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Taryn Geroche
Ms. Alyssa Barnes
EDUC 485B
Teacher Work Sample
13 May 2016

Setting and Context


Conrad Ball Middle School is one of five middle schools in the Thompson School
District in Loveland, CO, but growing up in Loveland I always heard it referred to as Con Ball.
It is home to the Thunderbirds: approximately 650 students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, as
well as nearly 80 staff members. Students at Conrad Ball take math, language arts, social
studies, science, and a variety of elective classes, in which they are taught not just academic
content, but also life skills. This semester I taught three sixth grade math classes at Con Ball.
As a Next-Generation Learning school, Conrad Ball was awarded a grant to provide oneto-one iPad access for all students. Though this comes with challenges, it also allows for
increased use of technology in the classroom for each and every student. The Next-Gen
Learning program also provides a structure for teaching what Con Ball describes as the 8 Habits
of Successful Learners, the main four of which are critical thinking, teamwork/collaboration,
accountability, and grit. Under the newly-implemented Standards Based Instruction and
Standards Based Grading system, students can receive grades that correlate with specific
Colorado Academic Standards, as well as grades that assess the 8 Habits. Finally, teachers at
Con Ball are receiving training on Project-Based Learning as a method of instruction. More and
more classes at Con Ball are learning their content through completing extended, student-led
projects instead of through direct instruction. This allows students the freedom to be creative, to

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work at their own pace, to pursue topics that interest them, and to be responsible for their own
learning.
The demographics of Conrad Ball are fairly typical of a school in Thompson School
District: the population is made up of roughly 65% white/Caucasian students, with 35% of
students identifying as a member of a minority, primarily Hispanic. There are slightly more male
students than female, though it is very close to being half and half. Con Ball does an excellent
job of meeting the academic needs of its students, reaching out to about 50 students in the
English Language Learner program, 75 students identified as Gifted and Talented in a certain
subject area, and nearly 90 students who receive services from the Special Education program. A
surprising statistic to hear is that nearly 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced price
school lunches, indicating that the average income of Con Ball families is not particularly high.
The student to teacher ratio is 19:1, though it is hard to imagine a class of only 19 students a
typical class has anywhere from 24 to 35 students.
Con Ball receives a good amount of support from the community. The most significant
contributions come from a strong PTO, composed of parents of Con Ball students. The PTO
helps to organize fundraisers, sell Con Ball apparel, and host special events for students, all on a
voluntary basis. They support the teachers as well, contributing to Teacher Appreciation Week
and providing home-cooked meals during parent teacher conferences. The school building is
often used by other community organizations, including the Democratic Party for a presidential
caucus, a community basketball outreach for its practices, and a church for all of its Sunday
services. These organizations give back to the school, as well particularly the church, by
providing care packages to show their support for teachers and all that they do. At the end of the
year, Conrad Ball is hosting a new event called the T-Bird Turn Up as a welcoming celebration

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for the incoming sixth graders. This event will also feature the presence of the community,
particularly in the form of area food trucks coming to be a part of the celebration. Con Ball does
not have a particularly high rate of community volunteers in the classroom, but some teachers do
occasionally host community members as guest speakers.
As a member of the staff this semester, I gained knowledge about the schools policies on
various issues. On my first professional day we had a workshop about safe school policies that
included reminders and updates on the protocols for different emergencies at the school. This
training was informative and useful, particularly because later in the semester we did have to go
into a lockdown situation, and all teachers were able to function admirably based on the protocol.
I also learned a lot more about how schools work with students with special needs. One of the
sixth grade team members was a special education teacher, and she was always willing to answer
my questions about special education. I had the opportunity to participate in a 504 meeting, and
to help with several recommendations for students to be tested for special education or to be
looked at through the RTI process. In my class I taught ELL students, many GT students, and a
few special education students, so I was able to collaborate with those specific instructors in
order to create accommodations for those students. Finally, I learned about the schools
management policies mostly through my cooperating teacher. Unfortunately, I did not feel
throughout the semester that there was a lot of support from the administration when it came to
discipline sometimes sending a student to the office resulted in consequences, sometimes it did
not so the result was that I had to learn to do as much of the management as possible inside my
classroom.
In my classroom, the desks were arranged into rows, with each row composed of pairs of
desks. This is my favorite arrangement for desks because it allows student to work with an

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assigned partner when appropriate, but also to face the front of the classroom in order to stay
focused. The room had two lamps, so that when appropriate we could turn off the bright
overhead lights to have a more relaxed environment. The desks face the Promethean Board,
which was used for lessons almost every day, as well as the whiteboards and the document
camera. On the whiteboards each day we would write what is called the DLRVH, standing for
Date, Learning Targets, Reminders, Vocabulary, and Homework. We also usually included the
standards and 8 Habits being addressed that day, and near the end of the semester I added a
category for Movement, to tell the students whether they were allowed to move around the room
or not. This served as our agenda each day, so that the teacher, the student, and anyone who
walks into the classroom knows what is going on that day.
My advanced sixth grade math class, core 1, had 36 students in it, which filled every desk
in the classroom. The other classes had about 25 students, so everyone was able to sit closer to
the front of the room. Especially in my first few weeks, I learned so much about sixth graders.
They cannot sit still! I never would have been able to guess how much time I would need to
spend as a teacher just teaching students about how to function in a classroom to sit in a desk,
to face forward when someone is talking, to stop talking when you are asked. I think some of
these issues could have been reduced if I had presented classroom expectations differently, but
some of them are purely because of the age and developmental level of the students.
In all of my classes, even the advanced class, there were a variety of academic,
emotional, and behavioral abilities present among the students. In each class I had students who
were my rocks, who could always follow directions and work hard. Other students I really
struggled with sometimes, which led to trying a variety of different management techniques.
Early in the semester I tried several different methods of getting the class attention, ranging

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from call and response to flashing the lights. Eventually I decided that I would count down from
five, and if I got to zero I would start counting back up. For each number I had to count back up,
the class had to stay that many minutes late into their passing period or lunch. This method
worked alright, but I would like to come up with something that is more positive instead of
punishing, especially because it would usually be only a few students making the whole class
stay late. For students who were really an issue, we started using sticky note with tally marks for
each of their offenses. At the end of class if a student had tally marks then they owed three
minutes per tally during lunch. When students were truly being a disruption they were sent to sit
in the hallway or in the office.
One of the most encouraging characteristics of the culture of Conrad Ball is the
expectation of collaboration between teachers. The sixth grade teachers in particular form a
high-functioning, smoothly-operating team, which it has been an absolute pleasure to work with.
All teachers at Con Ball are willing to share their ideas, their encouragement, and their time with
others in order to create the most ideal learning experience for the students. This has been a
wonderful school to teach at for this semester.

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Works Cited
Conrad Ball Middle School. Public School Review. Public School Review, 2014. Web. 13
May 2016. <http://www.publicschoolreview.com/conrad-ball-middle-school-profile>.
Enrollment by Demographics. Thompson School District Website. Thompson School District.
Web. 13 May 2016. <http://www.thompsonschools.org/Page/2340>.
Enrollment by Gender, Race and Ethnicity. Thompson School District Website. Thompson
School District. Web. 13 May 2016. <http://www.thompsonschools.org/Page/2339>.

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