Peter Fairbrother Week #4

Peter Fairbrother
11/1/11
Service Learning Week #4
This past week we went to Shea High School again. Our lesson was on planning. We took the students to the computer lab and had them work on two different things about planning. Both of the programs were on waytogori.com. The first program was supposed to be used to help the students plan their high school classes from here on. The problem with that is that the students did not know the names of their classes which I found shocking. When I was in high school we had it drilled into us what classes we were taking. These students know that they are taking a language arts class but they do not know which one. This showed me yet another example of the difference between suburban schools and urban schools.
The second program we had the students use was a test that asked them a bunch of yes or no questions to decide a career they are good for. The questions rarely applied to the students and I do not understand how answering some pointless yes or no questions can decide somebody’s future career. This is another program which the urban kids are supposed to use but does not really prepare them for anything. It just tells them what career they should pursue but it does not help them in anyway start working to attain their goal. This is another example of how these urban students are not being prepared for life after high school.

St. Pat's

I have to say this has been my favorite week so far. The theme of the week was "self-responsibilty and autonomy". Most weeks we have something planned right up to the last minute. On Friday we started off having them fill out a worksheet about an activity they are apart of and what their responsibility is in that activity. That led to us talking about how you have to take responsibility for your own actions and in the end it is ultimately up to them if they want to get into college. Then for the rest of the time we talked about peer pressure and we let them ask us any questions they wanted to ask us about college. We were very honest with them and they seemed to really enjoy this time. I think this brought us all a lot closer and I think now they know that they can talk to us about anything and we will be straigh forward with them and we are there for them if they need someone to talk to. This is something that is very important to these students in urban schools and we have talked about it in class. It is very important that teachers make sure their students are comfortable around them and they know that they can talk to them at any time about anything that they need to talk about. Through service learning I am seeing how important this is first-hand and it is something that will make me a better teacher in the long run.

week 2 at Chad Brown

This was our second week going to the Chad Brown service site. What was different about this week was some of the kids remembered us and opened up a little quicker to us. As we arrived to the site it started to hail/rain something terrible. This had an impact on the amount of kids we had come but it was still a good night. The kids really seem to like playing in the gym more than anything, which is good because they need a healthy and safe way to let out their energy. Kayla and I planned to try and play a game of mat ball with them since we thought it would be a fun game, but no one really wanted to give it a try.

The alternative activity was so create necklaces with a jumble of random beads and some yarn. It's sad to see the lack of resources the kids are given to keep them occupied. After a while the kids pulled out some old blue gymnastics mats to play on. My first thought was someone was going to get hurt (these mats are not all that effective), so we organized a game for them to jump over stacks of mats and see who could jump the highest. It was a lot safer and all the kids tried it at least once. I feel like the site appreciates us coming because it means the staff in charge do not have to constantly babysit the kids. It's nice having more responsible adults around, especially because I don't think the kids see us as authority figures but more as people on their level coming to hang out with them.

Chad Brown Week 2

This week at Chad Brown was really fun. When we arrived, we played knock-out with the kids. There were several older boys this week, but they did not stay very long. When we first got there there were no girls, and only one came later on. I did an art project with the kids when the teacher arrived; this week we made necklaces. This took up most of the rest of the time. We played a little basketball at the end. The boys were stacking mats and had a contest to see who could jump over the most mats. 

This week I was able to hear some evidence of the blended families many of the kids have. The art teacher was asking who they were making the necklace for, and if they had any sisters. She got a lot of responses about siblings who live in other houses, half-siblings, step-siblings, etcetera. It seemed that almost every student in the art room was part of a blended family. This was interesting to hear. So far, I am really enjoying my time at the Tavares Center.

