Field Work Reflection (Marchant) HR: Class observation notes. EL education Core principles handout

    As I worked throughout the semester I started to realize the effect that we can have on the community through education. That being said I also realized how important it is to have faculty that are willing to invest tremendous amounts of time into their work. This need comes from the odds truly being stacked against the school systems. Currently, many students are capable of success, however, this success cannot be achieved if work stops after the school day ends. This capacity to work after the school day ends is not an opportunity that all students get. Some kids simply cannot afford spending extra time on school work as home life and home responsibilities get in the way. Moreover, negative influences can take over a student’s life early. While education is the building block to create a better community I believe it is naïve to think that it is the solution to strife in our communities. In reality students do not spend much time in school making the amount of influence that the school and teachers have limited. This is why the school system needs to become incredibly efficient in their delivery of work. Additionally, there is much that communities need to do outside of school to help kids stay on the straight and narrow. That, however, is complex and difficult. My best thought after reflecting on our experience in fieldwork is that if we become efficient and choose a curriculum that is applicable to the development of kids then some of these issues can be helped. The development that I am talking about, specifically, is the development of character and ethical/ philosophical thinking. This type of development has been neglected it seems. Yes, society has a set of rules that ought to be followed but if ethical/ philosophical thought is not taught in a way that is applicable then how can we expect people to be able to follow it. You cannot teach a mechanic all the ways a car should work without showing them how to make it work and why it needs to work like that. If you were just to tell them how a car should work without teaching them application skills then the information is worthless and the mechanic is not a capable one. This concept is the same as members of a community and the rules of said community. These ideas are present in EL education’s core principles they just need to be applied and ethics and philosophy cannot continue to be neglected especially at the lower levels of education.

Casey Marchant and Aaron Kempf

ERH-411

29 April 2020

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

Classroom Portrait

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 we 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. We 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 we 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 we 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, we 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 high school is not bad but it also has some issues. Our judgement from our 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 we simply do not have the time or ability to use it. Our 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

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