Urban Education, post 4

     During my time at the school, I have had the opportunity to assist in different classrooms. I am sent wherever there is the strongest need. This has allowed me to help children during different points of time and to work with various age groups. Although my time with the students in each class is limited, I try to establish connections with them and provide individualized instruction. The students have been very receptive. I am pleased that, even with short times spent with many of the children, there seems to be an impact. As I walk through the halls, the children are excited to see me and say things like, “Hi” or “You were in our class”. I’ve noticed, particularly with the younger students, that they seem to form a bond with me and often give me hugs or make conversation, even though we have only spent a few hours together. This reminds me that, as educators, we have a large influence on students, even with small things. Some children may not have a significant amount of time interacting with adults at home, so I think it is important to be nurturing to their needs. It has been very rewarding to assist them and I look forward to each new school day.  

Urban Education, post 3

Children in urban school settings sometimes have limited opportunities to be taught by community guest speakers and often look forward to these rare experiences. The class I was observing was scheduled to have a firefighter read a book to the class and talk about fire safety. When the firefighters showed up they brought fewer firefighters than were scheduled to come and some of the classes did not receive one. I was then asked to read the story to the class. Several of the students appeared to be disappointed by the fact that they would not receive one of the community workers. The teacher informed me that they do not normally get special people coming in to speak, so it is something the children were looking forward to experiencing.

I was also reminded of the fact that many students in a class may be bilingual and come from a variety of cultures. The book I read to the class was infused with Spanish words, some of which I was unsure of the pronunciation or definition. I learned that several of the students in the 1^st grade class spoke Spanish. I explained to the students that they could help me with the pronunciation of these words. These students seemed to enjoy sharing their knowledge about the Spanish language with everyone, and the non-Spanish speaking students seemed to enjoy learning about the language.  I thought this was a good opportunity to utilize these students’ strengths. If I were teaching this class, I would try to find multiple opportunities to integrate diversity lessons by allowing various students to share knowledge about their individual cultures with the class.

Urban Education, post 2

    This week, I observed kindergarten students during a phonics lesson. I was reminded of the fact that young children’s home situations can affect their perspectives about the world. The teacher pronounced a new word, and then when she snapped her fingers the students repeated the word. One of the words that was read was “chore”. The class had a discussion about the definition of the word. Some of the students raised their hands and shared what chores they do at home. Other students said that their parents and older siblings did most of the household chores. One student made the comment, “A chore is like when daddy cooks dinner.” Another student replied, “But only mommy cooks dinner.” Some of the children seemed to assume that the way chores work at their home is the same as someone else’s home. They did not understand that other people’s lifestyles may be different from theirs. The teacher acknowledged all of the students’ comments, and then explained how chores were done at her home. I think it is important to use these teachable moments to remind the children that people’s lives are all different and that there is not necessarily one way that is right or wrong. I would like to learn more about the individual home lifestyles of my future students. If I were teaching this class, I would have followed a similar method as the teacher. I think she did well turning this conversation into a teachable moment.

Urban Education, post 1

     In the class I observed, I learned that it is important for the teacher to analyze each situation individually and not to make assumptions about students. In this class, there is a student who is relatively new to the class. The teacher explained that it is often difficult to get him to do his work, particularly when he is supposed to copy things from the projector screen. He often shuts down and refuses to work and has missed fun activities as a consequence. I went to the back of the room where the student sits and encouraged him to copy the information onto his page. After a minute of talking to him calmly, he mumbled that he could not see it. I wasn’t sure if this was true or an excuse, but I moved his desk to the front of the room, and then asked him if he could see it better at this closer location. He softly said “yeah” and then began writing the information. I informed the teacher about the situation and she said she would change his desk location and talk to the student’s family.

     This situation showed me that it is important to communicate and listen to the students, because sometimes there may be a reason they act in a certain way. In this situation, the student did not know how to handle his frustration regarding how he could not clearly see the board; thus, he shut down. I discovered that talking to this student calmly encouraged him to state the problem and allowed me to potentially prevent this situation from happening again. This situation reminded me that students in urban schools may come from families where checking for normal eyesight may be overlooked. As a teacher, it is important to notice signs of these disabilities in my students. I would like to know more about ways to catch these kinds of problems early on, so that a student may receive adequate accommodations, as soon as possible. If I were teaching this class, I would ty to analyze the potential cause of a student shutting down, before reprimanding the student by taking away privileges. I was pleased that I was able to help a newer student in the class and I hope this will encourage him to communicate instead of shutting down in future situations.