SL Blog #2 (Prompt 1)

When I first drove up to my SL Project elementary school, I noticed that the school was set right in the middle of the city. Buildings are in very close confinement to one another, and the elementary school is set in a lower class neighborhood. I also noticed that there was trash and litter outside of the school, even on the steps that led to the main office. There was also no landscaping.

The space and structure of the school was very unfamiliar to me, the configuration was huge, extending three stories high. However, there was no playground for the children to play in. When recess came, the children used a space that could pretty much be summed up as an empty lot with a fence around it.

When entering the classroom, I immediately felt welcome by the teacher and students. The space in the classroom was well used, the walls covered with mathematical vocabulary words and children's art work. The desks were separated into groups so that the students could network with one another while taking advantage of the space in the classroom. When teaching lessons the teacher used the over-head projector. For example, when learning how to measure angles with a protractor, the teacher drew different angles and displayed them to the class using the over-head projector.

The children in the classroom were predominately Black and were diverse in their academic abilities. Some children had IEPS and needed help with their daily class work, while others, could have been in the gifted program. Unfortunately, the gifted program had been removed from the school due to lack of funding. I also learned that some of the children's academic abilities differ due to a strained home life. One child was a selective mute, which made it difficult to communicate with him, because of experiencing a traumatic incident earlier in his life. All of the students however, had trouble staying in their seats and concentrating on one subject for a long time. As we read in Susan Engel's argument, What it Takes to Become a Great Teacher, factors such as low socio-economic levels (which is seen in the school's neighborhood), and poor family life can all influence the way a child learns.

The teacher was very friendly and explained her reasons for why she taught each lesson the way that she did. All of her lessons depended on the academic ability of her students, and how long the students could concentrate on that subject. In order to create these specialized lesson plans, the teacher personally knew each student and their learning disabilities as well as specialities. This gave me a great feeling about the school, knowing that this teacher put so much time into making her students understand what she was teaching. Making the students feel comfortable enough to learn was definitely something valued in her classroom. For this classroom teacher, the value of knowing that her students were learning in a stable environment ranked higher than the value of high test scores.

Unfortunately, according to www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu , this elementary school ranks below the state's target index score in Mathematics and English language arts. However, due to this 4th grade teacher, and the elementary school's value of having their students attend a stable, comfortable environment, this has increased the attendance of most students. According to www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu , this elementary school ranks higher in attendace rate than the state's attendance target.