Cultural Influence

Influences on Arizona Teachers
Learning Team C
EDU /301
May 27, 2013
Danielle Voyer

Influences on Teachers in Arizona Teachers have to be resilient, persistent, considerate, and willing to wear more than one hat at all times to be an exceptional educator. As an educator in Arizona, one will encounter positive and negative influences to overcome. However, one believes in his or her own personal philosophy this will be motivation to work even harder to educate students. Student performance is a direct reflection of the teacher’s ability to effectively perform. This may put too much pressure on teachers to meet the standards expected of them. The pressure directly affects the teachers because schools may begin to evaluate teaching performance. However, this motivation keeps teachers sharp making sure he or she will do everything possible to ensure that the students are successful. Arizona has 196,441 children living in extreme poverty. This statistics directly affects teachers in Arizona because every four children in a classroom of 30 in extreme poverty will have lack of supplies to do class work and homework. This will result in students working on different levels in the classroom. The teacher will have to keep in mind the students’ abilities and resources to complete assignments and also remember that they need to limit projects outside the classroom. Lesson plans will have to be adjusted to make sure that the students obtain an equal education. Offering extra help after- school would be a benefit to help the students. The annual expenditure per public school pupil is $7,968 in Arizona. This will affect teachers because the student ratio is higher. The pay and benefits are lesser in Arizona for educators. Several schools in Arizona classrooms have less instructional supplies and aids, lie textbooks, software, etc. The relationship between the demographics and classroom diversity does have an important role is the life of the students. The “Recent NAEP scores on reading among fourth graders show that students who participated in the free/reduced-price lunch program produced a score of 207 nationally, 28 points behind students who do not participate in the program” (Story Starters, 2013, pg. 1). The lack of resources that the parents can provide for their children affects the students because they do not have the supplies that are need. Consistent standards and instructors would help to resolve the financial gap between rich and poor and untie communities caught up in isolation (Story Starters, 2013). Long summers play a role in the achievement gap between low socioeconomic students and their counterpart. If the state provided Enrichment programs at no cost for low socioeconomic students, it could help bridge the gap (Borman, Dowling, Fairchild, and Libit, n.d.). For low-income minorities, acquiring access to early childhood programs before a child reaches the age of five has proven to increase the chances of a child graduating high school on time (Story Starter, 2013). As an educator, one will face positives influences, such as the smile on a student’s face. Simple influences can encourage teachers to strive to perform better every day; from the teachers of the week awards, the sample thank you from parents, and passing test scores. All These positives influences will motivate teachers to elaborate on his or her personal philosophy of education. Teachers will also have negative influences, from being under, benefits that with high rates, students who live in poverty, students rates of graduation being low. As an educator it is important to embrace all these areas and turn them in to positive influences.

References
Borman, G.D., Dowling, N.M, Fairchild, R., and Libit, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.summerlearning.org/resource/resmgr/publications/2006.ha ltingthesummerachieve.pdf
Children 's Defense Fund. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/
Story Starters. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.storystarters.org/teaching- learning/demographics-Diversity

References: Borman, G.D., Dowling, N.M, Fairchild, R., and Libit, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.summerlearning.org/resource/resmgr/publications/2006.ha ltingthesummerachieve.pdf Children 's Defense Fund. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/ Story Starters. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.storystarters.org/teaching- learning/demographics-Diversity