Prompt 7

My experiences in the VIPS program has helped shape my teacher identity by getting me into a classroom. While I want to teach high school history, volunteering in Mrs. Smith’s second grade class proved to be very beneficial. As an individual, I feel I have an identity I want to express as a future teacher. Through finally being in a classroom, I was able to discover that I do enjoy working with students in the classroom, and plan to continue with secondary education in order to have a career as a teacher. Contributing to my teacher identity, tutoring at Led Zeppelin Elementary taught me to nurture student learning, created awareness of students’ struggles, and demonstrated that properly disciplining students requires skill.

During my tutoring sessions in Mr. Smith’s class, another tutor, Joan, and I, had four students selected to tutor. The students’ names were Mac, Denis, Frank, and Charlie. All of the students were male, ages seven and eight. Mac, Denis, Frank, and Charlie all needed help with reading and word pronunciation. All four of the students were around the same reading level, which was behind the rest of their classmates. Joan and I split the group into two, and each week took a different pair of students. The children and I worked together at a round table in Mrs. Smith’s class. The speech therapist at the school provided us with phonic games. The games revolved around a long list of words to teach our students. I used this list for a couple weeks. After this, I switched to tutoring them on their weekly spelling words. Each week they had a different set of words to learn for a spelling test on Friday. By teaching them how to sound these words out, I was able to help them boost their spelling test scores. Ideally, they can use this same method of pronunciation to increase their vocabulary, and achieve a higher reading level. After using their spelling words for the phonic games, I set up a make believe test, gave the students a sheet of paper to number, and had them spell out the words as I read them. I recreated the students testing environment to strengthen their confidence during the real test.

Now this idea might sound fun and easy, but it required three important elements as a tutor. I had to be patient, compassionate, and find a method outside of the games provided in order to keep the kids interested. How many times can a student play the same game, Even using different words, the students get bored and start misbehaving. This is how my teacher identity changed. The demand to keep the lesson going while a student misbehaved created inner conflict. I do not enjoy being an authoritative person, but as a teacher, one must establish the demand for respect. When I am a teacher, I will reveal this expectation on the first day of class. Finding a way to maintain peace in the classroom, without being stern will be a challenge. If you are too nice, then the students begin to take advantage of that, I will not yell, or punish, there must be other ways. During one of my visits, a female substitute came in so Mrs. Smith could meet with a parent. The kids got a little noisy, and this woman screamed at these kids, she actually made the hair on my nock raise. I would never do that to a group of children. By respecting my students, I would create an environment suitable for kids. Elementary school students are going to misbehave at times. Such a realization has not deterred me from wanting to become a teacher. Even though I only spent fifteen hours working in a classroom, I learned a a lot about kids, classroom dynamics, and methods of teaching.

Prompt 5

Prompt #5

“Citizenship in a democratic community requires more than kindness and decency; it requires engagement in complex social and institutional endeavors,” (Kahne and Westheimer). If I were the teacher of Mrs. Smith’s second grade class, I would encounter many challenges collaborating with the parents of my students. If complex social and institutional endeavors require engagement, then I would have to engage one hundred percent into collaborating with parents and guardians about their children’s education. Furthermore, it will be necessary to involve parents in order for them to project the importance of school onto my students. Through engaging the parents, I engage the students.

In collaborating with parents, I would encounter problems setting up parent-teacher meetings due to different work schedules. Not everybody is out of work at five or eight o’clock. This might be the least of my concerns. Issues more complex than this would pose a challenge when attempting to collaborate. The issue might be a personal one, such as a parent who had bad experiences with Caucasian male teachers in the past, and have given up entirely in getting involved with their child’s education. In The Silenced Dialogue, Lisa Delpit displays the anxiety experienced by African American teachers in attempting to communicate with Caucasian teachers over curriculum. In other cases, a parent may view their child’s education as having little value, due to dislike of the curriculum. Cases of a parent’s personal neglect may also be a factor.

Finding solutions to problems such as these would require full engagement of my resources. To solve the problem of parent’s schedules, I would have to follow three rules. Send letters home with students in advance of parent-teacher meetings, establish multiple means of communication for parents to reach me, and set up meetings during the school day if necessary. If unable to attend parent-teacher meeting after school hours, then I would offer a parent alternative times during the school day. I would try to make myself as available, and accessible as possible.

