How is this experence shaping my teacher idenity? It helped to understand the classroom setting a bit better. What it would be like to stand in front of a class of students and be able to teach. I was in school at one time but that is a totally different experience from tutoring because you are seeing the classroom from a different side. This experience has opened my eyes to differences within our society, how things could be so vastly different somewhere not too far from where I went to school.
My personal experiences with these students have shaped my teacher identity as well. That girl that did nothing in class, I actually talked to her the other day! I saw her with another student I knew and they were talking. I tried interrupting to try to get into the conversation. She didn't look like she minded me talking so her. I was glad I got her to at least talk to me. From there I tried getting her to do some of her work. Soon she was doing bookwork. It wasn't much but it was a start and I was proud of her. I'm not sure if she completely changed her ways but seeing her do work made me wonder if I was her teacher she would have never had that problem in the first place. I want to motivate the children as best as possible and I don't want to give up on them.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sensitivity
Sensitivity is important to keep in mind when talking to a child. A child is going to be different that you and have different experiences. Without talking to a child carefully, you could insult the child when you don't mean to. My teacher wasn't very responsive to differences. He was very straightforward and did not really react carefully to the students. I was often told by students that they didn't like him because he was mean. However, I would always ask if they were learning and they students would always tell me they were learning a lot. You will not always be liked by all you students but I think I would be less mean than my teacher was. He sort of picked on the kids to try to motivate them but it didn't really work.
All of my students that I tutored could speak English just fine. I really didn't need to be sensitive around their language barriers because non of them had any. =) However, if I did have a student with trouble with English, I would get a pocket translator for him/her and myself. I would want the student to still try to communicate with me even if they were shy or afraid to mess up. I would also try to understand that it is harder for them to participate so I wouldn't grade them as hard.
As for sociocultural differences, I will encounter those much more often. The students in my school live very different lives that what I grew up in. We are going to have fundamental differences in our lives that are not necessarily bad. Although sensitivity is needed to make sure that you are not offending the child. I would often avoid talking about holidays with the children. I celebrate christian holidays and I did not want to discuss that with the children. I would call them vacations if I had to talk about a day they got off from school. If they were other religions, I did not want to offend them or make them feel uncomfortable.
There was a group of girls in one of my classes and they began to ask me questions about myself. I had told them I go to college and where I go and they seemed interested. I asked them if they all wanted to go to college. Most of them said yes but one girl said she wouldn't. I wanted to know why and she really couldn't give me an answer. I told her she should really consider it. College wasn't really talked about much among the students because I don't think that the school really emphasized it. They were more concerned about making grades higher. I understand this but I believe we need to motivate these kids to look at the future. I told her that she can go to college no matter what and she should try. She smiled after. =) I believe this was an example of responding to differences. My teachers always drilled it into our heads that college is important but college is on the back burner for most of these kids. That needs to change.
All of my students that I tutored could speak English just fine. I really didn't need to be sensitive around their language barriers because non of them had any. =) However, if I did have a student with trouble with English, I would get a pocket translator for him/her and myself. I would want the student to still try to communicate with me even if they were shy or afraid to mess up. I would also try to understand that it is harder for them to participate so I wouldn't grade them as hard.
As for sociocultural differences, I will encounter those much more often. The students in my school live very different lives that what I grew up in. We are going to have fundamental differences in our lives that are not necessarily bad. Although sensitivity is needed to make sure that you are not offending the child. I would often avoid talking about holidays with the children. I celebrate christian holidays and I did not want to discuss that with the children. I would call them vacations if I had to talk about a day they got off from school. If they were other religions, I did not want to offend them or make them feel uncomfortable.
