Prompt 7

This Service Learning project has helped me shape my teaching identity. I have seen some great things and a few bad things. I like that I am able to go into a classroom and see what a real classroom looks like. I was able to get a few good ideas on how to put together my classroom. One thing that I never really seen before was the children's pictures and their names beside them hanging up on the wall. I think that is a great idea and helps children feel more comfortable and makes them feel like this is their room. But I would like my classroom to be a little more organized and not so cluttered. I feel like there is a lot going on in the classroom and could be a little overwhelming for a child. I would also like to label more things and have it in English but also a few other popular languages.

Also what I learned during this time was the teaching skills. I like how the teacher has the children repeat after her so they really know what is going on. I think it is a good idea for students to say it themselves so you know they are listening and they understand. But I would like to be nicer to the children and be able to teach them while allowing them to have a good time learning. I feel like this classroom is too strict and more like an army where they do as they told and that’s it. I would like my classroom to be more relaxing and a fun learning environment.

But overall I think it has been really good working with the children and learning how to deal with children. It has been great seeing how a classroom should look like and how an elementary teacher really teaches. I will definitely remember this time and it will help shape me into being a great teacher one day.

Prompt 5

The school that I work in is a very diverse school. There are many different cultures and that means there are a lot of different languages. If I was the teacher in this class I know my main challenge with working with the parents would be the language barrier. Every morning I am there, there is one mother that comes in and brings her son in. They speak Spanish and the teacher's aide always speaks in Spanish to her. I never see the teacher speak to the mother; it is always the teacher's aide. I'm not really sure if the mother speaks English and that is why the teacher doesn't speak to her but I have noticed that every morning. I took five years of Spanish throughout Jr. High School and High School but I would never be able to hold a conversation in Spanish with a parent. Being able to communicate with parents is very important and has a lot to do with a child's success in school. If I am not able to communicate with the parents it would cause a big issue.

Obviously with a teacher's aide who speaks Spanish is very helpful, but I would like to be the one who speaks to the parents. One way to overcome this challenge would to be able to have a translator. The teacher's aid would be able to help me translate in Spanish but there are other parents who speak different languages. Having a translator at parent-teacher conferences would be very helpful being able to communicate with parents. But it is also very helpful if I was to pick up some words in these languages so that I would be able to communicate to them whenever I wanted to. I know that the language barrier is going to be difficult if I was to teach in a diverse environment so I have already thought about possibly studying abroad in Spain so that I could truly learn that culture but also their language. I think learning Spanish would really help me in the future being a teacher.

A little off topic of the prompt that I wanted to add into my blog was about this little girl who came into classes with bruises. She went up to the teacher's aide to ask a question and I was watching and the teacher's aide looked at the teacher while signifying to look at the little girl's arm. Right away I knew what she was talking about so when the little girl sat back down I looked at her and she had bruises on her arm. I don't know the whole story but the reaction of the teacher's aide made me realize that this wasn't the first time the little girl came in with bruises. The teacher's aide told the teacher to remind her to talk to the nurse and have the nurse look at it. But this made me feel so bad. I know at some point as a teacher I will have to deal with this situation but it is going to be difficult to deal with. Knowing that a child may get beat is just a horrific thing to think about. And there are just so many things to think about in this situation. Like is the child really getting abused? Did the child just fall? And you have to think about what to do. I think it is smart for the nurse to look at the little girl and I'm not sure if they are going to call the parents in or what. But I just thought I would share that.

Prompt 4

Many people would look at me and say that I am an “All American White Girl” but many do not know I grew up in an area that is considered the “ghetto” and went to a school where I was the minority. Going to school in a very diverse environment really helped me learn about different cultures. I learned about a great amount of cultures which really widen my view on culture. Not only did I learn about different cultures I also learned about how to deal and work with others from different cultures. I think this will help me out greatly because I will know more about the cultures that I will be working with and I will know how to work with the students.
I think the biggest challenge for me will be working with the homosexual topic. Being brought up in a Christian home challenges the views that I am learning in FNED class. It is difficult to put the religious side of view to the side and work with that topic. That will be the biggest challenge I will have because I agree with a lot with what is being said in the FNED class but I also see how it will be difficult for some parents who are strongly religious.

