Journal #6: Elementary School Visit

I had a very great day today at my elementary school. I came in to find that the teacher that is present in my classroom, was out for the day and there was a substitute. The children were not respecting the teacher, and her culture of power, as discussed in Delpit, was clearly being taken away do to lack of privilege given by the students. I grouped my children together and we worked on a matching and writing game with sight words. They seem to be getting a lot better with knowing sight words off hand, and the improvement is helping them when reading.

Then, we moved on the recognizing blends, as in: sh, ch, st, they have a hard time recognizing that you don't pull the syllables apart. While learning these, the kids started to get off track, and talk about how a girl in the class was Puerto Rican, but was "too" white. I kindly informed them that was not the task, and that it did not matter skin tone of a person, her heritage could be Puerto Rican. I could also relate this to talk of Rodriguez and that a person can loose their identity in main stream life.

I enjoyed teaching again today and I look forward to next week too because the kids seem to be making progress. They also wrote me little notes that said, "I love you." I must say, it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen.