EDU 6134-Daily Reflection- Getting the best educators to the students who need them the most

Today in class we talked about several big ideas from to readings. The overarching theme was about reforming our current education system in looking at it from the teacher’s perspective. We elaborated on the ideas that were presented in the RESPECT project article put out by the Board of Education.

Our group discussed getting the best educators to the students who need them the most. We came up with several ideas and several questions!

• There should be incentives to keep good teachers as teachers, as opposed to having them move onto administrative positions. Ideas include higher salaries, more planning time, additional paras…)
• There should be compensation for continuing education. Meaning if you have an ELL teacher, he/she may have gone to a special ed certification program, but they may not speak the languages of their students. Wouldn’t it be great if at least one teacher in an ELL environment spoke the language of, or had familiarity with each of the children in the room?
• Where is the money going to come from?
• What are the criteria for a school to receive additional funding?
• Who are the best educators and principals, what are the criteria to define them?
• Providing additional resources to poverty schools
• Additional funding for technology in special ed classrooms
• Allowing additional planning time for de-briefing/implementing training into the classroom- possibly by having more paras
• Training for the paras

EDU 6134- Child Abuse/Neglect/Eating Disorders

Going into teaching is not just about teaching students facts or learning related skills, but about helping develop students as intricate beings. We spend time fostering their social skills as well as academic skills. We are there for them if they need to talk after class about social or academic issues. But there is more, we are there to help them if they need it in ANY way. Today in class we learned about reporting abuse or neglect. We may be the students’ only advocate! If we suspect abuse or neglect it is our responsibility legally and morally to report it.

In addition to that we learned about eating disorders. If a student has an eating disorder, whatever the reason, it will negatively impact his/her life. Although we are not legally responsible to report eating disorders, it is our moral responsibility to help each child and isn’t the reason we go into teaching because of our care for each child’s intellectual, and physical well –being?

EDU 6134-Differentiation-Can we meet the needs of all learners?

How can we meet the needs of all learners? This is a really good question since it brings up more than just the idea of differentiation, but of, what do our students really need? This will vary for each and every child. The needs will look vastly different sometimes, in that some may be physical, while others are academic, or they may be similar in that you have two students who are excelling at math, but in different areas.

Once the teacher determines what it is the student really needs they can then go about deciding the best way to reach his/her students through the curriculum. Once the teacher figures this out, then he/she will plan accordingly to make any adjustments to the curriculum and differentiate it for the students. If the students’ needs are physical or emotional, he/she may need to address those even before the students can make academic gains.

There is no one right answer to how to meet the needs of all learners. It is situational. The best way to approach the situation is to get to know your students academically and personally and to determine what they need and how you can serve them best. Today in class we watched a video by Carol Tomlinson about how students differ as learners, but Tomlinson went took even farther to say that there are three things you should be thinking about when you are differentiating instruction.  They are readiness, interest and learning profile.

Readiness is where the teacher determines the readiness of a student based on the teachers’ Learning Goal for the class.  The students will not all be starting in the same place. An example of this would be in math. In 6^th grade students are expected to know their times tables. However, there may be some that don’t. This does not mean that they are not ready to meet a standard about ordering fractions, but you need to be able to recall your multiplication facts pretty quickly in order to this task. So the teacher may provide a multiplication table for the students who need it. It brings everyone to the same level of readiness and is an accommodation.

Next is Interest, this is really about motivation, if a student is interested in a topic, they are more likely to be motivated, and then if they are motivated they are more likely to do well. A way to do this would be to get kids to connect to the material. An example of this might be making a classroom constitution for classroom expectations and then teach them about the U.S constitution; they can then connect to the topic in U.S History, which may make it more interesting to them.

Lastly, is the Learning profile. This is about how do my students learn best? Or what type of learner is each of my students? An example of this might be to give an assignment to do a book report on an approved book of choice, (one differentiation piece) and then to have options of how the report could be presented (a second differentiation piece).

There are so many resources out there to help once you have figured out what your student needs. For example, the article we read for class called, “School accommodations and modifications”, put out in 2001 by The Alliance (Technical Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers), has an extensive list of ideas including ideas about accommodating grading, handwriting, classroom environments, test, and directions.

EDU 6134- Parent Involvement

I believe that “it takes a village to raise a child” and although we don’t have that model here, where we are actually in a village. Each child does have a village looking after them. Some are larger than others; they all include a parent or guardian and they include a school (teacher, admin, counselor etc.). In order to really give each child what they need to blossom, both academically and socially, we need to use all the resources we have.

Like it says in the article, “Nine characteristics of high-performing schools,” “High-performing schools intentionally link family involvement strategies to aca­demic goals. They make family involvement part of their school improvement plan and develop collaborative relationships among teachers, parents and the community” (Shannon, Bylsma, & OSPI, 2007). Academic success can be linked to family involvement. One might think that it is just social success that comes out of it, but it can be academic as well. This is a really important thought piece. As a teacher it is our job to educate our student, but parents feel the same way! So why not tap into any additional resources we have in order to best support each of our students.

