Critical Issues in Curriculum and Instruction Field Experience

Written By: Brittany Hergott

Description of School Setting
McPhee Elementary is a Title I school that is very diverse in many ways. McPhee
is located in downtown Lincoln, NE and serves approximately 283 students in grades
PreK-5. There are several different languages spoken by our families: English, Spanish,
Arabic, Dinka, French, Kurdish, Burmese, Chin Zo, etc. The ELL population at McPhee
makes up 27 % of the school. It is amazing how there are so many students that can speak
multiple languages (native language and English), but their parent(s) can only speak in
their native language. (McPhee, 2014)
Our students come and go to different schools frequently. The mobility rate at
McPhee is 35%. It can be difficult for students to adjust to a new environment, but
teachers work extremely hard to make all students feel comfortable at McPhee.
Approximately 15% of McPhee students are in Special Education with a variety of
disabilities (learning, behavioral, metal handicap, speech-language, orthopedic
impairment). Only 4% of the McPhee population is classified as Gifted. Although these
statistics can be alarming to the outside viewer, students are living by the motto Work
HardGet Smart each and every day. (McPhee, 2014)
Since 93% of the McPhee population is eligible for free/reduced lunch (McPhee,
2014), there are several community members that support the students and staff at
McPhee. Lincoln Berean Church supports our families and school in so many ways. They
support our families by providing free family photos and providing warm clothing to
families in need. Community Action helps support our preschool families in a variety of
ways including help with applying for housing, food vouchers, Medicaid, other

insurance, etc. The Foodbank of Lincoln provides food backpacks that are sent home with
several students every Friday so that their family will not go hungry over the weekend.
The community supports McPhee in so many ways. There is a partnership between
McPhee students, staff, families, and the community that makes being a McPhee
Mustang challenging, but very rewarding!
Article #1: How Teachers Can Reduce the Empathy Gap That Wealth Creates
Written By: Sam Osherson, Ph. D.
This article talks about the challenges wealthy children can experience in their
life. Research indicates that the wealthy have more difficulty in understanding the
emotions of others and understanding the problems associated with people that are
different from them. Families who have money and power do not always understand
where other people are coming from. A teacher was quoted in this article saying that
many children from wealthy families feel their life is already defined: they face pressure
to achieve the same level and kind of success that their (often) high-power, highly
successful parents found in school. Children of the wealthy may not be listened to as
much as one would think. When your future is already pre-planned through your family
dynamics and everyone around you is busy, who is listening to the child? This article
talks about what teachers can do to help wealthy children. There are several teaching tips
mentioned, but I feel that the most valuable thing to remember when teaching wealthy
children is that they may seem fine to you, but it is important for teachers to be
attentive to the challenges and failures that wealthy children may experience throughout
their school years (Osherson, 2014).
Working in a Title I school, I always thought that it was harder to teach students
who are low-income than it is to teach students who are wealthy. While this may be true,

there are still many challenges when it comes to teaching wealthier students. This article
opened my eyes to the concerns that teachers must be aware of when teaching wealthier
students. First of all, teaching in a school with wealthy families will most likely mean
there will be less behavior issues because the basic needs of children are being met.
When a student is considered the perfect student that does not mean that the student is
ok. There could be very high pressures placed on that student due to the success of their
family. It is imperative that teachers listen and communicate well with all students to help
them find their own journey in lifenot a journey that is already pre-planned. It takes a
very special and hard working teacher to truly change the mind-set of a student who has
already been told who they need to be and what they need to do with their life. The best
way to teach any student (whether wealthy or not) about the emotions of others and how
other people live their lives is to have students experience diversity in some capacityit
would be an eye opening experience!
Article #2: Rural school districts work to attract teachers Written By: Alan Scher
Zagier
This short article talks about the challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers in
rural school districts. Rural schools experience huge teacher shortages and are unable to
compete with the higher salaries in urban districts. Having high expectations of students
and staff is very important in most communities, but the idea of high expectations is even
higher in a rural school district. Everyone knows everybody and often times rural
teachers are more in touch with their students home lives (which is very valuable as a
teacher, but it can also put you in a very uncomfortable situation at times). The article
ends by talking about teacher training and how it does not focus on the context of the
community as much as it probably should (Zagier, 2010).

Teaching in a rural school district can be very rewarding when it comes to

building relationships, but it has to be a challenge as well. There are not enough highly
educated educators who are willing to teach in a rural district where the pay does not
compare to urban districts and the entertainment in the community is limited. I know
there are teachers that are teaching subjects that they are not necessarily comfortable with
teaching. A lot of focus when it comes to education tends to be with urban school
districts. Very little information is heard about rural school districts in the media.
Although this can happen with urban school districts, a teacher is more likely to lose their
job or be relocated due to their school closing due to declining enrollment. I cannot speak
fully to the challenges that rural school teachers face because I have never taught in a
rural school, but after reading this article and from what I have heard from other
educators, it sounds like there can be some rough times when it comes to teaching in a
rural school.
Article #3: For Teachers, Middle School Is Test of Wills Written By: Elissa
Gootman
This article talks about several challenges that middle school teachers face every
day. Several middle school students have slumps in many different academic/socialemotional areas at such a critical age. According to a teacher quoted in the article, there is
a lot of anger and outbursts in middle school. Another challenge is the range of student
ability (which is more prevalent than what is seen in elementary and high school). Since
there are these challenges, there is high turnover with middle school teachers who often
lack expertise in a content area they are teaching or have little knowledge on the
psychology behind adolescents. According to The Education Trust, a scandalously high

