Description of Community

It is difficult to get an accurate portrayal of the demographics of the community that surrounds Waldo Middle School.  The most general way to describe the demographics of this area is to summarize the demographics of Salem and most specifically the zip code that the middle school resides in.  The median age and sex of the community is 32.8 years for males who make up 52.9% of the population and 34.8 years for females who make up 47.1% of the population. (Zip 2010)  The community surrounding the school is made up of 16.2% Hispanic/Latino, 65.6% White, 1.8% Black, 1% Native American, 2.5% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.1% Other, and 2.3% Multiracial. (Zip 2010)  I am skeptical that these numbers accurately portray the surrounding community since the school population is 67.1% Hispanic. (ODE 2009).  

Waldo Middle School is located in northeast Salem, Oregon.  The neighborhood surrounding the school would probably be considered middle class.  The neighborhood is bordered on the north my Silverton Rd. and to the south by Market St.  The west side of the neighborhood is bordered by the State Fairgrounds and on the east side the middle school is bordered by Interstate 5.  When walking around the neighborhood you will see a go mix of houses that seem to be well taken care of and those that are somewhat “run-down.”  The neighborhood has a nice feel to it and I get the impression that it is a relatively safe neighborhood.  It also seems like a lot of the homes have children since there are quite a few houses with play sets, hoops, and a tree house.  The streets that surround the neighborhood are very busy and you have a lot of traffic.  Not really sure what effect this traffic has on the neighborhood.  I get the feeling that people cut through during commuting times.  There is a police officer that spends a great deal of time patrolling the area around the school which probably adds the feeling of safety in the neighborhood.  North of the school feels somewhat industrial and doesn’t have the most welcoming environment.  However, to the east of the school before you hit the freeway there is a very large and well maintained bike.  This definitely adds something positive to the neighborhood's overall atmosphere.

I don’t think the information about the surrounding community will highly influences my teaching.  I would be curious to know how close my students live to the school and what their daily commute is like.  I would imagine if there start to the day could be very different depending on how they get to school.  Perhaps they walk to school or possibly they have a long bus ride in traffic.  This might give me a different idea about how I approach the start of the day.  As far as the neighborhood goes I will probably try and incorporate information about the community into math problems that I give to students.  For example I might use area equations that deal with the nearby park.  Another possible application would revolve around a distance equation for navigating and using familiar street names.  This might help things be more relative and see how math could be used practically.