EDHD 3001 Final Reflection by Melissa Brown https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg en-us 2016-12-20 16:16:39 UTC 2026-03-24 17:52:25 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Brightnessdown.png Wellstone International High School brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144614915 2016-12-21 17:20:01 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144614915 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616279 2016-12-21 17:29:34 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616279 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616482 2016-12-21 17:30:58 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616482 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616653 2016-12-21 17:32:04 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616653 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616798 2016-12-21 17:33:09 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616798 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616924 2016-12-21 17:34:02 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144616924 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144617060 2016-12-21 17:34:56 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144617060 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144617692 Wellstone International High School is a school for students who have immigrated into the U.S. and are learning english for the first time. Although there are specific ESL classes, each subject area incorporates ESL into its instruction. The classrooms I worked in were an ESL classroom, a chemistry classroom, and a social studies classroom. I worked with primarily beginner/intermediate (upper intermediate) english speaking students.

The first day I arrived at Wellstone, I misread the google maps bus route I was going to take and thought it was going to take me just a block away from wellstone. I ended up somehow taking a different route, then walked 15 minutes from THAT bus stop , but as soon as I saw the surrounding park that is just outside of the high school, I wasn't even mad. I definitely wouldn't have discovered it as quickly if I had taken the bus route I THOUGHT I was taking. ]]> 2016-12-21 17:39:33 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144617692 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144619854 2016-12-21 17:55:54 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144619854 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707439 An unfortunate aspect of my existence is that I tend to get overwhelmed easily, especially when I find myself in a situation which isn't linear in nature. Another unfortunate aspect of my life is that I'm aspiring to go into a field which is least linear of all- teaching. It's one of the most dynamic, think on the spot, go with the flow professions out there. From the start of the service learning, I knew this was going to be my biggest challenge- not being a deer in the headlights of the raging, dynamic river that is "the classroom." The biggest goals that I had for myself were:

1. Getting to know the students
2. Being able to adjust to individual students needs
3. Not feeling overwhelmed with ambiguous tasks (or at least feeling more comfortable taking them on, even if there is still some anxiety present.)]]> 2016-12-22 18:08:45 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707439 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707859 2016-12-22 18:13:20 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707859 1. brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707900 I really wanted to get to know the students' names and establish some kind of friendly acquaintanceship (recognition in the hallways, for example.) According to the Ayers text, it's a good way to open up trust. For the first couple of weeks, I tried to keep asking the students their names- but after that, when I kept forgetting, I felt embarrassed, and sort of stopped trying, which I think greatly impeded my ability to personally connect with the students. Part of the reason I knew I was struggling with the names was because I was having trouble pronouncing them, which I hate to admit. Interestingly enough, there was a day- WEEKS IN- where the students were asking what my name was, and after that, it seemed like we were getting along a little better, interacting a little more than just the classroom assignments. For example, one of the students showed me a project he was working on in a different class. Shakespeare wasn't messing around when he asked "What's in a name?" (although his connotation of the phrase is a little different than what I'm going for here.) The next place I volunteer I will be SURE to put more of an effort into learning names, and hopefully from there it will be a lot easier to open up other pathways to personal connections. In addition, these personal connections and trust can also be a pathway to flow, and that's something I hope to have in my own classroom someday.]]> 2016-12-22 18:14:03 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144707900 2. brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144711069 Although this is a skill I’m sure is always in the works for most educators, I can have particular problems when I’m not sure how to adjust to a situation. Complete sentences- even complete words- and coherent thoughts become a foreign concept as I try to find what to say. One of the successes I had at Wellstone was finding that students understood concepts better through examples, or when they were accompanied by visuals. It was also useful to give explanations involving tricky words with synoynms so that, if they didn’t know a certain vocab word, you could tell when you came to a word they understood. I had an utter failure with one particular student. I understood her questions, but apart from giving away the answer, I had a very hard time trying to find a way to budge her in the right direction. I don’t know why it was that student in particular. I think she struggled with double guessing herself, and I still need to figure out how to give feedback without giving away answers.

I know there will never be an enigma maching cracking code that will teach me how to understand every student. I encounter, and this is something that is mentioned in the ayer’s text, how teaching also means a lifetime of learning, and once you stop trying to improve your teaching, you cease to be a good educator. One of the reasons I think I can get stuck with these students is because I do not try hard enough to try and throw my thought process into a different frame of mind to understand a situation from a different angle. Although not directly tied, it reminds me of how in class we discussed the benefits/dilemmeas of many different types of schools, and related to that, standardized testing. In my case, me not easily shifting to a different frame of mind is similar to standardized testing- a one size fits all, mechanical method, and the many times of schools (charter, Magnet, Montessori, etc.) represent different teaching practices trying to reach out to all types of learning, which is what I want to be able to do with my future students. I’m definitely not there yet, but I now have a very concrete goal in my next volunteer position- if I get a question I’m not sure how to answer, try and approach it from a new angle right away, instead of staying primarily in my comfort zone.

]]> 2016-12-22 18:50:19 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144711069 3 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712335 I always get the most anxiety when  teacher gives me a largely independent task, mostly because I’m afraid of messing up. I always calm down the most when I think things like, “We’re all just humans. We’re all just doing our best, and no one has all of the answers.” It goes back, again, to in the Ayer’s text about constantly learning, and reminds me of how, on his first day of teaching, he got a lot of questions he wasn’t expecting and didn’t prepare answers for. I know a lot of my text references go back to this point—but it really has been a major tool in me getting over this anxiety. For most of my life, I’ve lived with a fixed mind-set, where I feel like if I’m not naturally good at something, it’s not worth it to try and improve, because someone else will be better with less effort. However, reading from Ayer’s text and hearing from other teachers, that being in unfamiliar situations is always a work in progress, has helped me cope immensely with these negative thoughts. In the future, I plan to continue working on taking deep mental breaths, knowing I can’t be all-knowing, and improving my critical thinking skills to be able to more quickly handle ambiguous situations.

