80 Hour Practicum - Day Two

Today was my second day in my first grade classroom with my cooperating teacher.  She let me lead a spelling test today which was a nice opportunity to get in front of the classroom.

I asked the students to get out their privacy folders and set them up while my cooperating teacher and I passed out the spelling test papers.  Then I went in front of the class and asked them to point to their names on the top of their paper and make sure they had their name written down.  From there I would say the question number, the word, the word in a sentence, and the word again.  Then, I would pause till most of the students stopped writing and then went onto the spelling word.

Later in the day, my cooperating teacher gave me some feedback.  She said that she did not give me enough directions because she also wanted the students to say the word back to me and point to the word in order to make sure they were writing on the right line.

I also talked to my cooperating teacher about how I could be in front of the classroom even more.  She had me pick a Bernstein Bear book to practice reading so I could read it to the class next Friday morning.  She also had me watch the morning routine so that I could lead the morning routine in the following weeks.

Overall, I had a really good day and got to know the students better.  I was glad to be able to get in front of the classroom and be able to start practicing teaching the students.

80 Hour Practicum - Day One

September 6th, 2013

Today was my first day in my first grade classroom with my cooperating teacher.  I am planning on spending a full school day each Friday until I reach 80 hours.

The first topic I want to write about is in regards to making connections.  I am striving to answer the following questions: How are teachers/adults making connections with students?

My cooperating teacher has many strategies for making connections with students.  She first and foremost, knows their names.  She even knows names of past students and greets them in the hallway at the beginning and end of the day.  Students will not feel a connection with you if you do not know their name.  During my first day, I worked hard to learn and remember the names of the students I am working with and many of the students mentioned that they were excited that I knew their name already and I had only been there a day.  

In addition to knowing student names, my cooperating teacher has a weekly poster template that she sends home with a student each week.  Each student will get a turn but not in the same week.  This poster is a get-to-know-me poster where the selected student writes about themselves and makes the poster colorful so they can come back to school on Monday and share about themselves to the class.  She started off the year by having an example poster and sharing about herself.  These posters allow the students and the teacher to share and learn about each other, making connection between students and creating a stronger classroom community.

Overall, it is very apparent that my cooperating teacher cares about her students.  Her care comes out in the way she talks to other teachers about them, how and what she talks to her students about, and what she has shared with me throughout my first day.  She also invests a significant amount of her own money on her students so they have more learning opportunities beyond the budget she gets from the school.  I find this very noble and dedicated.  She inspires me to be the best teacher I can be.

Thank you,

Olivia 

Influence of Specific Observations and Experiences

     Overall, this cultural diversity practicum expanded my experiences with diversity and provided me with experiences that correlate with my academic and personal understanding of diversity.  Throughout this whole experience, both inside and outside of the school environment, I was in a completely new culture.  I absorbed countless amounts of information and learned just as many things about myself, Mexican culture, and teaching in Mexican elementary schools.
     Specifically, there are a number of experiences I would like to highlight.  Firstly,  the fact that I had the opportunity to observe at three different schools of varying locations and socioeconomic statuses allowed me the opportunity to directly compare and contrast the three schools through their supplies, facilities, and quality of teaching.  I found that the higher income city school had the best facilities and provided their students with nutritional meals, which correlates with their higher socioeconomic status.  I found that the personal supplies the students had was pretty standard across the board.  Most students had a pencil, notebook, and workbook.  The rest was variable.  Overall, I found the rural school to have the highest quality of teaching.  Of all the teachers we observed, she was the most passionate and dedicated to her job and never said anything negative about her students.  She fought to get her students basic materials and cares deeply about providing education to her students.  I did not see this with the other teachers.  Some of them seemed to be there just for the paycheck and some seemed burnt out and had negative opinions of their students.  It was hard to watch some of the teachers, particularly one of the teachers who, when the regular teacher never showed up for work, decided to let her students have an extended recess and not teach them because she didn't feel like it and they were hard to deal with.  I found this really disappointing.  Through seeing these different schools, I got a significant picture of the diversity in Mexican schools in supplies, facilities, and quality of education/teaching.
     As for my disposition toward the students I observed, it was nice to see when students were excited to learn.  I found this the most at the rural school because of Ericka Flores, a passionate teacher who was able to engage her students and get us involved in the activities   I was able to help one of her classes write a party invitation and sat on a panel in another class to ask and answer questions.  It was wonderful and they were definitely my favorite students to interact with.  The students even came up to us during break time and asked us how to pronounce their names in English.  Overall, I had really pleasant experiences with the children and it was wonderful to get to know some of them.
     The things I learned are countless and I will be constantly using what I learned in my future classes and classroom.  Overall, one of the biggest things I learned is how to be okay with being outside of my comfort zone for a significant amount of time.  This will help me be significantly more comfortable in future experiences where I have to go with the flow in a classroom or have an unexpected experience.  Learning that skill is invaluable.
     Thank you,

    Olivia Brownson

Mexico Trip - Day Ten

March 16, 2013

     Today was our last full day in Mexico.  Some of the group went to the beach but I decided to take a personal day and chill at the hotel.  I slept in and got a late lunch with Dina, who also stayed back to get some necessary work done.  After that, I used Kayleen's computer to upload a significant amount of my pictures and videos from the trip to Facebook while watching a movie.  It was a very relaxing day overall and a great way to regroup and prepare for the flight home the next day.

     Around dinner time that night, everyone came back and we all had dinner together.  I wasn't super hungry and didn't feel super well so I didn't eat much but it was nice to sit down and have a meal with everyone.  After that, some of the group wanted to go back out on the town but I had had enough on the town activities for the weekend so I stayed back and continued relaxing.  It was wonderful.
     I packed up all my stuff and got ready for bed so that I would be relaxed, packed, and ready to go home in the morning.

