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!!
Hello Miss Kalyn!
ReplyDeleteI was really excited to read about you having such a nice experience on your first visit to your school. I started off on the wrong foot on my first visit, so reading this helped me to not categorize all of these inner city schools and teachers as the same. Your classroom seems like it gives the students a lot of opportunity to learn different subjects in interesting, out of the box ways (like teaching science by using plants).
What I love most about your experience is that there seems to be a genuine sense of community in your classroom between the students. Dennis Carlson says that “Democratic multicultural education must be directed toward helping young people build alliances…This is absolutely essential if we are to rekindle a sense of community in America.” The fact that your teacher focuses so much on group work for the students and is helping them grow/learn from one another is wonderful in my opinion. I think that community should be stressed to students starting at a young age, so that it helps shape their education and personal growth through the years. Your class sounds absolutely amazing, so have fun and enjoy the the rest of your visits! :)
--Bethany