Blog #2: Listen, Observe, Wonder

            Its Tuesday night, 1:30 in the morning, and your jolted awake.  You hear a girl shouting at the top of her lungs at a boy about something.  She repeats herself over and over, not allowing the boy to get even one word in.  You know you have no hope of falling back asleep unless you close the window, but you just can’t find it in you to get up out of bed.  Then, all of a sudden, you hear shuffling, and then she’s quiet.  All you hear then is, “Bro! Bro! Stop!”  At this point, you don’t want to hear what happens next, so you get up to close the window, not expecting what comes next.  You see right below your building, two guys holding a man back by the arms, and another one trying to turn over the girl who you assume was the one shouting from laying face first on the pavement.

            I wish this was a hypothetical situation, but this is what I heard and saw the night before we went to our school settings for the first time.  After I closed the window, all I could do is cry.  I was afraid for the girl, I was afraid for the boy, I was afraid for myself, and I was afraid for what was to come the next morning.

I hesitantly get dressed the next morning, with flashbacks from the night before rushing to the front of my mind over and over again.  I finally pull up to the school, step out of the car, take a deep breath, and enter the building.  I was warmly welcomed into the office, told where I needed to go, and headed up the stairs.  I meet the teacher briefly, then she heads down to pick up the students to start the school day.  She asked me to open the windows while she was gone so I walked over to get some air in the room.  As I opened the first window, I heard the children screaming, laughing, and playing.  I watched them for a moment just having fun.  They were running around, just being kids.  I realized at that moment, that is all they are…kids.  In all the hype about the differences of urban schools, I had forgotten about the biggest similarity.  You are here to teach the children.  They are not scary, unknown variables.  They are growing, excited, eager individuals, just wanting to learn.  I finally thought, for the first time since signing up for the program, “I can do this.”

Throughout the school day, I walked around and helped struggling children, got to know everyone’s name and a little about them, and even re-taught a concept for some kids allowing them to see the information in a new light, which helped them understand and grasp the concept perfectly.  Every additional minute I was in the classroom, was a minute that increased my confidence.  Then, at the end of the day, the children had a “writing workshop” where they write about something that occurred in the past few days or something they are looking forward to.  Some of the kids in the class wrote about my presence in the classroom and it made me feel amazing.  It was so interesting to see what they thought of me and read their reaction and thoughts of what they think might happen in the next two weeks with me there.  Every single one only had great things to say.  One child said, “I think having her in the class will be a blast.  She is so nice and comes around to help everyone.”  This only made me feel even better about what I was doing, the career I had chosen, and myself as a possible teacher in an urban setting.

The article by Corbett and Wilson that discussed six different things a teacher needs to do in order to be a great one, made me evaluate myself while in the classroom.  I was so proud to see how I was already trying to achieve all six characteristics without even thinking about it.  I was already making a connection with the kids, helping them throughout the school day, and varying the ways in which I was trying to explain concepts to different kids in order to better their understanding.