Building A Safe Community

      I really enjoyed reading the community article because I do agree that the essence of community is to create a safe space to grow, a space that welcomes the persona fully, that sees the person for who they are, that invites participation, and that holds the person gently while they explore (Sapon-Shevin, Pg. 102).  This I feel should be the main goal of any teacher’s classroom, to build a community where the students feel safe to grow and use their imagination. In school exploration, discovery, participation, freedom, and imagination are all important attributes in the classroom that should be embraced by teachers and students to make a successful learning environment. I also agree that in order to focus on community building as an essential component of teaching, one must accept the following premise: “Time spent building community is never wasted time.” It is important to spend time on building a community in the classroom and making it a priority and an ongoing commitment.

            In our education classes this quarter we have been learning that in order to build a safe classroom community it needs to be one in which students are comfortable showing themselves, being themselves, and being honest about who and what they are. As a teacher I know that one of my biggest struggles will be to make sure that every student has a voice in my classroom and that I need to embrace and learn about my students cultures. I also need to make sure to not isolate or favor specific students based on race, class, heritage, and gender. As a professional educator I need to educate myself on current issues in the classroom and ways in which to approach these issues.  Students should feel proud of whom they are and feel that their voice matters. When building a classroom community it should be all about opportunity, and making sure that our students have as much opportunity as possible to be who they are and get to know one another as much as possible. I think doing ice breakers, who I am and where I am from poems are great ways for students to get to know one another. 

How exactly do we build a safe learning community for our students? What does that community look like? Is it best to build that community from the beginning of the students education? Can teachers make cohesive and collaborative communities with one another in order to help their students in their classroom? 

Diversity and Bilingual Education

            When I was sixteen, I started working in a restaurant as a hostess and I realized there were not very many English speaking employees. One of my coworkers stood out to me the most when I saw him trying to spell out certain words on our menu. I showed him how to spell out the words and how to pronounce it. He seemed extremely anxious to learn English and asked if I would help him the next day with understanding the English language. Over the next couple of weeks we practiced speaking English, writing in English and worked on pronunciation. I asked an ESL teacher from my high school for information and tools to further help my coworker learn English and we continued to read books in English as well as write short stories. It was amazing to be able to see the growth in my coworker and how much his English improved. It was such an eye opening and fulfilling experience teaching my coworker English.

This was one of the reasons why I wanted to become a teacher. When people ask me why I want to go into teaching I say because I want to make a difference in a child's life. I really enjoy working with ELL, and ESL students because I believe that language and bilingual education are extremely important goals that should be seen in the school. I love the whole idea of what language means to a person and specifically how ones culture plays a role in their everyday lives. I really love the idea that children deserve to be taught in their own language. Times are changing and English is not always going to be the prominent language spoken in the classroom in order to make sure everyone can succeed in the classroom we must embrace multiculturalism and allow students to share their heritage and their language in order for them to learn.

How do we bring the culture into the classroom? How do we allow the differences to be ok in the classroom? We need to be able to connect students to school to their families and to their own culture but as always the big question is HOW?

How do we bring in the ME?

How do we bring different students cultural backgrounds into the classroom? How do you make all students feel comfortable to share their lives with their peers and their teachers? I think it is extremely hard to make a difference in all students’ lives because some students don’t always trust others and it takes time for them to warm up to other adults. The big picture here is to always go into the classroom with an open mind and be willing to learn from your students, your colleagues, and yourself. I am hoping that in my own classroom I can incorporate bilingual education, culture, language, and diversity so that my students can have the most enriching education that they deserve and more.

 I think it is best to think about what are the core issues happening in the classroom today? and how can educators educate themselves in order to teach their own students? I think in order to answer these type of questions we need to take as many classes as we can to learn about the education system and how it affects the students we are going to teach. But being educated on the issues doesn't make someone an outstanding teacher, in order to be an outstanding teacher we have to get to know our students and their way of learning we have to show compassion for our students and be willing to listen. These things can not be taught in education classes, we can research and learn about the issues but we as individuals have to come up with our own methods for listening to students and introducing our own version of ME curriculum. We are given the tools in this teach certification program but it is our job to incorporate what we find important for our students education. 

