Blog 6:
Outside:
The Rockbridge County High School is primarily composed of students from both the Lylburn Downing Middle School (city) and the Maury River Middle School (county) due to how the Rockbridge County High School serves both Lexington and Rockbridge County areas. The school, according to the VDOE’s school quality profile, exhibits a satisfactory performance in all areas of assessment except when it comes to students with learning disabilities who are struggling with math. Moreover, the graduation rate rests at 91.5%, which is not far off from the state’s overall graduation rate of 92%. The school quality profile does, however, also reveal one of the biggest challenges that the school’s students face – economic issues. In the Rockbridge Community Profile, prepared by Jennifer Borman and Daniela Leon it states that “According to the 2013 U.S. Census, median household incomes in the Rockbridge area were significantly lower than the rest of Virginia… and the United States.” They assert that “the area is not immune from poverty” and that “poverty in Rockbridge is compounded by isolation and relative invisibility.” The Rockbridge County High School, however, as evidenced through me and my partner’s personal experience and through the statistics reviewed from the VDOE, does an excellent job at providing adequate assistance to students so as to create a conducive learning environment for everyone.

Inside:
Mr. Simms’s and Ms. Trombetta’s classroom most certainly exhibited the same uplifting energy that permeated throughout most of the school. Upon arrival to their classroom, the students were chatting excitedly with one another, Mr. Simms, and Ms. Trombetta. This particular class certainly maintained a positive classroom culture. Moreover, the classroom definitely reflected PBL and EL principles. This was evident to me as soon as I saw the students work on the walls and, moreover, when Mr. Simms remarked to me that he allowed and encouraged his students to assist him with curating the course’s content. This amplification of student choice and voice and Mr. Simms’s practice of identifying and discussing with his students “real-world issues and problems students want to address” certainly reflect the principles of PBL and EL education. Aside from the students holding discussions with Mr. Simms, Ms. Trombetta also heavily encouraged the students to participate in class discussion and collaboration. When I inquired about how she thought it would be best to conduct a class discussion, the first thing she wrote to me was that “it’s important to let students voice their opinions while also respecting their classmates.” Sometimes you could feel the energy of the classroom shift throughout the class. There was one moment where they did an activity on the board and everyone was excited for it, but once they sat back down it slightly turned into a lecture that the students didn’t necessarily feed into. All in all, the class could reap the benefits of PBL further down the line.