Mt. Pleasant Session 3

The lesson plan for this weeks explore session was "Myths About College". We started by agreeing or disagreeing with common myths about college: You have to party every night to have fun. You can skip classes and still do well. You have to be best friends with your roommate. The food is horrible. And more questions that present common college myths. Students then went around the room trying to discuss why they agreed or disagreed with these myths, and then the leaders attempted to explain their own experiences with those questions to give the students more relevant insight into those myths. I think it was a good exercise, but it can be difficult to implement an important lesson why some students don't want to participate. I have found that a handful of the young boys can be rather challenging to work with. They speak out, interrupt, and try to disagree with every thing the leaders say. I understand that it is after school, they want to let loose a little from the school day, and they feel as though they must be witty or cool in front of their college leaders, but it can be frustrating to see how they can be so disruptive for those students who are taking the program seriously. I started thinking about how some people might automatically assume they act this way because they don't care, or they don't want to be there, but as we have read in previous chapters of our books I do not think this is the case. The students are still showing up to an after school program, they come there willingly for an hour, and for the most part participate in the activities we do. So the problem is not that they do not want to be there. I can't say that I have figured out the problem entirely. I mean for starters they are 15 year old boys. I can't say this for everyone, but I think that 15 year old boys can be pretty difficult to handle in any location, urban, suburban, rich, poor, white, black. A 15 year old boy has a lot of other things on their minds than behaving themselves properly. That being said, I do think they are old enough to conduct themselves in a respectful manner, and I am still trying to figure out how that message can be conveyed to them. I think that the lesson plans make a great difference in their behavior as well. When we break down into small groups the boys seem to respond to this very effectively. They listen, sit still, and participate with their leaders. When we are doing a group activity is when we seem to lose control over them. I think that shows how much personal attention can go. Some students just need that more individualized attention. 15 year old boys might need that individual attention more than girls, or more than 17 year old boys. These are questions educators need to ask themselves. Is the approach I am taking working? Am I effectively grasping their attention? Or are they checked out, do they not care? Us leaders need to figure out the best way to grasp the students attention. Let them know it is okay to be themselves, to be outspoken and 15 years old, but that it is also okay to be quiet, to be serious, and to want to learn. Hopefully as the weeks go by I will find more answers or observations to my questions.

Mt. Pleasant Session 2

After two weeks of being on pause for the explore program at Mt. Pleasant, we were finally able to get back there for an hour session with the students. I am happy to be back and I also felt that this week was much more structured than the first week we were there. Having lost out on two weeks with the students I was glad that we had a slightly smaller group of students to work with, and we spent that time working individually with a student to help familiarize them with the college board website. It was nice to see that the students were exciting about making these accounts, but it also raised a few questions and concerns for me as well. I realized that most of the students we were working with did not have any knowledge or understanding of what college board is. They had never heard of it before, and had never accessed it before. This makes me wonder, why isn't the high school promoting this website, why haven't they exposed the students to this tool. It is such an incredibly useful website in so many ways that I find it very upsetting that the students did not know about it prior to our session. I feel that if a high school is going to aim at getting as many students into college as possible, they need to start with the basics, they need to present these useful tools to the students right away. It was exciting to be able to search around the website with my partner and look at different schools and read different descriptions, but as we did this many more realizations occurred to me. As helpful and useful as these tools are, many of these students are in need of some basic college common knowledge. What I mean by that is that most did not know any thing about college. They did not know the difference between a four year and a two year college, a BA or BS, or even what those stand for, a state college versus a university or private college. They did not know the basic understanding of what college is. I think that many of these students see different colleges on sports channels, or on TV shows and create an idea of what they are, but they do not actually know the facts or the details about college. I think that as explore leaders we really need to take a step back and present these students with some basic knowledge and understanding of college before we can go into specifics about college choice, majors, minors, careers, and all that goes along with picking the right college for yourself.

EXPLORE-SHEA WEEK 4

In my opinion this past Tuesday was the most connected I've felt with the students. I believe that the lesson was conducive to helping the students focus and learn because we basically worked with them in a one-on-one setting. Sometimes I think that there are certain students that act out and become a distraction to other students. They were in the computer lab this week so they were focused on what they needed to do on the computer. Their "assignment" or project for that day was to go on WaytogoRI.org and type in their course schedule for this semester to see if they were meeting graduation requirements and to take a career oriented survey to see based on their interests what career field might spark their interest. One boy that was there only came the first day so he missed the last few weeks. I was able to work with him one -on-one for most of the time and get to know him better. He appears to be a very motivated and kind student who is struggling with school. He is taking a full course load including Portuguese. When I asked what goal he wants to pursue he stated professional NBA player. Before I had the chance to say anything he interrupted himself by saying that he would also be interested in becoming an athletic trainer. I did not want to shut down his dream by being negative about the NBA so instead I focused on what courses would have to take to pursue a field like athletic training. I really hope that he shows up throughout the rest of the semester because I think he was potential to succeed and do better in school with some guidance.

