P.S. 26 The Jesse Owens School

Field Experience

Roashell Bonadie

Education 231-060

Dr. James Johnson

May 19th 2010

One of the requirements that students at Medgar Evers College who are pursuing an Education degree have to meet is, being responsibly of carrying out field work for their assigned Education classes. For Education 231 I visited Ps 26 also known as The Jesse Owens School.  Ps 26 is located at 1014 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn NY and Michele Ashley is the principal. The school has a register of 352 students, with 53% male students and 47% female students.  PS 26 is an elementary school and its grade level runs from pre-k to 5 grade. The distribution of students are as follows; Pre-K - 18 students, Kindergarten  - 38 students, Grade 1 – 64 students,  Grade 2 - 49 students, Grade 3 - 64 students, Grade 4 - 55 students, and Grade 5 - 64 students. There are 38 teachers that are distributed throughout the school.  Their mission is about Emphasizing excellence in their "standards driven environment" which notes that, all students will be engaged by the total school community of staff, students, and parents in a climate of high expectations for success in meeting and mastering performance based on core curriculum.  Hence their job is to provide every child with a quality education.

PS 26 school special academic programs include: Title I Reading and Mathematics, Project Read Intensive school day program for pupils grades 1 - 3 and after school programs in reading and mathematics for grades 1 - 6. Some additional programs includes monthly assembly programs, Annual spring festival, Parents Annual Fashion Show, Olympic Sports Day, President's Council of Pupils and Turn Around Tuesdays, Academy of Excellence after school Program for pupils scoring levels 3 & 4 on City & State Tests and an After School Program open to all pupils.

 On the day that I visited about seven other Medgar Evers students were also in attendance. Professor Charles Ray supervised the visit and Dr. Johnson was also at hand.  I was very impressed with the level of excellence that the school portrayed.  The assistant principal Dr. Cynthia Celestine said that they were given short notice of our arrival; however, when we arrived we were warmly greeted and ushered to a room that was prepared with breakfast.  We were then given an agenda on the different things that were going to take place during our scheduled visit.

The principal Michele Ashley welcomed us and gave us a brief overview on the school and their mission. Subsequently a number of teachers came in on scheduled time to address us.  The teachers spoke for an allotted amount of time and then we were able to ask the speaker questions.  We spoke with Ms. Christiana Foster the parent coordinator, Ms. Williams the early childhood/special education teacher, Ms Vaval the speech teacher, Mr. Farrell the social worker, Ms Weatherington the early childhood literacy coach, Ms. Wilson the upper grade special education teacher, Ms. Brown the school leadership team member /literacy coach, Ms. Mills the guidance counselor, Ms. Bennett the IEP teacher/administrator and Dr. Celestine the assistant principal. 

We spoke the parent coordinator Ms Christina Foster who is responsible for encouraging and promoting active involvement by the families in their children's education and making school more welcoming to the families.  In addition to the Principal and the staff, Ms. Foster is an important point of contact for families of the school.   She work within the school to direct the families to the appropriate places where they can find the information they are seeking.  Ms. Foster stated her concerns about parents not actively getting involve in their children’s education. I was surprised to learn that out of a 352 students only about 50 parents would show up for parent teachers meetings.  However, this number does not discourage Ms. Foster; she is always coming up with new ways to entice the parents to participate in their children’s education.

After we had finished the agenda for the day, I stayed for another three hour session and e I was given a tour of the school.  The atmosphere was very welcoming at PS. 26 one could have sensed a community spirit where each one help one was exuding from each teacher. As I walk around from class to class, I noted how well behave the students were. They sat and quietly completed their assigned work.  This experience made me realize that even though teaching is not an easy task, it is a job that can be accomplished when you have teachers, students and parents trying to achieve the same goal. My experience at PS. 26 was definitely a positive and exciting one and I would love to visit or even work at this site.

PS. 26 field experience connected to my learning in Education 231 class because I could have seen evidences of Social constructivism.   In Vygotsky’s theory, the pattern and rate of development, affirm that adults such as parents and teachers are conduits for the tools of the culture, including language. The tools the culture provides a child include cultural history, social context, and language. A constructivist teacher creates a context for learning in which students can become engaged in interesting activities that encourages and facilitates learning. The teacher does not simply stand by and watch children explore and discover. The teacher instead, may often guide students as they approach problems, may encourage them to work in groups to think about issues and questions.  The teacher may also support students with encouragement and advice as they tackle problems, adventures, and challenges that are rooted in real life situations that are both interesting to the students and satisfying in terms of the result of their work. Teachers thus facilitate cognitive growth and learning as do peers and other members of the child's community.  At PS. 26 one could have sense the community that radiated from the school.