Personal Narrative: My Experience Of Willow Elementary School

When I first saw Willow Elementary school I was shocked because of how different it is compared to where I grew up. First, the location of the school is in the middle of a very urban neighborhood. I noticed that there were people walking up and down the street both times I visited. Also, they have a very small playground that doesn’t have soccer nets or a baseball diamond like my school did. This surprised me because those are the two places where I went to during recess and I couldn’t imagine not having them. Next, the school is very small. It’s basically a square and is much smaller then the elementary school I went to. Additionally, the teachers didn’t dress in the same attire that I’m used to. Most teachers from my old schools dressed

The room itself is a lot smaller then the classrooms I’m used too and I noticed that they don’t have individual desks, instead they have tables that are pushed together like the ones in our classroom were in the beginning. This is strange to me because I remember all throughout elementary we each had our own desk that opened up so that we could put all of our supplies in there and keep it organized. Also, I saw very little white board space and over-head/projector space in the classroom. The students in the classroom were either African American and Caucasian. They have a dress code at Willow that the students are supposed to wear a black, purple or white shirt but not all students do and it’s not a strict dress code. I noticed that most of the girls were very talkative and were excited to ask for help. There where a few students, however, that were very shy when I went over to help and seemed as if they weren’t interested in me helping them. I noticed that the two girls who were shy were both white. My own reactions of the students were that they have the passion and excitement to learn however, it seems as though something is missing. I can’t tell yet if it’s the school itself, the lack of resources or maybe even something else. While I was in the classroom I was surprised by a few things. First of all, the school has carts for IPads and the teacher brought them out for the students to practice letters on an app. However,

First, from my initial observation, I believe that the students are receiving an inadequate education. I believe this because Willow received a red ranking by the state and the teachers goal is probably to teach to the test so that Willow will receive a higher ranking. I also say this because they have no P.E. class provided through the school system. Instead, the Y.M.C.A created a program to have some of their workers to be the P.E. teachers at the school and the school district does not fund them at all. I personally couldn’t imagine elementary school without P.E. class and believe that physical activity is very important, especially at the elementary level. In the elementary where I grew up, all of us students always looked forward to P.E. class like it was lunch and the fact that the school district doesn’t provided P.E. class is very shocking and heart breaking to me. Without P.E. class the students may not do any physical activity and wouldn’t be educated about physical activity. But, thankfully the Y.M.C.A. has provided the students with a P.E. class. An inadequate education is when teachers tell students what to think and don’t create a well rounded student. In result, teachers only teach what they have to or to the test. On the other hand, an adequate education has a lot of extracurricular activities and students are ready to move onto the next level after every school year. My