Tonights class was very interesting to say the least. I was able to do a presentation on my annotation paper as well as my team integration project. It was fun giving a lesson to a group of adults. One thing that I realized is that it went smoother and quicker than any lesson that I try to run with my students. After the presentation, I reflected on the lesson I did and it would be too difficult to do with my students. I would change the food part about having my students sort on plates, to me presenting the food and asking my students "what is it?" It's nice to act out real lessons because one may find that it is to complex or easy. This lesson allowed me to reconsider some of the strategies that I would use within my classroom.
0 Comments
Today's class was the longest of them all. We had the opportunity to start or finish work that was due. I decided to start the annotation project. What I didn't realize was how difficult this assignment would be. I was able to utilize some great resources and spend a great amount of time doing the assignment. I also was impressed in how helpful my peers were. It was reassuring to know that I was not the only one struggling. I was able to get a portion of the project done and now have a better understanding of how to do an annotation paper.
What is your vision for your school, your workplace, your family, or your personal life? How are you going to make it happen? What resources, mentors, or other sources of support will you use? What will keep you on the path toward your vision?
My vision for my school is to have collaboration and positive school culture. As a Special Education Teacher, collaborating with my co-workers is huge. Not only is it helpful for academic purposes it is also important for our students. It seems that we all have different teaching styles. It’s great to have different styles and be unique but with our program, it is important that we are all on the same page. For example, We run discrete trial with our students. THis is how we document improvement. One Teacher may thing to run it five times a day, and another teacher may think that running it once a day is fine. There is no right or wrong way of doing it (we do have a set amount of minutes students need to do DTT), some Teachers put in more effort. This is where the word positivity comes into play. I get that we get tired. I can’t stand to hear, “I’m not having a good day”, “They aren’t going to remember this anyways.” This are real attiitudes that I am around. I love having posivity and working together as a team. How will you change the world? One day at a time! :) 1. How do teachers evaluate growth? I am a special Education Teacher. The way that I measure growth is by my students getting 80% accuracy across three teaching sessions in the form of ten trials. For example, If i hold up a picture of a bird and say “what is it”, the student will respond “bird.” That would count as “one trial”- I would test him or her 9 more times. When a student can respond with 80% accuracy across 3 consecutive teaching sessions, I would say that they are growing. This is coming from a specific type of program (Autism).
2. Do you remember a particular grade you received on a school assignment? Why do you remember it? What significance did it hold?? This is a really bad story, when I was in the 5th grade I did my State report. I received a B- on it. I put forth alot of time and effort and I considered it to be a quality project. The grade that I received was not what I had expected. Unfortunately, I allowed my friend to borrow the draft and she turned in the exact same copy and got an A. I was devastated. I believe that if we aren’t careful, we can teach children that if they are earning A’s they are failing. Though I earned a low B, it impacted me in a negative way. I can honestly say, I don’t remember any other “big assignments” I did in school except this one. Why do so many students describe their educational experiences as boring?
