Prompt 5

The last time I visited my school, I actually had a conversation with my teacher about how hard it is to be a teacher in a low-income area because of the things that they have to deal with as far as parents go. She told me that one of her autistic students comes to school with a dirty diaper a lot, does not get enough attention at home, and a lot of the times has bruises on his face. She called DCYF on his mother and they said there was really nothing they could do about it. This is something that would definitely be a challenge, being a teacher, when it comes to parents. Also, some parents do not even look at the papers being sent home, so if the teacher needs them to send something (extra clothes, a sign form, etc.), she will most likely not get it and will have to call the parents. This would also be a challenge because that is extra time out of the teacher's break that needs to be taken to call a parent. In order to demonstrate respect for the concerns or contributions of parents, I would listen to every single thing that they suggest or comment about and see what can be done about it. I would also have available time for parents to make appointments to talk after school sometimes. This is probably the best way to communicate with parents as opposed to the phone.

Prompt 7

This experience is shaping my teacher identity more and more each time I visit. I am beginning to think about how I would do things in my own classroom when I see things that the teacher does. I learn new things everytime I visit the classroom. For example, some things I learn are how to teach the kids the alphabet, months of the year, and days of the week using songs they can easily remember. It also is making me become more accepting and familiar with different ethnic backgrounds, because I came from a school where there was mostly white kids and only a small percentage of blacks and hispanics. I not only get to learn from being with the kids, but while the kids are at lunch, I talk with the teacher about a lot of things. She is very open to questions, even though I feel like I am interrupting her work. She explains to me how she does a lot of things. I am learning how to organize easily and how to keep up with all the work, and how to deal with giving attention to all the students equally. I am also learning how to interact with the students' parents, because they frequently come in to talk to the teacher while I am there. I also am learning how to deal with special needs children. One thing I have a question about is the following: There is an autistic child in my classroom who is three years old. He always wants to sit on my lap and sing songs with me to keep him occupied, and my teacher tells me that it is okay to do that because he does it with her all the time. I was told that we couldn't allow the students to sit on our laps. Would this be an exception?

Prompt 3

I have visited the school 5 times so far, twice just over vacation, and I am starting to get a better sense of what techniques the teacher uses to get through to each and every child when she is teaching. In her classroom, there are 5 special needs children. Two of them have made much progress and can pretty much do most things on their own, another one is getting there, but she still needs assistance with some things, and the other two are completely dependent on an aide at all times. When I visited the school Wednesday, the teacher was having the students make a tiger mask. She set up all the children with the glue, scissors, paper, and crayons that they would need, and then she sat at the desk with the two dependent special needs students. She worked through, with much patience, the project with them. I sat with the other child that sometimes needs help and walked her through as well. This definitely helps having the teachers one on one with the students because it causes them to get the attention they need to learn how to be independent. It also creates a one on one conversation, which helps the special needs children with their language. The teacher also has to do olympic games three times a week. She splits the class into two groups and has two teachers in each group. The kids go through a series of events to test their skills and coordination. The teacher splitting the kids into two groups also helps the students get more one on one time with the teachers. Overall, I think she has great techniques in teaching an integrated preschool class.

Prompt 2

Yesterday was my second day of tutoring and it was really fun. The kids were making homemade mint play doh when I came in at 10:30 and when they were done they all got to play with some. I sat with two of the kids and we made spaghetti and meatballs, dice, ice cream, pancakes, and many other things with the play doh. It was really fun!! The kids were just starting to get to know me and it seems like they like me, which is a good thing. Then, at 11:45, they went to lunch and I helped the teacher clean up and set up the cots for nap time until I had to leave at 12.

Linguistics- The kids all speak English, but you can tell that some of them have a little accent, meaning maybe they speak a second language at home (Spanish, etc.).
Ethnic- On the demographics report of the Salt survey for this school, it says that 11% of the kids are white, 46% are black, 13% are hispanic, 1% are asian, 2% are Native Hawaiian, and 26% are multi-ethnic, meaning they are more than one race. This seems true in the class that I am tutoring in because most of the class is black, where there are no asians in the class, and only 3 white kids inf the class, and you can tell that some of them are multi-ethnic.
Sociocultural- Just by looking at the kids, you can't really tell exactly what their sociocultural background is, but it seems to me that many of them are different in this aspect.

With this said, I believe that if the teachers would all include every culture in their lesson plans throughout the year so they would include a diverse amount of information and not leave any kid's beliefs out, there would be a huge change in the way the kids perform in class.

Prompt 1

Friday was my first day of tutoring at an integrated pre-k classroom at an elementary school in Providence. I got there at 1:30 pm and the kids were having a Valentine's Day party. After about 5 minutes, the kids had to go to art and gym class until 3:00, which was supposed to be the time I was going to be there until. The teacher had me stay and help her clean up from the party while the kids were at art and gym. At 3:00, we picked up the kids from gym and I stayed until 3:30 to help her get the kids ready to leave. After all the kids left, we decided that Friday wouldn't be a good day to come because I would never be with the kids, so we chose Wednesdays as our day from now on. The kids were really cute and polite and the school was nicer than I imagined it would be. I am looking forward to actually meeting with the kids and actually tutoring next week after they get back from vacation!
The school is relatively small, but it is clean and neat, nothing that I expected. The space in the classroom is used very well, the teacher puts pictures all over the walls and there are many toys taking up space all around the room. The school makes me feel welcome and I think the kids definitely like me as well as the teacher. From the first day of observation, it seems to me that the school values each child's different learning techniques and they accompany every need for each student. Since it is such a small classroom (13 children) and there are 3 adults in the room (4 when I'm there), I think this is very easy to do in the classroom I am tutoring in.

About Me

My name is Amy Hanks and I am going to Rhode Island College for early childhood education. I live in North Smithfield, RI. My semester at RIC has been going good so far, a lot of homework, but it's pretty straight forward. Outside of class, I babysit, go to the gym, and when I have some free time, I like to hang out with my friends, go to the movies with my boyfriend, or just hang out at home and relax. I'm looking forward to the rest of this semester with all of you in FNED 346-10!