Where Am I

So, where am I right now? I decided not to go home for the summer (tough) and try to make the most of the opportunities in the US. I am currently in New York City, enjoying my days hanging out with the loves of my life—kids in their natural habitat of learning and school. Officially, I have an internship at an elementary school in the Upper East Side, Manhattan till the end of June. The internship is aimed at me getting more hands-on experience on inclusive education, a term which roughly means a learning environment in which all learners as well as those with varying learning (dis)abilities are included. P.S. 6 has this interesting model of an inclusive classroom called the integrated co-teaching (ICT) classroom which comprises of 60% of kids in general education, who ideally do not have any behavioral problems and 40% of kids in special education, whom the individualized education plan (IEP) team decide would benefit best in an inclusive setting—normally, those who can progress well academically but are just in need of several kinds of modification in the teaching and learning process (being in special education does not automatically make you a good fit to be in the ICT classroom). The classroom is structured with two teachers—one would be specialized in general education and the other, special education. They both co-teach and work together to provide differentiated instruction and modified ways of teaching, learning, and assessing based on the modifications required by the students in the class. It is a very fluid process, which I thought and have found to be so intriguing and complex to see these two teachers work together in navigating all these factors—it is much harder than we think it is yet Ms. M and Ms. R make it look simple. I am learning so much just by looking at how they communicate, collaborate, and interact with each other and the students. I have two more weeks left. I will be writing extensively in my following posts, mostly for myself to reflect and also think about the connection between theory and practice—tools, ideas, old and new thoughts I want to keep as a healer, giver, lover, learner, teacher, whatever you may call it. So, forgive the long-windedness. You are welcome to dance in my thoughts if you are still awake by the end of it.

P.S. I’ll be using initials to talk about people to protect their identities because it does get pretty personal, at least my thoughts about situations. Glad I know the names of every kid in my class—30 of them. That also means they may have the same first initial, so, I might do first and last initial.

P.P.S. I am having the time of my life.