I was getting into the hang of going into this classroom. I liked it because it was a routine and I knew exactly where I was going and what to do. The students always did something to shock me though. Today was very chaotic, due to the fact that most children had the flu and had runny noses. Today I spend most of my time sending kids to the nurse’s office and trying to make these Kindergarten children to blow their noses. It was not a nice sight but I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I did notice that I saw the first Caucasian girl today. I did not even notice that there was not one white person in the entire classroom. I figured it was an ESL classroom and most of the Caucasian students already knew English and did not need help in it.
The other question I had some student did not know any Spanish and some children barley knew English. It was a mixed bunch. This reminded me of the Article we read on Kozol. Many people say that we are equal now and there is no segregation but that is completely false. We have more racism today than during the civil right movement. This school is located on Candy Avenue; many children that live in this area are from middle class families. The area is surrounded with many nice houses and I know that the parents of these children send them to other school instead of letting their child go to a school this close to their house. Parents rather travel large distance while there is a school right near their home. I find this very disturbing and think that is not fair to the poverty level schools that don’t get a diverse enough classroom. A diverse classroom doesn’t mean a mix of Hispanic and blacks but a classroom mixed with all backgrounds.
After reading Teaching English Language Learners in my FNED 346 class I found out many things I did not know before writing this post. First of all I did not know that ESL meant English as a Second Language besides Spanish. I was brought up in a ESL classroom myself I experienced a classroom where all children were learning English but knew Spanish. As I look back after getting all of this knowledge I feel bad about myself because we never were looked as intelligent nobody wanted to be in an ESL classroom we all wanted to get out of there. After reading this article I don’t feel like that anymore. I feel proud because not many people know two languages, and even though my English is not perfect and I am still working on it my Spanish skills are still intact.
About 90 percent of the children in my classroom are Hispanic and 8 percent are African American only 1 girl is Caucasian. I think instead of putting those children to misery in a classroom where they don’t understand much, the 75 percent Hispanic children should finish learning in their Native Language. This was proven with information in the Article I talked about earlier. In this article it clearly states that teaching student to read in their first language will hive them a better change in learning English. It would be easier if teachers could be aware of what children know already in their primary language so then it can be applied to the new language being learned. Not only are these children in this classroom learning something new, they are also trying to learn a language that to them at this point in gibberish. This is an injustice!!!!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Service Learning "Ewww are you Gay?"
Today in my Service Learning I had the strongest feelings so far. I have never seen this through my eyes the way I saw it today. If I wasn’t taking FNED 346 I would have never seen this as a bad thing I would have just overlooked it. I now understand why we are doing both SL and taking the course. The course open our eyes to what we are suppose to look for in a classroom. Today was very awkward; the class was running smoothly till the very end. At the end of my time there they are sent to the rug to read a story. When Mrs. C arrives to the rug we all witness a student saying to another “Eww… stop acting gay” The other student was hugging him and he thought it was okay to say this. Instead of Mrs. C addressing this she yelled at the children and sends them to a desk away from the rug.
Mrs. Callaghan did not bother to address why it was wrong to say this or why hugging someone is not only an act of gayness. She did not say just because your father hugs you means that he is gay? She made it seem like hugging was a BAD thing to do and just made her classroom less valuable. After going home I realized that if the teacher had the article by Dennis Carlson in mind she might have addressed it. Carlson article is about how the “normalizing” community is not okay for our current and future schools. Heterosexual, white, middle class all get rewarded for being “normal” whatever that is. The rest of us that do not fit in those categories get shunned and are “disempowered” that’s the word Carlson uses. This event opened my eyes to Carlson’s statement that gayness is only used in curriculum to talk about disease. How gayness is never address and why it should. I completely agree with it now because children this young need to know about homosexuality, they need to know that people do like the same sex and how it’s okay to be gay. I find that just because teachers talk about gay and lesbians, children are not going to decide they are going to be gay. We learn about terrorist and we don’t choose to be a terrorist. We learn about other things and that does not mean that we are going to be that way. Children need to learn about other types of relationships, because it’s current events and if it’s happening it should be taught. This incident did not do anything positive for the teacher and she didn’t even try to make the best out of the situation by informing the children.
I had to come back to this post after watching Its Elementary. While watching the movie I was shocked on how young children responded to teachers. If children reacted normal to comments about gay and lesbian, why can our society accept it? Children need to be taught about homosexuality and many other thing because it in our real world today. If they are not taught about this when they step into the real world and see homosexual people they will not know how to act or respond. Ignorance is the problem, we need to leave that problem behind and make sure that our student get a complete education, and be accepted as whoever they want to be.
