FNED... its hard to say goodbye.

this was a great class. I had an amazing time with everyone. and the inside jokes, and outside ones, were hilarious. Thank everyone for making the beginning of my teaching career fantastic. Ill remember everyone, some more than others, but i still love you all.
I hope everyone has a great summer, and cant wait to see everyone after the break.

Good luck to everyone applying to the program, im sure ill see you around, or have some classes with some of you. And to everyone else who is leaving our edu program. Have fun with whatever you wish to accomplish, and have fun!

if you wanna stay in touch...
rlewis_8411@ YOUKNOWWHAT.BLAH.

(: love you all!
becca dee marie.

Prompt 3- Ira Shor: the Bike

Last week in my service learning, all of the kindergardener's were sitting on the rug doing the writing activity. Mrs. Bryson then asked a question to her class about how to spell “bike”. Several children started talking, and Mrs. Bryson shushed them quickly. “They all know better” she whispered to me, and said something about raising their hands. So, the students who knew the answer, raised their hands high in the air, and raised their bums off the ground to have the highest one in the class. Yet Mrs. Bryson didn't chose a student with their hand raised. She said aloud “Bruce, I'm choosing you. For that I know you are struggling, and I would like to help you.” So Bruce sat and tried to spell out bike. He got the B-I-K, but the silent E threw him off. She explained how the silent E works, and went on with her class.
I went to talk with Bruce later, and realized that the worksheet he was doing, had a lot of erase marks. So I sat with him and helped him out. We discussed letters he had trouble on, and how the silent E confuses him.
Bruce reminds me of a boy that would be in Ira Shor's article. Shor explains that participation is needed in any classroom. For Bruce to sit there and answer the question, even though he did not raise his hand was a start. He sat and thought about the question, and figure out how to answer it. Shor says that students need to participate, and be in these classrooms. And that classrooms with no participation are just not helping any child learn. Hands on activity is the best way for students to learn. If they are not in participatory classrooms, they might not be able to keep up, and could very much fall behind, or start to not care because they are doing poorly. These student's who don't care, usually become the trouble makers and class clowns, which could lead to disciplinary actions.
Shor tells us that teachers are a big part of a child's life. They teach them basics to calculus two. They help put together “the students' development to the values, powers and debates in society.” I am very glad I went into this profession, to help and see children grow everyday, especially those trouble makers. ( because everyone knows I was one of those. (: )

Prompt 2- Claude Goldenberg: 3rd graders?!

At my school, the way that my intervention is set up is that we go into the school, sign in, and head to a teachers room. There we look at what our peers have done over the week, grab our materials for what our lesson is going to consist of, and then we head to our classrooms to enlighten these students. One Friday, as we walked into the teachers room, the adjoining art classroom was chanting things in spanish. The teacher was only speaking spanish, and the children only responding in spanish.
I had gone onto our Info works, and searched my school, and the following information very much surprised me. It was said that 75% of the students were not receiving any ESL(English as a Second Language) or Bilingual teachings, and 25% were receiving just bilingual teaching. So none of these students were ESL's? It was very cool to see that these students were so ahead of what I thought I was going to see on this chart!
But I can relate these bilingual students to the theorist Claude Goldenberg. His article “ Teaching English Language Learners” is all about ELL's and ESL's in school and how to teach them, and what will help them learn multiple languages. He says “Children learning to read in their home language promotes reading achievement in the second language.” These children at my school have learned both their home language and a second language, which is fabulous! Goldenberg also says that “teachers need to be effective and how the teachers need to help the students more, that English is not their first language, and that they might not use it unless in school.” These teachers that I see do a fantastic job with these kids. I see that they are respectful, and are very into what they are doing in class. I can't imagine being a ESL teacher, and having students speaking in two different languages all at different levels. According to the info works, the ESL teacher is doing an amazing job to have all 25% of ELL's as ESL's!
Another thing that Goldenberg says is that children learn from their experiences and if it gets difficult they will get motivated to strive to learn it. I know that that is how I strived to do something better. If I couldn't do it, I would try and try again until I mastered what I was doing. I was very much a motivated child because of my experiences. A few of the children in my class are like that as well, and it is very fascinating to see them achieve their personal goals.

Prompt 6- Christopher Kliewer: Capital Letters

In my classroom there is a little boy named Bobby, and he is mentally slow. (I'm not exactly sure what or if its anything specific, but he just does things a little slower than the rest of the students) But once the testing was over, the Instructional Assistant of my school told me that Bobby had jumped up 4 levels of the system we were going by. So for the past 3 weeks, I have just been helping my teacher do things in the classroom, and help out the students if they need anything. One day, Bobby was behind on his classwork. His teacher had him sit and finish a worksheet that was due two weeks prior. He had been sitting at a table with a couple of his classmates, and he was having a hard time finishing the worksheet. So his teacher had him move so that she could help him out. But while she was helping him a bunch of students had made a mess of another center, so she left. I sat and helped Bobby with his worksheet. As soon as I started talking to him I had realized that he was very smart. He knew exactly what each word was that I was showing him, also he knew what word went with what picture.
This was very much related to what the theorist Christopher Kliewer had said about down syndrome children. He said classrooms should be a human reciprocity, where both the child with challenges and the rest of the students get something out of the environment. There was another time, where most of the students were doing a reading center with Mrs. Jones and Bobby was sitting at the computer. She asked where a capital letter goes and why, and no one in her center knew what the answer was. Bobby took off his headphones, walked across the room and pointed to the beginning of the sentence saying “It goes here. It shows that it begins the sentence.” And then walked back to his computer. Bobby gets the environment of regular students, as the children get the feeling of dealing with “different” types of people. Kliewer also talks about Utilitarian Individualism, which is where the society is made for individuals to satisfy their own needs. Bobby is in this society for he is smart and does not have to be put into these “special” classrooms, where he will over succeed, but he is put in a regular classroom, with regular students, and can still show that he is a spectacular and very smart child.

