K9 K12 in the Field

Clay County

The Field Experience Project that I participated over this course has enlightened me in many ways. Having a different perspective as an observer was a very valuable way of examining the teaching environment. The purpose of this essay is to summarize my experience as an interviewer and observer at the Clay County High School in Clay, WV. This essay will first give some background on the circumstances of my situation before capturing some specific items that occurred while I was there.

After describing some of the background information about the school, I will then give an account of my experiences at the school. I will describe the details about my activities and interactions while I was present as an observer. The final part of the essay will discuss some of my specific observations about culture and how culture affected the school that I observed.

Background

Clay County High School is located in Clay, West Virginia. Clay is located in central West Virginia and is an extremely rural town. Clay has less than 500 total population covering almost 900 square miles. Clay County High School attracts children all across Clay county and their total student population totaled 625 students.

The school is nearly all white in terms of ethnic background with less than ten minority students in the entire school. Clay County is considered to be one of the more economically challenged places throughout the state and this socio-economic status carries over into the high school and educational system as well.

There are 41 full time teachers that teach at Clay County High School making the teacher/student ration 1:15. The high school servers grades 9-12. The principal of the high school is Melinda R. Issacs and the Assistant Principle is Nada Waddell. Clay County High School is the only high school available for the surrounding area which gives the school its robust size. There are 157 students enrolled in 9th grade, 170 students enrolled in 10th grade, 146 students enrolled in 11th grade and 150 enrolled seniors.

The student population is 48% male and 52% female. 1% of the school's enrollment is black or African-American. There are not Hispanics enrolled and less than .4% of the population is of Asian ethnicity. 61% of the student body can be classified as economically disadvantaged. 12% of the students are on a reduced-price lunch program and 48% or nearly half of the school is on the free-lunch program.

Clay County High School is part of the Clay County School System. This system consists of 5 elementary schools that feed into the high school. Clay County High School offers many extracurricular activities and sports. Their band marching band is very popular in the area along with many of their sports teams. Clay County High School was recently named by U.S. News and World Report as one of "America's Best High Schools."

My Experience At Clay County High School

My goals while observing at Clay County was to take in as much information as possible without trying to judge too much. I wanted to create a blank slate and just soak in what I could due to the limited time I was exposed to the school. I also wanted to interview as many people as possible and sit in as many classes meetings and activities as I could fit into my schedule. I took down as much as I could to reference my activities for future use and learning.

Before starting this program I composed five interview questions that I thought would give me a general overview of my interviewee's attitudes towards the school and the school's culture. I devised the following questionnaire:

1. Why did you decide to become involved in education?

2. What is your biggest professional success?

3. What is your biggest professional mistake?

4. What do you like best about your job?

5. What do you like least about your job?

During my time at Clay County High School I had a chance to interview both the principal, Ms. Iassacs, the Assistant Principal, Ms. Waddell and three other teachers. I was available to sit in on three of Ms. Issacs' faculty meetings which provided me great access to how administrators and teachers interact in a real world situation.

I also had a chance to talk and interview some of the students. These interviews were informal but very informative. Many of the classes that I had a chance to sit in on were very informative and revealed how much has changed since I was last in that position. I was always treated with much respect and kindness during my time spent at Clay County High School and found the experience to be both enlightening and entertaining.

Cultural Analysis

Some literature has been written about culture and schooling. It has been expressed that "a school's culture has far more influence on life and learning in the schoolhouse than the president of the country, the state department of education, the superintendent, the school board, or even the principal, teachers, and parents can ever have." Clay County High School's culture, in my judgment, plays a significant part in how these students are learning.

The Clay County High School is very close knit and uniform in many different aspects. The principal of the school demonstrated much leadership in both her actions and her words as she constantly spoke in terms of school spirit and a unified front. One of the many unique things about Clay County's school spirit is the ability for the faculty to speak in terms of Panther "this" or Panther "that." The panther as the school mascot serves as a redeeming and useful qualitative tool to help foster the sense of groupthink and bring those closer together.

The school dress code is relaxed but not abused, in my opinion. Students are not allowed to wear certain items but only on rare occasions did an infraction of these rule occur during my time spent at Clay County High School. It appeared that most of the students were not trying to stick out in anyway and a cultural front was very noticeable and strong.

Clay County High School both benefits and suffers from its rural culture and its limited access to the minority experience. Other cultures are not necessarily ignored in this environment, but they are experienced second hand from media sources that reduces the human quality to culture and focuses more on the destructive or combative impulses that reside in cultural misunderstandings.