Inspiration by Kozol

I can honestly say that my favorite theorist that we've read from our articles during this class was Jonathan Kozol. Kozol seemed like a very carrying, outgoing man who truly cared about making a change for students everywhere. He believed that schools that did not have the material things and resources other upper class schools had should not go unnoticed or ignored. He told in his article of first hand experiences of stepping into inner city schools and seeing what the students and teachers had to put up with. This included walls falling down, floors slowly deteriorating, and leaks within the buildings whenever it would rain. He also elaborated on the problem with racism in our country. Kozol explained how racism is still a huge issue a lot in school systems and this type of treatment was also unacceptable and something no one should have to put up with. Noticing that these conditions were unacceptable for any school and students to have to learn through , he began to take steps towards making a change towards a better educational life for these children who experience the unprivileged school life.

A big thing I noticed even the first day I went in for VIPS was the condition of the school. All the walls were in tact and the floors didn't seem to be deteriorating, but it was a school that had the appearance that I have not seen a lot. Mr. Snow's classroom was very bland. A lot of the desks were not in the best shape, and I noticed the carpet was very old looking and was coming apart on all sides. The classroom did not have computers, except for the one on the teacher's desk which did not even look in use.

One day sitting in the classroom, I noticed during my observation a lot of pictures made by the students themselves hanging on the walls. The pictures included images of flowers, and others were of superheroes. Curious, I asked Mr. Snow if the pictures were a certain project that the children had to do. He told me that every year he asks his students to draw, just draw. He asks them to draw whatever comes to their mind, whats their favorite thing or maybe a favorite day they had. The purpose of the children doing so was to make the pictures for the sole purpose of hanging them up around the classroom. Mr. Snow realizes that the school lacks some resources, so to make his classroom feel a little more friendly and elementary-like, hanging up pictures the students make themselves is a great way to do so. I asked one of the girls in the classroom Bella what her favorite part of the classroom was. She answered that it was the pictures all the students made. She said she had a lot of fun using her imagination to create a picture of what she called a candy palace. She also said how great it was to be able to come in the classroom everyday and see her picture hanging on the wall with the other children's and how it made the classroom a lot more fun.

Mr. Snow's decision to do this project with his students reminded me a lot of Kozol. He noticed that the school lacked some resources and used that to work with the students to make the classroom a more friendly place. It was good because the children loved to do this. The students got to use their imaginations and apply it to a classroom they had to spend almost everyday in. I have to say Mr. Snow surprised me. My other visits gave me the impression that he was not the best teacher and did not handle certain situations the way a teacher should. Although I do not agree with a lot of things Mr. Snow has said or done, this proved to me that he took the time with his students to make just a little difference in his classroom.

Change vs. Charity

Now that I was completely comfortable with both my students, Erica and Madison, it was time to make a difference in these student's reading experience. I was still noticing that Erica was struggling a lot more than Madison, so I decided to take on another approach to helping her learn words that she was having trouble with. I noticed Erica was a much more outgoing, non timid student who seemed to have a lot to say in everything going on. I decided, since she was very outspoken girl to try different exercises with her in which allowed her to speak up (which I knew she loved to do). When working on a word, I would have her first say the word at least 7 times after she figured out what it was by sounding it out. After she repeated the word multiple times I asked her to come up with 3 really good sentences using the word. She loved this because she got to use her imagination while also learning what the word was and how she could apply it to everyday sentences as well. Using this method over and over again on every word Erica struggled with, seemed to get her to not only like the exercise, but also remember the word more easily.

I was inspired by the theorists Kahne and Westheimer in their focus on change rather than charity. These theorists believed that if educators focused more the individual's needs with a goal of making social transformation and change, those individuals will succeed and take more from the experience. Following their focus, I tried to find something Erica would enjoy doing. Finding this and applying it to her reading began to help her while she was still having fun and being herself. Overall it seemed to be successful and was a new method I would be using in the weeks to come.

Using different methods to promote change within a student is something every teacher should do. Trying this out I noticed that it really does make a difference, even if it is not the biggest difference in the world. If more teachers followed Kahne and Westheimers theory on change over charity, students would be able to learn a lot more and also change the social aspect of their lives. I am going to continue to use methods such as the one I did in hopes that it will make a difference in these young students learning experience.

