Updated Frames of Reference!

When I first heard I had to take a class in urban studies, I felt a part of me think, “UGH, I don’t want to do this!” I was raised in a suburban town for most of my life and only 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 actually 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. Perhaps it was because I did not really go around the island doing many touristy things. Instead, I had the opportunity to go around the neighborhood meeting people and getting to know. At first, I had reservation about Hawaii and knowing that the state is not well off, but learning about the culture of the community as well as individuals from it has changed my opinion of it. Now I am strongly considering moving there to be a teacher, so I want to be fully aware of urban areas along with the current and potential situations that might come about.

To begin the process of learning and understanding, it is important to perform a self-evaluation to understand where I am in terms of beliefs and opinions. During my time living in the suburbs, I have formed opinions and beliefs of urban schools. However, they were not based on substantial factors such as experience but rather have been formed have been based on watching the TV, 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 the stereotypes about urban communities and schools exist in my life and influence the way I think of urban schools 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 not much information. The fact is my beliefs will always affect the way I 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 my thoughts and ideas are similar to our first class 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 underfunded, have educational curriculums centered on standardized testing, and burned out inexperienced teachers. I feel as though urban schools do not and cannot provide students proper opportunities to flourish due to the lack of resources, and rather settle for students to make the minimum standards, resulting in big achievement gaps. From past research in a previous class, students lose interest in school because 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 dropout 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. Teachers in the schools are not necessarily the best or the most qualified to teach to the students. Many 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. Many students come from low income and broken families, so accountability from parents seems difficult to come by because they are working hard 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.

It would be a lie to say that my beliefs would not alter my interactions, but it may not necessarily be negative. I think my relationship with my fellow peers would be better. 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 experience. 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. At the same time, I would not have any understanding of their culture and make me a bit hesitant and uncertain. It would take time for me personally to break my beliefs and be open-minded.

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. With No Child Left Behind in place, there will be a lot of focus on standardized testing. Test scores are over 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.

It is my hope that my fellow teachers will have some 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 anyone’s style of teaching. It will not allow me to be even who I am, and it might distance me 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.

There is a lot of speculation and uncertainty as I slowly step closer to becoming a teacher. I still have many questions about urban education and schools. I hope to gain knowledge, awareness, and understanding of urban education to form new beliefs. In doing so, this might help me make a decision to move to Hawaii, or consider any other location.