Valió la Pena, Parte IV: An Indictment of All the People Who Ever Told You That You Couldn't Do Something

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I made a post to this blog. In that time, I have...
- had a birthday. woo hoo 22!
- made several new friends in this apartment and in classes.
- gotten hooked on several new television shows instead of doing homework
- started taking Cymbalta. I like to think of each pill as a stone in my sling against my giant.
- begun a education class "lab" at Burton Middle School.

So let's talk some more about this "lab." We are supposed to work with the students in the after-school program for 2 hours and create activities that promote literacy. The 30 students in the two EDUC 307 classes are spread out over the five days of the school week between Burton MS and Martin Luther King School. So far, at the end of a week and a half in our schools, the results range from "phenomenal success" to "Is that a plane I see crashing and burning on the ground?"

My partner Liz and I have found ourselves closer to the "phenomenal success" side of the spectrum. The first week was a bit chaotic because we didn't really know what was expected of us in terms of activities, perceived authority, and the fact that we were split up in different classes. Liz actually managed to get some stuff done with her students, but my students were pretty set on playing Guesstures for most of the class time. Nevertheless, I was able to learn a few of their names, hear about what they like to do, and get wild and crazy with the charades.

This week, things went MUCH more smoothly. Liz and I planned activities that would be engaging and interesting for the 6th graders that I worked with last week with the understanding that we would both stay in the 6th grade class. After two hours of word searches, math homework, Red Light Green Light, a game where each student had to ask questions and guess the name of the animal that was written on a card taped to his or her back, a dramatic/hysterical reading and acting out of The Frog Prince, and a game of Princess (formerly known as Hangman) where the princess neither dies nor gets injured, we decided that the afternoon was a success as far as literacy goes.

Miss Pat, the coordinator for the 6th graders, told us that she was very impressed with the organization, effort, and enthusiasm that the Calvin students have been bringing to the after-school program. For those that aren't familiar with Grand Rapids (or at least, its education system), Burton MS is what would be considered an inner-city school. Furthermore, the ethnic makeup of each class is predominantly African-American and Hispanic, which is a reflection of the population of that area of the city. There is not a single Caucasian student in our 6th grade after-school class. Families of Burton MS are on the lower end of the financial spectrum, and many are living below the poverty level.

An interesting factor that I hadn't given much thought to when we had "orientation" for our lab was the fact that the Burton MS area has a high Spanish-speaking population. And I'm a Spanish MAJOR! I didn't even consider what that would mean or how that would be manifested in a classroom. This week, when Liz and I were introducing ourselves, I mentioned that I was going to college to become a Spanish teacher. One of the other coordinators asked if I spoke Spanish, and I replied with

“Sí, hablo español. Viví en España el semestre pasado por cuatro meses y medio con una familia española, así que fue una experiencia de inmersión. Aprendí la mayoría de mi español allí, especialmente la conversación. Si ustedes creen que pueden hablar en español para evitar que los maestros no les entiendan y se confundan, no olviden que yo también hablo español.” (Yes, I speak Spanish. I lived in Spain last semester for 4 and a half months with a Spanish family, so it was kind of an immersion experience. I learned the majority of my Spanish there, especially conversation. If you guys think that you can speak in Spanish so that your teachers can't understand you and get confused, don't forget that I speak Spanish too.)

After that, there was sort of a power shift. I have a feeling that with some of the teachers, the students have a slice of power when it comes to language. They can speak a language that their teachers and other students don't understand, which means that they have a small piece of control in a situation where they typically wouldn't have control. Now that they know that I speak Spanish, I'm hoping that they will be discouraged from misbehaving. I already got a chance to test out this theory when one of the boys turned to his neighbor and told him he thought that our activity was dumb. I asked him, in Spanish, why he thought the activity was dumb, and he backed down from accusation. 

I'm also hoping that my Spanish can become a bridge to the students that we otherwise may not have been able to reach. While the students were working on a word search, I sat down with a few of the girls and started talking to them in Spanish. I asked if they'd be interested in doing bilingual activities if we could work in teams of English and Spanish speakers. Even though Burton MS is a bilingual school (signs and information are dispensed in both languages), the curriculum is not necessarily taught in both languages. They said they'd LOVE that because they don't get a chance to speak Spanish at school in class. One of the girls told me that she's not very good at language arts in English, which makes me wonder if language arts in Spanish would better showcase her strengths. I have to work toward promoting literacy in the Spanish content area anyway, so I think this would be a great way to do that. Our overall goal is to show the students that they each have a subject are that they are skilled in, and we just have to find that subject.

Sadly, most of our students are not expected to go to college, and even in 6th grade, they're aware of that fact. I was working with one of the boys on his math homework and I had to confess to him that I didn't know how to answer one of the questions. He said, "Come on, don't you have math class in college?" And I replied by saying that I hadn't taken any math since high school because I didn't need to take math in college for my program. He was astounded. He said he didn't like math, and I said, "well hopefully when you get to college, you won't have to take math either. You can choose a major that doesn't have ANYTHING to do with math!" and he just looked at me.
--"When I get to college?"
"Yeah, after high school."
--"What do you mean? I don't think I'm going to college."
"Well, why not?"
--"Because it's too expensive."
"Well, lots of colleges offer scholarships, which is free money that you can get based on your grades from high school, or for practicing a certain skill, or even for having a Hispanic background, like you!"
--"I still don't think I can go. I'll have to work and make money, like my parents. They work a lot. That's why I have to be here instead of at home after school."
"Did you know that lots of college offer jobs to students that are right nearby? You can take classes and work like 10 hours a week too. That's what I do. You can also take loans out, where you pay the money back later after you graduate and get a job. Got any more reasons to not go to college?"
--". . . . . . . . . . . I'm not smart enough. No one from my family has ever gone to college."
"Who told you you weren't smart enough?"
--"My dad."
"Josue, do you WANT to go to college? If there was nothing stopping you, would you go?"
--"Well, yeah. I don't want to be a car mechanic."
"Then there's nothing stopping you. You are smart. You can get scholarships. You can get a part-time job. You can get help with school when you need it. You can do anything you decide you want to do. You know why? Because I believe in you."
--"Really?"
"Really. Now let's ask Jesse if he understands this math problem and maybe he can help us."

Even if these kids forget that Liz and I came and played games with them and acted like animals and made general fools of ourselves, I hope that they will remember that two people believed in them and told them that they could do anything.

To me, that is what teaching is all about.