Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kathryn Michal - Cfa
Kathryn Michal - Cfa
part of Maine. This town is approximately 45 minutes away from Augusta, which is the
state capital. Farmington is most known for the University of Maine at Farmington,
Nordica Auditorium, and the Farmington Fair. According to the 2020 census the
approximately 2,221. The lowest school population was in G.D. Cushing School and the
largest population was Mt. Blue High School. Looking at the demographics we can see
that there is a median household income of $45,789. However, when we look at the cost
median household value it is approximately $164,800 and the median rent value is $774.
The Franklin Savings Bank is the largest employer in Farmington as well as other towns
around Farmington. The last reported per capita income for Farmington shows that 23.5%
of the population are below the poverty line. There is a drastic difference of earnings
between men and women in Farmington, based on the 2020 median earnings. The men
made a median income of $22,569 while the women made approximately $14,863, that is
landmark is the University of Maine at Farmington. This town was founded on February
1, 1794. This town is home to many hiking trails, historical societies/museums, and
Titcomb Mountain where they offer many different seasonal activities. In the past, there
has been one well-known flood which was called “The April Fools Flood”. The Sandy
River is a vital part of the community because it offers a recreational aspect to the town
campus resources. Some of the buildings that are open to the public are the Fitness and
Recreational Center, Mantor Library, the Olsen Student Center, and the Emery Arts
Center. The fitness center has a full gym, three basketball courts, a track for people to run
on, and a full swimming pool. Mantor Library allows for the community to come in and
check out books, the Olsen Student Center gives the public a way to meet with necessary
staff and the dining hall is open to the public as well. The Emery Arts Center puts on
many art shows, performances, etc. that the Farmington community can view.
Right in town the University of Maine at Farmington offers two- and four-year
programs as well as a Masters program. The most popular undergraduate majors at the
college are Education, Psychology, Business, Health Professions and Related Programs,
Kennebec Valley Community College, Bates College, and Unity College. All of these
colleges (sans Kennebec Valley Community College) offer two- and four-year programs
and a Masters program as well. Kennebec Valley Community College offers a two-year
Looking now at the district information, there are seven different schools in RSU
#9 along with a technical education program and an adult education program which are
located in Mt. Blue High School. The names of these schools are Academy Hill School,
Cape Cod Hill School, Cascade Brook School, G.D. Cushing School, Mt. Blue High
School, Mt. Blue Middle School, and W.G. Mallett School. The name of the technical
education program is Foster Career and Technical Education Center and the adult
education program is called Franklin County Adult Education. The staff to student ratio
in most of the district is 11:1. The average proficiency levels for reading and math are,
30% of students are at least proficient in math and 51% in reading. The average SAT
scores shown is 1150 and the average ACT scores were 29. The accreditation is a high
Some socioeconomic factors can be shown through reduced meals, the population
of the district, and how many students are English Language Learners. In RSU #9
approximately 48.4% of students are eligible to participate in the free and reduced lunch
program. There is an extremely small percentage of students who are English Language
Learners in the whole district which is 1.8% of the district population. Of the district
population there is 48% of the female population and a 52% male population. Of this
group, approximately 94.9% of students are white while only 3.8% are part of the
minority enrollment.
School Building Environmental Contextual Elements:
The school I am currently placed at is Mt. Blue Middle School. The school is
located at 269 Middle St, Farmington, ME 04938 and you can call the office at (207)
778-3511. The school also has a website that gives staff information, the school calendar,
COVID information, etc. and the website is https://www.mtbluersd.org/ms. You can also
access this website through the school district website which is https://www.mtbluersd.org/.
According to the US News, the proficiency levels for middle school are 51% for reading
Mt. Blue Middle School has only one floor. When you walk into the building the
office is right next to the entrance but there are two different offices. In the first office
there are two secretaries and it is where the principal's office is located. In the second
office is where the counselor is located along with another secretary desk. There are
different wings for the grades. Where the offices are located is along with the 6th grade
classrooms and where the location of the special education room is. If you continue
straight from the entrance the first half of the hallway is the 7th grade classrooms. The
library is located right at the next wing where the gymnasium and cafeteria are in the
school building. There are a few conference rooms that are put throughout the school for
different meetings but they are mainly used for IEP meetings.
The average population of the students at Mt. Blue Middle School has 532
students where 49% are female and 51% are male. The minority enrollment at the school
is approximately 4%. The school enrolls 53% of students who are at an economic
disadvantage. There are approximately 40 full-time teachers and only one full-time
counselor. The student to teacher ratio is 13:1, which is the most of the whole district. Of
the 40 teachers, 97% of them are certified and approximately 89% of teachers have
Now we are going to look at the classroom I am located in which is Ms. Brann’s
classroom. When you first walk into the classroom you notice how the desks are set up
with two groups of four desks, one group of six, and one group of five. The students are
given assigned seats but most of the time Ms. Brann stated that if they behave then they
can sit at another desk but they have to stay in their clump. With the desks she used
different desk heights for students and they all have the same blue seats that you usually
see in classroom settings. The classroom has an accent wall which many classrooms use
in order to draw the students attention towards the front of the room.
