Jessica Worger

Pat Woodward
EDUC 275
11/5/13
Inquiry Project
Dunn International Baccalaureate Elementary School is a place that I have almost
memorized by heart. I work in Dunn twenty hours a week with the students for an After and
Before School Enrichment Program called B.A.S.E Camp. Every day I go to work I walk
through the gymnasium and catch a glimpse of the P.E teacher, Ms. Slaughter, conducting her
lesson. She always has the kids engaged, smiling, and safe, which for me is a very difficult task.
I decided to observe Ms. Slaughters P.E class because she is everything that I would want to be
as a teacher: interactive, fun, compassionate, and stern. By observing her P.E class and asking
Ms. Slaughter questions about education and then interviewing a community member, I was able
to compare and contrast their experiences with education, how they feel schools are working
now, and their hopes and concerns for the future.
Linda Lantieri states in her article that It is not always easy to create true multicultural
experiences for young people (Lantieri, 1), but Dunn does an incredible job of introducing
students to many different cultures. Upon approaching the entrance of Dunn, you are greeted
with a post in the ground saying May Peace Prevail on Earth in English and eight other
languages. As you walk down the hall to the gymnasium, posters saying welcome are
displayed in multiple different languages. There is a trophy case with books and special trinkets
of different cultures. There is a huge world map with pushpins and string indicating which
different countries students are from with a banner saying Dunn, A Global Family. Finally,
the tops of the walls are lined with action stars acknowledging the different community service
projects or fundraisers the students of Dunn have organized. From ones first impression of
Dunn Elementary School, it is clear that this school is passionate about welcoming and accepting
students from all over the world and teaching their students to learn about different cultures. It is
also evident that Dunn prides itself in being a school that is conscious about world issues and
helping others in need. Dunn practices what Banks calls a Social Action Approach to
multicultural integration because the teachers encourage students to solve world problems and
reach out to their community (Banks, 8). These observation all support Dunns mission
statement which is the International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring,
knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world
through intercultural understanding and respect.
My two interviewees, Ms. Slaughter and Mr. Morales are very unique from each other in
educational background, culture, and occupation. Ms. Slaughter is a P.E teacher at Dunn
Elementary school, in her mid-40s, and comes from an upper middle class family. Mr. Morales
on the other hand works for a welding company, is in his late 30s, and is from an economically
lower class family. Mr. Morales moved often with his big family from Texas to Colorado. His
parents moved to the U.S from Mexico and they were not very fluent in English. For a good part
of his primary and secondary education, Mr. Morales lived in the town of Lamar, which is a
small town in southern Colorado with a large Hispanic community. Mr. Morales lived in a small
house with his six brothers and sisters. Mr. Morales said that he came from a town where only a
few of the smartest students or best athletes from high school went on to a university. Many of
the other students ended up staying in Lamar and working for a low wage job while raising a
family.
Mr. Morales was disappointed with the lack of the teachers motivation to help their
students succeed. Most of his teachers simply lectured at the class and had tests based on those
lectures. Mr. Morales wished that his teachers would have worked individually with students
more and offered to give extra help when a student needed it. As an athlete on the football and
baseball team, many times his teachers would allow Mr. Morales to pass their class even though
he was failing. He felt that if teachers had put more responsibility on him and encouraged him
to work harder in classes, he would have been motivated to do better in school. Mr. Morales
thinks that the purpose of schooling is for teachers to encourage students to pursue an education
after high school and strive to obtain a job that interests them. His school was not effective in
accomplishing this purpose because the teachers that he had never made any personal
connections with the students or created opportunities for extracurricular activities. Mr.
Morales was not involved in anything at school other than sports, but he feels if the teachers had
encouraged those activities, he would have been more willing to join.
Ms. Slaughters view on the purpose of education is that schools should teach the
fundamentals like math, English, and reading but they should also do much more to help kids
thrive. She feels that schools have been starting to teach children about hygiene, and good
character which traditionally have been the parents job, but many parents dont have the time
or resources for this, so schools have been helping. She also thinks that the purpose of schools
is to give the students the attention they need and deserve and to encourage them to think
outside of the box. Ms. Slaughters passion for educating students how to live healthy, active,
and compassionate lives shows through her teaching. Each P.E class she had was carefully
planned out considering the age of the students and the theme of that week. I noticed when Ms.
Slaughter was teaching that she treated each student as an individual human being instead of
acting like she was superior to them. She would call students by name and kneel down to their
level when she spoke to an individual. This compassion Ms. Slaughter is what the Dali Lama
calls having a warm heart and a sense of care for one another (Smith, 8).
Having had two sons enrolled in the Poudre School District, Mr. Morales thinks that the
schools in Fort Collins are much more beneficial than the one that he attended in Lamar. Every
week Mr. Morales would get a letter from his sons primary school teachers telling him
homework and what his child was learning. At his school, his parents never received these
letters and were never involved in his schooling. His parents barely spoke English so they were
not able to help him the way the Mr. Morales can help his sons with homework. Mr. Morales
feels that his sons school is very interactive through all the projects and research reports his sons
did. Instead of having teachers lecture at students, the teachers focus more on group work, book
reports, and more interactive types of learning. These teaching techniques are, as Grace C.
