Emily Rose Skirtich

Understand Student Needs and Create an Action Plan for Student Success

During my student teaching at Hampton Middle School, I sat in on quite a few meetings

with the other teachers on the 7th grade Explorers team.  As a student teacher, I am expected to

sit in on these meetings as a shadow to Mr. Hartman, my cooperating teacher.  Although I am not

expected to contribute during these meetings, there have been quite a few occasions in which the

teachers ask me for feedback on a particular student’s academic performance or behavior in

class.  Since I have been teaching a lot more frequently than at the beginning of the semester, I

have been privy to such observations and the general goings-on in the classroom.

            One of the meetings that I actively participated in was the monthly RtII meeting with Dr.

VanMaele, the Reading Specialist at Hampton Middle School.   Response to Instruction and

Intervention proves to be a crucial element of the school environment, but unfortunately, many

teachers and administrators do not give this team of support all of the assistance and backup that

they need to be effective with students.  This came to the forefront of the discussion when there

was a student who is clearly unprepared for the upcoming PSSA testing that will occur at the end

of March.  Dr. VanMaele suggested taking this student aside during tutorial time as well as

lunchtime to prepare him more feverishly just a once-a-day regimen that he has been working on

for some time.  Unfortunately, the history teacher seemed unwilling to support this move to

improve his academic performance and did not offer to help support in any other way as

proposed by Dr. VanMaele.  Another student who has been quite unresponsive to help with his

academics is also a wrestler, and seems disengaged in all classes and does not demonstrate his

concern for his schoolwork.  Even after being verbally accosted by his coach on his lackluster

grades, he still was on a path to destruction, despite the team’s efforts.  Dr. VanMaele relayed to

the team that his parents did not care that he was getting mostly Ds in class because a D is still
 Emily Rose Skirtich

passing, so it has been a struggle to convince the student otherwise.  These meetings can be

difficult to find solid solutions and have brought me to the conclusion that if not directed

properly, they can drudge up a lot of problems and fail to find any palpable solutions for these

students, and so risk hanging untied for someone else to fix them. This is certainly something

that I hope to avoid and work to diminish as I build my team leadership and teaching career in

the future.