Judi+Dadashev

=**Phase I**= **Culture** ¢ The Village of Fox Point is a suburban residential community of 2.8 square miles and approximately 6,803 residents. Officially incorporated in 1926, the Village's name derives from a Dutch settlement that was originally located in the area. Located on Milwaukee County's North Shore, the Village is bordered on the east by Lake Michigan, the west by Interstate 43, the north by the Village of Bayside, and the south by the Village of Whitefish Bay. ¢ Fox Point is a stable community of quiet tree-lined lanes and wooded areas, beautiful ravines, and stunning Lake Michigan vistas. Residents enjoy top-notch schools, high quality Village services, a wide range of housing options, a variety of local businesses to serve their needs, and a convenient location to downtown Milwaukee. ¢ The Village is committed to protecting and enhancing residential quality of life, and to maintaining its tradition of high quality municipal services and amenities in order to preserve a community that is tranquil, secure, and attractive and desirable. **MISSION STATEMENT** ¢ The mission of the Village of Fox Point is to protect and enhance the quality of life of its residents by providing cost-effective, efficient and innovative services, preserving and maintaining Village neighborhoods and public amenities, fostering community pride and spirit, and encouraging active citizen participation.
 * By Judi Dadashev**

**Rating** ¢ Fox Point's Stormonth Elementary School serves grades PK-4 in the Fox Point J2 School District. It is among the few public schools in Wisconsin to receive a distinguished GreatSchools Rating of **9** out of 10. ¢ This school has an average Parent Rating of 5 out of 5 stars, based on reviews from 10 parents. ¢ Stormonth School's curriculum is designed to challenge the above average learner and provide rich opportunities to learn in a supportive environment. Our programs emphasize problem solving, reasoning, integrating and communicating knowledge. Our students have excelled with a history of high test scores. ¢ Stormonth School features a learning environment that is safe, nurturing and stimulating. Small class sizes and highly qualified, master teachers make the classroom conducive to learning. Each student is involved. The teachers provide enriching and imaginative experiences that stretch each student's talents. ¢ Stormonth School teaches more than academics. We teach values. Our school themes emphasize characteristics such as respect, fairness, responsibility, tolerance, honesty and citizenship. A variety of special programs provide students with real world applications that go beyond the classroom, while our curriculum emphasizes character education. Through a strong sense of ethical values, we help prepare students to be successful, meaningful contributors to society.

**District Profile Welcome to the Fox Point-Bayside School District Website**

¢ The Fox Point-Bayside School District serves students in four-year-old kindergarten through eighth grade. Current enrollment is approximately 950 students with 550 students attending Stormonth Elementary School located at 7301 N. Longacre Road in the Village of Fox Point and 400 students attending Bayside Middle School at 601 Ellsworth Lane in the Village of Bayside. ¢ Our District Mission Statement reflects the important tenets upon which we have built our program: ¢ In partnership with families and the community, the mission of the Fox Point-Bayside schools is to: ¢ Ensure that students develop a firm foundation of basic skills and knowledge ¢ Teach students to be effective information gatherers, problem solvers, decision makers, and communicators ¢ Promote, by example and instruction, such values and qualities as honesty, respect, responsibility, self-discipline, tolerance, civility, fairness, courage, and perseverance ¢ Offer opportunities to explore and appreciate culture and the arts ¢ Encourage personal growth through participation in sports, leadership development, and community activities ¢ Provide a safe, supportive, and creative environment for students and staff ¢ Nurture students’ natural curiosity and excitement for learning

**School details**



For the past year there were more than 500 students attending school. This number by large maintained the same as previous years. All thirteen years until 2009 there was an adequate half between boys and girls with slightly more males than females. The racial back ground of the students indicated that there are mostly White kids of about 80% of the school population. There are about 10 % Black kids, about 6% Asian kids, about two percent Hispanic, and less than one percent American Indians. The percentage maintained more or less the same throughout the years from 1996 to 2009. This statistic indicated that the school community is heterogeneous in a way although no equal percentage but every ethnicity is percent. This means all cultures taught by the teacher address all kids.

