"A Place at the Table"

        I recently watched a documentary called "A Place at the Table". This documentary brings to light the level of food insecurity in the United States. 50 Million Americans - 1 in 4 children - are unsure of where there next meal will come from. The documentary showed several families that struggled with hunger for different reasons. One family of seven had an income of $120 biweekly. They did not qualify for food stamps and they were struggling to find ways to make the little food they had stretch. One member of the family, Rosie, was a second grader. She would often depend on friends and neighbors to feed her. She struggled a lot in school because she was not able to focus. She  could only think of how hungry she was and wonder where her next meal was coming from. Rosie described how her teacher would turn into a banana and the students around her would turn into apples. Food was all she could think about. The teacher was at first unaware of the situation. She could not figure out why Rosie would never listen or pay attention. As the school year continued, however, she discovered the issue and did everything in her power to mitigate it. She often brought food from a pantry to Rosie's house and provided her with snacks. For everything she was doing, she still felt guilty for not being able to do more or provide more nutritious food. 

        

       Every Tuesday, I volunteer in a fourth grade class. For the last two weeks, I have noticed that one of the paraprofessionals provides a student with bananas. Last week, I witnessed her check his lunch box to only find fruit. She shook her head and said, "there's nothing filling". I immediately thought of this documentary. For everything she was doing, she felt she could do more. 

       As a teacher, I think that it is important to be aware of the issue of hunger in America. People often think of poverty in other nations, but they do not often consider it here. 50 million Americans do not know where their next meal will come from. 1 and 4 children go to sleep hungry. For many children, the only food they will eat all day is the food they receive at school lunch. How can a child learn if all they can think about is where there next meal will come from?

A Life of Choice

Throughout the world, the emphasis on education greatly varies. The economic status of a country has a direct correlation with how much funding there is to meet the educational needs of their youth. In the Dominican Republic, there was a law passed in 1997 to allocate 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) to education. The government, however, is only allocating 2.4% of GDP to education. This makes the education system in Dominican Republic the third least funded in our hemisphere. The only countries with less funding are Haiti at 1.4% and Ecuador at 1%. Over 1/3 of the population is living in poverty. The only way to break the cycle of poverty is through education, but that emphasis is missing. Although schooling is free in the Dominican Republic, enrollment is minimal. This is due to location, poverty, and the lack of birth certificates. Prospective students are restricted by the inability to travel to school, being forced into child labor to support their family, or there is simply no record of them because their family could not afford a birth certificate when they were born. In addition, without proper funding the Dominican Republic is said to lack 11,000 classrooms, 75,000 teachers, pre-school, room for five to seven year olds that wish to attend school, and programs for the disabled. With this comes the digital divide. The digital divide is the inequality of access to information technology. While schools in the United States are integrating technology in the classroom, schools in Dominican Republic are few and far between and do not have access to technology.  

Nonprofits, such as Outreach 360, have been established to help mitigate the severe lack of funding for education in the Dominican Republic. Outreach 360 is an organization that strives to provide children the opportunity to live a life of choice. Through the education we have received throughout our lives, we have been given countless opportunities. We had the choice to attend college or get a job. We have a choice of major and to stay in school. The children in the Dominican Republic are not granted those same opportunities because of the lack of funding for education. This December, I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic for this organization. The title of my trip is "Shattering the Cycle: Empowering Youth Through Education".  I will be creating my own lesson plans and teaching students English, literacy, and health. Although I will only be there for two weeks, it is the collection of the waves of volunteers that will ultimately lead to change.

I believe that this incredible opportunity will ultimately change my life for the better. In 74 days, I will be immersed in a new culture with different values. I will meet many people with different means than my own. I will see first hand what poverty truly means. I will grow an understanding of what it means to live a life without choice. Above all, I hope to make a difference in the lives of the students I teach and the people I meet along the way.

My Ed. Tech. Experience

Prompt: What  was your Ed. Tech. experience as a k-12 student? Did you do more than just website research? Did things ever work? What was the best activity you did? What about your experience do you want for your future students? What would you not want?

Technology use was minimal throughout my K-12 experience. In elementary school, it was standard to have two computers in the classroom. One for the teacher to utilize and one for the students. More often than not, the student computer went unused. Occasionally, the computer would be used to reward good behavior, but since there was only one for a class full of students it was not used. In addition to the classroom computers, classes did have access to a computer lab. Similarly, computer lab use was minimal because there was one lab for the whole school to use. 

