When I first found out my student teaching placement for the fall semester back at the end of August, I knew very little about it, but heard good things. A month and a half later, I am obsessed. It's a very small school (only about 200 students) in East Harlem that caters mostly to the children of the community. I am in a 4th/5th Grade CTT (Collaborative Team Teaching aka inclusive), which means that it is a mix of general ed and special ed in one class, with two teachers, a paraeducator, and myself. The class consists of 29 students. Off the top of my head, I would say 18 of them are African/African-American, 8 are Latino, 2 are White, and 1 is Asian. It's a nice mix, and all of the students seem to get along well, despite their racial diversity. Of course, I credit a lot of that to the principal and my two CTs (cooperating teachers), for creating such a peaceful and accepting environment.
Once a week we have community meetings, which is basically a school assembly. We state our school pledge, and sing our school song: "Sing Out" by Cat Stevens, currently receiving a second wind thanks to the new iPod commercial. It's actually really cute hearing them all sing it. It's a catchy song and gets stuck in their heads, so they'll be singing it all day. Hey, it could be worse.
Another neat thing about my school is that everyone, the principal included, is on a first name basis. There is not Mr. Amore, or even Mr. Matt. It's just Matt. I believe this adds to the community feel the school stives for, and achieves!
I find myself very fortunate to be in a place that is so progressive and so community-based. As someone who plans to open up his own school one day, I'm taking notes!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
In the beginning, God created...children?!
Hello and welcome! I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so please be patient with me. I'm sure in no time I'll get the hang of it, but for now, I appreciate your understanding.
My name is Matt Amore and I am a 27 year-old graduate student at Columbia University's Teachers College. I am in my third semester of a five-semester program working towards my MA in Elementary Education through the Pre-Service Inclusive Elementary Education Department. At the end of these five semesters, I will be certified to teach elementary general ed and special ed in the NYC public school system. I'm stoked! This year I will be doing my student teaching, and having been inspired by the movie Julie & Julia (to blog, not to cook), I have decided to create this online journal of my experiences. I'll be blogging mostly as a way for me to keep a record of my year, but also just in case anyone else might be interested in what this year will teach me.
This will be a year filled with emotional highs and lows, joys and disappointments, struggles and breakthroughs, and most certainly, laughs - kids really DO say the darndest things. Will you join me?
My name is Matt Amore and I am a 27 year-old graduate student at Columbia University's Teachers College. I am in my third semester of a five-semester program working towards my MA in Elementary Education through the Pre-Service Inclusive Elementary Education Department. At the end of these five semesters, I will be certified to teach elementary general ed and special ed in the NYC public school system. I'm stoked! This year I will be doing my student teaching, and having been inspired by the movie Julie & Julia (to blog, not to cook), I have decided to create this online journal of my experiences. I'll be blogging mostly as a way for me to keep a record of my year, but also just in case anyone else might be interested in what this year will teach me.
This will be a year filled with emotional highs and lows, joys and disappointments, struggles and breakthroughs, and most certainly, laughs - kids really DO say the darndest things. Will you join me?
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