A Little Extra!!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed participating in this tutoring program. It has truly influenced my understand of being a teacher and I have learned a lot of things by going into my classroom every Friday! My teacher has been so nice and I am continuing to go into her classroom to receive the 25 hours we need! I love the class I was assigned to and I hope all of you enjoyed the experience as much as I did!! :)

Prompt #6 Lisa Delpit

"The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom."

In my classroom, I saw a lot of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage and supported more learning in the classroom. As I have said many times before, I am in a first grade classroom, and we all know how 6 year old or so children can be. They love to talk to their friends and are usually full of excitement and energy. Towards the end of the year, the teacher in my classroom has started to talk to the children about becoming second graders. She has told the kids about the new responsibilities that come with being a big grown-up second grader, such as being quiet when the teacher s talking, and always listening to directions. When a child in the classroom does something that is immature for a second grader to do, the teacher immediately stops what is going on and says to the child, "Is that something a second grader does?" The child realizes what he/she did was wrong and that they should not do that. 

Lisa Delpit wrote an article entitled, "The Silenced Dialogue", and in it, she discusses the differences between direct and indirect commands. As soon as I heard the teacher ask that question, I thought of Delpit's article. The teacher was using an indirect command to sort of tell the child that he/she was doing something she was not supposed to be doing. Sometimes, indirect commands do not work because the child does not always catch on to the true command. But when I saw it work in this case, I was satisfied. 

I thought that that was a great connection to Lisa Delpit, and hope you do too!

Another thing that teacher in my classroom does is, when the children as a class are being too loud and are not using their" inside voices", she will simply go over to the light switch and shut of the lights. This is an example of a non-verbal communication technique that the children have caught onto. When they notice the lights go out, they recognize that they are being too loud and immediately quite down. 

Those are only a few examples that I have seen in my time tutoring in that classroom and I am sure I will begin to see a lot more! 

Prompt #5 John Dewey

"The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students' learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community". 

Parents play a huge role in the education of their child. I am tutoring in a first grade classroom, and children at this age are not able to do many things with out the help of an adult, such as their parents. Children as young as 5 and 6 years old cannot sign themselves up for school, and cannot drive themselves to school, so it is clearly the responsibility of the parent to get their child to school. Throughout my visits, I noticed a young boy whom I have only seen about two times in class so far. I fell so sorry for this boy, because at six years old already, he is not receiving the education he needs to continue in school. If children start missing school at such a young age, this could create a pattern in that child's future. When the children are still young, the parent can control what they do, and attending school is one of the most important things in the life of that child. People can not go anywhere in life with out a proper education, and it all starts with the parents. 

I do not know how the teacher of the classroom I am in goes about talking to parents and things like that because I am only there one day a week. If I were the teacher of the classroom and noticed that one child had been missing a significant amount of school, I would make it a point to make parent-teacher conferences. These meetings are important because it is the only time you are able to sit down with a parent and discuss their child's need for education. I would get the point across that children NEED a stable education to go anywhere in life. In a lot of cases, going to school can keep children out of trouble. Instead of being on the streets selling drugs and doing illegal things, the children can be in school away from toxic things that lead to prison and horrible futures. I would respect and understand the fact that maybe the parents have a hard time getting the child to school on their own every single day, but then I could recommend bussing and other transportation options. But most importantly, I would stress the fact that a good education is absolutely essential, especially at a young age. 

Every week the children in my classroom have to do a reading log. This activity requires the help of the parents. When the children come into class every Friday with their completed reading log, the teacher asks every students if their parents helped them. She stresses that parents need to be involved in their schoolwork. She also makes the children take home words that they have to read with any family member, and when they come in, there must be a signature of who helped the child read their words. I think that is a great technique, because it ensures that fact that the families of these children are getting involved with their education. 

It is important that schools make sure that there is a common ground between what is being taught in each classroom. I am not saying that teachers must read from a script when that teach, but that they make sure they cover everything that child needs in order to move onto the next level, or grade. It is important that school around the community are teaching, for the most part, the same topics. If in first grade, each child needs to know how to add and subtract, ten all schools must make sure that is what is being taught. 

John Dewey wrote an article entitled, "The Democratic Conception in Education".  In it, Dewey discusses how it is important that teachers interact with the societies around them. If there is not a common ground between the teachings at every school, then some of he children in each class will not succeed onto the next grade level. Since it is towards the end of the year, the teacher at my school has been asking her students if the things they do in class are things that second graders will do. She is making sure that all of her students will be ready to move into a second grade setting. And that is what Dewey believes is an important factor in the schooling systems in all of our communities. 

Prompt #4 Dennis Carlson

"The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching." 

 

My experience tutoring in the city school I was assigned to has greatly influenced my ideas and opinions about city schools in general. I always thought of city schools as extremely poor and dirty, full of kids who did not care about their school work--they were just going because they were forced. 