In middle school, there was only one classroom computer for the teacher to use, but most teachers also had either an overhead or regular projector. This made it easier for students to take notes or even watch videos in class. Rooms that did not have projectors often had TVs. Lastly, there was a laptop cart and a computer lab shared by the school. 

In high school, technology was more accessible because I switched to a private school. My school had two PC labs, a Mac lab, and about 30 computers in the library. In addition, the science department had a few laptop carts. Each classroom was equipped with a computer and projector. Some classrooms even had surround sound. Students were also allowed to bring laptops to class from time to time. This made it easier to work on group projects and take notes. 

Until high school, I only used the computers for website research. My sophomore year, I took a class called multimedia. This class was an introduction to basic mac software. We learned how to edit videos and make short films. My senior year, I was able to apply what I had learned because I had to create a thirty minute Gothic film in English. Although that assignment was incredibly stressful, it was by far my favorite activity. When all of the films were completed, we had a film festival and it was neat to see each others creations. 

For the most part, the technology always worked. If it did not the IT department was typically able to resolve the issue in a timely manner. In my future classroom, I hope that my students have a similar if not better experience than I did in high school. I hope to have a projector and access to laptops. I think that they play a crucial role in a students education. I hope that my students do not have an experience similar to my primary education because technology does play that critical role. 

What brings you to SNHU? 

    Throughout my k-12 schooling, I had many influential teachers. The first was in the fifth grade. I had a young, new teacher who was incredibly passionate about her profession. She believed in praising students for what they did correctly rather than penalizing them for what they did incorrectly. To put this idea in practice, she never used red pen. Rather, she marked the correct answers with highlighter, so the brighter your paper was the better you did. In seventh grade, my english teacher was very strict. She taught me the importance of being proactive in my education. One class remains engrained in my memory. She was disappointed by the lack of completed homework. She told us that without completing what we were supposed to with minimal errors, we would never be able to get a job. Lastly, of all the teachers I ever had my high school math teacher made the most impact. I first had her freshman year. I had a difficult transition to private school and she eased my transformation. I had her again my junior year and she helped me through the college process. 

    As a junior in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I had four older siblings who had gone to college: one for architecture, one for Biochemistry, one for Business and Finance, and one for Communications and Public Relations. I knew my options were endless, but I did not know how it was possible for someone my age to choose their future. I knew that I enjoyed math, so two options came to mind. I could follow in my sister Karalyn and my parent’s footsteps and attend Bentley University to study Business or I could study Math Education. For almost a year, I went back and fourth between the two. I must have toured upwards of twenty schools. By the fall of my senior year, I narrowed my list to 13. The schools ranged in distance from Montreal, Canada to Elon, North Carolina. Some schools strong in business, some strong in education, and others had both. The first school I heard back from was Southern New Hampshire University. My parents told me I would end up going there, but I had my doubts. My whole life I have lived in Southern New Hampshire. I wanted to leave my comfort zone. In the months to follow, I received an acceptance letter to every school I applied to and my decision was no easier. The spring of my senior year, I applied to the 3 Year Honors Business Administration Program at SNHU. I decided if I got accepted it was meant to be and if I did not it was not. Since the program director was aware of my indecision, I was put on the wait list. I began looking into education programs else where. A week before the May 1st deadline, I had made what I thought was my final decision: Curry College. My mother, however, was not as enthused by the program and dragged me to SNHU one last time. We spoke with a member of the Education department and I knew this was where I was meant to be. After finalizing my decision, the 3 Year Honors director reached out to me and offered me a spot in the program. By this time, I knew education was where I was meant to be, so i I declined his offer. I am now an Elementary and Special Education major with a minor in Middle School Math Education. 

    Throughout my life, I was impacted by many of my teachers. They helped me grow academically, socially, spiritually, and emotionally. Without the teachers I had, I would not be where I am today. I want to be able to make a difference in the lives of the children I teach. I believe that the hands-on program here at SNHU will better prepare me for my future than any other program I looked into. In my freshman year alone, I spent over 35 hours observing classrooms. That is unheard of at other schools. My goal after graduation is to work for Teach for America. I feel that the opportunities I received in my first year alone are already helping me to work toward my goal. In addition, to the education program, the alternative break program is also making that possible. Over Christmas break, I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic for two weeks to teach in an orphanage. This is an incredible opportunity that I may not have had If I had chosen to attend another university.

   Many aspects of my education shaped my beliefs and helped bring me to where I am today. I have a desire to make a difference and cannot think of a better place to start than at SNHU. Through the classes I take here at SNHU, such as EDU 235, I get one step closer to my dream every day.