Narrative

My name is Kaylin Stewart and I am currently a 6th grade Language Arts teacher at

Chandler Traditional Academy on the Liberty campus. Presently, I have been teaching for

approximately three years post graduation at Arizona State University. My goal is to move into

teaching 11th-12th grade at Hamilton High School after a few more years of teaching. Currently

I am the facilitator for the curriculum meetings with the other sixth grade teachers. We find time

to discuss ways to implement each type of subject (math, english, science, history), into each of

our projects throughout the school year. It’s important to show the students that everything

correlates with each other no matter what direction they take it in.

Throughout my career, I have established a few principles I strive to follow every school

year which is pushing for my students to want to better themselves not only as learners, but as

beneficial inputs to society. Education isn’t all about the material or the content being learned,

but about the life lessons it teaches the students. From my experience, some of the skills I was

taught in high school and college has guided me into becoming a better version of the teacher I

thought I was going to be. The same goes with the students; the skills I teach them through the

lessons I give, should guide them in the direction that allows them to be successful. And also, we

as humans are always learning and growing regardless of the amount of education provided to

us. We learn from different forms of lessons whether it be life lessons or school related.

As I said before, myself and the other sixth grade teachers have projects throughout the

school year that we create together. Project-based learning is, in my opinion, a very valuable type

of learning, because it allows the students to open up their minds to multiple possibilities,

solutions, questions, etc. The goal is allow creativity while also entrusting that they learn
something from the information they gathered on their own. Also, I strive for student

engagement within and outside the classroom. Without social interaction with their peers, these

students are not working to the best of their abilities. One of the many learning theories is that

having communities of practice helps achieve a growing learning environment. Communities of

practice means having the students work with others who have the same interests or passions and

find ways to learn from each other to grow as individuals. For my projects, I try to make sure

that they are working with small group of 3-4 or with a partner.

Our school is a traditional school which means we don’t necessarily push for technology

integration in our lessons, but it is highly recommended. My lessons don’t normally require a

powerpoint, but because of the many students I receive as well as the different types of learners,

I normally use a projector where I can do my lessons and my students can easily see it. In my

opinion, it is more useful than writing on the whiteboard, because it easily viewed by all

students. Occasionally I will have them do assignments that involve using laptops or that they

must go home and type a written assignment. But as I said, we are a very traditional school so

it’s not very common that we utilize technology frequently.

Demographics

At CTA-Liberty and overall in the Chandler Unified School District, their mission is “​to

empower all students with the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary to excel in college, career

and life” (CUSD80, 2002). CTA-Liberty thrives for growth every school year and highlights the

fact that they are rated an “A school” for their accomplishments. The school supplies various

programs for various types of students such as ELL students, students who have a learning

disability, etc. Also, they provide the students with electives (computer lab, music, physical
education, library) to push for creativity and engagement. The student to teacher ratio is

approximately 20:1 (Great Schools, 2019). Racially/ethnically, the students at the school are

very diverse. A few of the races/ethnicities at the school range from hispanic, asian, african

american, or two or more races. As for genders, it’s almost pretty close with female students

taking up 51% and males 49%. Becaused the school is located in a fairly middle class

neighborhood, the amount of students who are in a low income families is only about 11-13%.

For the project I am proposing, this will be the primary setting in which it will take place.