School Context Assignment

Doing my service learning project in an urban community, also the community I grew up in, felt comfortable and exciting to me. I am comfortable with the community and I know from working in this community that the demographics are mostly Hispanic. The name of the school I am working with for my service learning project is Margaret I. Robertson School in the Central Falls School District. In doing my research for the demographic information of this school (research website provided by Dr. Bogad) I found data on a number of characteristics that represent the entire student body. I will begin with the ethnicity of the school: Hispanic 64% , 19% White and 17% Black. The classroom I am helping in has a breakdown of 12 Hispanic, 2 Portuguese, 1 Creole and 1 White child. Here is just a little background on the way I was thinking during my first visit. I had to be buzzed into the school because the door is locked during school hours. This is definitely something different than I experienced when I was going to grade school in Central Falls. I immediately had the attitude that if they needed security, it must be a tough school to attend. I also became aware that all of the teachers and staff in this school, that I came in contact with, were white. I thought this was an interesting sight knowing what we have read in class. I will start by talking about the space in the classroom. It is set up with desks more towards the center of the room in groups of four, with the four kids facing each other. The perimeter of the room has computers, bookcases, windows and a blackboard. The walls are decorated with work done by the students and several world maps. In analyzing the set up of the room, I would say by grouping the kids in this manner the teacher is promoting work by collaboration. The teacher may also be valuing that relationships being formed with the students and this is a way of making them feel more comfortable to attend school. Maps are a good learning tool and are spread throughout the classroom, this may be showing value to the different places in the world that the kids are all from. Also when parents enter the room it shows that maybe the place they came from is recognized and taught about in the classrooms of American schools making them feel good about their kids education in the United States. There is a bookcase filled with Spanish written books, which I think is a nice way of the school trying to recognize the students ethnicity and good community awareness. Curriculum and Pedagogy in this classroom, in my opinion, was very similar to what I learned in school. I think when we discuss the culture of power this is one of the problems in our diverse society today. The teacher hands out work sheets of math and literature and works the kids until they have completed the handout. Delpit talks about mandated testing for all students and how curriculum and teaching strategies are based strictly on raising test scores in urban communities. I see the teacher in this classroom definitely following the federal mandate and worrying about just getting the scores up. It is a little unfair of me to say this because I have not spent much time in this classroom but from my short time there it seems she is following the "status quo." I think the class I am helping has definite evidence of diversity in its space and structure but may be lacking in climate and curriculum from the analysis I have provided. The demographics of this school has affected me in one way and made me notice how much poverty is actually represented. Almost 90% of the kids in the entire school are eligible for a free lunch. When I was going to school in Central Falls , we were all able to brown bag a lunch and know what Mom packed us was something we were going to enjoy. These kids are at the mercy of the school and it saddens me that 9 out of 10 kids are at a poverty level that they need to be served breakfast and lunch by the school district. I was told these are the only meals some of these kids will get. This has definitely influenced my experience and it is my hope that when I start to teach I can help all cultures have a quality life in this sometimes unfair place.