The Search Story

I decided to learn more about the idea of urban education and teaching students living in poverty, because I was first intrigued about this topic by our discussions in EDUC 145. Learning about the characteristics of schools in urban areas and areas of high poverty has continued to pull at my attention and my heart. By researching more about what these schools are like, I can get a better idea as to what it would be like to teach in an urban school. I want to learn more so that I can someday get involved and make an impact in the lives of students who go to urban and high-poverty schools. I want to use my knowledge and skills as a teacher to make school a place of happiness, refuge, and security for students. And this is the perfect place to do just that. I know teaching in urban schools and in areas of high poverty is very challenging, but I also know God would equip me to do it if I were called.

The main background of knowledge I have in this subject is the learning we did in EDUC 145. I know there are seven factors of student engagement that tend to correlate with students' socioeconomic status. These factors are health and nutrition, vocabulary, effort and energy, mindset, cognitive capacity, relationships, and stress level. Teachers must be aware of how these factors affect student engagement in the classroom in order to combat negative effects and encourage student participation. I also understand that poor students tend to attend schools that have various negative elements such as inadequate funding, larger class sizes, fewer experienced teachers, and less safe learning environments. This is why having good teachers in impoverished schools is vital.

The basic goal of this project is to learn more about urban schools and teaching in schools in areas of high poverty so that I can get a better understanding as to what it is like and also to see whether it is something I could see myself doing in the future. My overall questions are: "What characterizes urban schools," "What aspects should people know about teaching in areas of high poverty," and "What are the best teaching practices to use in schools like these?" In order to find answers to these questions, I searched online, "urban schools," "high-poverty schools," and "inner city schools." I found a variety of sources, from personal accounts to articles written by large organizations. I decided to use information about what characterizes urban schools, how to teach students who are diverse and/or living in poverty, how schools are able to break the trend of being a high-poverty school, and a personal story of a woman who tutors students in an urban high school.

Because I found so much information, it was challenging to narrow it down to the most important ideas that I wanted to include in this project. Throughout my research and compilation of information, I have learned a lot about urban education and have become more and more interested in getting involved in an urban and/or high-poverty school. The biggest takeaway I have gained from this experience is that this topic is hard. It is complicated. It can be easy to get bogged down with the heart-wrenching stories and depressing statistics. However, there is hope in these schools. It takes good leadership, collaboration, dedicated teachers, and partnership with parents and the local community to improve children's education and have a positive impact on their lives. Teachers have an indescribably meaningful task in the world. They even have the power to combat poverty itself.