Prompt: You've accomplished a lot during this program. In your blog this week, talk about your strengths, weaknesses, and hopes for the future!
My biggest strength as a teacher is definitely relationship building. I don't profess to be an expert in my field, and I could definitely improve in the areas of differentiation, assessment, and designing activities. Still, I feel confident in my relationships with my students. They are honest with me, and I have always managed to work through any antagonizing situations, repair awkward or tense moments, and find time to talk with them about their personal lives. Even so, I could always be more considerate about how I approach my students. I certainly could get better at teaching.
As far as my hopes for the future, I hope to be working at a more systematic level in education some day. While I have learned much from my experience in the classroom, I feel like many of the struggles and difficulties of teaching can be prevented through systematic structures and programs that are an integral part of the school. This requires visionary leadership on behalf of administrators, especially with developing stakeholder investment and staff involvement. I think I would enjoy that challenge, especially if succeeding meant helping students succeed.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Blog 23
Prompt: What types of teaching strategies have you utilized with your ELL students? Of the strategies discussed, which one(s) do you think you will implement in the future?
For my ELL students, the most common strategy that I use is purposeful grouping. I've found that mixing students and increasing opportunities for academic conversations to occur has been most beneficial for these students to make connections and develop their understanding of the material. I also try to pair students intentionally without making the pairings seem intentional. Sometimes I will number students off and tell the even numbers to find an odd numbered partner or I will identify students as either "peanut butter" or "jelly" and ask them to make a sandwich pair. Either way, the method of pairing students up changes every time.
I also try to include more visual examples or draw from their prior knowledge as much as I can. For example, when we talked about the voluntary response bias in statistical sampling, I surveyed the class and asked them to remain standing if they like the LA Lakers. I then asked the standing students if they liked Kobe Bryant and then took my results to "assume" that the population all liked Kobe Bryant. Students were able to draw connections from this illustration and use their own words to define "voluntary response bias". When I talk about properties of equality, I try to use the analogy of a see-saw to connect the concept with a mental image of balancing a playground toy.
What I would like to implement more of in the future is implementing students' background into the class and curriculum. I'm not as familiar with Native American culture as I would like to be and not comfortable enough to incorporate significant amounts into my lesson plans. Still, I would like to make more culturally responsive lessons and classroom structures in the future.
For my ELL students, the most common strategy that I use is purposeful grouping. I've found that mixing students and increasing opportunities for academic conversations to occur has been most beneficial for these students to make connections and develop their understanding of the material. I also try to pair students intentionally without making the pairings seem intentional. Sometimes I will number students off and tell the even numbers to find an odd numbered partner or I will identify students as either "peanut butter" or "jelly" and ask them to make a sandwich pair. Either way, the method of pairing students up changes every time.
I also try to include more visual examples or draw from their prior knowledge as much as I can. For example, when we talked about the voluntary response bias in statistical sampling, I surveyed the class and asked them to remain standing if they like the LA Lakers. I then asked the standing students if they liked Kobe Bryant and then took my results to "assume" that the population all liked Kobe Bryant. Students were able to draw connections from this illustration and use their own words to define "voluntary response bias". When I talk about properties of equality, I try to use the analogy of a see-saw to connect the concept with a mental image of balancing a playground toy.
What I would like to implement more of in the future is implementing students' background into the class and curriculum. I'm not as familiar with Native American culture as I would like to be and not comfortable enough to incorporate significant amounts into my lesson plans. Still, I would like to make more culturally responsive lessons and classroom structures in the future.
Blog 22
Prompt: What is your most stressful part of the IEP for you to deal with or work on? Do you have someone on your campus that you can go to for assistance and support in writing the IEP?
For me, the most stressful part of the IEP has been supporting individual students during guided practice. Even though I pull students into small groups, the varying levels of understanding can be difficult to navigate. When I work with students individually, there usually is very little time left from the 47 minute periods to give much support and monitoring. I do work with the special education teacher and discuss vocabulary, objectives, and assessment data on occasion. We try to align our work so that students are getting similar instruction in both their general and special education classes. The special education teacher often comments on the difficulty of the situation in the special education classroom as well. It seems like the students in the special education classrooms are also at varying levels of mastery and have very different needs. Having such variance in a room of 20 students does seem challenging, so I empathize with her.
I also go to her for assistance and support regarding all IEP matters. She organizes and invites me to IEP meetings, which I attend regularly. She also makes any adjustments to the IEPs as requested by parents or the student in these meetings. In my opinion, our district needs to hire more staff for our special education program to meet our student needs effectively. Having paraprofessionals in the general classroom would be beneficial, and providing additional support for the special education classrooms would maximize the support time in those periods as well. I have seen our special education teacher take on so many responsibilities in her role, and it seems very impractical. We are all isolated to our own classrooms and left to our own devices on how to differentiate and support different student needs all at once with terribly short instructional periods. In the end, our students suffer the most.
