Cultural Diversity Setting - Lower Income City School

During my trip in the state of Baja California Sur, Mexico, I had the opportunity to observe schools, students, and teachers in three different schools in Mexico: a lower income city school, a higher income city school, and a rural school.  Below is my description of the Lower Income City School.

Lower Income City School:

• English Pilot Program
• They are a good school for the school that they are
• This school is recognized by the government nationally
• More extracurriculars 
• Uniforms
• Some students have uniforms
• Some students do not because their families cannot afford them
• Kids feel free to get up and move
• Lots of doing
• Students feel free to randomly get out of their seats
• Loud classroom
• Kids leave fairly freely for the bathroom (banos) 
• Happy Students
• School used to end at 12:30 but now ends at 2:30 pm
• English teacher doesn't see a difference
• Teacher yelled at students to be quiet
• Frequently yells over the students
• Students do not always follow along with the teacher
• Some students not paying attention
• Teacher repeats himself a lot
• Children talk a lot while teacher is teaching
• Does not seem to bother the teacher
• School in a tough neighborhood

• Normal for them to see drugs
• Shooting down the street a month ago (normal)
• Students have a hard life (low income)
• School becomes the safe place in town
• Teacher tries to teach English but hard so teacher in both English and Spanish

• Looked something up on Google with his phone
• Students up and moving
• Teacher is a good artist
• Lice problem in school
• Hangs grades up on board 
• 2 recess times
• Fence around the school
• 1-2 armed guards
• Gate into the school
• Teacher announced class is over and the students didn't do anything
• Long school days

• Used to go home for lunch but now they have longer school days and students stay for "lunch"
• Helps keep the students off the streets and in school
• No cafeteria
• Students bring their own lunch
• Ice cream stand 
• Lunch and recess at the same time
• Two scheduled breaks
• They play music over the loudspeakers when they want students to return to the classrooms
• The English Pilot Program teachers move from room to room and the rest stay.
• Classroom
• Colorful walls
• Posters
• Bars on the windows
• Small Classrooms
• Coloring and Games
• Date (Hoy es Lunes 11 de Marzo de 2013)
• What's your name?  My name is...
• 5th/6th Grade Classrooms
• SmartBoard
• 5th and 6th grade classrooms only
• Students clean their own classroom
• No janitor
• Trash cans in each aisle
• Not as much on the walls as the kindergarten/1st grade classrooms
• Lots of time in the classroom doing nothing

• teacher makes assignments very simple and spends the whole time on them
• Workbook page 64...
• invitations, telephone calls, favors, etc. 
• Vocabulary Word List worktime
• "repeat after me" vocabulary words
• Students like to draw the words and draw in general
• Verb Game
• The team gets a verb and teams have to guess the verb in English
• Teacher says that this is the only way they learn the verbs
• Teacher's desk is messy like many US ones are
• There is a teacher's desk in this room but not all of them have a teacher's desk
• Teacher has to talk loud and over the students
• She raises her hand and the students are supposed to quiet down
  
• Some students have cell phones
• Many students love Justin Bieber
• When the students play games, they fight because they get competitive 
• The students get excited when they see something new
• Students in her classroom can only use the bathroom if they have finished their work
• Student's make birthday cards to practice making invitations
• Teacher said that the student's are kind of lazy
• (side personal opinion comment: you should never say this about your students!)
• A lizard appeared in the classroom and all the students screamed, including Kayleen.  I sat and watched with amusement as one brave student picked it up and brought it outside.