4) The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural
groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the socio-cultural
factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge
into his/her teaching.
No one enters a classroom without a personal
history; thus, no one enters a classroom completely free of bias. How might your
personal history/socio-cultural characteristics intersect with those of your
students? What challenges or advantages might you have as a teacher in this
classroom? What misconceptions about various cultural groups have you confronted
during this experience? Give examples.
Thinking about my personal history, I may not to be able to relate directly to my students but I have been through a lot that I may know where they are coming from. For example, I have moved around a lot as a kid and had to go to different schools in elementary school. In 2001, my godfather (my moms brother) passed away on 9/11 in the twin towers, I watched my grandfather have a stroke the day before I left for my first year of college in front of me and took care of him until he passed away. During the time my grandfather was dying, my father left my mother for another woman. Even though my personal history I have experienced a lot for my first 21 years of my life, I dont know how I can relate to them socio-cultural wise. I have had best friends who were african-america, native american, gay and lesbian but I am still a white girl who has lived in Smithfield, RI, Cape Cod and NorthernVermont. (possibly the most undiverse places to live ever.) I have always been accepting of others and never judged them based on their skin. That's just how I was raised and usually was the one to get pissed at others in high school when they brought up a gay joke or a racial joke. I think this might have to do with having a gay best friend and being defensive of bullying to others. I dont kow what advantages my history and experiences may bring into the future classroom. I don't think I will know until I meet my students and learn what they have been through.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Reflection
After reading the articles and watching the movie clips I feel very saddened by the way the children picked the black doll as the bad guy and the white doll as the pretty one and the one that they would rather play with. I felt very upset when the student didnt want to pick which doll looked like him. All of the topics we are reflecting on are hard for me to digest and reflect on because these are young children who are already making stereotypes through the media. I think it's important for all schools to be desegragated that way students realize that white children and black children aren't that different. This would hopefully be a start to reduce the amount of stereotypes that are overgeneralized in our society.
to be continued....
to be continued....
Response to Post#5
5) The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and
community resources, understanding the differences in families, the
important influence of family participation in students’ learning, and the
benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.
Imagine that you are the teacher of this classroom. What challenges might you encounter in collaborating with the parents of your students? How might you address these challenges? How might you demonstrate respect for the concerns or contributions of parents?
Imagining that I am the teacher of the classroom I am volunteering is both an exciting yet nerve-racking idea. From just the two or three weeks I have been volunteering, I have noticed and been told by the teacher the lack of support from parents of certain students. In example, not signing permission slips, making sure their children get their homework done and even just helping their children outside of school with various tasks. Therefore, if I were to take over this class I would have the extra challenges of a teacher to make sure students are responsible enough by themselves in second grade to make sure they are studious and do their homework. As well as making extra notes home, phone calls, emails to make sure parents sign permission slips. This topic reminds me of the conversation we had in class whether or not to teach home economics. I feel that in a situation where young children often have to take care of themselves after school, that home economics in the classroom is very important. So imagining myself as a teacher to take over this class, I would definitly start adding components of home economics into my lesson plans. Especially, topics like responsibility, studying tips, maybe even cooking, etc. Nothing too challenging for second graders but teaching home economics in a way that fits the already set criteria and standards that we need to meet by the end of second grade.
I understand that many of these parents work late or have two jobs because of there economic status. I respect that and will make that clear through parent teacher meetings in the beginning of the year. To help parents become actively engaged with their children, I might set up a blog or send a newsletter home to them. Which would describe the events, reminders and what we are currently learning in the classroom. I will also offer a day afterschool each week that any student is struggling with their work to come for extra help. This will relieve some of the pressure the parents have of having their student do well in school and are unable to help them due to other reasons. It's hard to imagine other ways when I am just imagining working with the students parents that I am volunteering because I dont know each individuals background, I only know the school as a whole from infoworks.
Imagine that you are the teacher of this classroom. What challenges might you encounter in collaborating with the parents of your students? How might you address these challenges? How might you demonstrate respect for the concerns or contributions of parents?
Imagining that I am the teacher of the classroom I am volunteering is both an exciting yet nerve-racking idea. From just the two or three weeks I have been volunteering, I have noticed and been told by the teacher the lack of support from parents of certain students. In example, not signing permission slips, making sure their children get their homework done and even just helping their children outside of school with various tasks. Therefore, if I were to take over this class I would have the extra challenges of a teacher to make sure students are responsible enough by themselves in second grade to make sure they are studious and do their homework. As well as making extra notes home, phone calls, emails to make sure parents sign permission slips. This topic reminds me of the conversation we had in class whether or not to teach home economics. I feel that in a situation where young children often have to take care of themselves after school, that home economics in the classroom is very important. So imagining myself as a teacher to take over this class, I would definitly start adding components of home economics into my lesson plans. Especially, topics like responsibility, studying tips, maybe even cooking, etc. Nothing too challenging for second graders but teaching home economics in a way that fits the already set criteria and standards that we need to meet by the end of second grade.
