Michele Robb September 15, 2013 EDUC-3V217 Assignment #3 My school is Matsuyama Elementary, located in the Sacramento City Unified

School District in Sacramento, California. Our school district is the inner city school district for our area. As such, it faces its own stigma of being less than compared to neighboring school districts. Matsuyama is a very diverse school community. The demographic breakdown is as follows (percentage):

African American 18.6 Caucasian 15.5 Hispanic 22.5 Asian 30.8 Socio-economically disadvantaged 36.3 English learners 18.8 Students with disabilities 8.9 (http://www.scusd.edu/school/matsuyama)

As such, Matsuyama must be ever diligent in its concept and mission as a multicultural neighborhood school. Matsuyamas Mission Statement is: We will ensure and do our best to: provide a collaborative culture; be reflective, open to communication and instructional leaders; provide rigor and best instructional practices and use data as one tool to make decisions (http://www.scusd.edu/school/matsuyama). After reviewing the criteria that determines a highly effective school in terms of culture, I would rate Matsuyama at a 4- Having many characteristics of an effective school.

Promote Literacy: score 5

Matsuyama is a great proponent in the promotion of literacy. Two years ago, due to huge district budget cuts, all librarians and library techs positions were unfunded. Many schools, with no other options, simply covered the bookshelves and locked the doors. Matsuyama refused. By creatively shifting monies and with the help of the PTA, continued the salary of the part-time library tech. To fill in gaps, parent volunteers work to repair, check out, reshelf and keep open the school library. The school also conducts several fundraisers yearly specifically for the promotion of literacy. Our annual Red Carpet Event that is a dance with proceeds going towards the library generates hundreds of dollars. Also, with the help of the PTA, the school gives each student a book to take home three times a year as a gift. Lastly, the writing club, sponsored by a 4th grade teacher, conducts a book exchange program that allows all students to bring in gently used books from home and exchange for others. All the programs are looked forward to each year by all of the students.

Grade-level curriculum/content 5 Matsuyama strives to have a team approach in teaching while allowing the individualistic style of each educator to shine in their classroom. Each grade team is required to meet monthly for grade level common planning time. The goal is to discuss the curriculum, projects and how to promote the content. While all teachers utilize the adopted textbooks by the district, they reinforce the information through the use of novel studies and projects. Classes at the 5th and 6th grade switch between teachers to give students a better idea of various teaching styles and allow more freedom for projects. Lastly, each year, the school promotes a Parade of Rooms event. This activity has all students walk through every room on campus. The goal is to see and explore all of the various projects and information that each classroom has accomplished through the year. While I would like to see more project based learning, our school is more traditional in

its approach. The core content is mostly through the use of textbooks with projects and novel studies supplementing the curriculum. Organize instruction innovatively: 4 While Matsuyama reinforces a team approach to teaching using the common planning meetings, it is still ultimately the individual teachers to carry that instruction out. Due to this, I believe that each teachers own biases, stereotypes and teaching styles will ultimately affect the overall culture of the classroom. To assist in offsetting this, the team meetings address the curriculum schedule to reflect a better timeline of teaching. For example, the 6th grade language arts unit Taking a Stand is introduced in the textbook early in the year, however the teachers have felt it makes better sense to teach it in December/January to culminate around the teaching of MLK and Civil Rights. All grades have multiple projects to reinforce the curriculum teaching (not to replace). In the older grades, teams are created and given a task to create their own learning experience. One example is the Big Fat Question Ancient Civilization Project. Each team creates a question they want to answer and from that, chooses how to move forward with their project. Last year, a team focused on Ancient Egypt. One girls question was how religion affected the Hebrews while they were slaves to Egypt, while anothers was fashion of the various classes of ancient Egyptians. Each took their question and researched Ancient Egypt. This gave a wide cultural look at the various aspects of the civilization without creating a bias from the teacher. Protect and extend instructional time 3 Our school has a belief structure that there is no excuse for failing. We will work together so every achieves. We have three onsite tutors that work a push in/pull out concept for any student that needs extra assistance. The older students are paired with younger ones in a Buddy

program to build character as well as reinforce understanding of concepts (older students must know the lesson to teach the younger). We also have teachers volunteer for afterschool tutoring in math and reading for anyone that needs it. Expand teachers roles and responsibilities 4 We have unfortunately had three principals in the last four years. Although each has been an excellent principal, each had their own leadership style that has created a lack of continuity for teacher expectations and responsibilities. Last year, it was implemented that all standards and daily objectives were to be posted on the white board. The agenda for the day must also be posted. If asked, a lesson plan can be delivered on any lesson taught. Although this has been met with some resistance by some teachers, the idea is clear. To ensure stability and success in the classroom, we need to hold each other just as accountable as testing holds us to. Many classrooms are becoming more cooperative learning centers rather than teacher led lectures. According to Banks, students often learn best when cooperative rather than competitive teaching techniques are used (page 42). Address students social and emotional needs 2 Our school has no counselor, social worker or any support staff that addresses social or emotional needs of the students. We do however attempt to address this within the classroom and through school activities whenever possible. We have multiple afterschool programs with various cultural and educational topics such as Club Green (environment), robotics, art, music, math and science. We have also implemented a Conflict Resolution program that teaches older students to help monitor and assist in minor conflicts between students. Involve parents in their childrens education 5

Matsuyama would simple not function without its parents. We have one of the largest PTA memberships in the district. All parents are asked and encouraged to participate to whatever extent they can. We also have quarterly evening programs to promote grade and school culture. Some include music performances, open house, Harvest Festival, and Cherry Blossom Festival. We have a monthly newsletter, website and Facebook page to provide information to parents. Lastly, our school utilized a phone/email communication system that sends out pertinent information on a weekly basis. Conclusion Based on the reasoning above, I would rate Matsuyama as a 4: having many of the characteristics of an effective school. While Matsuyama has suffered, like the other schools in the district, due to budget cuts, we have built a strong community. We are a very diverse school with tremendous growth over the last several years. Our school has some of the highest API scores for each demographic category. The reason is our constant reflection of what is working and how to make it better.

References

Banks, James A.. An Introduction to Multicultural Education. Fifth ed. New York: Pearson, 2014. Print. "Matsuyama - Sacramento City Unified School District." Sacramento City Unified School District - Putting Children First. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. <http://www.scusd.edu/school/matsuyama>. "Matsuyama Elementary School - Together Everyone Achieves More." Matsuyama Elementary School - Together Everyone Achieves More. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

<http://matsuyama.scusd.edu/>.