The neighborhood that my school is tucked into is definitely what many developers and renovators refer to as ' up and coming'. There's an odd mix of poverty and wealth that can be seen simply in the conditions of the homes on the street leading up to the school. The area just outside of the school is less fortunate as well, and the number of out of business stores and damaged older vehicles speak to this. The building is definitely older, entirely brick from the outside, and the original tile and piping running throughout the building. They did a nice job making it school-friendly by painting the walls a bright purple and decorating the walls inside the rooms and out. The high ceilings are actually kind of open and inviting. The rooms seem to be a great size, larger open classrooms allow for more space, but also more children per classroom which I found today to be quite challenging. I really liked the feel of the school, it was open, and inviting, and the bright colors, cleanliness and friendly staff made it seem like a great place to learn. I started taking notes as soon as I walked into the school. My classroom was involved in an out of class activity, so I immediately started to take notes of hallway activity and student- teacher interactions in the areas around me while I waited for them to return. I was at first very surprised at the freedom that the children had to come and go from the classrooms. The room across the hall from where I was waiting for instance had a number of sets of two students in almost a fluid rotation leaving to go to the bathroom or bubbler. They were roaming the hallways, and I actually witnessed a verbal altercation between students of different classes who were not where they were supposed to be. I don't remember elementary school very clearly, so I can't base any judgements off of my own experience, but perhaps the roaming is an inevitable part of a school full of elementary aged students. I couldn't help but notice what a distraction it may have been to consistently have those children filtering in and out of the classroom. As I learned today, it's hard enough to keep their attention without all of the distractions. While I was watching the interactions between students and teachers, there was a clear frustration in the tone of voice and handling of the children that I did not agree with. I've worked with children all my life, and I understand how frustrating the process of disciplining and educating such an age can be, but children only respond to so much yelling and anger. It's like anything; if you say or do something excessively, it loses it's value. The students were well behaved for the most part, of course there is always one student in the bunch that can have the behavior to throw off the whole group, but as individuals, they were all polite and charming.
Once I was isolated with a small group of students, it became clear to me just how challenging educating such a group can be, especially if they have no interest in the topic at hand. We were working on math, basic fractions and the terminology that went with it. I'm a firm believer that for kids to learn or take anything away from a lesson, they need to be interested and the lesson needs to be made understandable and fun. We worked on fractions in terms of pieces of pizza or boxes of cookies, and turned the activities into almost a game, taking turns giving pieces of the answer. I felt a sense of accomplishment when one of the boys at the table who the teacher identified to me as someone who 'never paid attention anyway' started to participate after my unceasing probing for answers.
In the classroom, it's pretty evident the value placed on effort. The teacher very plainly favors the students who put their best foot forward in the direction of progress, and frustration and lack of hope for those who are more challenging to engage. Just her comment of 'im going to send (we'll call him ron) out with you, but he never pays attention anyway, right ron?' I don't like those types of comments because they cause the child to immediately think lower of themselves. Why try if your teacher already thinks you're a bum? I can see now where issues like that of Central Falls come from. I was amazed working with the students in reading and phonetics how behind students were, and how difficult it would be for students of that level to go onto higher level education without a full knowledge of the basics. The class was relatively large, and hard for my teacher to control. Interesting to me, was the overflow of a group of fifth grade students that were lumped into the third grade classroom with work to do because the school was unable to get a substitute. The school in general seems understaffed, and it made me wonder about how much more efficiently a large class like the one I work in would run with the addition of another teacher. With math in particular, it's hard enough to get the students to pay attention, and the test scores I saw when grading times table quizzes showed that. I was shocked to see the huge discrepancy in scores. The students did either exceptionally with no more than three answers of twenty wrong, or exceptionally awful with no more than three answers of twenty correct.
After considering these in class scores, I checked out the data from infoworks about my school. It was wild to me that the number of students who were proficient in all areas of the testing were outnumbered by those who were not or very below proficiency. Interesting to me as well was the inability of the school to measure any other racial group of children outside of hispanic, and asian because their numbers were to small in relation to the rest of the school community. I noticed today that besides myself the the majority of the teachers, there were only three other white students in my immediate area two of whom were in my class. Looking further at the information provided on the no child left behind report card from 2008 (the most recent entry) the school was rated as a school of "insufficient progress". The statistics are pretty scattered, and the progress from year to year goes up and down with no real convincing evidence of improvement.
Overall, my experience was a positive one. The students were very receptive, and I enjoyed the students that were eager to learn and determined to help the students who were clearly uninterested. I look forward to my next visit. I've planned on several visits during the week and want to take as much away from this experience and the solutions to the difficult learning conditions that the school has to offer to teach me!
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