Blog 1- Mallory Gignac

I, as a future educator, strongly believe in learning about all of my learners, looking at them in the perspective of the “whole” child. I believe in understanding my learners in the context of their family, community, culture, and individual personalities. In order to learn more about my learners’ community, I want to explore the surrounding areas around my school, Walled Lake Elementary. In order to start to understand the community for which my learners live and interact with, I want to not only explore the basic places, such as the library and the grocery store, but explore those places my children frequent regularly, that are specific to Walled Lake. I want to go to the places that are a part of my learners’ everyday lives. In going to the places that my learners normally go to, I hope to gain a perspective on what they are learning outside of the classroom, to see the literacy that they engage with on a regular basis. Having already conversed with my learners a lot over the last two weeks, I have come to realize that a lot of my children go to the local beach, Mercer Beach, a lot frequent the local park, and a lot of my little girls go to the local dance studio. On top of those three main places, I also want to go to the establishments that the learners of the school, as a whole, see as relevant and popular. This would include going to Tom’s Root Beer stand, a local establishment across from Walled Lake. It will also include Bayside Bar and Grill, the major restaurant in town, the local Dairy Queen, where the majority of the upper elementary students hang out, the local batting cages and the local Laundromat.
In exploring my learners’ neighborhood, I expect to find a close-knit community. The reason I feel as though it is going to be close-knit is from the signs and events I have already noticed. Every Friday, there are tons of flyers that go home with the learners, for dance classes, Halloween parties, and apple pickings going on in the local community. Furthermore, I expect to find houses that reflect a middle to high socioeconomic area, due to the surrounding large houses. Furthermore, I expect to find a lot of restaurants, beaches, and boating activities, due to the importance of Walled Lake to the community. I am thinking I am going to find that a lot of where the community goes and a lot of what the community does will be centered around Walled Lake. I furthermore feel as though there will be a lot of opportunity for my learners to witness multiple types of literacies, due to all the resource areas, for example, the local Laundromat and library.
Having not conducted my exploration into my community yet, I cannot say for certain about what was confirmed in my preconceptions or what was disconfirmed. However, I can say that through driving to my school, I do believe I may be correct in believing that there are a lot of literacies evident in the community and that the community is active, constantly reaching out to its inhabitants. Though I am not positive yet, I feel as though it may be true just from the signs I have already seen and the involvement by the community I have already witnessed.
In touring the community and going to the places that my learners most often go to, besides their own home, I hope to start to understand my learners’ funds of knowledge, and the literacy that they come into contact with, outside of school. I expect to see literacy in all forms, from the signs in windows, to the labeling of buildings. I expect to see environmental literacies at the beach, technological literacies, such as using of computers,, and even visual literacies, through objects such as street signs. I expect to hear a lot and learn a lot also through the discourse that takes place at different establishments. The type of talk and conversation that the people at the places engage in will tell me a lot about the community and the types of conversations my learners may have partaken in or overheard. What I expect to see, hear, and learn, is about all the different types of literacies evident in the community. In learning about the different forms of literacy, I hope to bring forth the different types into my classroom to make meaningful lessons for my learners. Though I am not positive if this will be true, that I will find all sorts of literacies, or a lot of enriching discourse, I feel as though my expectations might be right just from what I have already witnessed through the involvement of the parents, the involvement of the community, as I mentioned, through flyers and community events.