I am currently a teacher intern at Drew Charter Schools Junior Academy (6-8) and I am student teaching 7th grade science. Since Drew is a STEAM school, they start 5 days earlier than the other schools in Atlanta Public Schools (APS) as well as receive additional funding. The racial demographics are 71.8% black, 20.6% white, 4.2% multi-racial, and etc. Since Drew is a public charter school, there is no tuition and admission is based on a lottery. The lottery prioritizes students in the community of East Lake before anybody else as well as students of Drew faculty and staff, and students who are already apart of Drew. Most of the students are walkers and the rest are car riders. Drew's lottery system inherently creates a community within Drew Charter Schools because most of the students were selected based on similar circumstances.

        When it comes to the classrooms, each class can vary in size but 7th grade science is between 20-35 students. The classes can get big but that's because there's only one science teacher. So all students have to come to her. 7th grade doesn't really have teams but there are different math and English teachers that students go to. All students go to the same science and social studies teacher. 7th graders are generally 11 or 12 years of age but there are some outliers in 7th grade in terms of age. When it comes to accommodations, Drew is excellent! For the 14.1% of students that require special needs, they have co-teachers that assist the teacher with SWD as well as one-on-one education professionals to even further assist certain students requiring it. Drew's college and career readiness score was 84.4 which is really good. 43% of the school's population is economically disadvantaged. There are some English learners at Drew but I there are none in 7th grade currently.

        When it comes to the culture of the school, Drew lives and breathes equity, diversity, unity, and creativity. There's an abundance of art around the school which I believe is a very healthy way to encourage students to be creative and artistic. The head of school, Peter Mcknight, believes that every student has an equal right to quality resources and materials when it comes to the advancement of their education. He interacts closely with the kids in the hallway and even eats lunch with them every day. He even rides his bike to school alongside the students. The culture of the school is heavily influenced by the community. All of the students have at least 3 things in common: They live in the Villages of East Lake, they have siblings who go to Drew as well, or they've been at Drew since elementary school. These commonalities really set Drew's culture apart from other schools. Something else that is very unique about Drew Charter Schools is that they offer such a wide variety of unique elective courses such as harp, biking, social justice, study skills, and photography. These courses give students the opportunity to develop skills in a way that can be beneficial to their future. Without some of these electives, students wouldn't have been exposed to some of these things. In terms of the interactions between teachers and students, it is very down to Earth and organic. A boundary is definitely there but the students know that all teachers only want the best for them. Especially in 7th grade, there is a close-knit community of the teachers and they work together constantly to get through the day. I noticed that they are constantly communicating with each other which I really commend them on. Outside of meetings and talking in person, they are sending updates and reminders to each other throughout the day in our group chat.

        When it comes to the academic side of teaching, science is not a high stakes subject. Therefore, there is a huge weight that is not on science educators. This lack of strain makes science one of the most stress-free subjects to teach. In terms of the actual curriculum, 7th grade talks about life science. We have textbooks but the students don't use them. However, I or my MT may use it as a reference for information but other than that, a lot of instruction includes slides, worksheets, verbal teaching, technological platforms, and full body listening. A lot of Google platforms are used such as Google Classroom, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Keep, and etc. These platforms as well as others such as Moby Max and Canva are all used to aid in student success. Technology is also an important aspect of Drew. In order to maintain their STEAM certification, they must intentionally integrate project-based learning (PBL) into the curriculum. Therefore, after 2nd period, there is a class called PBL/STEAM where students go to their homeroom and are assigned a STEAM project. The main requirements are that it must include science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). It is not a graded assignment but students are still expected to complete the project and sometimes even present it.

        In terms of my mentor teacher (MT), she has been teaching for over 25 years and is an amazing educator and mentor. She is also an Academic Instructional Specialist (AIS). This is basically the team leader for 7th grade. Therefore, she conducts all the grade level meetings and goes over planning with the 7th grade teachers. Her leadership and transparency inspires me to become a great leader such as herself. She values communication, engagement, learning for understanding, and equity. These ideologies that I have observed from my MT are what I believe to be directly correlated with her extensive educational experience. She effortlessly maneuvers her lessons in a way that is accommodating to the students she is teaching depending on the classes' general level of information processing. She makes her lessons relevant and puts her students into science. This makes them feel like their learning is relevant and applicable to them. I really like this about my MT because I am seeing her work from a teacher perspective as well as a student perspective. As a teacher intern, it is vital for me to experience both sides to better my understanding of teaching in the context of my students. I think something I dislike about my MT's practice as well as other educational professionals' practice is their educational language to describe a student based on their behavior. Language matters and believe it or not, whether or not they hear it directly, students can feel when they are targeted or labeled as "bad." This is harmful for the child and can make them feel othered and helpless, leading them to act in the role as how they've been described and perceived. 

        I believe that students should not feel othered or helpless because of their behavior. Being othered may be out of my control but being helpless is my direct responsibility to prevent. As an educator, I will stay aware of the harm language can have on a students' development and refrain from talking about a student in a negative way beyond any negative actions they may have done. I will be an abolitionist teacher who goes against the grain of harmful traditional teaching practices. Every student has the right to a quality education and I will always be sure to make that known. No child should be limited or restricted access to quality resources. As I progress in education, I will be sure to model a framework of equity and center my pedagogy around communication, engagement, equity, and respect. This will guide me in being the best educator I can be. As for my MT, I will continue to learn from her and acquire knowledge in order to form my own philosophy on teaching and education as a whole.