Shannon, G., Bylsma, P., & Washington Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, O. a. (2007). Nine Characteristics of High-Performing Schools: A Research-Based Resource for Schools and Districts to Assist with Improving Student Learning. Second Edition. Washington Office Of Superintendent Of Public Instruction.

6134 Daily Reflection- PE/GLE vs. CCSS

Today we spent some time talking more about the Common Core State Standards. We compared and contrasted the CCSS with Washington State’s current standards, the PE’s or GLE’s. My group chose to look into the comparison of the CCSS- Algebra  vs. the PE- Algebra 1 and 2. Here is what we noticed:

Both

~Overall topics seem the same ~Level of difficulty is the same (for as far as the CCSS seems to go, see below)

 

PE’s		CCSS
~There are examples ~They are very specific about each expectation, but they don’t have the key word definitions in the beginning ~Seems a little more rigid in the order of presenting the information and how to present the information ~Seems that the Algebra 2 standards take the learning a little farther	But/ Although/ However…	~There are no examples ~Less specific, however in the beginning there is a pretty detailed description of some of the key math terms that are used throughout the standards ~Seems like there is a little more freedom in the order and way the information is presented ~Seems like it does not delve as deep as the Algebra 2 PE does

 

EDU 6134- Daily Reflection- TPEP

Today we learned about TPEP (Teacher Principal Evaluation Pilot). I found this particular idea of a teacher evaluation system to be really important. I work in a private school and over the course of the last two years I have been part of a Leadership Team. On this team we have spent considerable time developing teacher standards, which will be used in teacher evaluations. It has been a lot of work! There have been several revisions.

At this point we feel like we have a good working document. We have had teachers looking over it for the past year and trying to put themselves on the rubric. We have had teachers work with mentors and peers to make goals and create objectives to reach those goals. Most teachers have a mentor or peer with whom they work to help them actualize their goal. The mentors and mentees meet once a week. If a teacher does not have a mentor, they meet with the principal. At several staff meetings throughout the year teachers have been asked to bring the standards to meetings to look them over, or do an activity with them. This is to help demystify the standards and make them seem less overwhelming.

As our teacher said in class today, the purpose of having standards or an evaluating system is to help our teachers. Not to weed out the bad ones. It is true, that it is possible that principals may find teachers who are not making the cut through this system, but I believe that more often than not this will be and can be a tool for supporting teachers to become better. I know from my experience in my school, my principal is extremely supportive and is always looking for ways to best support her teachers. I think having these standards as a reference point makes it easier to support teachers and makes it clearer to the teacher what is expected of them.

EDU 6134 Daily Reflection- Bullying

I found the presentation today to be really informative. I did not know that there were laws against bullying to the extent that there are. I think it is important that there are laws against bullying. It is a real issue that we read about far too often in the news, and it is really important that we and others are doing something about it. I found it particularly interesting when the presenter mentioned that the laws were purposefully vague. I would initially think it would be a good idea to define the behaviors just like you would define behaviors in your classroom. But it makes a lot of sense that by not defining the behaviors it allows for schools to make their own interpretations. So if a school sees a behavior that they know is inappropriate they can take action against it since it can fall under almost any of the categories. While if the law was specific it may be harder for schools to enforce policy if that particular behavior was not in the law.

At my school we use “Steps-to Respect”. I have never sat in on any of the lessons; I always considered it the school counselor’s job to present that information to the students. I am now inspired to sit in on some of the lessons in different classrooms. I have always taken an active role as a teacher when I have seen students in situations that may be bullying, but I had not thought about how maybe all the teachers in the school should be educated on the “Steps-to Respect” curriculum as well. Just like a school that adapts PBIS, and the staff is extensively educated on those policies, maybe staff should also be extensively educated on bullying programs as well.

EDU 6134- Group Norms

A question was posed to us today in class: What has been your experience with group norms?

When hearing answers to the question, I thought the different interpretations were interesting. The question was purposely left vague. Some people applied it to social situations, while others applied it to classroom rules and expectations. In this context I thought it worked well, and I liked hearing the different points of views. I am left wondering though, if you are working with younger children, if the question is too vague, might you end up with a number of students not knowing what to do or say?

I interpreted the question to mean group norms are classroom expectations. I connected this to what I have done in the past as a 5^th grade teacher. In 5^th grade part of the curriculum is U. S history. I would give a mini-lesson briefly overviewing the U.S constitution, participants, why it came about… then we made a classroom constitution which was our group norms. This was great because it made it clear to the students that they are not doing this just because they are kids and they have to have rules. Everyone has to have rules! And it tied into our social studies curriculum, which is a way to integrate, which is a way to use time effectively.