I’ve always loved working with children. They bring more joy to my life than anyone else, and they always find a way to brighten my day. They are so honest and pure, what isn’t there to love about them? It’s always made sense to me to become a teacher so I can give back to them for a living, but I don’t think that I really understood what it would be like until my VIPS tutoring.
Most of the time I felt like I was more of a teacher than a tutor. These students did not understand concepts that they should to be doing their work. One area that really stood out with this is math. Lucky for my I am in math for elementary school teachers this semester, so all the rules are fresh in my mind. I was helping some of the students with their homework one day when I realized I could do more than explain to them how to do this problem way out of left field, I could use that I’ve learnt to help them. Explaining addition and subtraction algorithms gave me more of a rush than I could have ever believed. Seeing the students actually understand what they were doing for the first time made me feel better than I think I ever have before. I knew then that it really was my destiny to be a teacher because it’s the career that would truly make me the happiest.
One thing that I’ve always been nervous about them it came to teaching is how I would be as a disciplinary action. I’ve always had a hard time with that part, I wasn’t sure if my students would take me seriously or listen to me. Would they end up walking all over me because I’m too nice? But do I want to be too mean? It’s always been very confusing to me, and I think that is because every teacher needs to have their own style of discipline.
One of the students in my original classroom was a particularly hard kid to deal with. He didn’t do anything that was asked of him and wouldn’t give anyone the time of day. You may remember him from my first post, he tried to steal the ring right off my finger during my first session. He ended up becoming something of an experiment to me, wondering if I could get him to behave. One day when he was giving the other kids a hard time I asked him what was wrong, why he couldn’t just be nice to everyone else. He responded that no one else is ever nice to him, so why should he be? I told him that I’d be nice to him as long as he listened to his teachers and did what he was supposed to. Surprisingly, he was like putty in my hands for the rest of my time there. I think my personal style is nice, while letting the kids know you refuse to take any of their crap. And also, this student showed me once again why I love children. There is no such thing as a bad child. They may be confused or misunderstood or in need of some guidance to be on the right path, but they are always good of heart. I want to be able to help as many students of possible find their path in life.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
prompt #4
“No one speaks from nowhere, and no one speaks from everywhere.” This line has been repeated many times over the course of my FNED 346 class and I can completely understand why. A person’s personal history and experiences is going to shape the type of teacher they become, no doubt about it. Just as a volunteer I had a particular stance before walking into the doors of my assigned elementary school. I grew up in a good neighborhood, with a Mom who worked on academics with me every night. I was able to read a book when I was in kindergarten and have always been ahead of the class in mathematics. I went to an all-white Catholic school and really didn’t know much about diversity. This could definitely be a challenge to me as a teacher, but I refuse to look at it as that way. Instead of sticking to one narrow minded point of view I will always have the chance to learn from others, whether they are my peers or my students. To be constantly learning is a very important thing to do, and I find myself lucky for it.
We had a discussion during my FNED 346 class about teaching styles and how they can sometimes be blurred. A white teacher may have a very unique style that a black student does not understand. An example of this would be if students started packing up before the bell rang. A teacher might say “This class doesn’t end until 10:20” and continue on with what they were previously saying. Majority of the students would get the hint and stop packing up. If a student did not understand that the teacher was REALLY saying “Do not put your things away yet” and they continued to do so they would be looked upon as disobedient. A difference in learning styles is never a good reason for a student to fall behind.
An example of this that Delpit gives in her article is a teacher that is indirect, soft spoken, and unassuming. A student might find her to be weak, ineffectual, and incapable of taking on the role of being the teacher. There are many different teaching styles and many different learning styles, and they will not always be compatible. Being a good teacher is making sure you are getting through to all of your students, not making assumptions’ about them and writing them off.
We had a discussion during my FNED 346 class about teaching styles and how they can sometimes be blurred. A white teacher may have a very unique style that a black student does not understand. An example of this would be if students started packing up before the bell rang. A teacher might say “This class doesn’t end until 10:20” and continue on with what they were previously saying. Majority of the students would get the hint and stop packing up. If a student did not understand that the teacher was REALLY saying “Do not put your things away yet” and they continued to do so they would be looked upon as disobedient. A difference in learning styles is never a good reason for a student to fall behind.
