Brittany Diltz

EDUC 485
February 2, 2015
Dr. Steddom

Context of Learning Paper: Placement One

I am currently student teaching at Delaware Elementary School in Des
Moines, Iowa, for my first student teaching experience. Though it has only been two
weeks, I have come to love my cooperating teacher and the students in my Fourth
grade class. This school has been a great eye opener to some of the most common
issues that teachers face on a day-to-day basis when it comes to parent
involvement, classroom integration, and behavior challenges.
Southeast Polk is a school with many diverse cultures and socioeconomic
backgrounds. In the 2014 to 2015 school year, Southeast Polk has been ranked
thirteenth in the state based on the certified enrollment count. For this school year
there are six thousand six hundred and thirty five students enrolled in the Southeast
Polk Community School District. Throughout the district approximately eighty-five
students are white, six percent are Hispanic, roughly five percent are African
American, three percent Asian, and the rest of the students are a mixture of
minorities not previously mentioned.
Southeast Polk is a school that is full of diversity in many different aspects.
When talking about economic diversity among the schools, it is important to look at
the percentages of students that are enrolled in free and reduced lunches. Out of six

thousand six hundred and fifteen students enrolled in the district last year there was
almost twenty-nine students that are eligible for free or reduced lunches. That
translates to one thousand five hundred and sixty-three students that were enrolled
for free lunches and three hundred and forty-four students that were enrolled for
reduced lunches. This accounts for one thousand nine hundred and seven students
out of the total Southeast Polk student population.
Out of four thousand one hundred and thirty-one students enrolled in
Southeast Polk last year from Kindergarten through Seventh grade, only four
hundred and fifty-eight were enrolled in Fourth grade. This was the lowest number
of students in any grade level from Kindergarten through Seventh. This was just an
interesting point I observed while looking up my facts and statistics because I am
currently teaching in Fourth grade. Out of those fourth graders there were seventyfive considered not proficient and three hundred and forty-eight that were
proficient.
When I took a deeper look at the students and their demographics in my own
classroom, the results I found was interesting. There are two other fourth grade
classrooms at Delaware Elementary besides mine. Each of our classrooms are
comprised of twenty-five students. I have five students in my class who have an
Individualized Education Program and four other students who leave the classroom
for reading, math, or English as a second language. Within my classroom I have
roughly six students that speak more than one language. Many of these students
speak another language, other than English, at home. Seventy-five percent of my
students are white, twelve percent are black or African American, eight percent
Hispanic, and four percent are Asian.

Of the twenty-five students that are in my fourth grade class, twelve of them
are girls and thirteen are boys. The boys in my class, for the most part, are much
more talkative than the girls are. I hear a lot of blurting out from this class, which is
our number one behavior problem for this group of students. Approximately five of
the girls in my classroom are very reserved and will not raise their hands to answer
questions or discuss with the class unless they are called on. Then on the other
hand, I have about six students who will consistently blurt out to the class or make
inappropriate comments throughout the day. These are students that I find myself
consistently reminding about following the RAMS way. One of the greatest things
about the students in my classroom is their ability to incorporate all of their peers,
all of the time. This would extend to the students with Individualized Education
Programs that are out of the classroom for much of the day. There is one student in
my classroom that is constantly believing that other students are out to get them or
criticize them with everything they do. Another great thing that I have realized
during my time spent with this class is that the students throughout all of the
different fourth grade classes in the building are great friends and interact just as
one big class. Knowing these facts will help me to change my instruction and come
up with multiple different strategies that can keep them on task and to raise their
hand instead of blurting. Classroom management is going to be my best friend
during my experience student teaching.
After having the opportunity to work with my students during the last two
weeks I have been able to observe how the students interact with each other and
also the other fourth graders in the building. For the most part my students have a
great dynamic and they seem to really accept all of their classmates. Although
there may be many times when certain students get frustrated or annoyed with

other students, for the most part, they are able to come up with solutions to fix their
problems. The main problem that I have with the students is that they want to chat
with each other all the time. This will affect my student teaching experience by
trying to come up with better classroom management to fit the students I am
currently working with.
This leads me into how these differences and challenges will affect my
teaching in the weeks to come. One of the main challenges that I have come to
realize is the fact that not all students have a home life where they are supported. I
have to remember that not all students are going to be able to take home class
work to complete and bring back or that they may not be able to work on some
assignment that is online due to not having internet. So an I have decided to not
send home work with the students but only once a week and to make sure to give
students the opportunity to finish their work during class time.
Another thing that I have to keep in mind when it comes to some student
with behavior problems is their home life. For instance while teaching I need to
make sure to have patience for children who might be acting out for attention. This
can include learning to let go of some little things in the classroom so I am not
constantly becoming frustrated with small behaviors. I have learned to pick and
choose what I decide to act on and what I decide to let go. An example of children
and their home life that really shocked me within this last week was when we had a
student that was telling racial jokes about students in his class at lunch. When Mrs.
Carlson and I found out about this after the lunch hour, she decided that we needed
to call his mom to inform her. When she called home, mom didnt have any reaction
and after a while said that she guesses she can have a talk with him. We were just

flabbergasted by the fact that she didnt show concern that her son was telling
these racial jokes. This is a moment when I really learned a lot about the connection
between student behaviors and their interactions at home.
The biggest thing that I have taken away from the last two weeks for school
and working with the students I have is to make sure that students come to school
thinking they are safe. This last week the guidance counselor sent out a survey for
the students to take about how safe they feel at school and if they feel accepted by
the other students. Some of the information that we found out about the survey was
astonishing and really eye opening. My goal for student teaching and for when I
become a teacher in the future is to make sure that my students feel that they are
loved and they no matter what I believe in them. When my students feel safe and
appreciated, they will work harder and enjoy coming to school.
One of the biggest things that will change my teaching during my student
teaching and even teaching in the future is differentiation for my lesson plans.
Through my experience at college we have always been tested to differentiate our
lessons for children that may need differentiated instruction. However, it is often
hard to differentiate lessons when you dont have real students with different
disabilities or needs in a classroom to change your instruction for. So having the
experience to differentiate my lessons for real students with an array of needs is
beyond beneficial. For instance, I have three or four students that read at a
Kindergarten or lower level so having assignments with language that is easy for
them to read or having someone read the assignment for the students is another
important detail to plan for in my lessons.

I look forward to the next six weeks of student teaching at Delaware

Elementary School and learning more about my students. Each day I learn
something new about them that can help make me a better teacher. My philosophy
for teaching is that we are never done learning how to be better, so I will take that
philosophy and use it to become a better teacher.