Environmental Scan

    Five years ago I was hired at New Caney High School, which is located in the North Houston area, for my very first teaching job. This was in August of 2020, at the end of COVID where the students and staff came back online for the first 3 months and then with masks for the rest of the year. Being a first year teacher, this was particularly difficult and I wasn't able to really know what it was like to be a teacher. Now however, I finally feel like I have enough experience to truly understand what I'm doing and how best to reach the students at New Caney. The majority of the community here is in a lower socioeconomic status, hispanic, and have different cultural norms. After all these years, I do my best to take these differences into account when teaching and attempt to be a little more understanding when it comes to due dates and making up missed assignments.

    Beginning with the environment of the school, my school is old. It's the oldest in the district and actually started out as the ninth grade campus before it became a full high school. We take pride in being the oldest, but it does with drawbacks. The school is split into three buildings: the annex, the main building, and the CATE building. The New Caney area expanded rapidly and the result was multiple buildings only connected by a parking lot. This makes it hard for students to get where they need to be quickly during passing periods and makes the whole school feel disjointed. During the hotter months, which is the majority here in Texas, they have to walk from outside to inside and back again, and the doors are constantly opening creating a very hot and humid environment inside and out. Students don't perform well when they're uncomfortable and it's hard to get them to focus, stay on task, and truly learn. The air conditioner does what it can, but it's a large building occupied with thousands of students and teachers.


    Some students are used to the heat, however, from helping out their family or working outside jobs. I have many students who either work with their father, work construction, or have lawn businesses. 69.3% of population at New Caney High School is economically disadvantaged (Murphy et al.). This results in the students having to take on some of the family responsibilities and pick up a job in order to help pay for the bills and groceries. If they have siblings, a lot of them take on the role of caretaker as well especially if both parents are working to make ends meet. This also puts 70.1% of students at risk of not graduating because they're more focused on outside responsibilities and being able to afford basic needs rather than their education (Murphy et. al.). Their culture also plays a role in their work and home life because most have a traditional sense of responsibilities with men working and women taking care of the home and children.


    The Hispanic culture is integral to New Caney High School because the majority of the students who attend come from Mexico or Central America. 64.1% of students are Hispanic while only 28.3% are white and 4.4% are African American (Murphy et al.) This means that most kids speak Spanish and grew up differently than the other students at the school. Out of the district, New Caney actually has the largest number of ESL students, beating out the other two high schools by hundred students or so. As a result, teachers who don't speak any Spanish end up teaching students who don't speak any English. This is an unavoidable barrier, one that all teachers learn to work around, but still something that hinders student learning. As teachers have adapted, they've turned to technology to help them reach every student.


    Every upper level student in the district is issued a Chromebook in order to access Canvas, the main platform used by teachers. There are a multitude of resources on their Chromebook, but Canvas is what teachers use to post their lessons, notes, class information, grades, assignment submissions, and more. This is beneficial because that means when students are chronically absent because of family or work commitments they're still able to keep up with their lessons online. However, since so many students are struggling financially, internet access can be limited or not available to them. Some use their phones and the Canvas app if they have data, but again that's limited to what families are able to pay for those services.


    Overall, students at New Caney High School have access to technology, but might not have a way to work at home. The majority is Hispanic with a more traditional household and some might have to work in order to help their parents or take care of younger siblings. All of this means that a lot of these kids put their education second and are unable to see the value of learning longterm because they're concerned about the now and providing for their family.

References:

Murphy, R., Daniel, A., Cai, M., Lau, E., Schumacher, Y., & Astudillo, C. (2023, May 1). New Caney High School. Texas Public Schools.