An example of this that Delpit gives in her article is a teacher that is indirect, soft spoken, and unassuming. A student might find her to be weak, ineffectual, and incapable of taking on the role of being the teacher. There are many different teaching styles and many different learning styles, and they will not always be compatible. Being a good teacher is making sure you are getting through to all of your students, not making assumptions’ about them and writing them off.
prompt #6
Being in a school setting that was multicultural made for a lot of sociocultural and linguistic differences. Some of the classrooms tried to help this problem by having a teacher that spoke fluent Spanish. The problem with this, however, was many of these teachers did not speak fluent English.
Lisa Delpit’s article “The Silence Dialogue” talks about the culture of power and learning the rules of it. It’s very obvious that there is a culture of power in the United States right now, and white English speaking individuals fit that. Every child has his or hers cultural differences and while they should accept that, they must also learn how to succeed in our society. That is how it works right now.
One of the examples Delpit gives is that of a young Native American woman who submitted a completely illegible paper because she had little concept of spelling and sentence structure. Other professors thought that the woman should never have been let into a teacher preparation program, which Delpit did not agree with. She believe that he woman should have learned the proper grammatically rules that entail writing papers, but also that to bring this student into a program and pass them through without attending to her lack of expertise in the area is a crime in itself. Students need to be taught properly in order to succeed in life.
Two of the classrooms I was in had a very serious problem I couldn’t help but notice. When one of the Spanish speaking teachers helped students with their homework things didn’t quite add up. Many times I would check a student’s homework to see a string of wrong answers, only to hear from the child “Miss Cheri already helped me with my homework.” This is elementary school work; anyone in charge of helping these students should be able to handle the course load. Simple mathematical problems going over adding and subtracting are easy enough to check, a teacher should not miss errors in a student’s paper repeatedly. What was even worse is I saw teachers helping Spanish speaking students write English sentences. If I were to re-check their work nothing would make sense. I would have to go back over everything “Read this out loud for me. Tell me if anything sounds funny?” If a teacher isn’t able to recognize the nonsensical nature of sentence structure, how will a student ever learn to?
Yes, Delpit does believe in a diversity of style, and that every culture group should have the right to maintain its own language style, but I believe that there needs to be a primary knowledge of our nation’s first language because without it a person with struggle in every other aspect of their life.
Lisa Delpit’s article “The Silence Dialogue” talks about the culture of power and learning the rules of it. It’s very obvious that there is a culture of power in the United States right now, and white English speaking individuals fit that. Every child has his or hers cultural differences and while they should accept that, they must also learn how to succeed in our society. That is how it works right now.
One of the examples Delpit gives is that of a young Native American woman who submitted a completely illegible paper because she had little concept of spelling and sentence structure. Other professors thought that the woman should never have been let into a teacher preparation program, which Delpit did not agree with. She believe that he woman should have learned the proper grammatically rules that entail writing papers, but also that to bring this student into a program and pass them through without attending to her lack of expertise in the area is a crime in itself. Students need to be taught properly in order to succeed in life.
Two of the classrooms I was in had a very serious problem I couldn’t help but notice. When one of the Spanish speaking teachers helped students with their homework things didn’t quite add up. Many times I would check a student’s homework to see a string of wrong answers, only to hear from the child “Miss Cheri already helped me with my homework.” This is elementary school work; anyone in charge of helping these students should be able to handle the course load. Simple mathematical problems going over adding and subtracting are easy enough to check, a teacher should not miss errors in a student’s paper repeatedly. What was even worse is I saw teachers helping Spanish speaking students write English sentences. If I were to re-check their work nothing would make sense. I would have to go back over everything “Read this out loud for me. Tell me if anything sounds funny?” If a teacher isn’t able to recognize the nonsensical nature of sentence structure, how will a student ever learn to?
