Experience Is the Best Teacher – “Shaping my Teaching Identity”

The service learning experience was a great lean into the world of educating. It was a true test of my patience and taught me things that would not have been possible to fully grasp by just taking a college course. Overall, the process was somewhat frustrating at times, mostly in the beginning, but each week became more comfortable. For all the times I felt lost and stuck for an idea to make Maggie or Nikko understand, the moment when they did finally make that link and suddenly understand was so worth every minute of frustration. I remember there was a day I was trying to teach syllables to Nikko, and he kept getting stuck on “tion”. I wanted him to get it on his own rather than give him the answer right away so I kept writing a few letters in front of the word until we hit one he recognized. On the third or fourth try I put the letters “vaca” in front of the syllable and Nikko smiled for a few seconds before exclaiming “Vacation!” and from then on he has pronounced “tion” with no problems. It may be a minute story but I could tell in his eyes how proud of himself he was, and I was very proud as well.
Another thing that really stuck with me was the constant yelling coming from multiple rooms in just the hallway I tutored in alone. I understand that children can be hard to handle at times, but I thought they took it too far at times. After being in Eli Elementary for a few months now, I decided that being stern is going to be essential at times, however I never want to be like these teachers who have to scream at children in order to gain control and respect. There are many other approaches to gaining respect and positive participation that are just as if not more successful than demanding authority by yelling and screaming at children, who often aren’t trying to be a nuisance but actually do not understand what is expected of them.
After directly interacting with students while presuming a role similar to that of their teacher, I believe even stronger than before how important it is to get to know your students personally, and how much more of an impact the lessons will have on them if it incorporates things they can relate to their cultural background and personal interests. Ira Shor writes in her article”Education is Politics” that “Learning cannot be reduced to purely intellectual activity. It is more than a mental operation and more than facts or ideas transmitted by books or lectures. Education is a complex experience of one kind or another”. Shor pushes the argument that if students have a negative opinion about school and teachers in general, they will not put forth the effort it takes to really grasp and comprehend the basic foundations of education needed to build upon and get the best education they can. The teachers at Eli Elementary were going about discipline the wrong way because by yelling at the students for everything they do, they are obviously going to build a negative opinion of the teachers, and thus their lessons, rules, and everything else that comes out of their mouths. Furthermore, these kids who are acting out against teachers in elementary school, may grow up to be negative and defiant towards all authority figures later in life and end up experiencing seriously rough lives as a result of the consequences.

Demolishing Linguistic Barriers in Schools

Language barriers are a serious setback in many inner city schools because if a child cannot understand the lessons in which the teacher is trying to convey, they will be completely lost and fall so far behind that it will be near impossible to catch up later in life. Throughout my service learning experience at Eli Elementary school, I myself did not experience a communication hurdle because both Nikko and Maggie spoke fluent English with only small accents which did not seem to affect their learning in a substantial way.
On one occasion, I was able to observe a portion of a lesson where Ms. Leslie incorporated Spanish into a reading lesson. The children were reading along to an audio story spoken in English. Some of the dialogue communicated by the characters was verbalized in Spanish, but the English translation of the word was made very clear. This approach was effective and caught my attention because it taught the non-Spanish speaking students some new Spanish words, while also bringing in some native culture for the children who are accustomed to speaking Spanish outside of the classroom. This must make these students feel so much more comfortable and hopefully proud of their linguistic and cultural background.
Personally, I asked both of the children I work with regularly which language they speak at home. I feel that in order to be an effective teacher to them, and form a relationship of trust and respect, I must get to know important things about them, where they are from, and what their interests are. They also are entitled to ask questions about me and my life, getting to know more about me than merely my name and career goal. As soon as I opened up to Nikko and Maggie, they immediately felt more comfortable around me and more enthusiastic about the lessons and activities I brought for them.
One theorist which instantaneously struck me as relatable to the above points was Johnson and his theories on silenced and marginalized voices. Johnson stresses the importance of celebrating difference and brings to light the tendencies of humans to be apprehensive of the unknown and prejudiced toward those different from ourselves, or the majority population in a setting. He states that “As participants (of systems of privilege), we usually find that the easiest path is to do what is expected of us, and so long as most people do what they are expected to do most of the time, they dynamic relationship between people and social systems will produce the consequences that make up the history and everyday details of racial privilege and oppression”. Here Johnson is outlining the idea that if society is teaching children that they are only supposed to be speaking English, however another language is being spoken in their households, they will most likely feel as though their culture is the “wrong” one, thus being oppressed.