Visiting a Low Income/ Low Performing School

     Yesterday with my education 350 class, we visited a school that has a 85%-100% free and reduced lunch rate, and made an F on their school report card in the 2015-2016 school year. Going into this experience, I did not know what to expect. I had never been to a school that had been deemed a low-income/ low-performing school, and I was very nervous about going into an experience that I had no previous knowledge of. When we got there, we met with the CTE who explained the reasoning behind why they are a low-performing school. As she spoke, I immediately realized that this school had a lot of factors working against them that were beyond their control. They worked hard each year to help their students grow, and the students grew tremendously in many of the years that the CTE showed us, but they still would never meet proficiency. Unfortunately, the school report card is graded 80% on proficiency and only 20% on growth.
     After the CTE spoke, I was placed in a second grade classroom for the day. The class had around 15 students, but there were around 25 different students that I actually saw in the classroom. I was very confused at first, because I didn't understand why some students were leaving and new students were coming in. The teacher, once she gave the students their independent work, told me that the school had began to use a blended teaching strategy. This meant all three of the second grade teachers put their students together, and then divided them into three groups by ability for reading. Each teacher had a class of students that were blended together from all three second grade classes based on ability. I thought this was a really interesting strategy, and I understood why this was the best idea for this school due to the fact that they had a range of readers from students who were still non-readers to readers reading on a third grade level. This relates directly to standard 4b of the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, which states that "Teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students." It goes on to say "Teachers collaborate with their colleagues and use a variety of data sources for short and long range planning based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study." This is exactly what these second grade teachers have done. They have collaborated with each other in order to plan the best instruction for the students in their grade level.
     For math, the teacher I was observing used her own strategy. Since she had her own class for this section, she had colored coded bins in the classroom. Each student knew which color group they were in, and during math time they went and got their bin. She did these groups much like the guided reading groups I have been a part of in Dr. Nanney's literacy class, where each student worked on their own in groups, and then one group was with the teacher to receive instruction and guided help. In the guided math center, the teacher was constantly assessing the students, and trying to fix misconceptions where she found them. This relates directly to our studies of formative assessments in education 410. I liked this strategy of formatively assessing because she could immediately fix misconceptions when she saw students struggling. I also thought that the bins were a really good idea because they had a vast number of assignments that each group could work on. The worksheets were placed in a clear plastic sleeve so that the students could use dry erase markers on the worksheets, and the students could choose any worksheet out of their bin to work on. As I walked around, students asked me questions and talked with me about what they were doing. One student said "this work sheet is too hard for me and I'm getting upset so I am going to choose another one." I thought this was a perfect example of why it was such a good idea to have a multitude of worksheets in the bin. Since the students were independently working as they waited for individual instruction, they needed to have work that was not going to put them at a frustration level, but would also not let them reach a level of boredom. Since there was such a wide variety of worksheets, there was something in each bin that perfectly fit each students needs. In my future classroom, I plan to remember this strategy and hopefully implement it based on the needs of my future students.
     Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at the low-performing school. I learned some really helpful differentiation tactics, but aside from the actual teaching strategies, I learned about low-income students and how they act and perform differently from other classes I have been in. These students have needs beyond just learning, and I loved the opportunity to provide these students with a smile or an encouraging comment that meant more to them than students from better backgrounds. The opportunity to provide a student with the love and care that they may not receive anywhere else meant a lot to me. I also loved being able to help students understand a math or reading method, and seeing them light up and realize they were capable of doing what they were struggling with. Simply taking five minutes to help a student with independent work helped them to feel like they were smart and capable, and that is why I want to teach. It is the moment you see the student believe in themselves, even if just for that moment. It's the difference you can make for a student by simply remembering that you don't teach a subject, you teach students. edweek.org said teaching at a low-income school was "a source of great professional fulfillment for me. I witnessed daily triumphs and joys that more than offset the particular difficulties in working with economically deprived children." This is how I felt being in a low-income school for only a day. I believe that teaching at a low-income school is extremely difficult, but rewarding. I hope to continue to get experience in low-income/low-performing schools, and in the future I would love to be able to teach at a school of this nature to be able to make a difference in the lives of the students there.