Another aspect of last week that stuck with me was a a conversation between myself and a few of the boys. We were talking about short term goals and what a pursuing a goal means and one boy stated his short term goal was to make time to go trick or treating on Halloween with his brother. One boy from Haiti mentioned that make home in Haiti they don't celebrate Halloween. Immediately the two other boys starting saying that that was not true and I could tell the student felt uncomfortable so I took this as a teaching opportunity to talk about different cultures. The boy mentioned how in his culture he celebrates the day of the dead on November 1st and I mentioned how in my religion we celebrate all saints day on November 1st. I told the other boys how Halloween as they think of it is not celebrated the same way in all cultures. They seemed to me as if they understood and the other boy looked like he felt better once we talked about how it wasn't weird or abnormal that he didn't celebrate Halloween by dressing up and going trick or tricking but just culturally different. This relates back to the Cultural Relevant Pedogogy theory about introducing students to other cultures.

EXPLORE week 4

This week at Shea we worked mostly in the computer lab on the Way-to-go RI website. We had students fill out what career/major they would be interested in and then we had them look at their high school schedule and compare it to the classes that the website indicates would match up with their desired/designated career and/or major they are interested in. The students when in the computer lab were very focused and engaged and that showed us that they were very interested in finding out what their high school plan should be and they were serious about the EXPLORE program. As we were leaving this past Tuesday one of the students said, "It stinks that you guys only come on Tuesdays." This one student in particular has a lot to say all of the time but he really enjoys the time that we spend together and cares about his future. This was a good experience this week at Shea, and we all could see that the students were there not just as a way to spend their afternoon but as a way to plan for their future.

Shea week 4

This week at Explore, we spent most of our time in the computer lab using the way to go RI site. The students were very engaged since it was interactive and they were working individually. I am glad that Shea has a computer lab so that we are able to use technology with the program. I hope that we are able to use the site again in future weeks. We announced that we are working on putting together a college visit to RISD and Brown and planning to see a PC basketball game, and the students were very interested in and excited about these activities. I think it will be a good experience for them to see what the college experience is like and what a college campus looks like.

Shea week 4!

I thought this week went well at Shea – we had a packed lesson, but overall it went smoothly. Carolyn conducted today’s lesson about Mastery and Future. We began by having everyone (including volunteers) create and decorate an EXPLORE! portfolio to track everything we’ve been doing this semester and keep a short journal with drawings or writing. Then, we spent the remainder of our time logging students on to waytogori.com, a website made to help students at all levels – elementary, middle, high school, college, and adult education. This site proved to be a useful and beneficial tool for students to select a possible career path, keep track of their classes, and take surveys indicating certain jobs that would be enjoyable for their specific interests. We also spoke about upcoming college visits and an upcoming PC basketball game that our group will hopefully be attending. Something that struck me today was the students’ focus and concern for their academic performance. Many of the students logged onto the school’s website which tracks their grades for each class. The students clearly took the grades seriously and tried to defend why a grade for a certain class was low. I think seeing this concern demonstrated further that these students are invested in their academics, rather than stuck in this ‘cool pose’ which Patterson argues is an issue for many students in urban schools. Overall, I think Carolyn’s lesson really outlined the ways in which goal-setting even at the high school level can ultimately affect the long-term goals that these students obviously have.

Mt. Pleasant Week 3

Today our topic for the lesson was "College Conversations". We began our session by doing an ice-breaker (2 truths and a lie) which was difficult to get through with the group as a whole due to student interruptions, joking around, and a few students who were being shy. Then our facilitator for the day explained the activity called "Agree or Disagree", which involved her stating a common myth about college and the students would have to go to one side of the room depending on if they agreed or disagreed about the statement. Some of the myths included: -I do not have to go to class and I can still do well in college -I have to be best friends with my roommates - The cafeteria food is going to be gross - I can party all the time and still do well in school - I have to join fraternities/sororities and/or clubs to make friends in college -My major will determine my future life etc. Once the students went to either side of the room we would ask why they agreed or disagreed, and the PC leaders would give their opinion based on college experiences. Some of the students didn't the activity easy, however, I do think it was successful in getting most of the students to think about some of these issues involving college life. Next, we broke up into groups of 5 with 2 PC leaders per group. In our groups we asked the students to come up with a question or fear they have regarding college and the PC leaders would do their best to answer honestly. Some of the concerns that came up in my group included majors, classes, partying, dorm life, extra-curricular activities, and how to balance all the work. I feel we had some good discussion in our small groups and it really gave our students insight about college life. I enjoyed working in smaller groups because I feel we are able to accomplish more rather than being one large group. In addition, students are less shy when it comes to only working with a few other students. I enjoyed the topic of "College Conversations" because it was easy to openly talk about and share my experiences with the students.