For me, the most stressful part of the IEP has been supporting individual students during guided practice. Even though I pull students into small groups, the varying levels of understanding can be difficult to navigate. When I work with students individually, there usually is very little time left from the 47 minute periods to give much support and monitoring. I do work with the special education teacher and discuss vocabulary, objectives, and assessment data on occasion. We try to align our work so that students are getting similar instruction in both their general and special education classes. The special education teacher often comments on the difficulty of the situation in the special education classroom as well. It seems like the students in the special education classrooms are also at varying levels of mastery and have very different needs. Having such variance in a room of 20 students does seem challenging, so I empathize with her.
I also go to her for assistance and support regarding all IEP matters. She organizes and invites me to IEP meetings, which I attend regularly. She also makes any adjustments to the IEPs as requested by parents or the student in these meetings. In my opinion, our district needs to hire more staff for our special education program to meet our student needs effectively. Having paraprofessionals in the general classroom would be beneficial, and providing additional support for the special education classrooms would maximize the support time in those periods as well. I have seen our special education teacher take on so many responsibilities in her role, and it seems very impractical. We are all isolated to our own classrooms and left to our own devices on how to differentiate and support different student needs all at once with terribly short instructional periods. In the end, our students suffer the most.
Blog 21
Prompt: What is something you want to change about your classroom management?
I wish my classroom expectations and some procedures had been designed by my students. I created my own classroom management policies and set rules and expectations on the very first day without collecting any input from the class. As the semester went by, some smaller issues began to emerge that I hadn't considered before. To give an example, students began to shoot their trash into the can like a basketball, often missing and never bothering to clean it up. I had not made an explicit rule about throwing away trash aside from my policy of "keeping the classroom clean."
I brought the concern up to my kids and they suggested a new rule: every time they made a shot into the basket, I would give them a point (which was part of a reward program for each class) as an incentive to make it into the can. I agreed, but added the caveat that if they missed the shot, the class would lose two points. Since then, basket shots have decreased, slightly, but everyone picks up their trash and puts it into the basket afterward to redeem half of the points lost. We have a little fun with it, and some new rules have been created as a result. Students have to shoot from at least three feet away for a shot to "count" and shots can only be made during transitions or independent practice time. Together, my class and I have turned a simple nuisance into a fun rule. And my room is clean.
If I had asked my students to help create more classroom expectations and rules at the beginning of the year, I wonder what they would have created? If anything, I'm sure they would have been more invested and followed them closely.
I wish my classroom expectations and some procedures had been designed by my students. I created my own classroom management policies and set rules and expectations on the very first day without collecting any input from the class. As the semester went by, some smaller issues began to emerge that I hadn't considered before. To give an example, students began to shoot their trash into the can like a basketball, often missing and never bothering to clean it up. I had not made an explicit rule about throwing away trash aside from my policy of "keeping the classroom clean."
I brought the concern up to my kids and they suggested a new rule: every time they made a shot into the basket, I would give them a point (which was part of a reward program for each class) as an incentive to make it into the can. I agreed, but added the caveat that if they missed the shot, the class would lose two points. Since then, basket shots have decreased, slightly, but everyone picks up their trash and puts it into the basket afterward to redeem half of the points lost. We have a little fun with it, and some new rules have been created as a result. Students have to shoot from at least three feet away for a shot to "count" and shots can only be made during transitions or independent practice time. Together, my class and I have turned a simple nuisance into a fun rule. And my room is clean.
If I had asked my students to help create more classroom expectations and rules at the beginning of the year, I wonder what they would have created? If anything, I'm sure they would have been more invested and followed them closely.
Blog 20
Prompt: Did you receive training regarding children with Emotional Disturbance? How was it helpful or not? Does your school have an "Emergency Team" for a student with Emotional Disturbance?
To my knowledge, I never received specific training regarding children with Emotional Disturbance, so can't comment on whether it was helpful or not. Our school does have an emergency team for one student with severe emotional disturbance, but I only know this because during my first week of teaching, that student punched me in the lunch line. After I reported the incident, I was contacted by one of our special education teachers who was part of the team that worked with the student.
I had one student who was classified as having an emotional disturbance on his IEP. I never received training or specifications on how to work with the student, even after attending his IEP meeting. Although I had few problems with him in class, he was eventually taken out and placed in an alternative education program suddenly.
The emergency team has talked with me briefly about how they work with students that have severe cases. They stress the importance of routines and regular expectations for their students. Reinforcing expected behavior is key, and being consistent with feedback helps. Forcing or ordering students has proven to be counterproductive in this sense.
To my knowledge, I never received specific training regarding children with Emotional Disturbance, so can't comment on whether it was helpful or not. Our school does have an emergency team for one student with severe emotional disturbance, but I only know this because during my first week of teaching, that student punched me in the lunch line. After I reported the incident, I was contacted by one of our special education teachers who was part of the team that worked with the student.
I had one student who was classified as having an emotional disturbance on his IEP. I never received training or specifications on how to work with the student, even after attending his IEP meeting. Although I had few problems with him in class, he was eventually taken out and placed in an alternative education program suddenly.
The emergency team has talked with me briefly about how they work with students that have severe cases. They stress the importance of routines and regular expectations for their students. Reinforcing expected behavior is key, and being consistent with feedback helps. Forcing or ordering students has proven to be counterproductive in this sense.
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