I understand that many of these parents work late or have two jobs because of there economic status. I respect that and will make that clear through parent teacher meetings in the beginning of the year. To help parents become actively engaged with their children, I might set up a blog or send a newsletter home to them. Which would describe the events, reminders and what we are currently learning in the classroom. I will also offer a day afterschool each week that any student is struggling with their work to come for extra help. This will relieve some of the pressure the parents have of having their student do well in school and are unable to help them due to other reasons. It's hard to imagine other ways when I am just imagining working with the students parents that I am volunteering because I dont know each individuals background, I only know the school as a whole from infoworks.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Variety of Assessments
The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of
assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate
socio-cultural differences that affect learning.
How might the teacher be responsive to the linguistic, ethnic, and socio-cultural characteristics of the students in his or her assessment practices?
I happened to notice on the three visits so far into my classroom the different tools the teacher in the classroom teaches reading and writing. (I have actually only been in the classroom when she teaches reading and writing, I think she teaches this every morning) There are many students in the classroom who are lacking in there fluency with text, meaning the effortless to read sentences and comprehend them. She often begins the morning having students read silently in their reading street books. After everyone is settled in she calls students to the rug to go over vocabulary that are actually in the story that they just read in the reading street book. Students then usually have to create sentences using those vocab words. During this time the teacher will write a list of things the students need to work on and complete for the next two hours.
While students are completing the list she will have students come over and work with her on reading. They are usally doing some app on the teachers Ipad that is related to the working on their fluency skills. Another way students can increase their skills in reading and writing is a game that is installed on the school computers. During this time, the teacher has me work with specific students repeating different words or sentences to increase their fluency in the words. I believe that a possible reason why students in the classroom are lacking in reading outloud skills is because they speak a different language at home. I noticed that the teacher does take this into account and make sure students who are struggling try to find time to give them extra help and teach them in different ways so students can grasp the material better. There is only one teacher in the classroom, and many students who need extra help. The teacher in this second grade classroom definitly works very hard to try and get as much one-on-one time with students who need extra help.
How might the teacher be responsive to the linguistic, ethnic, and socio-cultural characteristics of the students in his or her assessment practices?
I happened to notice on the three visits so far into my classroom the different tools the teacher in the classroom teaches reading and writing. (I have actually only been in the classroom when she teaches reading and writing, I think she teaches this every morning) There are many students in the classroom who are lacking in there fluency with text, meaning the effortless to read sentences and comprehend them. She often begins the morning having students read silently in their reading street books. After everyone is settled in she calls students to the rug to go over vocabulary that are actually in the story that they just read in the reading street book. Students then usually have to create sentences using those vocab words. During this time the teacher will write a list of things the students need to work on and complete for the next two hours.
While students are completing the list she will have students come over and work with her on reading. They are usally doing some app on the teachers Ipad that is related to the working on their fluency skills. Another way students can increase their skills in reading and writing is a game that is installed on the school computers. During this time, the teacher has me work with specific students repeating different words or sentences to increase their fluency in the words. I believe that a possible reason why students in the classroom are lacking in reading outloud skills is because they speak a different language at home. I noticed that the teacher does take this into account and make sure students who are struggling try to find time to give them extra help and teach them in different ways so students can grasp the material better. There is only one teacher in the classroom, and many students who need extra help. The teacher in this second grade classroom definitly works very hard to try and get as much one-on-one time with students who need extra help.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Cultural Diversity: a response to prompt #2
In accordance to infoworks.ride.ri.gov, my school that I am working at is made up of 583 students. Those students are predominately made up of Hispanic children. The hispanic percantange at the school is 43%. The rest of the students at the school come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Those students are 26% African American, 21% white, 5% Asian, 3% muti-racial and 2% Native American. More specifically, looking at the second graders I am tutoring it seems like they are actually mostly African American and there are only 1 or 2 white students in the classroom.
Interacting with all of the students of different race, I feel that I don't see much of a difference when working with white students and African American students. They are all extremely excited when the walk into school and find me in their classroom. They all scream, "Yes, Miss. Brittany's here!" With the diversity in the classroom I feel the students are able to accept everybody no matter the background. I do feel however because of the diverse backgrounds of the individual students that it allows the students to bring unique stories and opinions versus a classroom that was predominately a single race. This may allow in the future for overall acceptance in society and in the business world.
