Competency 9

Relationship with the community

The student teacher knows the diverse social contexts that conditions teaching and school management and establishes relationships with his or her peers, parents, families, and other community members and institutions to support the learning and well-being of all students.

Reflexive Seminar III

Book Fair

As evidence of my competency “Relationship with the Community,” I offer a certificate, and images documenting my participation in the school's annual Book Fair. This experience took place at the Elementary School of the University of Puerto Rico, where I began my Practicum Experience in January 2025. The opportunity to participate in the Book Fair presented itself on the very first day of my practicum. During orientation day. I approached Mariely Serrano Figueroa, the school librarian, to express my interest in participating in the event.

During my participation in the Book Fair, I had the opportunity to immediately engage with the school community, including students, teachers, staff, and their families. I supported the event from February 10–14, helping to create an environment that was comfortable and welcoming for the community while also promoting literacy skills and family engagement. I was responsable for organizing the space, helping students and parents in finding books, managing sales, guiding students toward books appropriate for them, and more.

This activity gave me the opportunity to observe the diversity of the school community and reflect on how schools are a very big part of the community as a whole. Participating in the Book Fair allowed me to step out of my comfort zone, introduce myself to the school community, and develop a sense of belonging within the school and my students. As a teacher, building a learning community is one of the most important responsibilities we have as professionals. Building trust is essential to get to know our students and their diverse social-cultural context in order to deliver effective lessons. Participating in this experience also re-affirmed the importance of being present and involved in activities that connect the school to its community, supporting students as whole individuals by building trust, and a strong learning environment.

Certificado Feria de Libros.pdf

Reflexive Seminar II

Visit to the NICU

I share with you as evidence of my competency "Relationship with the Community", photos and powerpoints taken and used during our visit to the NICU in the Medical Sciences Campus. The visit was required by Dr. Germie Corujo Martínez for the course Edes3025: Nature and Needs of the Disabled Preschool Child; during the first semester of the 2023-2024 Academic year. The purpose of the visit was for the student teacher to observe, analyze and reflect on how we will support children that come from a type of background that has influenced their development.

With this evidence I demonstrate that I have incremented my domain in knowing the diverse social context that conditions teaching, as well as establishing connections with community members and institutions to support learning and wellbeing of all students. During this experience we had the opportunity to listen to a lecture from doctors Ines Garcia and Zahyra Reyes-Bou, where they talked about pregnancy and childbirth statistics including information on children with developmental delay caused by congenital conditions or premature birth. After the lecture, we went as a group to the Medical Sciences Campus and visited the NICU to observe first hand how these families and children experience life.

Visiting the NICU as a preschool teacher gave us a new understanding and perspective of the different challenges and contexts that children may come from. These experiences children go through must shape and influence our teaching practices and how we build relationships with families. By engaging with parents, families, and healthcare professionals in the NICU, we built relationships based on trust and collaboration that helps us support the learning and well-being of our students. We observed first hand how hard it is for these families to support themselves and children which allowed us as student teachers to form a connection and deeper understanding on the importance of meeting the unique needs of each child and their family. This experience has strengthened my ability to connect with parents, collaborate with professionals, and engage with community resources to create a supportive learning environment for all students.

Copia de Facultad Educación Prof Germie 21 octubre 2021

Reflexive Seminar I

Cuando me lees un cuento me siento feliz

For the competency of relationship with the community I offer as evidence photos of an activity that took place in the “Huerto Urbano Capetillo”. It is a community garden near the UPR where children go to play or grow plants with their friends and families. It took place in the first semester of the school year 2022-2023. This activity was carried out as a part of the course EDPR4137 (Social and emotional development of infants, maternal and preschool children) offered by the professor Wanda I. Figueroa Fuentes. The activity was titled “Cuando me lees un cuento me siento feliz”. It was carried out jointly with all of the students of the course. The objective of this assignment was to promote kind, respectful, and fun interactions through the reading of storybooks to children.

I chose this activity as evidence because it was my first time dealing with the community and I learned a lot from it. In the first phase of this assignment we had to work together as a group to bring a fun and caring experience to children and their families through reading a book that dealt with their emotions. For instance, we had to come up with 3 activities that promote social and emotional development, one for each age group; infant, maternal, and preschool children. For the second phase we also had to elaborate proposals regarding how to decorate the place, which invitations to offer for the children and their families and lastly, and which snacks to bring so that they could spend a good time with us. In the second phase of the assignment we went to each of the children's homes in the community to hand deliver the invitations and explain a little of what we were going to do there. In the third phase we actually carried out the activities, decorated the garden and gave out the snacks.

There was a situation in particular that stuck out to me through this experience. As a person who has not had to deal with relatively much hardship in my life this situation really surprised me. It should not have but, it made me land on my feet and realize that there are diverse social, economic and cultural contexts in Puerto Rico. What had happened was that when we had finished with our activities and gave out snacks to the children and their families, professor Wanda brought out a card and asked the parents to write why they were thankful that this activity was brought to them. What happened was that when a student went to hand one of the mothers the card with a pencil the mothers response was “My love, I do not know how to write.” The student froze up in shock but the professor was really helpful and said that she could dictate what she wanted to say so that the student could write it. I do not blame my classmate for freezing up because I also fell into a shock. I could not believe that at this point in time (in Puerto Rico) there are people who do not know how to read or write.

This allowed me to reflect on the social, economic, and cultural contexts of my future students and their families as well as how it will help me in the future to have better communication with families and be a better educator. There will come a time when I will have a student in the classroom that comes from a family with scarce resources, different social or cultural contexts and it will be important for me to recognize it so that I can learn how to manage it. Having gone through this experience was very enriching and allowed me to reflect extensively on the importance of knowing our students' families and the society we live in. All of these factors will determine why our students do what they do and how they do it. Lastly, I would not change a thing out of this experience, it was my first experience when it comes to dealing with the community and it was very helpful to my formation as a future teacher. This experience helped me to learn how to work in a school enviroment, to be respectful of diversity and to welcome my teacher collegues, parents and community in general given that it is part of working with the school communities as teachers.

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