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University of Puerto Rico at Humacao

English Department

EDPE 4018 (Practice Teaching)

Nucleus Study

Elementary School

Luz A. Cruz de Santana

Cooperating Teacher: Percychel Torres

Name: Brenda Santiago Cruz

Student Number: 442-08-7655

Supervisor: Dr. Aníbal Muñoz Claudio

Date: October 11, 2012

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Table of Contents

Background Information ........................................................................................................................... 3

Educational region and Regional Supervisor ---------------------------------------------------------------3

School district and School Superintendents ------------------------------------------------------- --------3

School, Level, and School Director -------------------------------------------------------------------- --------3

Cooperating Teacher ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------3

Group ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3

Content ......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Brief Description of content and Sources of Information ---------------------------------- -------- --- --4

Purpose--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Areas of Observation .................................................................................................................................. 5

School Organization (chart) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Curriculum Programs (subjects and extra-curricular) ---------------------------------------------------5

Sports Programs (intramural/extramural, organizations) ----------------------------------------------5

Facilities (classrooms, bathrooms, recreational areas) --------------------------------------------------5

School Diagram ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Supervision (administration) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

Personnal (teachers, educational, professions, staff) -----------------------------------------------------7

Students (enrollment, places of orgin, attendance, organizations) ------------------------------------8

Reaction .......................................................................................................................................................... 9

School’s Strengths ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9

Areas for improvements ( in relation to students and community) ----------------------------------10

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 11

Reflection ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

I. Background Information

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Educational region: Humacao, Areas Service: Arroyo, Gurabo , Humacao ,Juncos, Las Piedras,

Maunbo, Patillas, San Lorenzo and Yabucoa.

Region Supervisor: Mr. Luis Eugenio Matta Donatiú

School district : Las Piedras

School Superintendent : Mrs. Maribel Hernández

School : Luz A. Cruz de Santana

Code : 35071

Level : Elementary

Grades: Kindergarten to Sixth grade

Physical Address: Calle 15 Urb. Villa Universitaria

. Humacao, PR 00791

Telephone: (787) 850-6460

Zone: Urban

School Director : Arleen Alicea

Cooperating Teacher : Percychel Torres

Group: 6th Grade

The Luz A. Cruz de Santana School is located in the middle of the urbanization Villa

Universitaria. The elementary school is from kindergarten to sixth grade. This school is part of

the educational region of Humacao and the school district is Las Piedras. This region areas of

services are Arroyo, Gurabo , Humacao ,Juncos, Las Piedras, Maunbo, Patillas, San Lorenzo and

Yabucoa.

The region supervisor is Mr. Luis Eugenio Matta Donatiú and the school superintendent

is Mrs. Maribel Hernández. The school’s director is Mrs. Arleen Alicea. The cooperating teacher

who is helping me with the practice is Mrs. Percychel Torres. I’m practice teaching with the 6th

grade groups.

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II. A. Content

The Luz A. Cruz de Santana School’s Nucleus Study includes information about the

school structure, the student’s such as; enrollment, attendance, organizations, and place of origin,

the educational professional and non-educational personnel, the curriculum, the school

organization, and the additional services for students. The information was gathered from various

sources; the school’s director, the administrative office, librarian, and the cooperating teacher.

The purpose for the Nucleus Study is to become familiarized with my practice center. By

gathering this information, I can have a wise opinion on the school organization, and function.

This study is to have a better knowledge of the school surroundings and structure. This

information is essential to be able to know students, teachers, all the staff in the school and the

community. Being able to distinguish the school design and organization will help me arrange

strategies to help students and the staffs. Here you will also find my reflection of the school

weaknesses and strengths. As a practice teacher in the school, I need to have knowledge and

understanding of the services that are being provided by the school. Having this information will

also help me understand the school vision now and for the future.

With regards to the historical background of the school, Luz A. Cruz de Santana was a

very enthusiastic child with many future ambitions concerning the wellbeing of the schools. As

she grew older she contributed in many ways such as implementing library clubs, organizations

and orientating the school staff. She dedicated her life trying to motivate students to love

reading.

