Competency 1

Description of the cultural and socio-economic community served by the school, and describe the
implications of your findings for your teaching.

Most of the teaching staff is of Caucasian ethnicity, with the principal and miscellaneous staff being of
mixed ethnicities, mostly female with sprinkles of male teachers. The student population is majority
African-American, with the second highest being Caucasian, a tie between Asian and Hispanic, and then
multi-ethnic students filling out the rest.

Economically, the school is 2% away from becoming a Title I school. So they have all of the problems,
but with none of the funding of a Title I school. According to the statistics of 2015-2016, 36.3% of
students are on Free/Reduced Lunches, so this year they must have more students in that pool.

Based on the community and the overall attitude of the student population, there is a significant
majority that is low-achieving, but when it comes to the arts most of them at least have a sizable
interest in the subjects. It seems the way that they group students is also by achievement, but that
could also be a testament of their current and before teachers.

I should have a varied approach to teaching, with stern and slow instructions; and for the harder-to-
manage classes, enough overflow activities to keep them on their toes and interested. I should probably
have a fair amount of reviewing activities at the beginning and end of lessons/classes to reinforce
knowledge better. My activities should be very involved and have plenty of exposure to give them
enough grounds to build somewhat difficult concepts later on.