Peter Fairbrother Week #3

Peter Fairbrother
11/23/11
Service Learning Week #3

This past week we went to Shea for our third week of service learning. We worked with the students by talking about different life goals. First we set some long term goals. I was shocked to hear how many of the boys were hoping to make it in the MLB or the NFL. Up until this past week I thought this group of students were more realistic. Not to say that they are stupid I had just gotten the vibe from them that they were more level headed than that.
Next we worked on short term goals. When we discusses these my service learning partners and I all had similar goals and the students were pretty similar as well. My classmates and I all were concerned with finishing our school work. The students had goals that were similar but somewhat darker. Many of them wanted finish assignments so that they would not get in trouble, retake something that they had already failed, or turn in late work. So the drive to do work was present in these children but it seems to only kick in after the work is due or to prevent the student from getting in trouble. I am not sure why so many of these students are so far behind on their work one month into the school year but I wish there was someway to tell and someway to help those who were willing to work towards improving their futures.
There was one last thing that struck me this past week. There was one male student and when we asked him for one goal of the week he said he wanted to get twenty dollars. We asked if he had a job and he said no. We asked if he did chores and he said no. So I was greatly confused as to how he thought he was going to get the money he wanted. When I asked him how he expected to make the money he said “I don’t know I would just like twenty dollars.” This in my mind was related to the dream of becoming a professional athlete. He wanted to make money but had no plan how to make it just hoped it would happen. I do not know what to make of this but at the time of it was very striking to me and I did not know what to say to him about this. It was the first time I have been speechless while at service learning.

St. Pat's Week 3

We started off week 3 having the students decorate the cover of their journals. Starting next week we are going to have the students write an entry at the beginning of each session. We are going to let them write about whatever they want, but we encourage them to write about their future goals and about their college aspirations. Then we played an ice-breaker to get everyone comfortable with each other because we had a few new students in the program. We went around the room and each person had to say two true things about them and then one false and then it was the groups' job to guess which one was false. It was a lot of fun and we got to find out a few new things about the students. After the activity, we handed out the worksheets. On it was a timeline and the students were supposed to write down their goals that they wanted to accomplish by that age. The responses were awesome. Almost all the students said they wanted to graduate high school and get into a good college. And they went on to say that they wanted to get a good job that they love and then eventually start a family. This was great because we were able to see that the students had goals for themselves and they wanted to work hard to achieve them. After everyone shared, we talked as a group and came up with one common goal for them. They decided on "find out what i want in a college." Then we had them mentions smaller goals that would lead them to accomplish their main goal. Some of the things they said were research, get good grade, and visit schools. I was very impressed by them after this last activity. It showed me that they really are motivated and they have goals just like students in suburban areas. These students are showing me first-hand that the stereotypes of urban students are not true.

Chad Brown - 10/20

This week I started going to the Boys & Girls Club at Chad Brown. The age group of the kids is 11-18, but all the children there on Thursday night were between 11 and 14. We were shown around the club; they have an art room, gym, and game room on the first floor. I participated in art class with the kids, and then played basketball for the rest of the time. Most of the kids live in the Chad Brown housing development. The club is supposed to be a safe place where the students can get help with their homework, be supervised, get fed, and relax. There has been some gang fights in the club in the past, however. The door is kept locked at all times, and only members are allowed in by the staff. It was an eye-opening experience. I was really struck by two things. One, the average household income for 3.3 people is $9, 079. Two, the children I spoke with did not have the same skemata as other children their age who grew up in more affluent communities. 

