Working at Westcott Elementary School
Marylena Lehocky
Published: July 14, 2014
My name is Marylena Lehocky. I am from a northern suburb, Vernon Hills, about 40 miles north of Auburn Gresham. I had never lived in the city prior to this summer. I am participating in a program called STEP-UP, and I am living with a host family in Auburn Gresham and teaching third grade at Westcott Elementary School. I am working in the summer bridge program, the students in this program have just finished third grade and need to complete summer school so that they can attend fourth grade. For some students, they are here because they had too many absences while others are struggling in school and their NWEA test scores were too low for them to advance to the next grade. Because Westcott is a neighborhood school, during the school year many students attend other schools (charter, magnet, etc.); but for summer school, all students attend the school closest to them because every CPS school works with the same curriculum for the summer.
When I walk to this school, before even entering the building, there are already obvious differences between Westcott and most of the elementary schools in my hometown, Vernon Hills. One of the first things I’ve noticed is the proximity of schools in my hometown compared to how many and how far apart the schools are from one another. Westcott is a Pre-K – 8th grade school, while the schools I attended were K – 5 and 6 – 8 grade schools. The schools in my hometown even appeared to be larger than Westcott although they cover a smaller range of grade levels. A few other notable differences were parking lot and playground size, which was not too surprising for me only because city space is harder to come by than suburb space.
When thinking about the differences between the two schools, I wonder how this affects the students attending these schools. Looking at demographics of the two schools, there are obvious differences and these are just based on the different locations of the two schools. The test scores of the two schools are very different as well, and I would attribute that to a number of reasons. The environments surrounding the schools are very different, as are the funding that these two schools receive. Suburban schools and CPS schools follow different types of curriculums, and this does affect the way students learn and how they score on standardized testing.
Environment plays a major role in student ability and education; students’ ability to succeed in school is affected by the life they have outside of school. A student’s environment is the atmosphere and cultures the student experiences outside of the classroom (where they live, what their block is like, and what activities are common in their neighborhood). If students are constantly exposed to negative environmental factors, such as stereotypes about their neighborhood, gang violence, and safety concerns in their area, they will have a much harder time seeing themselves moving forward with their education. If a student is constantly being told they cannot succeed or that they will become a ‘product of their environment,’ they become part of the “self-fulfilling prophesy” a If a student hears a stereotype or comment about themselves enough times, they will be more likely to fulfill this stereotype and become what people expect them to. Depending on the people students associate inside and outside the classroom shape the way they view the world and the area they live in. The more positive influences a student has, the more likely they will be to succeed.
Working at Westcott has taught me that students respond to authority in different ways, and entering a new school and a new classroom takes some getting used to. Student will not automatically accept you as the authority figure simply because you’re there, you need to earn theirrespect. After working at Westcott for a week and a half, my students are finally starting to see me as a constant authority figure in the room, and they are seeing me as a teacher rather than just a classroom helper. It’s been difficult adjusting to the new environment, but I feel this is one of the most valuable teaching experiences I will have because I am experiencing what it feels like to teach in an unfamiliar setting. I have never taught in an urban setting, and most of the classrooms that I have observed have students that are primarily white. Going into a classroom in Auburn Gresham has been new experience for me, because the students have a different lifestyle than I had when I was their age. The school itself is much older than the elementary schools in my hometown, and it is not as updated as some of the other schools I have visited. These experiences will help me continue to shape my teaching styles and apply what works to my future students. I hope to start a career within Chicago Public Schools when I graduate next May.Living in a new community has allowed me to learn a bit more about where my students come from and what resources they have available to them. I am continuing to grow as an educator, and I believe that my time here in Auburn Gresham has taught me how to use community organizations as a resource for my students. This experience has been challenging, as it is unlike any job I have ever had before,but I have seen myself grown as a learner and an educator, and I am eager to see what my future here in Chicago holds.