How Well Do You Know Your School Community?

Assignment #2

Chayne Garma
1/30/2017
EDSE 492
Spring 2017
Two-Page Narrative

The first time I ever sat foot into James Campbell High School was my first time

meeting my mentor teacher face to face before the semester began. My first initial

reactions to the school were simply awe-inspiring at the size of the campus. My mentor

teachers classroom is located in a three-storied building. In this building is located most

of the freshman social studies, English and math classrooms. All three subjects work as

different teams with the same students for all their classes. Students move with the same

classmates for those three classes and have formed bonds with each other from the past

semester. My mentor teacher and I discussed a few assessments on how they work

together as a class. There was one assessment that my mentor teacher and I agreed up that

they should take to gain better insight into our students learning. One assessment was a

student interest inventory.

Using this interest inventory, I was able to assess on what their favorite and least

favorite subject and if they enjoy working along, in small groups or large groups. Along

with this is what they want to do after high school and what is their special talents or

interests. Using this information I would be able to plan activities in class in the best way

they would like to learn. If most students want to work in small groups, then smaller

group activities would happen. However, I would also balance between small groups and

individual work as well. So far the activities I planned using small groups have been

found both to work and not work. The students do enjoy working together in groups and

have formed them in a way for them to depend on one another and if one person is

slacking behind it is their job to help one another to pass together. However, some groups

do slack and have a hard time to motivate some of their team members. That is when I
will step in to make sure everyone is doing equal work and motivate the students to help

one another.

Another way I used the student interest inventory, was to gain their favorite subjects

and least favorite subjects. This information helped me by gaining insight if they did not

like social studies or enjoyed it. With this information, I could see if they enjoyed social

studied and what they liked about it and reinforced that joyfulness in my lessons. If they

do not enjoy social studies and what they dont like about it, I will try to avoid such

things and help them understand social studies better.

There were also a couple questions we asked the students about social studied. Those

questions were What do you like about history? Also, we asked them to imagine

themselves in the shoes of a teacher and asked them If you were the teacher, how would

you teach social studies? and What is one thing you would want your students to learn

in history? Having the answers to these questions really helped us on how we as

teachers want to approach the content with our students. It also helped us assess the

learning goals of the students and what they want to get out of the class. Asking them

how they would teach social studies helps us as teachers that this would be the way our

students want to learn history and will help us with future lessons of the class. Having

these student interest inventories will come in handy when creating lessons around the

students for them to learn better and to get more out of the class.
Resources

Tell me about yourself: Student interest survey assignment.

James Campbell High School Website

Freshmen Academy Syllabus

Letter to Parents and Students

James Campbell High School

91-980 North Road
Ewa Beach, HI 96706

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Aloha,

My name is Mr. Chayne Garma; I am a student teacher from the University of Hawaii West Oahu
under the guidance of Mr. Wade T. Murasaki. I have the privilege and honor to be teaching your
son/daughter this semester.

The purpose of this letter is for me to introduce myself to you. I am currently in my professional
semester at the University of Hawaii West Oahu. I will be teaching most of the class for the 3 rd and 4th term.
I will be under the guidance of my mentor teacher Mr. Wade T. Murasaki and Dr. Stephanie Kamai. I am
required to create lesson plans and implement them and create a positive learning environment.

My classroom philosophy is to:

Create a safe, comfortable environment productive to student learning.

Motivate and inspire students to think creatively, critically, and analytically.

Revolves around 3 core issue / values:

R
espect

R
esponsibility

P
ositive Attitude

Do my best to help all students to the best of my ability

Parents and Guardians please keep in mind the class may take part in other additional activities such as field trips, and assignments
that are not included or mentioned on the course syllabus. Please feel free to contact me either by telephone or email if you have any
questions or concerns

Thank you very much for your time and cooperation. I greatly appreciate it and look forward to a great spring semester in the 2016-
2017 school year. Good Luck to all of you this semester. Lets work together and make it a good one.

Sincerely,

Mr. Chayne Garma

Student Interest Survey

Using this student interest form was very helpful in creating lessons plans for my

students. I learned if they liked to work individually, in small groups or large groups.

Also what their accomplishments are and if they have any after school activities. Having

this kind of information will help me assess the workload they will receive and what kind

of student they are.