First I would like to apologize for the gap in my blogs. I have been going regularly to my school and have actually done 27 hours already. I forgot about my blog and have been extremely busy. My other classes have been piling on the work. I am really sorry again. I will continue to do my blogs.
Today I am going to respond to prompt 3. My teacher has many students of different backgrounds. These students are all very competent in English despite their colorful backgrounds. My teacher is a bit confusing when it comes to assessments. He seems to treat the children all the same when it comes to grading and the amount of work he gives them. He does NOT give anybody special treatment or even assesses them differently based on their linguistic, ethnic, or sociocultural characteristics. He will though, help a student more if they are willing to work hard. He seems to have almost "given up" on the children who refuse to any kind of work. There is a girl in third period who looks like she should be in the 8th grade not the 6th grade. I'm not sure if she stayed back but I wouldn't be surprised. According to my teacher she is very bright but she absolutely refuses to do any kind of classwork or even pay attention. When we were doing book work I had asked her if she had done anything, if I could read it. She was reading a fiction book, looked up at me and gave me a dirty look and went back to reading. I was a little shocked. I really hope the best for that girl. I really wish she will change. My teacher has tried everything to get her to do something but she won't. He told me he doesn't even have anything to grade for her.
If I had students that needed to be assessed different because of linguistic problems I would grade them differently. I would try to explain things to him or her a lot more and correct them when they mispronounce words or use them incorrectly. As for ethnicity as a factor for assessments, I would not do anything. Whatever your ethnicity may be, you will be treated the same as any other child. Linguistics might be a problem but if a child speaks and understands English, there is no reason to treat them any differently. However, if a child has cultural obligations such as they need to take a school day off because of religious holidays, they should NOT be penalized for it. That is a reason to treat a child differently. As a teacher we might even become familiar will some of our students' home situation. If they have problems at home we might be more willing to reach out to them. I would ask that child if he/she needed help with any school work. I would not become too involved because it is none of my business unless that child is being harmed or abused. My teacher does not need to be sensitive to linguistic, ethnic, or sociocultural characteristics of his students but I will most likely need to when I become a teacher.
The last thing I would like to mention is a little problem I am having with one of the students in my teacher's class. She is a very nice girl but I think she feels like she has to act tough to get by. She is very loud and always needs to draw attention to herself. She sometimes looks kind of dirty but has her hair done all the time which kind of confuses me. I wonder how her home life is. Anyway, she was suspended from school because she went up to some 8th grade boys and said some very disturbing, sexual things to them. The boys felt extremely uncomfortable and told the teachers what she had said. I do not know what she said to them but I can only imagine it must have been bad to have a 6th grade girl make three 8th grade boys very uncomfortable. When she returned to school I talked to her a bit about how school was going. She does do most of her work and I even read some of it and it wasn't bad. She started to get off her work though and passed notes between her and the girl that sits next to her. I asked them what they were writing about and they said that they wanted to go to the library after school. Seemed harmless enough but when I asked them why they really couldn't give me a straight answer. She finally told me she was going to confront a boy that was giving her a hard time. I knew the boy from the previous period. He always made fun of her a pushed her around. She said that the boy also told her he had a crush on her too. I could tell the boy picked on her because he liked her but it made her very upset. I told her she should talk to a teacher about it but she absolutely refused saying that she would be a "snitch." She wanted to take care of it herself even if it meant getting into a fight with the boy. She didn't end up doing anything because nobody got in trouble. I kind of scared me thought because I was worried she was going to beat this kid up. She was willing to risk getting beat up herself and getting suspended again just because she didn't want to "snitch." Being a rat or a snitch in these schools must be worse then what she was against. To me this is crazy. She had so much at stake!! I wonder why being labeled a "snitch" is so bad? I can understand if you tattle on someone when you weren't involved, that would get people mad at you but when someone makes you miserable and you tell on them, I don't think that makes you a snitch, i think its just protecting yourself. Can anybody explain this to me? Why do these kids consider being a "snitch" so bad? Anybody else have a similar problem? I would really appreciate some feedback. =)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Sorry, I forgot to tell everyone that I tutor 6th grade. Here are some facts about my school too! Unfortunately during the 2008-2009 school year only 59% of 6th grade was proficient in math and 63% was proficient in reading. I really wish these were higher percentages. Some children have trouble with standardized tests but I don't think this many would do so bad. Many of the children I tutored are very bright but lack confidence in themselves. One boy even continuously calls himself stupid! 