Nucleus Study Background Information Here I am, finally in my practice teaching, culminating a stage in my life to start a new one as soon as I graduate from my English program at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao. After days of orientations and months waiting, anxious to know where I was going to do my practice, the practice Supervisor told us where we, teacher candidates, were going to do our practice. My practice center is the Elementary school Rufino Vigo. It is located in Dufrense St. #113 at the center of the town of Humacao. The school is situated near the Humacao Municipal Police Station, siding with what was Humacao’s old Justice Court and in front of Al Sureste. The school was founded in 1973 and it was named after Rufino Vigo, a school superintendent in Humacao. The Educational Region of the school is Humacao and their Regional Chairperson is Ivette M. Trujillo. Las Piedras is the school’s district and the superintendent is Julio Díaz. Rufino Vigo’s principal is Mrs. Rosemary López Plaza. She was born and raised in New York and she has taught all levels, from elementary all the way through higher education in a university in Bayamón. She has a bachelor’s in management with a minor in education and she did her master’s in ESL education. To add to her merits, she also has another master’s in Administration & Supervising and she did it all in the University of Turabo. Rosemary López has been working with this school for five years and overall has an experience of 22 years. Before working with schools, she did four years as an accountant. Mrs. López wants the school to be completely bilingual. That’s one of her goals for the school. She has told me that being a director of a school is not an easy task but she likes it because it challenges her and keeps her busy.
My Cooperating Teacher is Ms. Gina Hernández and she has a Bachelor’s in English Elemnetary Education with a minor in Secondary Level. She is 29 years old, born in Dover, New Jersey. When she was 3 years old, she moved with her family to Puerto Rico. Gina Hernandez has been working in the Rufino Vigo for 7 years straight. When she graduated from her BA in UPRH in 2007, she worked 2 months at Colegio Bautista in Gurabo and then she received a call from the Department of Education to work in Rufino Vigo Elementary School. Ms. Hernández started this semester studying to obtain her master’s degree in ESL education at the University of Turabo. This is her first time working as a cooperating teacher, so it is going to be an interesting journey riding along with her as we work together this semester. My practice group is 3-2 and it consists of 20 students. This group also has students with autism and other who receive therapy, either speech, psychological or occupational.
Content A This Nucleus Study is a data gathering information about the school in general. Here you will know more about Rufino Vigo Elementary School, its facilities, offerings, personnel, enrollment and much more. This serves as an introduction for the school. It is a tool to better know the school, get a sense of where I am doing my practice, and get to know my way around it to not feel like a stranger wandering around the school looking for something or someone. This study is an instrument that lets you know what are its weaknesses and strengths. All the information collected was provided by different sources around the school. From the director, to teachers, to talking with custodians, I was able to gather all the information I’m presenting to you.
I.
Content B: Areas of Observation:
School Organization:
Time
Period
8:00 – 9:00 am
1st period
9:00 – 10:00
2nd period
10:00 – 11:00
3rd period
11:00 – 12:00 pm
LUNCH
12:00 – 1:00
4th period
1:00 – 2:00
5th period
2:00 – 3:00
6th period
The school organization is varied for some grades, for example Kindergarten and Third grade have a totally different schedule than the shown above. Every subject class has a duration of 40 minutes to one hour max. Everyone has the same lunch period from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. Shown above is the schedule for the third grade, group 1. The secretary, Carmen Fóntanez, couldn’t provide my practice group’s schedule because they don’t have a homeroom teacher for this group yet. The Rufino Vigo School’s curriculum program, offers the basic subjects which are: Spanish, English, Science, Social Studies and Math. It also offers extra-curricular programs, such as Physical Education, Physical Education to students with movement limitations and Arts which include Music and Corporal Movement. I was impressed with the latter because I’ve never heard of such a course. The school has only one sport organization and that is the Intramurals for students in Special Ed.
