At my school I tutor a group of kindergartens for a half hour then observe in there classroom for a half hour, and then I tutor in first grade for a half hour. While I was observe in the Kindergarten classroom, the teacher had me walk around the room and help the students out whenever they needed help because they were working in centers. Then all of a sudden one of the students I was helping started crying, I looked at the teacher a little confused and didnt really know what to do. All the other students looked at him and then went back to there work like it was no big deal. The teacher said he has a tough home life ans sometimes he cries during class. So she had me take him into another classroom and play candyland.
Not matter what happens in a classroom you can never be totally prepared because we all come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. I come from an all white family so I cant really wont be able to relate to some of my students. But no matter what happens in my classroom I will do my best to relate to my students. Unlike Rodriguez, I will never make students change there home lives to be able to do better within the classroom.
I"m so glad you want to relate to your students, a good teacher should always do that. If you were to make your students change to become more refined to be apart of your classroom, you are deleting the culture that the students need to be aware of. the culturally competent teacher may not always know about every culture or be able to speak every language, but its important that they at least try.
ReplyDeleteHarley, this is an interesting post about a student crying in class. Thanks for sharing! I like the idea of playing candyland. At the same time, I am sure you can think of other things that maybe the teacher did not mention but has been doing about this. Otherwise, she would not know about the "tough home situation." What would these things be? Also I got a bit confused because, although I think I understand what you mean the fact that you did not mention the "race" of this specific student, and that you bring up your whiteness may make it sound that children from "all white families" don't know tough times or cry. I am sure this is not what you mean, right? Maybe think about these little transitions sentences or words!!!
ReplyDelete