Yes, Delpit does believe in a diversity of style, and that every culture group should have the right to maintain its own language style, but I believe that there needs to be a primary knowledge of our nation’s first language because without it a person with struggle in every other aspect of their life.
prompt #3
I spent a great deal of time in the fourth grade classroom after my first session. I wasn’t sure I could make it through at first, but I knew more than anything that I wanted to be a teacher and this was a stepping stone to achieving that goal. I was with the class for 4 or 5 sessions and the kids had really grown attached to me. It was hard to ask to be switched to another class, but I knew it had to be done. I really wanted to make the most of my experience and the game-oriented setting wasn’t stimulating to my academic needs.
Previous to starting our service learning my FNED class dedicated a period to learning about what we were in for. We were taught a lot about phonics, for the reading buddies, and about the upside down triangle. It was really eye-opening to hear about how many students needed extra help in these classrooms, but nothing could ever compare to actually encountering it. When I was in the 4th grade class there were some students who could barely read. I could read an entire book in kindergarten, and didn’t think that was abnormal. Struggling in the 4th grade.. that was devastating to me. I wanted so badly to do everything I could for them, but there just wasn’t enough time. They spent ten minutes, if that, on homework every week and I did not feel as if I could make any type of change in that amount of time. I approached the director and asked for a different classroom, maybe younger, and definitely one that was a bit more studious.
Our teacher had us read Kahne and Westheimer’s article “In Service of What?” to prepare for our service learning experience. Kahne and Westheimer explained that there are two different types of service learning experiences, which they called the charity model and the change model. Their understanding is that a lot of students will willingly volunteer their time if assigned, but simply attending their assigned destination, doing what they are told, and going home will not make any substantial difference in this world. Also, there are many wealthy people out there who feel good about going and helping out those less fortunate than them. They are much like the students, going through the motions because it is the right thing to do. In no way do Kahne and Westheimer believe there is anything wrong with this “charity” but it is certainly not the most productive form of service learning.
The change model of service learning is about caring for those you are volunteering with, making a political social reconstruction where you can, and having a transformed outlook on life when you have finished. To be able to do this one must first critically analyze the group they are to be working with. Why are they in need? What circumstances have put them there? What actions plans are there already or could be implemented to change this? You also have to be able to have a meaningful, reflective component to empower the volunteers and the curriculum. The change model is about changing the status quo and really coming up with solutions. I was determined to have my service learning experience to the same.
When I was switched into the 1st and 2nd grade combined classroom I was thrilled. This was the happiest time for me, because these kids really wanted to learn. They wanted to be able to understand the material they were doing, not just answer it. It was a joy to be able to really dedicate my time to helping these children. Yet, there were still many things they should have a prior knowledge of. Even being so young, they were very behind. It was very obvious to me that in many cases I was teaching these children an entire lesson, not just tutoring them on it. One change that definitely needs to be made is that children in Providence schools should not be given the opportunity to fall behind. There is no excuse for any 4th grader to have trouble reading. Reading is the foundation for every other subject you will ever learn. Many argue that the school can only do so much; the parents have to take over practicing with them at some point and in many cases that is not possible. That may be true, but I believe there should be more help available to make up for that. An after school program could be a very effective means if it was laid out correctly, teachers should have a more diverse curriculum and have a plan B when a student isn’t learning according to their “usual” way of teaching. There are things that can help these students, we just need a more change oriented mind set for it to take effect.
Previous to starting our service learning my FNED class dedicated a period to learning about what we were in for. We were taught a lot about phonics, for the reading buddies, and about the upside down triangle. It was really eye-opening to hear about how many students needed extra help in these classrooms, but nothing could ever compare to actually encountering it. When I was in the 4th grade class there were some students who could barely read. I could read an entire book in kindergarten, and didn’t think that was abnormal. Struggling in the 4th grade.. that was devastating to me. I wanted so badly to do everything I could for them, but there just wasn’t enough time. They spent ten minutes, if that, on homework every week and I did not feel as if I could make any type of change in that amount of time. I approached the director and asked for a different classroom, maybe younger, and definitely one that was a bit more studious.