This is not the first time I have been in a city school classroom. When I was in high school, I had to do something called "School to Career". My school to career sight was also at a city school, only this classroom was a full special education classroom. That was my first time teaching at both a city school and in a special education classroom, and that was where my opinions about city schools developed. When I arrived at the school I was assigned to for FNED, I was going in with a completely biased opinion about what the children and school community would be like. My opinions and beliefs were way off, and I felt that in my head, that I was being unfair. The school I was assigned to was actually one of the nicer schools in the city. My stereotypes on city school children was immediately changed, as I observed my classroom. The children in this class, for the most part, were not spoiled and rude. They seemed happy to be in a classroom full of children and were always eager to learn.

 I went to a catholic school in the city where I lived, and was very fortunate growing up. My parents supported me in everything I did, I was able to sign up for tons of sports and extracurricular activities, and I do not remember ever having to give anything up because of money problems. When I started tutoring at schools like the one I am at now, I began to realize how lucky I was as a child, and even now. I realized that not every child gets to experience the things I was able to, such as playing sports after school. Even today, my parents are still very generous in what they give me. I think that going to this school every Friday made me appreciate my life and parents so much more than I have in the past. 

This experience was a total wake up call for me. As a future teacher, I am now able to see that not everyone was like me as a child, and I need to take into account that I will have those children who cannot afford to buy their own lunch or who are not economically stable enough to be able to play sports or buy expensive things. Because I tutored at this school, I now have the advantage of knowing what to expect if I ever come to teach in a city school. 

Dennis Carlson wrote an article entitled, "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community". By reading this article, Carlson wanted people to understand that a child's race, ethnic background, or sexuality does not affect his/her learning. He mentions a "normalizing community", which is based on certain things that apparently make people "normal". The characteristics of a normal person, according to normalizing communities, would be a "white, middle-class, heterosexual male", while the "dis empowered" community would consists of "black, working-class, homosexual females". This is all based on stereotypes by the communities we live in. Carlson wanted the people, especially us future teachers to recognize that these characteristics do not at all affect the way a child learns. He also wants us, as teachers, to make sure that we create dialog across the classroom to make sure that everyone has a say in what is being taught to the children of the future. 

  

   

Prompt #3 Claude Goldenburg

As future teachers, it is important that we are able to use different techniques and strategies that are appropriate for diverse learners to succeed in the classroom. The culturally competent teacher should also be able to accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning abilities. 

I took the FNED course in order to learn about different cultures and backgrounds, and also to learn how to approach different situations that involve sociocultural differences among the students. We, as teachers, must be able to fully comprehend how to apply what we have learned in order to respond to the different linguistic, ethnic and cultural characteristics that are present among our future students.

In the classroom I am currently tutoring in, I am able to observe how the teacher accommodates her lessons, making sure each and every one of her students understands the content being taught to them. She does not move on until every student understands the lesson. I go to my school every Friday, and every Friday morning the children meet on the rug in front of the teacher. During "rug time", the students go over what the date is, what the day of the week is, and how many days left of school there are in the year. This activity requires math skills. Each week, the teacher chooses a different student to come up and complete each of these activities. After a couple of visits to the classroom, I noticed that the teacher started to chose the children who have difficulties with math skills to complete the math portion of "rug time". I believe the teacher does this in order to further emphasize extra math help. Although the students to many math activities throughout the day, this particular math activity is taken more slowly and the student receives more attention during it. This is only one example of how the teacher in my classroom makes sure each one of her children is getting the help they need. I am proud to say that the teacher I am with is excellent in the work she does, and I can tell that she absolutely loves what she does. She works hard in making sure none of her students is left in the dark. 

Another thing the teacher does every Friday is give the students spelling tests. At the end of every spelling test, the teacher reads a sentence and the student has to write down what the teacher is saying. I noticed one child who had great difficulty doing this. He was one of the boys who missed A LOT of school. In my few visits to the classroom, I have only seen him once. At the end of the test, when everyone was done, the teacher had me take the boy aside and read to him the sentence very slowly until he was able to fully comprehend what the sentence was. Usually, the teacher does this herself, but she wanted to me to experience what it would be like in my own classroom.  

Claude Goldenburg is the author of an article entitled "Teaching English Language Learners". In this article, Goldenburg discusses issues raised by the National Literacy Panel in studies they have completed about ELL's. In the article, Goldneburg talks a lot about how teachers must be able to adapt to the students and their ways of learning. In order to be a good teacher, he/she must be able to understand the differences in languages and cultures among each and every individual in her class, and I believe she does this by making sure she is able to modify her quizzes and tests. 

I also wanted to mention that the students work in groups of 4 to 5. Goldenburg points out that students' learning can be enhanced by cooperative learning. When the children work in groups, I notice that there is always one child trying to help another child while they are completing an assignment. 

