Prompt 7

Doing my Service Learning at Charlotte Woods Elementary definitely skewed my teaching ability for the better. Growing up without much diversity made me conscious of inner-city schools and how much more attention they need as opposed to rural schools. Doing my SL there, it also expanded my patience that was once very short with small children. I never used to have a lot of patience for small children - hence the reason why I want to teach High School English. However, Mrs. Caliri's classroom completely changed my outlook and I am very grateful for that. Volunteering there completely opened my eyes to the way inner city schools are as opposed to rural schools. The setting (lack of green grass and jungle gyms), lack of funds (free lunches, books that are not great condition, etc), the way students are taught (they are learning the english language), lack of parental participation,etc... I think the more VIPS students go to inner-city schools, the more our generation could hopefully raise enough awareness to schools that seem to be swept under the rug when they are the schools that should be paid attention to the most.

Prompt 6

In Charlotte Woods Elementary, it was fairly easy to show sensitivity to the students despite the huge language barrier. The teacher, Mrs. Caliri, is very affectionate in terms of giving hugs and spending a lot of time with them. She is also extremely patient, knowing that English is not their primary language. As for me though, I cannot speak Spanish. I demonstrated my sensitivity and responsiveness by listening to the children and dividing my time up between each table of children so that no one thought I paid more attention to the other. Each student was more than willing to share stories of their home lives, school life, friends, etc. Sometimes I do not think teachers listen to their students enough, even small children. If teachers did listen to their students, they could get a better understand why a student behaves the way he/she does and maybe there would be less communication. Referring back to prompt 5, the more inactive parent participation is, the more teachers should be willing to listen to their students and get involved with them as individuals and not just as one whole class.

Prompt 5

I have noticed a major difference in rural schools to inner-city schools. Because I went to a rural public school all my life, I constantly compare it to Charlotte Woods Elementary. A competent teacher will definitely try to get parents proactive in the school community. In Scituate, it was easy to get parents' participation in the school programs whether it was volunteering, PTA, or even just meeting with the teachers to see how well their child is doing. After speaking to Mrs. Caliri (my SL teacher), it is like "pulling teeth" to get parents active in their child's academic life. This is definitely not speaking for everyone obviously, however, the majority. I think this is because in inner-city classrooms, many of the children come large families and maybe the parent cannot participate because they are too busy with the other children. Some parents are even incarcerated. In my own opinion, after reading certain articles (Kozol in particular), many parents of inner city students are drug users - again, I am not saying ALL parents. Drug users put their addiction ahead of anything else which is very sad especially if they are in a large family. These are all contributing factors as to why a teacher may have difficulty getting a parent or a guardian's participation in their child's academics and/or behavior. This also may be why some children look at their teacher as a mother/father figure and/or role model.

Prompt 4

Growing up in Scituate, RI, there is very little cultural diversity. Because of this, I never really experienced what it is like to work with people of different races and to be honest, most people in Scituate are racist Republicans (MOST). Thus, I was completely out of my element when I did my VIPS at Charlotte Woods Elementary. Working with children of different races when I grew up in a country-area was very different and almost...scary (for lack of a better word). I was very nervous. I think my personal experience in Scituate helped me at the school because it humbled me greatly. I appreciate what I have and it rose my awareness to help those who are in troubling inner-city schools. Challenges I may face as an up and coming teacher is the language barrier. There was a lot of communication problems I faced with the students - especially because it was an ESL class. I don't speak Spanish and that is their dominany language so it's hard to try to have a student read/write something to you and comprehend it as well. My misconceptions of the students were brief. I shamefully believed the students would be troublemakers or not really care too much to learn anything but in fact it was quite opposite. That sounds horrible, I know, but I blame most of it on how I grew up. I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, school, etc. I think bilingual people definitely make for better teachers - I wish I was, but I'm not... It just seems that bilingual teachers understand their students better and like I said previously, communication is KEY. I am not ashamed to say where I came from but I definitely feel like I msised out on learning about other cultures and working one-on-one with those who are different than my peers were. On the flipside, going to Scituate HS really opened my eyes to children in inner-city schools - to compare the rural to the urban society, to appreciate what I have that I would ordinarily take for granted and to try to help those in need as best to my ability.