Understanding Students: Contextual Factors Analysis 1

Understanding Students: Contextual Factors Analysis

B. Toribio Jr.
University of Maine Farmington
 Understanding Students: Contextual Factors Analysis 2

“Teacher” is one of the most ambiguous titles when it comes to an occupation. When I

considered teaching math, I chose the specific focus due to how linear it is. This was simply one

side of the coin: knowing your subject, the different methods, steps, and resources necessary to

reach an ultimate goal, answer, or conclusion. The other side, the teacher side, is the involvement

and interaction with students. Just like how math can seem to be an endless pit of knowledge, so

will the different experiences, students, and interactions be as a teacher. Knowing your

environment, the who’s, what’s, and how’s of each individual you interact with in the school

whilst guiding those students to prepare them for their futures is what makes someone a teacher.

This Spring semester of 2020, I am doing my student teaching at Mt. Blue High School

(MBHS) in Farmington, Maine. Similar to my practicum experience two years prior, I am under

a math teacher who mainly teaches 10th graders and up. The classes I cover are Algebra II,

Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, and Statistics. Farmington is a relatively small town. Having gone

here for all my college career, it’s hard to go anywhere where others won’t recognize you.

Whether people do or don’t actually know you, people in Farmington are generally welcoming.

About Mt. Blue High School

Mt. Blue High School is surrounded by nearby towns such as Wilton, Starks, Industry,

Chesterville, New Sharon, Weld, Temple, Vienna, and New Vineyard. Over 670 students attend

the high school along with the 180 students from other schools who attend for Mt. Blue’s Foster

Technology Center. Mt. Blue High School strives to provide a multitude of opportunities for

students to find their future careers whether it’s furthering their education in college or going

right in the workforce. Along with education, Mt. Blue High School has multiple extracurricular

programs such as multiple sports and music/art programs to choose from.

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In 2002, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) took place as the first state to

provide a laptop to all students in 7th and 8th grade as well as teachers. MLTI has evolved since

then but Mt. Blue High School is eligible under the program and follows a one to one policy

wherein all students and teachers, upon entering the school, are provided a laptop. Having the

laptops provides the opportunity for students to practice discipline and responsibility through

technology. Grades as well as assignments are posted online so that students and their parents

can view them as needed. Students can utilize this to check for any missing assignments as well

as how they are progressing in their classes. Parents can utilize this to either contact the

appropriate teacher or to bring up during the annual parent-teacher conference. Mt. Blue High

School also has a separate grading system known as Habits of Work that does not affect the

overall grade but is utilized in correlation with students’ extra curricular activities. Similar to a

proficiency based grading, coaches and teachers can view whether or not a student qualifies to

continue doing their coinciding extracurricular activity based on the work ethic they are putting

into school. These are usually based on if assignments are handed in on time or if homework is

attempted.

Mt. Blue High School utilizes PowerSchool for their grading system as well as keeping

record and track of students. Teachers are able to look at students’ profiles to know their

backgrounds in case there is any information that might stand out such as allergies or if their

parent(s) might have provided certain procedures about them. Teachers mainly utilize

PowerSchool for grading, taking attendance, and tagging students for Academic Support Block

(ASB). By having such extensive access to information about these students, teachers at Mt.
 Understanding Students: Contextual Factors Analysis 4

Blue High School are able to support, advise, and teach their students appropriately and

accordingly.

Mt. Blue High School falls under District 9 of Franklin County. It happens to be the only

high school followed by Mt. Blue Middle School, and four elementary schools. According to the

National Center for Education Statistics, District 9’s population is around 18 hundred and is

predominantly white. Farmington, being the location of Mt. Blue High School, has a population

of 4,144 and is 94.9% white as of 2017. 3.09% are Hispanic and .579% are African/African

American. Farmington’s largest industries are focused on health care and social assistance,

education services, and food and accommodations services. The median household income in

Farmington stands at $33,281. According to the Census Bureau, 21.4% of Farmington’s

 Understanding Students: Contextual Factors Analysis 5

population live below the poverty line. The chart above shows that the majority of those in

poverty are males between the ages of 18-24 followed by women in the same age range.

