Description of John Burroughs Middle School: John Burroughs Middle School is a school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It serves grades six to eight. John Burroughs is located in Hancock Park, which is a suburb of Los Angeles County, Hancock part is west of Koreatown, south of Hollywood, east of Mid-Wilshire, and north of Mid-City. Hancock Park is an upper class neighborhood of Los Angeles. Hancock Park is also home to the Mayor of Los Angeles’s residence, The Getty House. The community of Hancock Park is very quiet and is also located near Larchmont Village. Larchmont Village is a small street of restaurants and shops. It can be a long walk, but students and faculty at the school could take the bus up Highland, then another bus …show more content…
I noticed many posters about how to prepare for high school and what students should be doing while in middle school to prepare themselves for a four-year university. There are posters and pennants from nearly all the California schools, from Stanford to San Diego State University. I find it surprising how much material is available for middle school aged students on how to prepare for entering a four-year university. What people react strongly to here is bullying. When I first arrived here there were anti-bullying posters everywhere, as well as students wearing shirts that had anti-bullying messages on them. Bullying and cyber bullying were a problem years ago, and the school decided to take a stand to prevent it as much as possible. At the beginning of each school year students sign a pledge to not bully their classmates at school or online. What the school models is preparing students on what they should do once they reach high school, and on what to do to enter a four-year university. There are posters with checklists of what students should have done during each grade level to get into a four-year university. For example they want tenth graders to take a PSAT, eleventh graders to take their SAT, and by twelfth grade they should be sending out their …show more content…
They are awards for things like perfect attendance, and other accolades determined by their teachers. The reward consists of a certificate. Additionally there is a student of the month, every month. I was told that when recruiting new teachers some administrators, who are alumni from Southern California universities, attend career events looking for new teachers. There are not many rituals and traditions at this school. The sports teams are not a big of a focus as they would be at a high school. They have started a food culture day where students bring in food that is from their own background to share with their classmates. The students enjoy eating different foods there families make.The heroes of this school are the parents who commit the most time to helping the school. The parents of the students will get together for fundraisers to help raise money. They will sometimes sell hot dogs, chips, and sodas to help raise money for extracurricular activities. They will also sometimes have bake sales to help raise money for the school. The success stories they tell about their school are usually about teachers who help students in after school programs. They will have postings on the school wall of a teacher who went above-and-beyond to help students after school who were struggling in a subject. The teachers use the library after school to help tutor students. The school communicates its vision on its website and its also on a poster in