The Fish
My class as a whole was not extremely diverse. Brianna was the only African American in the class, Omar was middle eastern (his parents moved here before he was born), and Valerie was Hispanic. We also had one girls whose father was in NATO and she was from Germany, except her English was spoken well with only a slight accent on some words. From my observations, these students were not treated any differently than any of the other students because of their race.
Of the twenty three students in the class, all except six students were identified gifted. Mrs. Cupka told me on my first day that since there happened to be so many in one class, tensions can get really high over the smallest nuances. Since most of these students where extremely gifted, a lot of them had ADD or just had a tough time paying attention. They all loved to talk so that became a major issue as the year progressed.
There were only eight boys in the class but that did not seem to be of importance to anyone and the predominately female class I believe did not affect anything that went on in class. Everyone in the class, however, tended to freak out over such minuscule things that went on, whether it was something someone said, something that happened, a test they just got back with a grade or homework they had to do.
There were many issues with behavior. The class always received a yellow cone at lunch (I found out was not good), two kids would always get in an argument with each other, and they always talked down the hallways. Mrs. Cupka had a system of points that she would use that were online and each student had an account. If the student was being good, she would award points which could be redeemed for a prize or candy. When that method became ineffective, she began putting little "fluff balls" at each table that could be removed or have more added to it. The table with the most fluff balls at the end of the month got a prize. And once that method stopped working, Mrs. Cupka began a class tally table. If the entire class was having a good day (no outbursts, good hallway etiquette, no yellow cones) then they would receive a tally. If by the end of the year they reached their goal of sixteen tallies, then the class would get a pizza party. The three methods combined became pretty effective.
Of the twenty three students in the class, all except six students were identified gifted. Mrs. Cupka told me on my first day that since there happened to be so many in one class, tensions can get really high over the smallest nuances. Since most of these students where extremely gifted, a lot of them had ADD or just had a tough time paying attention. They all loved to talk so that became a major issue as the year progressed.
There were only eight boys in the class but that did not seem to be of importance to anyone and the predominately female class I believe did not affect anything that went on in class. Everyone in the class, however, tended to freak out over such minuscule things that went on, whether it was something someone said, something that happened, a test they just got back with a grade or homework they had to do.
There were many issues with behavior. The class always received a yellow cone at lunch (I found out was not good), two kids would always get in an argument with each other, and they always talked down the hallways. Mrs. Cupka had a system of points that she would use that were online and each student had an account. If the student was being good, she would award points which could be redeemed for a prize or candy. When that method became ineffective, she began putting little "fluff balls" at each table that could be removed or have more added to it. The table with the most fluff balls at the end of the month got a prize. And once that method stopped working, Mrs. Cupka began a class tally table. If the entire class was having a good day (no outbursts, good hallway etiquette, no yellow cones) then they would receive a tally. If by the end of the year they reached their goal of sixteen tallies, then the class would get a pizza party. The three methods combined became pretty effective.