Interestingly, the next highest percentage per age bracket are females in the 65-74 age range. By

race and ethnicity, the most common racial/ethnic group is predominantly white at 98.7%

followed by people of two or more races and Black. This is probably more likely due to the lack

of diversity in Farmington, being 94.9% white.

In Mt. Blue High School, the math department has been working hard to improve student

performance in state assessments. As you can see in the chart above, English and Language arts

and Science are around 50:50 in terms of below expectations and above expectations but for

math, it’s about a 70:30 ratio according to the MDOE Maine Student Performance on State

Assessment. In a staff meeting I attended, this issue was addressed and the majority of the reason

was due to students coming into high school not having met their elementary/middle school

standards as well as students having to repeat classes. In terms of special education in the math

department, Mt. Blue is gradually following an inclusive format so more and more students who

are originally in Special Education can be included in the general education classrooms. In the

chart below, you can see that about 70% of students in special education are able to participate

with or without accommodations in the general education classrooms.

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In the classes for my student teaching, the laptops are usually only used for Google

Classroom. My teacher organizes her classes online on Google Classroom that all her students

have access to. She mainly posts answer keys of worksheets and homework as well as specific

dates for quizzes and tests. The math department in Mt. Blue High School decided on a

non-grading homework policy so the given homework along with the answer keys really puts a

sense of responsibility and discipline on students. Since these are for math classes, students are

able to focus more on the process of a problem as opposed to whether or not the answer is right.

My teacher only puts answer keys for worksheets and problems from the book with answers that

are not already in the book (usually odd number problems). This is another form of responsibility

and discipline students must practice as they progress their education.. Sticking to the grading

system, my teacher has been giving a quiz at the end of every week, either Thursday or Friday,

which provides multiple opportunities for grading assessments. The quizzes cover the recent

topics covered while the tests are cumulative.

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Classroom Setup

In the classroom, the individual desks are set up in rows of 4 by 5. The room has 3 white

boards but only two of which are mostly used. The front board is mainly used for the lectures. It

is scaffolded with two half boards that can shift over so in total, there are 4 half sized white

boards. When not using the front board, the desk spacing allows for students to turn their desks

to the right to view the right whiteboard with ease. The projector coexists with the right

whiteboard which is utilized for technological presentations such using Desmos or when

projecting worksheets and showing what notes should be written down on their own copies. The

right and left sides of the classroom are made up of a whiteboard along with a corkboard. The

left side white board is used for specific events or dates such as the midterm schedule. The

corkboard posts up the standards of each of my teachers classes as well as good examples of quiz

corrections binder portions. Students are able to view these at all times. A section of the

whiteboard, that isn’t under the projector, is used for weekly scheduling for ASB and Every Day

Support Program (EDSP) if students wish to attend my teacher’s ASB or to schedule after school

meetings (such as for EDSP). In the back of the classroom, there are cupboards that contain

classroom materials such as textbooks and papers. In the back of the classroom, my teacher has a

table that has binders that contain all her worksheets for each of her classes. When she makes

copies of worksheets, she piles them on this table and hands them out accordingly.

When doing lectures freehand, my teacher follows a strict prompt of writing the topic(s)

being covered, breaking it down, doing examples, providing examples for the students to try, and

then completing those examples. It is very note friendly and she often tells students where they

might have made mistakes or important portions to pay close attention to. The majority of her
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students really utilize and appreciate this type of class structure. In a survey I had the students

do, one of the questions asked sere the pros and cons of my teachers’ current teaching style and

about half of those responses liked how organized the lessons are. “I (also) like that she does

problems to show us how to do it, but then has us do some on our own so we can see how to do it

ourselves.” One student in the honors pre-calculus class even says “Her notes are really

thorough, she has the best notes of any math teacher I’ve had.”

My teacher utilizes a few methods for students to bring up their grades. For all her

classes, she drops the lowest quiz grade. In her CP classes, she offers the opportunity for quiz

binder corrections. This involves students collecting their previous quizzes, answering the

problems they got wrong correctly as well as explaining why they got it wrong and handing it in

at the end of the quarter. This is a great way to cement their understanding since it implies that

the student has to see where their previous line of thought was and how they need to shift it for

them to reach the correct answer. For her honors classes, she offers one retake quiz wherein she

completely replaces a quiz grade when students retake the exact same quiz. This is a bit harsher

but the intent is to prepare them for college since most are in the class with the intent of

furthering their education.

