Classroom Environment

Ligon Middle School is a supportive environment for diverse learners to excel; the determined staff contributes greatly to this positive learning space. Not only do teachers and administrators push students to succeed, but some families also provide student support. Even though some students’ parents and grandparents may come to volunteer, many students still do not receive the needed amount of support from home.
Ligon contains grade levels six through eight, with grade mixing among different electives which students choose to take. The school is located in a part of town that is surrounded by lower-economic status and government housing, but students are bused from all over the county, so diverse populations are present. Even though Ligon is made up of a diverse population, the mixing of students within classes is not evenly assorted.
Three of my language arts classes are ICR classes, and the majority of students in them are African American, while my two AG language arts classes are compiled mostly by white students. Within the three ICR classes, eight students are white, eight students are Indian, and two are Hispanic. The two AG classes contain ten students who are Indian and two students who are African-American. According to these numbers, diversity is present in these classrooms, but is not evenly distributed.
In the first two ICR classes, I have eighteen students, and in my third ICR language arts class, there are twenty-five students. I am glad the day starts off with a smaller class; many mornings, the air conditioning in my classroom does none turn on until around nine in the morning. A classroom full of antsy middle-school-students and no air conditioning may not be a great start to the school day.
The two AG classes are composed of twenty-six and twenty-two students. The classroom seems cramped at times with the larger classes, but it is still functional. Students have more trouble moving around into groups, so it is easier for them to work in groups on their particular rows; seating charts have been made to ensure cooperative learning groups will be present on each one.
All of these classes have a spectrum of abilities, and within the ICR classes, I know for certain five students have IEPs. During one lesson, my cooperating teacher read a short story out loud to the three ICR classes, but the AG classes were able to read more of the piece silently by themselves. It concerns me that many of these students still have extreme difficulty reading independently; especially when three students in the ICR classes are fifteen.
There is a big difference among students’ ages in these classes; the youngest age is twelve. Not only do these classes contain a big difference in age, but they contain an uneven gender distribution. In second period (an ICR language arts class), four students are male, while thirteen are female; third period shows almost the same distribution, with four students being male and fifteen female. Fourth period, a larger class, contains ten males and seventeen females. Fifth period has fourteen males and thirteen females, while seventh period contains nine males and fifteen females.
Even though the classes do not contain much diversity, the classroom is highly organized, and students can easily follow the days’ events and schedule by glancing around the room. Classroom rules are placed in front of the class, and strategically beside the clock. Also beside the clock is the school’s PBS discipline flow chart. Schedules are posted on every wall; a normal school day consists of eight periods, one of which is lunch, and each period lasting approximately forty-three minutes.
Supplies are also placed in front of the classroom and on sides of the classroom, along with a classroom library bookshelf, a bookshelf for grammar and literature text books, a bookshelf containing dictionaries and thesauruses, and crates containing grammar workbooks and soon to contain students’ focus question notebooks. There is an ELMO, a t.v. with VHS/DVD player, a projector, two computers (one of which is not working at the time), and a printer are also located in the classroom.