John Gargaro EDUC450 2/25/13 Setting and Context The School Community: Mission Statement: Building for a new

w generation! Building the skills to achieve each students academic/career goals Building the skills to contribute to society Building an understanding of cultural diversity Building self-pride and self-confidence Building a belief that learning is a life-long endeavor Thompson Valley High School provides a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere for students to expand learning, which is made possible by a dedicated and caring faculty. The schools mascot is the Eagles, and the colors are black and gold; however, the Eagles eclectic hairstyles, piercings, and fashion combine with wide-ranging classroom-decor to reveal a colorful environment meant to catalyze and harness students creativity. The students are part of distinct social groups, but they all show each other kindness and respect no matter what clique a student belongs to. Students are encouraged to become better learners with a myriad of opportunities. In addition to the core and elective classes, Thompson Valley offers 24 AP courses, college credit classes, Gifted and Talented classes, and the dual futures center. Students are given a glimpse of the real world with mentorship and internship opportunities through the School-to-Career program. Resources are readily available for students to get extra help, such as the Thompson Valley Academic Center (TVAC), which provides tutoring for mathematics, and the Response-to Intervention program (RTI) for students that are falling behind/struggling in school. Additionally, the school offers a variety of extracurricular activities for students to participate in. Students can hone the arts by taking courses on visual arts, band, theatre, dance, or choir. The clubs offered for student interests include the Eco-Club, National Art Honor Society, Fellowship of Christian Students, Robotics, Yoga, Anime, Harry Potter, Salsa Dance, and Forensics. TVHS houses a successful athletic program that offers wide-range of sports, such as football, lacrosse, swimming, poms, wrestling, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, and gymnastics. TVHS allows for parents to get involved with the building accountability committee, parent volunteer programs, School-to-Career programs with parental involvement, scholarship search, booster clubs, and the Student Accountability Advisory Committee (SAAC). A large number of parents dedicate their time to the school, for example: in 2003-2004, 222 parent volunteers contributed 7,590 hours. Students are given handbooks listing the various behaviors expected of them, as well as an educational acronym (RISE= Rise Integrity Safety Excellence) to remind students what it takes for themselves and others to succeed. For classes, teachers list their specific expectations of each student in a cover sheet handed out at the beginning of the semester, and most teachers require them to follow a single rule of Love and Logic: Feel free to do anything that does not

cause a problem for you or anyone else. Complementary to the mission statement listed above, the schools belief statement is Students will build skills to: achieve academic and career goals; contribute to society; achieve an understanding of cultural diversity; achieve self-pride and confidence; and achieve learning as a lifelong experience, which further reminds students the overarching goal of their time at TVHS. Demographically, the majority of students are white, but there are a growing number of Hispanic students as well. There are 1300 students enrolled at TVHS, with 65% expected to go to college and 80% to post-secondary. There are students living in million dollar homes, but there is a sizable amount of low-income students, 27% on free-and-reduced lunches, as well as students classified as homeless. Thompson Valley High School is made-up of a diverse array of students that are, not only, in the process of becoming better learners, but also, better citizens.

Students and Classroom:

At TVHS, I have become a part of Carey Duvals World Geography class, made up of mostly 10th grade students, in-which I instruct, observe, and help students to think both, critically and geographically. There are 30 students in the class with a slightly higher number of males than females. There are six students with an IEP, who are provided with assistance by a PARA to help meet their needs, and one student requires extra time to take quizzes and tests. The students have a broad range of interests and hobbies, including anime, history, reading, cheerleading, basketball, softball, computers, football, vampire novels, soccer, video games, and music. The students can be talkative, but they remain respectful to Mr. DuVal, myself, and each other. They are allowed to listen to music when they are working independently, which seems to cause the students to work more diligently on individual tasks. The students are very familiar with basic geographic tools, e.g. maps and data, and have the ability to apply them when the activity calls for it. The content is oriented for students to further master these and other geographic tools, with

the goal being for them to gain perspective of the world and its interconnectivity by relating it to their own lives. The classroom is in a separate building from the main one, it is called a cottage, and the entire class fits comfortably within it. The classroom is decorated with historical and geographical posters, such as maps and info-graphics depicting famous battles and the US military branches of World War II, presidential portraits, religion, culture, political cartoons, and topographical maps of specific continents. Carey adds a personal touch by surrounding the walls around his desk with posters and novelty items of his favorite sports teams, TV shows, celebrities, and numerous pictures of his family and past students. The relationship between Carey and his students is not as formal as most classrooms, but he maintains it so his students know he truly cares about their development and work ethic as both, students and members of society.

Topic and Rationale: The class is divided up into continents, and they had previously completed learning about Asia before I joined them. My first lesson dealt with covering the human and physical geography of Europe, which Carey had introduced to them before my lesson by having them fillin political maps of the continent; as a result, this provided them familiarity with basic geographic concepts and the countries in Europe. The goal of the lesson was to provide students with the ability to think geographically, which entails how to read maps, data, and tool, identify relationships between the data presented, and construct and respond to geographic-inquiry. The reasoning for this is to give students a better idea of what a geographer does, and how they can apply geography concepts within their own lives. My strategy for the lesson was to give a lecture with frequent engagement of the students with discussion and examples of concepts throughout. I chose this method because this was only my third time in the classroom, and I had not yet built a standard foundation of community and familiarity between the students and myself. Carey had given me a power point with the concepts to focus on for the class, to which I added discussion questions and metaphors/analogies to model geographic thinking by connecting the content with topics relevant to the students, for example, relating the Denver Broncos fan-base to the term nation. Additionally, this would help build my relationship with the students, and also, provide the students an idea of what to expect when I teach in the future. I believe it is necessary to establish comfort and community with me as an instructor, while gradually including class discussion; otherwise, the students will be hesitant to trust me to guide them along their geographical journey.