Ramsey Placement

After weeks of struggling to find a nearby service learning opportunity that related to the incorporation of civic engagement into higher education, I finally decided to resort to being in a classroom setting. As I explored classroom opportunities I became certain that I did not want to tutor, which left me with the option of serving as a teaching assistant. Tina kindly connected me with a Mr. Gunderson at Ramsey and literally, everything came together within a few minutes.

I am a teaching assistant in a World Geography class for 8th graders at Ramsey. I go in on Tuesdays for 5 hours and assist with 5 classes. I went in for the first time last week. I really did not know what to expect and before classes started Mr. Gunderson gave me a pep talk in which he advised me to be consistent with the kids, build a relationship with them, not to take any offensive comments made by the kids personally and to just respond with a sense of humor. He advised me to just observe for the first day.

The bell rang and the kids for the first class arrived. I was sitting nervously at the back of the classroom not really knowing what to do besides smile at each quizzical face that came with every new body that entered the classroom. Mr. Gunderson had warned me that the kids would likely compare me to the Mac student who had served as an assistant teacher last year, a person that really liked. (No pressure felt!)

Each of the five classes was a different size, had a different ethnic mix of kids and so required one to offer a different, tailored approach to interaction. It struck me that the classes that Mr. Gunderson struggled most to manage were the ones that have a larger percentage of African American children. These kids seemed to struggle to concentrate and thus, were constantly distracted and rambunctious. What impressed me about Mr. Gunderson's approach with each group, particularly the groups with rowdy kids was the consistency of his tone and the way in which he addressed the students as "ladies and gentlemen" even when they were misbehaving.

As for the teaching method, Mr. Gunderson presented a power-point and throughout asked students to relate ideas to their lives here in the Twin Cities. He also asked various students to read out aloud from the text book. Lastly, the element that most closely relates to constructivism is the worksheet that he gave the students, which required them to complete a "sandwich" exercise in which they used a map to find different features, in the middle of two cities or countries. It was at this point that I became of any use. Every time each class would start working on the "sandwich" exercise I would walk around and help different kids. It was awkward during the first class because I was just sitting down nervously wondering what to do then Mr. Gunderson came up to me and said "you can walk around and see what they're doing." Though I gained more confidence in myself, with each new class I did not know what to anticipate. In the end the kids weren't as bad as I thought they would be. There are some difficult kids though. This experience really made me admire teachers, particularly those who teach young children. It is absolutely draining especially when you have kids who are rumbunctuous. At some point there was a girl walking around the classroom, singing a hip-hop song while Mr. Gunderson was teaching. At that point my admiration for teachers rose to its peak.