74% of the children at the school receive free or reduced lunches, so family income must be low in many households. Half of the children are Hispanic and the other 50% is split between white, African American, and Asian. I observed that this is true, most of the children in my classes are Hispanic. There are no ethnic barriers between the children. They all get along ethnicities or cultures that are not the same as theirs. Most won't tease someone because of their race. I believe that this a lesson that more adults need to learn. I did see one child call a girl a "white bitch" in the hallway though but that was the only time race came up. The open minds of these children will bring a lot to the future. They are a generation that will govern one day. They are a melting pot and are tolerant of differences, a combination that will resolve all of our problems that stem from misunderstandings of cultures. We need more people like these children!
There are absolutely no child receiving English as a second language courses or bilingual education. Now that I think of it, each student I talked to had no problem with English, could comprehend it, and could write it too. These are 6th graders too, if they did need ESL courses, they would be the first to receive it. In the SALT surveys, the school was under average compared to similar schools within the city. What kind of scared me was that there was a higher percentage of children at this school compared to averaged percentage of children in the district who tried tobacco, drugs, or alcohol (less that 20%). These are middle schoolers!! I know when I went to middle school, there was pressure but a lot of kids lie on the surveys so I wonder what is the margin of error. These things were surprising but I'm glad I found them out!
My FNED class thought it would be ok if I put this story up. At first I was concerned to tell it but it is truly a problem that needs to be addressed. My first day of tutoring I met then class. There were many children, each very interesting. I noticed a boy in the front of the room who had a device that he seemed to be typing on. I didn't really understand it but my teacher explained to me that he is very hard of hearing and he is blind. He uses the device along with Braille to do his classwork. I went up to him and asked if he had any questions. He said no but his aid next to him said yes. I asked her what was up. She pointed to a paragraph in the text book and said, "I don't understand this." She needed me to explain something in a 6th grade textbook! I of course explained it to her and did not say anything but it made me really upset. She is suppose to be experienced in education and competent to read and understand any text book she is given. She is suppose to be teaching this handicapped boy but she doesn't even understand it herself! I had confronted my teacher about this after they left first period. He had told me that they had put her with the boy only because they were both Asian but they didn't even speak the same Asian language! Then he showed me some of the boy's work. It didn't make sense at all. He was writing sentences that didn't make sense and his answers came from past tests that had nothing to do with the subject. I know he can do so much more, his potential is outstanding! It is true that he has a handicap but he tries to do things on his own. I think he would do better with a different aid. She is a very nice lady but she is not suited to be this boy's aid. He would do much better with someone who can comprehend the things they are learning. I cannot change this of course but I will try to help this little boy as much as I can because he really needs it. This is his education we are talking about! Its essential!!
The last time I went to the class my teacher had not come in. I herd later that he had to go to a conference and I just didn't know. We had a substitute teacher. She invited my to come in and help the class anyway. However, there was three student teachers in the room too! They had the children separated into three different groups and each student teacher got his own group. I didn't know that this class was going to have student teachers too! I felt like there were too many people helping. I still tried to walk around and talk to the kids but their attention was focused on their student teacher. I asked them to tell me interesting things about what they were studying and they were very enthusiastic. I was proud of them being so interested in school because I know that it doesn't happen often. We were learning Greek gods and each group had 3 gods to focus on. They took notes and cut out pictures. It was very hands-on learning. My teacher prides himself on the use of hands on learning and the kids really seem to enjoy it. The kids were actually paying attention too! It was because they were in small groups. I think that the groups really helped them learn. After the bell rang I talked to the student teachers. They all are from the same college as me. They didn't mind that I helped in their groups. I though each teacher was very good with their group. They stayed focused and were very professional. They were very surprised at how well behaved that class was. Of course you always get a trouble maker of two but overall, these kids are wonderful. I actually had visited another class with my teacher. There was only about 10 kids in the room but you could hear them half way across the school. They were terrible!! The teacher just let them behave like that! After that experience I was even prouder of my class! I can't wait to go back!!
