The Different Faces I See

Walking into this class I knew I was going to be in a classroom full of different ethnicities, cultures, and languages. The classroom was made up of teenagers from different countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and Central America. For the first couple of times I was able to go, I did not get much interaction with the students because they weren't very comfortable around me. They usually just asked their teacher for help instead of me. I think that once they become more comfortable with me, and actually remember my name, they will ask me for my help as well. So for most of the time I just stand by and observe the students.

The students are like normal high school students, you have the troublemakers, the quiet ones, they studious ones, and the athletes. There are about 6 boys that feel the need to make trouble everyday. Now I know its quite easy to when theres a student teacher who doesn't know how to keep control of the classroom, but these boys do not make it easy for him to even attempt to try. After my second time there, I sat down with one of these so call troublemakers and talked with him for a bit. I got to know about his family and how he was from the Philippines. We then go to talking about school and what he wanted to do for college in a few years. This is when I put two and two together to understand why he acts out the way he does. He is not doing well in school because he still doesn't completely understand the English language. I noticed that some of the boys in the class like to make fun of the students who have trouble reading easy english words, and I know that this young boy I was talking to did not want those boys to know that. This boy put on a face of every normal teenage boy. He wanted others to see him as a tough kid and not one to be messed with so he hid his problems with reading from the teachers and rest of the class. I then started to wonder how many more of these kids had put that same face on to cover up there problems with school. 

I got the chance to sit down with the teacher of the class, not the student teacher and we were talking about the boys in class. She informed me that she's been trying to help these boys because she knows that they aren't doing well with school and that it is due to their lack of asking for help. She informed me that I can't expect these kids to ask me for help, I kind of have to just go up to them and start doing their work with them. So I'm going to try to make the effort next time I go to sit down and start doing homework with them.