About My Classroom

As a lens into the journey and experiences of me and my students, it is essential to first understand how the larger community impacts the school and how the school lives in a teacher's classroom.

ABOUT MY COMMUNITY

School District: Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS or City Schools)

District Website: http://www.baltimorecityschools.org

School Site: National Academy Foundation School of Baltimore (NAF)

Location: East Baltimore, MD

Grade Level: Middle/High, 6th-12th

School Website: http://nafbaltimore.org

MD State Report Card Records: http://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Entity.aspx?k=300421

Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance: http://bniajfi.org/community/Oldtown_Middle%20East

For Black East Baltimoreans, the location and neighborhood of my school is considered a local historic gem. Our middle and high school buildings encompass two ends of a quad that for decades provided education and recreation for children and youth. Many of my students’ parents went to the original neighborhood schools in the buildings that my school now occupies. In the heart of the Dunbar-Broadway community, NAF resides at the center of the historic Northeast Market and the once architectural landmark of Old Town Mall. In addition, NAF sits in the middle of three low-income housing developments as well as the Johns Hopkins Medical campus. Based on the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, the school’s community is 88. 3 percent Black, 8 percent White, and 1.2 percent Latino, with 60.3 percent of children living below the poverty line. Due to the school’s proximity to Johns Hopkins, the school continues to find partnerships and opportunities for students and staff to benefit from community resources.

While the school currently resides in the Dunbar-Broadway community, it has gone through multiple building transitions across the city. When the high school opened in 2002, classes took place in the basement of a children’s museum downtown. Then, transitioned to other public high school buildings until settling in its current two buildings in 2009. Our principal has expressed on numerous occasions that the Baltimore City School District was only inclined to provide the school the historic Dunbar Middle School building for the high school if school leaders approved taking ownership of the Thomas G. Hayes Middle School building that closed in 2008 as well. This meant opening a middle school before the strategic development of the high school. This has presented a challenge for the school and community as many middle school students come from the surrounding neighborhood while the high school’s population is more citywide, which also manifests differing cultures and resources in the two buildings.

ABOUT MY SCHOOL

For the 2017-18 school year, there are 827 students enrolled at NAF. There are 139 ESOL students comprising over 15 percent of the population. There are 713 Black, 99 Latino, and 15 White students. There are no students that identify as Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, or of two or more races. While 455 of the students are males and 372 of the students are female, there are self-identifying transgender and queer students enrolled. In the middle school, 76 percent of students and in the high school, 57.8 percent of students are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch, but 100 percent of students receive free breakfast and lunch daily. The middle school receives Title I funding as 40.1 percent of students are eligible for services. In addition, 13.6 percent and 17.1 percent of middle and high students, respectively are in the special education, which includes a life skills program.

There are 5 CTE academic certification tracks offered in the high school:

Academy of Law
Academy of Finance
Academy of Engineering
Academy of Hospitality & Tourism
Academy of Information Technology

Additionally, this is the first year the school has a GATE program with English Honors, AP English Composition, and AP Psychology.

As a restorative practices school, there is a mandatory reflection “detention” structure in the high school and we utilize the Kickboard PBIS system to incentive middle school students to reinforce positive behavior and academic expectations. The access to technology is scarce and limited as the high school has universal Wi-Fi but the middle school does not.

ABOUT MY CLASSROOM

This year I am teaching 7th and 8th grade ELA, but last year I also taught 9th grade English I in the high school building. Referred to as hybrids (teaching in both buildings), I had one classroom in the middle school and rotated to a different classroom each quarter in the high school.

There are five 72-minute periods with a bell schedule from 8:15 AM to 3:05 PM. Last year my class sizes ranged from 31 to 43 students. This year I have no more than 28 students in each class. I have first period planning with content collaborative planning meetings at least once a week. There are several significant demographics of my students:

94 students total
45 males and 49 females
84 Black
8 Latino
1 Asian
1 White
20 Retention History
6 ESOL students
8 Gifted or Advanced
1 Homeless
9 IEPs, 3 504s

Based on iReady and PARCC data, less than 1 percent of my students are reading and writing on or above grade-level. Students who are eligible for Title I services can receive push-in or pull-out instruction up to twice a week. I have coach class once a week as well as a For Colored Girls Collective, which meets 1-2 times a week during lunch. As a restorative practices school, I facilitate whole-class restorative circle sessions in my classroom on Mondays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, the guidance counselor comes to facilitate high school and college readiness workshops for 30 minutes in each of my 8th grade classes. In addition to teaching, I teach English and College Readiness courses in the evening academy for 11th and 12th grade students. I am a member of the Instructional Leadership Team that meets every Wednesday.

To "My Teaching Philosophy"

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