One More Thing to Add

As school has now ended and the children have learned all they could in the classroom that they were in, I went into my last day of observing in "No Name Elementary". I was very positive and optomistic heading into classroom 21. I had asked the teacher ahead of time if she was ok with me bringing in a game for the children to play. I made a game the week before, going off of the online game called "word-whomp". You get six letters and have to make every word possible that is 3 letters or more. The whole word counts as twice as much. I knew that the children would want to play a game. They would beg me every week, "Ms. Maria, please bring in a game! We want to play with you!" So I figured, ok, this is safe enough, and brought it in. As excited as the children were, they couldn't sit still. Think was a strategic game. One that required you to think outside of the box.
While some children were going through the cards as fast as lightening, others were discouraged and started to talk to one another instead. Yelling, screaming, laughing, squirming. I thought to myself, "Oh man Maria, you can't handle this." So instead of letting the teacher talk to the students and tell them to quiet down, I used a technique to get them to do that on my own. It was something I learned in high school when I went to the elementary school in my own town. I would say very quietly, "If you can hear me, clap your hands once". One child clapped his hands...Again..."If you can hear me, clap your hands twice." Now a few more joined in. "If you can hear me clap your hands four times." By this time, the rest of the children realized something was going on and they stopped what they were doing because they were curious. That is something that will never leave children, their curiosity. "If you can hear me say Woot Woot!" They all were saying Woot Woot.

At that time I realized that even after all that time of putting the game together, and all of my hard work, the kids were curious about a quiet exericise that I had done off the top of my head. Children are the same when it comes to this. They want to know what's going on, and you don't need to try hard to impress them and to make an awesome game. All you have to do is be excited about what you're doing. When you're excited, they will get excited also. When you surround yourself with positive people, they in turn become positive also. It is the same idea. When you are excited about teaching, the children will be excited about learning. I believe all teachers should keep this in mind when teaching their own classroom.

It's just something I wanted to share.
Thank's you guys.
Have an amazing summer.

Maria

Prompt 6 - Aaaannnddddd...THE END!

All of my blogs are finished, my hours are completed, and FNED 346 is officially over. I thought that after all of this I would end up feeling better, when in fact, I'm feeling a sense of sadness. It's sad to see a semester end, a year of being a freshman here at school, and my friends all move one step closer to becoming teachers themselves. I learned so much from FNED and I know it will carry on through years after school ends. Maybe through the rest of my teaching career. Being one of the last people to leave the classroom, I was sure to keep a few things in mind. SCWAAMP. That STUPID card game! Diversity. Culture. And finally, friendships that will benefit everyone in the long run. If we all stay in contact with one another, that would be ideal. We will all be able to confide in each other and learn from each other.

It has been an amazing semester and please, if anyone wants to stay in contact, my email is mspanos_3740@ric.edu

Thanks for the memories.
Love always,
Maria

Prompt 5 - Kliewer

To be brutally honest, being in this classroom over the course of a few months, I haven’t seen the teacher demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to sociocultural and linguistic differences. Every child in my classroom comes from a different background, whether they are Puerto Rican, Mexican, African-American, Portuguese, or any other ethnicity. Most of the stories being read to the children are about young white kids that do something such as solve a problem, go on adventures, and make friends. There is no diversity in the stories. Considering that this is a reading classroom that is a big statement to make. No diversity in the literature means no diversity in the curriculum. When there is no diversity in the curriculum then there is no appreciation for the diversity in the classroom.


Each child has a different reading level. They also have different ways of learning. Some were taught to sound out words, while others were taught to memorize them. They all get into this reading class and have to learn how to read the same way as everyone else. This is what the curriculum states. The only sensitivity in the classroom to the linguistic differences is that the children who are “above average” in their reading level go into a different classroom with the helper and read the more difficult stories and do workbooks on it. There is no teaching of each ethnic background, or even a specialized way of teaching to these backgrounds.

By the time that I become a teacher, I will make sure to have days that show the different backgrounds of each child. For example, I am half Greek and half Portuguese, and I am very proud of my heritage. The teacher in my classroom doesn’t do anything like this. There are so many ways to incorporate this into the curriculum. Have a day that talks about how the Mexicans came to be, the Native Americans, the African-Americans, the Europeans. Play games, Have each of the children observe and get involved in the activities. It isn’t a difficult thing to do.