numbers of middle school classes are taught by teachers lacking even a college minor in
their assigned subjects. According to Gootman, middle school teachers are often
trained as elementary school generalists or as high school subject specialists, with little
understanding of young adolescent psychology. A very interesting point that the article
mentioned was that difficult high school students tend to drop out, where middle school
students tend to stay in school. The article ends by quoting different phrases that middle
school students have said The kids is too much trouble, Theres no consequences for
them, and Theres always arguments. (Gootman, 2007).
While this article is a little older, I still believe that several of the concerns when it
comes to teaching in middle school are prevalent today. While there is a range in student
ability no matter what grade you teach, I noticed the huge gaps as a substitute teacher in
middle school. I am talking mostly with social-emotional skills and how the students
coped with problems. With the high turnover of teachers, it has to be difficult for students
to build relationships with their teachers and have a positive community atmosphere
among students and staff. As a young college graduate, I know of a few teachers in LPS
that wanted to teach upper elementary school, but got placed as a sixth grade teacher in a
middle school building. It was interesting to think about the journey of our most
challenging students. A challenging middle school student is more likely to push through
middle school with lots of supports in place and attention from adults. However, once
you get to high school, the most challenging students are more likely to drop out.
Although this is sad, it is reality. There are challenges no matter what school/grade you
teach, but I found this article particularly interesting on the challenges that middle school
teachers and students face.

Field Experience
I went to observe Maxey Elementary students and interviewed my cousin, Beth
Hergott, who is an art teacher at Maxey. This experience was very interesting because
Maxey is a not a Title I school and has many differences from McPhee. The minority
population is 14%, the gifted population is 5.2%, and the special education population is
10.7%. However, one of the biggest differences is that only 9% of the population is
eligible for free/reduced lunch and their mobility rate is only 3% (Maxey, 2014). I gained
an interesting perspective spending an adequate amount of time observing 5th grade art
students before interviewing Beth. Every student in the classroom was white and spoke
English. They were actively engaged in their learning and no behavior issues were
noticed. One of the biggest things I learned from observing Maxey students is when they
are actively engaged and they are having fun learning (exploring art, listening to music,
having quiet side conversations, etc) behavior concerns are at a minimum. McPhee tries
hard to actively engage all students, but there are a lot of social-emotional challenges that
sometimes interfere with the learning that takes place among all students.
When talking to Beth, I found out some of the challenges she faces as an art
teacher at Maxey. First of all, parent involvement is not as great as I thought it would be.
During parent-teacher conferences, Maxey parents tend to meet with the homeroom
teachers and do not always make the effort to meet with the specialists. They
automatically assume that their student is doing just fine in art (which may or may not be
the case). Beth stated that Maxey does not have enough money for a lot of SPED support.
Para educators at Maxey help students in core subjects like math and reading, but do not
accompany students to specials. She said there are times when she has to sit with a SPED

student during most of the class to keep the student on track while there might be
behaviors happening across the room. Maxey brings its own set of challenges, but from
my observation and after talking to Beth, the challenges that they experience are very
minimal compared to the challenges that McPhee students and staff face on a daily basis.
Goals
1) In order to increase my own understanding about the impact of cultural, social, racial,
and economic diversity, I need to seek out opportunities for professional development to
hear about the different perspectives that society faces. However, hearing information
does not do justice. I am not going to get a true picture of the impact that diversity has on
our nation until I view what is happening all around on a daily basis. I need to visit
different educational environments to see the diversity that every environment entails. I
truly believe that a picture says 1000 words.
2) I have a very important job of teaching my young preschool students the importance of
fairness and reminding students in a variety of ways that all students have the right to
learn. My preschool students are all diverse in many ways (race, disability, language,
etc.). A goal of mine is to get better about talking with my students about the differences
among their peers and how just because we look different on the outside, we all are
McPhee students here to learn the best we can. Students can be so critical of each other
and that affects how other students learn and process information. I need to keep talking
and showing my students the importance of respect and how we can all learn together to
achieve great accomplishments.
3) I truly feel that my preschool students have an advantage over other LPS preschool
students due to the diversity they experience each and every day. I only see the students

for 3.5 hours each day, which is not very long at all. If I want students to realize that
everyone is human and there is much more diversity in our society than what they
experience at school, I am going to have to get the parents more involved. A goal of mine
is to inform parents of some activities they can do at home to increase their cultural
proficiency as a family and have them experience community activities that they would
normally not attend. It is going to take a team effort between parents, students, and staff
for me to figure out the best way to assist students in learning about other individuals that
are different from them.
4) Respecting human dignity of my young students can be very hard for all the preschool
staff at McPhee, but we all must get better at it. When students display challenging
behavior, often times the rest of the students are watching this behavior and that does not
protect that particular students dignity. A goal of mine is to work with my staff to make
sure that we are not talking about challenging behavior around other students and that if
we need to move the entire class away from the problem situation then we can do so.
Young students are very smart and they know which students are problem students and
which students are good students. I dont want a label to be placed on children by other
children. Every child has a right to learn in a safe and respectful environment and it is my
goal to collaborate with my staff and keep attending professional development
opportunities to learn more about how to promote respect for human dignity and
individual rights in the preschool classroom.

References
Gootman, E. (2007, March 17). For Teachers, Middle School Is Test of Wills. The New
York Times. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/
Maxey Elementary School Profile. (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 2, 2014.
McPhee Elementary School Profile. (2014, January 1). Retrieved October 26, 2014.
Osherson, S. (2014, October 17). How Teachers Can Reduce the Empathy Gap that
Wealth Creates. Psychology Today.
Zagier, A. (2010, September 29). Rural school districts work to attract teachers. St. Louis
Post-Dispatch. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.stltoday.com