Nucleous Study

University of Puerto Rico at Humacao English Department

Nucleus Study Juan Ponce de León Jr. High School Humacao, PR Cooperating Teacher: Mrs. Sara Troche

Joany Morales Fiol 842-08-5346 Dr. Aníbal Muñoz Claudio Edpe 4006-001 Practice Teaching Secondary Level February 3, 2014

Table of Contents

I.

Background Information

……………………………………………………1

II.

A. Content

……………………………………………………1

B. Areas of Observation

……………………………………………………2

1. School Organization Chart

……………………………………………………2

2. Curriculum Programs

……………………………………………………3

3. Sport Programs

……………………………………………………4

4. Facilities

……………………………………………………4

5. School Diagram

……………………………………………………5

6. Supervision

……………………………………………………5

7. Personnel

……………………………………………………6

8. Students

……………………………………………………7

III.

Reaction

……………………………………………………8

IV.

Conclusion

……………………………………………………9

V.

Appendix

…………………………………………………..12

1. Appendix A

…………………………………………………..13

2. Appendix B

…………………………………………………..14

I.

Background Information The Juan Ponce de León Bilingual School is located in Humacao PR. The school was constructed 113 years ago. It was once a hospital and also a prison before becoming a school. Because the infrastructure is old, the school have some limitations, most of them technological. The school is part of the Humacao Educational Region and it belongs to Las Piedras District. The Regional Supervisor is Mrs. Awilda Iglesias and the School Superintendent is Mr. Julio Iglesias. The Juan Ponce de León Bilingual School is an Intermediate Level school. It consists of 5 groups per grade, the majority of 25 students. The director is Mrs. Nydia Vega Cintrón. My assigned cooperating teacher is Mrs. Sara Troche. She is a very successful teacher. She has been an English teacher for 14 years and is currently teaching in the afternoons at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao in the English Department. This year Mrs. Sara Troche is teaching the Conversational English class.

My assigned practice group is 7-5. The group consists of 24 students which 14 are females and 10 are males.

II.

A. Content This Nucleus Study contains detailed information on the Juan Ponce de León Bilingual School. The information gathered focuses on the school facilities, the students’ enrollment, the students’ organizations, the teaching personnel, the nonteaching personnel, and the school’s curriculum. The information was gathered with the help of the Secretary Mrs. Nilsa Abrahan, the Special Educational teacher Mrs. Rebecca González, my cooperating teacher Mrs. Sara Troche and the 9th grade

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English teacher Mr. Harry Bonkosky. Other information gathered was by the observations around the facilities of the school by my practice teaching partner Mrs. Ninotchka De JesĂşs and me.

The purpose of this Nucleus Study is to learn what and who can help me facilitate my practice teaching experience. By knowing the personnel, the students and the facilities I would be able to connect my daily lessons with the school community. It will also be useful to know what activities the students are involved in so I can help them build their knowledge upon what they already know. Therefore, I will enhance meaningful learning and make them more interest in the classroom activities. This will also give me the opportunity of immersing myself in the school community and not only in the classroom environment.

B. Areas of Observations 1. School Organization The school has a simple organization. As seen in Figure 1, every group start classes at 8:00 am and finishes at 3:00 pm. Every group has 10 minutes of homeroom where the teacher gives a reflection and important information on school activities. The schedule is sometimes modified to 40 minutes per class, according to any activity such as personnel meetings. This organization is helpful because it gives space to a variety of elective classes; at least two for each grade.

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Period

Hour

Minutes

Homeroom

8:00am – 8:10 am

10 minutes

First Class

8:10 am – 9:00 am

50 minutes

Second Class

9:00 am – 9:50 am

50 minutes

Third Class

9:50 am – 10:40 am

50 minutes

Forth Class

10:40 am – 11:30 am

50 minutes

Lunch Time

11:30 am – 12:30 pm

60 minutes

Fifth Class

12:30 pm – 1:20 pm

50 minutes

Sixth Class

1:20 pm – 2:10 pm

50 minutes

Seventh Class

2:10 pm – 3:00 pm

50 minutes.

FIGURE 1

2. Curriculum Programs The school has a Dual Bilingual Program. This means that the majority of the classes are taught in the English Language. The 60% of the classes are taught in the English Language and the other 40% is taught in the Spanish Language.

The classes that are taught in English are English, Mathematics and Science.

There are also two electives that are taught in the English Language, they are Computer Laboratory and Conversational English. The last one is mandatory due to the Bilingual Program. The classes that are taught in Spanish are Spanish, Social Studies, Health, Physical Education, Domestic Economy, Theater and Industrial Arts. Each grade takes their regular classes and two electives per year.

