Robin
Crim
EDUC
5173
February
24, 2015
Field Activity #1
School and Classroom
Environment
Lillie J. Jackson Early
Childhood Center (LJJ) is a Lewisville Independent School District (LISD)
pre-kindergarten/preschool program for children with disabilities (ppcd) campus
that host students who are labeled “At Risk”.
That is to say, students with special needs, English language learners,
children who are adopted or in foster care, military families, as well as
children/grandchildren of LISD employees.
While I was unable to locate statistics or percentages of the ethnicity
of LJJ staff, it resembles that of the ethnicity percentage totals of its
students (see below). The education
level of the current teachers at LJJ is for the most part is a Bachelor’s degree,
however about half of the employees have Graduate degrees (lisd.net, Lillie). The Texas Education Agency posts in their
2012-1013 Performance Reporting Profile that there are:
11.1 % African American
59.6% Hispanic
12.2% White
.7% American Indian
15.3% Asian
1.2% Two or More Races
Being
an “At Risk” school, the socioeconomic status of our students for the most part
is low. 77.5% of our students our
“Economically Disadvantaged” (Texas) and 68% of our student population is “Free
Lunch Eligible” and 10% are “Reduce Lunch Eligible” (elementaryschools.org). Naturally I feel that all of our students
have exceptionalities and are quite exceptional; however, the statistics say
that 63.4% of our students are English language learners (Texas) and that 8.02%
of our students are ppcd (lisd.net, Lillie).
I do not know what types of languages are spoken just at LJJ but
I do know that there are at least seventy languages represented in all of LISD
(Lewisville, 2011). LISD is a suburban
district that encompasses 105.24 square miles and 13 cities (lisd.net,
Communities).
I have included a diagram that is
close to the arrangement in my classroom.
What you do not see is the bathroom, the lockers and the
whiteboards/Smart boards.
(Advanced, 2008)As for placement of students around the room, the seating arrangements during large group time on the carpet were determined by least distraction and interruptions for all involved. Students also sit in assigned small groups for personalized teacher interaction. These groups are determined on assessment scores, placing like learners together in a group. This allows for a one to five teacher student ratio when working on skills and curriculum. There are no windows within our classroom and the room is lit by fluorescent lighting. The temperature in the classroom is provided by and is monitored by LISD, getting adjusted according to the weather and need. The room and school do not have an offensive odor, but has that overall, stereotypical school smell of paint, crayons, books, and kids. The school is almost completely tile with the exception of the administration offices. Classrooms are tiled but have a variety of brightly colored, educational rugs around the room to provide sound buffering if needed. On the walls in my classroom, as well as around the school, you will find student work. All work is accompanied by the TEKs that were followed or accomplished when completing the assignment. There is a water fountain and a bathroom in every classroom. There are water fountains located on every hall and two public restrooms located at the two ends of the school. They are well maintained and in good working condition. The safety procedures are posted around the school and in every classroom. Every substitute folder has a safety plan located within and there is at least one type of safety drill a month. Our school is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with pedestrian gates on three sides. We are located on a busy intersection but are surrounded by neighborhoods, another school, apartments, community center, public parks, and several churches. The parking lot has just recently been renovated and although we are still getting used to the new flow of traffic, the cars are now in our parking lot instead of impeding traffic on our cross streets or blocking neighbor’s driveways. Our playground is kept clean and in working order. We also have three indoor playgrounds that are being continually upgraded and renewed with a variety of educational toys and items that promote large muscle awareness and control. The physical layout of the school is clean and welcoming. The halls are cheery and well lite, there are always children singing, counting, and reciting the alphabet while in the hallways. I do not believe that I would change the layout of the school or the classroom as it works well with the students and the staff. I think that the staff has gone to great lengths to make the school, the classroom and the meeting rooms as inviting and productive as possible.
References
Advanced
Learning Technologies in Education Consortia. (2008). Classroom architect.
Retrieved from http://classroom.4teachers.org/
Retrieved from http://classroom.4teachers.org/
ElementarySchools.org.
(2012-2013). Lillie J. Jackson early
childhood center enrollment, ranking,
and statistics. Retrieved from http://elementaryschools.org/directory/tx/cities/lewisville/lillie-j-jackson-early- childhood-center/482730010619/
Lewisville
Independent School District. (2014).
Communities in LISD. Retrieved
from
Lewisville
Independent School District. (2014). Lillie
J. Jackson school profile. Retrieved
from http://ljjacksonecc.lisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=129995&type=d&pREC_ID= 257504
Lewisville
Independent School District. (2011) Transitional bilingual education and
English as a second language
[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from www.lisd.net/slai/TBESL.ppsx
Texas
Education Agency. (2012-2013). Texas performance reporting system profile.
Retrieved fromhttp://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/cgi/sas/broker?_service=marykay&_program=perfrept.perf mast.sas&prgopt=2013/tprs/profile.sas&ptype=P&_debug=0&year4=2013&year2=13&l evel=campus&campus=061902141&namenum=Lewisville
