CF Students

2B Block of Sports Management has thirty-four students. As shown below, the class is predominantly white:

Although the percentage of Anglo students is a bit higher and the percentage of Latino students is a bit lower (70% and 17% respectively), the ethnic breakdown of this class is surprisingly similar to the overall school ethnic breakdown. Even though there does not seem to be any obvious division between students in this classroom and students chat with other students sitting around them regardless of race, when left to choose their own groups the students of will group with other students of their ethnicity. This alerts me as a teacher that the students do not have a problem talking to or working with students of another race, but if given the choice they prefer to be grouped with students of the same race. This is also reflective of what can be seen in the hallways outside of class. As a teacher this encourages me to have the students work in groups that I select so they can get used to working with other students besides their chosen partner. Working with different students will help the students learn to work with many different personalities and also gain valuable, new opinions they may not have heard before. Hopefully, it will also foster a new respect and possibly new friendships between the students.

A large percentage of the class are also athletes with the majority of those playing football. It is obvious which students play football as they wear green, collared shirts on game days. I have also seen three dance team members, one cheerleader, and two baseball players. Other students have expressed interested in lacrosse and rugby. It is not surprising that a large percentage of students in a class revolving around sports marketing are athletes, but it was surprising to see the large number of football players. Even though they are on the same team, though, there is a definite devision between the football squad in the classroom, most likely due to what grade the students are in; seniors tend to sit on one side of the classroom while juniors sit on the other side. The grade level separation is actually a common theme for the entire class, with seniors sitting in one area and the juniors and very few sophomores sitting on the other side of the classroom. This reinforces the need to have teacher-created groups for students for the reasons already stated above. The high level of interest in sports definitely makes it easy to find topics that are relevant to the students, but it will be important to remember to use different genres of sports for examples and modeling so that all students see the sport that they enjoy represented.

The last characteristic of the class is that it is predominantly male. There are ten female students and twenty-three male students (30 % to 70% respectively). The girls in this class tend to be fairly quiet during discussions, although they are quite chatty in their own personal circle. I think one important thing to remember as a teacher is it would be easy to slant the whole class towards sports that men enjoy, especially with the large male student percentage. I will try to give examples of the sports the girls in the class like, including dance, cheerleading, volleyball, and lacrosse.

The class also has four TAG students and one student with an IEP. This class if fairly creative, being an elective marketing course, so I am not overly worried about the TAG students being challenged. Plus, since I am teaching in a block class scenario, I only have six classroom session of 90 minutes to teach my whole unit. We will be covering so much information, my biggest concern will be making sure the lessons are taught in a way that keeps the TAG students engaged and not bored. “Jacob”, the student with the IEP, seems to be only mildly affected by ADHD. His IEP states he needs extended time for long assignments or long tests, a copy of any class notes, and directions clarified and additional checking up from the teacher to make sure he understands the directions that were told to him. Although it is important to remember Jacob has these needs, I do not see coverage of those needs as unreasonable or something that will take time away from my lessons.