Tuesday, October 20, 2009
First day of school!
When i first pulled up to Calf Pen Meadow I didnt see any windows.It was right next to a liquore store so i didnt know if that would have been the school. It just looked like a brick building and i couldnt even find a door. Finally i parked and walked around the school to find a door. After my 3rd time being there i just walk in and go to the classroom I am assigned. The kindergarton classroom children are very welcoming and happy we are there. My teacher is also very happy that she has extra help. But my first grade teacher is a little different. She's groucy and yells at the children alot. The school's environment isnt as welcoming as i thought it would be. I couldnt find the office the first day we walked in there, it was right around the corner. Also theres big brick stairs and it doesnt look much like an inside of an elementary school. The kindergarton children are learning how to rhyme and sound out words. I observe the classroom and see if they need any help for a half hour. Then i take 3 children outside in an empty classroom and help them with there letters. After another half hour i move to the 1st grade classroom. They are learning how to put words into a sentence. I also took 3 children out of the room and gave them one on one help. I loved all of the children i was working with. They all wanted to learn and were very friendly children. So far, my experience has been great!
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Hi Wendi,
ReplyDeleteI assume that this post was in response to prompt 1. You responded to several of the components. Missing, however, is an interpretation to what is valued in this classroom/school.
I am happy that you find the children winsome and that you are enjoying your experience. I challenge you to resist the temptation to characterize the teacher as "grouchy," although she may well be. Delve deeper: What is not working? Those reflections will help you become the kind of teacher you want to be.
Dr. August
Wendi,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your first of this experience was very positive. I wanted to check in with you and see how your impression of the whole experience was now that is has come to close. Why do you believe that this teacher was "grouchy." Did her attitude change as the weeks went on and her students were gaining more knowledge? What was it that she was so grouchy about? Was it because the students were not listening? Or that she was just grumpy? At my school, initially, I had the same thoughts about many of the teachers in the school. I felt that a teacher was always yelling or disciplining. The more I observed, I realized that the teacher was not grouchy at all. She would just get frustrated when thes students would not take direction. So I concluded that ABC Elementary valued discipline more than anything. To this day, I can say that my assumption was correct. I know that the teachers want their students to succeed, but it seems that respect is more important.
Delpit makes a great point about authority in the classroom. She points out the command differences in white and African American teachers. She said that white teachers tend to command as a question whereas an African American will just command. Since these schools we tutor in are composed mostly of minorities, maybe the teachers in these schools have learned that a direct command is much more effective. To many white people, a direct command such as "sit down please" may seem offensive vs "will you please sit down?" I am not saying that white teachers are nicer by any means, I am saying that people respond differently to commands. When a command is given as a question, it gives students a chance to say yes or no while a direct commmand is saying "do this." I monitored how I commanded the children in my tutoring group and I can see a major change in the two different types of command. I started the intervention using a command as a question and toward the end I noticed I would just give the students the command. Do you think that the teacher may have seemed "grouchy" because of the way she spoke to the students?
Do you feel that you benefited from this tutoring experience?
Hi Wendi,
ReplyDeleteYour first experience was somewhat similar to mine. I was surprised at the location of my school. It is right smack in the middle of a parking lot by the hospitals. I did not think it seemed very welcoming at first. It surprises me that they would have a liquor store next to an elementary school. I did find the children very welcoming and warm. They were surprisingly polite and curteous, more so than people I interact with on an everyday basis. They always go out of their way to hold the door for me and their classmates. This is a value they hold high in my school. They have posters with "respect" on them and underneath it gives an example of holding the door open.
I am also wondering what the teacher did that was grouchy? Like Lindsay pointed out, different people respond to direction and command differently. Maybe what is rude and offensive to me is socially acceptable to others. I think this is why it is important to keep an open mind and also to get to know our students personally so the classroom can be a positive place for everyone.
Wendi,
ReplyDeleteWhere are the rest of your personal blogs? I see only this one.
Dr. August