Prompt #7

The experience of being a tutor at an elementary school has helped to shape my teaching identity. First, I did not know that I like to work so much with little children. I was a little apprehensive at first, because I had never tutored children from elementary schools, with the exception of my nephew. Second, I enjoy seeing the progress of my students; that is something rewarding to me. However, it is even more rewarding to help the children who struggle the most. Although, “Pepito” does not like to work in and out of school; it was great to see him working on some math problems, most importantly “see him trying”.

I am a patient person, but like everyone, sometimes it challenging to teach when I am frustrated with the student. One day I was frustrated with “Pepito” because he was being a little rude to me and did not want my help. That day, I could not work with him as I wanted because of my frustration. As I could see my frustration affecting my ablity to teach, I decided to discuss the incident with the math coach to get her guidance as a more experienced teacher. I asked her how she deals with students’ misbehaviors; she said that teachers need to have tough skin. It is true; one cannot let emotions take over when teaching. Otherwise, one may lose the ability to teach well.

I wonder how difficult it must be for a teacher who wants to help every single student, and knows that teachers can only do so much. That is why I believe that teachers need to work in a network of support with other teachers, administrators, and principals to reach common goals. Some of those goals could be decreasing the problems with bullying, trying to get involved parents in their children’s education, or just focusing on teaching respect and citizenship.  

I do not have a personal experience with curricula, but I have heard that some schools have strict a strict curriculum, particularly in math and English. I believe that having a strict curriculum and many deadlines can inhibit teacher’s creativity. As a future teacher, through my teaching, I would like the opportunity to encourage children’s creativity, and teach respect and while teaching the required content.

I want to teach not only academics, I want to make a difference. I believe I have the power to make a difference by teaching students about respect, or encouraging them to follow their dreams. I know that I have to learn many things to be a great teacher, but as Mike said “one needs to have an open mind and also sensitivity” to help students.   

Prompt #4

My perception of my school is that there are many poor and middle class students in it. I can share my middle class experiences with the students. Something that I can tell them is how hard I have worked in this country to learn the language and adjust to another culture. Hopefully that will help encourage my students to work even harder. I know that for some students it is difficult school because of poverty, lack of food and clothing, bullying, etc.  Those are some of the challenges that I as future teachers might face.

I think that because I am part of the Latino minority, some students somehow identify themselves with me. In this service learning I once tutored a boy who was Latino, and my other students have been African Americans. One day my Latino student and his cousin talked Spanish with me for a few minutes. I think that they were excited to see a Spanish speaker tutoring them in Math. I believe that I have things in common with my students such as our foreign cultural roots, learning English as a second language, learning about the American culture, and specially trying to belong to the “culture of power”. I believe that those are some advantages as a future teacher. Some things I could use to relate to all students are likes, dislikes, the media, and music, among others.  

Before I started doing my service learning, I had a couple of misconceptions. I thought that because I was going to work with fourth graders, things were going to be easy. I was wrong. Although I like children, they can be tough sometimes. My student “Pepito” got me frustrated a couple of times because he did not have respect for people, and did not want to do his work. I am inexperienced at working with children with behavioral issues. I try to help all students the best I can. Another misconception was that I thought I was going to be helping some children in Spanish, due to the fact that there are many Latinos in the district. I was wrong; the Latino students at my school spoke English better than Spanish, which is great so that they can succeed in the US.