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II. B. Areas of Observation

School Organization , . Kindergarten: Double Enrollment 1) teacher 2) homeroom 2) schedule

. From 1st to 6

th - Simple 1) homeroom 1) teacher 1) schedule

Curriculum Program: Core Curriculum - Special Education- Self-contained classroom

Sports Programs: The school does not have any sport activities.

The school has a general curriculum which covers pretty much the basic subjects like

Math, Science, and Social Studies, English and Spanish class. This school is an Elementary

school so it only covers grades Kindergarten to sixth grade. The kindergarten class has two

enrollments one in the morning and another in the afternoon; first through sixth grade classes

have all one homeroom teacher and the schedule is regular from 8 am to 3 pm. The school has

program for special Education which provides a content classroom to the service special

education children who need it. There are teachers who are resources to also give service to the

students who are in the mainstream and need assistance in the classroom.

Facilities: Number classrooms: _21

. Bathroom: Level I 2 bathrooms 1 - boys 1-girls

. Level II 2 bathrooms 1 - boys 1-girls

Recreational area: There is a gazebo in the middle of the school playground.

School Diagram:

Figure 1

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In Figure 1 is the first level of the school and figure 2 is the second level. We can clearly

visualize the school has 21 rooms in which include library and contained classroom. In the

middle of the school, we can see a little recreational area for students to enjoy their recess. The

school also has functioning 4 bathrooms two at the first level and two at the second level of the

school; one for boys and one for girls. The school facilities are reasonable but the students need

more area for recreation at lunchtime and a playground. The area around the gazebo is where

students have for recreation. However, when it rain the area gets flooded. Some students will

play around this area and their uniforms turnout muddy and dirty.

Figure 2

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Supervision:

- Figure 3

According to Figure 3, that demonstrates the hierarchy of the school administration. This

organization shows the level in which the personnel arranged. It start’s off with the director in

charge, followed by the Administrative Assitant there after is the Social worker and finally the

secretary.

Teachers and grades distribution

Table 1

Director: Arleen Alicea

Administrative Assistant: Francisca Melendez

Social Worker: Debora Fontanez

Secretary: Marisol Miranda

Sra. Madeline Donato (Contained Classroom

Sra. Madeline Sra. Nereida Rojas (Kindergarten)

Sra. Carmen Medina (First 1-1)

Sra. Gloribel Cintrón (First 1-2)

Sra. Awilda Navarro (Second 2-1)

Sra Sonia Hernández (Second 2-2)

Sra. Wanda Berrios (Third 3-1)

Sra. Wanda Quinones (Third 3-2)

Sra. Damris Rodriguez (Fourth 4-1)

Sra. Wilmaris Rodriguez (Fourth 4-2)

Sra. Amalin Beltran (Fourth 4-3)

Sra. Obedilia Santana (Fifth 5-1)

Sra. Percychel Torres (Fifth 5-2)

Sra. Ana Rosado (Fifth 5-3)

Sra. Betzaida Velasquez (Sixth 6-1)

Sra. Debbie Quiñonez (Sixth 6-2)

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Teachers as Resources

Sra. María Valentín (English)

Sra. María Valentín (English)

Sr. Pedro Santiago (English)

Sra. Ana Trinta (Engl. Ciud. Bil.)

Sra. Emelynda Rodriguez (Rec. E.E.)

Sra. Miriam Rodriguez (Rec. E.E.)

Sr. Ramon Rosa (Phys. Ed..)

Sr. Luis Torres (Phys. Ed)

Sra. María Cruz (Art)

Sra. Lissette Serrano (Librarian)

Table 2

Non-educacional Personnel

Table 3

As we can see, Table 1 shows the distribution of the teachers and the grade they offer. On

Table 2 are the teachers that offer resources and they do not have a homeroom class or a

classroom. The school also has the non-educational staffs listed in table 3, which are composed

of two fulltime janitors, 5 cooks and one security guard.

Students

Enrollment: _332

Place of Origin: Humacao areas are: Urb. Villa Universitaria, Vista Hermosa, Villa Humacao

. Los Pinos ,Yabucoa, and Juncos.

Attendance: The school has a 91% attendance.

Student’s Organization: None. The school does not have any clubs or organization for the

students.