Our teacher had us read Kahne and Westheimer’s article “In Service of What?” to prepare for our service learning experience. Kahne and Westheimer explained that there are two different types of service learning experiences, which they called the charity model and the change model. Their understanding is that a lot of students will willingly volunteer their time if assigned, but simply attending their assigned destination, doing what they are told, and going home will not make any substantial difference in this world. Also, there are many wealthy people out there who feel good about going and helping out those less fortunate than them. They are much like the students, going through the motions because it is the right thing to do. In no way do Kahne and Westheimer believe there is anything wrong with this “charity” but it is certainly not the most productive form of service learning.
The change model of service learning is about caring for those you are volunteering with, making a political social reconstruction where you can, and having a transformed outlook on life when you have finished. To be able to do this one must first critically analyze the group they are to be working with. Why are they in need? What circumstances have put them there? What actions plans are there already or could be implemented to change this? You also have to be able to have a meaningful, reflective component to empower the volunteers and the curriculum. The change model is about changing the status quo and really coming up with solutions. I was determined to have my service learning experience to the same.
When I was switched into the 1st and 2nd grade combined classroom I was thrilled. This was the happiest time for me, because these kids really wanted to learn. They wanted to be able to understand the material they were doing, not just answer it. It was a joy to be able to really dedicate my time to helping these children. Yet, there were still many things they should have a prior knowledge of. Even being so young, they were very behind. It was very obvious to me that in many cases I was teaching these children an entire lesson, not just tutoring them on it. One change that definitely needs to be made is that children in Providence schools should not be given the opportunity to fall behind. There is no excuse for any 4th grader to have trouble reading. Reading is the foundation for every other subject you will ever learn. Many argue that the school can only do so much; the parents have to take over practicing with them at some point and in many cases that is not possible. That may be true, but I believe there should be more help available to make up for that. An after school program could be a very effective means if it was laid out correctly, teachers should have a more diverse curriculum and have a plan B when a student isn’t learning according to their “usual” way of teaching. There are things that can help these students, we just need a more change oriented mind set for it to take effect.
prompt #1
I had known for a while I would be required to volunteer in a Providence public school, but no one told me what I was in for. After receiving my placement through VIPS I was happy to see I recognized the school, I’ve driven by it a million times while going to my friends house. What I wasn’t happy to see is that it was located on what many call “the worst street in the best part of town.” Being in a semi-good neighborhood has to mean something though, right?
I was nervous for my first tutoring session; I’m not ashamed to admit that. I had never been in a public elementary school in my life, never mind one in Providence. I went through enough years of Catholic school to be somewhat narrow minded about what I would encounter. I was reminded of the kids in Kahne and Westheimer’s article “In Service of What?” The volunteers and their families were nervous about going to a lower class school. They had imagined the students to be “horrifying children running around on a dirty campus” and “rude, tough, and very unfriendly.” When the volunteers finally went to the school, however, they saw that the children were nothing like that. They were polite and had excellent behavior.. Maybe things would work out the same for me?
I drove around for a good ten minutes, confused by one way streets and no parking signs, before finding a place to park. Finding the main entrance was a whole different matter, there were so many doors! The building was large and brick and as I walked around it looking for a way in, I wondered if it was too late to back out. No, I needed to do this, it was important.
I finally ran into some other people, one of which was the principle, and they took me inside. I went into the office to put my sign in sheet away and was sent to the cafeteria. I should mention, I wasn’t in a regular classroom, I was in an after school program. The director of the program was supposedly in the cafeteria, so off I went, with no idea where it was located. When I finally managed to get there I was immediately kicked out. A different after school program meets in there; I had to go find the director in the gym. After locating the gym on my own once again I was informed she wasn’t in there, but to try upstairs, she was probably making rounds. By this point I was fed up. I had never been to this school before and yet no one had enough common sense to realize I didn’t know my way around it? Or even what the director looked like?! I was wandering around aimlessly, when a young girl who couldn’t be much older than myself asked if I needed help. I glanced at her name tag, she was just who I was looking for. Dear god.
She was nice, even if I was questioning her qualifications in the back of my mind, and even asked if I had a preferred grade. I said no, so she led me to a 4th grade classroom. I had actually thought that would be the perfect grade to teach, so I was pleased. Walking, in however, that gave me an entirely different feeling.