Prompt 2

The school I tutor at is a very diverse school. There are many different elasticities in this school which can be very helpful for a child's learning development. The Kindergarten class that I observe in has a white, female teacher. I've noticed that she does tell the students what to do instead of asks them and seems to be a little more demanding. In that classroom there is also another student aid who comes from another background. I am not sure of her ethnicity. But I have noticed that she seems to be a little more nicer with the children and the children seem to be more comfortable with her. Almost all of the children in this classroom have different elasticities other than white. Many are either African American or Latino. I'm not really sure if they are more comfortable with the Aid because she can relate more with them or because she isn't the teacher who has more control in the classroom.

The 3 Kindergarten children I work with are not white, I am not positive what ethnicity they are possibly Latino and Asian. There is no language barriers between any of us. They speak very well English and they have no problem speaking English with me. They absolutely love to talk about their lives. They tell me stories after stories which makes it a little difficult to get our curriculum done.

The First grade class that I also work in has a teacher who is non-white ethnicity. I don't get to observe in that classroom so I am not sure how the teacher and children work together. But I have noticed that like the Kindergarten class this classroom is mostly children who are not white. But I work with two little boys and one is actually white and the other I believe is Latino. Again there is not language barrier and they absolutely love to talk. They also love to read. It is hard to evenly split up the reading because they both want to read the most.

I wasn't able to get information of the Kindergarten and First Grade for my school but I was able to get 4th and 5th grade information from infoworks.com. Out of the 100 students 93 of them receive free lunch and 7 of them receive reduced lunch and 0 receive neither. For ethnicity it is; white-9, Black/African American-13, Hispanic or Latino-49, Asian-17, American Indian or Alaska Native-0, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander-3, and Multi-response-10. In another chart it shows that most of them speak English at home and second most which isn't very far behind English is Spanish.

I think it is great to learn in a diverse environment like that. I went to high school in a very diverse school and I have learned a lot about other cultures. Being in a diverse environment like the school I tutor at, you are able to learn about other cultures, be exposed to other languages (which is very helpful now a days with jobs)and I think it really builds character. Being in school with people from other backgrounds helps you become aware of what is out there in the world and will help you in the future being able to communicate with those from other cultures. I loved going to a school in a diverse environment because I learned a lot about character and how to work with people from other races. It is difficult at times but it definitely helps build a stronger character for yourself.

First Meeting

Driving to the school I was extremely excited, I absolutely love working with children and I was extremely eager to meet new children I would be working with. When I pulled up to the school it took me a little while to find the front door. While looking for that door I was able to get a feel of the neighborhood. It was very quiet and I saw barely any children or parents. The school was surrounded by houses and it was a very small building. There didn’t seem to be a very big area for the children to have recess and I don’t remember seeing a playground which I thought was strange. When I finally was able to find the door and walk inside I became very excited knowing one day I will be working in a school like this as the teacher. I looked all around and the walls were covered with amazing art. Painted on the walls were cartoons from famous children stories and another wall was painted as the sea. Just being able to see that made me even more comfortable which I assume does the same thing for the children. All of a sudden these little children start walking by me. Some children would just stare, some would smile at me and some would even say hi. Right there I realized I knew I would be very happy being a teacher and be able to work with children like this for the rest of my life. But as I stood there I observed what the children were doing and what the teacher was doing. The children would stay in two lines waiting for their teacher to allow them into the room. I can’t wait to have my 20-30 students waiting in line to come into my classroom to learn.
Unfortunately there was an incident over the weekend and everyone was a little behind schedule. We learned about what we would be doing and how we will be doing it. It was a lot all at once but I know overtime it will become much easier. After hearing what we will be doing and finding out what rooms and what children we would be working with we were able to meet our children and the teachers. I was able to meet my Kindergarten children but only for about a minute so I wasn’t really able to interact with them. I was able though to meet my first grade children and teacher. The teacher seemed very nice and excited about the help I would be giving to her. I was also able to meet the two boys I will be working with and they are great. They had so much to share with me and I loved listening to them. I am extremely excited about going back and being able to work with them.

Bio

My name is Elizabeth and I am a sophmore at Rhode Island College. I just transfered in and I'm working to get into the Elementary Ed major. I absolutely love working with kids. This semester has started off as a hard semester but I am starting to get into a routine. Outside of school I am usually working (with kids and in retail). When I'm not working or doing school stuff I am usually out with my friends just enjoying life.