Through the classroom visits, teach-in development and expeditionary learning experience as a whole, I learned a lot about the difficulties of teaching and communicating academic material that may seem a bit complex to younger students. In addition to academic and personal lessons, I gained a better understanding of my purpose and impact on the greater community, with the students, through health.

Through my initial visits, I witnessed the short attention span of the kids and their lack of attention to the main purpose of their homeroom, which is to get work done. However, towards the end of my first visit, the students were given the chance to ask my partner and I questions about any topic they wanted. Through those exchanges, I witnessed two things, kids who enjoyed physical activities but also individuals who seemed to be fairly overweight. I concluded that the only explanation for their negative health attribute must be a poor diet. Nutrition is something that I have become very passionate about due to my own experiences with being overweight as a kid. And so I ventured into trying to explain to these kids, through my teach in, the health lessons I slowly figured out for myself. The main point I wanted to get across was to always critically thinking about your food choices, or as I like to call it your fuel, and that different fueled effects different individuals differently! That is a confusing topic and one that not many individuals want to come to terms with, however, I believe it to be one of the most important realization in my own health journey.

I also gained a better understanding of my own limitations through this expeditionary learning experience. Even though I already understood the difficulties of communication, I figured out even more so that trying to convey a message, or lesson, to young students who are not familiar with the concepts is quite difficult. Also, trying to teach a complex health philosophy from a remote location is even more difficult. Specifically, it took me a couple drafts and revision with my teach-in in order to formulate my points in a way that young students should hopefully understand while also being entertaining.

Lastly, in addition to simply offering students’ new knowledge and different perspectives, I wanted to offer students these health perspectives to enable them to influence their environment, both within the classroom and in the greater Rockbridge Community. Through the knowledge and perspectives that I provide, hopefully, each student would take what they acquired into their communities and be a positive source of change. And if they don’t fully comprehend the points I tried to get across, then I hopefully planted a seed to be foster by someone, or some other experience, later in their lives. Correspondingly, I saw my influence in the community and the school environment as attempting to encourage or normalize conversations about nutrition, health issues and different health philosophies. I believe teachers and community leaders typically shy away from discussing these issues, like childhood obesity, due to the fragile self-esteem of young people, especially when the young individual is overweight. However, I believe that we should make nutrient and a healthy lifestyle a daily and common topic of discussion in the classroom to both motivate and educate students constantly on issues that affect them for a lifetime.

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.