Blogs

1. Collect Stories (italicized the one I'm expanding on)

• Third grade has a field trip coming up and the new Chinese student, Joey, brought his money but not his permission slip and he did not understand the problem (due to lack of English). Nina wanted to help the classroom teacher deal with the situation.
• Standardized testing- testing one student with an IEP in a small classroom with another who doesn’t have an IEP. One student gets more time, extended directions, and the other doesn’t.
• The office staff seemed extremely overwhelmed. Nina and I needed to contact the secretaries a few different times and it was either difficult, or I felt that I was inconveniencing them because they had so many other people waiting on them.
• I was set to sit in on a meeting with my teacher and the principal and then the principal asked that the meeting be confidential. It was about Nina’s increasing course load at Elementary School 1.

2. What Happened?

Christine Calderon

02/12/13

Field Post #4

Notes for first visit Feb. Friday 8th, 2013:

Today I walked in and the special education teacher was talking about tea with Ms. Teller. The students where lined up against the wall again waiting to get the signal to come into the classroom and start their morning routine. After this I walked around to see if anyone needed help with their math problem. There was a student from the ELL class I was in last year that was awarded a prize for reading a certain amount of books. The teacher then announced other students that could go downstairs to enjoy the reading event. There where 4 or 5 students that stayed behind. The teacher then told the students that even if they at least one they would’ve been able to go and have fun.  Some of the students began to trickle in. I was assigned with three other students who were working on their vocabulary and spelling words.  These three students where still in the process of learning English they had their own cards and vocabulary words to study. These three students are as follows:

Miguel- Knows some English is really excited about learning English. When asked about who helps him study he mentioned his uncle who worked in a restaurant.

Ali- doesn’t know any English and cannot read in English but can read and write in Spanish

Joe- knows some English and is a bit more advanced than Miguel. When asked about who helps him out he mentioned his father and his brother help him and they know some English from

February 19th, 2013

Location: Public magnet high-school in Center City

Classes: 11th grade American History (Ms. R), 10th grade English (Mr. T)

*Again, sorry these are a little late! I go to my placements on Tuesdays so I tried to upload them as soon as possible. 

After a three-day weekend, Ms. R starts class by asking students about their weekends. A few students raise their hands to tell the class what they did over the weekend, such as going to church, going out to breakfast with their families, having relatives over, etc.

We’ve talked a lot about getting to know your students and where they come from, and simply starting the class by asking about weekend activities seems like a great way to do this. It gives students a chance to share information about their lives and even says something about the different cultures we come from. The only concern Ms. R seemed to have was that so many students want to talk and the classes are only an hour.

The general environment at this school is very relaxed. Students usually stroll in 5-10 minutes after class officially begins, there are no bells and no attendance is ever taken.

Generally this “laid-back” system seems to work, but I do wonder about students that show up very late or do not have as much self-motivation to complete their work without someone reminding them to. At the same, it is very good preparation for college and the workplace.

The book that Erica was reading, titled “Smile,” is a graphic novel. It is set in San Francisco. The main character is a white, brown haired girl. She wears her hair in a ponytail, and has to get “on again off again” braces. This girl is in middle school – by around page 60, she has transitioned into 7th grade and is worried about what other students will think about her braces and pimples.

Mariah, the director, went upstairs to check whether Erica had a tutor with her. Since Erica was on her own, I offered to go sit with her. Erica is 11 years old, and in 5th grade. She is black, and appears to be tall for her age. She was wearing a school uniform - a maroon, short sleeved polo shirt and khaki pants. 

When I got upstairs, Erica had her legs stretched across the couch. I asked her if she wanted to read out loud with me, but she shook her head from side to side. I went to the bookshelf and found a book that I had already read – The truth about forever, by Sarah Dessen. I went back to the couch and asked her to move so that I could sit on the couch too. I got two rectangular ottomans for us to put our feet on.

“This is one of my favorites,” I told Erica. “Do you know Sarah Dessen?”

“Who?”

“Sarah Dessen – she’s the author of this book.”

Initial Findings: Before visiting Wordsmiths’ physical site, I was able to access a great deal of information about the organization through other sources. My initial research about the organization was online. Wordsmiths has a stable online presence– a quick Google search brings up their Facebook page, LinkedIn, Twitter, Wikipedia page, and Vimeo site. To me, their constant output of information suggests an air of both transparency and playfulness. The organization is constantly sharing its goings-on with the online community. For example, a tweet from February 12 reads, “Dorsey Dog visited tutoring today, but despite Erica’s very enthusiastic urging, he did not eat anyone’s homework.” Further, this statement provides a glimpse of the kinds of relationships that are possible within this organization – good-natured, sometimes silly, and friendly. On the Facebook page, photos of daily activities or events, invitations to workshops, and many paragraph-long excerpts of students’ writing, are posted every 2-4 days. Wordsmiths’ website also includes students’ writing, with “Student Work” as the first tabbed section on the website; this page contains stories, magazines, and other projects that have been published/formatted online through sites like Scribd. 

Attached are field notes from my second visit. 

Guided Individual Reflection

What happened? During her individual reading time, E was reading nicely with her teacher. When Mrs. K stood up to pick something up off of her desk- not 2 feet away- E stood up and tried to flip her table in record time. The books and papers went flying. Mrs. K ignored the disruption and continued teaching, while I picked up the papers. E did not appear angry or to show any emotion.

Why did it happen? E took advantage of the time that her teacher wasn't looking to act out. It was not that she was angry or upset, but might have been feeling angsty or pent up. I have seen E, a child with moderate autism, act out before because she likes the stimulation. 

What might it mean? It could mean that E needed some time to take a break from working on her reading, or needs to learn better coping skills for behavior (which she is working on at school).

Attached are my first field notes from the semester. Because I got started late, I have gone twice this week. 

While reading "Lives on the Boundary", I was reminded of an incident that happened last semester in GASP. One of the students I was working with was struggling with reading. He didn't want to read and was embarrassed to read out loud. I noticed this one of the first weeks and began thinking about how I could engage him like Mike Rose with his group of students in the cafeteria. One day I was running some errands at Rite Aid and saw some stickers. I thought maybe stickers would make him feel good about his reading and give him something to shoot for. So that afternoon we sat down to read a book and again he protested that he couldn't read. After much struggle we made it through a book and I pulled a sticker out of my pocket and gave it to him. I absolutely loved it and put it on his shirt. He asked, "how do I get more stickers?" I told him that after he reads a book he gets one sticker. He proceeded to pick out more books to read and at the end of the day had 3 stickers on his shirt. When it was time to go home he showed his friend his stickers and told him if he read too he would get stickers. We announced that he read 3 books and the class applauded. He has the biggest smile on his face. He was so proud that he asked me to tell his mom how many books he read when she came in to pick him up. For him, the stickers were something to shoot for like points in a game. He could see what he accomplished.