Journal #1 : Day One (Kozol)

I was placed at an Elementary School in Providence Rhode Island through Inspiring Minds. I felt fairly confident in my performance because I make lesson plans all summer for the swim courses that I offer for kids from ages six months to adulthood. Upon going I tried to make sure I knew my way around but my GPS automatically entered in Broadway street instead of Broad street, so my partner and I were a few minutes late. Walking into the building we were a little lost but then pressed the buzzer and entered the main office straight ahead.  The office was small and there was a sink with a bathroom mirror on it makes me believe that the room wasn’t supposed to be used as an office. I know that the school was made with a lot of love through the help of the Alan Shawn Feinstein association which does amazing work to benefit education. I asked the lady at the front desk where Mrs.Corrado’s room was and she gave us directions and said it was in room 105. We walked up the stairs and opened the first door and walked into this beautiful green and white hallways that honestly looked like it was from a Willy Wonka movie. We went straight and opened the door to room 105 and say Mrs.C who was very kind and understanding of our tardiness and told us that the kids were in the library and to go meet them there. My friend Jess and I went downstairs and heard the kids in the library. I guess they were having their screentime and playing Valentines day games to match shapes and such. I remember what we were told to help out in the classroom so I went around and introduced myself and saw what I could do to help with any technical questions that the students had. It always makes me so happy to talk to kids because their reaction to starting a conversation is always so much more positive than that of an adult. Their faces light up and they’re just happy to be here, and I wish that I could do that myself. Some of the kids had an easy time with the activities while others were either getting problems wrong to be silly or exiting out and then coming up to me so that I could help them again and play the game with them. I found this to be an attention thing that kids do. Kindergarteners are too cute even when they joke around to push buttons but you have to have a serious face and it’s very hard to be strict with them. When they were done with the library the students lined up and start messing around, to silence them Mrs.C had a student come up in front of the class and do a chant. If I am being honest it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Watching Student G get up in front of the class and project her voice to tell her classmates to keep their hands by their side and repeat what she says. There are little moments that I observe when I work with kids that solidify my career choice. Before walking in the hallway Student J and L were messing around with library supplies and Mrs.C told them they had to fill out a “stop and think.” We got back in the classroom and the students had reading time where they were doing consistent and working on power words. I helped Student A sound out some of her words and she was definitely bilingual because when I said si she understood me and expected more Spanish. Something else that I also noticed was that on her left side of her face she had a black eye which made me sad and I couldn’t really inquire or help. I just hope that it was an accident and not on purpose. After reading time was over I looked around at the kids in the front desks who were filling out a stop and think paper which is a system Mrs.C created that shows kids what they did wrong, why that choice was bad, and what they could’ve done instead. This system is hard to do with Kindergarteners though because many of the students who received this punishment were so upset that they do not want to write down a sentence on how they feel. When I went to help Student J he was mumbling and eating his eraser. The teacher expected this behavior and I just let her handle how to properly keep him on task. Being in an academic setting and trying to teach by someone's own rules is something that I found challenging because I am usually in charge. I genuinely enjoyed Mrs.C’s teaching style she had five rules posted on the walls, ladders too which the students would move up their clothes pins if they did something good, and the stop and think method. When the kids were released for indoor recess they all spread out and went to different corners and desk of the room in pairs Student L was upset and crying because he wanted to play in the corner with the Legos but the other two students got there first and he got kicked out. Communication at this age is an issue and he honestly didn’t argue he just cried in a ball and I offered my hand and brought him to the teacher who helped him find an activity. I sat with tow girls Student P and Student G who were playing with magnet Picasso pieces and told me about their sisters and how much they love them, so I told them about mine. At one point Studnet G points o the wall and starts pointing at colors and naming them so I join and ask well how do you say this in Spanish and she replied Rojo. When getting to green she couldn’t remember so I answered with Verde and she looked at me incredulously as if I knew the secret language and said: “How’d you know that.” I thought it was really funny and so did the teacher aide. I think that it’s really important for all elementary schools to give the students a foundation in more than one language because it’s good for the brain. Before we left the classroom the students to get out their energy had a video put on the projector and dance to “Can’t Touch This” a majority of the students were interested while the ones who weren’t sat in their desks. I feel a little overwhelmed here and anyone saying that they are not overwhelmed are not being very honest about it because there are twenty-four kids and they all need attention and even with the the teacher three volunteers and a student aide it was still a little chaotic. My Kindergarten experience was much more strict we didn’t really have alternative punishments or fun ways to remember shapes and colors, and we definitely didn’t learn another language. Although I lived in a fairly middle-class environment with good funding we had no diversity so I didn’t really get to learn much about the world and different cultures as I have just in this one year at Rhode Island College.