There was a group of girls in one of my classes and they began to ask me questions about myself. I had told them I go to college and where I go and they seemed interested. I asked them if they all wanted to go to college. Most of them said yes but one girl said she wouldn't. I wanted to know why and she really couldn't give me an answer. I told her she should really consider it. College wasn't really talked about much among the students because I don't think that the school really emphasized it. They were more concerned about making grades higher. I understand this but I believe we need to motivate these kids to look at the future. I told her that she can go to college no matter what and she should try. She smiled after. =) I believe this was an example of responding to differences. My teachers always drilled it into our heads that college is important but college is on the back burner for most of these kids. That needs to change.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Parents of Students
This blog addresses prompt five. I can see many challenges arising when dealing with children's parents. Every parent will react differently with teachers. I know in my class I'm tutoring there is a little boy whoes mom begged and pleaded with my teacher saying that her boy was a genus and he needed to move up to more advanced classes. I understand that she only wanted the best for her son but he really wasn't ready for the more advanced classes. He didn't even talk in class! The mother went home very mad. I'm sure at times I might have to deal with parents who think that their child is absolutely gifted. I will just have to be sensitive not to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't want to tell her that her child can't do it, I just want to let her know that it is very hard and his grades do not reflect the kind of effort needed. It is a hard subject but it must be done.
Another day, in my teacher's class, some older boys visited and stole a girl's cell phone. I guess the phone cost $300 and the mother was furious. She blamed everything on my teacher when it wasn't his fault. My teacher knew the boys that took the phone and he eventually got it back with some trickery. =) However, it must have been really frustrating to deal with the mother who was screaming at him. I don't know how I would react to that. I would obviously need to keep calm but it would be hard. I would tell her that her child shouldn't even have had the cell phone in the first place but we will try to get it back. I'm not sure what my teacher ended up doing.
These are just problems that arose during the time I was there but there would be other times where I would have to meet with all parents face to face. I am talking about parent teacher conferences. These can be a problem if parents don't come or can not speak very good English. I would try to get everyone's parents' email so I could email them if they did not come to the parent teacher conferences. It is important to tell parents if their child isn't doing as good as they can do. It is also important to tell parents when their child is doing outstanding. If their was a language barrier I would want to know in advance. I would ask my students if they could talk to me privately if their parents could not come because of something cultural or linguistic. If there was a problem then I would try to get a translator (someone I know personally) or have to email them something so they can translate it at their own pace. I understand that parents only want the best for their children and I am absolutely willing to work with them to get them all the help they need so they know how the most important part of their child's life is going.
Another day, in my teacher's class, some older boys visited and stole a girl's cell phone. I guess the phone cost $300 and the mother was furious. She blamed everything on my teacher when it wasn't his fault. My teacher knew the boys that took the phone and he eventually got it back with some trickery. =) However, it must have been really frustrating to deal with the mother who was screaming at him. I don't know how I would react to that. I would obviously need to keep calm but it would be hard. I would tell her that her child shouldn't even have had the cell phone in the first place but we will try to get it back. I'm not sure what my teacher ended up doing.
These are just problems that arose during the time I was there but there would be other times where I would have to meet with all parents face to face. I am talking about parent teacher conferences. These can be a problem if parents don't come or can not speak very good English. I would try to get everyone's parents' email so I could email them if they did not come to the parent teacher conferences. It is important to tell parents if their child isn't doing as good as they can do. It is also important to tell parents when their child is doing outstanding. If their was a language barrier I would want to know in advance. I would ask my students if they could talk to me privately if their parents could not come because of something cultural or linguistic. If there was a problem then I would try to get a translator (someone I know personally) or have to email them something so they can translate it at their own pace. I understand that parents only want the best for their children and I am absolutely willing to work with them to get them all the help they need so they know how the most important part of their child's life is going.
My History vs. Student's History
Today I am responding to prompt four. My personal history might intersect with that of my students. I grew up in a small town. Our high school was all white and most people in the town were wealthy. My school experience was vastly different than of what the students in my school are experiencing. My school could afford books and my school may have been old, it was well kept. This school is run down and in desperate need of new supplies. When I become a teacher, I might teach in a district similar to this and I will understand that these students will not be experiencing what I did. I also had a very good home life. My parents are still together and I grew up well. My family might not have been the richest family in the neighborhood but I lived comfortably. These students might not have that luxury. Some of them come from working class families and they might not get to see their parents as much. Money might be a scarcity. Some of these students could come from a broken home. I'm not familiar with all of them enough to know how it is at home. I know one little boy he smelled really really bad one day. I wondered why his family let him out of the house smelling like that! It was in the morning too so it was clear he had not taken a shower in a couple days. The teacher would make fun of him which I didn't think was appropriate but I didn't say anything. The kid did not want to be made fun of but he really really need a shower. Where is his family? I wondered this all day.
