King Center Charter School
Here is the first 1 page response paper I wrote for Mayterm. It’s probably the fastest way to give you my first impressions of the school, but I have many more thoughts and the experience changes every day. A little boy threw a chair across the room today, for instance. But here is the paper I wrote very quickly as I was exhausted after a rough first day. But I’m having fun and it’s such a good experience :)
——————————————-
Becca Booth
Response Paper 1
Overview of School and Community
My first experience at the King Center Charter School turned out to be much more challenging than I originally anticipated. Since I had previously spent time there through Houghton in the Saturday reading program, I thought I had a good idea of how my observations would go. However, I was surprised at how unprepared I really was. Though it was helpful to have prior knowledge about the school in general as well as the layout and architecture, I was still unprepared for an actual school day.
I visited Mr. Marshall’s first grade classroom, which was full of eager six and seven year olds. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was very surprised at the amount of bad behavior exhibited by the students. They were talking over each other and Mr. Marshall, not respecting the teachers, picking fights with other students, wandering around the room, tattling and generally causing unnecessary trouble. I realize that they are restless after a bout of standardized testing, as well as a day off and anticipating summer in the coming weeks, but it seemed as if there was no classroom management at all. Perhaps it was just a bad day, but I felt so awful for Mr. Marshall! It was frustrating for him knowing that the students weren’t reaching their full potentials and that their education at home was not supplementing their education at school (he expressed his frustration many times at the amount of television and age-inappropriate movies the children watch). He dedicated a lot of instruction time to behavior corrections, which was unfortunate, because so much more could have been accomplished had they been behaving.
However, the children were generally very sweet when they weren’t bickering or bothering each other. The staff and faculty community dynamic was amazing. All of the teachers seemed to genuinely enjoy being there and there was a very positive energy throughout the school. They were very helpful and friendly when I had questions, and Mr. Marshall put me right to work grading homework, filing papers, putting together workbooks, and helping maintain peace in the classroom. Though it was challenging and emotionally draining to handle rowdy first graders, as well as adjust to the new culture of a majority African American classroom, I enjoyed my first day and I look forward to getting to know the students and faculty better in the coming days.
——————————————————
Tonight’s agenda: eat. sleep.