Prompt #2 Lyn Brown

At the city school that I was assigned to, there is a great deal of diversity among the students throughout the whole school. In my classroom, there are about 26 students all together, with an almost equal amount of boys and girls. You can tell just by looking at the students that they come from different cultures and racial backgrounds. I was placed in an ESL classroom, meaning that English is a second language to most of the students. Although I am tutoring in an ESL classroom, all of the students are able to speak English, for the most part, with out difficulty. Keep in mind that the students are only in first grade, so they can speak up to that level. When I looked up the statistics on Info works, I was amazed at what I found.   

When it came to lunches at the school, 88% of the students at the city school are eligible for free or reduced price lunches, which leaves 12% of the students who are able to afford the full priced lunch. 70% of the students who attend the school I tutor at are of Hispanic background, 11% are African-American, 6% are Asian, and 13% are white. In my classroom, there are mostly Hispanic children, and not one white child. 25% of the students at the school I am tutoring at are receiving bilingual education help. 

I remember one of the Fridays I was at the school, the teacher was reading the students a book about a Chinese boy. One of the kids in the class said, "Hey, so and so is Chinese!" The teacher quickly responded by correcting the young boy and stating the actual culture of the boy, which was Leocean. I found this interesting and I was the one who learned something that day. I had never heard of that culture and did not know where Leocean people were from. As soon as I got home that day I did a little research of my own and read about the Leocean culture. 

I wanted to briefly speak about one theorist we discussed in class--Lyn Brown. Brown wrote an article about entitled "The bad or good of girlhood". In this article, Brown compares and talks about two different categories of girls; the girls who come from less fortunate families who do not have much, and the more middle-class rich girls. Brown states that the rich girls are more aggressive, spoiled and sometimes rude, while the poor girls are more laid back and just expect that their lives will never change--they will grow up to be like their parents. I experienced something in my classroom, that reminded me of Lyn Brown's article. 

I went on a field trip with the class and one of the girls came in with her pants on backwards. This was not the first time this child had been dressed "down". She comes into class with her hair all tangled and clothes that do not fit her well at all. But when she got on the bus to go to the field trip, one of the other girls noticed she was wearing her pants backwards. I heard the girl whisper to another girl, (both of which appeared to come from more wealthy families), "Look at her clothes, she must not have money to go buy pretty clothes like me!" I was shocked when I heard her say that--these children are in first grade!! I just think this shows what kind of home-life the "richer" girl has. It seems like she is spoiled and always gets what she wants...according to her statement. 

Unfortunately, the teacher did not hear what the young girl said, because these children need to understand that everyone is different. Not all people can afford the unimportant material things that many people treasure. In my opinion, the teacher needs to make the children aware of the different backgrounds and cultures of other families in general.  

Prompt # 1

I found myself driving to my assigned classroom 1 hour early. I had never been in that area and did not know what to expect. I had butterflies and was extremely nervous. I arrived at the school almost thirty minutes early! As I sat in my car waiting for 9:30 to arrive, I started thinking to myself what the classroom would be like. The school building itself was beautiful, it looked brand new. That right there was a sign of relief. I thought to myself, "The school looks brand new, the area is decent, this won't be that bad!' 9:30 came faster than I expected, so I started to walk in. I entered the main office and instantly looked for that sign in sheet. I asked the receptionist if I had picked up the right one and she just smiled and said "yup that's it." I think she could tell I was nervous! I was treated very kindly by the ladies in the office. They asked me what I was here for and if I needed any help with anything. When I said what room I would be in, one woman excitedly said, "THAT'S MY CLASSROOM!!" She seemed so happy that I would be tutoring in her room.

I walked down the hallway and took that final left that would bring me to my room. With butterflies in my stomach once again, I opened the door and saw a classroom filled with excited young children. Each student watched me walk past their groups of 5 desks, as I made it to the teachers desk. I introduced myself and she gladly welcomed me into her classroom setting. she introduced me to the children and I was left to observe. The first thing I noticed was the diversity among the children; they were different nationalities and cultures. The kids were places into groups of about four or five, and at that moment were working together on their reading. I continued to look around, and noticed that there was a science section, a reading rug, and a number wall. In the science section, there were names of different planets and pictures of space. At the reading rug, there were tons and tons of books all separated into categories. There was the animal category, the bug category, the number category and so on. The number wall consisted of numbers taped to the wall starting at 1 and finishing at 10. I also noticed that each child had a piece of paper taped to the wall with their names on it. Each week, the child could get star stickers added to their piece of paper, and if at the end of the week they had ten stars, they received a ticket for their group.

My first trip to the classroom was definitely satisfying. I realized that I had been so nervous for no reason at all. The children loved the fact that they would have a new guest in the classroom every week and could not wait to see me again. I thanked the teacher and told her I would see her next week. As I said goodbye to the children, one little girl said, "Are you coming back when you finish your lunch?" I wish I could have told her yes, but I assured her that I would see her next week. As I opened the door to leave, all at once the kids yelled goodbye and I smiled and said bye, class!!