Prompt - 1 - Analysis

I’d like to welcome my reading audience back, it has been awhile, and I’d like to apologize for the long between my description and my analysis. To recap briefly on my description, the middle school I’m serving at is an inner-city middle school, which does not have all of the luxuries and privileges that other suburban middle schools might have. My analysis of my surroundings will be two-fold, answering two crucial questions: What is valued in this school and what is valued in this classroom that I’m working in. I will start with the larger apparatus first, which is concerned with the macrocosm of society, and then move to the individual classroom, which is concerned with the microcosm of the individual students and teacher that exist within a smaller community.

The school as a whole, as I see it, is interested in both educating and socializing the students into society through discipline, by teaching them the basic skills needed to succeed in life and also the rules of what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in the general population of American society. There is a risk involved in authoritarian discipline, however, as Ira Shor states in “Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change” in that “Education can socialize students into critical thought or into dependence on authority, that is, into autonomous habits of mind or into passive habits of following authorities, waiting to be told what to do and what things mean” (Shor, 13). The risks must be carefully weighed and balanced and I believe that most educators realize this and are making the best decisions in the interest of their students. We cannot, as educators, become doormats for our students to walk all over us. At the same time though, we must carefully plant the seed of critical thought at the exact precise moment in an adolescent’s life, where they will be able to handle the shock of being awakened to the responsibility of critical thought and all that it entails. The power of critical thought must be wielded delicately, to the consideration of others feelings, and to flip that switch of critical thinking early would be disastrous. It is like balancing a scale, being careful not to pigeon hole students into being robots while patiently waiting for the student to mature to the age of responsibility where little by little, more decisions and power can be handed over to them.

To quickly wrap this point up in the actual classroom that I am serving in, the teacher I am working with also seems to be aware that at some point in her student’s lives, they will need to be able to think for themselves. She commented on how the curriculum has a tendency to oppress student spontaneity, which is a critical component in the creative drive that produces critical thought. However, for now, the students need a concrete structure that provides the support for scaffolding the basic skills needed to learn a fluent mastery over the English language. When the time is right, I have faith that each of these students will become responsible, critical thinkers of their own.

Prompt - 1 - Description

The middle school that I am serving at this spring semester is an inner city middle school located about a half hour away from my college via walking, so I have the opportunity every Thursday morning to take my time to walk to the school and absorb in the local culture in which the school is situated. I would say this much right away: this middle school is not in the heart of the projects. There are certainly worse places that this school could be in the city. But in relation to English literacy, I made note of a store that is directly across the street from the coffee shop that I stop by every Thursday. The signs and writing on the store are all in Spanish, so I have not a clue what they are selling, except that whatever services they are providing are available "Monday - Sunday." In addition to to this store, there are other cultural/linguistic references on other businesses -- many of them have signs that are bilingual and include English and Spanish.

Typically, when I arrive at the school in the morning about 15 minutes prior to homeroom, students are arriving to converse and play among themselves outside. One group usually always has a football being tossed around, while others may just stand in groups with their friends talking. When the whistle is blown, the students line up at the front door with heavy sacks and sodden looks underneath a quote from the states favorite philanthropist: "The greatest achievement of all is to help better the lives of others." The office where I sign in has bright, yellow walls and is well-lit, but the secretaries always seem busy; in fact, on my first day of arrival at the school, they did not even know I was coming. Above the lockers on my way to my classroom, I always notice little signs that say "Attend School" in black and white Microsoft WordArt. As for the classroom itself that I serve in, the paint in the upper left corner of the room from where the teachers desk is, is a light blue that is peeling away and exposing the white underbelly of the wall. One of the screens in the window has a hole in it, but at least the heater near the window is always warm. Everywhere around the room are papers and posters pasted on the walls and blackboards that cover every device of grammar in the English language. While in one way the room is spacious, in another way it is small, which is something I will cover in my analysis in the next entry. The last description I will leave my with is this: While the students all come from very diverse and culturally rich backgrounds, white is the minority in this room. I hate to say that this classroom descriptively represents the stereotypical inner city classroom (I myself, believe stereotypes to be an abomination), but it isn't too far from the truth.

Some ground rules for my reading audience

I apologize to my reading audience for waiting so long to make another post on this blog. I have spent the first three weeks volunteering at my middle school absorbing the atmosphere that I have been disconnected with since moving on to college. However, with that being said, I feel it is my responsibility as an author to inform my general audience (In particular to those who may not be in my education class for which this is being required for) with the purpose and expectations that I have from this blog. In the posts that will be following throughout this spring semester, I will be addressing six particular prompts that have been given to me by my professor. Because not everyone may have those prompts on hand, they are as follows:

1) Describe the neighborhood, school building and classroom in which you are volunteering. What do you notice about the space and structure of the school? How do people use the space? How does this school "feel" to you? What contributes to this feeling? Describe the classroom, the teacher, and the students. What is valued in this school? In this classroom? How can you tell?

2) The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of her or his students, families, and communities when planning for and delivering instruction. Describe the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of the students in the classroom in which you are tutoring (Use data on Infoworks as well as your observations). What cultural capital do the children bring into the classroom? What aspects can be developed that will strengthen our society/democracy?

3) The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning. How might the teacher be responsive to the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of the students in his or her assessment practices?

4) The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching. No one enters a classroom without a personal history; thus, no one enters a classroom completely free of bias. How might your personal history/sociocultural characteristics intersect with those of your students? What challenges or advantages might you have as a teacher in this classroom? What various misconceptions about various cultural groups have you confronted during this experience?

5) The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students' learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community. Imagine that you are the teacher of this classroom. What challenges might you encounter in collaborating with the parents of your students? How might you address these challenges? How might you demonstrate respect for the concerns or contributions of parents?

6) The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom. How have you (or the classroom teacher) communicated in ways that demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to sociocultural and linguistic differences?

When responding to any one of the above prompts, I will label the title of the post as "Prompt -- #" In addition to responding to these above prompts, I will also occasionally make an in-depth connection to an educational theorist. For those connections, which I will spend an entire entry on, I will title the post "Theorist connection -- *theorist name here*" Primarily, this is being done to circumvent the 500 word limit that my professor has imposed on us in our blog response entries (Though the observant reader would point out that this post in and of itself is over 500 words. But alas, these things must be said for the clarity of my potential audience). For the privacy of my teachers, peers, and students, no actual names will be used in this blog. And lastly, I will close on this note: While I will be objective as I can in my observations, I do not claim to be unbiased. No one comes from nowhere, as my professor likes to say in class. Please keep in mind at all times that education is an intensely political field, with systems of power being put into play. My political stance is that I am liberal, and when I become a teacher, I will also likely be a liberal teacher. When I post my observations, I encourage my audience to read them with scrutiny, and if you agree, then respond, and if you disagree, then also respond. My voice is no more important or significant or truthful than any other persons voice here.