my last day in the classroom and the students were writing thank you notes to a loved one for Thanksgiving. all of the students were coloring pictures and most of them wrote thank you to their parents or siblings and the teacher. one of the young girls in the class came up to me and showed me what she had written. i looked at the paper and could not read a single word, she had writing it to her aunt but it was in Spanish. she told me her aunt did not speak English and since it was for her s wrote t in Spanish. i thought it was simply amazing she could write such perfect Spanish, she was one of the best English readers in the class, i never knew she could write and speak Spanish. i asked her to read her letter to me, and she did. she was surprised that i did not know Spanish, i guess that she just assumed that everyone knew both Spanish and English. i was so happy that she had agreed to take the time and read me her beautiful letter, i felt like Johnson would have been so proud. i was thinking of him and the article we read in class. i felt like if teachers had the time to do what i just did with this young girl what a difference it would make. she had such a sense of pride after reading me her letter and explaining why she wrote it the way she had. i was so happy for her, i could see how special she felt. Jonson talks about race and white privilege. i knew this girl did not see me like that, obviously she saw me as white, but i was interested in her and her culture and i wanted to learn more about it. Johnson talks about the gap in our society between the races. i think taking the time and listening to a student, learning from them would help to make this gap smaller . getting the students involved in one and another cultures and having them talk would make things in society better. even though white privilege does exist, it didn't for those 10 minutes i was learning from this little girl. i am sure she will experience things in her life because of white privilege, but my hope is that she may think back to the day when she was able to teach me, even for 10 minutes about her culture, and it may make her feel a little bit better.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Prompt 5
My classroom is very culturally diverse. Most of the students do not speak English when they are home because their parents do not speak it at all. because of this, my teacher will always ask them what language their parents speak, in order to send them home with notes or papers in a language their parents will be able to read. my teacher is very involved with the students and their families, well as much as she can be. i was surprised to learn that most of the parents of the children do not want any kind of involvement with their children's schooling experience, they simply are not involved. for the students that have some behavioral issues in the class, the teacher keeps a weekly progress report than she sends home with them at the end of the week. the thing that is so frustrating is that it is impossible to know if the parents are even looking at the report. most of them are just not involved enough to look.
mt teacher gets frustrated with the lack of parental involvement with the students. there is only so much she can teach them at school, and its hard when they go home and have no support. of course i am sure it is not like this in all of the students lives, i am sure there are parents who help their children at home and encourage them. but the few (or many) that don't get the extra work at home, are clearly more behind and suffering more in their work.
the school also have community involvement in the students lives which i think is very important. every Tuesday the students get a different kind of fruit to eat while they are at school, they do this to promote healthier eating. also for some of these kids this is the only type of fresh fruit they will have all week. the school also offers a breakfast for students, they can come early and have a free breakfast if they are not getting one at home. one of the days that i was there, a dentist was as the school talking to the kids about brushing and how important it is. i think all of these things are great to have, in a poorer school like the one i was at, most of these kids need these extra things that they are not getting at home. again i am sure that some of the kids are getting this at home, but i would say that the majority of them are not. when i saw these things going on in the classroom, i was reminded of Kahne and Westheimer. i know this is a strange theorist to think of, but i was thinking of the change v charity models. the change model is the one we are supposed to striving for and teaching the children, but in this case i saw the charity model. the school seems to be more concerned with giving the students free things than teaching them how to think and see things. granted i was in a 4th grade class and this is young for the students to be realizing in depth learning methods, but i think teaching them to question things at an early age would eventually better them as adults. i do think it is great the school helps these kids, but is it really helping them in the long wrong? i think Kahne and Westheimer would think not. by just giving the students things without explanation and questioning is perpetuating the status quo and ultimately doing these kids a disservice.
if i was the teacher in this classroom, i do not know if i could really do things much differently. if the parents do not want to be involved with their students schooling there is only so much that you can do. being available is the main thing, at least the parents know that if they have questions or want to talk about their students progress, they can do so. most of them however are just choosing not to. i am sure some of these parents choose not to because maybe they cannot speak English or they never had the opportunity to go to school and they do not know how to speak with a teacher. whatever the reason, think my teacher is doing everything she can by keeping the parents involved , and if the choose not to be that is up to them.
