BLOG 3-PROMPT 2

irst I want to apologize for taking so long to post the blog. I was sick the day of my school visit and then had a death in the family the following visit. Just recently I have caught up on my visits over spring break so I have enough experience to be able to comment and blog about them. I am sorry to my group for not having blogs to comment on.

To all who may not know, I am a Reading Buddy at an Elementary School and I tutor children in Kindergarten. I do a half hour of observation in the morning before the intervention which lasts for 35 minutes. Then I fill out required updates about the progress of the children for the last 25 minutes. I only interact normally with the three students I work with, but I do see how the teacher interacts with the students. I have to say, I was a little nervous because the first few visit the teacher was very on edge and was yelling at the kids. As I visited more I came to see that that is not an every day thing. Depending on the mood or attitude of the students, of course she must adjust her direct actions. The majority of the students in the classroom are African American or Hispanic. There are a few Caucasian students. Compared to the article we read about teaching white and black students, it is the complete opposite. When a child is doing something wrong or isn't listening she does not talk to them any different than she does the white students. She simply asks them nicely to do what they were asked and explains to them why she is doing it that way. I was there during a math test they were having and one Hispanic girl was trying to look at another students work and she said her name, and said "You are one of the smartest students I know, you know that you know this work and you can do it on your own, its not the right thing to look at other people's work because they may not have the right answer." She didn't reprimand her or yell at her or talk down to her, she used an explanation. I find that she talks to students and treats the students in the exact same manner that I talk to my students at my job.

During the math test, she read to them the question and added somewhat of a story behind each one. To some students that may lose focus she repeated the same question in a more direct manner, ie: If you have 6 birds and 3 flew away, how many were left? At each and every question she asked the same question in 3 different ways, which I found helpful because looking around at the students I could see that some were lost when she asked a certain way, and when she asked it differently, they immediately understood and got the answer.

Linguistics--All of the children speak great English. There are some children with an accent of the Spanish language.

Ethnic--Based on the 2008 SALT Survey for this school, 7% is White, 22% Black, 51% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 0 Native American, 16% had Multi-response. This absolutely carries through to the classroom that I tutor in. There is one white student, one asian student, 5 or 6 black students and the rest were Hispanic.

Socioculture--By speaking to some of the children, they have told me about parties they have had in relation to their culture. Some told me about trips they have taken to seen family. However, because I have not talked to all of them and don't know personal stories, I would say that most of the have an aspect of interaction between social and cultural elements just from my knowledge of the ethnicities, but it could very well vary.

With that being said, teaching to a class where the majority is Hispanic, I feel the teacher is teaching to the best of her ability. She doesn't have a close-minded way of thinking and does talk to some children differently if she sees they are having a hard time understanding a previous way she has tried teaching them. I believe that there should be an intertwine of educational lessons and cultural background. I feel the teacher is achieving teaching in different ways for all children to understand, but I also think cultural aspects and tradition should be tied in.