Last Blog

Today was my last visit to my classroom and I found myself mixed with emotion. I was happy that my fieldwork hours were over because I am looking forward to being done with school and having summer vacation but I was also sad because I was leaving my three children. I have grown very close to the three children over the past couple of months and I found myself worrying about what was going to happen to them the rest of the school year and if they will do well in school in the years to come. I hope that my visits and the time that I have spend with them has made a small impact on them or difference in their lives because I know that working with them has made one in mine. The reading coach said that we were welcome to come back whenever we want and can continue to tutor next semester if we would like. Since I have only completed sixteen and a half hours, and need twenty five for student teaching, I am planning on going back. Also, I know that I need 30 hours of observation for SPED 300 which is a class that is mandatory to take and the elementary school would be a great place to complete them. I am very satisfied and happy with my service learning and the experience that I had completeing my hours. I feel very fortunate to have worked with such great children and tha I had the opportunity to have done this project.

Blog # 2

I've been constantly questioning myself throughout this semester if teaching is what I really want to do. I'm still unsure if it is what I want to do but my recent experience in my classroom on Monday made me want to be a teacher. When I went in to do my service learning, I was told that we would be testing our children today to see if they have accomplished their reading level that they are currently on. I was very excited to test my children and see how they did, but at the same time I was nervous because if they did not pass, then it would seem that I was not doing my job or helping them at all. The first student I tested did extremely well and passes his level that he was on as well as the next six levels. He finished what the kindergarteners needed to finish by the end of the year and is now on a phonix reading level. The next two students that I tested did not do as well as he did but they too passed their reading level and went up at least two levels. I cant describe the amount of happiness I had, and how proud I felt knowing that I had made a difference in their lives, and I was helping them. This service learning has truly been a rewarding experience and I feel lucky that I have been given the chance to do it.

Question # 7

Today I visited my elementry school and the children were just wild. I dont know if it was all the sugar from Easter, the beautiful weather outside, or just the fact that they did not want to be in school. Reguardless, my classroom was out of control, children were running around, arguments were errupting, and screeches and yelps were heard throughout. Even though this visit was very agrivating and frustrating I think that it was an important learning experience for me, and made me question myself if I was really cut out for teaching young children and if it was something that I could deal with everyday.

I think that overall, this experience is shaping my teacher identity into a well rounded and diverse teacher. I work with three students in my reading buddies group and they are all very different. The first student who is the only girl, seems to always be hyper and energetic. She is always asking questions about my life, and telling me about hers, she'll do almost anything to get out of doing the activities that have been assigned for the day. The second student is somewhat shy and keeps to himself. However, at the same time he wants attention, all the attention he can get and when it is not given to him during his turn while playing an activity, there is a problem. The last student that I'm with is the most well behaved one. He is very polite and considerate of the others while doing activities and listens very well. He is very smart and sometimes gets bored with the games and activities that we are doing because he is above the level of them and already knows the material. Working with such a diverse groups of children has taught me how to deal with and respond to different types of children and develop methods that help me to cater to each of their needs. For my Senior Project last year, I did my fieldwork in a first grade classroom in Barrington, which is a prodominantly white community. I feel lucky that this year I am able to do my service learning fieldwork in the complete opposite community because I think that it is helping me to become a more rounded and diverse teacher and I will know how to teach in various different situations in the future.

Question # 5

As a teacher, the challanges that I might encounter while collaborating with the parents of my students is that they might be teaching some things at home differently that I am in the classroom. The way that the children are used to being talked to at home, or being asked to do various things like sit down, throw something away, or go get something, can be different from the way that I ask them to do those things. In a culutrally diverse classroom, some of the students might only have Spanish or Chineese spoken at their home, and the only time that they hear English or are spoken to in English is in the classroom. Personally, I think that I would address these challengese by having some sort of teacher conference in the beginning of the year, and plan to have them throughout the year so I can be in constant communication with the parents and be aware of what the children are doing at home, the progress that they are making, and if there is anything important going on in their lives that I should be aware of. Also, a weekly sign in sheet or check up that goes home with the children would allow me or any teacher to be able to see progress being made, if any at all. I would show respect for the concern of various parents by making my classroom culturally diverse and showing that I am making an effort to teach outside the box and try new and different things to make sure that all of the students are learning and have equal resources to learning.

