Context for Learning

I am currently placed in a middle school in the Freeman school district.  My cooperating teacher is the history teacher for 7^th grade Washington State History and 8^th grade U.S. History.  He also takes care of one elective class, technology.  Each class is 55 minutes every school day.  Freeman is considered a rural school, south of Spokane on highway 27.  The teaching staff really enjoys it out there.  They get to know the families and work with each other.  There is a great sense of community when I speak with the staff and kids.  They know each other and live together and it is great to learn from them.

I am most familiar with the 5^th period, 8^th grade U.S. History because most of my time there last quarter was spent with them.  There are 33 students in the class, 20 females and 13 males.  The one English Language Learner is a newish student (first of the school year) from Ethiopia.  There are three IEP’s and four 504 plans.  I asked my teacher about recognizing gifted or advanced students, but there is not any sort of structure in place to take care of those students.

The classroom itself is not my ideal set up.  There are four rows of desks and one more perpendicular along the wall from the door to the front of the room.  Each desk seats two students and the each have their own computer to work from.  It is nice for the students because each computer has the textbooks loaded onto it.  I don’t think it is what I would prefer because the students cannot be assigned at home reading.  Most of the classes are made up of reading “down-the-line” as they go through the textbook and then work on their key terms and people from the text.

After talking to the principal, he says the lack of options for the gifted students is due to a decrease in funding.  He also says that is why there are no AVID courses.  The one option they do have is an advanced track in mathematics; this could propel the advanced students two years ahead in math.  The IEP’s are followed for the individuals who need them and each student with a 504 is given an option to modify the assignment or participate with it in smaller sizes.  My cooperating teacher admits that he hasn’t done that recently since he has a better grasp on what each student requires to be successful.