Th 1st time at Chad Brown!

I was so excited to finally begin my service learning. We weren't really sure what to expect when we got there other than to keep an open mind. The teen program is basically a time for club members to come hang out, do arts and crafts, play games and just be kids. I got to play basketball for the first time in six years, and I can assure you I haven't gotten any better. The kids seemed to open up to us rather quickly for the most part. Some were more reserved but eased with time. The first night was more of a "get to know how the center operates" experience. Kayla and I planned to get a group activity of mat ball going next week. I had a really good experience at the center. The staff was helpful, welcoming and understanding and I can't wait to go back.

Grace Cunningham- week 3

This week at Shea we talked about goal setting. We tried to explain to students the connection between setting goals and accomplishing those goals. We asked students to give us examples of goals that they had both set and achieved in their life. We also talked about steps that need to be taken in order to achieve a goal. We had Explore students share a couple of long term goals and a couple of short term goals. We talked about steps that students are going to take to accomplish those goals, and asked students to come next week and be ready to share with us whether or not they met their goals or not. I hope that next week the Explore students will have met their goal (s) so that we can continue our conversation about how making steps (even tiny steps like doing your homework) and completing those steps one at a time will make you successful. The guest speaker and director of the black studies department today stressed the importance that each student needs to be reminded that they can succeed, despite the fact that maybe they have been told before that they cannot succeed. The guest speaker today also talked about how the American ideal is that with hard work and education anyone can be successful, but how that is not actually the reality for many urban students, or minority students. It breaks my heart to think of these students not being able to meet their goals and be successful despite their hard work. It is our job in the Explore program to instill confidence and determination, as well as direction for the students.

Shea Week 3

This week at Explore, we talked with the students about goal setting. Many of them had admirable goals for the future, such as going to college. However, many of them did not know the steps to take to reach their goals. I hope we are able to help the students understand the process of applying to college and being successful in high school in order to reach their full potential. There were a couple of new students this week, and some from previous weeks did not come this week. I hope that a consistent group of students starts coming every week so we can get to know them better and see their progression throughout the semester.

Mt. Pleasant

On Monday our group went to Mount Pleasant for the second time. Upon arrival there were only two students in the room for Explore. We had seen some of the other students in the program around in the hallways but had to chase them down to come to the room, and the guidance counselor made a reminder announcement. Once all of the students arrived we counted how many were there and realized that there were just as many Explore leaders as students, so we worked one on one with a student at a computer desktop. I noticed how antiquated the computers were and how long it took for the students to log in. The lesson for the day was introducing the students to the College Board website and having each one create an account. I worked with a freshman girl and after we created her account we explored the website looking at topics such as planning for college, the application process,what courses to take in high school, financial aid, and the SAT. College Board also has a resource that allows you to search for colleges based on location, major of interest, extra-curricular activities, public or private school, and a 4-year or 2-year option. Results included a list of colleges matching your needs with some information about each school and a link to the school's website. Originally the girl I was working with had said she wanted to go to RISD because she was interested in fashion design, but after browsing the website we came across the demographics of the school and she noticed that it was only 1% African American, and so she said she no longer wanted to go to RISD anymore. This was really saddening for me. After inquiring with her about whether she wanted to stay in Rhode Island or maybe go away somewhere to school, she had mentioned she wanted to go away because her family had been in Rhode Island their whole lives and had never moved anywhere else.I got the vibes that maybe she had not had the opportunity to travel with her family many places, or that Rhode Island was all she had experienced. For me, this is much different than my experiences growing up. My family had the resources we needed to be able to travel and see new places. She also shared with me that she would like to go to Florida because her sister lived there, and her sister was going to school there but had to drop out because she was having a baby. We also looked at tuition rates of schools, and she was really shocked at how much it costs to go to school. She kept saying, "wow, I feel bad for my parents". I showed her how school websites give you information about how to apply for financial aid, and what scholarships are available. We also looked at the application process for school, and what specific things schools ask for when applying. For example, recommendation letters, portfolios, SAT scores, and essays. I think we accomplished a lot in the hour we worked on College Board, and I definitely opened up her eyes to new ideas concerning college. It seemed she knew very little about colleges and the process used to apply, so I would like to spend more time talking about this in Explore and give the students some background knowledge.

