UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT HUMACAO ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Humacao, P.R. ______________________________________________________________________ EDPE-4006
Weekly Reflection # 2
Melanie Quintana Torres EDPE-4006 Dr. Maritza Reyes Week 2
I can say that my second week in my practice teaching was more real. Many incidents happened and my cooperating teacher could not help herself by telling me: “welcome to the Department of Education of Puerto Rico”. And after just one week I realize that the most salient problem of Puerto Rico in terms of Education is the Department of Education and its lack of organization. Not only does teachers don’t take all the changes seriously but, they have become cynical about it. It’s really sad the situation but is the reality. In just two weeks of classes there were three fights all in one day, two students were caught and filmed having sex on the premises of the school and the director resigned. I saw a fifteen year old girl pregnant and one that already has a baby. One day when I was leaving my car I saw where all the drug dealing is done. In a daily basis I see students smoking on the premises and I even noticed that a girl was high in my class. Is really sad and frustrating that all of this happens in a school where’s there’s “supervision” and kids are supposed to go to study. That’s why I understood why my cooperating teacher waited a week to give me her welcoming. Working in a school leaves you with no energy. There’s so much going on that it drains you. Love and vocation are the only things that are going to get you through it all. If you don’t love your profession I realize that you’re not going to get through it all. Thank goodness that even though I studied in a private school because of my mom, which was a Spanish teacher, I knew the reality of the public school and it wasn’t such a shock. And even knowing how things worked it still felt a little bit shocking. The reality is that in the university there’s little talk of how things function. Only a few professor talk how thing work in the Department of Education in Puerto Rico and that’s a shame. In conclusion even though this week was challenging, I’m really confident in what I chose to be. I knew that being a teacher was no easy job and I know that I’m going to make it. My love for children and education goes beyond all the critics, situations and problems with the department. Sadly I know that I might have fellow teachers that may not think the same way and might mark in a negative way my students. It is my job to make the English class a free and happy ambience where student not only will learn English but learn to love to learn. There will be days where everything will go perfect and days where things get rough. The important thing is to always remember why you chose to be a teacher. I think that something that will also help me will be to remember that you used to be a student too.