It's been blessing days in North Carolina. Today, I feel like I have the most stuff done. I started my day at school counting coins for Ms. Vacha for the field trip with Tola. At the end, so many people helped us counting and actually got it done in less than 2 hours, which would have been impossible if it was just two of us. (Thank you for helping us our :)) Anyway, the work was just repetitive, nothing important. There are so many things that teachers have to do aside of class, planning, and grading. Like everyone else said, I realized the amount of work that they have to do, and it is not easy. I really respect these teachers who put their time and effort to get better. After counting all the coins, I went into her class, which was 5th grade math class, and helped her and the students to help to solve the problems when each students were paired up with a partner and work with each other. Class is 70 min long, but it felt so short. I don't really know why because they have students to sit in their seat and do the warm-ups in a few minutes without any disruption, nothing disrupts the class, and it runs so smoothly. 70 min for me is too long, seeing 5th graders so focused on what they're doing was amazing. Everyone knew what was going on and what they were doing. With the little help on what they were stuck with, they quickly noticed the mistakes they made and continued to work on the problems. As far as the class that I've observed, I won't have anything to complain. However, from 5th graders perspective, I thought they would. Their behavior inside and outside of class at school was outstanding. I've never seen kids behaving so well at their age. It was just a shock for me.
I've spent most of my days in the middle school ever since I came here. Today I actually got to go to 7th grade physics class, and saw Sebastian teaching. It was amazing. I was curious how different high school will be from the high school that I attended and GCP (middle school). I had such high expectation that was carried over from the middle school. I'm not saying that they aren't good students, but there were some distractions. There were about 10 students (I'm not sure if it's just the class that I've been to) compare to 30 students per class in middle school or other public schools. Other than that, I couldn't really find any difference.
Before we left the school, we had a meeting with teachers who are fairly new. We talked about many stuff: schools, rural vs urban education, KIPP in general, students, its mission, going to college, etc. I was a little skeptical about their mission. It's cool that they're promoting to go to college. Knowing most of students here will be first generation of going to college in their family it might be a little hard for them become they don't have many resources, and they need the push. However, going to college shouldn't be their goal and everything. Going to college is one of a path to achieve their ultimate goal. There are always other options. I was glad that one of the teachers mentioned because I totally agreed with her. I think KIPP in general is a great school especially for students who are in low income area and don't really have that many options to choose. I love the community building relationship they have between students, teachers, school, and society. How everyone cares for them each other is so amazing. It really matter to have someone who cares and you don't wanna let down around you.
I've been here almost a week. I really enjoyed being here and looking forward to finish up last few more days we have here. This was my first AB trip ever, I was a little nervous about a trip. But this was the best decision that I made or my winter break. It was so worth coming. I am so glad to have all the awesome team members who shared their insightful opinions about education issues. It was very lovely. I would love to come back to Gaston, NC, beautiful place. I am learning a lot, and hope to bring all the experiences back to MD.
- Min
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