Thursday, October 25, 2012
Module 2
I have been working along side a teacher who has been a teacher for more than 15 plus years and her name is Danielle Gross and she teaches the 2nd grade. She is responsible for a total of 27 student by herself and from what I have observed she rarely gets assistants with her class. I have learned that out of the 27 student that she has today, 21 of them have been with her since kindergarten. So its like every year she teaches a different grade. This is a Chicago Public school and of course it is a under privelage school who lacks books and much resources, but she make it work for her class. She tends to takes her own money from time to time to provide her students with certain resources like different reading materials and phonics games that can be programmed to the computer in her class. I have learned that if the school can not provide certain resources that the students need, sometimes for the children to get the necessary skills that they must acquire you as the teacher may have to spend a little money to do so. I have also learned that with having this many student by her self she tends to form small groups when doing certain assignments, and children are arranged in groups by the levels of achievement. This is her way of help out the children and giving them one-on-one correspondence. From the looks of things it really works. Mrs. Gross told me that she has been forming small groups with-in her class for quite some time and she has came up with different strategies but this is the only one that has worked for her and she has stuck with this form of teaching for the past 7 years. I commend her because out of these 27 students she does not have a disruptive class. I believe because most of her students have been with her so long she knows what they will and won't do and the students as well know not to test her as well. She is firm and doesn't slack when it comes to teaching and she stays on her children about reading and the way they should speak.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have heard stories about CPS but I do not know anyone who works in the district. I feel for some of those children because it is not fair to not have the proper materials for education. I also work in a district that doesn't have a lot of money and I hear about how much these teachers are spending out of pocket. That is why I feel this is a profession that you really have to have a passion for beccause it's not for everyone. She sounds like an amazing teacher.
ReplyDeleteQueen,
ReplyDeleteWhat is your advocacy plan about? How is what you're observing connected to your advocacy plan? It's so sad that people in the state of IL only see the teachers (and their FTA President) on strike instead of what is really happening in the schools, especially in the schools that are in under privileged neighborhoods. There is a reason why Chicago has so many charter schools. Also,the money that is appropriated to the schools in the city of Chicago is so unfair. If the school is a magnate school or an A school - they get the money, books, best teachers etc. If the schools are poor they get minimum and that's where more support, finances, smaller class sizes etc. is needed.
Queen,
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the same teacher teaches different grades each year. In some ways I feel that this is a major benefit because the students do not have to start over with someone new. The teacher basically has already evaluated them previously. Knowing a child's background knowledge is golden. My cousin is a CPS teacher and we have discussed in the past how limited her resources were. I do find this to be a shame, not only for her but for the students as well. I feel that political agents that make decisions on our children's future do not even have a background in the field of education. Agendas are definitely disproportionate depending on which schools are doing better (which never really made sense to me). I think it is amazing that Mrs. Gross maintains a non-disruptive class of 27 students. I wonder how many of those children have IEP's out of curiosity. Thanks for sharing your information with us.
It is interesting that she has traveled with the same group of children for three grades and I think it is good. It's good in a way as to she knows what they are capable of and what to expect out of them and she makes sure that they are not slacking or getting lazy. If they had a new teacher she would have to learn their learning styles understand their behaviors and learn their strengths and weakness's. It crazy to me how these children have to suffer the way they do because they do not have the adequate supplies they need but these teachers make the best of what they have and try to teach these children the basis of what they need to know. But yes out of 27 student she has a total of 8 children who have IEP's and from what I have been observing she has her work cut out for her because their target goals are all some what different. Yet I commend the job she is doing and for her to motivate her self and to have been a teacher as long as she has she has to have the passion to get up every morning and do this.
DeleteI thought that now a day schools have the privileged of having the proper materials and resources for the needs of the learning children. It would be a great idea to advocate that the money of school district be disperses equal amounts to every school.So that the children have the proper material to learn and staff ratio to provide better teaching for every child no matter in what neighbor hood the school is located. Working along Mrs. Gross is great because she sounds dedicated to her job and make it work with what she is provided with. Teachers like that, should advocate to new teachers to give strategies and follow a dedication career in teaching.
ReplyDeleteSome schools do have the privilege of getting the necessary resources that they need, but you have some school that do not get as nearly as much as they should. I have done hours at many school some that were privilege and some not. There have been school that in a class of 30 students they may only have enough books for 12. So the books never leave the school and teachers may send copies of assignments home out of the book and have to make sure that she also make copies of directions so that they can understand the assignment that they have to do. That would do wonders for under privilege school to have the equal amount of funds that most privilege school get, but its not set up that way and things are done the way they are. One thing for sure its not enough voices heard from these under privilege school so nothing is done to help provide these children with the adequate supplies that they need.
Delete