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Jessica Tvrz Contextual Factors Part A 1/23/14

One week down and Eureka Springs Elementary school could not be a better fit for me! There is such a variety in the people I work with and the kids I am teaching. I want to give you a feel for the community, district, school and classroom factors, and the students characteristics.

Let me start off by telling you something about the community and district I have the privilege of working in. As I said in the previous paragraph, I am student teaching in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is a small, artsy town in the Carroll County in Northwest Arkansas. There are 2,073 people filling this town and 15 students fill my classroom. There are three first grade classrooms and two classrooms for each of the other grades kindergarten through fourth. Each first grade room has about the same amount of kiddos, give or take a few. These kids live in a very seasonal touristy area; meaning for part of the year parents are unemployed. There is a high poverty rate (18.4%) and the majority of the kids are on free or reduced lunch (63.2%). For the most part the population is Caucasian( 91.56%), though there is a small Hispanic population (15.51%). In my class I have one Hispanic girl and one African American boy, the rest of my kids are Caucasian.

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Within the first week of being back at school I had two students move out and one student move into the classroom. This is just an example of how the stability of the community is affected by the seasonal work. I ask Mrs. Saab, my cooperating teacher, how support from the community for education was. She said the best way to get parents involved was to offer free food and have the kids performing in some way. I feel that this can be said for any school. She said that most of the parents live out of town and do not have the money to drive back into town for a second time during the day.

Now lets focus in a little more, and I will share with you some of the factors of the classroom I have been learning so much in. You walk in and are almost overwhelmed by everything that is going on in this room. There is a reading nook, a listening center, computers, a rug for whole group instruction, and tables. There is a bathroom that connects two of the first grade classrooms. The kids sit at tables that are grouped together. There are a few desks set aside for those that need a space to get their wiggles out. As far as technology goes in this classroom, they are loaded! The kids have four iPads to work on, three computers and two laptops at their fingertips. The teacher has a computer and a laptop she works from. There is also a SmartBoard and Elmo she teaches from. The kids love using all the tools they have at their dispense. Mrs. Saab loves to use technology and

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incorporates it in any way she can. In the previous paragraph I talked about the limited parental involvement in the education program. The parent involvement in my class faces the same problems. When I asked Mrs. Saab about her parent involvement, she said it varies from year to year. Last year she had a ton of parents sign up for the parties and field trips, but this year there were significantly less. Just in a week I have been able to pick up on the rules and routines. The kids are well trained in these. In the morning the kids sit out in the hall and read a book until 8:00. When they come in they know to put their stuff up and sit on the carpet for morning meeting. The other routine they have down pat is their centers routine. You can tell that the kids feel safe and comfortable in their environment.

With one final click of our microscope I will give you a close up of my students and their characteristics. There are sixteen students enrolled in the class. One of the kids stays in a self-contained room all of the time. There are fifteen other kiddos I get to spend the whole day with. They are six to seven years old, slightly more girls than boys, and they hold a wide variety of interests. Some could talk about video games all day, others about random characters they make up in their heads, or they are so quiet that it seems their only interest is their school work. Their skill levels are just as varied as their interests. I have

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kids that are reading chapter books all the way to kids that do not know their complete alphabet. A few get pulled for reading intervention, but no one is identified to receive resource special education services. A few take medicine to help with identified behavioral issues. I have one student who has been home schooled up until Jan. 13, 2014. She is having some trouble adjusting to the work within the classroom. With the instruction given by Mrs. Saab I can see growth and excitement in these students! It is interesting to see the questioning techniques, carefully formed around the Blooms Taxonomy. There is also evidence of Gardeners methods, and trying to reach the children through different modalities for the multiple intelligences.

I am so excited to be a part of this learning experience. I have already learned so many things, not only from Mrs. Saab, but also from my students. This will be a time I will always keep with me.