Blog Entry #5

Where I complete my service learning hours is a title one school. The majority of the school are English learners and the entire school has so many amazing resources for all of them. To give you just an idea of the racial scale, the classroom that I'm in has 14 Hispanic, 4 Caucasian, and 2 African American students. Of course, this doesn't really matter, but this is just so you can see really how many resources this school needs to have in order to help these students that need it. 

• Do you see support for English learners?  

Just a few of the support systems that this school has is speech therapist, translators (almost all of the teachers and staff at the school speak Spanish), and even though this isn't just for English learners my favorite program they have is called "the weekenders".  It is for those that on the weekends (while not at school) don't have enough food at home to feed them. On Fridays, about 10 minutes before schools out, the front office asks all weekenders to come to the office. When they go down to the office they get a bag full of canned food to provide them with enough nutrition for the weekend. Anyone who's not a weekender doesn't know what this program is that way those who are weekenders don't feel that there any different from there classmates. Again, this isn't really just for those who are English learners but its just an amazing program that I wanted to share. 

• What landmark decision does that come from?  

The No Child Left Behind Act is where I think the majority of this landmark decision comes from. Really there's been support for this since around the 1920s but this 2001 landmark is, I believe, the bulk of it. 

• What are you seeing in your service-learning experience that is a result of Brown v. Board, Sputnick, and other historical events?

The 1954 movement of Brown v. Board is really where everything related to education started to change. If it wasn't for this act my servicing learning school wouldn't be anything like it is today. This is an act, as a teacher, that I am so incredibly grateful for. The benefits I see from it daily are absolutely amazing.