The addition of me to the room didn’t catch the attention of a single student. They were too busy carrying out the complete anarchy of the classroom. They were wild and uncontrollable as the teacher yelled over them. She managed to get them in seats and tried to lecture them about the rules of the class when a girl sighed loudly and said “booooring.” I was appalled. I had worked with campers all summer that were the same age group, none of them would even think to talk to me this way. There were a few students sitting in the back quickly trying to finish homework. It seemed promising that there were a few behaved students, but as quickly as I could think it, the teacher yelled at them and told them to put their work away. What on earth were they teaching them here? One of the students had finally noticed my arrival and grabbed my hand under the pretenses of leading me to his seat. What really happened though was him trying to slip my ring right off my finger. My jaw dropped. Had a 9 year old just really tried to steal my ring?
I sat in the back of the classroom for the remainder of my session. I didn’t say a word, I just watched. When I finally made it back to my car I broke down in tears. I cried all the way home. I couldn’t believe the system I was just thrown into. 13.5 more hours seemed impossible.
I was nervous for my first tutoring session; I’m not ashamed to admit that. I had never been in a public elementary school in my life, never mind one in Providence. I went through enough years of Catholic school to be somewhat narrow minded about what I would encounter. I was reminded of the kids in Kahne and Westheimer’s article “In Service of What?” The volunteers and their families were nervous about going to a lower class school. They had imagined the students to be “horrifying children running around on a dirty campus” and “rude, tough, and very unfriendly.” When the volunteers finally went to the school, however, they saw that the children were nothing like that. They were polite and had excellent behavior.. Maybe things would work out the same for me?
I drove around for a good ten minutes, confused by one way streets and no parking signs, before finding a place to park. Finding the main entrance was a whole different matter, there were so many doors! The building was large and brick and as I walked around it looking for a way in, I wondered if it was too late to back out. No, I needed to do this, it was important.
I finally ran into some other people, one of which was the principle, and they took me inside. I went into the office to put my sign in sheet away and was sent to the cafeteria. I should mention, I wasn’t in a regular classroom, I was in an after school program. The director of the program was supposedly in the cafeteria, so off I went, with no idea where it was located. When I finally managed to get there I was immediately kicked out. A different after school program meets in there; I had to go find the director in the gym. After locating the gym on my own once again I was informed she wasn’t in there, but to try upstairs, she was probably making rounds. By this point I was fed up. I had never been to this school before and yet no one had enough common sense to realize I didn’t know my way around it? Or even what the director looked like?! I was wandering around aimlessly, when a young girl who couldn’t be much older than myself asked if I needed help. I glanced at her name tag, she was just who I was looking for. Dear god.
She was nice, even if I was questioning her qualifications in the back of my mind, and even asked if I had a preferred grade. I said no, so she led me to a 4th grade classroom. I had actually thought that would be the perfect grade to teach, so I was pleased. Walking, in however, that gave me an entirely different feeling.
The addition of me to the room didn’t catch the attention of a single student. They were too busy carrying out the complete anarchy of the classroom. They were wild and uncontrollable as the teacher yelled over them. She managed to get them in seats and tried to lecture them about the rules of the class when a girl sighed loudly and said “booooring.” I was appalled. I had worked with campers all summer that were the same age group, none of them would even think to talk to me this way. There were a few students sitting in the back quickly trying to finish homework. It seemed promising that there were a few behaved students, but as quickly as I could think it, the teacher yelled at them and told them to put their work away. What on earth were they teaching them here? One of the students had finally noticed my arrival and grabbed my hand under the pretenses of leading me to his seat. What really happened though was him trying to slip my ring right off my finger. My jaw dropped. Had a 9 year old just really tried to steal my ring?
I sat in the back of the classroom for the remainder of my session. I didn’t say a word, I just watched. When I finally made it back to my car I broke down in tears. I cried all the way home. I couldn’t believe the system I was just thrown into. 13.5 more hours seemed impossible.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Hello
My name is Tanna, I am an Elementary Education major, my content major is Math, and I want to get my middle school endorsement. (:
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