How does context affect teaching and learning?

I felt like adding pictures of me in middle school was a nice touch to what we talk about lol. I think its also fun (so enjoy :))

BTW, this is me in 7th grade?? I think?! with my Best friend Yasmin! 

 How does context affect teaching and learning? 

Research: 

    Leading Learning for Children from Poverty: This article gives us the basis before context. As teachers, we need to understand our students and the situations they are in. We need to be able to embrace the truth of them and understand that we can change a student that lives in poverty. The article then talks about connecting and validating. We need to connect and build relationships with students because students count on us more than we know. With that being said, understanding anything about a student is so important because we can alter our lessons to best fit them and their needs. We need to understand that a students financial situation (parents) does not reflect how they learn academically. Every student that walks into our classroom is as important as the rest (even adults). Some ways that we can connect and validate students who live in poverty is ask students about their culture, allow students to share their stories with us, and show that we care and we have a believing environment. This article is important for educators because it shows the guide for success for each student in our class that is going through different situations. It also highlights the fact that each student can be successful as long as we show them we do care and we do understand what they are going through. 

    Expectations and 'At-risk' children: One teachers perspective: This article is written in a view of a teacher. It starts off with the goods of their principal. Shares how he understands the teachers philosophy and understands the teachers but, shares that he may not share the same expectations for minority students. The principal seems to believe that teachers shouldn't be too difficult in the school setting and "not pushing too often or to hard". The teacher on the other hand believes that "if children are fully and continually encourage to function in school by developing appropriate school behaviors to facilitate their learning, their self-esteem will rise because they will see themselves as learners, capable of functioning fully in an academic setting" (Clark pg 1). The article then talks about the story of "Jamie". This student's story is so surprising and upsetting with how the principal decided to take about the situation. The principal is allowing the blaming of at home problems to reflect on a students achievements. Im not saying this isn't possible, but holding the students accountable can help me be better students academically. A quote from the article that I think is very important for teachers is "I am insisting that compassion be tempered with reason, so that a child deemed "at-risk" be allowed to fully develop and expeactience his or her power--- intellectually, socially, and emotionally" (Clark 3). I think this is important because we need to hold students accountable for their actions so they can become better students. Like Jamie in this story. He was held accountable for being late or forgetting things and as a consequence, he lost things at home. This helped him better understand why he needs to be on time, do his work, and remember this turn things in. 

Field: 

   Ive noticed that in the field, lots of students find a way to blame the teacher for missing work. For example, a student didn't have his composition note book yet because he forgot to tell his parents so he said to Mrs. J "You didn't tell us we needed that" and continued to argue. Obviously, she had told the students that they needed it because most of the students had it. As a result of not being prepared, he didn't receive their PBIS points. Students there academically do not do as well as other schools and it has been shown in the statistics we looked at prior to starting our placement. The students are all held to the same accountability as they all are given the same responsibilities. Ive also talked with Mrs.J about how she meets with the parents and other teachers when they notice the student isn't doing so well in the classroom. They sit down together and figure out the best plan for the student to do better. I think that this should help the student see that teachers care about how they are doing and they aren't doing this to be mean. 

Personal connection: 

    To answer the question "How does context affect teaching and learning". I think that for teaching, context can affect how aware we are about students cultures, "social" standing, beliefs, how or if they can use certain technology, what they need to learn better (or if they need something), and many other things. I remember in middle school, my teachers had us fill out a beginning of the year form that asked questions about how we learned, what made us learn better, what we believed in, etc. I think that this helped them understand how we were as students and if we had an issues going on that may have affected us in the classroom. I think they helped me feel better connected to my teachers because I knew they understood me and they never forced me to go out of comfort zone yet they pushed me enough to show how well I was academically. They never stopped caring about me and my struggles at home but they also never let me use the issues as an excuse. For learning wise, I think that context affects learning by seeing is students understand cultural aspects of their own culture or others that can be connected, if they can work with groups or need to work alone, and if they are able to work in a flexible seating area or needs to work at a desk, etc. I think that context to how students learn or why they need certain things leads into the dynamics of how we teach and how we process the learning. We as teachers need to meet the students' needs and create a better learning environment that shows we care. I felt that in school all my teachers accommodated to my learning preferences even if it may have been a bit unusual for them. They never made me feel less than others when I needed to work at a desk but everyone else was working on the floor or in the hall. 

Future classroom: 

    In my classroom, I want to be able to understand each student and where they come from so that I can understand why may act differently than others. I also want to hold each student to the same accountability regardless of things going on at home (depending on said situation.) Its understandable for it to be an excuse once or twice but if it leads out to weeks or months, its not longer an excuse. We as teachers (or at least I want too) need to show our students to we care about them and we understand what they having going on but those issues are only defining them for now. It's not a long term definition of who they are emotionally, physically, or academically.