Blog

This visit to my classroom was my fourth visit. The way my reading coach has the visits set up is that the first half hour we pick out our game that we are going to play, our sight words, and the poem of the week. Then, the second half hour we meet in groups with our three children and play the games, after we are done we are sent back to our meeting room and fill out our paperwork of what we did with the kids, the games that we played, how they acted, and if they made any progress. Personally, I feel that we do not have enough time to fully make a difference or an impact on the students. We're basically given ten minutes to do each activity with the children and it feels very rushed. I think that if we were given more time, even ten minutes more, they would learn more and the information would sink in better. There is one boy in my group who knows all of his sight words and can play the games and make sentences effortlessly. I think that if he were doing another activity or had harder words to learn, it would better benefit him. Also, something that really upset me, and I felt was very wrong to be happening in a school enviorment was the way the teacher next door acted. She screamed at one little boy for not being in the right seat. She did not ask him once to move, or say it sternlly, she screamed like a drill sergeant. I dont think my parents have ever yelled at me like that. These children come from single parent homes in poverty and probably have to deal with things like that at home and it should not be happening to them in school. This school should be a place where they come and feel safe and protected, not somewhere where they need to feel on edge or uncomfortable. Teachers should be someone who they can look up to, feel safe with, and confide in; not someone who they are afraid of.

Question # 4

How might your personal history/sociocultural characteristics intersect with those of your students?
My third visit to the elementry school this time was much more productive and I got to know the kids a little bit better. They seemed to open up more and talk about their family and life out of school. It seems that all three children in the group come from big families and have a lot of siblings, which I can relate to because I have two younger sisters and a lot of cousins. Also, when I was younger, in elementry school reading and writing did not come easily to me and I had some trouble with it. One girl in my group doesnt pay attention and is constantly ignoring the activities that we are doing. I think that this is just because she struggles with the activies and feels uncomfortable about not understanding it. For me, it was easier to work with a visual aid and more one on one with the teacher and it seems that for her, it is easier as well. I gave her her own copy of the poem we were reading and her own marker to draw on it with and that seemed to help her because she has control over the situation and the activity.

Question # 2

My classroom consists of mostly black and hispanic children, there is one white child and one asian child. The teacher in the classroom is white, her assistant is black, and myself along with the other tutor are white. Some of the children speak spanish, but most of them are all fluent in English. This classroom reminds me of the last article that we read in class that dealt with miscommunication and power struggles between black and whites in the school. There is a huge language barrier along with a misunderstanding, and a lack in communication between them. This results in work not being completed and children being left out of and forgotten about during activities. The children in the classroom bring a fresh sense of openness and willing to learn to the society and the school. Children who were black and white were playing games with eachother and reading books without thinking twice about it. Even though they come from very different households and cultures, there is no language barrier between them or lack of communication. To them, they are there to learn, have fun, and make friends. I think that this kind of positive attitude and openess to new things will strengthen our society.

Question # 1

The school that I am tutoring at is right across the street from Women and Infants Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, and Hasbro Children's Hospital. The school building is very old and does not have much color or any plants. In order to get into the school you need to be buzzed in through an intercom at the door. The classrooms inside are all decent sizes and have a lot of color, posters, and artwork from the children hanging in them. The hallways also have a lot of artwork and school work done by the children in them too. From looking at the teachers, the women working in the main office, and the reading coach, I get the feeling that they all want to make this school a place where the children feel safe and where theygrow into indivudals and learn repect, responsibillity, and other life skills. When I arrived at the school, I was given a piece of paper with cut outs of feathers on it and was told that the school was trying to promote respect of themselves and others around them. I did not get to meet the children I will be tutoring or the teachers and classrooms that I will be tutoring in but I was able to go around and take a look at them and see some of the children. I am excited to start tutoring next Monday and hope that this will be a fun learning experience. On the website infoworks I researched the demographics for my school and I learned that 82 percent of the students there are eligiable for free or reduced priced lunch, they are twenty percent lower in the proficency rating for reading, writing, and math, than the state of Rhode Island, parents and family members are not actively involved with the school...only about 20 % of them are, 54 % of the students there are hispanic, and 38% are black.

Short Biography

My names Kayla, I'm eighteen and a freshman at RIC hoping to be an elementary school teacher or a high school teacher. I live in Barrington and graduated from Barrington High School. I have two younger sisters, 16 and 8. I love cheerleading, I cheered for two years for pop warner and four years all throughout high school and am currently the coach for the barrington high school team.