Education Fieldwork

Relfective Protocol (an incident from last week)

my notes are attached.

Elementary School 2: 2/12/13

Today I went on another school visit with my supervisor. This time we visited a high school that has a Student Success Center, therefore, instead of meeting with a guidance counselor we met with the director of the center. Only a small portion of Philadelphia Public Schools have student success centers, which is determined by the funding that they receive. These centers are involved in many college access programs, mentoring, etc, but they vary between schools.
When I arrived at the school I was first struck by how huge it was. It had several floors, big hallways and big rooms. The murals on the wall made it seem welcoming but the size made me feel small. I wonder what the impact of architecture and space has on students. That is something that I hadn't thought about as thoroughly before, but the difference in size between this school and the last one I visited made it noticeable.

First Day;

My first visit to my placement was a simple meet and greet with the teacher that I could have possibly been doing it with. Before arriving, I knew that I would be placed in a special education classroom with high school aged students. The school, Charming High, is a school that I had heard a lot about precious to my visit. Many of my peers had worked at it before and I knew that Bryn Mawr has a strong connection with it.

To get to Charming High, I rode the el into the city and got off in a brand new area. Not knowing what the school looked like, I followed directions given to me. As I walked through the neighborhood, the first thing I noticed was a huge vacant building, with a chain link fence filled with dead shrubbery, and boarded up windows. It was really a sight to see. On the walk to the school, I noticed a number of schools o n the way, and multiple housing complexes. Once I turned the corner toward Charming High, the first thing I noticed was a large stone building, a factory looking smoke stack and a small wall filled with colorful murals. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between the two. Unfortunately, the school’s architecture reminded me of a prison. Grey walls, generic windows and stone walls.

....

My field placement is still not finalized so here are some thoughts for this week on educational experiences.

I listened to most of the npr show on upcoming Philadelphia school closings. I was struck how the director of student services of the school district does not give off an appearance of having much concern for anyone beyond the district's image. But then again, my understanding of the need for school closings is increased knowing that such a low percentage of students near Germantown High are students at that school and that the school is so under-capacity. It seems to refute the idea that competition from charters and vouchers can improve community schools (not that that idea needed much refuting in my opinion). Is it too late to save community schools like Germantown? Are they worth saving? As someone with economic privilege who went to a private high school when my community school system wasn't working for me, I do understand the appeal of school-choice. Clearly access to safe, good-quality community schools and access to other schools for particular types of learners shouldn't be a one-or-the-other. I wonder what the average quality of the charter, private, and magnet schools is that the majority of Germantown students attend.

Christine Calderon

02/12/13

Field Post #3

Notes for first visit Feb. Thursday 7th, 2013:

I came in with the students lined up against the wall outside of their classroom. It was nice to get friendly hellos from the students who seemed to like my presence there. When we settled down we went over the same routine as last Friday. They had Morning routine, which was to take out homework if they had any and to take out their math word problems and start working on them. While working on their problems the morning announcements came on and they stood up for the Pledge of Allegiance and they did fluoride. After their morning routine they go into reading and after reading they go into writing- these are the two classes I will be apart of on Thursdays and Fridays. Today for writing they where going to go onto the “rug” and sit around and read. They were finishing up their story of the week that had to do with inventions and inventors. When sitting in the circle it was curious that the students sat on the floor cross-legged and one of the students pulled up a chair automatically for the teacher. I found it interesting that the teacher had to sit on a chair while the students sat on the floor and looked up. Having just had read Freire this simple action spoke to me.  I too pulled up chair since it seemed like the “right” thing to do. It felt odd to me but the students and teacher didn’t seem to react too much to this action.