Hermosa Middle School Observation Report

I have had the opportunity to go to two middle schools due to moving locations. This paper is going to be based on my experiences at Hermosa Middle School in Farmington, New Mexico. Since, this where I started caring more about my education and I can relate more to this placement. To begin with, Hermosa Middle School serves grade from 6th-8th. The demographic in this school is about 42% Caucasian, 31% Hispanic, 23% Native-American, 2% Asian, and 2% African-American. Notice, that there is a high population of Hispanics, I believe that this is why I started to be more involve at school. Prior to moving to Farmington, New Mexico; I lived and attended a junior high school in Huntington, Utah where 5% were Hispanic. I can honestly state, “That Hermosa Middle School is a contemporary developmentally responsive middle schools”. I quote this because I can point out the differences between what both schools had offered me as a student.
As chapter one state in the text, “Early junior high school programs focused on enriched academic program for college bound students and vocational program for students”. I feel that my middle school did the same me, since many of the
classes that I took were for my interest. For example, I took drafting, shop class, and building trades. All of these classes exploited my curiosity of exploring more. In addition, this middle school had a large population of Hispanics, so I feel that many of the teachers were prepared for this culture experiences. I remember doing many activities where the Hispanic culture was combined to the lesson.
In my opinion, I my middle school was an advocate because I remember getting pulled into the counselor office many times.
The counselor would explicitly tell me that I could achieve many things. He always told me, “Humberto, you my friend have a niche and that niche is math. Do something with it!” At the time I did not understand what he meant; however, over time I came to understand what my “niche” was. I think that getting to know the students is best practices because it really makes them feel important. Moving on, my school participated it this career simulator where every student had a job and an annually salary. The jobs were picked at random and I remember getting a not so great job. To be honest, this simulator made me realize how important education is and why it is important to participate be
someone.
Overall, I cannot say anything negative about my middle school experiences because I think I learn more there then anywhere else. I had a family that made me grow more as a person and really made me think things thoroughly. The questions were developmentally appropriate for me. The guidance and support were immense. In specific, the job simulator that made me realize the qualities that I was made up of. Not to forget those talks that my counselor had for me. In addition to all these elements that made my middle school a contemporary developmentally responsive school, I believe that having those classes that offer more than academics such as shop and building trades. Prepare students more for the real world. I still remember being in shop class and learning about the importance of safety on tools. Better yet, I still remember how to proper fold the power cords on electronic tools. These are skills that I still use today. Another example, is learning calculus in drafting class. I had no idea that drafting was actually preparing me for calculus because many of the perspective drawings I had to draft had be view the object at a different angle and calculate the missing measurements. So, I can say that all of there factors made my middle school a contemporary developmentally responsive school as stated in chapter one of the text.