prompt 7

Volunteering at X High School has been a wonderful experience. Learning how to interact with students and how to talk to them is helpful. The one story I gave you earlyier was talking to the girl with the child. She is very proud of her little one. She is raising her the way she feels she needs to be raised . She's not raising her the way anyone else tells her to. She may be getting advice from people but thats just advice. She can take it or can not take it. The way I talked to her though is amazing. I told her she should be proud of what she is doing. Staying in school and having a child is hard yet she's doing it. She wants to make her child proud of her. She wants to give her child the world. Not all expeirences that I had in the classrooms were great though for instance the teacher wasn't there one day and they had other teachers subbing throughout the day. There was this one girl (we will call her student I) that was holding the door closed on two other students. And I told her repeated times that she needs to let them sit down, Both times she said hang on a minute miss. And I said you need to open the door and sit down. She finally ended up listening but sat down and started talking to another student. She started to say that I was yelling at her. I told her I wasnt yelling at her. I was talking to her calmly. She said I wasn't the teacher. I said I was the only adult in the classroom and I was responsible for you so thats why I was telling her what to do. Being a teacher is something that I definatly want to do. But teaching high school students is something I don't want to do while they would understand things more it might be harder to get through to them more. Im sure they would be good students its just that high school is not my thing. Learning different aspects of teaching is great like how to come up with lesson plans and how to actually teach. I think the best part will be once I become a teacher actually seeing my students work finished then I would know or it would be shown that I know how to teach and my students know how to learn.

Prompt 6

The studnets could be learning things each and every single day and all year. If you sit down and actually listen to the students they mite just listen to you.. For instance if they are sharing there story with you listen to them dont just ignore them and not pay attention to them. When students want to talk about something they want to talk about it. They should be able to get their feelings out. They should be able to share what they want to talk about when they want to talk about it. For instance when I was sitting with one of the children student x and working on the assignment. I said wow your drawing is really nice. Who is in that picture that you drew of? The picture that she drew was of her child. Sitting down and talking with her. I realize that it would be very hard to b a teen mom. While talking with student X I realize that life is hard in general yet here she is staying in school and getting her education. She is trying to provide the best for her child just like her mom is trying to provide the best for her. Parents and teachers or even volunteers should show that they care. they should show that somethings mean alot to others. Ms. X is sometimes understanding to students but not always sometimes when students need help they can't find it. They have to wait forever to get help from a teacher. I remember when I was a student in high school and if teachers used to ignore students that have questions it would annoy me especially if I was that student. If I was to sit down and discuss with Ms. X about how students felt it would be a long and drawn out talk. I was talking with one student one day and she said I like you bette then Ms. X and I said why. She said it was because of the fact that I helped them more. They liked the fact that I listened to them as people not just as students.

prompt 5

In working with the parents of the children I would think it would be extremly hard or moderatly easy to work with them. It definatly depends on the parent. One parent can be nice and easy to work with. Another could be extremly difficult and hard to work with. One parent may bring up their child much more differently then another. This could come in to major affect. Say if Ms. X was doing a art assignment on the lgbt community there could be a uproar for some parents. In some peoples eyes being gay is "wrong" or "its a disease" or "you can't be born gay". None of these are true. While the teacher had given rules and lessons.. Rules and lessons should invovle more action. They should involve the children. A childs thoughts processe insite as to wear the school. is and what they are doing in order to look at each problem. you could talk to each parent and see what their views are. A person can try and work with the parent to see what the difference is or how many differences are in this town. Some parents might not like what the teachers are teaching. They might go up to the teachers and say "I don't like what you are teaching my child. This could happen a lot. When this does happen you hav to try and talk it out with the parent. Try and see how the issue can be resolved. See why things happen the way they happen. Parents might realize that they could be doing something while not getting along with anyone. They could help someone out with situation that could be harmful or hurtfull. I think if people were more educated they would be able to handle more.

prompt 3

Ms. X is a very cultural competent teacher. She involves everyones culture in the classroom. With such projects as the mask project and the still life project. The still life project is where the students chose things that meant alot to them things that were meaningful in their life. They chose objects that were part of their life and culture. These objects showed who they are as people and what these things meant to them. The way the children talk in the classroom is deplorable. The N word is dropped basically in every sentence. They use the word gay as a word to mean stupid. The students say that this is part of there vocabulary. How can these offensive words be part of your vocabulary? I think I know what they think. They are trying to take the N word back and make it their own. This needs to stop trying to take a derogatory term and make it your own is wrong. Say if a person called a student the N word some people might think they call each other it so why cant we call them by it. This needs to stop. Using the word gay needs to stop also gay does not mean stupid. It is very offensive to the LGBT community. People need to know that this word and using it in that context needs not to be in their vocabulary. I think if the teacher Ms. X was more responsive to this they would stop using these words. In my eyes Ms X should be more helpful or more strict. More than once in her class I had to tell the children not to use that language that it offends people. But they just don't want to listen. I think that the students would pay attention more if the teacher was more responsive . Even if they started off early like in kindergarten teaching children that these words are wrong to use or wrong to use in certain contexts. I think that if the teacher had lessons involving students culture it would make it more fun for students.

Prompt 1

The school that I began volunteering at was A High School. A High School has only been open for a few years. The school is nice. Some things they still do not have yet. They are still pretty new so they have to raise money for things by having fund raisers like hat day and selling candy. Its a nice neighborhood. The shopping center next door is closed. There is a Popeye's down the street. The school feels warm and friendly. The teachers there seam to be very welcoming. The classroom has about 25 students in it. Most of the students are very kind. I think if you come at them differently and you actually give them a chance that they will be willing to learn. If you are negative about them or you have a negativde attitude towards them (I don't like the first class the teacher) they probably wont listen to you. If you stay positive towards them and give them feed back and pay attention to them they will most likely listen to you. I think that it was easier for me than it was for ms.x because I am a younger in age so I can relate better to them. The whole thing is the fact also that teachers are so stricted I think they are so stricked because they have to be although I do not think that they should be strict all the time. I think that if music helps children concentrate then they should be able to listen to it. Phones however should not be allowed in the classroom. Jonathan Kozol is related to this entry because schools should be able to have the funds to get whatever they need for their students. They should not have to raise the funds to have for their students. The funds should already be there. Teachers like Ms. X should not have to take money out of pocket and be buying her art students the material they need. The art supplies and anything else they need should be available.

About Me

So this is about me. My name is Emily Eastwood. I am a 23 year old college student. One thing that I can tell you about myself is that I am a lesbian. This is who I am it is not a choice nor a lifestyle. Why would I chose to be picked on or thrown out of my house. No one would chose this. Another thing about me is family. The one person that I was close to in my life was my brother Aaron. Aaron passed away in december 2008 from duchenne muscular dystrophy. He was the one person I could talk to about anything. Now that the one person I could talk to is gone I have to talk to other people. This is very upsetting to me but it is something that I have to go through. I am a art education major and I feel like im going to be in school for forever. School is something that I want though. I want to be able to hold my head high. I want to be able to say I did it. I want to be able to tell all the people that said I wouldn't make it that I did. I want to be able to accomplish something out of life. I want to live life to the fullest. I want to be able to help out. I want to make a difference. I want something out of life. I want my life to amount to something. I like to think that one day the world will change. That people will get along but this is a high hope people wont be able to just get along like normal. Why does there have to be so much hate in the world? Why must people go through what they have to go through. I know that I have been through alot in my life. I have had to grow up alot faster then people my age. With that said I wish that during my time as a adult I can make a huge difference. I don't get along with my parents at all but that's how life goes