Mexico Trip - Day Nine

March 15, 2013

     Today is the day that we traveled from La Paz to Los Cabos.  We woke up after getting to sleep in a bit and finished packing our stuff and checked out the Seven Crown - Malecon.  Check out took a while but that was fine with me because we all chilled on the beach for a while, while Dina and Tony took care of the finance side of things.
     After we checked out, we hopped in the van and began our drive from La Paz to Los Cabos.  On the way we stopped in Todos Santos again and I got my chance to buy the natural homemade honey for my boyfriend, Justin.  In addition to this, we got a chance to stop, see, and walk around the Hotel California.  This hotel was really beautiful and I took a significant amount of photos.
     Across the street from the Hotel California was a little shop where I was able to find a beautiful blue moon-sun vase to bring back home as a personal souvenir.  I was a little short on pesos and the merchant was nice enough to give it to me a little cheaper because he could see how much I loved it.  I was and am really grateful for that because it is one of my favorite items that I bought.
     After we finished up in the store, we hopped back in the van and finished our drive to Los Cabos.  We checked into our beautiful hotel.  This hotel was probably my favorite hotel that we stayed at.  It was cozy, welcoming, and beautiful (and the food there was delicious).  I was able to take a little time to get settled in and relax.  Then, it was time for us to go on the boat.
     Some of our tour guides decided that it would be fun to give us the Cabo experience by taking us on a boat tour of the arch.  This boat was large, had a delicious dinner prepared, and a plethora of beverages.  There was music and dancing and many many pictures of the arch and I had a blast.  It was wonderful.  We got to watch the sunset while on the boat.
     After the boat tour ended, our group walked the boardwalk in order to check out some of the places nearby.  As we were walking along the boardwalk, many small children came up to us trying to sell little trinkets.  It was hard to refuse them but we had to because they are being forced to work to make money that typically will make it back to the mobs and gangs around.  It is really really sad.
     From there we checked out a number of different places (restaurants, bars, etc.) to get a feel for the nighttime culture in Los Cabos.  It was really fun to be able to relax and just have fun with little worries.
     After a while, Kayleen wanted to head back to the hotel to change before heading back out.  I was grateful for this because I was reaching my limit and was ready to hit the hay.  So while some of the group went back out on the town, I got ready for bed and had a wonderful sleep.  

Mexico Trip - Day Eleven (Last Day)

March 17, 2013

     Our last day began with waking up, finishing packing, and checking out of our hotel in Cabos.  After we checked out of our hotel, we drove to San Jose and found a place to stop for breakfast.  We stopped at a cute little outdoor restaurant (almost every restaurant we went was not fully enclosed.  There was always part of it outside) where I had some delicious breakfast and a smoothie.
     After we finished breakfast, we arrived at the airport and spent a long time getting our bags checked, going through customs, etc.  Once we got on the plane, I settled in to read my book and take a nap.
     We landed in Denver, Colorado at the Denver airport and had to go through customs again and spent a couple hours in line to officially arrive back in the United States.  Then, we had a 5-7 hour layover in Denver till we could board the plane to Fargo, North Dakota.
     We were all hungry while we were waiting so we stopped at a cafeteria-like place for some food.  I had some macaroni and cheese and it was so delicious after not having it for a long time.  I was a very happy camper.  I was even happier when we stopped at Ben and Jerry's for some United States ice cream.  The ice cream in Mexico was good but not as good as some cookies and cream ice cream in the states.  After that, I was satisfied to wait the hours till we could board the plane.
     After the ice cream, we walked to the other side of the airport to find our gate.  Then we found a seat and got comfortable.  Some of us took a nap, some went to the bar upstairs.  As for me, I sat down and started reading one of my books for class.  After a couple hours we started finding out about how bad the weather in Fargo was getting.  We were worried that we would get delayed and not be able to make it to Fargo in time to attend classes on Monday.

    We ended up getting a 13 minute delay and had a stressful landing in Fargo but arrived close to on time, which was nice.  Even nicer was that classes were cancelled due to the weather so I had some time to regroup to Fargo before jumping back into the swing of things because we landed in Fargo Monday morning at 1am and I would have had class at 12 noon.
     When I was at the Baggage Claim picking up my bags, I got in contact with my boyfriend who was coming to pick me up.  After he parked, he came inside to greet me and had a big bouquet of flowers for me.  It was so sweet and I was so happy to see him that I ran across the airport room to hug him.  It was wonderful to see him.
     It was a wonderful and amazing trip that I loved but I was definitely glad to be home.

The end,

Olivia 

Evaluation and Recommendations

     I loved being a part of this Cultural Diversity Practicum/Mexico Trip.  I learned so much and got to experience so many new activities and moments.  I would definitely recommend to anyone that they should complete their Cultural Diversity Practicum outside of the United States because there is so much more that you can learn because not only are you in a new environment, you are in a different culture and country.  There are infinitely more things you can learn about not only teaching and diversity, but about yourself.  When you put yourself in a completely different and unfamiliar environment, you are forced to live outside your comfort zone and you may discover something about yourself that you didn't know before.  For me, I am much more comfortable going into a school and being asked to do something on the fly now than and I was before.
     There is hardly anything that I would recommend for improving the experience.  I really only have one.  It would be nice to have the days you go to the three different schools in Mexico be spread out a bit more instead of back to back because it can be a bit overwhelming since it is three different schools instead of the same school three days in a row.  You never really have time to settle into your environment and since they are so close together, it is really easy to get the details mixed up in your head.  Other than that, I had an amazing time and would recommend it to anyone and everyone.