Majority of my students come from families where high school education may be the highest level of education achieved by their immediate family members. Sometimes, their family member have not achieved this level. It is very common for students to be first generation college students upon completion of their high school diploma. About 85% of the students we serve at Eleanor McMain Secondary School are considered to be living in poverty. The quality of some of the neighborhoods the student live in really depends on what part of the city they reside in. In some parts of the city of New Orleans, there are bouts of violence that often affect our students and their families.
Due to the differences of student demographics in each student, the planning , delivery and assessment of student knowledge must be carefully thought out. The delivery of content needs to be done in a way that delicately presents the information in ways the students can understand. It is important to engage students and make students want to buy into the vision you have for the classroom environment. Students have trust issues and abandonment issues due to the high turnover rate of teachers. This is why it is very important to be careful when planning lessons to be aware of the possible pushback students may give because of their homelife or previous experiences.
My classroom is set up in a way that best suits the needs of my students. A lot of students like to work in groups so they may collaborate with one another. But, there are always a few students that would rather work alone. They are introvert, which is something teachers deal with quite often. In my classroom, I have four groups of four set up. The rest of my room is set up with individualized seats. The parental involvement is there most of the time but only after the teacher makes contact with parents first . It is very different from when I was a student. My parents made themselves known with it came to my teachers. They also attended anything my school had after hours, like parent conferences, open houses, meet and greets, etc. My students have access to ChromeBooks but we are not one-to-one.
The activities used in the classroom are used to support to presentation of new information. The activities give students the opportunity to practice new concepts. I have created my classroom arrangement so it is easier to group students when completing activities. The students who sit in individualized seating will be directed to join those students who are in close proximity of each other. The direction in which the students are facing in their seats was planned out so no students will have their towards the SMART board.
Any of the student academic factors can change how teachers plan for the delivery of content and assessing student knowledge. Teachers have to give student accommodations depending on which of the academic factors apply to them. If students are ELL, then they may need different assignments or translation into their first language. In my classroom, I like to give my ELL student access to english to spanish dictionaries so I am accommodating them but also allowing them to learn english as their second language. 504 and SPED have specific accommodations that are required to be provided by teachers. Students may be allowed to use calculators on tests and quizzes, shortened assignments, prior notice of tests and quizzes, limited multiple choice answers, etc.