Amanda Nickless

Kendra Vair
EDUC 350
31 March 2016
Setting and Context
District:
Thompson School District is located in Loveland, Colorado. There are a total of fortyfive schools within the district, including early childhood centers. The district encompasses five
middle school and five high schools. The student enrollment for the 2015-2016 school year is
16,053, a slight decline from the previous school year. There are approximately 1,100 teachers
working within the district. In addition to the basic academic programs including: Mathematics,
English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science, students within the high and middle schools
of Thompson School District have access to diverse courses such as: Art, Music, World
Languages (Spanish & French), Computer Literacy, Pre-Engineering, and Consumer Family
Studies. Thompson offers several specialized programs such as Gifted and Talents for students
who present exceptional skill, and summer courses for students who would benefit from this
additional time. Other specialized programs within Thompson include: the International
Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Primary
Years Programme (PYP), a Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics focus (STEM),
and the Loveland area Integrated School of the Arts (LISA). Thompsons mission is to,
Empower to learn, Challenge to achieve, and Inspire to excel. The vision, as stated by the
district website is, The Thompson School District will be a school district that empowers,
challenges and inspires students, faculty, staff, parents, school leaders and community members
to learn, achieve and excel. Thompson also operates a program called Thompson2Life which

gives students tools to prepare for life outside of the district, whether that is at college, in a
career, or in the community.

School:
Conrad Ball Middle School is located within Thompson School District with an
enrollment of 639 students and about 56 teachers. The mission and vision of Conrad Ball, taken
from their website is, Conrad Ball Middle School will transform its academic platform into an
engaging and dynamic learning environment where students take ownership of their learning,
think larger than themselves, persevere through challenges, redefine the use of technology to
enhance connectivity and achievement, and contribute positively to their local and global
community. Conrad Ball is a 1:1 iPad school, meaning that each student is issued his/her own
iPad for each school year. This use of technology is part of an initiative called Next Generation
Learning, which focuses on adapting curriculum to the needs of all students. The initiative
encourages the individual interests, talents and passions of each student to ensure success. In
addition, Conrad Ball adopts Project Based Learning, a form of teaching which focuses on
transferable skills. Students are encouraged to challenge and explore complex questions and
problems that are relevant outside of school. The classes offered at Conrad Ball include:
Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science as well as, Art, Music, World
Languages (Spanish & French), Computer Literacy, Pre-Engineering, Consumer Family Studies.
Conrad Ball has a wide variety of extracurricular activities and sports which include: Art Club,
Math, Engineering & Science Achievement (MESA), Band, BIONIC (Believe it or Not, I Care!),
No Place for Hate (NPFH), Boys Basketball, Orchestra, Brain Bowl, Chess Club, Ski Trips,
Choir, Spelling Bee, Cross Country (Boys & Girls), Student Council (StuCo), Destination

Imagination, Student News, Drama Club, Swimming (Boys & Girls), Geography Bee, T-Birds on
the Run, Girls Basketball, Tech Crew, Improv Comedy Club, Track (Boys & Girls), LEGO
Robotics Club, Volleyball (Girls), Math Counts, Wrestling (Boys), andYearbook & Publications.

Classroom:
My classroom is a dual classroom, with approximately 70 students total. There are two
core teachers: Mrs. Boyle and Mrs. Specht, who also receive help from Ms. Hesse, a learning
center teacher who works with intensive needs students. There are approximately seven students
who enter the classroom after SSR with Ms. Hesse. Although there are two separate rosters, the
students are mixed within the dual classroom, and are all treated as students of both teachers. The
classroom divides occasionally to do more focused work with students groups. The students have
done several projects this semester including: a banned book unit, a researched debate about a
current topic, a book unit exploring Miss Spitfire, and a unit on overcoming disabilities in which
the students had to research and interview famous people with disabilities. The class focuses
heavily on citing evidence (from research and texts), and does an excellent job of incorporating
transferable skills. Overall the classroom is well managed, and the teachers do an excellent job of
managing the larger population of students. Mrs. Boyle often uses non-verbal cues for
management and the classroom has good control. The biggest issue that I have noticed in the
classroom is a lack of motivation. The students often do not complete or hand in work, even
large projects. When discussing with Mrs. Boyle, she has identified this, as well as a lack of
involvement from parents, as the biggest obstacle to student learning.