As I reflect back to when I was in High School, most of my teachers were boring. I didn’t feel like my Teachers were passionate. Though majority of my Teachers were seasoned, they seemed tired and uninterested. We got busy work, which was boring. Attitude can change everything. If a Teacher comes in ready to teach and is positive, you become positive. Energy is a powerful thing, and most students feed off of it. I will never forget my Algebra Teacher who should have retired 15 years old earlier than he did. He was so set in his ways of the way he would teach. I wasn’t able to grasp many concepts because of his style. He was soft spoken and taught very quickly. He didn’t appear to be approachable as a Teacher. I had to receive tutoring to pass his class. This is a huge problem and still exists today. One of the first of many points that stood out to me was the respect factor. When you approach a student with respect you are building a very important relationship. A relationship that may impact him or her for life. This article gave a clear meaning to me of what it means to respect our students and making those connections. Students want to be engaged, they want to be heard, and have a sense of control. This also allows our students to learn through real life experiences. If you could have an internship in any area, built around any interest, what would it be and who would you want to have as a mentor? Why? Along with me being a Teacher, I am also a Licensed Real Estate Agent. I have a passion for selling Real Estate. If I could have an internship, I would want it to be with Donald Trump. I believe that he is a great business Man and Mentor. I could get hands on training by working at his side. I have secretly always wanted to be on his reality show The Apprentice. The Big Picture # 5
Imagine you’ve found out that a kid you know is really interested in astronomy (or cooking, or video games, or fashion, or baseball, or music, or police work, or whatever). How would you help her go into depth in this area? What might she learn by exploring her interest more deeply? It is very important that you don’t dismiss someone and their interests. I would try and find a resource for the student if I wasn’t able to provide it myself. For example, in my town that I grew up in we had students that could volunteer to ride around with police officers. It was a program that students in high school could volunteer to do. This opportunity allowed students to decide if this was an interest or possible career. Schools today provide more opportunities for students than when I was in school in the early 90’s. It is nice to see how much we have evolved and scary at the same time. I enjoyed the conversation from tonight's class. It's interesting to talk with a room full of General Ed Teachers and hear their perspectives on Education. Though I am not following a lesson plan everyday or having to meet state standards, I feel for the Teachers that aren't getting the support that they deserve. We talked a lot about attitude. It is so difficult to have a positive approach/attitude on things when you don't feel supported. It is also reassuring to feel that as a class that we all want the same things for our students. We are seeing the Education System fail our students. How can we change things or make a difference?
One of the ways is our attitudes. We set the foundation for our students and people around us. If we are excited to be there, our students will be excited. If we encourage our students they might try harder. It's time that we start believing in our students and giving them what they need, as a whole! How do you get a student to want knowledge? Once you get them to want it, what are the best ways to help them get it?
One of the ways that you can get a student to want knowledge is by being creative in the way you are teaching him or her. Make learning fun. Figure out ways to get students to “become interested.” I find that I like to learn by doing hands on activities. Incorporate ways to get students engaged. I believe that working in groups is an effective strategy to learning new concepts. The reason why I say this is because students will have to engage into conversations and it also allows students to see something from a different perspective. Tell about a time when you were in school and your learn-ing matched your interests. How was that experience different from times when your learning didn’t match what you were interested in? School was very uninteresting fro me. Actually I shall say that I didn’t have an interest in many subjects. I liked P.E. & Drama. I felt as if most of my Teachers were seasoned and boring. I tuned out most of the time. However, there was one Teacher that taught Science. He was fresh out of college and made learning fun. I would say that Science is my least favorite subject, but I did well in his class. I think his motivation and attitude kept me engaged. We worked in groups, which also held me accountable. This particular experience was very different from most of my other classes. It was different because I saw passion in how our Teacher was teaching. I felt encouraged and he always kept us motivated. Do you and your colleagues share the same philosophy or vision about your school or workplace? Why or why not? How does this influence the way you work together and think about your work?
I work on a Special Education site. I work around a few Teachers who are fairly new like myself, and a few seasoned Teachers. I believe for the most part as a whole that we do share the same vision. Our vision is to see our students meet milestones (it could be learning to use a spoon, or muttering a sound) and be in the least restrictive environment. I do have to admit that there is always a sour apple in the group. I don’t enjoy hearing the comments, “well who cares my student can’t talk, walk, or eat”. This is when I distance myself from these types of “professionals”, and continue working with the professionals that have the same mind set as me. How could a school go about showing its students that they are trusted and valued members of the school community? I believe that smaller schools can show how valued each student is. In my school, we have a administrator that knows every student by name. We have days that parents can stop in with our admin and have coffee and donuts. Our admin walks through our classrooms and says hello to staff and students. He shakes the hands of parents as they drop the kids off in the morning. This is how you know that your child is in trusted hands. |