First Visit

On Friday I went for my first visit at the elementary school I was assigned to. My best friend and I were assigned to the same school, so she picked me up at 9:00, because we had to be there for 9:30. We arrived a few minutes early and new exactly where to go, because her mom is a teacher there and we had both been there many times before. We went to the front doors and we were buzzed into the school. We went to the front office to drop off our VIPs sign in sheets and then met the director of the program for reading at that particular school.
The school that I was assigned to is located in the Smith Hill section of Providence. This area is not the best of areas, because there is a lot of known violence that occurs in this section, but we had no problems when we went. As of September, 2009 the elementary school had 540 students enrolled. Of those students, 47.8 were female and 52.2 were male.
The director met with my friend, myself, and one other girl from a different college. She explained that this week she would put us in our classrooms, but we would not be working with any specific children. Since February vacation was the following week she would take the time then to go through our assigned classrooms students and see who the “target” students were. These students are ones who performed low on test scores and needed extra help in the classroom. When we return after February vacation we will be assigned students to work with on a weekly basis.
I was assigned to a first grade classroom with a female teacher. I walked in the classroom and she greeted me warmly. She was reading to her “homeroom” and in a few minutes the kids would be switching classrooms. I sat down at a cluster of desks and watched her read a Curious George book to the students. I took the time to observe the classroom. There were shelves and tables full of books that the students could read when they had spare time. On the front chalkboard was a weekly helper chart with students names and their chores for that particular week. There was also a calendar that the students put together each month. There was a number and letters chart at the top of the chalk board as well. The other walls were filled with art work done by the students and some of their class work as well. There were two computers in the back of the room that the students were allowed to use. There was also a bubbler in the corner. The classroom’s desks were set up in clusters of four and in the back of the room was a larger table that could fit approximately six or seven students. There was also a table with a tape recorder that the students used when they had to do listening assignments.
After the bell rang the new group of students came in. The teacher immediately called group one to come sit on the rug. She explained to me that I was going to be working with group two. They were going to be coloring in a book then putting it together. Group one consisted of approximately 15 students and group two consisted of six. I sat with group two at a cluster of desks and they worked on coloring. There were two girls in this group and four boys. Two of those boys were extremely quiet and just sat there and colored. There were exceptionally good at coloring for their age and took their time with the assignment. The other four students were constantly talking and trying to avoid doing the assignment. One young girl in the group was giving me a very hard time about doing her work. First she was coloring with markers and the teacher told her she was not allowed to. When I tried to take the markers to put them on the teacher’s desk she yelled at me and would not give me one of the markers and continued to color anyways. After a few minutes I finally got the marker from her. She then stopped coloring and just sat there and would not listen to anyone. One boy at the table kept taking things off the teacher’s desk that he was not supposed to. He was trying to take a stapler that was not even working and he too would not listen when I told him he was not supposed to be doing that. After they finished coloring I had a worksheet for them to work on. Only a few of them made it to the worksheet.
After about 45 minutes the teacher called group two to come sit on the rug and I was now working with group one. There were many more students now and they were spread out amongst the classroom as opposed to all sitting together. They had to work on two workbook sheets and then they could do the coloring assignment. One girl immediately attached herself to me. No matter where I went she would follow me. She finished her workbook pages and was now coloring and kept begging me to color with her. I was helping other students who were struggling to finish their workbook pages and told her I would come color with her as soon as I finished, but she would not leave my side. One boy had a huge personality. He wrote on all his papers “Young Money” ,who is a professional rapper, as his name. It was also his birthday and he was very excited. He was having a lot of trouble with the workbook pages so I helped him with that.
The school is made up of many students of different ethnicities. The majority of the students in the school are Hispanic. They make up 56.1 percent of the students that attend the school. The second largest group is African American who make up 25.7 percent of the students. The minorities in the school are whites who make up 9.3 percent, Asians who make up 8.5 percent, and Native Americans who only make up 0.4 percent. The classroom I was in reflected these statistics. The majority of the class was African American and Hispanic students. There was one white student in the class and he sat at a table by himself while doing his work. I eventually saw him playing with another Hispanic boy, but for the most part he kept to himself. I think some of the other students may have isolated him, because at point when he was sitting on the rub he was pinched by another student and started to cry hysterically. When I tried to help him with his workbook pages he was very shy and quiet and would not let me help him.
The demographics of the school definitely influence the classroom and how the students learn. A lot of the students were ESL students and were still in the process of learning some English. Because of this, they were not at the grade level they should have been in. Having to learn English may have been a setback for them. There was also a lot of diversity in the classroom. There was not just one race in particular, but there were students of many races. I overheard students refeering to thigs about their particular culture, but I am not sure they even noticed this. For example, one girl was talking to another student about how they celebrated her older sisters Quince Anos over the weekend. She had to explain what it was because the other student had never heard of it before. That is a tradition that most Hispanics take part in, but I am not sure she even realized that. It just showed that many people come from many different backgrounds and she was sharing a part of her culture with another student.
I enjoyed visiting the elementary school and working with the students. I am more excited to be working one on one with a few students, because I found it difficult working with 15 students at once when I wasn’t given much direction of what to do with them. I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks.