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.