Parets 1

Taryn Parets
Teacher Work Sample
Ryan MacTaggart
EDUC 350
23 September 2014

Setting and Context

The School Community, Students and Classroom
The mission statement on the Webber Middle School website reads, Webber Middle
School will support and challenge all students to learn and grow to their highest potential. This
calls students to do their best in their academics, as well as in their everyday lives. The idea of
helping students grow to reach their potential resonates quite well with me, because it is a part of
my own personal mission statement as a teacher, as well. I am pleased to know that these sort of
relationship-based educating practices are becoming established in real schools.
Daily, when students enter Webber, they understand that the culture at Webber is based
around learning. The sixth grade students in my classroom are almost always seated before the
bell rings, which goes to show that they understand they are there to learn and get thing done.
The environment is open to them as a place where it is okay to make mistakes while you are
learning, in order to get it right the next time. The culture at Webber also supports celebration of
achievement and involvement, as is implied in the mission statement. Finally, I think that when
students see the colorful lockers and school spirit apparel hanging on the walls it encourages
them to have school pride.
The classroom that I am working in is an accelerated sixth grade math class, taught by
Mrs. Erskine. The students were all hand-picked by their previous teachers, parents, and

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counselor to be in this accelerated class, so they are all high-achieving and easily able to learn
math. As a result of this, Mrs. Erskine says that she bases the class on the sixth, seventh, and
eighth grade math standards. Currently the class is finishing a unit about basic operations using
integers, and now they are moving into a unit about graphing points on a coordinate plane.
In class, there are two specific resources which have been utilized so far. The first is
Khan Academy, a website that provides videos explaining all kinds of math problems. This was
helpful for solidifying rules that the students had already learned. Secondly, Mrs. Erskine uses
Maths Mates worksheets for homework and for quizzes. These worksheets seem very useful in
testing out the students basic knowledge, as well as their problem solving skills. Also, I have
yet to hear Mrs. Erskine lecture, or give any sort of lesson introducing a new topic, so Id like to
be around for one of those days so I can see how she handles addressing that much content.
There are several elements of classroom culture that have been quite apparent to me.
Students know how to come into the room, sit down at their table, and check the smartboard to
see what the warmup is going to be. Learning targets are always posted on the whiteboard in the
back of the classroom. Students know where to turn in their homework when it is finished.
Finally, students know how to quiet down when Mrs. Erskine counts down from five or says
Shhh. These important aspects of classroom culture were clearly taught during the first week
or two of school, before I was a part of the classroom. So I dont know how Mrs. Erskine taught
them these things, but I can tell that it was effective because those behaviors are still in practice
today.
So far this semester I have been trying to interact with as many of the students as I can. I
know most of their names already, so they are marked on my classroom diagram, which shows
the physical layout of the classroom (see diagram at the end of this section). I also had the

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opportunity to lead the classroom warmup one morning, which allowed me to interact with the
class from the front of the classroom, really in the teacher position. I have worked more closely
with only a few table groups, specifically Sydney and Connor, mostly to ask them my questions
about something happening in the classroom, or to see how they are doing on their homework. It
is one of my goals to spend more time on a single table during the rest of this semester, really
getting to know them.
According to SchoolDigger.com, Webber has what could be considered fairly average
demographics for northern Colorado: Over 25% of students at Webber are receiving free or
reduced price lunches, a percentage which has risen significantly during the last few years.
There are about 40 full-time teachers working at Webber, and about 800 students, which results
in about an 18:1 student to teacher ratio. And Webber has a predominantly white population of
students, with about 12% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and no more than 1% each of African American,
American Indian, and Pacific Islander. I noticed today in my classroom, however, that everyone
but one student appears to be white. This is interesting because the class is an advanced class:
are students of different race, gender, etc. getting an equal opportunity to be in advanced classes?
Parents are involved in and through Mrs. Erskines class fairly regularly. At first there
seemed to be little evidence of parent involvement, but from watching the Integer Videos the
students created, I can tell that parents (or older siblings, etc.) are quite involved, in a behindthe-scenes kind of way. To begin, students would not be in the accelerated class if it were not
for parent approval. At one point parents were asked to initial a form to show what videos were
watched; another time Mrs. Erskine asked the students if any of their parents would have a mathrelated skill from their job that they could come in and share with the class, and a significant
number of hands were thrown in the air.

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Works Cited
Webber Middle School. SchoolDigger. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.schooldigger.com/go/CO/schools/0399006162/school.aspx>.
About Us. Webber Middle School. PDS Schools. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<https://web.psdschools.org/about-us>.

Interactive Journals

Molly

Natalie

Extra School
Supplies

Mrs. Erskine

Laptops

Jake

Kiersten

Nicole

Chloe

Kylie

Kon

Sydney

Miss Parets

Broolyn

Door

Andrew

Sadie
Emily

Keilani

Carson

Kristen

Danny

Delaney

Jackson

Matt

Connor
Jaden

Ian

Door to POD

Turn-In Basket

Matthew

Sam

Zach

George

Bryc
e
Audrey

Gwenn

Meredith

White Board for Learning Targets

Mrs. Erskines Desk

Document
Camera

Extra Enrichment
Activities
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Smart Board