In relation to parents who have had bad experiences with teachers in the past, I would have to demonstrate that I genuinely care about their concerns. If necessary, I would make appointments with parents individually, and take notes about their concerns. Then offer follow up appointments. As teacher of Mrs. Smith’s class, I would promote an open door policy, and let parents know they can always come to me with questions, concerns, and comments. Such an attitude would demonstrate my respect for the concerns of parents. The biggest challenge in collaborating with parents would come from a parent who personally neglects to recognize the importance of their child’s education. In such a case, I would demonstrate that it was in their personal interest to be involved in their child’s education, and that school provided the tools necessary to become successful. In this case, I may ask such a parent to volunteer with a class project, maybe through small donations or to chaperone on a field trip. In recognition, I would write a letter to a parent or call personally to demonstrate my respect for parents’ contributions. It is better to do this, than to do nothing.

Through bringing parents into the education system, the parent and the student engage deeper in the classroom. These ideas might seem a bit optimistic, but they are worth a try. The ideas of change over charity, as promoted by Kahne and Westheimer, apply to my ideas for collaborating with parents. If I was the teacher of Mrs. Smith’s class, and taught my students reading, writing, and, math, that would great. If engage with the parents, I may create an environment in which teacher-parent relationships change by allowing parents a chance to voice their concerns to me directly. Through establishing communication and expressing concern, I can successfully collaborate with parents.

Prompt 4

Prompt #4

Teachers bring their personal history in to their classrooms. Their personal experiences create advantages and challenges for teachers. Often, ones experiences and sociocultural background contribute to their attitudes towards others. My personal experiences intersect with Mrs. Smith’s second grade students, at Led Zeppelin Elementary. Before moving to a rural area at age ten, I lived in Providence. I attended George J. West Elementary School. Many of my classmates were Hispanic, African American, and Asian. My school environment mirrored the neighborhood I grew on as well. Furthermore, I know what it is like to dismiss education as important, having struggled to get through school days throughout elementary and high school. Often, failure in school is not a reflection of ones intelligence. I also know how it feels to have role models, encourage and influence education. A position I would like to provide for individuals deviating from education themselves.

This makes for an authentic teacher who feels very comfortable around students of different ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds. Demonstrating my authenticity and gaining my students’ trust will pose a challenge. Creating a classroom they feel comfortable to express themselves will be challenging as well. As a teacher, I will promote the “Affirmative action pedagogy,” as described by Megan Boler. This will serve as a huge challenge, as I will address expressions of racism, sexism, and homophobia. I did not encounter issues such as this in Mrs. Smith’s second grade class, but I expect to encounter this in a High School. More importantly, as a future educator in secondary education, I will not allow my students to use overt, or covert expressions of hate. Challenging such widely used expressions of the dominant class will be my biggest challenge as a future educator.

My experiences in Providence shaped my attitude towards individuals of different sociocultural and ethnic backgrounds. America exists as a melting pot of cultures. I witnessed a fraction of America’s melting pot in the neighborhood I grew up on, composed of different cultures, languages, and ethnicities. I attended class with many of the same kids that lived on my street. The kids I played with were bilingual. For example, one friend’s parents spoke Spanish, and my friend spoke Spanish and English. While all of the students in Mrs. Smith’s class spoke English, it is probable that some of their parents spoke another language. That I grew up around ethnically diverse individuals could be the reason I despise comments of “self-discloser.” If a classroom can exist as a “public space in which one can respond and be heard, (Boler,M. p4), then hateful or ignorant comments might be expressed by some students. Most importantly, with an, “affirmative action pedagogy,” such comments can be challenged by students who have no other venue to express their feelings. This pedagogy will present heavy challenges for me, and is probably a hard method to perfect.

