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My practicum is in a second grade classroom of 24 students with a lead teacher and aparaprofessional, at the Rafael Hernandez School, located in Roxbury, MA-an urban, two-waybilingual school. There are 407 students in the school, with 29 full-time teachers. Of these 407students, 46% are male, 54% are female. White students make up 7.2% of the demographics,African American students make up 7.2%, 86.8% of the students are Latino, Native Americanstudents make up .20%, and multi-race non-Latino students are present in .07% of thestudent population.Of the 407 students 254 have a first language other than English. Thereare 46 students in special education. 306 students come from low-income families, 272 of thestudents receive free lunch and breakfast, and 34 students receive reduced lunch.The mission statement of the school states that it is “committed to working with parentsand the community within a diverse, nurturing environment...[the administration and staff]believe students, teachers and parents should work cooperatively to set and achieve goalsthat maximize each student's potential, and that develop courageous learners, effectivecommunicators, and responsible citizens.” This statement would lead me to believe that theatmosphere in the Hernandez school is one that truly cares about the students, and helpsthem to grow into well-educated, respectable adults.Being a bilingual school, there is a huge sense of pride in representing the cultures thestudent-body, as well as faculty, come from. Spanish is heard throughout the school, and eventeachers who are not fluent in Spanish greet one another in the language. Spanish andEnglish motivational posters are hung throughout the hallways, and in the classrooms,surrounding students with print that supports their identities. Spanish festivals are held at theschool, and many parents participate. The food in the cafeteria is often Spanish, and it is
 
delicious! I believe that the fact that the Hernandez embraces the home cultures of itsstudents is directly related to the success it has in teaching students English. Children do notfeel like their precious culture is being pushed aside, or having a negative light shone upon it,rather they are aware that their culture is respected, and therefore are more willing to add totheir diverse life experience.An example of a whole school event that I have seen happen was on Inauguration Day.The whole school gathered in the auditorium to watch President Obama being sworn in, and itwas a very exciting moment for everyone involved. Children and teachers alike were cheering,clapping, even crying throughout the program, and while the younger grades could not sit forthat long and pay attention, my second graders paid very close attention. It was a greatexperience for the children to share the great moment in history with the entire school,including the principal.Children are expected to be silent as they walk through the halls, but that does notalways happen. Usually the atmosphere in the hallways is very positive, however. There areposters, photographs and many examples of student work plastered to the walls. There is adoor decorating contest every month that every classroom participates in. In the front foyer,there is a board dedicated to recognizing the exceptional teachers in the school, with ateacher of the month honor, and various other recognitions.One hundred percent of the classrooms are inclusion, and there are several childrenwith IEPs in my classroom. Pull outs occur every day, mostly during the morning when therest of the class is doing morning work and center work. The pulled-out students are taken to
 
the resource room to work with either math, literacy or speech specialists, or an OT or PT. Ihave yet to see a real effort in catching up students with the work they have missed frombeing pulled out. There are no contained SpEd classes at the Hernandez.Parents are involved in the school primarily through volunteering in the classrooms andby chaperoning field trips. There are various nights throughout the school year that parentsare invited to attend. In addition to regular parent-teacher conferences, there is a Science Fairnight, and Author’s Dinners, school plays and other performances that parents and family areencouraged to attend. From what I can tell, the parents are seen as valuable partners in theeducation of their children, as they well should be seen. There are some parents who aremore difficult to involve, but for the most part the parents seem to be respected by theteachers. There is a parent bulletin board outside the main office, with flyers and pamphletsand posters provided mostly in Spanish. All of the work that is sent home is in both Englishand Spanish, so that all parents can feel comfortable helping their children with homework.As previously mentioned, the Hernandez is a two-way bilingual school. Students attendschool for two weeks in an English speaking classroom, and then for the next two weeks in aSpanish speaking classroom. None of the curriculum or subject matter is repeated orreviewed in a different language-students could be expected to learn a unit in Spanish, thenmove on to a new unit in English when the Spanish weeks are up. The paraprofessional in myclassroom acts as a translator in my English speaking classroom for the students. Because ofthis unique situation, I will actually get to see two different groups of children throughout thecourse of the semester, since I was placed in the English speaking homeroom.
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