PBH 586 - Journal #1

Henry Reyes Professor Dipzinski

PBH 586 September 18, 2023

Journal #1

The school that I am visiting is called NYC LAB HS. This school is located in Manhattan NY, in the Chelsea neighborhood. Lab HS is located in District 2 of Manhattan. The district’s vision is to foster socially responsible students who thrive in joyous, supportive, and rigorous learning environments that reflect and embrace the diversity of the district (Vision Statement, n.d.). Lab's mission is built on nourishing each student socially, physically, emotionally, and academically (NYC Lab School, 2017). One of Lab’s focuses is social-emotional learning (SEL). At Lab, social-emotional learning is a community-wide focus that allows for the process of developing social-emotional skills to take part in the school setting. The teachers spend a lot of time and attention making sure that students feel cared for, safe, well-managed, and engaged every day that they are in the classroom (NYC Lab School, 2017).

While Lab HS takes the time to create a safe environment that cares about its students, and the space that they take up as members of the community, research does show a high rate of violence issues within the State, Borough of Manhattan (where Lab HS is located), and at Lab HS itself. In 2019, 10,768 (8.1%) adolescents in New York State reported that they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, more locally, in Manhattan, 1,913 (7.2%) of adolescents reported the same (CDC, 2019). Additionally, 10,589 (21%) of adolescents in NY State reported that they were bullied on school property, and 1,875 (17.4%) of adolescents from the borough of Manhattan reported the same (CDC, 2019). In the year 2019, 10,696 (11%) of adolescents from NYS also reported not going to school because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school. Adolescents from the borough of Manhattan reported the same at 1,898 (8%) (CDC, 2019). Most importantly, in the school year 2019-20, Lab HS reported 3 cases of discrimination, harassment, and bullying, as well as 2 cases of weapons possession in the school building (NYSED, 2019). The research on my site unequivocally shows that violence poses a significant risk to adolescents in the state, the local borough, and Lab HS.

Students at Lab range from both Neurotypicals and Neurodiverse students who all come from diverse backgrounds. The audience that I will be educating is 9th-grade students in a health education class. The students are comprised of gen ed students and students with IEPs & 504 accommodations. Some students might need a laptop due to them having difficulty writing at grade-level speed, or for a host of other reasons. One student in the classroom has a paraprofessional who sits in the classroom with him as part of his IEP. The first few days that I was in the classroom I was mostly shadowing my SBTE to get an understanding of how she operated her classroom. My SBTE has yet to start an actual unit. She likes to use some time at the beginning of the year to foster trust, community, and engagement.

One activity that my SBTE assigned to the students consisted of them having to collect signatures from different people in the class to be part of their different “color” groups. For example, there was a section that read, “Orange partners” and was followed by 2 blank spaces needing to be signed by someone in the class. Below that it read, “Green partners” and this color had 4 blank spaces to be filled, this continued with red, blue, and yellow group options. What I found interesting about this activity was that for my SBTE it served as more than just picking someone to be in your group. For her, it helped her to see who found it easy to go up to someone else they didn’t know and talk to and who found that hard to do. This activity quickly showed the students who were socially strong and the students who might struggle a bit socially. I found this to be interesting because it helped me to see how my SBTE assesses some student's needs with a simple little activity.

Reflecting on my time at Lab so far, the success I have had is being able to connect with my SBTE students. I made sure to not force conversations and to just let the kids know that I was there to support them and make sure that they learned a lot about their health and well-being. A challenge I have had is that I have not asserted myself enough just yet. I do not want to be rude so I want to make sure I follow what my SBTE wants to do. A strategy that I can use to support me with this challenge is that I can just speak to my SBTE so that we are on the same page on how we will both operate in the room as a team. Overall, I am really happy with the time I have been spending in my SBTE classes and I look forward to learning from her and the students. I already feel like I have learned a lot about how to observe kids through different activities in the classroom that do not always involve academic solutions.

References

CDC. (2019). High School YRBS. Retrieved September 20, 2023, from https://nccd.cdc.gov/Y outhonline/App/Results.aspx?TT=J

NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies Student & Family Handbook 2017 - 2018. (2017). Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://www.nyclabschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2018-2019-NYC-Lab-HS-Handbook.pdf

NYSED. (2019). School Safety and the Educational Climate (SSEC). Retrieved September 20, 2023, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/school_safety/school_safety_data_reporting.html

Vision Statement. DISTRICT 2 NYC. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://www.district2nyc.org/.