The school is starting a tutorial program in February in the afternoons. As part of extracurricular activities, the students have a few clubs.

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3. Sports Programs Mr. Wilfredo RodrĂ­guez, the physical education teacher, is the one in charge of all the sport activities in the school such as intramural and extramural activities. The school has teams of volleyball, basketball, bamboo tennis, soccer, chess, table tennis, field tennis and track and field. They have a basketball court at school and they also use the running track of the community which is located in the back of the school. The school has a very honor legacy in terms of the participation of the students in those sports through the years, especially in basketball and volleyball. Students are very engage with the sport program, participating or just supporting the teams.

4. Facilities The school has 5 buildings. The main building has two floors and is where the majority of the classrooms are located. The building is the oldest of the entire school. It has 19 classrooms. The only accesses for the second floor are two stairs, one on each side of the building. There are five bathrooms in the entire school, one for males, one for females, one on the faculty room, one in the lunchroom and one for disabled persons in the special education classroom. The school has a basketball court as the only sport facility in the entire school. There is also a theatre that at the moment is divided in half because the school is lacking of one classroom. The theater is also used as a place for many activities done at school. The school has an administrative office and a faculty room

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situated next to the office. Next to the theater there are two more classrooms. The other building is the lunchroom. It is small but very clean and comfy. The school also has a library which at the moment is closed because the school superintendent didn’t assign any Librarian because there are no funds. There is also a Gazebo in the middle of the school where the students like to be because it is a shading area.

5. School Diagram See Appendix A and B.

6. Supervision The school is supervised by the Director Mrs. Nydia Vega Cintrón. The administrative assistant is Brenda L. Ortiz and the students’ assistance is Margarita Gerena. The school receptionist was sent by the local government and is Nilsa Abraham. There is also a school board. This board consist of the school Director Mrs. Nydia Vega, a representation of the students who is Natasha Sánchez, an representation of the parents who is Salvador Orona, a social worker who is Margarita Gerena (not the school social worker), the president of the school board who is the 9th Grade Spanish teacher Moraima Marquez, there are also two representations of the teacher who are Harry Bonkosky and Wilfred Martínez, and the secretary of the board who is Aimmy García. The school board is the one who regulates the all the activities celebrated in the school and who discuss important information regarding the school environment.

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7. Personnel

Name Janis Lopez Aimmy Garcia Moraima Marquez Lilibeth Ocasio Erika Montes Harry Bonkosky Vanessa Santiago Jorge Caraballo Martha Rivera Noemi Morales Jesus Hernandez Wilfred Martinez Omar Santigo Clodoaldo Kerkado Gamaliel Bajandas Wilfredo Rodriguez Sara Troche Iris Rivera de Jesus Felix Ramos Roberto Cordova Sol Ruiz Naysa Cruz

Teachers Subject Spanish Spanish Spanish English English English Math Math Math Science Science Science Social Studies Social Studies Social Studies Physical Education Conversational English Domestic Economy Industrial Arts Computer Lab Health Theater

Home Group 7-1 8-1 9-1 7-3 8-3 9-3 7-2 8-2 9-2 7-4 8-4 9-4 7-5 8-5 9-5

FIGURE 2

As seen in Figure 2, there are 22 teachers. Of those 22 teachers, 15 are from regular classes and 7 are from elective classes. There are only two educational professionals who are Elvira Ortíz the Social Worker and Rebecca Gonzalez the special educational professional. The school is lacking a counselor and a librarian because they haven’t been assigned yet. The social worker tries to fulfill her duties and the ones of the counselor as much as she can, such as helping the ninth grader with their enrollments in the high schools. The staff is

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composed by the janitors Awilda Bonilla and Vivian Rivera, the security guard Luz I. Surillo and the Technology and Material handyman Misael Álvarez.

Misael Álvarez has been a social study teacher and the librarian for a few years in the school because of its educational preparation, but he has not been assigned for any of those positions this year. The lunchroom employees are Lucía Beltrán, Eileen García, Aida Flecha and Carmen Ortíz as the supervisor.

