Josh George

Setting and Context

Culture and Community
For my student teaching, I am working at the IB (International Baccalaureate) World
School of Lucile Erwin Middle School in the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado. I
have the distinct pleasure of working with five sections of 6th grade students in the social studies
classes in which we will explore Geography, Civics, History, and Economics in IB Middle Years
Program. Lucile Erwin Middle School takes pride in being very active in their community and
building relationships with not only its students and parents but the city of Loveland as well. One
way that Lucile Erwin stays connected to its community is through its monthly newsletter that
not only provides up to date information about the school moving forward but it also includes
ways to get involved at Lucile Erwin and the upcoming events. The newsletter provides an
avenue for parents and community members to see what is new at Lucile Erwin and any
upcoming events or opportunities for students and community members to get involved.
Loveland revolves around the schools in Thompson School District as its smaller population and
attention to community inclusiveness enables schools like Lucile Erwin Middle School to thrive.
According to the City of Loveland website the cities demographics shows a continual population
growth settling at about over 70,000 people as of 2015. It also breaks down who the largest
employers are in the city of Loveland, which is dominated by the Thompson School District
whose employee total, more than doubles the next highest, with a total of 2,616 employed in
Thompson School District. The next highest provider of jobs in Loveland is the Medical Center
of the Rockies coming second with 953 employees. In other words, Thompson School District
plays a large role in the community as it encompasses more working adults than any other
employer. Thompson School District is not only a large part of the community but also
encourages the community in all forms to get involved in volunteering in a number of ways.
Support Structures
Lucile Erwin Middle School and Thompson School District promotes and are proud of
the volunteer opportunities they offer. They have had a lot of success a program called
Volunteers In Thompson Assisting Learners (VITAL) that helps many in the community to get
involved. VITAL is a chance for parents, community members and college students, like myself,
to get involved in a number of activities inside and outside of the classroom. This is an
opportunity for volunteers to help in the classroom, aid in field trips, serve as tutors, be a part of
the district committee, become a volunteer coach, and help raise money for providing the best
opportunities for the kids to succeed. Thompson School District as of 2015 has 16,113 students
enrolled with 3,525 enrolled in one of the five middle schools within the district. Thompson
School District is mostly made of Caucasian and Hispanic students, as 74.4% of the district is
white and the next highest with 19.8% being Hispanic. It also has a population that includes a
1.1% African American population, 1.2% Asian population, 0.5% American Indian or Native
Alaskan, and 3% categorized as multiple races. Of the 16,113 student population, there are a total

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of 629 students that are English Language Learners (ELL), 1,568 students that participate in
Gifted and Talented programs, 5,760 students that are registered with free and reduced lunch, and
1,937 students with special education needs. For Lucile Erwin Middle School, in particular have
a number of support structures to help all ranges of students from the Gifted and Talented to the
Special Education students but also those students in the middle, through a number of
intervention methods. Lucile Erwin is modeled on the PBiS (Positive Behavior Intervention and
Support) system of PRIDE, which translates to Positive, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and
Excellence. PRIDE is essentially used as a baseline for what students what the expectations are
for the student inside and outside the classroom. This also translates into an intervention system
that every student every day will be placed into a three-tiered system of RTI (Response to
Intervention) that provides high quality, standards-based instruction and intervention that is
matched to students academic, social-emotional and behavioral needs. The intervention process
begins at the bottom with a universal level that is implemented among all the students, followed
by a targeted level that gets at the students that exemplify greater educational or behavioral
needs, and the intensive level that looks at the most at risk students. This RTI system allows
teachers and staff to recommend a more rigorous intervention plan or a plan that includes the
necessary help for students to excel in areas of need. There is also specific interventions aimed at
those struggling or need just a little bit of extra practice. For instance, I will be helping kids in
the intervention process this year in what is called PRIDE class that places students into certain
classrooms based on their academic needs, that looks to provide the necessary help in mostly
math and language arts. I will be working with students in a literacy PRIDE class that been
identified as below proficiency on reading or writing. The class will be used to help build them
up so that by the time that they leave Lucile Erwin they will have meet that proficiency score and
be ready for the rigors of high school.
Demographics of Lucile Erwin
Lucile Erwin Middle School is for the most part on par with the district in terms of the
demographics. Lucile Erwin has a total population for the 2015-2016 school year of 886 students
currently enrolled. When broken down by grade level, the 8th grade population is 281, 7th grade
with 315, and the grade I work most closely with 290 total 6th graders. Lucile Erwin has a total of
36 ELL students, 143 Gifted and Talented students, 280 students on free and reduced lunches,
and 86 students enrolled in special education programs. Lucile Erwin again is very similar in its
breakdown of race/ethnicity to that of the district with 75.1% (665 students) identifying as white,
19.8% Hispanic (175 students), and the remaining 5.2% as either of multiple races or other
race/ethnicity (46 students). In terms of gender, Lucile Erwin is evenly split with 450 male
students and 436 female students enrolled for the 2016 semester.
Classroom Environment
The classroom environment that I entered for my student teaching is very welcoming to
students with decorations that not only provide a glimpse into Mr. Elwoods (Cooperating

