Laura Kroncke 4/12/13 Dr.

Gardiner

Community Walk Analysis There are many differences between the community walk that was completed in the summer, and the community walk completed for this class. In the summer, I was new to the school and the neighborhood, thus had a superficial view of the school and community relationship. I was only looking at the school and the community at a basic level. I looked at the different places throughout the community such as businesses and churches that I felt were integral parts of the community. For the first community walk, I did not look at how the different organizations and establishments in the community actually help school improvement within the community. I looked at the two as more of two different entities existing in the same place. The first community walk gave me insight into the demographics of the neighborhood, and the resources in the neighborhood that my students would probably use such as stores and community centers. The second community walk I completed was more meaningful to me than the first because I knew my objective was to examine the community through a lens with a focus on school improvement. The second time around, I did more analysis of how the community serves to keep the school a stable, improving environment. There was a lot of focus on how my school reaches out to the community and maintains a relationship with the community that it is located in. I am in a unique situation because the school I am at is not strictly a neighborhood school, and a lot of my students come from all over the city of Chicago to attend my school rather than their neighborhood school. I knew this information with the first community walk as well, but this time I focused more on how the school environment hosts students from different communities than the disconnect between a lot of my students and the surrounding neighborhood that is not one they call home.

Some new insights I have into the significance of the community as a level from school reform are that for a school to be a stable environment the community and parents must be involved, and that small schools have higher academic success due to the support they provide students. I previously knew that most schools are reflective of the neighborhood in which they exist. Because my school does not strictly serve students from my neighborhood, I was curious prior to the start of the year what the environment inside the school would be like. I found that my school utilizes many of the neighborhood resources, but also allows students to maintain a sense of identity and culture from their own neighborhoods. One thing that my school excels at is parent relationships. Since the beginning of the year, there are monthly events for parents by grade level or by interest so parents can be aware of what is going on within the school. From the Bryk readings, I now see that this is one factor that contributes greatly to the academic success of my students. I see how these relationships between the parents and the faculty at the school keep an open line of communication about the students and ensure they do not fall between the cracks. Another factor that allows my school to be stable and pushing the academic growth of its students is the school size. In Bryk, a small, stable school environment has proven to boost the academic achievement of students. At first, I was unsure of the benefits of a small school, but through the readings and actually working at a functional, small school I now see them. With a smaller school, teachers are able to more closely monitor the students and also get to know them better. Most of the veteran teachers at the school know all of the students because it is such a small high school. Teachers have told me they are able to get to know their students more especially relating to culture and hobbies, and this is another factor that contributes to school improvement. I believe that teachers at my school, including myself, are able to easily gather funds of knowledge (Moll et.al) from students because there are more frequent interactions with them. I attended a

large high school almost four times as large as the high school I am working at now, and I graduated without knowing a lot of the students or teachers. Having a small school with a stable learning environment allows the students at Chicago Academy High School to achieve academic success. The assets I would capitalize upon are the small, stable school environment, and the parental involvement at the school. Some of the barriers I see in this specific school that could also be a barrier at a new school are having students from different cultures and communities, and being in a school with a lot of newer teachers. I think that sometimes having students from different cultures and communities can make it more difficult to create a stable classroom environment at the beginning of the year. By having a culturally-relevant classroom where all cultures are represented, I can work with students to become a united classroom regardless of background. It is imperative that I learn about my students cultures at the start of the year, and incorporate aspects within my curriculum so students feel welcome in my classroom. The other barrier I see is that I will most likely be working at a school with all newer teachers. Because the turnaround schools (or AUSL start-up schools) hire out of the residency, the teaching staff tends to be filled with novice teachers rather than veteran teachers. I think that this can hinder school improvement because the professional growth and development of skills is not fully established within these teachers. I know that I will be at the same level as them, but I think a school where there is a balance of teachers from all different experience levels would allow for greater school improvement as written about in Bryks book. Overall, this second community walk allowed me to make a deeper connection between the material being read in class, and the actual environment in which I work. It was meaningful because i got to analyze the different aspects of the reading within my school. I think it has also helped me become more knowledgeable about my school and community because I had to do some deep

digging and outside research to find out some of the information used in the presentation. As a first year teacher at a new school in the fall, I will use some of these strategies and different ways of looking at the school and community to become more informed about how to promote academic success through the neighborhood where my students live and I work.