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The main purpose of the survey I had my students take was to get to know them as

students as well as providing them the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas on the

current class flow the way my teacher had been handling it the first half of the year. The pie

chart above shows the prominence of certain learning styles amongst the students based on the

survey. It makes sense that almost 30% of the students are logical learners since they are students

in Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, Honors Pre-Calculus and the Trigonometry elective. Coinciding with

how well my teacher does lectures, a good portion are auditory and visual learners. Interestingly,

there is a surprisingly small number for interpersonal learners. This is accurately reflected in our

classes since there is only one class that really utilizes opportunities to do worksheets and correct

them with each other and even in that class, there is only one small bunch that actually work

together. I think this is simply due to the unfamiliarity between the students. Knowing this, I’ll

make sure to take note whether or not it is actually a preference between the students or simply

due to how my teacher teaches.

Things to Consider

The majority of my students are extremely top notch and excel in their respective classes

in surprisingly varied ways. There are those who are the silent learners. These students absorb

information like a sponge but never voluntarily answer questions out loud or interact with one

another. For these students, it is absolutely important that the information I portray is factual and

organized. When given problems, these students need to be able to easily look back on their

notes for help since they don’t often reach out. I must also call on them when appropriate so as to

slowly but surely break them out of their shell so that they can get comfortable with not only

knowing the material but being able to express that they do.
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In contrast, there are the students who are extremely responsive and learn essentially

through interaction whether with each other or with me as the teacher. The majority of these

students are great at knowing when they might need help and are not shy to “ask the right

question.” They often ask to come in during ASB or during our prep period instead of being told

that they should because they know they have quizzes to make up or they simply want help on

the content. Knowing this, I as their teacher must prepare a smorgasbord of examples concerning

the lesson I’m teaching. This way, while the rest of the class is able to get practice by doing said

problems, the students who require a bit more interaction are able to confirm their work with

each other or with me. They might not necessarily get all the problems finished, but they’ll be

able to cement their understanding via that interaction whilst the rest of the class stays busy. Put

simply, less is more for them if they are able to talk out their thought process.

For all my students, I will make sure that the lessons I teach are well organized, factual,

and understandable. I have to make sure that all the notes I write on the whiteboard fit well in

their standard notebooks and that they are provided with multiple examples, including ones that

are relatable. I will utilize technology where it fits such as in graphing or for projects. Graphing

is a great way to see the specifics of algebra such as factoring, vertices, slopes, asymptotes, end

behaviors, etc. If students require further challenging, I will include word problems so as to put

more context to general formulas. This way students will not only have the foundational

knowledge but they’ll have a better understanding as to where they apply.

The fantastic thing about math is how much it scaffolds and builds on itself progressively

in a consistent way. Students know that Geometry eventually leads up to trigonometry and

Algebra II is prominent in pre-calculus which also includes trigonometry. It all eventually leads
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to Calculus. Similarly, just like how I’m guiding them throughout their math journey, I’m also

guiding them to become mature human beings. I must always be available if they require any

form of assistance or guidance. Whether it’s regarding math or not.

This semester, I was blessed with a phenomenal group of students who know their own

strengths as well as their own weaknesses. They’re very understanding of the work they have to

put into the class regardless of how well they understand the concepts. There are only a few who

need the slight nudge from the teacher to keep them up to date on their assignments and quizzes.

Otherwise, they are either self-driven or their parents decide to step in. It’s my job as their

teacher to solidify their understanding of the content I teach and to be available for any

circumstance they might be in. I can’t afford to go easy on them since they are already so driven

and passionate about not only math, but for their futures. I can’t wait to see where the future

takes them.
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References

“Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)” ​https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/ltt/mlti

“About (Mt. Blue High School)” ​https://sites.google.com/a/mtbluersd.org/mt-blue-hs/about

“Farmington, ME.” ​Data USA,​ datausa.io/profile/geo/farmington-me#category_age.

ACS School District Profile 2013-17,​ nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/2311880.

Tableau Public​,

public.tableau.com/profile/maine.department.of.education#!/vizhome/MaineAssessments/

MaineAssessments.