The "Feel" of the School. Prompt 1

When I first came to the school I am tutoring at, I found that it was quite different from what I had imagined it to be. Where I am from, all of the Elementary schools are only one floor, very bright and take up a good amount of property. However, when I arrived at my assigned Elementary school, I got quite a different view of a school. This Elementary school is located on a very busy street, and (to my surprise) there was no parking lot! The Elementary schools I am used to have big parking lots and are in residential, suburban neighborhoods. When I walked into the building, I noticed there are many floors in the school and it was kind of dark in the hallways. However, I felt that the hallways, stairwells and classrooms were very big and spacious, a great opportunity for teachers to utilize.
I felt that the space is used very well in this school. There are encouraging posters all around that are there to remind students of the values of the school such being respectful and responsible. To get these values across to students, the school has created a 'bee' theme and on these posters the messages will read 'Bee respectful', etc., with pictures of bees. I think this is a very simple, yet creative and effective way to teach students good behavior and values.
The 'feeling' I get from this school is a very supportive and welcoming and encouraging environment. I get this feeling from the very helpful and kind staff in the offices as well as all the posters and other decorations around the school.
The classroom I am in is a first grade classroom. The classroom is very big and spacious, and the teacher has used her space very well. All along the walls are bulletin boards that display student work, encouraging messages and things such as the alphabet, numbers, and vocabulary words. The teacher is very kind and she is great with her students. The students I tutor each week are various in their ethnicities and economic backgrounds. All three students speak different languages at home: one student speaks Portugese, and the other two students speak Spanish at home. From what I can tell, the values in this classroom are to do the best work you can do and to keep going in your education, which is another value of the school. I feel that these are great values to teach at such a young age because it is hard to keep children in school these days and if they know at an early age that education is key in life, they will go on with their schooling in years to come.
Referring to the data on the www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu, I found that my school is just about average in most of the levels that were evaluated. However, I feel that it is noteworthy to point out that in the section when teachers were questioned about the community support of the school, their answers were at a very low percentage meaning that they did not feel a good amount of support for their school in the surrounding community.
So far, I am really enjoying my experience at this school. I feel as if I am truly helping these students as well as getting a great learning experience for myself. :)

Katelyn

A Little Bit About Me..

Hello!
My name is Katelyn, and I am a freshman here at RIC. I have wanted to be an Elementary School teacher for as long as I can remember, so here I am! Outside of schoolwork, I love going to the beach, camping and playing sports and just being active in general! I am playing Women's Lacrosse this season for RIC, hopefully we have a good season! :)

Well, that is all for now!
Katelyn :)