Another concept that I really liked from reading Ayers book was the whole idea about the ME curriculum because I find it endearing and exploratory. It allows the students to face and see one another and it allows the teacher to behold the student. (Ayers 2010) The ME curriculum is a great way for students to feel involved in their education and to feel cared about by their teacher and their students. By integrating the ME curriculum in the classroom the teacher can find important dimensions of each student through the work. (Ayers, 2010) Each student in the classroom has their own story to tell, they have their own cultural background, they have their own personal family problems, and they have their own way of viewing world. In order to be able to understand how to teach my students I need to integrate a ME curriculum where I get to know my students and learn about my students so that I can be an outstanding teacher. 

What are the best ways to integrate a ME curriculum? How can we integrate a ME curriculum without putting students on the spot? How can we build trust between our students and their peers and us as their educators? What are the first steps for getting to know students?

Not Feeling the Love in School

When I was younger, my family moved around a lot. I went to a few different elementary schools between kindergarten and 4th grade until finally we settled down in Bellevue when I was in 5th grade and we finally stayed in one place where I could make friends and continue with those friendships through middle school and high school. One thing that I realize looking back on my education is that I do not remember most of my teachers, that there are many teachers that did not play a significant role in my education because I don't even remember what their names are or what i really learned in their class. Yes, most of teachers were there to teach me the basics and I know that I wouldn't be where I am today education wise without some of my teachers but taking these education classes have reminded me that there are not that many teachers that I can remember growing up. But really, who remembers their first grade teachers? Do you remember teachers based on what happened in the classroom? Or do you remember teachers based on what they taught? Do you remember the teacher based on a good or bad experience? I think in reality it is all of the above, that most teachers are remembered by some kind of experience that a student has in the classroom.

One teacher that is extremely memorable in my eyes from middle school was Mrs. Bieler, she was my 6th grade language arts and social studies teacher. I don't know what it was about her class but I loved every minute of her class, I think it was her humor and her different methods she used for her classroom management. I also really developed a great teacher and student relationship with Mrs. Bieler and I started to babysit her children for her over the next few years of middle school. Since 6th grade I have kept my relationship with Mrs. Bieler and continue to stop in and check in with her a few times a year. I want to be that kind of teacher, the teacher that students remember years down the road and continue to come in and update me on their lives. I am excited to start this journey as an educator and I can't wait to get into my own classroom and start to make a difference in my student's lives.

Teaching is all about Love

              One idea that is being confirmed about my beliefs about schools and teaching is the idea that teaching is primarily a matter of love. Teaching to me is a matter of love. I fell in love with the concept of teaching in high school. I was sixteen years old and working at my first job as a hostess. One of the busser’s that worked there asked if I would teach him English and for the next year we worked almost every day on his English and after that year he had learned so much and was so proud of himself for learning English and because he felt so confident in his English he started to teach his family members the language. 

               After this experience I knew that teaching was what I wanted to do, so during my senior year in high school I was given the opportunity to take a teaching academy class where I learned the basics of teaching and I was able to work with many different types of students. One concept of teaching that I love is the idea of language, culture and communication. I have taken an invested interest in language and making myself knowledgeable in different language and culture so that when I am given the opportunity to work with students of a different cultures other than my own I can be prepared to relate to them and hopefully make them feel comfortable. I believe this has been a good preparation for teaching and helps to build the love that I have for educating. 

                I am so happy to be continuing my education to becoming an educator, I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from the teaching certification program especially from my peers, my professors, my mentors and most importantly the students I will be working with through out my time in the program. My main reason for wanting to be a teacher is that I want to be able to make a difference in every child's life that I teacher and that they go away from my classroom feeling as much love as I can possibly given them. Every student deserves to feel accomplished, loved, successful, encouraged, and happy in the classroom and I am going to do my best to make sure that can happen. I know that sometimes the classroom will not always be so sunny and happy and there will be some rain storms but I do plan on continuing to be a teacher through the good and the bad.