Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My day at school was slightly boring. Because my co-op has three seventh-grade classes, we do the same thing in each class, and today we just watched the beginning of “A Raisin in the Sun” in each of the classes. Today was a different day in that classes were shortened and students had clubs or Extended Scholars. Ms Greene also had a 6^th grade performing arts class which was made up of seven girls choreographing a dance for a show that is coming up at AMY. In the afternoon clubs Ms Greene had a movie club and after it finished I discussed a movie review that they had to write about the movie, and we discussed the theme of the movie and how each character had an internal conflict.

I feel a little stressed out with not enough time; we go from school to session to meeting to dinner to planning lessons, and there is no time to breathe or even to read articles from my Urban Reader. And to be quite honest, I didn’t think that Salome Thomas El was worth the book that we have to buy. I felt as though it was a little too much praising of him and his successes, though I understand that wasn’t the intent. I think it’s great that he rose out of the slums, but he spoke about himself, had his teacher speak about him, and then answered questions. Once again though I appreciate hearing about urban students and their external problems that they have to deal with away from home. I believe that the question and answer time was good because it helped me understand the teachers (shouters) at my school and their stressors as well as the misbehavior at my school. It was good to hear a defense of the teachers who have been in the system for so long and have resorted to almost giving, but it was also good to hear that our young idealism is really needed. The one point that I remembered from his session was that before teaching in a certain neighborhood, I should go spend time there so that my face is seen around that area and I make a name for myself; students will understand that I am not shut out from them or scared of them.