The School I Am Observing At St. Charles West High School

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

My third grade class at P.S 45 is an ICT class where half of the students are low-functioning and half of the students are general education. My classroom contains 29 children, 15 boys and 14 girls of mixed heritages. The majority of my students are Hispanic and African American; however, there are a few students who are Caucasian and Asian, too. The class consists of many students who have an impulsive tendency of constantly getting out of their seats. When this happens, it breaks the focus of other students and disrupts the lesson. Most students come ready to learn, but some of the students lack focus due to insufficient sleep and nutrition. Some students are more skilled than others; however, most of the class is struggling academically. My class requires special and differentiated instruction. Twelve students in this class

the students and be prejudiced. Teachers should not see social class as a problem or an excuse as to why

Finally, my third participant was Mr. C. Mr. C began teaching in 1987 and has 28 years of teaching experience. Mr. C earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in History from Cal State LA. He also received his teaching credentials from Cal State LA in 1978. He became interested in teaching history because he loved the subject. He tried various other professions, such as working as an editor for the Los Angeles Times, but did not enjoy them. As a result, he switched to teaching history. Mr. C has taught Economics, World History, Government, and AP US History. Recently, I was able to observe Mr. C’s 11th grade AP US History class.

The setting is Washington Elementary School in West Orange, NJ. The grade I picked is first grade. The age group in the class is between the ages of five and seven. The subjects they learn are math, language arts, social studies, and writing. But they focus more on reading and math throughout the day. There are 8 girls and 8 boys in the classroom which makes 16 students in total. The class is divided into three racial and ethnic groups which are Latino or Hispanic, African Americans, and Asian American. There are about 1 Asian American, 6 Latino or Hispanic, and 9 African Americans.

For this scenario, I am a general education 6th grade math teacher, at the amazing campus of Our Lady of the Lake Middle School. The school that I work for has 8 periods each day, and I teach 6 out of those 8 periods. The classes do range for each period, but I roughly have 23 students in each class and with a diverse set of students; Hispanic (50.1%), White (40.8%), Black (4.8%), two or more races (3.1%), Asian (1%), and Pacific Islander (.2%). At Our Lady of the Lake Middle School the student’s population is broken down to 46% females and 54% males that attend the school. Socioeconomic details for the school is broken down to; eligible free lunch (43.3%), eligible fore reduced lunch (8.2%), and ineligible for free/reduced lunch (48.5%).

When focusing in on the specific classroom that I am working in, there is a 1-23 teacher to student ratio, with fourteen boys and nine girls that are all considered general education students. The class consists of 15 students being Hispanic, 4 students being Asian/Middle Easter, 2 African American

During the Steps 2 College program provided by the University of North Georgia, Gainesville Campus, my Education 2120 class and I were to provide 20 hours of observational field experience in the classroom. From the many course options provided for the program, I choose to spend my time in the Environmental Science course which was located in the Nesbitt building in room 1213. The classroom setting was a darker than normal classroom, but was formatted auditorium style, with all seats facing the front of the class towards the smart board. This was a new experience for the students. Only the first row was used in class due to having a class size of only 7 students. The ratio of boys to girls was about even with 4 boys and 3 girls in the class. All the students were Hispanic, with the only diversity being the teacher and the teachers assistants present. They were all bilingual, knowing their native language of Spanish as well as English except one student who only knew English. All the students in our class came from Banks County High School. Banks County High School, located in Homer, Georgia, is the only high school within its county, with an enrollment rate of greater than or equal to 800 students annually (usnews,2015). Banks County High School has a national ranking of Bronze. Here is the breakdown of the demographics provided by (usnews,2015) and the National Center for Education Statistics of the school:

The class is a Year four, five, six composite class and is made up of twenty-nine students; twelve girls and seventeen boys. There are six Year four students, eight Year five students and fifteen Year six students. The variance of intellectual ability within this class is significant with students’ capability ranging from a Year one level to above Year six level and includes students with special / complex needs. The class includes five students who are verified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, two students who are verified with Intellectual Disability and four students who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Two students are also diagnosed with visual impairment. The class also includes four students who display very challenging behaviours including one student who is under Juvenile Justice for causing grievous bodily harm. This student is on reduced attendance and has a teacher’s aide assigned to him who must supervise him at all times. My mentor teacher emphasised that there are ongoing behaviour issues

My observation was in Mr. Chad Hebert’s health class at Oak Park middle school. The school is located down Oak Park Boulevard in Lake Charles Louisiana. The school consist of grades sixth through eighth grades. The classroom I observed was a regular classroom with inclusion students. The diversity of the students within the class consisted of all African American students and one student that was Puerto Rican. The teacher was a Caucasian male. The office consisted of African American faculty. When passing other children and teachers in school I noticed the majority was African American. There were eight males and seven females in the classroom that I observed. The children were not assigned any particular seats in the classroom. The girls seemed to sit together and boys sat in different seats each time I was in the classroom. The girls were always more involved in answering questions or with class discussions.

In Beginning Jazz Band there are seventeen students total. There are three females and fourteen males. Out of the seventeen students, two are African-American, two are Hispanic and 13 are Caucasian. After speaking with my mentor I learned that the socioeconomic status of the school overall is not very good. Around 75% of the students attending Topeka High are on Free or Reduced lunches and he estimated that about 50% of the students in his class are on Free or Reduced lunches. Along with this, only two students take lessons because they are the only ones who can afford to do so. We were informed that one students has had continuous stays in jail and most students

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the effects of the segregation of the students of Prairiewood High School into Selective and Community classes in their junior years (7-10 inclusive) only to be combined in their senior years (11 and 12). This case study looks specifically at the transition from being in ‘segregated classes’ in junior years to being in ‘combined classes’ in senior years and its effects on all the students personal and social interactions and identity.

In this case study, a third year first-grade teacher was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to talk to the principal about her concerns. One of her concerns was that two of the other first – grade teachers (who were very good friends with the principal) were always getting the high achieving students that came from wealthy backgrounds in their classroom. Her other concern was that these two teachers always had higher test scores because of the high achieving students that were placed in their classroom. This made her scores look bad because she always received the students that struggled to perform. The third year first- grade didn’t mind teaching the struggling learners but she did feel that ALL students would benefit from mixed classrooms. Therefore, she was faced with the following questions: Should I talk to the principal or not? Should I talk to the other first grade teachers? Should I talk to someone else? Or, should I just ignore the situation to keep things from getting worse?

The context of the classroom is a 6th grade math class. The students are at varying developmental levels from below level to advanced/gifted. The types of learners I have are the auditory, visually, and mostly the bodily/kinesthetic learners. I have students who are from multiple ethnicities such as Hispanic, White, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African American. I also have students with varying exceptionalities.

Overall it was determined that the school as a whole, was a failure, not due to the policies implemented by Maxwell, but rather due to the insurmountable challenges of overcrowding. Many schools held double sessions and a single classroom with one teacher often held 60 and occasionally up to 150 children. Students were forced to sit three to a seat and some students, usually immigrants were turned away. How well immigrants did in these schools depended on the importance placed on education by their parents. Jewish parents valued education highly and their children often thrived in the schools. Other schools, such as Italians, resented the fact that the schools tried to strip the children of their culture in their students often floundered. One Italian boy, Leonard Cavello, stated, “We soon got the idea that ‘Italian’ meant something inferior, and a barrier was erected between children of Italian origin and their parents. This was the accepted process of Americanization. We were becoming Americans by learning to be ashamed of our parents.” The schools were improved by Maxwell, but some challenges were undefeatable causing the schools to fail.