The Reflection Of A Learning Experience In The Classroom

Spending time in a classroom can have a way of opening your eyes to parts of the education system that some never considered questioning. I found myself lucky enough to be able to experience time at Cannella Elementary school and Claywell Elementary school which are both located in Tampa. During my time observing I was able to see and discuss the roles of a teacher and how at times they can be limited. I was also able to witness that retention, an age old practice, is still exercised used in schools today. The time I spent in these classrooms have opened my eyes to some new things. I hope to take these experiences and use them to better myself as a teacher. While spending time in a Fifth grade class I heard a word that I have not heard in sometime, that

She explained that some students were pushed through to third and fourth grade even though they were not ready because of testing scores. She told me she thought it was because teachers felt bad for the students and did not want them being retained so that students do not find themselves feeling like a failure for not moving on. In the book “Affirming Diversity” there is a small part on Retention and how it has not worked on students for over 100 years (Bode and Sonia 114). The thought that something as serious as retention was used as a threat threw me back a moment. I recall my peers feeling ashamed to admit that they had been retained while in elementary school and often spoke of how our fellow students would use it to bully them. Nieto and Bode explain how there are negative effects to retaining a student, “Students who are retained once are 40 to 50 percent more likely to drop out of school than those who have never been retained; for those retained twice the risk is 90 percent” (114). When I asked Mrs. Stillman about