Myself as a reader

When I read this blog question I started to laugh. When I was a child, I had the hardest time reading. If I had to read out loud in class, I would try to find the easiest paragraph and raise my hand to read that one. Also, I had a lot of reading coaches and many of them made me feel very stupid. Eventually, my anxiety would get to me so bad that I would shut down and start to cry. I actually don't remember any good experiences about reading until I got into high school. Once, there we read books at home and then discussed them in class. This allowed me to read at my own pace and through this, I learned to love books. Reading by myself allowed me to relax and have fun with the material. My sophomore year of school, I read "Of Mice and Men" and I fell in love with that book. As a teacher, I will always try to remember that anxiety. Yet, it is hard because children must learn to read out loud. I think it is all in your approach as a teacher.

Classroom Community

In order to create a classroom community, I think you must be confident in yourself as a teacher. If you are unsure of the learning enviornment you are trying to instill, your students will be unsure too. In "Walking Trees" Ralph describes a principal whose school is reflective of her personality. She was positive and encouraged reading and writing within the school. Thus, her school seemed positive and encouraged as a result. If this happens in whole schools it must happen within the classroom. You are what you teach.

To create a community, every teacher must identify with his or her students individually. If a teacher can not relate to some of the students than those students will feel out of place. Every child has a different home life, so it is very challenging to find something in common with every one of them, but it must be done. A classroom really is like a puzzle and every student has their place. It was also said in "Walking Trees" that there are children in every class who must be at the bottom. This is very true. It is hard to accept that every child does not or has no reason to do their best, but sometimes this is the case. Every teacher should push his or her students, but none the less, someone must be at the bottom. What is most important is that the teacher accepts every student and respects their place within the classroom environment.

What to learn from kids

Growing up, I always knew what my teachers thought of me without them saying it. In every class there are kids the teacher clearly likes and those he/she does not. With some of my teachers I was well liked and with others I simply wasn't. I do not think most teachers realize that children know just where they stand. Often, teachers think they hide their feelings. However, when spending everyday with a child it is hard to fake feelings. It is very important to give children credit for their intuition, as it is something that kicks in very young. Most people wear their feelings on their sleeve, whether they think they do or not. Children are smart and they understand and do not second guess feelings. This also holds true in "Walking Trees." It is obvious to the administrators, to Ralph, and to the students which teachers do not enjoy teaching or even children. It is so incredibly obvious in the way they teach their children, judge their students' work, and treat their colleagues. Working as an aide has allowed me to observe many teachers teach. Sadly, more often than not, it has been very obvious who the teacher favors. Overall, most teachers don't hide it as good as they think.

Racial/Ethnic Groups

I think in order to expand my knowledge on racial and ethnic groups I need to submerge myself in their life. I have always lived in a primarily white neighborhood, so it is hard for me to know what it is like to be part of an ethnic community. I do not think studying about ethnic and racial groups can give me a complete understanding of what it is like to live in that community. In order to truly understand what these children are going through or what their life is like one must go to their neighborhoods. For me, observing an Abbott school in a low income area made me realize how bias I was. Truthfully, the school was very nice. The teacher was very qualified and engaged with the children the whole time I was there. The building itself was in very good condition and was very clean. However, the town itself was not. Perth Amboy was clearly a low income area. Yet, this did not mean that the children were not getting the education they deserved. I think this is a common misconception in low income areas. One assumes that if the area is not nice, the education is less than adequate. My bias was completely exposed today. It was clear that those children were getting a very good education.