In the historic town of Lexington, the classrooms at Maury River Middle School are small, and the faces are familiar. The teachers stay incredibly involved, and know each and every one of their students personally. With Lexington being so small, teachers have the opportunity to get to know their students closely, and work together in the classroom. Throughout this semester, Mrs. Diette and her 8^th grade English students have given my partner and I an in-depth look at a middle school environment here in the Shenandoah Valley.

Kirk and I first started in a helper class during Eagle Academy time in the mornings. For the first hour of school, students sit in a classroom that most students would call their “homeroom.” For most students, this can be time to relax and get ready for the day ahead. However, for the students that need it, this first period is critical in making sure that they are understanding the content being covered in other classes and are staying on top of their schoolwork. Not only was this interesting to observe, but it was not something that was provided during my time at middle school. This first period proved to be helpful for the students if they used their teacher and her resource correctly.

In Mrs. Diette’s English class during last period, where Kirk and I spent the remaining of the semester, the classroom appears to paint a clear picture upon first glance. Mrs. Diette has the week carefully planned out on the white board in the front of the class. Vocab words, posters, and literary devices are scattered throughout the classroom’s walls. A mini library sits in the corner of the classroom with the quote “books are a uniquely portable magic.” Mrs. Diette is in front of the classroom giving an upbeat presentation with some videos and pictures, and will most likely break the students off into collaborative groups soon. However, if you take a closer look at the students, it paints a blurrier picture. The students cannot seem to stay engaged. The laptops they have open in front of them are probably open to a game, and not the given assignment. The students do not feel the want to participate and answer questions in class, and conversations are being secretly had in the back of the classroom. For the students in Rockbridge county, the majority of them do not seem to have the “love of learning” that one may be able to see in a different classroom or school setting elsewhere.

In 2015, the “on-time high school graduation rate” for Lexington was at 92.4%, which was higher than the national average. As well, over 75% of those on time graduates, went on to attend a four-year college. Based on these positive statistics, it is interesting how Kirk and I observed quite the opposite inside an actual 8^th grade classroom in Lexington. Are the laptops given out so early in middle school a distraction from the learning material? Is this how the last class of the day looks for a normal eighth grader?

The learning environment of a Rockbridge County 6th grade classroom is filled with group learning, guided discussions, independent learning, and lectures. Additionally, the environment itself reflects so many of the major characteristics suggested by EL Education and Project Based Teaching, such as classroom Norms and many displays of individual expression. Though the Rockbridge county school system serves as a place to unite all of students, it is undeniable each student comes from a different background. The Community Academic Research Alliance at Washington and Lee University conducted an investigation into these matters, and according to their report entitled, “Poverty in Rockbridge,” many of Rockbridge County students come from impoverished households. However, there are also many students who benefit from the surrounding institutions, being VMI and W&L, either directly or indirectly. Accounting for the differences in student’s backgrounds, teachers and administrators must understand this perspective when enacting different strategies within their classroom and schools respectively.

In our experience, working in Mrs. Dowless’ 6th grade classroom, Maury River Middle School understands that and does well with implementing strategies that connect the students who vary widely. For one, the teachers invest in their students’ success and constantly stay aware of the varying abilities of those in their class, focusing on those who need help while allowing those who are better off to conduct more independent learning. Additionally, the classroom environment itself is conducive to learning and interactive learning through the organization of the tables, easily moveable and put in small groups, and a classroom pet which makes the classroom more inviting. On top of that, the school as a whole does well implementing technology, specifically centered around computers, into their curriculum. They assisted those who may be less fortunate with providing loaner Chromebooks so all students can have the same educational experience regardless of their background. Though an educational environment may always have room for improvement, Rockbridge County’s Maury River Middle School is on the right path towards fostering success for their students.

With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, everything has changed, for both us and our partner teacher. Specifically in the Rockbridge County environment, the movement from class in person to class online greatly  affects our ability to connect with students who may either need the extra motivation or have a poor home life and need a place away from home to do their learning. In addition to those factors, as mentioned before, some students may not have access to a computer or the internet at home, which again inhibits their learning. Accounting for those factors, teachers are working hard to figure out ways to circumvent those challenges. For Mrs. Dowless, she is currently utilizing google classroom to try and reproduce the positive classroom environment that she had at school. a completely new environment. As the pandemic continues on, this struggle will continue on and  the Rockbridge County school system will continually try to recreate the positive environment that they successfully create in their schools.

Works Cited

“Poverty in Rockbridge.” Washington and Lee University, my.wlu.edu/the-shepherd-program/academics/community-academic-research-alliance-(cara)/rockbridge-community-profile/poverty-in-rockbridge.