There are absolutely no child receiving English as a second language courses or bilingual education. Now that I think of it, each student I talked to had no problem with English, could comprehend it, and could write it too. These are 6th graders too, if they did need ESL courses, they would be the first to receive it. In the SALT surveys, the school was under average compared to similar schools within the city. What kind of scared me was that there was a higher percentage of children at this school compared to averaged percentage of children in the district who tried tobacco, drugs, or alcohol (less that 20%). These are middle schoolers!! I know when I went to middle school, there was pressure but a lot of kids lie on the surveys so I wonder what is the margin of error. These things were surprising but I'm glad I found them out!
My FNED class thought it would be ok if I put this story up. At first I was concerned to tell it but it is truly a problem that needs to be addressed. My first day of tutoring I met then class. There were many children, each very interesting. I noticed a boy in the front of the room who had a device that he seemed to be typing on. I didn't really understand it but my teacher explained to me that he is very hard of hearing and he is blind. He uses the device along with Braille to do his classwork. I went up to him and asked if he had any questions. He said no but his aid next to him said yes. I asked her what was up. She pointed to a paragraph in the text book and said, "I don't understand this." She needed me to explain something in a 6th grade textbook! I of course explained it to her and did not say anything but it made me really upset. She is suppose to be experienced in education and competent to read and understand any text book she is given. She is suppose to be teaching this handicapped boy but she doesn't even understand it herself! I had confronted my teacher about this after they left first period. He had told me that they had put her with the boy only because they were both Asian but they didn't even speak the same Asian language! Then he showed me some of the boy's work. It didn't make sense at all. He was writing sentences that didn't make sense and his answers came from past tests that had nothing to do with the subject. I know he can do so much more, his potential is outstanding! It is true that he has a handicap but he tries to do things on his own. I think he would do better with a different aid. She is a very nice lady but she is not suited to be this boy's aid. He would do much better with someone who can comprehend the things they are learning. I cannot change this of course but I will try to help this little boy as much as I can because he really needs it. This is his education we are talking about! Its essential!!
The last time I went to the class my teacher had not come in. I herd later that he had to go to a conference and I just didn't know. We had a substitute teacher. She invited my to come in and help the class anyway. However, there was three student teachers in the room too! They had the children separated into three different groups and each student teacher got his own group. I didn't know that this class was going to have student teachers too! I felt like there were too many people helping. I still tried to walk around and talk to the kids but their attention was focused on their student teacher. I asked them to tell me interesting things about what they were studying and they were very enthusiastic. I was proud of them being so interested in school because I know that it doesn't happen often. We were learning Greek gods and each group had 3 gods to focus on. They took notes and cut out pictures. It was very hands-on learning. My teacher prides himself on the use of hands on learning and the kids really seem to enjoy it. The kids were actually paying attention too! It was because they were in small groups. I think that the groups really helped them learn. After the bell rang I talked to the student teachers. They all are from the same college as me. They didn't mind that I helped in their groups. I though each teacher was very good with their group. They stayed focused and were very professional. They were very surprised at how well behaved that class was. Of course you always get a trouble maker of two but overall, these kids are wonderful. I actually had visited another class with my teacher. There was only about 10 kids in the room but you could hear them half way across the school. They were terrible!! The teacher just let them behave like that! After that experience I was even prouder of my class! I can't wait to go back!!
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