Action #7: Practicing democratic principles

Visiting Doctors Without Borders Refugee Camp

On September 23 I went to Chicago with a group of students to visit a pseudo refuge camp sponsored by Doctors Without Borders. Here we took a 45 minutes tour, guided by a former refugee from Albania. He guided us through the camp, explaining the conditions and situations that millions of refugees and displaced persons face every day in refugee camps all over the world. Doctors Without Borders is an organization that sets up and funds many of these camps, as well as provides medical care to the people. Seeing this camp set up, with tents and equipment much like one of the hundreds all over the world was a truly eye-opening experience, as it got me thinking about living a life that is underprivileged and quite different than my own. It certainly took me out of my comfort zone for an afternoon, and got me thinking about different ways in which I can help the underprivileged. Here is the link to the website that gives more information about this event.


This experience will be helpful for me as I pursue a career as a teacher because I will have students from all different backgrounds and walks of life, and it may be very helpful for me to become more knowledgeable about lives of students that are underprivileged. It will also be helpful for me as I try to incorporate curriculum into my classroom that raises awareness of injustices and oppression in the world. With a knowledge of these injustices, I will better be able to educate my classroom.

Being Aware of Whom I Give Attention To

During student teaching, I asked my cooperating teacher to keep a log of students I called on most frequently; I gave her a class roster and asked her to make a tally mark next to students every time I acknowledged them in any way during whole group time. I then asked her to do the same thing separately during independent, small group, or partner activity time; in this way, I could see which students I gave the most attention to, both during whole group, as well as more individual attention during independent work. I also asked her to make notes of any significant patterns she sees in students I give attention to--for example, if I call more on boys than girls, etc. I asked my teacher to log this information on numerous occasions and during a variety of lessons and activities.

The results were somewhat surprising; while I thought I was very aware of attending to all students in my class, I realized there were a group of students that I hardly gave any attention to at all, particularly during independent time. While the results showed that I did a pretty good job at calling on or acknowledging a wide variety of students during whole group time, I realized that I would often continually go toward the same group of students when students were asked to work independently or during small groups. The results showed that the majority of the time, I would navigate toward lower-level students, no matter what the activity--even if it were simply an art project, and did not require a specific skill.

This information was truly eye-opening, and important for me to reflect on as I continue teaching. It think it is very important to be aware of how you treat students. Sometimes this is difficult to do, since, as a teacher, you have so many other things to worry about. However, I do not want to be a teacher who does not realize that she only calls on boys during math class, or high ability students during reading class. This can only perpetuate stereotypes, and make students second-guess themselves. I used the information that was gathered from my cooperating teacher to become more conscious of how I treat my students, and it is a practice I plan to continue as I continue my career as a teacher.