Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Prompt One
The neighborhood around the school isn't very nice. Down the street from the school there was a homeless person asking for money. The school itself doesn't look too bad. The lockers look a little broken but other then that I don't think there is too much wrong with it. Every classroom has a TV and VCR avaliable to the teacher. The classroom I am in is very crowded. It looks like the teacher has saved everything she has ever recieved. It also is very unorganized. She has a hard time finding things. The walls and white boards are covered with different posters and assignments. There are also a lot of papers covering up the counter near the windows. I honeslty am not sure how she finds anything. The students were very friendly and excited to have me in the classroom. They opened up to me easily. They showed me what they were working on and helped me to catch on. They sat in tables not desks so they had a pile of materials in the middle of the table. The teacher told me anything the students used she had to buy out of her own pocket because there wasn't any in the school. I think the teacher likes the students to be independent. I have not really seen her teach the class. She constantly asks the students what are you suppose to be doing. They always have a list of work that they are suppose to do and it seems almost redundent. They do the same papers everytime I'm there except with different problems. Today was my fourth time going to the school but my first time actually working with a certain group of kids. The teacher wasn't sure what I was suppose to be doing. I talked to the literacy coach and she gave me a group of students and different games to play with them. I think the kids in this class listen better then the kids I worked with in a higher class communtiy. It reminds me of the Delpit article. The part were she tells him to get into the bath rather then asking him. Most of them seemed to listen well. There was one student she has sitting directly behind her and facing the white board. I don't agree with this I think she is seperating him too much but I don't know him well enough to say it's wrong. Other then that it seems like a good classroom.
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Kali,
ReplyDeleteWhen you described the classroom in which you volunteered, it sounded very much like the classroom which I go to. In fact I say in my first blog that the word that came to mind when I stepped into the classroom for the first time, was chaos. There are things hanging on every part of the walls, the shelves just have different piles of papers and other things, the bookshelf, (when it’s not collapsed), holds piles and piles of books- there is no organization whatsoever. Whenever I ask my teacher for materials, (books, papers, etc.), to complete the assignment or task that she has asked me to do, it always takes her a few minutes to find what I have asked for, if she finds it at all.
As much as the atmospheres of our classrooms sound familiar, our teachers sound very different. The students have very little “free” time where the teacher has not asked for or assigned them something to be doing. The only time they have time without instruction or structure is when they have finished work early and have the opportunity to sit quietly and read. The teacher in my classroom always has something for me to do and something for her students to do. Although she loses her patience on occasion, she always stays in control of her classroom and makes sure all the students are on task and I think it is having a positive effect on her students as they always seems interested in what she is saying and what they will be learning that day. Just about all of them are always in tune with the lesson at hand and focused on their work.
Talk to you soon!
Kali,
ReplyDeleteReading this post made me think of the school and classroom I am tutoring in. It is located in a poor area and I have also seen homeless people right down the street. The classroom I am tutoring in sounds JUST like the one you are tutoring in. The teacher seems to hardly interact with the students. There is a list hanging by the windows that tells the students what exactly they should be doing. She is usually sitting at her desk either yelling or redirecting the students attention. The first few times I went to tutor my teacher was also clueless about what I should be doing. I found myself walking around the room and helping the students with their independent work. It shocked me how many of the students didn't fully understand what they were doing and needed help. You would think the students would have a better understanding when you see the teacher sitting at her desk not helping them. It broke my heart.
After a few visits I started working with a group of students on their reading skills. I noticed that these students responded better when I was more direct in my directions, just like the example Delipt explains to us. After I noticed that, I started to pay close attention to the way the teacher would speak to the students. I found she was also more direct in her directions. I also noticed that the main focus of the classroom was respect and discipline. It was almost like the students did their work because they were scared of being scolded in front of the class, not because they were eager to learn or interested in the material. It is really interesting to see the differences from when I was in elementary compared to these students!
Talk to you soon!!
Hi Kali,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned Delpit. I think you are on to something here, but you left in underdeveloped. Let your reader in on Delpit's argument and then make the connection explicit with several examples (or one extended example).
Keep thinking on these things,
Dr. August