An Insight

by Kendra Shaw

 

As I walked my class towards the playground the first thing I saw was the graffiti written basketball court, picnic table, bathroom walls, and sidewalks. Not to forget the wooden fences. I thought to myself crime is knocking on the door of this school, while the students live among it.

Becoming an 21st century community learning center fine arts instructor for J.J. Pickle Elementary has been an insightful and intriguing experience. From teaching my first class, to having to manage the demands of my boss, the principal and students, being in this position not only was fulfilling but put into perspective many factors that affect students today.

Pickle Elementary is located in the heart of the St. Johns community. It was built in 1999 with Alliance Schools consortium, a group consisting of schools and communities that strive to make a positive change within troubled neighborhoods. The actual building serves as the elementary school, community recreation center, and public library. Built to bring the St. Johns community together, one thing that I have noticed is that there are challenges with how the community affects the students. The St. Johns community has had its share of crime and violence. Talking with my site coordinator she shared with me that when she first started the job, a man was shot to death across the street from the school. I thought to myself “Really?” I would like to believe that one’s environment affects them in mpst ways than most will realize. To be in an environment such as St. John is a challenge, but with the school and strong sense of community and its leaders, positivity can shine through.

Although I have had students tell me that their siblings are in jail, or that their dad is in Mexico, or even that they are tired a lot because they have to help their mother with her job cleaning houses, they never cease to amaze me on how quickly they learn. The unit plan for my class surrounds explore arts and craft projects from around the world. Many places they had never heard of. We have made our own Chinese drums, counted to ten in Swahili, and made papel picados. When it came to do the mural, I explained to them what I a mural was and instructed them that they were going to help me. What I thought would be an easy enough project became transformed into a realization that there is a certain politics with education.

After completing the mural, everyone liked it, except for the principal. He detested the thought of displaying it in the school because he thought it was too closely tied to religion and that the calaveras would be an issue. My initial thought and reaction was that these kids identified with this mural, and the intent of the mural was never a religious one, but a cultural one. I wanted to do a mural with the students so that they could be proud of something that they were a part of. For it to not be put on display within the school is a setback, but none the less when I revealed the finished muralto the students they were overjoyed with how it came out, and the pride was seen on their faces. As the semester went on the mural was not the only thing on my mi4d as far as an issue was concerned.

Instructing art is one thing, but trying to conduct a class in a conference room full of other students is near impossible or at least impossible to do so and be effective. With tutoring going on, classrooms that were once offered to us have now dwindled. Dragging out the art supplies into a conference room and then cleaning up after Itt graders is quite a challenge.

Keeping them focused while other students roam around the room, daunting. So many times we are forced to just focus on homework, which is another issue. The school offers bilingual classes to their students. I am not quite sure how students are picked for certain classes, but many times I have come across students who do not speak or read Spanish, yet they are given homework in Spanish. Same thing goes for those who only speak Spanish but are given homework in English.

So it makes me wonder if they are being taught in Spanish and English as well, and are those students actually understanding what is being taught to them. Spanish homework is one thing but communicating another.

I personally have one Spanish only speaking student in my class, communicating with him at first was an obstacle, but as time goes on I am getting better at cross the threshold between translating words in Spanish to English in an attempt to speak in Spanish again.

Thankfully most of the students in my class are bilingual and can help me translate on the spot. Knowing that some of my students are bilingual makes me hopeful more than anything. With the changing demographics and the new requirements for jobs, I believe that these students have a better chance at landing a job later on in their life, as long as programs such as the one I am involved with are still around within rough communities. I guess one can say that this journey has come full circle. Viewing this community as rough to live in as the school provides an environment away from the graffiti, the gangs, and the crime, I see why my job is important despite all the challenges I have and will face. I provide enrichment to students willing to learn a little bit extra at the end of the school day.

Kendra helped her students make this mural to teach them about the Day of the Dead.