Setting & Context

Josh George

For my EDUC 350 experience I had the pleasure of working at Conrad Ball
Middle School in the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado. To get an idea
of my experience at Conrad Ball Middle School a description of the setting and
context of my work is necessary to understand my full experience in EDUC 350. To
begin I need to describe the Thompson School District briefly to provide an idea of
the context of my experience. Thompson School District is located in Loveland, CO
and has a total of 32 K-12 schools that include 20 Elementary schools, 5 Middle
schools, 5 High schools, and 2 Charter schools. The district is also home to 13 early
childhood centers for pre-kindergarten students. Thompson School District is the
17th largest school district in Colorado and is the largest employer in the Loveland
and Berthoud areas with a total of 16,145 students enrolled in the 2014-15 school
year. Thompson School District also offers a number of specialty programs that
include the IB program, STEM, LISA, and LEAP programs. The diversity of the
student body is 75.2% Caucasian, 19.7% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian, 1.1% African
American, 0.5% Native American, 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 2.1
with two or more races. The mission of Thompson School District is to Empower to
learn, Challenge to achieve, and Inspire to excel through robust faculty, staff,
and teachers and active community outreach. To delve further into my experience a
closer look at Conrad Ball Middle School is needed.
Conrad Ball Middle School is located in central Loveland and with 682
students that strives to prepare every student for success in high school and
beyond. Being that Conrad Ball Middle School is centrally located it gets a wide
variety of students and sees a lot of transient students and McKinney-Vento eligible
students. Additionally, Conrad Ball Middle School has a population with about 48%
on free and reduced lunches. Conrad Ball Middle School is home to a number of

Setting & Context

Josh George

extracurricular activities that range from Jazz Band, Ski Club, Vex Robotics, Chess
Club, Drama Club, and Principals Academy that offers support and guidance for
struggling students for math and reading. They also participate in SSR which stand
for Silent Sustained Reading where students are required to read at least 45
minutes every day to hone and broaden their literary skills. What is unique about
Conrad Ball Middle School versus other schools in the country is that it has a one to
one IPad system in place so that not only students but teachers can benefit from the
use of technology on a daily basis. This integration of technology allows students to
have learning at their fingertips and prepare them for the ever growing use of
technology in our everyday lives in the real world. Conrad Ball Middle School also
participates in all sports offered in Middle School that includes Girls and Boys
Basketball, Swimming, Cross Country, Track, Girls Volleyball, and Boys Wrestling.
Now with a good idea as to the setting and context of Conrad Ball Middle School in
order to really get at and illustrate the uniqueness of my experience it is necessary
to discuss the classroom setting itself.
At Conrad Ball Middle School I was teamed up with another EDUC 350 student
into Mr. David Popps 6th grade Social Studies class. In the classroom there is a
pretty good mix of girls and boys that is close to 50:50 with slightly more girls in the
class. As the demographics of the Thompson School District indicates the classroom
is primarily Caucasian students but also has two African American students, one
Indian, and about 5 or 6 Hispanic students. In the classroom there are no paras or
other special education teachers in the classroom during the period I sit in on,
however there are students that have a 504 plan and need special assistance at
times with reading and other assignments. The overall climate and setting in the
class begins with the lights off, which means to wait in the hall until Mr. Popp turns

Setting & Context

Josh George

them on to welcome the students into the classroom where they instantly are
expected to begin the Do Now that is written on the board. The desks are arranged
in a matter that brings their attention toward the front of the class where either a
lecture/lesson begins and but still enable Mr. Popp to circulate the room with ease
and students can still track him as he moves about the room. The climate of Mr.
Popps 6th grade class is no-nonsense and keeping the students in SLATE. However,
he keeps the morale and enthusiasm up during work time to build relationships with
the students while keeping his teachers edge through a strong voice and classroom
management skills. Most days the class ends by Mr. Popp wrapping up the lesson
and rewarding those students that have cleaned up their area, are sitting in their
desk and are not talking to those around them by letting them leave first and
making those that havent met those standards to re-evaluate their situation and
correct it before they go. This is the case if there wasnt Ticket Out the Door (TOD)
that day in which they would leave upon finishing their TOD for that day.