EIR Weekly Reflection - Week 2

Describe your school community. How is it similar to what you expected? How is it different?

My school community is the same as I expected, while at the same time being different. My expectations for Wood Hill came from the attitudes and behaviors that came from them while they were at Kieve. On the whole, they were good, well behaved kids that might need some extra TLC. This trend has continued to be true for the first two weeks of my EIR. The students are still well behaved, but as I am learning more about the backgrounds of the students, I am learning that a lot of them have unfortunate home lives or family structures with missing parents. This leads me to believe that the teachers work very hard to make school a safe and comfortable place for those needy students.

Wood Hill’s community is different from what I expected because I am from a very non-diverse state and background. It was refreshing to see the diversity at Wood Hill compared to rural schools in midcoast Maine that I am used to.

Additionally, the school community is different in terms of student effort and engagement. While at Kieve, some of the groups were challenging to engage and have full participation. I attributed that to being out of their comfort zone, with students they don’t normally talk to, and in a new environment. I figured that this would change when they returned to school and I say them on their own turf. It turns out that the students are like that at school with their teachers and in classes as well: Not engaged, not participating, minimal effort. I hope to get them engaged in their advisory groups during Flex and Crew once I make a deeper relationship with the students.