My bagel was cold on my second visit to the school. As I held this food in one hand, and a coffee in the other, I quickly stepped down the sidewalk towards Roosevelt High School for my second day on the job, excited by the idea that I would actually get a chance to meet the kids. I placed down my coffee and took off my belt at the detector, and passed by in a much faster way than the last time. As I buckled up and signed in, I remember two students running by, before being told to slow down by a large, wide police officer who worked at the front desk. As I started walking toward Mr. Spike’s classroom, I looked around at the numerous designs and posters on the walls. Everywhere I looked, there were pictures of prominent black men and women who had achieved greatness in their lives. These posters, from MLK to Obama, were meant to say, “I look like you, and I did it… You can too.”
I think this policy is meant to counter a prominent frame that is increasingly taking over the media coverage, where it seems as if white men are in suits, black men are in jails, and Hispanics are selling drugs. These obvious stereotypes do not reflect reality, but rather a pseudo-reality unintentionally suggested by certain news outlets.
After being lost for nearly five minutes, I found Mr. Spike’s classroom, and was glad to see a full classroom waiting for me. This group was not the most enthused of all students, but they had a general interest, and some even pretended to care about my entrance into the classroom. Mr. Spikes seemed to care a lot about the students’ ability to impress Collette, the other Prime Movers Media worker, and me. During this period, Spikes went over Adobe Pro, an audio mixing program that I had never used before. As he taught, Collette and I were learning as much as the kids were. However we were able to pick it up at a faster pace. The students then separated into their own workstations to complete the class assignment.
Almost immediately, one person raised their hand. When I went over to help, he informed me that his computer was not functioning. Two or three other students were having the same problem. The PCs were malfunctioning, and it took Mr. Spikes working with the server for more than fifteen minutes before the students were able to start their assignment. Problems like these definitely limit the effectiveness of their classroom experience. One student put on headphones and placed his head down on the desk. I wondered why Spikes didn’t reprimand him, but then I realized that it wouldn’t have made a difference. The computers were broken. He might as well have been absent for that period.
The next period was pretty shocking to me. This class, which is a “Writing Workshop” class, lacked a great deal of legitimacy. There were only three people in the class, and they were not given a very difficult task. They listened to a recorded story, and then they were asked to write down the main points from it in a word document. This simple task, which was already half-way done at the beginning of the class, took the entire period to finish. One of the three girls kept falling asleep in class, and oddly, the teacher didn’t seem to care. This teacher reassured the other students that “it was ok,” because she “was tired”. The other two girls seemed to be hardworking and smart, but had little reinforcement from the teacher and class.
The third period was an interesting one. It was the last period on a Friday that admittedly refused to end. It was a sunny day outside, and I could tell that the students were just ready to run out of the building, first chance they got. Still though, there was pretty good attendance, and there were about 14 of them. They were doing the same project as the 2nd period was. They heard the assignment, and went and worked on their projects silently. I was impressed by how attentive they were, but disappointed by the complete lack of interest. Then again, I thought back to my High School days, when I had last period English on a Friday, and it made a little more sense. In the future, I would like to try and motivate them more. Journalism is not only an essential part of living in a democracy but also it is a topic that generates real, practical skills. If I can get one person to become a journalism-nerd like me, then I’ll consider my time here a success.
- Evan Koslof
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