In essence, my experiences in a Providence public school system, at least diminishes some bias entering a classroom. As stated, I have been around different ethnic groupings. My great grand fathers came to America from Syria and Italy. When I see ethnic families, I think of them, and see their children as my grandparents when they were younger. I feel this is an emerging perspective among my generation. Teachers with such an outlook is a requirement in order to practice Megan Boler’s pedagogy, thus providing marginalized voices in society a venue to tell their stories. One misconception I personally had was that I did not expect all of them to know English so well. I found it surprising that zero percent of the students at Led Zeppelin Elementary received ESL education services, as found on Infoworks. Furthermore, I enjoyed the school environment partly because the students were so diverse. I know there are many things I do not know about cultures. In such a case I would take time to learn about a students culture, in order to engage the student into the classroom.

prompt 1

Prompt #1

Led Zeppelin Elementary School is located in inner city Providence. The main street the school is located off of is full of litter. The Elementary school is positioned behind a larger Middle School building. Often, while waiting at a red light to merge back on route 95, homeless people come up to your car window asking for change. Furthermore, there is an Amazing video store about a mile from the elementary school. While the area surrounding the school appears to be dangerous, the school itself is actually very nice. The building appears up to date structurally. The school is not run down or dirty. The floors are clean, the bathrooms are clean, and the locker filled halls are orderly. The main entrance into the school building is always locked. In order to enter the building, one must ring for someone in the office to unlock the door to allow entrance. In my perspective, even though I was on school grounds, I was still in a dangerous part of town. Still, it was interesting to revisit an institution that provided my primary education. The school felt different to me ascetically than the elementary school I attended in Providence. More importantly, the school setting doesn't appear to have changed since my experiences as a second grader too much.

I was assigned to be a Reading Buddy in Mrs. Smith’s second grade class. A student teacher, Ms. Beth, was present throughout my visits. Furthermore, a second tutor, Joan, was assigned to Mrs. Smith's class as well. Four students from Mrs. Smith's class, Mac, Denis, Frank, and Charlie, were selected for Joan and I to tutor. The first impressions I had of the teacher and the students left me excited for my future visits. The put it in an unacademic term, the kids were cool. As young students and citizens, they deserve every opportunity available in American democracy, as well as altering the status quo. Mrs. Smith’s students are being socialized in preparation for their future years of education, which will be projected onto the larger society.

Within the physical layout of Mrs. Smith's classroom, the students’ desks were arranged in groups, not individual rows. There were two dry erase boards in the classroom, one in the front where the teacher's desk is located, and one in the back of the class. The board in the front of the class had the schedule and assignments for the day. For example, on November thirteenth, between 9:15 and 9:45, the students participated in a Thanksgiving read aloud. I did not witness the read aloud, but a list of what students were Thankful for remained. Among other things the list included family, friends, pets, food and toys. The windows are on one side of the room, and on the other is an area with a rug for students to sit during reading time. The walls on this side of the classroom had a tack board with stories written by the students posted up. The students were assigned to look at a picture of an object, animal, or insect, and write a short story about it. The students had rubric to follow, rating their product from zero to four. According to the rubric, a rating of zero meant the student’s story did not include a beginning, middle, and end. A story with a four rating had a well-developed beginning, middle, and end. Upon reading the stories, I found some of them to be very thoughtful, others were not. At the least a student with a rating of one had his/her story regardless of academic achievement.

"We are a team, we cooperate, we share, we are kind we follow directions, we keep our hands to ourselves, we always, do out best." Mrs. Smith's class pledge represents the necessary principles and values required to function in society. Class rules were posted on the front board. For example, "I listen to my teacher, I do all my work, I raise my hand," and most importantly, "I do not argue with teachers or other students." Do the students follow these rules all of the time, and are they bad kids if they do occasionally break the rulers, not necessarily. Furthermore, the rules are needed in order maintain peace within the learning environment. How can anything be accomplished in total mania. The customs and laws of society are condensed into early education through such classroom rules. The indoctrination of such principles can only be for the student's benefit. Mrs. Smith's students are not being taught not to think, only to express their ideas respectfully and thoughtful.

Prompt 2

2) The children in Mrs. Smith’s second grade class at Led Zeppelin Elementary share similar linguistic characteristics. The number of students present in the class has varied throughout my visits. On average, the class has around fifteen to twenty students. Based on my observations of the classroom, all of the students speak, read, and write in English. Furthermore, the four students I have consistently worked with, Mac, Denis, Frank and Charlie, all speak English very well. The tutoring sessions have focused on reading and writing skills. Communication with their tutors and their teacher, Mrs. Smith is not an apparent issue. Furthermore, I have not heard any students communicate in any language other than English. According to Infoworks, the district of Providence has 24,494 students in its school system. Of the 24,494 students, seven percent use English a second language, and eight percent of students are bilingual. Infoworks displays that, one hundred percent of students are nonrecipients of bilingual education services at Led Zeppelin Elementary, showing that zero percent of students are bilingual or use English as a second language.

