Monday, April 26, 2010
Prompt 7
My experiences and observations as a tutor are shaping my teaching identity by helping me see how to handle certain situations, how to act, what to expect, and many other things. Though I am a secondary ed major, and I am only tutoring fourth graders, I still get the experience of working in a culturally mixed school. This is a good experience for me, because I came from a private high school, so I wasn't aware of the diverse backgrounds of the students. I have been observing my teacher handle situations such as making up for missed days (due to the snowstorm), students missing school (mostly due to the flood, or to sickness), gathering and supplying students with materials, teaching students under time constraints (due to assembly or early dismissal days). I have also examined her teaching methods and have been trying to separate what would be effective for older students versus what is effective for younger students. Unfortunately, my scheduled time does not match up with the English learning block that the teacher has provided for the students, but the curriculum will differ greatly from that of secondary education schools. Mostly I have learned that public schools can be very diverse, and you may have to deal with students in a different manner, but I will always keep in mind that we are all human, and we are not very different from each other no matter what our culture or race is.
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I think it is great for you to be exposed in a diverse school because I think it is very important for teachers to be able to work with many cultures. You said that you were never really exposed to all the cultures because you went to a private school and I am sure you see how different it is working in a diverse school. And it is great that you will remember that we are all human and everyone should be treated the same. I think that is very important.
ReplyDeleteThinking about my SL experience, I have never been able to see how a teacher adjusts to students missing school days or time due to early dismissal, assemblies, sickness, flood or storms. I got from 9:30 am to 11:00 am which give me enough time for morning routine and beginning activities before lunch. What exactly is it like when you have to make up work or in class lessons...how did the teacher accomodate? You can always send home make up work but if the student doesn't understand the topic or the lesson they won't be able to do it.
ReplyDeleteI also think its so interesting that you said we aren't all that different, even though I agree, as humans we basically all function the same, want the same things for ourselves and such, but it is the complete opposite of things we have learned in class and how we are taught to acknowledge and be sensitive to their differences. Sometimes thinking about it singling people out for their differences might slow down our journey to unity and treating everyone equally.
I have a similiar situation to you russ too(i also commented on jens too about this very topic). Although I did not go to a private school, my school/school district is very very different then the schools that we are tutoring at. My elementary school maybe had a handful of African American and Hispanic children so tutoring at my school where the diversity is huge is a big change for me. Im very glad we had this experience to kind of get out of our "comfort zones" and experience something different and new.
ReplyDeletegreat commenting! to go back to the idea of diversity in school, it is important to keep in mind that, as qwe have read from Johnson and McIntosh, the idea of "difference" (diversity) is tightly coupled with the idea of privilege, so it is not so much about "singling out" students who are not empowered within the dominant ideology as it is about acknowledging their lack of privilege and their worth and dignity
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