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Teacher) personality but also things that makes it stand out as a social studies class. One thing
that I have noticed that the students really like is that he has painted his ceiling panels with even
more fun things that exhibit Lucile Erwin pride, Colorado pride, or content images like the three
buildings that represent each branch of government. Students can come in and immediately feel
safe, know a little more about Mr. Elwood and not feel overwhelmed by clutter or lack of
organization. The classroom has obviously been carefully planned out with every square inch of
space used for some system or another to help the kids succeed. Some things in the classroom
include the days objectives, an IPad corner, an absent/make-up work folder, a work turn in box a
and designated areas for each class to keep their social studies folders and notebooks. The
classroom also utilizes a pod dynamic in which 5-6 desks come together that encourages
collaboration among students and enables you to create seating charts that allows for a range of
students in term of abilities to feed off each other. With the organization created within the
classroom and the systems that have been put in place allows students to be more independent as
it puts more of the responsibilities on the students than the teacher, leaving the whole class
period for instruction. I will be teaching and co-teaching a total of 119 students in Mr. Elwoods
6th grade social studies classes with a total of 4 sections of social studies and one section of
PRIDE literacy intervention with a total of 19 students. In the 4 social studies classes there are a
total of 28 Gifted and Talented (GT) students (Math has 20 and Reading has 17) with many in
both Math and Reading, there are 7 students with current IEP (Individualized Education
Program), there are 6 students with current 504 plans, and a total of 5 English Language Learner
students. In the first class (period 3) there are eight GT students, period 4 has eight as well,
period 5 has five GT students, and period 6 has seven GT students.
School and Classroom Policies
Lucile Erwin has very specific policies that is outlined in its student handbook. For
instance, its attendance policy is outlined as 6 excused or unexcused absences results in a letter
home to touch base and make sure that it doesnt continue as well as finding ways to keep the
student in school. Then after 12 absences its taken much more seriously with a letter home that
calls for a meeting between a staff team and the student with his/her parents. The policy for
tardies are pretty cut and dry with 6 tardies or more over the semester resulting in a referral that
usually ends in lunch detention or in school suspension (ISS) as well as a form to be taken home
to notify the parents. This is the same policy in place for Mr. Elwoods classroom. They have the
standard dress code for middle school students in that they do not allow students to wear any
derogatory clothing, no hats, obscene clothing that include low cut shirts and other inappropriate
clothing. With todays technology and most kids having either a phone or a tablet with them at
school, the policy is that it should remain unseen and up to the individual teachers to decide
when and how any devices are allowed to be used. The classroom policy for devices is that if its
being used or heard in an undesignated time for use then they are taken for the rest of the day.
After the third instance of their device being taken, a parent has to come to the classroom to pick
it up for the student.

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Conflict resolution is usually handled on an individual basis and based on the discretion
of the teacher to either talk to the student and handle it right there, give the students a refocus
form that asks the students to own up to their mistake along with a parent signature. In the
severest situations a referral is the discipline plan in place. A management piece for the
classroom in terms of leaving the classroom, student are held accountable by needing to use a
hall pass that can be found in their agendas. All students are given a total of 20 hall passes for the
year with 10 designated to each semester, where they must fill out a section of their agendas
before leaving the classroom. This prevents students from taking advantage of the hall pass
policies. Lucile Erwin keeps itself a safe by ensuring all doors are locked at all times to prevent
random people from wandering the halls as well as a system of drills to help teachers and
students to know what to do in case of natural disasters and lockdown situations. The policies put
in place to aid students with special needs or some kind of accommodation is usually dependent
on the individual students education plans but usually entails differentiating assessments or
lower/higher readings to help the student(s) succeed. For instance, I have helped create an
assessment that differentiated for a lower student by color coding a vocabulary quiz that help put
each term in to category that aligned with a set of terms and the placement on the assessment.
This not only allowed the student to take the same test as everyone else but it helped them
succeed and provided a chance for them to do well.