mt teacher gets frustrated with the lack of parental involvement with the students. there is only so much she can teach them at school, and its hard when they go home and have no support. of course i am sure it is not like this in all of the students lives, i am sure there are parents who help their children at home and encourage them. but the few (or many) that don't get the extra work at home, are clearly more behind and suffering more in their work.
the school also have community involvement in the students lives which i think is very important. every Tuesday the students get a different kind of fruit to eat while they are at school, they do this to promote healthier eating. also for some of these kids this is the only type of fresh fruit they will have all week. the school also offers a breakfast for students, they can come early and have a free breakfast if they are not getting one at home. one of the days that i was there, a dentist was as the school talking to the kids about brushing and how important it is. i think all of these things are great to have, in a poorer school like the one i was at, most of these kids need these extra things that they are not getting at home. again i am sure that some of the kids are getting this at home, but i would say that the majority of them are not. when i saw these things going on in the classroom, i was reminded of Kahne and Westheimer. i know this is a strange theorist to think of, but i was thinking of the change v charity models. the change model is the one we are supposed to striving for and teaching the children, but in this case i saw the charity model. the school seems to be more concerned with giving the students free things than teaching them how to think and see things. granted i was in a 4th grade class and this is young for the students to be realizing in depth learning methods, but i think teaching them to question things at an early age would eventually better them as adults. i do think it is great the school helps these kids, but is it really helping them in the long wrong? i think Kahne and Westheimer would think not. by just giving the students things without explanation and questioning is perpetuating the status quo and ultimately doing these kids a disservice.
if i was the teacher in this classroom, i do not know if i could really do things much differently. if the parents do not want to be involved with their students schooling there is only so much that you can do. being available is the main thing, at least the parents know that if they have questions or want to talk about their students progress, they can do so. most of them however are just choosing not to. i am sure some of these parents choose not to because maybe they cannot speak English or they never had the opportunity to go to school and they do not know how to speak with a teacher. whatever the reason, think my teacher is doing everything she can by keeping the parents involved , and if the choose not to be that is up to them.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Prompt 4
It is so true that no one enters a classroom without personal history. At least this was true for me when i started with my VIPS tutoring. The school I am helping at is a public school in Providence. The classroom I am in has no white students, all of the students are either black or Hispanic. When I first got to the classroom this was very different than what I experienced in school when I was growing up. I had always went to private schools, I had never been to a public school. I had also grown up in a white middle class family. I couldn't stop thinking how these kids and I would have absolutely nothing in common. I was not sure at first how I should talk to them, I did not want to do or say anything that would be offensive or not understood. But I did have the advantage that I knew I was coming from a different place than these kids and I was going to leave that outside the class. I thought a lot about Delpit, and teaching other people kids. I learned a lot from that article and i tried to apply it to this classroom. Different people come from different places, it was important for me to realize this and make sure the kids voices were not being suppressed by mine. I knew that I would learn as much if not more from these kids than they were probably going to learn from me. Even though I was not the primary voice these children heard, that would be there real teacher, I knew that I still would have an impact on them. When we were working in our small reading group, I would ask them about their weekend, what they were going to do for the holidays. Many of them told me about their family life and the different things that they did with their families. Like Delpit says it is important to let different cultures have their voice, I felt like I was letting these students do this. At the same time they were asking me questions about my life and family. I told them I was a student and was married with four dogs at home. They seemed to enjoy hearing about my life and I think it was good for them to hear from someone from a different place, me.
Since so so many of our classrooms are culturally diverse, applying things Delpit says and others will help make the culturally diverse classroom better for every student. I think I will be prepared to handle culturally diverse classrooms. I am aware of other cultures and want to encourage kids to know and understand where they came from. Yet, at the same time like Delpit says, you have to teach the kids what they need to be successful in the world that we live in, they need to be able to play the game of life. I did not go into this VIPS experience with many misconceptions. I think my biggest thing was simply fear. I was afraid the kids would not respond well to me and I wanted them to feel I was there for all of them, no matter the way that I look. Watching this group of students interact with each other was truly inspiring. Some of them would teach the others Spanish and the students were so interested to learn about their peers. It truly was a successful Culturally diverse classroom I was placed in. I was very lucky to see and learn how to teach in such a class, I know that it will help me later on in my teaching career.