The Rufino Vigo facilities are big. It has three classrooms especially designed for students with Autism. One basketball court, two kindergarten playgrounds specifically for these kids, students from other grades are not allowed into it. The basketball court needs some upgrades like new bleachers and the basketball lines need to be repainted. The school counts with one lunchroom, one RRM classroom, one administrative office and a total of 26 classrooms. The first floor has 17 classrooms and the second floor has only 9. Special Ed counts with 3 classrooms in total. There are only two classrooms called computer labs which are the English classroom from Ms. Gina Hern谩ndez and the Math classroom from Mrs. Walesca Placeres. The latter being an ALECKS project. Rufino Vigo has 12 bathrooms for boys and girls, one bathroom for special education students, two bathrooms in the administrative office and one in kindergarten. The facilities have 3 water fountains around the school and \in the center of the school yard; there is a structure that could be catalogued as a stage. This yard has 21 benches for students to sit down and 5 trees that provide shade and breeze for those hot days living on an island. The administration consists of the principal, Rosemary L贸pez, the Social Worker, Nilda E. Rivera Garc铆a and the secretary who is Carmen F贸ntanez. The personnel of the school consists of 28 teachers, 3 custodians and 5 lunchroom employees. From Kindergarten to 4th grade there are two groups of each and for 5th and 6th there is only one group. Every group from Kindergarten through 6th grade has a homeroom teacher. Kindergarten is attended by Evelyn Benitez, but since there is only one teacher, the groups have been divided into Kinder AM and Kinder PM. First graders have Diana Droz and Rosa Oquendo as HR teachers. For second grade there is Lisette Molina and Mayra Pacheco. In third grade, Soraida Serrano and Deanisse Morales are having the pleasure of teaching this grade. Maria Rodriguez and Walesca Placeres are responsible for the 4th graders. In 5th grade Maria Matos is the designated teacher, who is such a nice woman and willing to help in any way she can. Finally, 6th grade HR teacher is Gina
Hernandez, my cooperating teacher. Other staff are: Peggy Cruz - English teacher; Music – Cesar de Jesús; Corporal Movement – Maritza Beltran; José Díaz – Autism and Gloria Rivera - Preschool Autism. There are also Rodolfo Pagán and Olga Cruz who are Physical Education teachers and Victor Rodríguez, Special Ed. P.E. There are vacant positions for a librarian and a security guard for the school at the moment, making the security of the students sometimes at risk especially during lunch. The total enrollment of students in the Rufino Vigo was 320 students approximately at the start of the school year. The enrollment went down to 297 students in just two weeks since classes began in August 11th. The majority of the students withdrawn have been enrolled in other schools because of the school’s management and others have gone to live outside of Puerto Rico. There is 3 organizations focused for the students like a Recycling Program, Supplementary Services (Escuela Abierta) and Cadets (only given on Saturdays). The Recycling Program is standing idle for the moment, the principal said, but she is looking forward to activate it soon. The secretary was not able to provide the attendance of the students nor the places of origin. What I could gather from some of the students and my cooperating teacher, Ms. Hernández, most of the students come from different public housings near the school. Below are graphical representations of the school personnel, facilities and organization (schedule). At the end you will be able to find an appendix with school’s diagram.
Reaction From what I could gather and observed, this school has a lot of potential of being a great school and surpass expectations. The facilities are excellent for an elementary school, because it is big, has a lot of space for the students to play around but lacks in appearance. In my opinion it looks dull, and that could be a factor for the students’ lack of motivation in the classroom. Since the school is still under transition and socioeconomically it’s poor, I see why the school is like it is. I have to give it to the few custodians that work in a big school and yet they managed to keep it nice and clean every single day. I believe that this school could amount to be much more if there were money. Some tips for improvement I would give the school are to put a playground for the rest of the students, renovate the basketball court, replace the bleachers, update the library and do a computer lab for students whom do not have access for equipment like this in their homes. The administrative office also needs a renovation and chairs for people to sit and wait while they’re being attended. Overall, it has a great structure and system, it needs a little tweaking and commitment from the students and teachers to maintain it. Conclusion It has been almost two weeks since I’ve started in the Rufino Vigo Elementary School and I feel like this is going to be a real challenge, especially with the students. Not that didn’t know it beforehand, but being in the school has shown me that. I don’t feel that the school, in general, is going to be a problem at all. What I found that is going to, most likely, change is how I approach the students and how it affects me as a professional. There are so many laws and rules these days on how to properly handle a student that if a situation arises, I almost cannot do anything. I feel
that the university never fully prepares you for what to expect when you go to school and how to be a teacher. I firmly believe that teachers are made in the classroom. Taking courses, it gives all the theory we need to know in order to graduate but in practice is where, I as teacher, am being shaped little by little as time goes by with the students. I know that this is what practice is for, but as I set foot in school to start this whole new phase, reality sets it and slaps me in the face. It’s nothing like I imagined it would be. Classroom management seems to be screaming at the top of their lungs in Rufino Vigo for some action. I’ve never worked with anything like this before and it worries me. Hopefully, I will be able to change that with my students and let them know how to pass it along. My practice group seems to be lacking motivation and the discipline in school in general is not good. This I feel, will change my perspective about teaching because students do not want to participate and I’m hoping that changes this year. The school personnel seems very helpful and some of them are willing to help others, but there seems to be a lack of communication between the teachers and principal. Sometimes teachers do not know what’s going on and that surprised me. Talking with Carmen, the secretary, she confirmed what I have thought, that the principal of the school has taken aback the school and teachers have lost interest for the school and that lack of motivation from them transfers to the students. Teachers need to communicate with one another so there would be effective teaching, happening throughout the school. I’m hoping that this changes for the better of the school and my disposition as a teacher. I definitely would not want to work in a school where teachers do not communicate effectively among them nor with the school’s principal. Finally, I also believe that how I am feeling in this moment will change as I progress with the students in the semester, this is reality settling it.