SHEA HIGH SCHOOL- WEEK 3

Yesterday was our third time meeting with the EXPLORE students at Shea. Rosie created the lesson building goals which I believe was a very good lesson because it connected with the students. Since we missed last week because of Columbus Day weekend yesterday was the first time we met the one new student. I found that yesterday was the first time I found my patience wearing thin with some of the students. The new student wasn't a problem but there were two other students who had come from day one who were not taking anything seriously. The two students both stated in the beginning that they have high goals after graduating high school. I do not know these two students' backgrounds so I don't know if they are here because they really want to gain something out of the program or if it is just something to do for an hour after school where you get free snacks. I think that next week when we go I am going to try to talk to these two students more and get to know them better. Even if they are just coming for something to do they can still gain something out of the progam I believe. Since I don't know their backgrounds I do not want to make any assumptions just because they were being chatty and rude this one time. Overall it was another positive experience and I think that Rosie's lesson was executed perfectly and I believe the students enjoyed it as well.

Shea Week 3

Today was a little different than previous weeks at Shea. We had one new student, and a few students that are regularly in attendance were absent today. The mix/dynamics of students today was a little more rambunctious than usual, which became somewhat troublesome while discussing our topic. Also, instead of Tara conducting each lesson, we are beginning to create our own lesson plans (with the collaboration of our classmates) and conducting the lesson ourselves. This week was my week to plan/collaborate with the other Shea volunteers, and the lesson was titled “Mastery and Future.” We focused specifically on the topic of goals – both short-term and long term. We engaged students in constructive activities each of which had a specific goal to accomplish (organizing themselves in order of birthday without talking and untangling arms from a network of other arms). We then moved to discuss the students’ short term goals (one academic and one non-academic), as well as the necessary steps to achieve that goal. Many wanted to do well on upcoming exams/projects and some wanted to play outside or improve on sports for other non-academic goals. In regards to long term goals, many students wanted to graduate high school, go onto college and secure a stable job. I think this lesson was executed successfully despite some minor interruptions from students. The importance of setting goals for oneself was emphasized and deemed crucial to a successful life. We told students that we plan to hold them to their goal for the week and see whether or not the goal was accomplished. Overall, I hope students recognized the importance of goal-setting not only to their current life but to their future, as well.

St.Pat's

It looks like we are going to have a lot smaller group than we had originally anticipated. Like I mentioned in my previous post, we were expecting to have up to 40 kids but it seems like it is only going to be 10-15 students each week. This was a little bit disappointing but it is going to a much more intimate setting and we can really get to know the students that do come. This week at service we went over a few college terms that we thought was important for them to know. Some of the words we went over were FAFSA, common application, ACT, and teacher recommendations. Many of the students had heard of these terms before but we made sure that they knew that these things are something that they need to start thinking about now. Then we played an ice-breaker where we had to say our name and then accompany it with a hand-gesture or a dance. We had to go around the circle until everyone said their name and we did everyone's moves. This was a really fun way for us to learn the new students' names and for them to know ours. At the end of the end of the hour we had a snack and talked to the students about their weekend plans.

Chad Brown Update

I have not been able to go to my placement yet, but I will start next week. I will be going with 2 other volunteers on Thursdays from 7-9. I will have a better blog starting next week!

Peter Fairbrother
10/9/11

Service Learning Week #2

This past Tuesday we went back to Shea High School in Pawtucket for our second week of service learning. From everything that I had heard about Shea I was expecting only those students who were present last week, so imagine my surprise when I walked in and there were at least 3 or four new students. So we had to go through another name game to try to learn all the newcomers names. After we learned names we discussed what kind of learners people are.
When I was in high school I always heard what kind of learners different people are. Outside of the classroom I never gave this minute’s thought. It was always drilled into my head you could be visual, auditory, kinesthetic or a combination of the three. I never really cared about it and after a while it actually became a nuisance to go to all of my classes and sit their listening to the same lecture over and over. Although this annoyed me back then now I realize that it has truly helped me. By knowing what kind of learner I am I can approach my classes differently to get the most out of the class. This subject also seemed quite familiar to my fellow volunteers. The ones who did not seem to have ever been taught this and how to utilize your self-knowledge was the students. They did not seem to know that there are these different ways of learning even thought they are in ninth or tenth grade. Then once we discussed the skills the students did not seem to know how to apply this to their different classes. My point was that if I know I am an auditory learner I would excel in a class with a teacher who only lectured and when I got into a visual teacher’s class I would need to focus more mentally to try to get the most out of class. The reason that this sticks out the most from our past week is that if the students do not know these things then how do they approach their different classes. I felt that with my parents and my teachers I had been led and taught how to approach and succeed in my classes. As we all know urban school children have less support at home. On top of that if they are not learning this stuff in class when will they? How can they thrive and survive in a more competitive college setting if they get into one? I do not know the answers to these questions but this kind of realization encourages me to work as hard as I can while I can with these students to try to help them learn as much as I can teach them or try to impart on them.

