Required Assignment 1

One of the things I noticed off the bat when I walked into my service learning classroom was respect; the respect coming from both the teacher and the students. The classes she had were rather small, no more than twenty students, and were all approximately a nice mixed bag of black and hispanic students. The teacher at no point while I've been there has shown any preference for any particular group. In her eighth period class, for example, there were mostly hispanics and although the teacher was black, at no point did she try to leave the hispanics out or make them feel inferior. Some of the black students actually were 'interested' in one of the hispanic students; he has migrated from Texas by way of Georgia. The students questioned the boy about whether he had his papers and if he was running from the police or anything else that could have been deemed funny. This could have been the perfect storm. But the teacher interjected "instead of trying to judge him, while do you let him answer some of your so called questions." The hispanic boy told everyone his story and how while he was in the country legally, his parents weren't, so they moved down here because he said the green card process was easier. The teacher then used that as a bridge to talk about the current situation in Arizona and how similar it is to what went on in our country during the early 1900's. Now because she teaches reading and language arts, she has to use a specific curriculum that is state mandated and must stay on task. But I did find it interesting how although she was limited to only one text book, she infused modern day issues and things the book left out to educate her students. The class sat in groups of no more than three on average and there was six groups. The periods started with looking at the agenda on the smart-board. The students then engaged in independent work but after a certain amount of time were allowed to collaborate with their group members. For the remainder of the class they had open discussion where students were allowed to raise their hand to speak about various topic, which was a group of poems this week. I believe I very lucky to be allow in this classroom to observe. In a private conversation with the teacher she shared to me that one of her greatest things to overcome was the fear of not being able to manage a classroom. But once someone explained to her that it was all about respect, not just getting the students to respect you but also respecting them and having them respect each other. It is my greatest hope that I too will be able to manage a classroom the same way she does.