My Placement

My placement is at Ginger Elementary school, located at Foxpoint in downtown Providence off of Wickenden Street. Foxpoint is one of the oldest neighborhoods, dating back to colonial time. Providence has big community involvement around Ginger, such as Brown and RISD who always offer their services. There are four hundred students grades Pre-k through sixth that attend Ginger. It is a very diverse school where one third Caucasian, one third Hispanic, and one third African American attend. It is also very economically diverse, ranging from high, middle, and low income. Children walk or take the bus depending on where they are located from the school. For many parents, Ginger is their first choice. Their test scores are high for an inner city school. The Parent/Teacher Organization is very strong and raises money for the things that they have lost over the years. "It's like a family dedicated group of staff", said my cooperative teacher. The values of the school and in the classroom are increasing student achievement, building good manors and loyalty, and gaining responsibility.

I am working in Room four with a fabulous special education teacher, where I work with ten students. Each student in the classroom has an IEP. "Individualized Education Plan." There are thirty-six self contained students in three classrooms. There are typically twelve students in each classroom but that does not always work out. The first day I arrived I saw my cooperative teacher introduce me in a certain manner, she started off saying "Hi Miss Jodi, I am Mrs. K, I'd like you to meet my friend Charlie." Then each student would have to go around and introduce a friend to me. It was a very clever way for the students to learn how to use their manners and be respectful.

If you are visiting or volunteering at the school you only can enter through the main entrance where you must sign in. There are no stairs at all in the school, and there are many doors for fire exits. The school is barrier free along with ramps going through each hallway making it easily accessible for students with disabilities. The hallways are rather large making it easier for more than one class to pass with out conflict. My favorite part about the landscape of the school is the courtyard located in the middle of the school. There is a legendary, eighty year old, apple tree in the center of it! The classroom is rather cluttered for a special education classroom. It is very hard to walk around the classroom with out bumping into everything in your pathway. There are three stations, one that is not even in use anymore since the need of more storage space. There is a writing center, a math center, and a science center. The science center is no longer in use. There are three groups of four, where each child is separated in a certain group. The separation is at random because each student has an IEP. There is a table surrounding each group where each desk is around the table. On the table are materials for the child to work with through out the week; ie: scissors, glue, extra pencils, rulers, hundreds chart. Then each child has their own pencil box where they keep their own stuff; ie: pencils, crayons, markers, finger pointer. Around the room there are three closets for storage, and a lot of storage containers. There is a place to sit for morning meeting, with lawn chairs and comfy seats, for the students to enjoy. It is a very small and crammed space but it does it's duty. Next to the morning meeting location there is Mrs. K's desk filled with piled up papers and more storage containers resting below. There is also a desk for Mrs. K's teacher assistant filled with just about the same stuff as her desk. Next to her assistant's desk is the story time area and the play area filled with toys and bean bags. The space is very limited but that's what you get with a small classroom. Lastly on the other side of the play area there is a sink and four computers, which are squished against the writing center desk, so the students have to cram into the seats to sit at a computer. The space in the classroom is definitely used to capacity! I do not think it is smart to have such a crammed classroom for special education students but it is probably inevitable. I believe it is very unsafe due to some of the disabilities in the classroom. I watch a student who uses a walker, struggle moving around because of the limited space he has.

There are ten students in my classroom at this time. There are four girls where the rest are boys. What interested my the most was that one of the boys was in a regular fourth grade class the previous year, yet to me he barely knows how to read. That is a lot of grades to go through with out knowing how to read. Every Thursday when I go in I help students with their math for an hour. Then after math they usually go to "act class" which is a class where they learn how to use their voices and express their feelings. It's like a drama class where each week they learn a book and the next week they act out the book. Since I am volunteering those hours, I am volunteering to act with the children. Now let me tell you I am NOT embarrassed! I believe my acting skills are superb and the children probably enjoy it. (Hopefully....) My experience at Ginger Elementary School so far is going well, and I hope it continues to go well through out the rest of the semester!