The neighborhood I am teaching in is right between classes. On one end of the street is the upper class and clearly affluent with their manicured lawns and sparkling SUVs. On the other side is where the houses begin to become run down as you head more into the ghetto area. The building itself is quite large. I have not even covered a quarter of it. Conditions of the classrooms run from mediocre to dilapidated but most are decent. There is a lack or non existence or air conditioning or heating however. Spacially the rooms are quite large. The school seems to be rather old built in an old style with high vaulted ceilings. There seems to be leftover space in the classroom that could be put to good use. The school itself feels unorganized. There is always children running about in the halls and noisely at that. Many kids are misbehaving and not being corrected. The kids are constantly running around the classroom which is highly different than what I went through. If a kid were to just spring up and run about the room there would most definitely be consequences.
As for what is valued I cannot say. I have been going for several weeks and what I have seen is a but sad. The kids are constantly herded from class to class which takes up a lot of time. Then, they are yelled at to be quiet and to sit down and start the activity. All of this takes up much of the 35 minutes or so they have for class time. I believe this is not the most practical way of doing things. When I asked one of the girls about how they start class she said to me "We never were told how to do any of this. How are we supposed to know?" This leads me back to thinking of how classrooms should be run. This is what Shor states about it being focal around the teacher and not around the students. I know for a fact, one of their teachers Ms. Porter tries to just get through the lesson. When she told me this it said to me that she is just trying to meet a goal and if a few fall behind it is okay because the goal was met. If I was to say that to her I'm sure she would out right deny it yet it does not seem to be too far from the truth.
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It sounds like your first hands on experience with your service learning was an unusual and upsetting experience for you. Through my understanding of your blog it feels like this environment, this type of schooling atmosphere is completely different from what you are accustomed to and to what you expected. The experience at your service learning really portrays the opposite of what we have been learning in class so far this semester. The schooling environment you have been placed in really seems to engage in a pedagogical action that we have been learning to push away from in our FNED class. Through my observational inquiry of your blog description I can only begin to grasp the comprehension that the school in which you service actually enforces, whether consciously or subconsciously, and pushes towards instead of away from the status quo. So far, through my understanding there is no charity, there is no change, there is no true authentic learning, no cognitive reflection, no experiential transformation, no sense of altruism or expression of civic duty from the teachers stand point.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an upsetting experience, but i can only advise to not shy away from your service learning and to not allow your presence to be neutral with in the classroom. Instead embrace this opportunity as a stepping-stone. Remember the purpose of this experience and why we had to complete our service learning experience in the providence community schools. It is because these are the kind of situations, circumstances, obstacles, and crisis that we will sometimes (and the majority of the time if you are truly seeking to make change for students of the "ghetto area" as you termed it) have to face when we ourselves become teachers. Providence, along with other cities across the nation, is that image, that negative statistic of non-successful students, which unfortunately continues to spiral. Take this moment as a golden opportunity for you to observe and learn from the mistakes you are witnessing around you and allow yourself to absorb like a sponge the positive reflections that you conclude from those mistakes in order to help your pedagogical aspect/character to grow even more powerful, more influential, more wiser, and more dominant, so that you can be and offer the best of your teaching qualities to your students.
Good Luck with your service learning experience...!!
The classroom sounds chaotic and the children have the 'run of the classroom'. Jonathan Kozol speaks of poor urban schools and the marginalized students in his writings.
ReplyDeleteThere are many issues in these classrooms for both the teachers and the students. The teacher has many areas of curriculum to cover in a class that is overcrowded. Student's behavior issues are very likely to occur and disrupt the learning process of the entire class.
Boler's affirmative pedagogy and allowing marginalized voices to be heard would encourage participatory learning (Ira Shor) and is much needed.
I would try to begin my class with a large group lesson. Delpit's explicit concise instructions of curriculum and classroom rules would help them to gain their own "power" relating to the curriculum and class rules. The teacher could empower the students this way, get rid of the disruptiveness and probably the students would be more eager to learn.
A reward system also helps like 'stars' on a special board with corresponding rewards for effort and work done. Sometimes a school has a school store for redemption of points or stars earned. Behavior modification using positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement will raise students self esteem, increase marginalized voice and becomes participatory to promote learning in a democratic pedagogy with discussion. In younger grades it usually is in simpler forms but it still is usually effective.
I would then break them into small groups at tables so they would continue the lesson with their individual work. I would try to incorporate creative student participation for the particular lesson to keep the students interested while hoping this interest would stop the disruptive behaviors.
The teacher stated it was okay if a few kids didn't meet the goal as long as the classroom majority met the goal. This directly reflects the " No Child Left Behind Act" and standards.
Good luck with your service learning. Maybe taking one or two students to the cafeteria where it is quiet and less distracting would be helpful.