My Blog

This post is a reflection on my Education 101 class. I will be explaining my top 5 insights form the village project and my top 5 insights form class outside of village project.

Top 5 Village Project insights:

• Strong Emotions
  • The number one thing I think of when I look back at my village project experience was this one little girl. Why I think of her is because I spent a lot of time with this girl because she had a lot of big emotions that she didn’t know how to deal with them. When I first started working with her I had no clue how to handle the issue, but after working with her I feel like I am better prepared to handle an other kid who might have a similar problem.
• Clingy kids
  • One of the things I wrestled with early on was the issue of how to spend my attention because some of the kids were really clingy and wanted me by there side 24/7. In my head I didn’t what to disappoint these kids and tell them that I couldn’t spend every second I was there with them, but on the other hand there are other kids in the classroom that need my help. I think this is something that is hard to deal with, but I believe I am getting better at spending my attention around.
• Thinking in different ways
  • When I was helping kids with homework or worksheet one thing I had to do was think of the problem in may different ways so that way I could help find a way of thinking a problem the worked for them because no two people think exactly the same way. I think this is a very valuable skill for a teacher to be able to do because sometimes kids need to hear things a different way for it to be able to click.
• Giving instructions
  • One thing I often worry about is if I will be able to give clear instructions and get my point across. During some of my time at the village project I was able to help give instructions and I feel like I am learning form these moments.
• Coming out of my shell
  • I have always been a little bit of an award person. So, when my site director told me to play with the kids and hang out I kind of stayed in my own bubble and held back, but as the semester went on I learn to be myself more and started to open up to the kids and was more open to doing things with the kids.

Top 5 Class insights:

• Meeting kids where they are
  • I feel like the number one thing that I have seen as a common theme over and over again in this course it is the idea of meeting kids where they are. This is a very important thing because in order to help kids to learn something new they need to now the basics, and if they don’t know the basic you need to meet them there so that why they can learn the new skills that they need.
• As a teacher you are always learning
  • I was looking back at some of our old assignments in the course and one of the things I thought of as I looked tough them was how it showed change over time. Like Molly’s change in teaching philosophy or the history of education unit. Teaching is always evolving and this is something we need to be aware so that way we can always do what is best for our students.
• School Type
  • Recently we were talking about different schools and the insight I took form this was that every school is different and you need to consider this when you are applying for jobs because you might like teaching in a bigger school with bigger class sizes or you might like the smaller class sizes of a smaller school. This and other things like it affect the way you teach.
• The importance of being called
  • One thing I remember Dr. Riggle saying when we were talking about schools and salaries was that “you will never get paid what you are worth.” You need to be called to this job because the money is not there, and also if you are not happy were you are the kids will feel that and if they feel like you don’t what to be there it is going to be harder for you to help them learn, and the whole reason we are here is to help them learn.
• The importance of culture in the classroom
  • Something I feel like a hear often is the importance of culture, and not trying to change a child’s culture or take that away form them because we want the child to grow and become the best versions they can be, and part of this is growing in there culture and using it to learn about themselves.

All freshman education majors at St. Norbert College have to participate in this project called the village project. Well, what is the village project? The village project is SNC’s education majors giving back to the community in a way that emphasizes education. There are many different roles that you can be a part of within the village project mine is as a volunteer for an YMCA run after school program at Sullivan Elementary. Mostly as a volunteer with this program I help kids with there academic time activities and play with them.

Village Project has been a huge learning experience for me with learning different ways to teach kids and help them with their work, but the most impactful and the experience I have learned the most form are form this one girl. I have always been an little bit of an awkward person. So when I see this one girl who was clearly very sad I had no clue what to say or do, but I knew I needed to do something because it was so heart breaking to look at her. Like she looked like she carried far more on her sadness on her shoulders then most adults I know which at her age is not right. She should be filled with light and joy not a sadness and darkness that seem to be taking over her. So without a real plan I start talking to her. At first I tried to figure out what was wrong and how I can maybe make it better, but I quickly realized that that was not going to work. So, I switched tactics. I tried instead to get her talking about things that would make her happy by asking her questions like “What is your favorite thing to do here at the program?” or “Do you have any pets?” This seemed to work and by the end of the day you could tell that she was doing much better. This experience was very impactful for me because I went in with no idea what to do but ended up making what I believe to be a great positive difference in this girls day, and I feel like if something happened like this again with a different kid I would be much better prepared to help that child feel better. This is a experience I will never forget, but I am glad I was able to make an impact on that little girl.

No matter what you do, no two schools or even classrooms are going to be the same, but there are some things that I believe would make teaching in an urban setting unique to teaching in lets say a rural area. These things that in my opinion make a teaching in an urban setting unique can be sorted into two categories: population and funding.

The first category I would like to talk about and probably have more to say about is population. I feel like the population of a school would be a big factor in how you teach, and obviously an urban school would have a bigger population. The reason I feel like this big population would make teaching unique is because a big population probably also means more students in one single class. This might mean you have to make more of an effort to connect with your students and make sure you are meeting the needs of all of each individual student. Which can be a big challenge. On the other hand the bigger population will also mean more teachers for one specific discipline. As a teacher these other teachers in your discipline are a resource for you and people you can lean on for support. Two heads are better than one, and these other teachers are people who might have ideas about how you can use technology in your classroom to help the kids understand one specific topic or a thought on an activity that is hands-on that explains the concept.

The other category is that I would like to discuss funding. I think funding would have an impact on teaching because it would impact the resources and opportunities that the students and teachers have access to. If I am getting my information right urban schools typically have more funding because of the higher population. Therefore these schools might have more money to put into education resources that the teacher can use to increase the quality of education the students are getting.