Blog Entry #6

 As mentioned in most all my other posts, the biggest point of diversity in my service learning school is that 70% of the children are minorities, and about half of them don't speak English as their first language (or at all). It's been interesting to watch the teacher I'm observing work with the children who don't speak English very well (or at all). When a student is having trouble understanding spoken directions, she will often turn to a student who is fluent in both Spanish and English to ask how to say certain words to help her get her point across. But what's more, she actually remembers those words and uses them in the future to continue bridging that language barrier and build some consistency. Occasionally that strategy won't be effective for certain students, either because it's more complicated or because she can't find the right words in Spanish, and so she uses those students who are fluent in both languages to help translate. 

Perhaps the second biggest point of diversity in this school is the families' income levels. A significant amount of these families are lower-income and because of that I've observed a lot of relating issues such as food insecurity and issues providing basic things like hygiene items for the children. Just last week I attended the PTA meeting where they talked about the maturation program for the 5th graders and how they had worked to put together kits that included hygiene items and sanitary products for the girls to be able to take home. The school has closets of supplies for students to make sure none of them go without. The local Boys and Girls Club provides snacks every day after school for the children to take home, and once a month the local food bank comes and sends a backpack full of groceries home with the students. Over the two week Christmas break, breakfasts and lunches were provided for every day of the break. My service learning teacher is so understanding of these issues when they come up in the classroom setting and does her best to make sure the kids feel safe, and that their immediate needs are met, either by having stuff on hand for them or sending them to another staff member who can help. It's very heartwarming to see.