On a side note an interesting moment happened in the classroom today. The teacher was in a meeting with a parent that was running late. So there was a fill-in teacher until the 2nd grade teacher could return. The class was supposed to be reading silently and this one boy who usually seems to be bouncing around was of course bouncing around the room. I felt he just needed some one-on-one attention to get him focused. So I decided to go over to the boy and say, "hey lets go read this story together over there." He was very excited to read together. While he was picking out a book, the fill-in teacher came over to us, right in front of this young boy mind you and said to me, "Are you sure you want to read with him?" Of course being the person I am, I responded politely, "I am definitely sure."
I went over to read the story of The Little House and the Prairie with him. In fact this boy read beautifully to me with the exception of a few hard words. The boy read proudly and was on task the entire time. I decided to spend more time with the boy during vocab sentence time as well, we worked together on the sentences and he even wrote detailed, correct spelling, amazing second grade sentences.
Who knew that the boy who got not one word write on his spelling test I corrected for him last week, could do amazing work when just one person would give him just a little bit of encouragement and attention.
Interacting with all of the students of different race, I feel that I don't see much of a difference when working with white students and African American students. They are all extremely excited when the walk into school and find me in their classroom. They all scream, "Yes, Miss. Brittany's here!" With the diversity in the classroom I feel the students are able to accept everybody no matter the background. I do feel however because of the diverse backgrounds of the individual students that it allows the students to bring unique stories and opinions versus a classroom that was predominately a single race. This may allow in the future for overall acceptance in society and in the business world.
On a side note an interesting moment happened in the classroom today. The teacher was in a meeting with a parent that was running late. So there was a fill-in teacher until the 2nd grade teacher could return. The class was supposed to be reading silently and this one boy who usually seems to be bouncing around was of course bouncing around the room. I felt he just needed some one-on-one attention to get him focused. So I decided to go over to the boy and say, "hey lets go read this story together over there." He was very excited to read together. While he was picking out a book, the fill-in teacher came over to us, right in front of this young boy mind you and said to me, "Are you sure you want to read with him?" Of course being the person I am, I responded politely, "I am definitely sure."
I went over to read the story of The Little House and the Prairie with him. In fact this boy read beautifully to me with the exception of a few hard words. The boy read proudly and was on task the entire time. I decided to spend more time with the boy during vocab sentence time as well, we worked together on the sentences and he even wrote detailed, correct spelling, amazing second grade sentences.
Who knew that the boy who got not one word write on his spelling test I corrected for him last week, could do amazing work when just one person would give him just a little bit of encouragement and attention.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
1st day volunteering in 2nd grade
A few days ago I had my first visit to the elementary school that I am volunteering through the VIPs program. While I was contemplating all the scenarios in my head on the walk from my car to the entrance of the school, I wasn't sure what to expect. I walked up to the big brick building next to parents holding their child's hand who were all getting dropped off at the gym door. As I reached the main door, I took a deep breath, walked in and went up the stairs to the main office. To my surprise upon entering the main office, I was greeted by friendly staff and even the secretaries greeted me warmly. This put me in a great mood already. While I was signing in, a young boy walked in who happened to be from second grade (the grade I was assigned to) offered to walk me down to the second grade classroom.
On the walk to second grade, the hallways seemed to be outdated but reminded me of movies seen in the past which put a smile on my face. The hallways weren't filled with much color but the atmosphere still seemed like the school is loved by their students. It wasn't a far walk to second grade and immediately upon entering the students were grabbing breakfast out of giant coolers. Today's breakfast was Pillsbury apple pastries, cantaloupe and orange juice. This was different from any of the other schools I have been involved with in. The past schools I have worked with, only offered breakfast before school and very few students ate it. Here, every student must eat breakfast and everyone eats together in the classroom before the morning rituals. I found out later through InfoWorks! that 74% of this school is on subsidized lunches.
Looking around the classroom while everyone was eating the pastries, I noticed much of the walls in the classroom were covered with student work. If it wasn't student work, it was handmade by the teacher. I was wondering if this is because it was a teacher choice or because the budget happened to be low. Either way it made the classroom have a home-like feel to it. The students in this classroom come from a variety of background. According to InfoWorks! the school is very dynamic in their ethical background, 43% are Hispanic, 26% are African American, 21% are Caucasian, 5% are Asian, 3% are multi racial and 2% are Native American.
