Information Works RI

http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/default.asp

Prompt 1

As I left my house to drive to FNED Elementary School my nervous began to kick in. As I got closer and closer to the school they got worse. When I turned down the street that the school was on I was surprised! The area that the school was located in did not look like the best area. The school looked dark and it didn't have many windows. I parked on the busy street that was full with cars that I assumed belonged to faulty at the school. I walked around the school to the door expecting that I would have to be buzzed in, but there was no buzzer, the door was unlocked. I walked in and walked into the office. I signed in and the secretary told me would to get to Mrs. Miley's classroom. As I walked through the hallways I noticed that the walls where filled with tile mosaics. The small broken pieces of tile were fit together to make pictures and saying. I thought it was creative. Most of the pictures were inspirational, focusing on making a difference, and playing a positive role in the world. I thought these were very important things to show in elementary schools so that kids learn these things at a young age.

As I walked down the hall almost at classroom 29 a teacher was with her class standing outside the bathrooms. She looked at me and said "Classroom 29?". I said yes and we introduced ourselves. She seemed very nice. I looked at the line of boys and girls and saw that every student was different. She told me to go to the classroom they would be right behind me. The classroom was not that small but every inch of space was filled. Books and papers were stacked on desks and book shelves. Once I thought about it I realized the whole school seemed that way. Most of the students desks where in groups, but there were a few random desks that were placed against walls or against the teachers desks. I thought to myself these must be the bad students in class. I expected that once they got back we would talk more and I would spend the first day just observing the class and getting familiar. I was wrong!! As soon as the classroom walked in the teacher assigned me to a group of kids, gave me there work packets, and told me there was a desk in the hallway that we could sit at. So i figured after the work was done I would get my time to just sit in the classroom and watch.

The students and I went into the hallway were they was a desk at the end. We sat and opened the work pages. Quickly it came to my attention that the hallways in this school were busy. The students were often distracted by classes walking by. Again and again I would have to remind the students of what we were doing, but the student just didn't seem interested. It was clear that the students were at all different levels of learning. Some students didn’t need help with the reading and some students were only at the level of sounding out letters. I was difficult to help all the students at once because some were moving so slow and some needed tons of help.

It a little more than an hour to finish the packet since the children would get off topic easily, and because some students were so behind. When we went back into the classroom the teacher looked up and said "You got a paper I need to sign". I was in shock. I thought to myself am I done already? She doesn't even want to talk and get to know me? I gave her my paper and she said goodbye. I couldn't believe thats how she acted on my first day there! I hoped that next time would be different as I drove away from the school.