The amount of students enrolled in the school is 332, and most of the students live in

the Humacao area such as Urb. Villa Universitaria, Vista Hermosa, Villa Humacao, Los Pinos

and Patagonia. The rest of the students come from Juncos and Yabucoa. This is because some

parents work in the area of Humacao and its convenience. The attendance is not a problem in the

school.The overall student attendance is appropriate 91 % percent.

1 – Security Guard

2 - Janitors

5- Cooks

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The enrollments for the 2012-2013 academic year in the Luz A. Cruz de Santana

elementary school is 332 students; but the school maximum capacity is 350 students. In the

Kindergarten class, the school has two groups, one in the morning, which has 23 students, and

one at noon, which has a group of 22 students. The first grade classroom consists of 27 students

for the first group and 26 students for the second group. The second grade has 29 active students

in the first group; the second group is 30. The second grade is the class that has the most

students. The third grade has two groups of 24 and 26 students. Fourth grade involves three

groups of students. The first group has 20 students, the second group has16 students and the third

group has 20 students. Just like the fourth grade, Fifth grade contains three groups; and all the

groups contain 20 students. Sixth grade has two groups, which both hold 21 students in total in

each class.

II. Reaction

School’s Strengths

Some of the school Luz A. Cruz strengths are the neighborhood, facilities, class size and

security guard. The community is quiet and has a large open area with accessible parking. The

school this surrounded by residential houses and apartments that are rented by the university

students. The community facilitates the school to with the activity center and the recreation

area. But this area is limited due to the supervision. This recreation area is too big and an open

area to have students around. The center is available for the school to carry out activities indoor.

In addition, the school has lot of advantage like to spacious classrooms. All the classrooms

have two doors each. The school has two staircases and one ramp very accessible to the second

floor. The library facilities are excellent. It has three computers, laptops available for the

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students and pleasant air conditioner, which attract students to visit the library at their

lunchtime. The school also has wireless internet service for teachers with a password designed

for protection and control.

The school has great class size; the classes are from 20 to 25 students. This is a reasonable

amount of students for one teacher. Also, this is an advantage for the students to get more time

and attention from the teacher. In addition, the school has a security guard to control the

entrance. This helps manage the parents who visit at lunchtime. The guard also protects the

students from leaving the area of safety and supervision.

Areas for improvement

One of the areas that need improvement in Luz A. Cruz School is additional drinking water

fountain. For 332 students there is only one drinking water fountain and it’s inside the

administrative office. This is something that should not be acceptable. The students that need

water have to go on a journey. Some students that are distant from the office miss class time to

go to drink water. This issue needs to be taking care of immediately

Other issues are the clubs; students have no clubs to achieve or belong too. Teachers need

to understand that clubs are benefit for students and the school. This implies that teachers need

to get active with the clubs to help students progress in their potential abilities. From

experiences and interviews with the staffs’ school, most limit themselves. They like to keep

things simple and not organize or arrange different ideas. I also see this with the physical

education teachers; students do not have sports teams, it’s just the physical education class and

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it ends there. Students do not get the opportunity to represent their school or participate in a

club.

Overall, the school is well organized and some problems are starting to progress. These

improvements will help the students and the community to create a better enviorment. These

improvements will also help the school to provide a better quality service.

IV. Conclusion

As a practice teacher for the Luz A Cruz School this nucleus study information will help

me make the decision and organization for my class. Being able to know the school and the

service able will help me prepared and make the right choices for the students. On the other

hand, by knowing the area will help me to get nearby parking to carry all the school materials

and daily supplies for the class.

The advantage of the class group with 20 to 25 students will help me prepare and design

accessible way to perform the class. Also having a large classroom will be suitable to group

discuss and team work. This will help me to arrange the sitting and have students with more

space area. In addition, the classroom has two doors is will help me to have students become

accustomed to one door to entrance and the other to exit. The services available in the library

help my students without computer or internet available at home to using the facility to get the

information needed.

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Understanding the condition of the only drinking water fountain located in the

administrative offices affect my class directly. When students ask me if they can go to drink

water, I usually tell them to hurry up because they will miss part of the class.

This nucleus study has help me to understand all the situation that involve the school to

get strategies and ideas on how to improve the enviroment. Knowing the information, I can

make suggestions and ideas too improve the facilities. By being aware of the strength and

weakness of the school, I can understand the students and staffs situation and difficult. This

information can also benefit the students to recognize and comprehend their conditions.