The Language Barrier

After going to tutoring for a couple of weeks, I began to get the hang of things. I was starting to see the different levels that my reading buddies were on. While one had a pretty good understanding of reading sentences, I could see that the other fills with frustration when it came time to read. Not being a certified teacher, I was worried that it would be difficult to teach a child to read from the level she seemed to be on. The next thing I thought might be affecting her reading was the setting of the classroom. On Tuesdays, we were to work with our students in the library, but on Fridays we sat at a long table in the back of the noisy, uncontrolled classroom.

When I would enter the classroom on Fridays to work with my reading buddies, I always began to feel terribly overwhelmed and uncomfortable. The first thing one would notice about the classroom was the noise level. Most of the children appeared to be distracted from doing their work, and instead yelling at one another and throwing things across the room. Looking around, kids everywhere were running and knocking things over. Chaos would be the perfect word to describe the classroom setting. As I would take each student to sit down and read with me, they also seemed to be distracted by the other children's actions in the class. It became harder and harder to get their attention, constantly saying their names just for them to look at a page and the next second they were watching students getting yelled at by the teacher. One of my reading buddies, Madison, flew through words on Tuesdays in the library but seemed to be a bit slow on Fridays. The same thing seemed to be noticeable with my other reading buddy Erica. Although both struggled a little with some pronunciation of words and sentences, it was clear that they were much better on Tuesday's then on Fridays. This was something I was going to have to figure out how to get through so that both students were learning affectively. The teacher is what disturbed me most in the classroom.

Mr Snow was a very tall, old man who seemed to have no patience with his students at all. A culturally competent teacher should be able to communicate with his/her students in a way that expresses sensitivity to their linguistic as well as sociocultural differences. Mr. Snow was not a good example of this kind of teacher through my eyes. I noticed when working with some of the other students from the class that a couple of them spoke fluent Spanish as their first language. When it came time for reading as a whole class, these students had a difficult time with some words that they did not understand. They asked the teacher over and over to help them but Mr. Snow was so distracted and busy with those students misbehaving, that it seemed unimportant for him to help the other students who needed the attention the most. Not being able to speak Spanish, I was unfortunately not able to help those few students in the classroom. It was difficult to see them struggle as the teacher seemed to be ignoring them. He would simply move on to the next thing even with students still raising their hands as they began to understand less and less of the lessons he was teaching. As mentioned before, a well culturally competent teacher would take the time to work with his/her students understanding and seeing their linguistic and sociocultural differences. Mr. Snow did not seem to express this, but I was hoping that I would see a change within the weeks to come.

First Day

September 22 marked the first day of my tutoring experience. At first, I was a little nervous seeing as I had never tutored someone before. As I entered my assigned school, my tutoring instructor gave a layout of how the program was going to work. It seemed to be overwhelming as there was so much to explain in a short amount of time, but I was assured I would get the hang of it once my tutoring started.

My instructor brought me to my room in which the students I was going to be tutoring was in. The atmosphere of the classroom was very lively and noisy all at the same time. I began to observe the students and the classroom routine on how things were run. Similar routines that I had in grade school were present within my classroom. The students began to form two lines, boys and girls, to head to the bathroom down the hall. When the children arrived back in the classroom, they were told to take out their literacy books. Their job was then to copy down different questions on the board about the current book they were reading in class. It seemed an effective way to get the students thinking because they had time to both write out the questions and contemplate what was being asked. The students were then asked to sit on the rug in the middle of the room to have a discussion about three vocabulary words that were also relating back to the book of discussion. Students would say the word, give an example of what they think it means, and the teacher as well as other students would give feedback to what they think it means. Lastly, the teacher sang a song containing all three words within it to take that extra step to helping the children remember and learn the vocab words discussed. It always seems that when music is added into the classroom learning experience, it works most effectively on the children helping them remember specific subjects being presented to them.

Although I did not have one-on-one tutoring on my first day at the school, I got a feel for the classroom, teacher, and students. The children seemed to have outgoing personalities and seemed that they were all willing to learn which helped my attitude for tutoring them. I am greatly looking forward to my first tutoring session this upcoming Friday and also looking forward to working with my students for the rest of the semester.

About Me

Heyyy! My name is Jillian Elizabeth Dec and this my second year here at Rhode Island College. Before I attended college, I went to a small high school in Massachusetts. I decided to come to Rhode Island College because all my life I grew up in a small town and really wanted the experience of living in a city atmosphere. I was orginally going to go to school for wildlife photography but changed my major after working in a daycare my senior year in high school. I now major in Early Childhood Education with a minor in Special Ed. I love to dance, paint and hang out with my friends and I am looking forward to pursuing this career!