First post!

When I first heard I had to take a class in urban studies, I felt a part of me though, “UGH, I don’t want to do this!” I was raised in a suburban town for most of my life and more recently lived in cities like New Brunswick, New Jersey and Stamford, Connecticut. I have to admit that I do not have a lot of experience in any urban setting and I did not plan on working in urban areas. The only times I have been in an urban area was for charity work for organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Hana Missions, and more recently my trip to Hawaii to visit friends. My perspectives changed from my trip to Hawaii. I didn’t really go around the island doing a lot of touristy things because it was not my first time there, but I got to go around the neighborhood, and meet and get to know people around the area. Now I am strongly considering moving there, so I want to be fully aware of urban areas along with the current and potential situations that might come about.

I have formed opinions and beliefs of urban schools. They have been formed have been based on watching the news, reading magazine articles, talking to friends who work in urban schools and searching through the Internet. Even the music today contains lyrics that talk about urban areas. I know stereotypes about urban schools exist in my life and influence the way I think of urban schools mostly because I am not fully aware of the situation and am very uneducated in the matter. Through this course, I hope that this is a great opportunity to air them out and hopefully gain more awareness and further understanding on the issue.

I try not to allow stereotypes and stigmas to affect my beliefs, but it is difficult when you are inexperienced and there are a lot of unknowns you can’t answer. Your beliefs will always affect the way you act and perceive things. The most important thing in my opinion is to remain flexible and teachable so that beliefs, which were skewed from false information, might be wrong changed.

A lot of thoughts and ideas that were mentioned from our first class coincided with what I believed to be true with urban schools. When I think of an urban school a few things come to mind. I think of schools that are very under funded, have educational curriculums that focus a lot of their attention on standardized testing, and burned out teachers. I feel as though urban schools do not and cannot provide students the proper opportunities to flourish due to the lack or resources, and rather settle for students to make the minimum standards, which results in big achievement gaps. From past research, students lose interest in school because the school focused on getting good standardized test scores rather than give a student a proper education. What is worse is, when they see something on the test that was not covered in class, they feel very discouraged. I have also read that there is also a high drop out rate in urban schools, where blame goes towards the schools for suggesting to students to drop out or transfer to another school in order to raise overall test scores.

When I think about teachers, I see them having an extremely tough job. Teachers often seem to get burned out more frequently. They have a low budget to work with. From what my friends tell me, they even spend their own money to buy supplies for their classrooms. In the classroom, teachers are fighting against the outside influences that distract the children from pursuing an education. With all these variables being factored in, the teachers in the schools are not necessarily the best or the most qualified to teach to the students. A lot of times, there are programs that provide some sort of incentive to recruit teachers to urban schools.

The students in urban schools face a huge uphill battle. Students are complacent to education because they do not see a bright future for them at all. A lot of students come from low income and broken families, so accountability from parents seems difficult to come by because they are out working to pay bills. Students also see temptation to make quick bucks, for example from selling drugs, as a way to improve their life and their future. Students face a lot of pressure to join gangs, which tends to lead to violence and many times death, where the student does not have a choice in the matter. They must fight to defend their fellow members.

I do not think my beliefs should alter my interactions with my fellow teachers. In fact, I would hope that my beliefs would bring us closer as a united front, where we would be able to work together. I would also want to learn from their past experiences. I think that working with students would be a little different. I would make more of an effort to get to know the students and see what is going on in their lives. I believe that there would be more intent when getting to know them, to understand them and know where they are.

My hope is to have a classroom that has a “buzz” for education. I want to have a classroom that encourages and supports the students’ interest so that they would be engaged and desire to learn during their time in the classroom. I also would like to have a way to get to know each student to see how he or she is doing. It is important to have a relationship with the student to help the student know the teacher cares about them. I know with No Child Left Behind, there will be a lot of focus on standardized testing. Test scores are so emphasized in schools. I would hope to be more creative in ways to teach them the content on the test. The further they succeed on standardized tests, the better chance to continue to move up on in their education.

Also hope that my fellow peers will have input on how I could construct and conduct a class in an urban school. Their knowledge and experience would provide an invaluable resource to me. I know I will make mistakes here and there, but with their accountability and advice, I will be able to acknowledge my mistakes and learn from it. My beliefs will also change as I learn more from my peers and hopefully for the better.

Assumptions and beliefs play a large role in how one will act as a professional. No matter how much we may deny it, what we believe in will always show in our actions. The negative beliefs and assumptions will clearly have a bad influence in my style of teaching. It will not allow me to be even who I am, and it would probably distance myself further from the students. I have stigmas and stereotypes in my mind that I wish to break. The one thing I have working for me is that I want to remain flexible in these beliefs and continue to recognize that what I perceived from media and other factors was wrong. I want to change and be able to teach all types of students. My goal is to be a caring, and encouraging teacher anywhere I teach. The only thing that will not change is the standards that I set for myself and for my class.