Prompt 5- Allan Johnson: Bedtime Story

If I were the teacher of my classroom, I would make sure I accommodate every ones background into my teaching; making sure no one is excluded. I would also have my parents involved with my classroom, maybe sending out monthly newsletters informing them on what has been going on, and what will be happening in the class for the next month. I would even invite parents to join our class on some days, if they were concerned or just interested. If any challenges became apparent between a parent and I, I would make sure to meet with this parent so that everything was fixed. I would never let this blow by because this could cause later issues. Said issues might be that to them their child might not be excelling far enough to them, or they could be acting out in class, or is becoming behind on class work. These meetings could explain anything that could be happening at home, or anything that could be causing these problems at school.
This is very much like what the theorist Johnson had said. He talked about how you need to be part of the solution to help. And by not doing anything you are just playing the game. Teachers need to be part of that solution to help these students; that is why they become teachers, to help children, to teach them not only lessons in school, but lessons of life. Johnson also explains how mainly children of color have less privilege in this world. Every time I go into my classroom, I see how much these children do not have privilege. A little girl came in late to my classroom last week, and teacher asked why she came in late. She replied with something along these lines “My mommy worked until this morning, and she slept through her alarm clock, and forgot to come wake me up to come to school. I'm sorry I was late, and I'm sad because I missed our May breakfast.” Her mom worked third shift, and was so exhausted that she slept through her alarm. I was then talking to her later, and she told me how she loves when people read her books because her mom isn't able to before she goes to bed because she is always at work. This almost put me into tears. Sarah just wanted her mom to read her a bedtime story, and her mom can't because she works third shift. I just wished I could have gone and read her a bedtime story. ):

Prompt 4- Lisa Delpit Understanding Differences.

Dr August always says “No one come from nowhere, and No one comes from everywhere” meaning that everyone has grown us to somesort of bias towards a group or groups of people. Yet as a teacher you need to realize where your children come from, and what experiences they have encountered in their life, compared to your own experiences. In my classroom, most of my children are of a type of African American decent. Just this alone, is completely different from what I am used to. I went to a school where there was maybe one or two non-white children. Even my job at a daycare, most children I teach there are white; so being in a black dominated classroom is a flip of the world for me. Some challenges I had to get used to are the the language they use, their attitude, and their actions. With trying to become a new teacher, if I were to be handed this specific classroom, I would think I had an advantage. To me, this would be a different style of teaching than what I am used to, and I would be able to figure out my own way of teaching towards these children without trying to change them. I would adapt to how they learn the best. Misconceptions I have faced during this is that I have always known for most African American's to be loud. Yet one of my girls, Purvi, is one of the most quiet and shy girls I have ever met. But once you make friends, she becomes very happy and loving towards you. I also know that children in general are very disruptive and hyper, and the teacher I am obverving has children that listen very well. When asked, they all sat quietly on the rug and writing while following directions and paying attention.

I would relate this to the theorist Lisa Delpit. She wrote the 5 aspects of“the culture of power”. Her number three rule is “If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier”. This is showed in classrooms by teachers not understanding that some students do not understand “veiled instruction”, because they have always just been told what to do directly. So they need to be told directly the rules for them to comprehend and follow the certain direction. Without them understanding the rules or codes, they might not follow the teachers instructions, which leads them to get in trouble and seem disobedient, when all in all, they just didn't understand. Also without being told exactly what the rules are, they will not be able to gain power. Once told the rules the students will understand what is going on, and what and what not to do during classtime.

Edward Frank Wilbur Elementary School.

I'm sorry everyone that I have not written a real blog yet. Last week I was sick and was unable to go to my school, so this past Friday was my 3rd real time with my kids.


As my car harshly hits all the potholes and bumps around Providence I think to myself that this might me different from what I thought it was going to be. I pulled up to the school and parked in this sketchy fenced in lot across the street from the school. I got out, grabbed the stuff I needed, and made my way to the front door. It being the only door I saw in sight, and since swarms of kids were entering there, I followed the crowd. After signing in, I slowly walked down the hallways to the room where I was to meet the instructor. Inspirational posters covered the walls, kids painted trees on all the windows, I passed a "School store" where green paw prints was used as money. I passed lines of children who gazed at me, some waved, some shouted "hi!". I was brought to my classroom a little while later and I stood an observed. Posters with numbers, letters, alphabets, and colors were spread across the room. A portion of the room was an area for the kids cubbies. Names directed the kids from who's was who's. Backpacks, lunchboxes, coats and papers filled their designated area. Artwork was posted on every wall of this large room. 10 tables were scattered across the room with 5 or 6 small chairs around them. Blocks, books, writing supplies, games, markers were put on shelves. Boxes of tissues were everywhere. A water fountain and a small room with a sink was also attached to the room. Large plants were in a corner of the room where the sun shined through wall high windows all day. A rug was in another area of the classroom with a small easel and a chair sat. On the easel was Friday's schedule and what they were going to write in their notebooks.
All of a sudden children swarmed the classroom. Some stopped and stared, others ran over and started to ask me questions, others just avoided me completely. But the sound of the voices comforted me and I didn't feel quite like an outcast anymore. Some seemed excited, others curious and chatty. But once called to the rug, they seemed to be focused and quiet. A little girl closest to me was staring at me as I wrote things in my notebook. I look up and she said to me "you look really pretty today." I said thank you, and the girl next to her looked at me and said "your eyes. They're blue." She said, like it was so rare.
I have had good days there so far, nothing to stressful and nothing too easy. But I'm ready to explore more things with the three girls I'm helping, and am excited to go back next Friday.

-Becca Dee!