Kids have opinions too.

Today, I did my final field observations for this course and I can say that once again, I'm glad I choose this particular lesson to observe. Before getting to the point in this particular post, I'd like to give you some statistics. Humor me, if you will.

According to the US Census Bureau, 46.5 million people were in poverty in 2012 alone.
Within that number alone, about 21% were people under the age of 18.

One last point,

"For the second consecutive year, neither the official poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty at the national level were statistically different from the previous year’s estimates."


Now in the class today, I happen to observe the teacher holding a discussion with the students on the topic of homelessness. This discussion was interesting in that the teacher barely let her opinions be known, she let the conversation guided by what her students were saying. In between this discussion, students were reading a fictional passage about homelessness and poverty. All of the students in this class want to voice their opinions. There wasn't one hand in that class that didn't go up, or had not had a personal connection with the issue of poverty in our country. Their voices did not waver when they spoke, and they found ways to agree and disagree with each other.

I come from a cultural background where at times, children's opinions are disregarded. As a young child, you're told to keep your mouth shut and let the adults talk. In many instances, I grew up thinking that my opinions did not matter until I was finally considered an adult. But I think this is wrong and today's observations proved it so. We had a group of 10 year old students who understood the issue of poverty and were able to make connections to their lives, their text, and pre-reading questions that their teacher had asked them. I think it's important to note that not one of these children took differences of opinions personally. They were all able to go outside and play afterwards and not let any differences of opinions prevent them interacting politely with someone else. I know many adults that aren't capable of that.  

Racism and Discrimination Discussions in the 5th Grade

Today, I completed my second observation in the same 5th grade class from last week. I have to say, I'm glad out of all the days I chose to visit, it was this one for one very important reason. But before I get to that, I'd like to introduce you to a book that I surprisingly haven't read yet, but plan on doing very soon. 

Today, the class that I was observing was reading this particular book. Now I have heard of it before, but personally never read it. Teachers either didn't assign it when I was younger or I didn't really feel the need to earlier in my life. Well, after today I plan on reading this book because of the particular sections that students read in the class. It was a particular section that had a white child who lives in a primarily African American community, discover what it meant to be white in the eyes of some of the people in his community. During the reading, students were quietly listening to the recording and while usually you can find one or two children drifting off and not paying attention, this book had them ALL pay attention. 

The teacher even let them listen to another chapter and I swear I heard some of the students cheering. But what had me so interested in this book was the way it introduced students to issues of racism and discrimination. The teacher, who is an amazing educators that I look up to immensely, had a discussion after the reading of this book with students regarding issues of racism. Particularly, discussing the idea of people of difference races living in separate areas of towns. Students were willing to speak up and share their experiences, and it is important to note that this is a diverse class of students, with a larger percentage of them from Hispanic backgrounds. I think the particular section that I happened to observe was a great way of introducing students to racism and even lead into various current event topics for students. When I finally get my own classroom, I would like to have these kind of open discussions about various topics, while still having my students feel safe, cared for and not judged for their beliefs, culture, or race. 

Observation #1:

Yesterday, I did my first field experience at a local elementary school in my area. I observed a 5th grade class during their 90 minute reading block. The class I observed is a very diverse group of students, from all different races and backgrounds, speaking all different languages. It was quite wonderful to see this kind of diversity in schools. Students were working as told and, since I observed in this classroom before they were already comfortable with me observing their class.

But what struck me in the most would have to be the text they were reading. It was a fictional sci-fi story from their textbook. The story was about a girl who was a writer, who travel back in time with the help of her genius friend. This particular story, at the start, really took time to discuss diversity in a very explicit manner. The characters in the story were of different races, and even various cultural aspects such as food or language were discussed through out it. For example, at one point in the story, the characters start to talk about spring rolls. While the students in the class are a very diverse group, you never know if they know what certain foods or objects are, so it was nice to see that their teacher took time to explain what those items were in a way that students might be able to understand. At one point, she even had me give some input regarding an author we were both familiar with. She also took the time to discuss the career of writing. She used J.K. Rowling, an author that the students were familiar with to explain to them how writers can make money off of putting their stories on paper for people to read.

She motivated them by telling them the story of a former student who wrote a children's book about horses while she attended the same school and was able to get it publish. This educator motivated her students, she made sure that they all felt accepted and cared for in her classroom. She was also able to connect with them and contribute to their discussion in the midst of their reading.

IF I WERE TEACHING THIS CLASS...
I would be doing the same thing as this educator. I would be introducing the students to different cultural aspects related to our content, but I would also find a way of integrating technology with the discussions. It would have been nice, if during the discussion the teacher showed students a quick picture of what a spring roll looks like. In the future, students who are confronted with this food item, might be tempted to try it!

Starting a Journey

I took this course out of curiosity. It is not a part of my requirements for my MA in Elementary Education. I took it knowing that life takes you different places sometimes, especially when you least expect it. So this course is an attempt at gaining more knowledge about myself and the diverse environments and currently and in the future, will find myself in. A couple week in, I was not expecting to be actively approaching some of these topics as much as I have within the context of my current job.

This week, I have found myself considering the premise of "connecting with students" beyond academia. One of the first texts that I read which made me really start thinking about this is Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There by H. Richard Milner IV, a text we are reading for this course actually! I've posted a picture of the book below. The teachers in this book make such as an effort to connect with their students, despite huge cultural differences that may exist between them. When I first started working at the school I'm at now, I felt a huge cultural gap between the students and I. For a while, I couldn't seem to connect with them and it started to affect my facilitating their online language course. It was a really difficult situation I found myself in.

While searching around the internet, I actually found an article by the author of this book written through the Harvard Education Letter, titled Five Easy Ways to Connect with your Students. It's a quick but interesting read if you're interested. One of the main ones that stuck out was was number four: attend extracurricular activities featuring your students. Here are some of the main quotes I took from that particular section. 

"It means something to students when teachers take time out of their schedules to visit an activity they are involved in." 

"Teachers from elementary through high school should feel a sense of responsibility to be present at events that help complete students’ educational experiences such as those connected to extra-curricular activities."

I've never really considered how showing interest in student's activities can motivate and inspire them. I think it also builds trust. For someone to take personal time and dedicate it to their students, it shows genuineness. Hopefully students react positively to actions such as these, so I'll have to consider this as a future tip when connecting with my students.

I'd like to learn more about...

• Next week, I'll be observing a 5th grade class for my field experiences in an urban environment. I want to start noticing how the teacher works with her diverse community and how she considers their needs within her classroom. I need to find out if there is anything specific to note within these environments, so I'll report back to you next week! 

References

Milner, R. (2011, February). Five easy ways to connect with students. Retrieved from http://hepg.org/hel/article/492

Milner, R. (2012). Start where you are, but don't stay there. (2nd ed., pp. 109-146). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.