Applicant and School Environment Narrative

I am Bryan Perez a second-year teacher at Mohave Middle School located in Scottsdale,

Arizona. I graduated from the Mary Lou Fulton School of Education at Arizona State University

in the Fall of 2020, but while I was there I also completed 3 semesters in the school of business

before I switched to an education major. While taking these business classes I learned how to

think in very practical, real world situations and how what we learned in class are important

topics that impact our society. So in the first part of my education at Arizona State University I

looked at problems that impacted a lot of different people, like taxes, technological

advancements, and financial crisis, then in the second part focused my attention to a smaller

scale looking at classrooms and individuals, and how I can best help them.

For my philosophy of teaching I believe it is best when students are active in the

classroom, whether it be asking questions during direct instruction, participating in discussions,

or being an active group member. I also think the social climate of a classroom has a large

impact on the success of students in and out of the classroom. Making an environment where

students can make friends and social bonds, are valued for expressing themselves and being who

they are, and valued for the ideas and opinions they bring to a discussion, will truly allow the

students to grow, not only as students but also as people who grow and go through changes in

life. I value seeing the teacher not as a disciplinary and authoritative figure, but as a facilitator

creating the environment necessary for growth; safe place to express oneself, valued for who

they are now, not what they can or might be, and perhaps what I value most is letting students

know they are loved as humans and capable of loving others as this is when people can grow in

all aspects of life, as a learner, friend, leader, teammate it all starts with being accepted and loved

as you are.
 Project-based learning is one way were I believe we can accomplish much of these

aspects in my classroom, although through my internship and my first 2 years of teaching I have

struggled to grasp all the necessary aspects of project-based learning I am confident I know have

the knowledge and plan to carry out an effective project for my students. Through this project

my students will be able to create necessary social connections with their peers and community

members that will help them become confident in who they are facilitating an environment

where they can best grow in all aspects of life. This learning style will also allow for students to

build their knowledge in a way they are not used to and that will be more interesting as they are

now the active participant in the process of learning instead of having me give them instruction.

The final major important piece of project-based learning is that students are addressing an issue

in their community, so they have an investment in the outcome and are more attuned to the finer

details of it. Through this project I also hope to keep integrating technology in my students’

learning as they will continue to be technologically fluent as they progress in life. One of the

most valuable lessons I see my mentor teacher implementing, that I also plan on taking into my

future classroom, is having her students completing simple things with technology, like creating

PowerPoints, taking quizzes, or keeping track of assignments, as these simple tasks still have

profound effects as the students will become more familiar with technology, more willing to use

it, and less afraid of being tasked with a technology-based task in the future.

Looking at the demographics of Scottsdale Unified School District it easy to tell that the

community will most likely have particular needs and problems they want to be addressed.

Looking at the demographics of the community we see that out of the total population of

240,,032, 98.7 percent identify as “one-race”, of this 98.7 percent 90.9 percent identify as white,

1.9 percent as black or African-American, .8 percent as American Indian, 3 percent as Asian,

and of the total population 10.9 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino. So we can se through

these figures that race plays an interesting dynamic where a certain group may feel surrounded

by people different than them where race may be a big factor in their life compared to a large

group who may not pay attention to this dynamic or see race as a big factor in their life. This

same dynamic could also play out in families where about 10 percent of the families in district

are single parent homes. Another important aspect of the community is that 30.3 percent of the

over 25 population has a bachelor’s degree, and only about 20 percent of the population attended

no college, as college is often tough for first generation students these numbers bode well for a

large part of the community. Looking at the income of the community we see that the median

income is 66,743 and the mean income is 105,867, and also where only 7.5 percent of the total

population lives under the poverty line.

After being in the classroom with my students and being in the community more I have

noticed that the contentment that can come from homogeneity of a large group might be the

greatest problem a community like the one I am in may face. So educating the kids on what

happens when a community stagnates is pertinent to creating a successful project where students

understand how important being active in the community is and the great things that can come

from working towards change.