The economic status indicates that the families are probably middle class and upper in terms of income. There are about 7% to 8% students who qualify for subsidized lunch but mainly the neighborhood has good economic status throughout the years 2000-2009. In terms of disability, there are about 10% students who have some sort of disability. 4% to 5% have speech or language problems, 3% to 4% have prime disabilities, about 1% has cognitive disabilities, 1% has specific learning disabilities and less than 1% has emotional disabilities between the years 2002 -2009. Most of the kids are English language speakers. About 1% to 2% speaks other languages than English from the year 1998 to 2009. There are six grades in school starting from pre –k and ending with fourth grade included. The number of students in each grade is spread evenly more or less. There is about 15% of each grade level from 1996 until 2009. More than 80% of students performed very well in Social Studies test. 65% performed very well in reading. 59% performed very well in math. 52% performed very well in language arts. And almost 40% performed very well in science. On the other hand, in language arts and science around 5% performed very poorly. 3% performed very poorly in social studies, and 1% performed very poorly in science and reading. Third graders had a reading test and in the years 2002, 2003, and 2005 96% of the students did the test on the advanced proficient level. **What percent of students did not advance to the next grade level?** Through the years, very law percentage didn’t pass to the next grade with exception in the years 2003 to 2006 were there were about 3% failing students. The year 2004-2005 was almost 2% suspended students, but that year was the highest in percentage of suspended kids comparable to 2007-2008 were there was a percentage of 0. something. **What are the qualifications of teachers?** All teachers are qualified. There was an exception in 2003-2004 where 2% didn’t have license and in 2006-2007 2% had emergency license. This indicated a good quality of teaching staff. Comments: On the whole, this school has good results, has multi-cultural ethnicity with 80% white students leading. The socio-economic status is Farley good and most of the students are English speakers. The test proved a good knowledge of students and the teachers were shown as qualified and licensed. This is a good school to teach in and recommend to friends and relatives.
 * How did students perform on state tests at grades 3-8 and 10?**
 * How did students perform on the WRCT at grade 3? (Results available through March 2005)**
 * What percentage of students were suspended or expelled?**


 * Phase II**
 * //Data collection Process//**

When I first entered school I looked around to see the school population. I saw somewhat culturally diverse population with a majority of the white ethnicity. In the halls there were pictures of diverse population and the school respects the Jewish community’s holidays like Passover in beginning of April. In the classroom I observed there are books representing different cultures many of these books relate to the Afro-American culture and the friendship between the diverse kids in those books. The students learned about friendship and pointed out that everyone is unique and important in his role to the society. The kids where learning about friendship and understanding. The books about cultural diversity in first grade were counted about twenty books. In my discussion with the school principal and the teacher I learned that the detailed information kids learn about cultural diversity is taught in upper elementary talking about the specific cultures in America, but in lower elementary and in particularly first grade the theme of cultural diversity is more general and it is related to friendship, tolerance, understanding, and good manners in interaction with other kids. These views meet the curriculum expectations for the first grade as seen below: C.EL.1 Recognize and respect shared and different characteristics of self and others, including values and beliefs

C.EL.3 Comprehend the concepts of fairness and equality and the reason for rules and laws

These views meet the curriculum expectations for the second grade and on up to fourth grade as seen below: E.4.8 Describe and distinguish among the values and beliefs of different groups and institutions E.4.9 Explain how people learn about others who are different from themselves

**Phase III** //**Discussion of Findings**//  I have discovered that the school is culturally diverse to the maximum extent available in the neighborhood. Students from different countries who live in the community are present at school. They are students from Muslim countries, students from Asian background, students who are Christian, students who are Jewish, students that came from Russia, students that are of Afro American origin, students that are Native Americans, and students from India. I was surprised to see such diversity because I assumed that there are mainly one group students and white only, but I was pleasantly, surprised. The posters in the halls showed diversity, the books in the classrooms and library showed diversity, and the curriculum of the school showed diversity as well. I found that all the teachers collaborate and work together on every plan which means that all teachers of a same grade level teach the same subjects with same lessons but with personal touch. If I could be a member of the school as a teacher, I would do my best to contribute to unit’s plans, meetings, discussions, suggestions and any ideas that will benefit for the students. Students and their success is the main focus of our attention so everything should be centered on them. I would learn from the teachers how they interact with parents and do my best to make parents very informed and even contribute to class themes when in need. I would do ESL classes to help the kids who acquire English as a second language and modify my teaching for these kids. I would have centers for the kids to work on themes independently in groups or pairs or individually. I would use technology for students to interact with like headphones projectors, smart board, and video. The more opportunities students have to experiment and learn from other sources the better it is for them. As far as the teaching style all approaches fit but I would dominate the interactive approach or the communicative approach and less of the direct approach because it proved itself very successful abroad and students learn better from each other in a process of learning.