Explore! week 2

The students were a little more rambunctious and talkative this week than last week. I think this was in part a good thing because they are becoming more comfortable with us, but we had to maintain a sense of authority in order to keep the program running smoothly. There were a couple new students this week and some from last week were out this week, so it will be interesting to see how big the group is once the program gets settled. I got a chance to look at the applications of the new students, and many of them had great career goals, such as dentistry. We had our first lesson based on the Explore! curriculum this week, since last week was just an introduction to the program. The topic was self awareness, so we did some activities about learning styles and a personality test. Before the activities, we asked the students what they thought self awareness was, and most were not sure or only had a very vague idea, which I thought was interesting. I hope that our lesson helped them to understand the importance of know oneself in being a better learner.

EXPLORE: Shea. Week 2.

Yesterday was the second time I visited Shea High School for SL through the EXPLORE program. As was previously stated by Grace and Rosie, there were a few new members this week. I agree that it appears some of the students are not aware of their own culture or the culture of their peers. I think that the incident of the students laughing at the student who said he was from Haiti could have been a teaching moment but I was caught off guard and didn't know what to say or do. The cite coordinator scolded the students for laughing but that did not teach them anything. After that situation I started thinking about possibly creating a lesson one week on learning more about the different culture each student has. Although these students are young it would be rewarding to see them demonstrate more cultural competence by the end of the semester.

In the group there is one boy (I will call him John for purposes of privacy)who appears to be very motivated and excited to be participating in the program. John just started 9th grade and on his application he stated he one day wants to be an engineer. He also stated that he hopes to stay motivated to achieve his goal throughout his high school experience and he hopes that we will help him to do this. For me, it is very encouraging to see a student like John have such high expectations and I hope that we will help him to learn more about the college life and culture and help him to reach his long term and more immediate goals so he can achieve success.

Shea Week 2

Today marked our second week at Shea, and it is exciting to see that the students are already becoming a little more comfortable around us. We saw a lot of the same kids as last week and had a few new members, as well. After re-introducing ourselves, we focused on the topic of self-awareness. We discussed what self-awareness means, different types of learning (kinesthetic, auditory, visual), and took a personality test. As Grace mentioned in her post, during introductions a student shared that he was from Haiti and other students laughed. This incident did not sit well with the PC volunteers and it reminded me specifically of the cultural relevant pedagogy. I think that if teachers were utilizing cultural relevant pedagogy that Ladson-Billings suggests, perhaps this type of behavior would be lessened. Another striking moment was when a student recalled that I had taken a biology exam the week prior, and he asked how the exam went. I was really impressed and glad that he had taken the time not only to listen to me but also to follow up the next week. A final moment that stuck with me after service was when we had students write two things they liked about themselves on an index card. Some students wrote, for example, “I am Hispanic,” “I am intelligent,” and, a sillier one, “I am excellent at making beats.” Students in my group were quick to jot these down – a crucial sign that they indeed exude a level of self-awareness and self-confidence. I was really happy to see this self-esteem shine through, especially after learning that urban schools can have negative effects on a student’s self-confidence. Overall, it was a very rewarding day at Shea and the students made me realize that the basic stereotypes deeming urban students unmotivated and insecure are not only overly general, but also very untrue in most cases.

