The last two days have been insightful into life as a teacher. It is officially the end of my first full week of 1st grade at Colegio Roosevelt (TGIF). It has been exhausting, but very impressive. The students at this school are so driven and motivated to do their very best. Even in first grade my students are learning about mass, the states of matter, and how they change. Everyday I am blown away with their vocabulary and knowledge even thought English is their second language. So much learning is taking place in these classrooms, and I can see it everyday in my students work. One student who amazes me every day is a 7 year old boy who just recently came to this school and did not speak any English. After only being at Roosevelt since March, he has come so far. When I work with him his intelligence shines through even if he cannot express it in English. Each day he is learning new words, and he is becoming less and less shy; today he even presented a poem in front of the while class! I love this age because they are so excited about learning (well most of them) and they work so hard to do their very best. Seeing them smile after completing a book or hearing them explain their thinking makes my heart so happy. Some students are so inquisitive that when they come up with questions during class that no one knows the answer to they research it for homework and come back with the results to share with the class the next day. Some examples of their questions:
This week we made ice cream using chocolate milk, ice and salt. The students were shaking the milk for about 20 minutes until finally the chocolate milk froze and turned into ice cream. We then talked about how liquids can change into a solid. They had questions like:
When I think of oppression I think of creating (or the act of) injustice or hardship for someone for some reason. This is a very vague definition, but I believe that oppression can occur for a number of reasons, in different situations and with different people. In the classroom, I think oppression can come from the teacher towards the student or from the administration to the teachers, but I will focus on teacher to student for the sake of this blog post and because I do not know a lot about administration. I would argue that oppression can stem from even the simplest practices. For example, students who are not given opportunities to fix their mistakes, speak up in class, make their own choices, etc can feel oppressed. It might not always be obvious, but it can come from underlying source. For example, when the teacher assumes that the boys will be more advanced in science or that girls are going to be able to read more challenging books than boys, it is a form of gender oppression. When students speak up in class and want to share something with the teacher but he or she does not actually listen and dismisses the student’s idea it can be another example of oppression. There are a lot of small things that can be considered oppression without even knowing it; even the way that the teacher presents material to students can have an underlying message. When thinking of oppression in the classroom, rigid pedagogy often comes to mind. A teacher who plans out all the activities that need to be done in a day and pushes (or almost forces) students to complete their work and move on the next thing can be oppressive in nature. The students are not able to be very creative, inquisitive, expressive, curious or exploratory; it is hindering their learning and puts a hold on their expressive ability. Classrooms should be safe spaces for learning and exploring but this can’t happen when teachers do not allow for it. I also believe not being considerate of student needs falls into this category. If the teacher does not do any differentiation for students, it hinders learning for students. Teachers need to value their student’s voices and ideas so that they can continue to be productive learners. Classrooms are not to be silenced; without discussion and dialogue the students can only take in so much information. With practice and skill acquisition, learning becomes more meaningful and concrete. There is no sense of freedom in an oppressive classroom, nor is there voice or choice from the students. Teachers as well as students need to be learners. Teachers are not meant to just fill student’s brains, like containers, with information. Check out this insightful article on service and tourism: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9K8OLyuF8_TbHBST283NGNXLUU/view
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