Ryan Kurtz

EDUC 350
Setting and Context

The Community at Lesher Middle School is such a tight-knit, team oriented group
that I have come to really appreciate. I cant think back to my middle school and picture
anything quite like this school. Every one I have come in contact with is more or less
exited to learn and has so much school spirit. Students have high expectations when they
walk into each classroom and while they know that there are limits, they still have fun
learning and seem to enjoy being at school. There are countless activities that I noticed
being named off during the announcements. From cross-fit to cheerleading, there are so
many after school things offered to students, whether they are paying attention to
announcements or not. They also have an array of resources in the media center, and even
most the teachers I have met seem open to talking about anything. The program that
really keeps kids in check, while still remaining consistent with every teacher, is the re-
direct system. Every teacher uses it and kids know exactly what it means. I have also
noticed postings on walls that display examples of appropriate and IB behavior. From
having a parent example right in my own class, Tia has shown that the parents are quite
involved. From volunteering at Viking events like the crazy obstacle course event and
sports games, it seems like the parents can have as much, or as little, involvement as they
want. The mission here at Lesher, from what I have observed, is not to make kids smarter
and lead them into high school, but to grow them as humans and not just focus on
curriculum, which is my favorite part about this middle school. Kids walk out of school
most days having grown as a person.

In my time here at Lesher Middle School, I was helping out in a 6th grade math
class, and also two different ELO classes, but I will choose to focus more on the math
class. The development levels seemed to be on a huge spectrum. Some kids struggle to
figure things out, while some seemed to get things done very quickly with ease. The
culture to me seemed like they were a pretty close-knit team that wanted to figure things
out. Everyone but a couple people seemed to get along pretty well and would help each
other if they needed. The physical environment of the classroom had lots of math and
science posters, but also included a lot of activities that happened at the first day, such as
a series of questions pertaining to what they thought middle school would be like. The
content was basic math such as long division, multiplication, fractions, and more. Mrs.
Scofield did a great job of teaching, although sometimes let the class get away with
things. Together as a community, they got things done (some days better than others) and
overall got along as a team. The demographics seemed to be mostly caucasion, although
Ryan Kurtz
EDUC 350
Setting and Context
showing diversity as well, as shown in figure 1

Diversity In Mrs. Scofields Class

White
African American
Hispanic

The strategy that came up just about every class was to present the lesson, then
follow up by a few or one worksheet. This worksheet if not finished in class, was to be
done for homework due the next class. I was not usually there for the lecture portion, but
did occasionally catch a glimpse of the last couple minutes. A lot of the time these were
partnered activities as well. This strategy allowed first the students to get a few examples
and do it all together, then to do it by their self or with a partner, hopefully gaining full
understanding by the time they finished the sheet.