prompt 7

Now that I’m finally done tutoring, reflecting back on this experience should be very easy. I learned many things that should be helpful in my teaching career. Tutoring taught me many things, but one thing most importantly. Patients are the key to teaching at an early level. And I think this is true throughout the teaching system from k-12. I walked out with a headache almost every time because it was loud; I’m not going to lie. But also every time I left, I always left like I affected at least one child. Kahne and Westheimer says the they’re “in the service of what?” essay, “The service component may help us get the support needed for implementation,… promote powerful learning environments.” I found this completely true when I had gone and tutor. The teacher always appreciated me coming and always made me feel like I was a really big help to her. I also felt as if the students benefited me going as well. These students were in need of help however the teacher couldn’t really just sit down and cater to everyone’s needs separately. This is where I stepped in and really felt like I helped her. I think I can also relate this to Shor as well. Service learning is very proactive now because it has been used for a few years. This relates well to Shor’s idea of empowering education. It not only empowers the teacher to help a smaller group of kids, but also me because it gives me hands on experience in the classroom. It empowers me to strive to be the teacher at the front of the room. And I’m sure I’m a huge help to the teacher because she can narrow down her lesson to the students that she has as well. To empower two separate groups in the same classroom is fairly successful in my eyes. People don’t really know what teachers have to go though, even though we’ve all been though the education system. However, going back into a third grade room is very eye opening.

prompt 6

In this prompt, it asks how I have communicated in different ways to almost “breakdown” any barriers. As a math tutor, I had a lot of different ways to breakdown any barriers. Granted all my student understood the language when they heard it. Numbers are a universal language which made this a little easier on me. I managed however to breakdown learning barriers by being able to focus on a few students and teach them in a couple different ways until maybe a combination of ways really helped the group as a whole. This was the most gratifying experience I had throughout tutoring. To have a group of kids not focused and don’t really care, turn into attentive and fun kids. That’s something that really drives me to be a teacher. By the end of my visits, these kids really enjoyed having me, and it felt good. I really can’t wait to affect children’s live by the power that’s given to us. And if I can help children understand one thing, that’s a total win for me. To see these kids not understand something at first, and then figuring it out, then absolutely flying through the problems is just really amazing. To “breakdown” learning barriers, and to get through to the kids is really good. Also, my teacher once said, that the student after working with me, understood and really got a good foothold in what she was teaching. That student used to hold the class back, and now it’s one less kid holding the class back. He was actually taken outta my group because he was doing too well. I think that’s a win in my book.

promt 5

In this prompt it says what issues I may have collaborating with the parents of the children in the classroom if I was the teacher. I have talked to my teacher about the parents of the student I tutor. And she has a difficult time talking and almost getting along with the parents. Every time I asked it was almost like the parents were giving an excuse of why their child was acting up in class. With one student, the parent actually said he had A.D.D., but the school hasn’t been notified or does he have any past history my teacher told me. Parents can be really stubborn sometimes. It’s almost like their child is a golden child: they can’t do anything wrong. But some of these kids in my class are really bad. Last week a fight literally broke out in class. But not because there was a feud or anything, but because they just wanted to. It was like jerry springer right in front of me. It’s almost clear that these parents do not discipline their kids because they don’t listen and honestly just in class to annoy and disrupt: And when the parents think that the child is a perfect little peach, while at school he’s kicking other students, or in one instance one kid brought a BROKEN BOTTLE into class to hurt someone. I draw the line there. THESE ARE THRID GRADERS PEOPLE. This would not have happen 10 or 15 years ago. People would have honestly gotten kicked out of school. I didn’t ask about what happened when that students parents were called in, I thought that would be a little intrusive. But I do know, it happened early in the week and he was back in school by Friday.

promt 3

In my classroom, the students are very diverse. The kids come from every economic, ethnic, and social background. In prompt 3 it asks how a teacher could be responsive to this during the assement process. I believe that a teacher that has been trained well should be able to access the students in an equal manner, but in the same breath, be aware of what the student is capable of doing. It is true that all students learn at different rates. How does a teacher handle that when one student learns something really quickly, but then you have a student that just does not understand it? In one of my own content classes in college, my teacher does not weight tests and quizzes as heavily as, let’s say, your own creative process. Granted this would be hard to pull off in the higher levels of high school. But if children can learn something in a different way, and that may take a shorter time, who you be able to access that child better then the child that need a couple of extra days? In the world of standardized testing, you need to, and that’s so wrong in my eyes. Also, what if you have an ESL student in your class, and it takes them a little longer? Why do they need to be penalized with a bad grade because they are not completely fluent in English? We live in a society that covets the grade, but not the material learned. This is extremely pitiful: to be one hundred percent honest. In Browns essay on “In the good and bad of girlhood” kind of shows what I’m talking about. These teachers had preconceived notions of how these girls are supposed to act. And with that brought bias and near hatred against them. Which A) isn’t fair, and most of all B) is not teacher like at all.