After breakfast, pledge of allegiance and announcements the teacher had students break open their reading street books. Everyone was to review the short story; Horace and Morris but Mostly Delores. Many students got right to work but others were more focused on drawing attention to themselves by dropping their books on the floor. This didn't last long because those particular students were leaving for the reading specialist teacher shortly.
After silent reading students began working on assignments the teacher wrote on the board for students to work on. The teacher had me help specific students who needed the extra help on vocabulary and pronuncing their words correctly. I expected these students to really need extra help but they actually were quite fine once they received one-on-one time. The students were very eager and excited to work with me. It made for an easy transition in a school I have never been before. Spending time with these individual students, really made the time go by fast. Before I knew it, it was 11:00 and my volunteer session was up. I am looking forward to the next time I return to this second grade classroom and the adventures that we have ahead over the next month.
On the walk to second grade, the hallways seemed to be outdated but reminded me of movies seen in the past which put a smile on my face. The hallways weren't filled with much color but the atmosphere still seemed like the school is loved by their students. It wasn't a far walk to second grade and immediately upon entering the students were grabbing breakfast out of giant coolers. Today's breakfast was Pillsbury apple pastries, cantaloupe and orange juice. This was different from any of the other schools I have been involved with in. The past schools I have worked with, only offered breakfast before school and very few students ate it. Here, every student must eat breakfast and everyone eats together in the classroom before the morning rituals. I found out later through InfoWorks! that 74% of this school is on subsidized lunches.
Looking around the classroom while everyone was eating the pastries, I noticed much of the walls in the classroom were covered with student work. If it wasn't student work, it was handmade by the teacher. I was wondering if this is because it was a teacher choice or because the budget happened to be low. Either way it made the classroom have a home-like feel to it. The students in this classroom come from a variety of background. According to InfoWorks! the school is very dynamic in their ethical background, 43% are Hispanic, 26% are African American, 21% are Caucasian, 5% are Asian, 3% are multi racial and 2% are Native American.
After breakfast, pledge of allegiance and announcements the teacher had students break open their reading street books. Everyone was to review the short story; Horace and Morris but Mostly Delores. Many students got right to work but others were more focused on drawing attention to themselves by dropping their books on the floor. This didn't last long because those particular students were leaving for the reading specialist teacher shortly.
After silent reading students began working on assignments the teacher wrote on the board for students to work on. The teacher had me help specific students who needed the extra help on vocabulary and pronuncing their words correctly. I expected these students to really need extra help but they actually were quite fine once they received one-on-one time. The students were very eager and excited to work with me. It made for an easy transition in a school I have never been before. Spending time with these individual students, really made the time go by fast. Before I knew it, it was 11:00 and my volunteer session was up. I am looking forward to the next time I return to this second grade classroom and the adventures that we have ahead over the next month.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Bio
Hey guys for those of you who are reading out there,
My names Britt and I am currently enrolled in the masters program at RIC for elementary education. I recently graduated from Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. It was a really alternative college but it was awesome at the same time. I studied Outdoor education & leadership there. The past few years there I was able to go on backpacking trips for class, rockclimb, canoe, hike and work with children in a variety of settings including challenge/ropes courses. It was at Sterling where I started to realize I might want to be a teacher.
I really began realizing my dream to be a teacher when I started working at St.Philips School as an after care teacher and then was offered a job to subsistute. The minute I began subbing it hit me that this is what I am supposed to do in my life.
Besides my dream to be a teacher, I also highly enjoy being outdoors, going on adventures, hiking, rockclimbing, surfing, snowboarding, working with animals (more specifically farm animals), gardening, knitting, painting, drawing and other crafts. I have many interests to say the least but pretty much anything to do with the outdoors and crafting I enjoy.
Thanks for reading my blog!
My names Britt and I am currently enrolled in the masters program at RIC for elementary education. I recently graduated from Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. It was a really alternative college but it was awesome at the same time. I studied Outdoor education & leadership there. The past few years there I was able to go on backpacking trips for class, rockclimb, canoe, hike and work with children in a variety of settings including challenge/ropes courses. It was at Sterling where I started to realize I might want to be a teacher.
I really began realizing my dream to be a teacher when I started working at St.Philips School as an after care teacher and then was offered a job to subsistute. The minute I began subbing it hit me that this is what I am supposed to do in my life.
Besides my dream to be a teacher, I also highly enjoy being outdoors, going on adventures, hiking, rockclimbing, surfing, snowboarding, working with animals (more specifically farm animals), gardening, knitting, painting, drawing and other crafts. I have many interests to say the least but pretty much anything to do with the outdoors and crafting I enjoy.
Thanks for reading my blog!
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