Huerta describes, student centered because the students determine their own learning needs, on
the basis of what is relevant to them(Huerta, 39). For the book reports, Mr. Morales sons had
to read a book off a list that their teacher gave to them and then write a paper on that book. The
paper was only half the grade though because the teacher allowed the students to choose how
they wanted to show the teacher that they read and understood a book in a different way. Some
students drew a picture or wrote a poem while others created a clay representation of the book.
Some students chose to perform a puppet show or create a movie to show the class. The students
were allowed to present the knowledge they learned in whatever way best represented them.
These book reports were much more fun and interactive than the assignments Mr. Morales had
been assigned when he went to school. The teachers at the schools in Fort Collins, Mr. Morales
said, genuinely care about their students and they are willing to take time out of their schedules
to give that student extra help or talk to the parents. The teachers dedication to the students is
what Mr. Morales thinks is the most important aspect that the PSD teachers show and that his
teachers did not.
I observed four hours of Ms. Slaughters P.E class at Dunn elementary school. Ms.
Slaughter began with the 3rd graders then with the 5th graders, after them were the 4
th
graders
and finally she ended with the 2nd graders. All four of her classes had the same lesson plan, but
Ms. Slaughter made little changes to her activities or lecture to fit the age group she was working
with. For the 4
th
graders, she set out more difficult activities and did not have to walk through
each one as thoroughly as she did with the younger kids. For the first graders, Ms. Slaughter set
out easier activities and had to supervise more closely during the station rotation. At the
beginning of each class, she would tell her students to sit in front of the white board in their
pods. She asked the students to define balance and different ways that they could keep their
balance. After calling on several students, she ended the discussion with a quick summary. She
asked each pod to go to one of the eight stations and the students performed the challenges at the
station for two minutes. After two minutes, Ms. Slaughter would blow her whistle and the
students moved on to the next station. While the kids were doing different balance activities,
Ms. Slaughter would walk around the room and help kids with their technique or congratulate
them when they did an exercise correctly. After all of the stations, Ms. Slaughter blew her
whistle and asked everyone to sit in front of the whiteboard again. This time she asked her
students which were the hardest/easiest stations and what different ways they kept their balance.
She also asked why it takes muscle strength to keep your balance. After their discussion, Ms.
Slaughter would call two students up that she saw working especially well and rewarded them
with a spirit pin and then the teacher came to pick up their class. Below is a break-down of how
each of her P.E classes.

Ms. Slaughter thinks that compared to the beginning of U.S schooling, schools are doing
much more to help students thrive. Not only are schools teaching students the basics, but they
are also going beyond by teaching health, hygiene, good character, music, art, and social skills.
Ms. Slaughter says that some parents need to work long hours to provide for their family. By the
time they pick their child up from school they might be exhausted mentally and physically so
they do not have the time or energy to teach their child these important topics. Schools are
helping out parents a significant amount by teaching students these skills.
Ms. Slaughter notes that she thinks one of the purposes of schooling is to teach children
how to be healthy and stay active and she demonstrated her purpose through her instruction and
5%
80%
10%
5%
Amount of Time Spent on Activities during a
40 minute Class Period
Pre-activity Discussion
8 Stations
After-activity Discussion
Spirit Pins
relationship-building. The theme of this week was balance. At the beginning of each class she
asked her students to define what they thought balance meant and why balance is important in
everyday life. Through this lesson, kids were able to make a connection with how the exercises
they were about to perform kept them healthy and safe. Ms. Slaughter made sure to go through
each balance station and show the kids the correct form and how to keep safe. Ms. Slaughter
also created a safe environment by using inclusive language and giving the same amount of
attention to each student. She says hello everyone instead of hello guys and she does not
favor one group of students over another. She went around to every station and helped each
child without prejudice. Chapter 4 of Educational Foundations discusses why inclusion and
inclusive language is vital to building a safe community of a class room and Ms. Slaughter
created an inclusive class through a variety of ways (Huerta, 83). She separated groups of
students randomly so that everyone felt included. She also held every student to the same
standard. For example, when one of her boy students and one of her girl students were balancing
on a balance beam, she gave them both the same challenges. If the boy failed but the girl did
not, she would not say something like Jimmy, you let a girl beat you!. Instead, she expected
equal amounts of effort from each and did not use gender stereotypes like the social expectation
that boys should be stronger than girls.
Ms. Slaughter was phenomenal when it came to relationship building. Through being
warm and caring and creating after school opportunities, she became very close with her kids. In
the Heart of Learning article, the Dalai Lama explains that an open heart, a warm heart, will
bring more smiles, more friends, more reliable friends (Smith, 7) and I feel that every student in
Ms. Slaughters class sees her not only as a teacher but also as a friend. She listened carefully to
each student and made them feel like their opinion mattered and the love her students felt for her
showed during her class. At least every minute there was a student yelling, Ms. Slaughter
watch me or Ms. Slaughter I can do it. They were constantly seeking her attention and every
time they did an activity correctly, Ms. Slaughter would give them enthusiastic praise, such as
exclaiming Wow! or Great Job! or I knew you could do it!. The kids loved showing Ms.