She has many different posters put up that either have to do with history itself or
geography. She has a cupboard that has her classes computers along with file cabinets
that she puts paperwork in. She puts her book in a shelving unit that is located on the
right side of the classroom when you are standing up front. She uses her whiteboard and
projector when it comes to teaching her lessons. Ms. Brann uses her desk when she is
Now looking at the classroom resources, the available technology they use is a
projector for classes that are made to connect to the staff MacBook’s for the school
computers. Both the students and faculty get MacBooks. The major units of study are
Geography, Government, and Economics. So far I have been able to see the Geography
committees whether it is with families or different teachers. She is also a part of the
Katahdin team of 7th grade teachers which also consists of Mrs. Mochamer who teaches
Language Arts, Mr. Toribio who is in charge of teaching Mathematics, and finally Mr.
Mayo who teaches Science. This team works with Mrs. Greenlaw who is the Special
Education teacher at Mt. Blue Middle School. Brann’s classroom schedule is as follows:
Learning Lab from 7:45 to 8:35, Core #1 which occurs from 8:38 to 9:23, Core #2 from
9:26 to 10:11, she then has a class called Learning Across the Curriculum (LAC) at 10:14
and that goes until 10:54, recess and lunch go from 10:56 to 11:38, she then has a prep
block until 12:20, after her prep there is Core #3 which goes from 12:23 to 1:08, and her
last class is Core #4 which goes until 1:56. Another form of schedule she has to follow is
Late Arrival Wednesday. The only major differences with this schedule is that the
students come in an hour later and that LAC and Core #3 are switched.
Student Characteristics:
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences states that people are not born with all
the types of intelligences. He also proposed that there is one type of intelligence basically
known as a general intelligence and this only looms at the person's cognitive ability rather
than seeing their ability with others. Gardner also stated in his book “Frame of Mind” that
the type of intelligence that a person gets is mostly based on personal experiences and
what their genetic makeup is. For the student survey I decided to do a Multiple
Intelligence Survey for the students to see how many different types of learners there are
in the Katahdin team. My hypothesis was that there were more students who were
bodily-kinesthetic learners than anything else. I also believed that a lot of the students
were Intrapersonal rather than Interpersonal because they like working with others rather
hypothesis of being bodily kinesthetic learners. Being in the classroom and seeing the
students first hand made it easier for me to make the hypothesis because a lot of the
students like activity lessons rather than sitting down and taking notes. We also have a lot
of students who are in different forms of athletics like basketball, wrestling, etc.
About 32% of the students showed me that they were more Visual-Spatial learners,
this percentage was a lot more than I was expecting. I was predicting that more of this
percentage would have been Naturalistic based on what I know about them. I am not
surprised that this was different than what I predicted, however, because we have a lot of
students who like to read graphic novels, draw, and like to use graphics on the computer.
Finally, the last 14% of the class showed that they liked nature-based learning (i.e.
Naturalist intelligence). I have a lot of students who like to work based on understanding
the patterns of living things. They love to explain what they learned in science and we
often talk about how it can apply to social science classes. Since we are on geography for
our current unit, we see these students thriving in class because they can look more into
how different landforms, climate, movement, etc can show different patterns of human
based on these students, approximately 65% of the students had more interpersonal skills
rather than intrapersonal. This statistic follows my hypothesis because one thing the
students love to do is talk and work together. That is why in my lessons I try to let them
do fun activities with partners, if they can be focusing on the task, and I will do more
independent work on more serious projects. With the last 35% of students, I can see why
the percentage is how it is. Many of these students like to keep to themselves or only
Another task I had for the students for the strengths and needs analysis was a
learning style survey. I know that most scientists have shown that learning styles aren’t
viable anymore but I still wanted to see how the students liked to learn. I told the students
to write their names on an index card and tell me how they like to learn. I mostly did this
so I can tailor my lessons to fit all students and make sure they are successful. I am not
surprised to see that most of the students are hands-on learners and like activity based
learning rather than taking notes all the time. As a student, I was also hands-on learning
After learning this I started tailoring my lessons so that they had more of a choice
of activity or taking notes. One example of this is when we did our Zombie Apocalypse
activity and they were able to not only have a writing portion but they also were able to
look at a website which was used like a webquest. They looked at maps and graphs and
had to interpret them and then at the end I had them make a presentation. With the
presentation I let them have creative freedom on how and what they wanted to present on
their location. Some students wanted to present the temperature, climate, etc. while others
focused more on movement and different ways they could travel from the starting
location to their new location. I could see that when the students are given creative
freedom, they made the presentations more tailored to their interests or funny things that
Alum. (2019, March 10). Explore Regional School Unit No. 09. Niche. Retrieved January
11, 2023, from https://www.niche.com/k12/d/regional-school-unit-no-09-me/#students
Farmington, ME. Data USA. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2023, from
https://datausa.io/profile/geo/farmington-me
Katahdin - grade 7. Katahdin | Mt. Blue Middle School. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2023,
from https://www.mtbluersd.org/ms/academics/7th-grade/katahdin
Living in Farmington. Niche. (2021, June 24). Retrieved January 11, 2023, from
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/farmington-franklin-me/#real-estate
Mt Blue Middle School in Maine - U.S. news education. U.S. News. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 11, 2023, from
https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/maine/mt-blue-middle-school-266219
RSU 9: Mt. Blue Regional School District. RSU 9 | Mt. Blue Regional School District.
(n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://www.mtbluersd.org/
Things to do in the area. Town of Farmington, Maine - Things to do. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 11, 2023, from https://www.farmington-maine.org/about-farmington/things-to-do
University of Maine at Farmington Academics & Majors - US News Best ... U.S. News.
(n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2023, from
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-maine-at-farmington-2040/academics