Since so so many of our classrooms are culturally diverse, applying things Delpit says and others will help make the culturally diverse classroom better for every student. I think I will be prepared to handle culturally diverse classrooms. I am aware of other cultures and want to encourage kids to know and understand where they came from. Yet, at the same time like Delpit says, you have to teach the kids what they need to be successful in the world that we live in, they need to be able to play the game of life. I did not go into this VIPS experience with many misconceptions. I think my biggest thing was simply fear. I was afraid the kids would not respond well to me and I wanted them to feel I was there for all of them, no matter the way that I look. Watching this group of students interact with each other was truly inspiring. Some of them would teach the others Spanish and the students were so interested to learn about their peers. It truly was a successful Culturally diverse classroom I was placed in. I was very lucky to see and learn how to teach in such a class, I know that it will help me later on in my teaching career.
Prompt 7
This experience has been so much more than I could have ever imagined. It has taught me so much,I am learning what kind of teacher I want to be. My VIPS experience has begun to shape me into a teacher, and I am looking more and more forward to my experiences I will have when I become a teacher. There have been so many things that have happened that have taught me so much. When I first started in the classroom I was very nervous, I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to be doing and I had never been in a classroom setting as an authority figure before. The kids were comfortable in their classroom already and I was coming in so late and I was so new. I really hoped that my nervous energy did not come through to them, I needed them to like and respect me. At first the few students I was working with were more reserved and quiet, but as I continued to come two days every week, they got more comfortable with. Before long they were telling me stories about their pasts and their families. They were asking for help, and responding better to the help I was giving them. As they felt more comfortable so did I and I think I was doing a better job in helping them with their reading and writing. Before I knew it my 15 hours were up and it was time for me to say goodbye to the class I had grown so found of. I feel like they helped me so much more that I helped them, by sharing their learning experiences with me it taught me how to be a teacher.
There was one specific student that I had, a young girl. When I first met her she had a toughness about her, she was defensive and hard. The teacher told me that she often gets into physical fights with the other students and acts out in class alot. Yet, there was something about her that intrigued me. She was assigned to read with me in a small group, she was very behind in her reading level and needed extra help. As I was helping her, she seemed distant. She was paying attention but I had the feeling that everything I was teaching her she would soon lose. When my hour and 15 minutes were up and I was getting ready to leave, she pulled me aside and told me that I would need to help her next time too. I wasn't to surprised that's she asked this of me, i had already been figuring that I would need to be helping her the entire time I was at the school. But then she said something else, she told me that she has a hard time learning things because she is dyslexic and that she would need to relearn things every time we were together. I smiled and told her that would be perfectly fine, but inside I was in shock. When I got to my car that afternoon I felt a sadness I had never felt before. I was sad for this poor girl, she has given up on herself and it seemed like everyone else in her life had done the same. At that moment I became excited about becoming a teacher. If I could help kids that were suffering like this poor girl was, who wanted to learn more than anything but simply did not have the tools to do so, I felt my life would have meaning. I actually felt like I could make a difference.
There was one specific student that I had, a young girl. When I first met her she had a toughness about her, she was defensive and hard. The teacher told me that she often gets into physical fights with the other students and acts out in class alot. Yet, there was something about her that intrigued me. She was assigned to read with me in a small group, she was very behind in her reading level and needed extra help. As I was helping her, she seemed distant. She was paying attention but I had the feeling that everything I was teaching her she would soon lose. When my hour and 15 minutes were up and I was getting ready to leave, she pulled me aside and told me that I would need to help her next time too. I wasn't to surprised that's she asked this of me, i had already been figuring that I would need to be helping her the entire time I was at the school. But then she said something else, she told me that she has a hard time learning things because she is dyslexic and that she would need to relearn things every time we were together. I smiled and told her that would be perfectly fine, but inside I was in shock. When I got to my car that afternoon I felt a sadness I had never felt before. I was sad for this poor girl, she has given up on herself and it seemed like everyone else in her life had done the same. At that moment I became excited about becoming a teacher. If I could help kids that were suffering like this poor girl was, who wanted to learn more than anything but simply did not have the tools to do so, I felt my life would have meaning. I actually felt like I could make a difference.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
First VIPS Post
The school I am tutoring in for VIPS seems to be in a good area. I am not familar with the areas since I just moved here but the neighborhood seems ok. The building itself it very, very large. It is older but is maintained. The classroom I am volunteering in is large as well. The room is full of books and posters. The desks are in rows across the classroom, each row seems to have a row leader. The students are allowed things based upon their behavior in the row.
