Students and the Classroom

The class that I am teaching in, which is a Teen Choices class, tends to bring a wide
variety of students. It is made up of freshmen from all different backgrounds. This specific class
of students has four athletes, two artists, six band members, a hand full of students that are not
involved in any extracurricular activities yet, a couple of students with 504s and IEPs, as well as
two transgender students. The thing that surprised me the most about this group of students is
that despite the fact that they have so many differences, they are all understanding and polite to
each other. Every student in the class has their group of friends that they are most comfortable
with and would prefer to work with if they had the choice, but they are also very accepting and
willing to work with other students in the class. They tend to be a quiet class though, and can
take some coaxing to get them to speak up.
The two main unique needs we have had to compensate for are the inability of some
students to see the front board, as well as we have two students that have high levels of anxiety
that are permitted to leave class when they need to get help. These needs are easily met and do
not interrupt class time. The students that are allowed to leave class when they are too stressed
have a plan of where they are supposed to go and how long they are allowed to be gone. This is
also the first class where I have had transgender students. The main request these students had is
to be referred to with male pronouns. Everyone in the class is supportive of them and has
followed their requests.
Due to the topics we talk about in Teen choices, the students are able to learn personal
things about the teacher as well as tell some personal things about themselves. This allows for an
open-minded class that is considerate of others. In the classroom it is important to use inclusive
language and to be careful of the things that are said. The information that we learn about each
other in class is forbidden from being talked about outside of the room. The students also know
that anything they tell us will not surprise us. Mrs. Lawrence has been teaching Teen Choices for
many years and she is able to deal with all the students questions. The class is made up of six
males, two transgender males, and sixteen females. They range in age from fifteen to sixteen.
The difference in their demographics makes it very important that our lessons are inclusive and
that we look at a variety of peoples stories. We make sure all points of view are expressed
without bias. The subjects that Mrs. Lawrence talks about in the class make it so that the students
look at her as someone they can confide in and become comfortable with. That being said, the
students also view her as an authority figure and they know she has high expectations. She does a
good job of balancing relationships with professionalism.
Mrs. Lawrence also teaches interior design so her room is filled with cloth swatches,
interior design projects, colorful posters, and good smelling plug-ins. Students remark that they
love the feeling of Mrs. Lawrences room and they like that it always smells good. Despite
having a slightly odd shape, she makes the best of it.

Diagram of Mrs. Lawrences Room:

Counter
Teacher
Desk

S
m
a
rt
B
o

Studen
t desks

Refrigerator
and sink
S
h
el

Counter with cloth

swatches

Topic and Rational

The goal of Teen choices is to teach freshmen students how to take care of themselves as
well as prepare themselves for the challenges the future holds. It teaches about nutrition, physical
and emotional health, substance abuse, and sex education. I taught during the second week of
class after we had discussed nutrient for a week and then started on stress. We had the students
build healthy realistic diets for themselves during the first week. In the second week we taught
about what causes stress and different ways to cope with stress. We started out by talking about
healthy coping mechanisms and then we went into unhealthy coping mechanisms. The lesson I
taught was about eating disorders as an unhealthy coping mechanism. This was a good time to
teach about eating disorders because the students had just learned about nutrition and stress and
this lesson brought them both together. The students learned the three different types of eating
disorders, how and why someone might develop an eating disorder, ways to help treat an eating
disorder, and techniques that could prevent someone from developing an eating disorder. This
subject is important to teach to freshmen because that is the common time for eating disorders to
start developing. Statistically, at least 25 people at Rocky would have anorexia nervosa and a
larger number would have bulimia nervosa. Even if the specific students in my class have not
struggled with an eating disorder they may know someone who is or will in the future. It is
important for them to know the warning signs of an eating disorder and to know how to react if
someone they know develops an eating disorder. Eating disorders are the number one mental
illness that teens die from, so it is important to educate them on the subject. I was also surprised
that even though this is a common struggle for freshmen they knew very little about eating
disorders. Most people in the class had heard of anorexia nervosa, but did not know there were
other eating disorders. It is important for students, especially freshmen, to learn the whole scope
of eating disorders.
For teaching this lesson I first started out with a lecture and skeleton notes for the
students to use. I used the lecture format due to the fact that this subject is so important and has a
lot of information and I wanted to make sure the students were getting the information that was
most important. We then broke up into small group projects trying to identify the characteristics
of the different eating disorders. Once students had finished the assignment as a group we
discussed the answers as a class. This discussion allowed for students to determine if they were
understanding the information as well as voice what they have learned and ask questions when
they didnt understand. The last project we did was a whole-class interactive self-esteem building
project. Each student had a paper with their names on it and they went around and wrote what
they admired about each student on their paper. I wanted this assignment to be something they
could take with them to remind themselves of how appreciated they are, as well as to teach them
the importance of their words and building each other up.