School Environment Narrative

Kyrene Elementary School District is located in the southern portion of Phoenix, on the

outer edge of the main metropolitan area. Kyrene is home to nearly 170,000 students attending

one of 25 elementary, middle, and preschools within this geographical region. Exactly 80% of

students within the district population are Caucasian.

Altadeña Middle School, located in the heart of Kyrene Elementary School District,

resides in an area where about 50% of students come from upper class, higher income families,

40% belonging to middle class/income families, and 7% of students come from low income

families. Demographically, Altadeña student population is about 68% Caucasian, 12% Hispanic,

8% Asian, and 5% African American. Altadeña Middle School is a 6-8 grade school home to the

Panthers and an amazing administration and team of educational professionals that educate

and support all of these students from range of background and ethnicities. All of the educators

at Altadeña Middle school are state certified and 90% have 3 or more years of experience.

Altadeña’s test scores that are consistently exceed state averages also reflect the high quality

and performance of the educators currently working at Altadeña Middle School. On average

throughout all grade levels, students tested about 30% or higher than the state average on

state standardized tests in English, Science, and Math. In Geometry, Algebra I, and Algebra II,

which are generally a high school level courses available to high testing students, scored 98%

proficiency compared to state average of 30-37%.

Overall, Altadeña also received a 7 out of 10 score from GreatSchools.org, combining

and reviewing Altadeña’s ability and performance year after year making more progress than

other schools within Arizona. This ability refers to the strong academic skills students are
gaining within the classroom and how they are making bigger gains to set them up for success

as they further their education each year. However overall proficiency in each subject are not

consistent through every grade. 6th grade overall has higher percentages of students scoring

proficient in standardized tests than that of 7th grade and 8th grade, respectively. This is partially

due to the fact that there is a high of students in Altadeña Middle School with disabilities

compared to state average and a majority of those students are in 8th grade. However, the

Kyrene District, including Altadeña Middle School recently started an initiative to redesign their

middle school education and programming. This redesign aims to put more focus on academic

achievement, responsive instruction/support, and student agency. This programming has been

in place over the last couple of years and is continuing to be used and adapted to best support

students. There have been improvements district wide in performance in all students and

increased support for students with disabilities, low-income students, and any other students

who need support. For example, there are multiple aids, beyond school programs and classes,

that are present in classroom for students and classes that need extra support, especially in

classrooms with students with disabilities. These all also align with Altadeña’s vision and

mission statements which summarize the schools aim to help students achieve their greatest

potential by becoming problem-solvers, creators and visionaries of the future. Altadeña also

works to achieve these goals and create a safe and effective learning environment for all

students by leading by example, embodying and demonstrating strong character, accepting

diversity, and expecting high excellence from the students.

Within my 6th grade science classroom, I teach about half of the 6th grade students

sharing the 6th grade science domain with another educator. Each of my classes is
approximately 50 minutes long with about 28-32 students per class period. I teach 4 class

period a day with two prep class periods when I often meet with other educators in my

department to touch base on our curriculum, classroom, teaching strategies, etc. On top of

that, Altadeña also has a pride hour where students attend a different class each day of the

week. For example, on Monday students attend their first period class for a second time during

pride hour and attend their second period class on Tuesdays and so on. During this time

students are able to further their knowledge with higher level activities or project, receive extra

help with content, get extra work time with assignments, etc. As a science teacher, I meet with

educators of other subjects as well to see if there is anything I can supplement from their

classes with the assignments I need to do for my own curriculum and assignments to further my

students in education in all subjects. Each students has access to an in-class textbook as well

access to a multitude of resources and classroom website I maintain with any information they

need at home.

Most of the students at Altadeña Middle School have access to technology at home but

there is still a minority of students who do not and there are also a multitude of technology

resources they can utilize and teachers utilize within their own classrooms. Altadeña Middle

School also has its own media center located in the library that can be used for a variety of

classroom activities as well as school clubs/programs including a video broadcasting club that

creates school video announcements which are shown daily. Each classroom also has an

overhead projector and document cameras that provide a variety of ways and things that

teachers can present information to their students with. Each classroom has a set of 30 laptops

available for the students and teacher to utilize as well as a separate computer lab for larger,
more teacher led/controlled lessons or assignments teachers can reserve. A majority of

teachers at Altadeña utilize google classroom as well because of their student access to

technology whether it is at home or at school where you can post assignments, submit

assignments, share announcements, etc. This as well as a class website on Altadeña’s school

website are also shared with parents to stay up to date with what is happening in their students

classrooms and educations. The wireless internet provided by Altadeña on campus also is

restrictive to school appropriate and educationally supportive websites and although the wifi

may be slow sometimes, it is still effective to use technology at any time.

Applicant Biography

I am Teacher’s Name and am currently in my first of teaching and teaching at Altadeña

Middle School. I earned my bachelor’s degree in secondary education as well as minor in

biology from Arizona State University. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in educational

leadership. I also had multiple opportunities in my own education and professional experiences

to work with a variety of technologies. I have had experience and am knowledgeable about the

use of laptops, ipads, projectors, as well as multiple programs used by these devices. The main

ideas of my own personal teaching philosophy are to create and maintain a safe, productive

environment as well as genuine relationships with my students in order to allow them to feel

most comfortable and free to be and find themselves and they therefore will be more receptive

to learning and have a more effective education. I also believe in using a variety of methods and

projects beyond basic content learning to teach students the skills and information they need

to know to be successful especially emphasizing problem-solving and higher level, critical

thinking skills. I also believe in teaching my students to be self-advocates, responsible, and

independent so that they have the skills to control their own education and get the most that

they can. These skills are so important to learn and I think middle school is a very key time to

develop these skills so that they can be utilized and set the students up to be more successful in

high school and beyond. I believe the role of students is to be open and receptive to learning in

order to get the most out of their education and advocate for their own education. An

educator’s role is to facilitate learning and development of their students and provide a safe

environment for them to develop their own learning/thinking and discover themselves and

their passions. The parents and community’s role is to be supportive and cooperative with

students and teachers, staying in open communication with each other to best help each

student reach their maximum potential and achievement.