I was able to obtain a wealth of knowledge about Greeley Central High School

(GCHS) through my interviews with various staff members. While many of their
opinions about my questions were similar, some very good points did come up. This
was a great opportunity to learn the history and culture of the school that I am very
quickly becoming attached too.
Greeley is a great little town about an hour north of Denver. The town is just
under 100,000 people. The demographic break down of Greeley is as follows: 56%
white, 36% Hispanic, 2% black, 1% Native American, and 1% Asian. The average
income in the community is just over 44,000 dollars. It is estimated that about 16%
of the community is under the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 7%. 84% of
Greeley residents completed a high school education or higher, with 29%
completing a Bachelors degree or higher. All of these factors are playing a role into
the demographics of the schools in the area and are effecting how we as teachers
do our everyday jobs.
GCHS has a long and rich history in the Greeley area. The school itself dates
back to 1880, with a first graduating class consisting of five students. Fast
forwarding over one hundred years many things have changed for the school. The
location, name, and mascot have all changed over the years. The school is
commonly known to the community as The Castle and is a very well-known fixture
of the Greeley area. There is great pride in being a member of The Castle and you
can feel this pride throughout the building.
This school has a very diverse population even compared to the other
Greeley schools. The total student population is just under 1,500 students with the

following breakdown: 63% Hispanic, 31% White, 2% Black, 1% Asian. All other
groups are less than one percent. There are 27 different languages spoken at the
school. By working with such a large and diverse group of students you are always
on your toes as a teacher. The impact that language barriers can have on you as a
teacher at this school is huge. You are always trying to explain things to students in
a way so that a student that only speaks Spanish and a student that speaks Somali
can both understand you. As a teacher you are pulling out all the stops with
teaching strategies that can help English language learners at GCHS.
The diversity of the school does affect other aspects of school life at GCHS.
Their free and reduced lunches at the school is around 65%. This shows that many
of the students are affected by low socioeconomic status. Because of this you may
have parents that are working two or three jobs, students may only have good
relationships at school or the only meals they get are at school. I have had a
student tell me that they do not like it when we have weekends because they do not
like being at home. Hearing this one of your first weeks in school truly breaks your
heart. Everyone that I talked to said that parent involvement at the school is
minimal at best. It is thought that this is mainly because parents do not have time
or money to be involved with the school. Academically, even the community does
not support the school much. Some of the teachers did make the comment to me
that there is a shift taking place in the communitys support of athletics at the
school. This impacts us as teachers because even if we call home, or talk to parents
there may not be much help from home for students that need a push.
This lack of support does not stop the teachers or students from supporting
each other. There are many programs at the school to help students succeed in life
and school. There is AVID, GT, Graduation Intervention, Student Recovery Program

(SRP), Dream Team (college prep program). All these programs got great
compliments from the staff. They are all very well run programs that everyone feels
are providing great opportunities for the students. The support does not just stop
there for the students. There are many achievement nights to highlight student
work. There are award ceremonies for: Avid awards, Scholar awards, there is an
Excellence assembly during school, Arts week where tons of art is displayed for
students to see their peers work. There are also bulletin boards everywhere for
student work. While there is not much outside support one can see that the culture
of the school makes up for that lack by supporting themselves. Teachers and
students alike take all these very seriously at The Castle and come out to support
each other.
Staff did not respond well when questioned about state laws and evaluations.
Some felt that state laws are only there to get funding from the Federal
government. This included the negative thoughts about 50/50 evaluations. They all
felt that they are putting so much time and effort into helping a tough student
population and yet their hands are tied in many ways. Administration is so swamped
that evaluations maybe 10-15mins of observation, but this is done with little to no
follow up to help the teachers improve. This was the biggest frustration to many of
them. They want to be better, but get no feedback.
While no school is perfect, GCHS takes things in stride and everyone is here
to support each other. The saying once a wildcat always a wildcat is something
that is not taken lightly at the school and it is something that all students
understand and respect. There are many uphill battles occurring at the school, but
the culture of the school does support itself and everyone finds a way to help each
other. With a motto of PRIDE * CLASS* DIGNITY, GCHS is a great community that is

doing everything they can to impact their students. Everyone is a family at this
school and their motto really means something to every student that passes
through their halls.
There is one class in particular that I will be looking much more closely at
throughout this semester. This class is my third block class, which I feel accurately
represents the average class at GCHS. The class is a very diverse group of kids
there are 18 Hispanic students, 1 Black, 1 Asian and 13 White students. The gender
break down is 13 males and 20 females. There are also 12 ELL students one of
which has no English language proficiency. There are also five that participate in the
student recovery program which works closely with at risk Hispanic males to try and
get them through school and into good jobs. I also have two students with medical
conditions one has a bee sting allergy and the other has Diabetes. While there are
no IEPs in this class that does not mean that these kids do not have special needs.
Obviously if a students does not speak the language then I have to modify lessons
so that student still understands the lesson even with a language barrier. With such
a diverse group of students in this class I am really looking forward to working
closely with them during the semester and reporting my findings as part of a
teacher work sample highlighting them as a class.