Prompt 1

Driving to the school at 9:30 in the morning on my first day, I did not know what to think. All I knew was what was told to me in the previous class on what to expect. When pulling up to the school, I see it is directly off a highway. This is when I knew that the classroom would be a completely different setting than what I was used to. I went to school in a small quit suburban neighborhood. The building appeared to be in good condition, looked very well kept. I was very surprised when I thought of a city school, my first instinct was that it was going to be old and dirty; it was the opposite case in the school I was at. At the front office I was treated with great respect. I signed in and was off to the classroom, I had such butterflies in my stomach walking down the hallway. When I walked into the classroom the first thing I noticed was the diversity with the students. They were all front different cultural backgrounds. I noticed there were four groups of tables with roughly five students in each group. I could tell without being told that they were in groups based upon their skills in reading and writing. I caught on to this by noticing the way the different groups were sitting; there body posture, the way they were working or lack of working. At the far table five students say slumped into their chairs, staring off into space. At the nearest table students were diligently and reading a book. I also noticed the class room was very well organized. They had a word wall which I thought was very unique. This wall is words that are commonly used and or misspelled for students to look at when writing. They have classroom rules on the wall, these are basic rules that are expected, and nothing stood out about them. She also had a list of things to do when you finish your work. In the classroom the teacher seem like a very nice well put together lady but I could tell she was exhausted. This was easy to tell by the statements she made. “Are you sure you want o be a teacher” and “I will talk you out of it in 30 seconds. The students are all very nice, are greatly appreciate me there. I have connected greatly with the students who are struggling, and I feel I am really helping them. They have come up to me asking me for help instead of what they used to do which was sit there until the teacher came over and yelled that they have not completed any of the work. In the school I feel that the principle really values the know student left behind. This was shown when one of the students was suspended and he also is one of the students that are really struggling. The principle comes and works with him one on one for about an hour. This shows how she cares and wants him to succeed. In the classroom she values helping the whole class progress as a class. She does try to help those students who do not do as well on the testing. I feel she just helps them so they pass the test, but does not give them the overall concept. That they just do well on the test to make her look good. All though it is helping them, I do not know if they are getting the whole concepts she is teaching. After the three visits I have realized a lot about inner city school. Bye for now.