coal miners and maybe a few lucky ones could get football scholarships, nothing more. He didn´t think much of the science fair idea. Only towards the end he realized the kids were onto something and decided to help Homer go to the science fair.


 * 5) The role of the community in the lives of Derek and Homer:** For Derek the community he lived in help feed his anger and shape up his personality. There was violence, hate, gangs, etc. There wasn´t a support system for the confused kids. For Derek there was "support" only within his supremacist group, as long as he did what they wanted, when he decided to leave they turned against him. For Homer the community wasn´t supportive at the beginning. They thought it was all a joke. But when the saw the first rocket launches they became supportive, and when Homer needed their help to build another rocket, because his had been stolen, all the community came together and helped him. Without that support and motivation Homer would have probably stayed in the mine.