There is no doubt in my mind that this experience has shaped my identity as a future teacher. This was my first experience volunteering in a school setting and although I was nervous at first, I was lucky enough to have a friendly, caring teacher to work with each week. Through many conversations with Ms. Apple* I came to see that she truly cares about each and every one of her students. Even though she has to reprimand them from time to time she was constantly telling me “I am so lucky, this class is great, they really are great kids”. Her sincerity was clearly evident.
One of the main eye-opening aspects of this service learning experiment was how to relate to the students and guide them in the right direction so they can meet their goals independently. At the beginning of my time at Pineapple Elementary* I was quick to help the students with spelling and sentence structure, but towards the end I realized that with the right amount of suggestion and persuasion they were very capable of completing their work on their own. I was under the impression that students needed a lot more guidance than they sometimes actually require.
I loved getting to know some of the students and even began to be able to predict how they would act and what assignments they always loved to neglect! It gave me a real sense of connection to teaching and made me feel like I could have a space in this profession.
In some of my last conversations with Ms. Apple* she brought up the topic of keeping students back a grade instead of forcing them ahead when they don’t have the basic reading skills they need. She told me that the principal frowned upon letting the kids stay back in first grade, and the result was that students were coming to her in second grade way below level and she was left with the responsibility of getting them through two grade levels worth of material. She spoke with such passion and concern over the fact that her students’ educations were being jeopardized. She wasn’t concerned about the workload that was being placed on her shoulders, but instead was focused on the fact that her students couldn’t receive the extra attention they needed from her because there simply wasn’t enough literacy time built into the day.
No matter where I end up teaching I know that I will be faced with challenges that may weigh me down and cloud my vision with stress, but I hope I am able to maintain the same kind of commitment and enthusiasm that Ms. Apple* possesses.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Prompt #7 - Farewell to Pineapple Elementary
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Christine,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear that you had an overall positive experience with your service learning project at Pineapple Elementary! Your teacher sounds like a peach (even though her last name is Apple :P)!
It sounds like there's a bit of a silenced dialogue going on between your teacher and the principle though, which is something I am sorry to hear about. Students at so young of an age really need all the help they can get with literacy because they use those skills their WHOLE lives, not even just in the education system. Think about how many things outside of school that we read everyday, from newspapers to magazines, signs on the road to menus in a restaurant, even the little info tickers at the bottom of the screen on ESPN!
Even though the principal "frowns upon" it, if the teacher says that the child should stay back, the principal should allow that to happen because the teacher is the one in the classroom with that child every day, not the principal. The teacher would know what the best course of action to take with each particular child would be because she ultimately spends the most time with that student. Shame on the principal for more than likely being too proud that they're the principal to realize that someone beneath them (in the power hierarchy that is) would likely know more than they do about the necessary plan of action.