Washington Elementary School Observation

Washington Elementary School is located in West Orange, New Jersey in a neighborhood where mostly African American and Hispanic businesses and people were surrounding the area. As I arrived to the school or left, I usually only saw minorities in the surrounding neighborhood. This correlated with the students I saw in the classroom I observed, and throughout the school. In the classroom there was a total of 17 students, all of which were minorities. Ten of the students are Hispanic and seven are African American. I did not see too many White or Asian students throughout the school, or in the neighborhood. However, the racial and ethnic demographics for West Orange showed that the majority of the population is White. Statistics on race and ethnicity show that 62.1% of West Orange identify as being White, 17.1% as being Black, 10% as being Hispanic, 8.1% as being Asian, 2.4% as being two
I have previously observed at schools, but did not have to keep democratic standards or their race and ethnicity into consideration. In having to think about a democratic environment, I got to focus on more things other than just the curriculum being taught and whether I liked how the seats were set up. I actually really enjoyed shadowing Mrs. C, since I felt I could relate to her Hispanic students due to me being the same ethnicity. Even though I did not have to stay the whole school day, during the majority of my visits I would leave at 3:25PM when the students were dismissed. During one day of classroom service, I had to leave early and found myself wanting to stay the whole day. Through classroom service, I was able to help students correct their work and got the opportunity to help students who needed help with math. Visiting Washington Elementary School was a good way for me to gain experience in a classroom, through both shadowing and doing some hands on work with the