Mrs. Callaghan did not bother to address why it was wrong to say this or why hugging someone is not only an act of gayness. She did not say just because your father hugs you means that he is gay? She made it seem like hugging was a BAD thing to do and just made her classroom less valuable. After going home I realized that if the teacher had the article by Dennis Carlson in mind she might have addressed it. Carlson article is about how the “normalizing” community is not okay for our current and future schools. Heterosexual, white, middle class all get rewarded for being “normal” whatever that is. The rest of us that do not fit in those categories get shunned and are “disempowered” that’s the word Carlson uses. This event opened my eyes to Carlson’s statement that gayness is only used in curriculum to talk about disease. How gayness is never address and why it should. I completely agree with it now because children this young need to know about homosexuality, they need to know that people do like the same sex and how it’s okay to be gay. I find that just because teachers talk about gay and lesbians, children are not going to decide they are going to be gay. We learn about terrorist and we don’t choose to be a terrorist. We learn about other things and that does not mean that we are going to be that way. Children need to learn about other types of relationships, because it’s current events and if it’s happening it should be taught. This incident did not do anything positive for the teacher and she didn’t even try to make the best out of the situation by informing the children.
I had to come back to this post after watching Its Elementary. While watching the movie I was shocked on how young children responded to teachers. If children reacted normal to comments about gay and lesbian, why can our society accept it? Children need to be taught about homosexuality and many other thing because it in our real world today. If they are not taught about this when they step into the real world and see homosexual people they will not know how to act or respond. Ignorance is the problem, we need to leave that problem behind and make sure that our student get a complete education, and be accepted as whoever they want to be.
Service Learning Disaster!
Omg! Today was crazy I walk to the school and see fire trucks and the kids were walking in different directions. When I approach the main entrance i get stopped and get confused with a child and the Principle asks what class I am in. In a way I felt very offended. I get confused with an Elementary school student? I would have thought maybe high school at least. Well that was not the point, she then realized I was a volunteer and explained to me that the boilers had exploded and there was gas throughout the whole school. At that point she had told me to go home if I wanted but I had to make my hours and decided to looks for my classroom. When I found them they were freezing cold outside. They had their jackets but they have been outside for a while now. We waited for a long time, and then we finally got back into the classroom. The smell was atrocious and I could not believe that the school was permitting learning in this state.
There were some children that suffered from asthma and were complaining. I was in charge of bringing them to the nurse. When I got there was a line of other student. She had told me to help her contact the parents of the student and ask them if they could pick up their child. Some parents did not pick up so we had to call the emergency contact. I thought this was very unprofessional of them. Many of the teachers say that this had happened before. It was not fair to the teacher nor do the students that things like this have to happen. Things this serious should be checked constantly due to its major affect on the children and staff. One of the teachers told me that the whole school shook and that she was scared for her life and that her kids were freaking out. Thank God that nothing major happened and no one suffered any injuries. Out of the bad of this, I learn that in a school you have to work as a team. Is all about helping each other and trying to achieve one cause and that is to make children safe and happy.
If I were to connect this article to any of the reading in my FNED 346 class it will be the wonderful work of Jonathan Kozol. In his article Still Separate Still Unequal he explains how schools today are unequal because how schools are funded. The school I am is poorly decorated and barely making it welcoming to students. This school does not even have the funds to replace boilers!!! This to me sounds insane and as Kozol quote a child writing him a letter for help "we do not have the things you have. You have Clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” Children might not all say this directly but most definitely they feel the same way. Children watch these television shows where they see clean school and filled with different races and very diverted, when in reality it is not like that at all. Kozol explains how children in less privileged schools are not valued and are denied a proper education due to class status. I find this unfair and it must be frustrating for teachers to work with the little tools that are provided to have children excel to their ability. I feel like the children in my school are not being valued because their health was at risk and the school unfortunately cannot afford to fix the boilers and make the school a happier environment.
There were some children that suffered from asthma and were complaining. I was in charge of bringing them to the nurse. When I got there was a line of other student. She had told me to help her contact the parents of the student and ask them if they could pick up their child. Some parents did not pick up so we had to call the emergency contact. I thought this was very unprofessional of them. Many of the teachers say that this had happened before. It was not fair to the teacher nor do the students that things like this have to happen. Things this serious should be checked constantly due to its major affect on the children and staff. One of the teachers told me that the whole school shook and that she was scared for her life and that her kids were freaking out. Thank God that nothing major happened and no one suffered any injuries. Out of the bad of this, I learn that in a school you have to work as a team. Is all about helping each other and trying to achieve one cause and that is to make children safe and happy.
If I were to connect this article to any of the reading in my FNED 346 class it will be the wonderful work of Jonathan Kozol. In his article Still Separate Still Unequal he explains how schools today are unequal because how schools are funded. The school I am is poorly decorated and barely making it welcoming to students. This school does not even have the funds to replace boilers!!! This to me sounds insane and as Kozol quote a child writing him a letter for help "we do not have the things you have. You have Clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” Children might not all say this directly but most definitely they feel the same way. Children watch these television shows where they see clean school and filled with different races and very diverted, when in reality it is not like that at all. Kozol explains how children in less privileged schools are not valued and are denied a proper education due to class status. I find this unfair and it must be frustrating for teachers to work with the little tools that are provided to have children excel to their ability. I feel like the children in my school are not being valued because their health was at risk and the school unfortunately cannot afford to fix the boilers and make the school a happier environment.
Monday, September 7, 2009
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