1. School
1.1. The principal who started the school retired last year.
1.1.1. The new principal is implementing new polices and a new frame work for evaluating teachers based on the Charlotte Danielson rubric.
1.2. The school's goal this year is to improve the students' literacy skills.
1.2.1. The school's English scores fall below comparable schools in the area.
1.3. Starting the renovate the library.
1.4. The school has consistent Algebra and Living Environment scores.
1.5. Teachers don't have official co-teaching prep times built into their schedules.
1.6. Bronx High School special ed teachers can't readily acces the IEPs of the District 75 students in their classes.
1.7. Was rated an overall "B" during its 09-10 Quality Review
2. School Envrionment
2.1. Students generally get to classes on time.
2.2. Security walk the halls during passing periods to usher the students into classes.
2.3. Some student art decorates the halls but there should be more art on the walls once the school year gets started.
2.4. Was rated a "B" in "School Environment" in the 09-10 NYC Dept. Ed. Progress Report.
3. New node
4. Students
4.1. A senior (Ronald) came into the teachers lounge one afternoon and asked we would sign a petition that he's starting to get the seniors off-campus lunch. He had written a proposal stating why seniors deserve off-campus lunch and stipulations of how and whom can go off campus (i.e. students must have a 75 average and get two recommendations from an AP and a teacher.) He also set consequences of what would happen if students abused this privilege.
4.2. Teachers seem to agree that the students' maturity levels are stuck in the middle school years. As one teacher puts it, "If you walk the halls of any other high schools, there will be a different tone."
4.2.1. Teachers also seem to agree that the students see college not as a goal that you have to work for, but as something that's just going to happen. "Students think that they're going to just go to college, like you go from middle school to high school, or from 10th to 11th grade."
4.3. In US History class, (the class I'm student teaching), many of the students are holdovers.
4.4. The same students participate in class. Some students put their heads down. Most all of the students copy down notes, although, when I ask students what they just copied down, some of them don't know.
4.5. Some students don't copy down any notes, but when I ask them about the material they just covered, they give pertinent, intelligent answers.
4.6. In a math class I observed, the teacher had the students fill out student information sheets asking them what their expectations were for the class and what their favorite subjects in school are.
4.6.1. Students responses include: "To pass the class." Or that their favorite subjects were lunch or that they had no favorite academic subjects.
4.7. Rated a "B" in "Student Performance" in the 09-10 Dept. of Ed. Progress Report.
4.7.1. Rated a "C" in "Student Progress" in the 09-10 NYC Dept. of Ed. Progress Report.
5. Teachers
5.1. Generally older teachers who have been teaching for a few years.
5.1.1. Teachers range from between 5 to 20 years of experience.