During my student teaching experience in the spring semester of 2012, I was placed at Owasco Elementary School in Auburn, NY to fulfill the High Needs component that the NYSED requires.  This placement was in a  First Grade classroom with twenty two children; eleven boys and eleven girls.  This district has at least one school in which 40 percent or more of the enrolled students are eligible to receive free or reduced meals. The school community itself welcomed me like one of their own, I immediately felt like I was part of the school family.  I was able to experience faculty meetings and special education meetings, multiple school spirit days, and engage with families on multiple occasions. The entire faculty and staff, not just my cooperating teacher, mentored me during my time at their school, it was hard to leave.  This was an incredible experience for me as a pre-service teacher. I immediately bonded with the children and they with me. I gained valuable classroom management experience during this placement. Through my daily reflections I was able to pinpoint and acknowledge some of my strengths as well as important considerations which will serve my future students well.

My student teaching experience with socioeconomically disadvantaged children was inspiring. In my first placement there were children who came to school without shoes, basic supplies, food and dirt on their faces and hands and generally uncared for. The teacher supplied sneakers for a child to wear during the school day because he came to school with winter boots on every day. Most of the children lacked basic supplies such as crayons, glue sticks, paper, pencils, snack and scissors. The teacher was not able to supply all of their needs and oftentimes the children would share what they had. One child often cried because he did not have a glue stick when the class was instructed to take out such material. It is unfortunate but I have observed a real difference in how the children in my student teaching placements are treated by the people in charge of them. I observed that the children in the high needs placement were often spoken to very harshly and critically by some of the adults in positions of power over the children. I feel that is a disadvantage. Every child should have the experience that I am having in my second placement within district that is not identified as high needs. This makes me pause....

I have urban teaching experience with children who are fluent in more than one language as well as a language other than English.

During my student teaching experience five children presented as identified with special needs; one presented with age related behavior needs and many presented with emotional needs.  The five that were identified as special needs were primarily academic in nature. Their abilities were severely lower than their peers due to the effects of extreme poverty and family dysfunction. One child in a kindergarten setting presents with manageable behavior problems which I contend are related to the fact that the child is six years old and has never been in a socialized setting with children his own age. This is his first social experience.  Many of his peers are steps ahead of him socially because they have been institutionalized or conditioned to the school setting since birth. 

My interactions during the student teaching experience with families and caregivers is limited to the helper parent and the class party committee. In the first setting a group of three family members; white women, share the responsibility of planning celebrations at the teachers request; such as halloween and other dominant culture celebrations. The second setting incorporates a helper parent once or twice per week depending upon availability. The helpers responsibility is to facilitate a learning center and its coordinated activities during the assigned center time.