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. 
Saul I can relate to you when you mention that some of your students are happy to speak to you in Spanish. My students feel the same, they start speaking to me in Spanish and they tell me their nationality, they get so excited. One student told me she would bring me money from her country so that I could see it. Unfortunately she brought it a day I wasn't there. But I think that has been one of the biggest connections to my students as well.
ReplyDeleteSaul & Maria, I think you would be great assets for not just your understanding of another language but for your lived experience outside of the "culture of power" and the insight it gives you into the lives of so many students in urban (and just not) schools in the US.
ReplyDeleteYes Saul I agree with your comments, I was furtunated to have students that needed help in spanish, my clases were bilingual so i helped my students in their native languange, they did not feel the culture of power to much. I happy to make a difference in their lifes in their own languange.
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