I feel like my biggest advantaged as a teacher would be that I had a not bad experience in school. There were tons of things I just absolutely hated about my high school but knowing these things will help me make the students I teach a little better off because I can avoid the bad. Another advantage would be that I have taught children of all different ages and backgrounds throughout my life. I tutored 1st grade when I was in high school, I just tutored 6th grade for my service learning project, and I taught all levels of swim lessons when I worked for a YMCA. I taught inner city and small town settings. The children I tutored were very diverse and I feel like this makes me a stronger person and teacher because I truly believe that these children helped me open my mind. I learned (and still are learning) about different cultures and behaviors and I feel like this knowledge helps me teach better.
My biggest challenge would be that I have become authority to these children. I want to be in that position of power, however I also want my students to trust me. Sometimes teachers can be a bit intimidating and a child won't ask for academic help (or otherwise) if they really need it because they believe that the teacher just doesn't care. I will have to push the idea that the children can come to me if they need anything. I also might not understand everything they are going through because every one's experiences are different. This can be a big problem because I might not see something as a problem for a student but they might think it is horrible. I hope that more experience in the classroom will make me even more culturally knowledgeable and comfortable and help to ease the challenges.
As for misconceptions about cultural groups I have encountered, I'm not sure what to say. It is obvious that stereotypes are wrong and I can't really say I went to that school thinking a certain way about the children that lived there. I knew it was a poorer neighborhood and since I worked not far from the school at one time I knew who lived around there. So I had an idea of what I was faced with but I didn't think the worst. However, I did know that there was a police officer that did go to the school everyday. This made me think at first that there might be a lot of violence there. I did hear some pretty scary stories. One kid stabbed himself to try to blame it on someone else. One girl beat up another pretty bad a little while before I arrived one day. I was a little worried that I was going to have to see something really dramatic but things couldn't be more wonderful in my classes. All the periods are really well behaved. They tease each other a bit but that is normal for that age. I am really really proud of all of them for how good they behave because I had posted another day about that really horrible class I visited. So I guess you could say that the only misconception I had was that I thought the students might have behaved bad at times. They did get a little more impatient as the day went on but I am still impressed with how they behaved.
I feel like my biggest advantaged as a teacher would be that I had a not bad experience in school. There were tons of things I just absolutely hated about my high school but knowing these things will help me make the students I teach a little better off because I can avoid the bad. Another advantage would be that I have taught children of all different ages and backgrounds throughout my life. I tutored 1st grade when I was in high school, I just tutored 6th grade for my service learning project, and I taught all levels of swim lessons when I worked for a YMCA. I taught inner city and small town settings. The children I tutored were very diverse and I feel like this makes me a stronger person and teacher because I truly believe that these children helped me open my mind. I learned (and still are learning) about different cultures and behaviors and I feel like this knowledge helps me teach better.
My biggest challenge would be that I have become authority to these children. I want to be in that position of power, however I also want my students to trust me. Sometimes teachers can be a bit intimidating and a child won't ask for academic help (or otherwise) if they really need it because they believe that the teacher just doesn't care. I will have to push the idea that the children can come to me if they need anything. I also might not understand everything they are going through because every one's experiences are different. This can be a big problem because I might not see something as a problem for a student but they might think it is horrible. I hope that more experience in the classroom will make me even more culturally knowledgeable and comfortable and help to ease the challenges.
As for misconceptions about cultural groups I have encountered, I'm not sure what to say. It is obvious that stereotypes are wrong and I can't really say I went to that school thinking a certain way about the children that lived there. I knew it was a poorer neighborhood and since I worked not far from the school at one time I knew who lived around there. So I had an idea of what I was faced with but I didn't think the worst. However, I did know that there was a police officer that did go to the school everyday. This made me think at first that there might be a lot of violence there. I did hear some pretty scary stories. One kid stabbed himself to try to blame it on someone else. One girl beat up another pretty bad a little while before I arrived one day. I was a little worried that I was going to have to see something really dramatic but things couldn't be more wonderful in my classes. All the periods are really well behaved. They tease each other a bit but that is normal for that age. I am really really proud of all of them for how good they behave because I had posted another day about that really horrible class I visited. So I guess you could say that the only misconception I had was that I thought the students might have behaved bad at times. They did get a little more impatient as the day went on but I am still impressed with how they behaved.
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