Warriors Don't Cry

The furthur along in the book I get, the more taken back I become. I am astonished by Melba's bravery. I can not imagine being her age and dealing with some much. She seems to take on the world and she has to grow up quickly to help her overcome a lot of the experiences she has during the integration. It takes a special type of person to be so patient with other people's hatred. I know that there are times when it really gets to her, but she does not lash out, or fight with anyone in school, even when she is physically and verbally abused by people who are supposed to be her classmates. I am glad that we were assigned to read this book for class. I have learned about immigration several times, but its interesting to be able to be inside someone's head who actually experienced the immigration.

Educare Backdoor Learning

 Last week I was able to spend my first hours at my service learning site. I volunteer at Educare. It is a preschool. This preschool is a diamond in the rough. It is located in a mostly rundown area. To my surprise this preschool is government funded. Only kids who qulify financially are allowed to attend the school. This means only children of very low income families attend this preschool. The preschool does more than that just teach the young children. It works with the whole family, to ensure the child is in a good environment. They meet with the families to make sure they can feed and take care of the child efficiently. This amazed me. I am so excited to be able to be apart of a place like this. When I got to educare a few hours a week I am essentially a student teacher. I work and teach in the classrooms with the children along with the hired staff member. I can not wait to spend more time at my site!

Worriors Don't Cry Discussion Question, Chapter 12

It seemed as though the arrivial of the army and the president sturred up more frustration in the white community, as Melba, do you think it would have been easy for you to trust the president's promise of protection, especially in the midst of aggressive and more angry mobs?

Reflection 1.

I have not begun my service learning officially yet, but I am very excited for the experience. I am volunteering at Educare, which is a daycare center for pre-school aged children. I will be supervising a class of pre-schoolers for an afternoon a week. I recently decided to switch from Speech Pathology into the education field. This was a big jump for me. I had always wanted to go into the medical field growing up. Also, it took my parents a while to warm up to me switching from high paying job associated with a lot of security, to a lower paying less secure job. However, this class and the other education class, Education 1220, that I am currently taking are providing a lot of comfort for me, that I made the right decision switching majors. While I was interested in things we learned in speech pathology, I feel like I  am a whole lot more interested and engaged in my education classes. I am so excited to be able to apply the things I am learning. I love talking about the different strategies for teaching, such as reflective thinking, openmindedness, whole heartedness and how to make the most effective impact on students. Discussions like those strenghten my desire to want to become a teacher and hopefully have a significant impact on students. As we talked about in class, kids spend more hours in school with their peers and teachers than they do, in any other activity, even just being home. I had never thought about what an important role a teacher plays in a student's life, whether that teacher helps change a student's life, or just teaches he or she how to add and subtract, a student often never forgets their teachers. This creates a desire for me to persue teaching even more.