Slaughter their new skills because they knew she would acknowledge and congratulate them.
Two ways that Ms. Slaughter builds relationships outside of the classroom were through
Fleet Feet and the Second Grade Health Presentation. For Fleet Feet, Ms. Slaughter takes two
hours of her time after school every Thursday to supervise and encourage kids to run laps around
the soccer fields. For every mile they complete, Ms. Slaughter rewards the children with a
plastic foot that they can put onto a necklace. These plastic feet are equivalent to gold at the
elementary school. Every day kids will show off how many feet they have on their necklace.
The Second Grade Health Presentation is also a way that Ms. Slaughter builds relationships with
the kids. For one week a year after school, Ms. Slaughter teaches the second graders about living
healthy lives and they create a show for their parents. Through these activities Ms. Slaughter
finds fun ways to incorporate health and exercise into the lives of the kids. Also, in her lessons
in and out of school, Ms. Slaughter practices a holistic curriculum by using the balance of
qualitative/quantitative learning, imagination/rationality, and group/individual activities (Miller,
11). At the beginning of the class, Ms. Slaughter had a discussion about different ways you
could tell how good your balance was. She gave one example of counting how many seconds
you could balance on one foot or counting how many feet you could jump which would involve
quantitative learning. Another way to determine balance, she explained, was trying to balance
on the balance beam without falling or rating how fluently you could jump and spin in a circle
which would be qualitative learning. During her class about balance, there were opportunities
for students to work on individual balance activities like the balance beam but there were also
opportunities for students to do group like the balance skis. Using different types of teaching
and allowing children to learn in different ways helps the kids find out how they learn best.
Mr. Morales is concerned for kids that have the same situation he had growing up. He
feels that some schools in impoverished areas have a major disadvantage to schools in places like
the PSD because they sometimes dont have many resources, involved parents, or motivated
teachers. He was disappointed with his schooling because his teachers and parents never held
him up to a high standard and did not offer him the attention or encouragement that he needed.
He does have a lot of hope for the future though. He feels that the Poudre School District helped
his sons be successful because the schools reached out to parents and gave parents a way to be
active in their childrens school life.
Ms. Slaughter is concerned about the current distrust parents and administrators have in
teachers. She says that teachers are professionals; they have a college education, years of
experience, and a passion for teaching. When parents accuse teachers of not knowing what they
are doing or blaming teachers, this hurts Ms. Slaughter deeply. Ms. Slaughter feels that parents
are sometimes too quick on blaming teachers for a conflict or problem with their child instead of
listening to the teachers side of the story. Ms. Slaughter also said that in this present day we
are expected to do more with less meaning that teachers are given larger classroom sizes,
specific curriculum, and games that may or may not work with their specific class. She believes
that the government should not be running the classroom, instead teachers should be running
classrooms since they understand the unique circumstances of their students. Ms. Slaughter feels
that standardized testing is putting immense pressure on teachers and that teachers should worry
less about numbers and more about their kids. In the future Ms. Slaughter hopes that parents will
be able to put more trust in teachers and know that teachers have the best intentions. She also
hopes to see class sizes reduced to 12-14 students or a permanent assistant put in each class so
teachers have more individual time with their students.
Although Ms. Slaughter and Mr. Morales come from very different educational
backgrounds and upbringing, they both agree that quality schools are enormously important to
our nation. Their unique experiences with education, feelings about how schools are currently
working, and their hopes and concerns for the future, are valuable in assessing the effectiveness
of schools today. From speaking with these two diverse individuals, I am able to create a
broader understanding of the purpose and effectiveness of schools. Two main points that I have
learned from my observation and interviews are that teachers must have an open heart and a
desire to help students thrive even if it means taking time out of their busy schedule. Also,
building relationships with students and parents outside of the classroom through extracurricular
activities and simply more conversations with parents and students can help students in
unimaginable ways. I now have a better understanding of what my role as a teacher will be
through listening to the experiences and thoughts of my two interviewees.




















Works Cited
Banks, James A., and Cherry A. McGee. Banks. "Approaches to Multicultural Reform."
Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1989. N.
pag. Print.
Glazer, Steven, and Huston Smith. The Heart of Learning: Spirituality in Education. New York:
J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999. Print.
Huerta, Grace. Chapter 4: Equity and Educational Practice. Educational Foundations: Diverse
Histories Diverse Perspectives. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2009. 5-26. Print.
Lantieri, Linda, and Janet Patti. Valuing Diversity: Creating inclusive schools and
communities. Waging Peace in Our Schools. Boston: Beacon, 1996. Print.
Miller, John P. Holistic Curriculum: The Why and What. Toronto: OSIE, 2007. Print.