Examples of situations like these usually occurred in the ESL class, when the teacher would have me pull a group of kids aside to teach them a game. I would usually think, “what if I don’t simplify my English enough? What if they hate the game? Whatif I don’t explain the rules EXACTLY CORREDCTLY?!?!” However, thinking things like, “It’s a game. You are explaining the rules. It’s for FUN, just go with it!” is how I would try to calm myself down. We’re all just humans, playing a game.]]> 2016-12-22 19:03:42 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712335 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712594 2016-12-22 19:06:36 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712594 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712734 2016-12-22 19:08:08 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144712734 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144713103 2016-12-22 19:11:54 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144713103 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714612 2016-12-22 19:30:24 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714612 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714621 Sometimes, when I’m trying to say a sentence in French, I get stuck halfway through because grammatically, I don’t know how to finish it. I usually try many different ways to finish the sentence before I realize, it’s actually the first part of the sentence that I need to change in order for everything to make sense. I think this is applicable to my journey as a future teacher. I might think I’m going in the right direction with something, but it would actually be more beneficial to start over and approach it from a new angle.

]]> 2016-12-22 19:30:36 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714621 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714760 2016-12-22 19:33:39 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714760 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714786 For the classrooms I was in, I noticed that there was a great deal of respect between the teachers and students. If a student was goofing around, it was often other students who would tell them to knock it off before a teacher would say something. I also noticed teachers asking students about personal events- for example, “How did your brother’s surgery go?” On my last day of volunteering, a man visited the ESL teacher and I learned he used to be a Wellstone student, just back to say hi (he joined us for multiple rounds of spoons.) I think that Wellstone has a really good grasp on what it means to teach not only to a student, but to and with a community. Not only does Wellstone build a community in its walls, but it reaches outwards, as well. For example, when Trump was elected president, a letter was sent out to parents (in various languages) detailing the values that Wellstone stands for and ensuring family members that these values will not change, no matter the moron in the oval office (I think they stated it differently, though, but they WANTED to say that.) This shows that Wellstone cares for the community their students come from. They’re not just “filling vessels” with information. They are much more interested in instilling students with values and skills so that the students learn for themselves and bring that learning with them as they go.]]> 2016-12-22 19:34:08 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714786 "But english" brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714861 One student said to the ESL teacher that she wants to be a doctor, “but English.” Wellstone realizes how important it is for these students to grow individually, in their community, and to have the abilities to be able to extend outside of their community. They address that “but English” can be a barrier, but are trying to help so that cross-community connections can grow. This idea promotes learning on a global scale, and that is admirable. It’s not a one-way learning street. Everyone is in it together. 

]]> 2016-12-22 19:35:53 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714861 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714929 2016-12-22 19:37:27 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144714929 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715007 2016-12-22 19:38:59 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715007 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715019 I thought Wellstone had really great classroom configurations]]> 2016-12-22 19:39:21 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715019 So What? brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715055 We talked a lot about ethics of a classroom, and who should education serve? I think that the classrooms at Wellstone are a prime example of good classroom ethics and education serving the students. Every student could see and seemed to be able to hear. If a student needed a pencil, they were available in the room. The chemistry teacher always had enough calculators for students on every quiz. In every classroom, there were carts of supplemental books pertaining to that subject for students to help with reading skills or in class activities. In terms of serving the student, it’s a small example, but the chemistry teacher would sometimes have difficulty navigating between tables because the tables were large, meaning the students had ample space to spread out class materials. The teacher sacrificed mobility so that her students could learn more efficiently. Before the social studies class was lunch, so I always had 30 minutes with the social studies teacher before the students would show up. Often, he would change the orientation of the desks to suit the classroom activity that day. He also would mix up the seating of the student pairings, for example, he would place students with lower English skills together so that he personally could help them out more; he would place mixed English abilities, so that the students helped each other out more; or students who spoke different languages, so that they had to rely more on English to do work. He helps and challenges his students at the same time by setting up his room differently, which is most certainly ethical and most definitely serves the interests of the students.

]]> 2016-12-22 19:40:08 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715055 Size brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715111 I noticed that the beginning English classes generally had smaller sizes that the intermediate to advanced English classes. For example, the ESL and social studies classroom I was in were smaller than the chemistry class. I think this is a good acknowledgement that beginning students will not get the help they need if they are drowned out in too many students, although it is too bad that the more advanced classes do not get the exact same treatment. However, it is public school funding- and they are making great efforts to do what they can with it!

]]> 2016-12-22 19:41:23 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715111 Materials brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715133 The ESL classroom had translation dictionaries for multiple languages, posters with grammar concepts all over the walls, as well as clearly stated course objectives every classroom had no visibility issues with the seating, and students were easily evenly spaced with enough room for their personal things. The chemistry classroom had some mobility issues with the teacher in that it was sort of difficult to get in between the tables, but that was the only problem.

]]> 2016-12-22 19:41:52 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715133 brown_melissa_14 https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715242 2016-12-22 19:44:22 UTC https://padlet.com/brown_melissa_14/yqgsqaaacykg/wish/144715242