Kliewer touched on a subject that I thought was vital. Instead of taking the children with the biggest problems out of the classroom, they took out the children who excelled out and worked with them outside of the classroom. Although Kliewer talks of taking the children with the disabilities outside of the classroom, this is the same concept. The other children see these kids go out of the classroom and see that they are getting specialized attention. Whether it is good or bad, they see that they are being treated differently. And worse, the teacher says to the children when they aren’t paying attention or aren’t doing well on their reading, “Let’s go you guys, don’t you want to be as good as So-And-So and Billy Boy and Suzie Q? What good comes out of this? I asked myself this question every time I was there. Hopefully she will change these teaching habits before it makes a big difference on these children.

Prompt 4 - Johnson

Having been an onlooker in a first grade classroom my senior year of high school and then working with the children in Providence are two completely different experiences. You will always run into the children with the families that don’t want to be involved with anything that goes on in the classroom. Then on the other hand you have the families that need to know exactly what is going on, when, where, and how. Being a teacher for elementary school children comes with its challenges. The class I am in now has little to no parental involvement. And worse, the teacher doesn't try to enforce it. "My parents weren't home to sign my paper," says a little girl in the class. The teacher says ok, and moves on. When I finally become a teacher, I am very interested in having the families being involved. My family was involved during my education and it was nice because they always knew what was going on so it gave us something to talk about. Having my family involved meant that I knew I had to do well because of the fact that they knew what was going on.



By the time that I become a teacher, I am planning on having activities that need the parent’s involvement. Open house is the first event that needs parents there. Newsletters seem like a great idea because they both let the parents know what is going on, and also are able to show them when their involvement will be needed in the classroom. Whether it is for a project, or a field trip, I believe it is extremely important to have them involved or else it will seem to their children that they don’t care. It is very important to show their children that they care because if the parents care, usually the kids will care also.

There may be a few challenges when it comes to involving them all in the classroom. There may be parents who work all day, who don’t want to come in, or who simply have no means to get to the school. There are only so many things a teacher can do to involve the family but I plan on trying my best and seeing how things go from there. I don’t plan on ever giving up when it comes to involving families in the classroom.

This prompt reminds me of the theorist Allan Johnson. He has this great saying that goes something like, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” The children in my classroom don’t live in the best neighborhoods, and their parents aren’t always there for them, but being a good teacher makes one part of their lives special. If I don’t implement a change in the lives of these students, I won’t be able to show them that it is a good thing to have parents and friends and community to be involved in what they are doing everyday in the class. Even if I have the parents read with their children a chapter every night and sign off on it, a little goes a long way.

If I just sit back and don’t try to involve the families, nothing will change. It doesn’t make me a bad person, but it doesn’t make the situation better. The reason why I want to be a teacher is to change the lives of the children in my classroom, hopefully it will start by involving everyone.

Prompt 3 - Delpit

I come from a high school that consists of 95% whites, 2% African-Americans, 2% Asians and 1% Hispanic. I live on an island where nothing interesting really happens. You could even say I was sheltered. Walking into "No Name Elementary" last week, I was talking to the teacher and she had asked me if I heard what has been going on in the school. I say no, why? I was explained that one of the girls in my classroom had brought a Swiss army knife into the classroom and had threatened a child sitting next to her for his book money. We all know that weapons are not allowed in the school, and she knew better than to threaten another child with it. Finally, she heard that the kids were scared and another classmate was going to tell the teacher what she was doing. Quickly and quietly, she sliced one of the fingers of the little boy, as thin as a paper cut, but she still carried out her threat. Unfortunately, she was “expelled” from “No Name Elementary”. Come to find out, it was her friend that brought the knife to school that day and gave it to the other little girl. Her friend was also suspended from the school indefinitely.

Hearing what happened just broke my heart. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming. This little girl came from a neighborhood that wasn’t exactly safe. She would act as though she didn’t care what happened or what anyone thought. But deep down, under her hard exterior, was still a little girl who cried when her feelings were hurt, or would laugh with her friends. It’s not easy to live a life where you have to have this barrier up all the time. I wish I could just sit children like this little girl down and explain that you attract more bees with honey rather than with vinegar. I know she wants to be liked, and have fun, and make friends. Coming from a home that took care of me, it is hard to see these children not have people at home to go to when they have questions that need to be answered.

(Classroom of children that are taught in the same way)

Being a teacher in a classroom like this one must be very difficult. It is hard to make sure that every child in the class is ok. I would have to be able to find a time to talk to each one of them to make sure that they are all able to talk to me about their personal lives outside of school. Because that reflects how they do IN school. Before I came to this school, I assumed that most of the poor cultures in the city were African-American. When I came to this school, I realized that it isn’t only the African-American children, but also the Hispanic and a few whites.

