I decided I would observe Rhoads Pond this last time with my eyes closed. After the wonderful experience of "seeing" the campus with Carmen, I had the desire to do the same with my site-"sit."

It was unnerving! Especially the last part. The first part was still calm. I took a deep breath, dropped my bag, closed my eyes, and went. I had my hands in front of me. It was really pretty cold but I didn't want to wear my gloves because that would numb my sense of touch which I frankly couldnt' afford. Walking my site "blind" was a bit intimidating. I didn't have the reassurance of a 15 person class to hold onto. But I could go at my own pace which helped. The first place I reached was the tree I had initially chosen as my spot to sit in the beginning of the semester, the one situated right outside the pond fence. This whole endeavor was interesting because it was a place that I am so familiar with now visually. This was a test of that familiarity. As I felt the branches, I found it soothing to have something to hold onto. I surprised myself by knowing the shape of the tree pretty well. I reached up and grabbed onto branches I knew were there; as I slowly circled the tree I guessed the location of the bumps and the branches and knew when to duck underneath an overhanging part. I definitely leaned on it at one point, in a sort of hug. I was able to recognize where the extra growth was and use that to orient myself when I started leaving the tree to walk toward the fence. 

What? I worked individually with Child F because the teacher said that he did not know how to draw his letters, which is something that the rest of the class was working on at the carpet. It took SO MUCH COAXING on my part until Child F even let go of his white board marker to begin. In the beginning, I drew a letter and then asked him to draw the same one (we were actually only working on the lower case “a”) but he would just start scribbling. Eventually, every time he drew it correctly I whisper-yelled “BAM!” which he thought was funny. It encouraged him to fill an entire white board with lower case “a” and then half of a board with lower case “b”s. During this entire session, I was basically chanting “BAM BAM BAM”

Later, when the entire class was sitting down to write stories, I tried to help this same student again. He refused to accept my help or listen to what I was saying. He squirmed excessively, got up from his seat, scribbled all over his work, and got yelled at by the teacher. Even though he had been receptive to my help about 40 minutes before this, in this setting where the entire class was working on the same thing, he seemed inclined to refuse to participate and create a mini-scene in the classroom (note: this is the same student who took off all his clothes on my first visit to the classroom).

What? The volunteer grandmother interrupts the teacher and talks very informally to the students, often scolding the ones she knows but not those that she does not know well. On one of my visits, she scolds her granddaughter very loudly and rather aggressively in front of the entire class. During this same visit (# 7), she tells a different child that she knows to “shut up.” Similarily, she also reminds the teacher of which children in the class have “bad tempers” or “bad attitutes.”

So What? They dynamic between the lead teacher and the volunteer grandmother seems strange to me, as though the lead teacher resents the grandmother but the grandmother wishes very much to be heard and have authority. It is difficult for me not to judge some of the grandmother’s behaviors---like the “shut up” comment and some of the aggressive or mean things she says to other students that she knows in the class (I’m guessing they all live in the same neighborhood”) about calling their parents or keeping their temper in control-----because they just seem terribly inappropriate. Publically labeling certain kids as “bad” seems inappropriate teacher behavior, but the grandmother does this all the time. One of the class mottos is to be “a peaceful problem solver” but I don’t feel like either the teacher-grandmother or grandmother-students relationship is providing a good example of this for the students.