The students in Mrs. Smith’s class share similar ethnic characteristics. During my visits to Mrs. Smith’s class, I did not see one Caucasian male or female student. Interestingly, as compared to my experiences as a second grade student in a Providence public school, I was not the only Caucasian in my class. The classroom population of Mrs. Smith’s contained not one Caucasian student. The concept of student isolation in Apartheid schools as described by Jonathan Kozol, could be applied to Mrs. Smith’s classroom. Kozol defines an Apartheid school as a school in which ninety to ninety-nine percent of the student population is Hispanic and black. Based on my observations, one hundred percent of Mrs. Smith’s class consisted of Hispanic and black children. Is this a case of extreme isolation? What is certain is that their tutors and their teacher are white. Do the students view their class as being controlled by a white person, or does the idea not even register to them? One may wonder if these children will ever question their past educational environments. Infoworks displays that at Led Zeppelin Elementary, fifty-nine percent of students are Hispanic, twenty-seven percent are African American, six percent are Asian, and eight percent are white. These school demographics coincide with the observations I have made in Mrs. Smith’s class, which consisted of Asian, Hispanic, and African Americans.

Mrs. Smith’s classroom consists of an inner city sociocultural background. I am not aware of what any of the students’ parents do for careers. Furthermore, as far as family structures, I have heard some upsetting situations as described by Mac and Charlie. Mac does not live with either of his parents. Instead, Mac lives with his grandmother, and sees his mother on occasions. Mac’s classmate Charlie is from another country, and lives with foster parents. His foster parents changed his name to Charlie from his original ethnic name. More importantly, Mac, Denis, Frank, and Charlie, along with the rest of class, look like normal eight- year old kids. They all dress in clean clothes, they do not smell un-bathed, and they are respectful to their teacher. This contradicts fallacies that inner city students are dirty, smelly, and disrespectful. Before entering the classroom on the first day, I was warned to beware of children with lice. I have not encountered this to date.

The best insight into the students’ sociocultural background is provided through the data on Infoworks. According to Infoworks, throughout the Providence school district, eighty-two percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Infoworks displays that at Led Zeppelin Elementary, ninety-three percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. To put this in perspective, for a family to be eligible for free lunch, their yearly income must be at, or below one hundred and thirty percent of the current poverty level, (www.ride.ri.gov). In essence, a family of four earning a yearly income under $30,000 is eligible for free lunch. A family of four making more than $30,000, but less than $41,000, is eligible for reduced cost lunches, (www.povertyinstitute.org). According to Infoworks, ninety-three percent of students’ parents fall under this bracket.

According to Ira Shor, “education is a contested terrain where people are socialized and the future of society is at sake,” (Education is Politics, 13). The students in Mrs. Smith’s classroom contain a rich cultural capital to contribute to society and democracy. Mrs. Smith’s class functions as a socializing environment for her students. The students work on word searches together, participate in arts and crafts, and sing songs together. The students also analyze stories that Mrs. Smith reads to them. For example, the moral of one story Mrs. Smith read to the children was that all members in a household had to cooperate to maintain a functioning household. Shor expresses the importance that students are empowered during education through a student-centered pedagogy. While reading the story, Mrs. Smith, asked the students questions, empowering them to figure out the moral on their own. I was very impressed at the questions and answers the students revealed. Through such a method, the students realized the moral of the story themselves. Such a method is a reversal of what Ira Shor describes as non-participatory classrooms which prepare children for an “authoritative work world and political system,” (Education is Politics, p.19). It could be argued that Mrs. Smith’s students are being prepared to change the American status quo through a student-centered pedagogy. This could be their contribution to democracy.

My name is Angelo Franco. I am majoring in Secondary Education and History. Schooling in a Democratic Society is my first education course at Rhode Island College. I am really excited about getting involved with students in public schools. I'm also looking forward to seeing whether or not I'm cut out to work with kids and have a positive affect on them. The work load is pretty heavy this semester, as with all college students, but I think I can make it work. The sole passion in my life is music. I have played the drums since I was about five years old, and have managed to develop my craft to what some might call exceptionally impressive. I want to use the same approach I took towards music, and transfer it to education and history. I believe that music relates very closely with education and history. I plan on making my studies at RIC fun and beneficial.