Observation 1

For the first observation assignment I was asked to go to different classrooms and write down the objectives that were posted along the walls of the classroom. For the first class we went to an environmental studies classroom. The objectives were written on the white board divided by class in different colors so students could determine what was expected of their class on any given day. The next two classes we went to were math classes that did not have the objectives posted and students were working on their work in groups. The final classroom we went to was a history of technology class where students were working on a project that asked them to build a cost efficient wheel chair for a developing country. The objectives were written out on a handout that the teacher had given groups of four to use as they went about designing their wheel chair. These students were broken into groups, some of which were working diligently others who were spending time playing on their phones as the teacher ignored the fact. I sat down with a group of students as they brainstormed their design. As the teacher wandered from group to group providing guidance my group talked about the difficulties they had to overcome with their design. They spoke primarily in Spanish, fitting for a school that is primarily of Hispanic background and when they asked me if they wanted them to speech in English I said no for two reasons, first being I wanted them to be able to articulate their ideas in a language they felt comfortable with and that they could best express their ideas to the group and two I wanted to brush up on my Spanish which I had practiced since my freshman year at URI. As I listened intently to the group talk about what materials would be cheapest, which would be best for navigating dirt roads and other obstacles I found that this activity was great at asking the students to create and use their previous knowledge from other classes and their lives to design the wheel chair.

Demographically, all the classrooms were predominately Hispanic. I am not confident to accurately describe the gender balance in the class although it felt like a somewhat equal distribution in the classroom that leaned towards being male dominated. Out of the 5 classrooms I went to 4 of the teachers were White, one was Hispanic. 3 of the teachers were Male, two Female. And only one, the teaching in the history of technology class seemed to capitalize on the ability to speak multiply languages. I feel that this is a critical skill for anyone wanted to teach in a community that is predominantly ELL students. Teachers who are unable to let their students speak in a language they feel confident in are doing a grave disserve to their students. Of course proper English is important in the professional world and many of the resources teachers use require students to have a grasp on the English language, however, I think it is important to let students discuss in whatever way they feel comfortable. If a group wants to speak in Spanish to one another they should be able to do so as long as the topic of the discussion is the work. Educators should be able to know when their students are speaking about the task at hand and when they are talking about something that is not.

In most of the classes the power was in the hands of the teacher, however in the history of technology class which I thought was doing the most productive work, the power was with the students. They were the ones driving the discussion amongst their groups, the teacher was only there to provide guidance. However we did observe some students pulling more weight than others. In the group I sat with the longest two girls were driving the conversation as two young boys sat and mainly just agreed with what was being said and watched to two girls draw out the design. In group work this tends to be a major pitfall, where one or two people take control and the others sit back and passively participate. As an educator it is important to try to prevent this at all cost.

If I was a student in this school, it would be hard for me to relate with my classmates, first of all I do not speak any other language with proficiency. The school is not very diverse in terms of ethnicity, as a white male I would be in the minority which may make me feel marginalized to an extent. For students that I observed they seemed to be engaged in the lessons. The teachers were not overbearing for the most part and the students were given a lot more freedom than I expected to see because of all the negative press Central Falls High School receives. I was happy to see students working as well as they did in the history of technology class and was pleasantly surprised with how well that teacher was able to channel the creativity of his students to make the lesson as engaging as it was. 

Conference

This past Saturday, the 22^nd of November. I attended the National Conference for Social Studies at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. This conference is a national conference for teachers of Social Studies and History for middle school and high school teachers. I attended a few seminars about implementing different lesson plans in the classroom as well as a keynote speech on immigration by Jose Vargas. The first seminar I attended was on teaching the Hunger Games in the classroom. Unfortunately I have never read the book or seen much of the movies but I knew enough about the story line to keep up with the discussion. We talked about the different themes such as equity, injustice, social uprising and types of government that can be translated from the film into the classroom. What I was able to pull away from this seminar was that popular culture can be a great way to engage students in the classroom. Throughout my time at RIC we have discussed the importance of connecting our lessons to the daily lives of our students and the Hunger Games is extremely popular among young people today and being exposed to broader themes of social studies through the lense of a popular book or film is something I will defiantly explore when I step in front of my class. The women presenting showed the attendees different role playing activities to use in the class to discuss inequality, and economics. In one activity we were split into groups and given a bag of resources and then asked to trade with other “districts”. After we talked about how this lesson plan can be used to teach not only economic trade but the importance of resources in geography.

Another seminar I attended was the keynote speech. Jose Vargas, an undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer Prize winner discussed his experiences growing up in the school system as an undocumented student as well as a homosexual male. What was important as a teacher for me to pull out of his talk was the difficulty many immigrants face in obtaining a college education. Vargas used a powerful image to describe what it is like for a student who is an immigrant. He talked about it being like being trapped in a pitch black room and that in order to illuminate the room he needed the light from others to support him. Such as his principle, and super intendedent who knew he was undocumented but did all they could to make sure he was able to go to college. The support system that is needed for students who are from other countries or have parents who are immigrants is critical to their success. This was the most powerful point I drew from listening to this speech is that in order to better serve all types of students we as educators must be willing to go the extra mile to secure their path towards a better future. Vargas would have never made it to the platform he is today if it wasn’t for his teachers and the people who understood that he needed more support than his classmates even though intellect wise he was smarter than most of the kids in the class. The system works against these “DREAMers” and as an educator I will not be blind to that fact.

The third and final thing I pulled away from this conference is many lesson plans and tools I came across in the exhibitor hall which was basically hundreds of publishing houses, travel agencies, and companies trying to sell their education resources to the attendees. Of course many of the people were trying to sign you up for something but I was exposed to a lot of possible tools that I could and will use in the classroom. For example one of the booths was a company that provided educational online programs that focused on historical figures in a different light. They were focused on teaching students the “essence” of key people like Ben Franklin, and Martin Luther King Jr. as a way to better teach students the large scope of the influence of these figures rather than making them memorize dates. In one activity there was a slide show asking the participants to guess whether or not the quote was from Ben Franklin or not. What these quotes dealt with were the large persona of Franklin rather than specific events in history. His views on slavery, taxes, humor and government were all touched upon in the quotes and the activity hit the analytical levels of thinking rather than the remembering level, I would very much like to use this type of strategy to supplement a lesson plan because it seemed to be a more qualitative way of gaging whether a student truly understands the values of the person they are studying.