Considering the Community

The community is a lot how I expected it to be. Since I grew up around Hazel Park, I have always heard generalizations about the type of community it is. For the most part, I would say that the students and families are what I expected them to be. However, the school building itself was much nicer than I had expected. Since most of my previous work has been in Lansing, I have been exposed to lower-income urban school classrooms. Knowing that their media center is updated really gave me hope that the school is trying to stay up to date and not just falling behind from other districts in the area.

1) My partners and I decided to mainly look in the downtown area of Hazel Park. This is one of the more popular strips in the city and a lot of the community based buildings are located there. For example, we will be visiting the police station/city hall, the public library, the community center, and several restaurants around the area. Also, we plan to visit the Hazel Park racetrack, which is a popular horse racing track for not just Hazel Park but several bordering communities. These places will offer us insight into the types of resources citizens have, as well as allowing us a place to observe citizens in a natural setting.

2) To be completely honest, I expect the racetrack to be somewhat run-down. There is gambling that goes on there, and knowing the demographics of the city I could come up with a good estimate of the types of people I would expect to find there. However, I also expect to see the other buildings to be older and more run-down.

3) I think an “outsider” would probably see what they want to see. Depending on where this “outsider” is coming from, just by looking at the type of people who inhabit Hazel Park may force them to make some biased assumptions. However, I actually think since we are going into this project with an open mind that I will try to look at the city through fresh eyes. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to look past appearances and get to know the people of the community for what/who they truly are.

4) I’m likely to see a lot of reading and writing connections in the community. For example, I feel that in most convenient stores or diners reading signs and then communicating what you would like to purchase is a huge interconnection. Specifically, in the library that we will visit I am sure that there will be signs relating to sectioning the library, as well as posted information for the people who use the facility. I'm sure that there are also community based newspapers around, as well as postings.

AFTER COMMUNITY POST

I actually noticed that the community suprised me in a pleasant way. The city was a lot smaller than I initially anticipated, encouraging a smaller, closer, community feel. For example, I felt like everyone we talked to was very friendly and helpful, and we came to find out that Hazel Park is actually nicknamed "The Friendly City". The things that did not really suprise me were the ethnicities I found in the community. I had pretty much observed that through driving to work, so it was compliant with my prior knowledge.
By going around the community, I felt that it gave me a greater sense of where these children's families come from. By seeing the same places that they frequent every day, it helped me to get a clearer idea of their home lives. I also believe that since I know have this knowledge about their community, I can incorporate ideas and examples that might make more sense to them. Using explicit examples in their actual math or literacy problems, can help them make connections outside the classroom. Also, because I have a greater understanding of the lives they live, I will be able to anticipate their student thinking in an effective manner.