Journal 2 Domain #2 and #5

What is the student body diversity and how is cultural diversity recognized in the school?
Highland School is very diverse and this diversity is seem everywhere in the school. District 68 is so diverse that within the 3 Elementary School that are associated with this district, there is a kindergarten classroom that is especially for ELL students. This classroom is not located at Highland, but there are several students in my classroom that came from the ELL kindergarten. Everyday on the morning announcements in February there is clues given and the students try to guess what famous black historian they are talking about.

Since last week was the Chinese New Year, we read a book about this holiday. Then the two Chinese students were asked to talk about their experiences, and if they celebrated the same way that the children in the story did. Not only was last week a holiday for China, it was also a holiday for Vietnam. The girl whose parents are from Vietnam explained about the holiday and talked about her families traditions, such as food and gifts.

The one thing that I found interesting in the classroom was that in the reading corner there were hardly any multicultural books. They were mostly about the typical American, that being Caucasian. Less then half of the class is white, so I find it very surprising that most of the books catered to them.

How are children involved in the classroom; how do they relate to one another?
Even though this class is so diverse the students get along great. There are really no cliques, like you see with older students. The students are encouraged to work with a whole array of different students on projects or group work so they will be exposed to many different individuals, and for the most part they all get along.

There are two students in the classroom that do not speak English very well. These students have trouble relating to the other students. The students mostly talk about American cultural things, for example Spongebob or Star Wars. These ELL students are not familiar with these trends, so they have trouble engaging in conversations with the other students because of their lack of understanding of the American culture.

How are the needs of students with exceptionalities met in the classroom and at the school?
There is one student who has a whole array of disabilities that impair his learning, we will call him Joe. Joe has the most problems with math. There is a special education teacher that comes in the classroom during the time the class is studying math. This teacher helps Joe with his modified math assignments. Joe also difficulty with fine motor skills, as a result he sees an Occupational Therapist once a week at school. He also sees the school social worker once a week to work on his social development. Joe, along with a few other students in Ms. Faith’s classroom also spends time in a reading intervention program. The students spend about 30 minutes a day with a teacher working on reading. Although none of the students in Ms. Faith’s classroom fall under this category, there is a special room for students who are in the gifted program.

How do teachers and other school personnel work together?
The teachers work well together. Highland School regularly has team building meetings, where the whole faculty and staff come together and do various activities to enrich their relationships. Two or three times a year the schools has teachers institute day. Each institute day has a different area of concentration for example; the upcoming one is about how to use a Smart Board. During the first half of the day all the teachers are together, then after lunch the teachers are separated into their different grade levels. The principal also communicates to the staff by a wiki. The wiki is updated every week.

How are families and other community members involved in the school?
Ms. Faith’s class has a “Room Mom”. Her responsibility is organizing holiday parties or projects for the students. Other parents are allowed to come into the classrooms on their child’s birthdays. The parents sometimes bring in treats and read a book to the class. The parents are also involved in chaperoning field trips.

How does the teacher keep track of student progress?
There are no grades in first grade. Ms. Faith keeps track of reading and math by monitoring the students at least every month. The students are asked to read a passage or perform a math problem without any help. If Ms. Faith sees progress in the students reading, the student is then moved up to the next reading level. She keeps track of writing by administrating a test at least 3 times a year. In the writing test, the teacher gives the students a prompt, and the students are given 15 minutes to write. She keeps all of the writing prompts and compares them throughout the year.


What extra duty tasks does the teacher perform? (meetings, bus duty, etc.)
Ms. Faith attends three different types of meetings. Once a month she attends a faculty meeting, where every teacher at Highland is required to go to. Meetings among each individual grade level occur a few times a month, although the first grade teachers communicate all the time, during breaks and after school. The school district that Highland belongs to has two other elementary schools, so once a month all the first grade teachers from all the elementary schools in district 68 come together for a meeting.

Teachers do not have bus duty, which is reserved for teacher’s assistants. Ms. Faith is responsible for making sure all of the walkers get picked up after school. She has to wait by the door until all the students have been picked up.


The text talked about the importance of making each student feel like a part of the classroom. To demonstrate this, Ms. Faith set up a mystery backpack. Every week a new student puts a personal item in the backpack, and judging by the clues that have written down; the rest of the class has to guess what’s in the backpack. The students put personal things in the backpack. For example last week a student put in a pair of handcuffs because he when he grew up he wanted to be a cop. This backpack provides the students with help in expressing themselves.