Unique Demographics of Falls Church High School and Subsequent Teaching Challenges

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Falls Church High School is a diverse setting for implementing technology in the classroom. Falls Church has attracted many immigrants from around the Northern Virginia area. Due to a variety of reasons, many immigrants find that the area surrounding Falls Church High School meets their familial needs including lower-income housing, a large, established minority community, and easily accessed public transportation, which means that their children are likely to attend Falls Church High School. Because of this, Falls Church has a large population of students who have limited skills in the English language and have free or reduced lunches. Demographically, Falls Church has over 30% Hispanic students, and white students are not the majority at Falls Church, making it a unique school in Fairfax County. The school now has over 50% free and reduced lunch students, and this number may be even higher because many families are failing to report the need for government assistance. Because of these unique demographics, Falls Church High School teachers are presented with a challenging teaching situation.

Students often find it difficult to communicate with their teachers and have trouble picturing their future beyond a couple of years. Many students do not come from families with education beyond high school and, in a number of situations, schooling ended for their parents before high school. Because of this, students do not picture the importance of education and are more focused on working for their own personal gain or to support their families. A large percentage of the students at Falls Church drop out of school before graduation because they perceive that their current monetary gain will be enough to support their future. S...

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...gories failed to make this connection. These results tell me that the students who completed the project and actually participated responsibly were able to master the basic information regarding the Byzantine Empire while both groups struggled regarding higher level thinking questions that required an understanding of conceptual ideas regarding the Byzantine Empire and its affect on Russia.

Students were able to positively and effectively learn the information of the Byzantine Empire as long as they stayed motivated and engaged in the activities in the Unit. The overarching project on the Byzantine Empire does not effectively teach students analysis information but does give students the basic information needed for the SOL. There is some obvious tweaking to the unit that is necessary b ut it does provide a solid foundation upon which to build a better unit.

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