First Student and First Exposure

The melting snow created a sloppy mess all around the school but once inside we where quickly put to work with the children. Because I am a native speaker of Spanish I was singled out to help tutor Jacquelyn a first grader girl who had miss a considerable amount of school this year. We went upstairs and we began on her flash cards of letters then words and we finished with a story book. The principle had told me that her teacher had worked with her as much as she could but since none of the faculty spoke Spanish and had no experience in any sort of ESOL program it was difficult for them to teach or asses how much Jacquelyn actually knew. I could tell that this would be very difficult although I consider English as my mother tongue I did learn Spanish first and although I don't remember the struggles of first learning English, I often don't feel as steadfast as some of my peers. Although she would sometimes confuse the sounds and she had not learned her vowels yet she did have some limited vocabulary of English and understood most instruction. However, I felt that even though she was sounding the words out phonetically she was not retaining much if any of the words. I drew that this lack of understanding of the words derived from a failure to comprehension of what the words represented. She would see Dog and quickly would respond but the other words seemed more of a mystery. I told her teacher if it would be alright to try to teach her what the words meant in Spanish, but she was at odd with me saying that it would only overwhelm her. Although I agreed that it would be allot it would help her to link the words and objects otherwise it may seem pointless memorization of symbols to her.

Although, the school had impressed me on my initial visit I was beginning to question the academic quality of the school now that I could see the students not only Jacquelyn where struggling with even the most basic concepts. Some of those proponents of charters have argued that how could charters be expected to undo years of poor academics when now even there students seem to lack the necessary fundamentals. Also I was surprised the Jacquelyn had been permitted to stay in a school where there was obvious need for a specialist in English-Spanish teaching, even the most basic schools should provide to Spanish speaking students some sort of assistance in their transition to a new society.

First Impression

After getting lost in Northeast Washington, Kat, Katie and I arrived at Potomac Lighthouse Charter. Set in a church, the school is small and colorful filled with the student art and posters. We where greet by the principle who introduced himself and after all the paper work was finished, began to show us around the school. As we passed from grade to grade it was more and more revealing of how small the school was. And every time we entered a class the principle would introduce us to the teacher, but surprisingly he also seem to know most of the students by name sending them a smile or a word of encouragement. It was amazing to see that all the students where called by name, not hey, yea you, young lady or young man. This was the standard not the exception in how students where treated. The students seem to respond to this by being well mannered and well behaved much better than students at the traditional public school. It was hard not to notice that the school was predominantly African American. The statistics came running back in my head about how the majority of charter school where notoriously segregated. The tour ended and I could not help but feel happy to see these students in an environment where people cared about them and that structure existed for these students who often lack normality. Although, We did not have any insight into the academic quality of Potomac Lighthouse, at least an environment of learning did exist.