Lisa Delpit is the theorist that I can think of that relates to this topic. She promotes that teachers should encourage and support diversity in the classroom. She talks about how children learn differently and some may come into the classroom knowing more, less, or even different information than others. She talks about how some children need to learn differently in order to grasp the different concepts that the teacher is trying to have the students learn. Like I talked about in my first paragraph, children learn differently, if all children are taught the same, they won’t grasp the concept that is trying to be taught by the teacher.

(Different ways of learning)

Prompt 2 - Shor

Being in such a diverse classroom, it is all but transparent when you look at the different sociocultural differences that each child has. Each has a diverse linguistic and ethnic background that makes each student their own. Keeping this in mind, the teacher should be able to teach so that it both reaches everyone in the same way, but so that he/she is teaching to each individual child’s needs. Not all children learn in the same way. One child may be more of a visual learner while another may learn better by listening. Although a teacher wants to send out the same information to each child, he/she needs to remember that each child learns at his/her own speed, and her own way.



The theorist that this “idea” relates to the most, in my opinion, is Ira Shor. He says that each child has a right to learn, “Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education, and their futures. They have a right to earn good wages doing meaningful work in a healthy society at peace with itself, and the world,” (Shor 68). Shor is stating that having an empowering classroom is beneficial for both the student, and the teacher. It brings the children up to become meaningful, functional people in society. Personally, if I were a teacher, I would feel absolutely amazing if I were able to do that just by teaching differently to each child’s needs. Whether it be a linguistic, ethnic, or sociocultural characteristics of a child that requires them to learn in a different way, the teacher should make a plan in order to help these children learn as well as the other children who don’t need to be taught differently. “An empowering educator seeks a positive relationship between feeling and thought. He or she begins this search by offering a participatory curriculum. In a participatory class where authority is mutual, some of the positive affects which support student learning include cooperativeness, curiosity, humor, hope, responsibility, respect, attentivemess, openness, and concern about society,” (Shor 24). Shor explains how the attentiveness of the students and the open-mindedness of the teacher is essential in order to have a functioning classroom that reaches every child in a special way.

My classroom is filled with children that are in second grade that read at a first grade level. About ¾ of the class started the beginning of the year not being able to grasp grammar while the other ¼ picked up on the reading very quickly. The teacher is not able to teacher both the beginner readers and the intermediate readers at the same level, so she has a helper come in and work with the intermediate readers do their work while she works with the beginner readers. This is a great idea because the children are able to receive individual attention by a teacher and also work with the other children at their level. It encourages the children to read with each other and improve as their classmates improve.

Prompt 1 - Kozol

Being a minority myself in my classroom at "No Name Elementary", I couldn't believe how much the children noticed this. The majority of the class asked where I was from. I told them that I go to school right up the street but I live about 45 minutes away. They couldn't believe it. "Do you live with your mom or dad?" I tell them I live with both my mother and my father. "Wow!" was the answer I received from most of them. I asked how many lived with both parents and merely 4 children raised their hands.

Walking into the 2nd grade class after a few weeks, I was able to see that the majority of the children were of Latino decent. The second largest racial group that existed in this classroom is of African-American decent. There is only one white boy in the class. All of these students are second graders, but are placed into a first grade reading level classroom. The reading classes are organized by reading levels, so if there is a third grader reading at first grade level, he would go into that classroom. While I’m sitting there and wondering why all of these children are behind in reading, I decided to look on Infoworks to see what their other averages are. Looking on Infoworks, it shows that the student’s average in mathematics is 32% proficient, in reading 40% proficient, in writing 21% proficient. Compared to the average of all Rhode Island Elementary schools, their averages are extremely low.

I was thinking, why in the world are these children so behind? Then I look at the teachers and see that they are always yelling and impatient with the children. They are so burnt out that they aren’t able to enjoy what they do anymore. The theorist that I can relate this to is Jonathan Kozol because he has a main point in his article that he reads letters from children that want the resources that other children in higher class schools have. These kids at my school live in a “not so nice” neighborhood and after talking to a few of them, I found out that half of the time, their parents aren’t home in the first place. If their parents aren’t home, and they don’t do their work, there is no way that they will receive as good of an education as they would if they had the attention at home. Kozol wants all children to have equal resources and be able to learn in the same way because they deserve the same education as the high or middle class children.

If only my school had a bussing program or something of the sort, the children would be exposed to different kinds of people. Higher class, middle class, etc. There is not much diversity in the school and they would not suffer if this happened. The children need more diversity and see that it is okay to care about the work they do in the classroom. If they care more, they will be able to succeed.