The school is pretty empty. The classroom I am in is on the third floor of the building and the stairs to get there are very empty. Outside of the classroom the school is very plain. I feel very small when I am walking around the school. I feel an almost lost feeling. The inside of the school is not very inviting or friendly, when I walk around I feel the same nervous, anxious feelings I used to feel when I was a young student. The feeling I get when I am in the school is much different that the feeling I get when I am in the classroom. The classroom has a homey feeling to it. The students have their work hanging up around the class, and their books are along the walls. There is also a rug and a rocking chair in the corner of the classroom where the teacher will have read-a-louds when time permits. The students seem to be very comfortable in the class and really seem to like their teacher alot. Her desk is covered with artwork the students have drawn for her, her door is covered as well. When I walk with her to meet her students before my tutoring begins, many of her past students will asy hello to her and hug her. She obviously has had an amazing effect on hese students, they all seem to like her very much. She is a great teacher. The students in the classroom are for the most part well behaived and nice. There are few that are constantly being reminded to stay focused and on task. But the most surprising part of this group of students is just how far behind they seem to be. Many of them cannot read even the simpliest of words. I try and work with the few students that are having the most trouble reading, but most of them have already given up on trying to learn. They seem to have accepted the fact that they cannot read and do not want to try. These students are the ones that acting out more in class. I think it is because they do not understand what the class is doing most of the time and are frustrated. It is so hard to see these students struggle, I want so badly to help them but there seems to be only so much that I can do. The teacher is doing her best to help the students that are struggling, but the rest of the class needs to be helped as well. They need to move on ant the curriculum does not allow for any extra time to help students that are behind. The students are all very sweet. The girls in the class talk to me about everything and anything, it almost seems like they have no one else to talk to they talk so much. I feel bad that they may not have anyone at home that will listen to them. I am learning so much in the VIPS program. Being immersed in the classroom is teaching me how to handle the students and teach them at the same time. I am really enjoying the experience.
The school is pretty empty. The classroom I am in is on the third floor of the building and the stairs to get there are very empty. Outside of the classroom the school is very plain. I feel very small when I am walking around the school. I feel an almost lost feeling. The inside of the school is not very inviting or friendly, when I walk around I feel the same nervous, anxious feelings I used to feel when I was a young student. The feeling I get when I am in the school is much different that the feeling I get when I am in the classroom. The classroom has a homey feeling to it. The students have their work hanging up around the class, and their books are along the walls. There is also a rug and a rocking chair in the corner of the classroom where the teacher will have read-a-louds when time permits. The students seem to be very comfortable in the class and really seem to like their teacher alot. Her desk is covered with artwork the students have drawn for her, her door is covered as well. When I walk with her to meet her students before my tutoring begins, many of her past students will asy hello to her and hug her. She obviously has had an amazing effect on hese students, they all seem to like her very much. She is a great teacher. The students in the classroom are for the most part well behaived and nice. There are few that are constantly being reminded to stay focused and on task. But the most surprising part of this group of students is just how far behind they seem to be. Many of them cannot read even the simpliest of words. I try and work with the few students that are having the most trouble reading, but most of them have already given up on trying to learn. They seem to have accepted the fact that they cannot read and do not want to try. These students are the ones that acting out more in class. I think it is because they do not understand what the class is doing most of the time and are frustrated. It is so hard to see these students struggle, I want so badly to help them but there seems to be only so much that I can do. The teacher is doing her best to help the students that are struggling, but the rest of the class needs to be helped as well. They need to move on ant the curriculum does not allow for any extra time to help students that are behind. The students are all very sweet. The girls in the class talk to me about everything and anything, it almost seems like they have no one else to talk to they talk so much. I feel bad that they may not have anyone at home that will listen to them. I am learning so much in the VIPS program. Being immersed in the classroom is teaching me how to handle the students and teach them at the same time. I am really enjoying the experience.
Monday, September 7, 2009
First post
Hello my name is Amanda Gootkind and I just recently moved from Las Vegas, NV to Rhode Island. I just started classes at RIC last week and so far I am looking forward to a good semester. I am pretty busy with school and really don't have to much time to do much else. I have 4 dogs so that keeps me pretty busy and I am also getting married in 1 mo and the planning is a 24 hr 7 days a wk job as well. Right now I have a lot going on!!
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