The school that I am doing my VIPS tutoring in is in a tricky location to find. The school itself does not have a private parking area. It is extremely close to another building and they share the parking that is available. When you park your car the school itself isn't in direct view. You need to walk through a blocked area in order to reach the main entrance. As soon as you reach the main doors there are many flyer's written in both English and Spanish. This was a clear sign to me that there would be many students, employees, and families in this school that are Spanish speaking. In order to enter the building you need to press a button that is located to the right of the door. As soon as you enter you noticed that the walls and hall ways are pretty bare. Every so often you will walk by a display of children's work or an bulletin board with information on events and meetings displayed.
The main office is dark and not as friendly as you would expect. The people working at the desks take little if any notice of your presence and continue with their work. I was glad to see that the classroom I will be working in is very different than the atmosphere of the office. As soon as I walked in the second grade classroom I noticed the rules and expectations displayed very clear in the center of the room. As I entered I noticed the different displays of children's work, educational posters, and a display of the current weeks spelling words and educational goals and tasks. I also noticed that the children did not sit at individual desks, instead they were sharing larger tables with about four or five other students. The tops of the tables seemed very unorganized and the children's work was sloppily placed in piles. I can only imagine how difficult it is to stay focused and on task in such an unorganized and distracting environment.
The teacher that I am working with seems very stern and loud. She seems to have a strong hold over the children and I noticed more negative reinforcement being used than positive. The students all seemed to be very enthusiastic and excited to be in school. At this moment they were working on individual work that they needed to complete and have checked before lunch time. The teacher seemed to be more focused on her own things at her desk rather than keeping the children on task and providing help if needed. I found myself walking around and helping the students on my own. They seemed slightly caught off guard by receiving help and reinforcement, it was shocking and slightly sad to observe. Many of the children seemed to have a hard time staying on task and completing their work. The teacher would often scold the class on the noise level and point out a different child who is working correctly or in some cases a child who was far behind on their work and not doing what was expected from them.
As a reading buddy for this classroom I work separately and off to the side with three individual students who are behind on their reading skills. The three children I work with seemed very excited to step aside and take part in the activities and lessons I would be doing with them. I have noticed slight changes in their performance once they felt comfortable and confident.
This school seems to be very key on respect and meeting the standards of what is expected from you. I also saw this in the classroom. Although I saw many things that I felt were negative towards the children's learning experience, I feel this school and classroom are striving to provide the students with the best education possible. I look forward to continuing to work with these students and gain knowledge for my future career as a elementary school teacher.
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Jess,
ReplyDeleteWhen reading your first post, I almost felt as if it was my own first post. We wrote a lot of the same things. I think it has to do with the fact that we were tutoring in the same area. At my school you have to walk quite a distance before actually entering the school. On the main doors of the school there were also a lot of flyers and newsletters in English, as well as Spanish too. At that point I knew that were I was about to go was going to have a lot of teachers, students, and families of Spanish descents. I really did not know what to expect at first. I was both nervous and excited at the same time to begin my tutoring sessions.
At the main doors of my school I had to push a button in order to get in. I remember my elementary school installing those buzzers when I was in the 5th grade. My elementary school wasn’t in a bad area but I think they just did that for safety precautions. As soon as I entered my Providence elementary school there were also bulletion boards everywhere. With positive quotes, or work of the students. They even had pictures of the teachers, faculty, students and their families in them. I always would look at them and see what the school was doing. My first encounter with the ladies in the main office was not a very good one. They did not make me feel welcome and were kind of rude to say the least. The spoke very loudly and did not give me very good directions. I had to figure out everything I needed to do basically by myself. When I met my teacher I thought she was very stern and loud as well. Once I really got to know her I realized she is the way she is because of the students she has in her class but she is a nice person. I like the way she teaches and I think they students respect her.
Moreover, my school seemed to have a lot in common with your school. I hope you enjoyed your tutoring experience overall and learned something worthy from it.
Have a good summer !
Taylor B!