Shea: Week 2

This was our second time at Shea high school for the EXPLORE program. There were a few new faces at the program so that was exciting and encouraging I think for all of us to see. We introduced ourselves to the group again and then we did an activity about the different types of learners there are. We had students split up into three groups: the visual learners, the auditory learners and the kinesthetic learners. We had students participate in an activity using their learning skill and then we had students share why it is important to know what kind of learner you are and how it can help you be successful after high school. The theme of today's lesson was self-awareness and so that is how that activity fits into the theme of self-awareness, because of the importance of knowing how you learn best. Something that stood out to me today during our program was that when we were having students share their name and where they were from one student said that he was from Haiti and the rest of the high school students started to laugh at him. The student that had shared this information started to join the students and laugh at himself essentially when he observed everyone else laughing. This was surprising to me because all of the students that are in the program are minority students, and I just thought they would have known to be more respectful to the student that was sharing. This incident makes me consider the fact that maybe these students do not know about their own culture and their own family history. Another thing that happened and that was refreshing was a student remembered what one of the EXPLORE volunteers shared with the group last week. This student asked the volunteer how her test had gone and how she ended up doing on the test that she mentioned she took last week. This was such a thoughtful gesture for the student to make and made me realize that these students really care, they really want to be in the program and are motivated to learn/ grow as individuals.

North Providence Public Schools

For this post I have not yet started my service learning, so I am using the school I go to for my Special Needs in the Regular Classroom practicum. Birchwood Middle School in North Providence is different than the idea of middle school I have come to know. The first thing I noticed about the school is that it is secluded in a neighborhood off of a main road. It has the usual things a school should have: library, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc. The staff is overall pleasant. The secretary at the front desk seemed angry when I told her I was new, but after she realized why I was there she seemed to grow nicer. I'm sure she must be used to dealing with absentee or angry parents and non interested students.

The teacher I work directly with is such a nice man. He reminds me of so many teachers I have had that I loved over the years. He tries his hardest to interact with his students in a way that they will respond positively too, yet there were times when he had to rely on authority to get things done. The classes spent the day in the library working on a project. Each student was assigned a country and asked to find out specific information about their location. I was so surprised to find out what a low level the students were at. Apart from not knowing much about most of the countries, some students could not even spell their country right, even while looking at a map. One student was researching Greece, but had written Grease on her assignment. Another spent the forty minute period learning about Ireland by searching if Leprechauns were real.

I think the thing that most surprised me about the school was the principle. He walked into the class I was observing and looked to see me, having no idea who I was. I explained I was observing the class and in mid sentence he stopped talking to me and approached an eighth grade student and questioned her about her purse. It was a large purse, the type in style for many young girls, and he told her it was too big to be considered a purse and that she would have to put it away. He left and returned a few minutes later with a female administrator to discuss the size of the bag and determine if it was allowed. I found it strange that this is what the principle felt was important to spend the time doing.

Week 1 at Shea High School

My first impression of Shea was that it is definitely an urban school. Based on my observations and on my discussions with Amy the guidance counselor my first impression proved to be correct. The school seems to lack resources. I noticed that when we first pulled in many of the students were walking down the block in sports uniforms. I was later informed that because of the schools location all of the sports fields are located one block away. Before meeting the students we met with Amy and she gave us a tour of the school and told us some statistics about the school and the area. She said that 85% of the students receive free or reduced lunch and most of the students are a African American or Hispanic. The school is not horribly run down and it does have some resources such as computer labs. Amy said there are around 900 students in the school, 240 freshman and we had 7 students show up the first day for EXPLORE. I must say I was very impressed with the students and their motivation and willingness to be there. Two if the girls are sophomores returning for a second year with the EXPLORE program. We played ice breaker games with the students the first day and got to know each other better. At first a few of the students seemed nervous to be around college students but after awhile they warmed up to us. Mostly the students sounded like they were there because they didn't really know what the college process was and they want to learn more about what it's like. I am looking forward to working with these students the rest of the semester and hopefully watching them progress in their college search. I hope that I can help them and motivate them to work hard to get into the school they want. I don't really know any of their backgrounds or culture yet since we only met once. I'm assuming they come from families that have a low SES. Before we left for the day the students made a chart of what they hoped to get out of this program- most of them mentioned learning more about college but a few of them seemed like they had no idea what they want to do in four years. That's okay with me and I hope that I can help them make the right decision for themselves and get to know them better so they feel encouraged to do well in school and be successful in different aspects of their lives.