8. Students As seen in Figure 3, there are a total of 362 students enrolled in the school this academic year. From those students, there are 25 enrolled in the Special Education Program. All the students are accepted in the school by taking an admission test which measures the student’s proficiency in the English language and general aspects of other classes such as Mathematics, Spanish, Science and Social Studies. The students come from different towns of the east side of Puerto Rico. There are students from Humacao, Las Piedras, Yabucoa, Juncos, Fajardo, Naguabo and Carolina. The Director of the school assures that the attendance of the school is very good and thanks to the security policy that no child can be outside of the school in school hours; all the students attend regularly to their classes. Some of the clubs are Club Salud Arte organized by the Health teacher in alliance with the American Red Cross Organization, Club de Trabajo Social organized by the social worker, Guardián de Animales organized by the 7th Grade Spanish teacher and the Healing Hearts organized by the Domestic Economy teacher. Each club serves the community making the students aware of the necessities and leading them to be leaders and to transform our society.

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Students Group 7-1 7-2 7-3 7-4 7-5 8-1 8-2 8-3 8-4 8-5 9-1 9-2 9-3 9-4 9-5 Total

Females 15 16 15 12 14 13 11 13 11 10 14 13 15 17 7 184

Males 10 9 10 11 10 13 15 13 15 15 14 11 13 12 18 178

Total 25 25 25 23 24 26 26 26 26 25 28 24 28 29 25 362

FIGURE 3

III.

Reaction The Juan Ponce de Le贸n Bilingual School is a very good school. It is the only Middle School in Humacao with a Bilingual Program. The majorities of the students have good grades and are engaged in their education. The school promotes many civic activities in which the students work in order to transform their community.

The personnel of the school have guided the school to become one of the best in Humacao. They work with high expectations and they try to challenge the students to become even better.

Even though the Juan Ponce de Le贸n Bilingual School is one of the best, it also has some areas to improve. The facilities were built 113 years ago, that makes the

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school one of the oldest building in Humacao. Therefore the electricity system is antique and it is impossible to make technological improvements. All the students desire to have air conditioning in every classroom but it is impossible. Even though the teachers make their greatest effort in order to integrate technology in the classroom, sometimes the electric power shuts down. Here is where they need more of the integration of the classes with the parents and community. The parents and the community in some cases have helped donating any equipment that will facilitate the students’ knowledge at school. They have donated fans, projectors, desks and many other materials that are important for the learning environment of the students. They can’t improve the facilities that much because of the structure, but the teachers work hard so that all this problems don’t affect the education of the students.

IV.

Conclusion Through this week I have been gathering all the information necessary in order to complete this Nucleus Study. It was hard work going through the classrooms, interviewing part of the personnel and observing every little detail of the school.

This experience helped me understand how important is to know the school I will be teaching. The Juan Ponce de León is no ordinary school. When you look at the facilities it is a regular school, but what makes it different are the students and the personnel. The school counts with excellent students that are tested before being enrolled in the school. This tells us that the school selects the best students. The teachers are amazing. Even though they lack of technologic materials, they are very creative when designing their daily lessons. The teachers don’t lie down waiting for

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the Department of Education to give them the materials they need, they bring their own materials and if the school needs expensive materials they search for sponsors.

This tells me how engaged the personnel is with the education environment. It is a dream for every teacher to work at a school like this. I am honored to be doing my practice teaching at this school because I know I will be able to give my best for the students. I will be challenged because the students are very good in the English Language and therefore the expectations are higher. Other information that is really important to know is in what activities and clubs the students participate. In this school they have clubs that offer services to their community. This creates a sense of leadership in the students that is very important nowadays for the social transformation we crave for. This experience will help me to grow as a professional.

It will also hinder me because I will not experience what happens in the majority of the schools scenarios in Puerto Rico. I know I will be well prepared to overcome any circumstance, but the fact that I will be working with excellent students will affect me when I face with other not to good students that will demand more attention and planning. I am also thankful because I was assigned an excellent cooperating teacher Mrs. Sara Troche. From what I have observed, she is very dedicated to the students.

She participates and helps organized many of the activities of the school. Even though she is really busy, she has welcomed me and helped me in everything that I have needed.

This Nucleus Study will help me develop many activities that I have in mind.

Now I know that I have to request any permission for a field trip, an activity outside the classroom or a color day to raise funds have to be talked with the School Board.

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If I have any problem with a student I should talk to the student’s homeroom teacher and with the Social Worker. If I want to assign the students to look for information I should be aware that the school library is not open and therefore the students should have access to the internet outside of school. All of this situations, I will have to take in consideration in my daily planning. This Nucleus Study is a tool which will facilitate my growth as a teacher and my engagement with the education of my students.

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Appendixes

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APPENDIX A -

School Diagram first floor

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APPENDIX B -

School Diagram second floor

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