When first going into Ms.Dowless’ sixth grade science class, our priority was to focus on the classroom environment. We wanted to see how the learning process worked and connected it to our own experience of middle school. When we first were able to converse and interact with the students, it seemed like they were your normal middle schoolers. It can be easy for instructors to just do their job and teach their lesson plans, but will this be meaningful? Over our years within academia, we have been able to realize the teachers who had a more personable connection seemed to get more of our effort and attention. But in order to develop this personable connection, instructors must understand who they are teaching. Rockbridge county is very different than where we are from: Richmond, VA and Aberdeen, NC.

Well, at least that’s what we thought as we observed the landscape and demographic around us. Before doing research on Rockbridge county, we had an objective view that it was just a rural agricultural area, filled with a majority Caucasian demographic. By seeing a majority of Caucasians, we assumed the county had to be decently well off. After reading data from the U.S. Census and the Virginia Department of Education, we now know there isn’t that big of a difference between where we grew up and Rockbridge. The area including Lexington, Rockbridge, and Buena Vista have a median income significantly lower than the other parts of Virginia. In the city of Lexington, around 17% of the population receives food stamps from the government. Within the school system itself, almost 70% of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch and almost half are eligible for free or reduced breakfast. We are glad to have discovered this information because if we ever go into the classroom again in the future, there will be a different approach. We would talk to the students and ask about their lives outside of school. We would try and develop a relationship that shows we care if they’re experiencing hardships at home.  This is important to us because realistically students spend more time with teachers than their families. The connection between students and teachers is key, and it starts by teachers understanding where their students come from.

Casey Marchant

ERH-411

21 March 2020

HR: Observation notes and Field Journals. VDOE website (links in works referenced)

Classroom Portrait Draft

The Classroom situation we are in is an Honors 9th Grade English class. The teacher is relatively young. The classroom itself is very laid back with an attempt to bring positivity and encouragement all over the room. Additionally, it is focused during class time but it isn’t extremely strict. The learner portrait is a bit more difficult for me to create as I really didn’t get much of any experience with the students other than a very short activity where the only conversation is on what they were learning and what the activity was. I can say that they are in an honors class so it is safer to assume that there is a little bit more motivation internally. As for what I saw, there was a significant amount of engagement and it did not seem like the students were interested in anything other than what was going on in class. From the start of the class to the time that I left everyone was focused and on the ball with the material that was being covered. Moreover, this is even more impressive as this class is the first one of the day and typically it can take a couple hours for the mind to really get going. All of the students seemed relatively competent in the aspects of what they are learning. Motivated, interested, engaged, and competent is the learner’s profile that we are dealing with. This may have something to do with what the teacher brings to the table Mrs. Holton is young and has had only a few years of experience. She is local both in where she was raised and went to her primary education and where she went to college. Being an alumni of James Madison University her life shows that there is a connection to the Shenandoah valley and Rockbridge county. Additionally, her energy and enthusiasm for her profession shows that she has a serious interest in educating the young people in her class. If she is apathetic about the progress of youth in the community then she hides it well.

Once we take a step back from the specific from the class room and look at the school as a whole we can start putting this environment into context. If you look at the statistics provided by the VDOE the SOL pass rate for Rockbridge high school is not bad. For all students out of the tested subject matters two have a 90+ pass rating, Two have in the 80s pass rate, and the lowest, mathematics, has a 77 percent pass rate.  Breaking these testing scores into sub categories based on race, gender, economic status, and english language ability there are some definite patterns. For example Black students perform higher in two categories but slightly lower in the three others. Economically disadvantaged perform lower in all subjects and hispanics and english learners score well below average. Females score higher. Males and whites score average in all subjects. These statistics are indicators that while this school doesn’t do terribly there are certain groups without a doubt need more attention. Finally, the amount of students that accumulated more than 7 unexcused absences in 2018-2019 in the entirety of the Rockbridge county school system numbered 65. These statistics, however, do not seem to affect time graduation rates or dropout rates terribly. This school is only slightly under the state average for on time graduation.  This number is not terrible, however, it is not great. It sets lower in ranking them other school districts but this is the raw number, meaning that it does account for the size of the districts. Unfortunately, I do not have the tools to calculate or find the ratio but judging from the raw truancy count this is only a minor issue for this school system.

Overall, Rockbridge county school and Rockbridge county highschool is not bad but it also has some issues. My judgement from my point of view is that it is a very average school for Virginia. That being said there is far more information that could be looked at to be more accurate but I simply do not have the time or ability to use it. My classroom, however, was good and certainly can foster some great experiences and set students up for success well especially because it is a 9th grade class and can teach good habits early on.

Word Count: 732

Works Referenced:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/sol-pass-rates/index.shtml

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/graduation_completion/cohort_reports/index.shtml

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/school_climate/index.shtml