I've been sitting in classrooms the last couple of days and I am still appalled and shocked by the way the teachers treat these kids. I don't remember if I've written about the teacher who has all the middle and upper kids on one side of the room and all of the others on the other side (she calls her low scorers her "retards"). I noticed the other day that when she's teaching she only speaks to the "smart" side of the room and ignores the other side. There's one child who has the hardest time sitting still and he'll be really really focused for a short period of time and then he'll just lose it and start laying on the floor or doing whatever and of course I just absolutely ADORE this child... (Tami, I don't know if you still read this, but that was for you ha ha) Well when the teacher gets fed up with him she pops him into the Reading Room (the room I share with the specialists) and leaves him there. Not even for like ten minutes or whatever, no she leaves him there for HOURS. This child is one of the lower scoring children in the class. How is he supposed to improve if he's being forced out of the classroom every day? She's already told me that she intends to fail him. At this point if he fails it is the fault of the teacher, not his. He's not even being given a fighting chance. Tracy was tealling me that she pulled a child from the kindergarten room and tested him on his letter and sound recognition. He knew them all and so she brought him back to class and the teacher asked hos it went and Tracy said "Oh it went great!" to which the teacher replied "Well that's impossible. I tested him last week and he didn't know anything because he's too stupid." IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS. How humiliating and degrading! Tracy simply said "oh no, he knew every single one" and had to walk out of the classroom to take a moment to calm down. What is wrong with these teachers? They have no faith in their kids' ability to improve. These kids are in kindergarten and first grade and they're already being treated like lost causes.
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Today I got to work and was locked out of my room. Tracy and I sat outside of the room for 45 minutes just waiting. We knew the Speech Pathologist doesn't work at our school on Thursdays and one of the other specialists had been sick on and off all week. The Reading Coach however, we were not sure about. She never showed up so there we were, sitting on the hallway floor wondering what to do. A teacher saw us there and sent a student to go get the custodian to let us in. The girl came back and said "oh she said you need to go work in the classrooms." We were sort of confused by this because for one thing all of our stuff was locked in our room and for another we had never met this particular custodian and so why was she telling us what to do? The Special Ed teacher came walking by and she went with Tracy to go talk to the custodian again. They asked and the custodian got really rude and said "oh no, I'm not lettin' in no Americorps." The special ed teacher was really surprised by how incredibly rude she was and said "well since when is it your job to say who gets in and who doesn't?" the custodian replied with "(The Reading Coach) said don't let no Americorps in the room." Tracy talked her into opening it long enough for us to get whatever stuff we needed for the day (as she watched us with her hands on her hips scowling at us) and we went back into the hallway to figure out what to do for the day.
Here are some of my frustrations. First of all, in years past BhamREADS Americorps has always trained their volunteers first and then sent them to the schools. However, they found that the volunteers were confused and didn't understand the training so this year for the first time they sent us into the school and then they're going to train us. We had our training on what we're doing, but the training on how we're doing it has been postponed. Twice. So what we are supposed to be doing is going into the classrooms during their 90 minute reading block in the morning (which I've been doing). We're only supposed to observe. We are not Teacher's Aides and so we are not to let the teachers treat us as such. We are not to run off copies, grade homework or teach. We're there to observe and get a feel for the culture. We're not supposed to be pulling kids out yet. We're not supposed to be documenting yet. Since we're not trained yet, its put us in a really awkward position. Since we can't pull kids or do anything all we do all day is our morning observation, then our lunch break and then try and find whatever busy work or prep work that we can to prepare for when we are able to pull kids. We're been at this for 3 weeks, there's really only so much prep work that can be done. I'm pretty much set till December. So a lot f the time it looks like we're just sitting there doing nothing... Which we are... But not because we're lazy, its because our hands are sort of tied. The Reading Coach has gotten a little irritated with us I think. Last week she told us that we didn't look gainfully employed. On Tuesdays we stay at the school until 3:30 instead of 3 because we have a spanish class at 3:45, well this Tuesday she got all "well aren't you supposed to be at the school right now?" And then the thing today. She told the custodian not to let us in, which means that she knew she wasn't going to be there and didn't let us know so that we could grab what we needed. Here's the deal. The custodian is not our boss. The Reading Coach is not our boss. The Principal is not our boss. Americorps is our boss. Secondly, we are not technically employed. We are Government Volunteers. Once we really get in the swing of things I will be putting in 50 hours a week. With the amount of money I make at the end of the month that turns out to be about $4.91 per hour. Before taxes. I do not get paid enough to be treated like crap. Do not tell me what and how to do my job when you did not sit in the training sessions that I did. Our job is not the same as the Reading Coaches. I'm sick and tired of people giving me attitude and dirty looks just because they think I'm making a paycheck by sitting around and because they think that that's what I'm going to be doing all year. Today was so hard. There were times at SPCC when I felt underappreciated but this is a million times worse. I feel so unwanted and out of place. I really just need to focus on the fact that I'm not here to please these people. I'm here for these kids who come from broken down homes and are broken down even more by their teachers. I'm here to love them and to show them that there are adults in this world who love and respect them even when they make mistakes. I'm here to make a difference and to change Whatley K-8 by loving on its kids.
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