Description of Community
The city of Salem is the second largest city in Oregon, ranking only behind Portland. The total population of Salem is roughly 156,000 citizens, with the metropolitan population reaching 380,000 individuals. In the year 2000, Salem had only 15% of it’s population was of a Latino decent while 83% of the population of Caucasian race. Salem has a very white community, however, since then it has became more diverse. The per capita income for Salem is just over $19,000 which is just below the Oregon average. The numbers that are stated for Salem as a whole are much different from the numbers that may represent the part of Salem in which my practicum site resides.
Salem has many jobs that require higher education, a large portion of Salem is based around the Capital and the government jobs it brings. Also, there are three sources of higher education, Chemeketa Community College, Corban College, and Willamette University. This gives a good atmosphere for public schools, it gives the chance for students to see what can come from higher education and the accessibility of going to college.
West Salem High School is eight years old, made in 2002. In tern with being a new school, the near by neighborhoods are also new. There are many new developments around the school. The majority of the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods are extremely nice houses. Many of the housing complexes around the school, and many others that are still up and coming. The houses that are in older neighborhoods are still nice and often fairly large. There are areas of west Salem that are not as nice, as there are in every school boundary.
The feeling of the community seem very business like on the main drag (Wallace Road) but at the same time the neighborhoods that are up around the school seem very family friendly. There are always young children playing sports at the high school when the schools athletes are done. With always seeing young athletes always occupying the fields, there is another enormous sporting complex down the hill. This shows me that the community of Salem is very outgoing, many adults play in adult leagues. Something else that I notice is that I see many people running or biking around the school.
When thinking about the community, I feel that with having the school in an upper class neighborhood, I will have more parent involvement with my students. If I have issues with students in my classroom I would feel better about talking with parents about these issues. With parents who are successful I feel that the same expectations are put onto their children. I think as a teacher this will make my job almost easier. I understand parents will expect more from me as their children's teacher, but also I know that with parents involvement I can expect more from my students. The biggest issue I have with teaching is the thought of students not caring and not having the support from parents. In this community I believe that me teaching would change because I know I can ask more from students because of their parents and the resources they may have.
I found your observations about the sporting community around your school very interesting. It sounds like that area has the resources to go to the sporting facility down the road. Are the fields that the kids play on large and kept in a good shape?
ReplyDeleteParent involvement sounds like it will really be present with your teaching especially since the parents sound involved in sports. Make sure that the parents don't completely change your teaching.
I don't want to be "that guy" but you might want to do some further looking at the employment data for Salem. While there are some good opportunities for jobs that require a higher education and there are a fair number, for the population, of schools of higher education, I found that the large majority of the jobs, by number, are not those requiring an education.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the lens that you see the world through, with the emphasis on sports, was very interesting.
Overall, I like what you've done. You definitely looked at the brighter side of Salem. You might spend some time thinking about the more challenging characteristics that your students might be bringing to the classroom so that you are not caught by surprise.