Week 6 My Takeaway

There was a lot more things I took from this class that I can use in my classroom than I thought would be.  I was thinking, I’m teaching high school why would I need to learn middle school methods?  Well after going through 5 weeks of class there are a lot of topics that can be tweaked and used in high school.  The essential attributes that the AMLE discusses can be used in the high school level.  For example, high school students should be challenging and held to high expectations.  It also important to empower even high school students also.  I feel this is important in the high school level because a lot of the students will need to take responsibility their lives and how to fit into society.  I also need to make my curriculum challenging and relevant.  As a business teacher, I feel it is necessary that my curriculum is relevant.  Whether students go to college or not they will have business basics to be successful in the real world.  I like the reaffirmation of using differentiated instruction and assessment.  I am still learning how to strengthen my skills on using DI.  I would say that is my weakness with my preparation and teaching.  The last thing that stuck in my head was about the cultural and community characteristics that we read about last week.  It is not because we just read about it, but the importance it has to do with the students.  It falls under the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child.  I agree with that because society has changed from the past that teachers and schools play a more important role in a student’s education.  As a teacher, I think it is the most important to make sure my classroom is inviting and safe.  For me, I think I can do this to start by meeting the students at the door as they come into the room.  It was interesting how part of the essential characteristics correlates with community characteristics.  The thought of including community and business partners ties in well with making your curriculum relevant.  There is a lot I will take from this class and bring into my classroom.

Wk 5 Culture and Community

I really enjoyed reading this weeks reading. I discussed about the non academic side to the students learning. It discusses the students culture and community characteristics. I enjoyed this reading because I feel these are the aspects of the students learning that are as important if not more important than the academic side. The first thing the reading talks about how the school environment has to be inviting, safe, inclusive, and supportive of all. Not only is this true with the school it also extends to your classroom. The first thing to do make sure your room is clean and decorated with welcoming and bright displays. Make sure you leave some areas open so you can have classes decorate the room. I will also have to do whatever I can do to make sure there is no harassment and bullying. I will make each student as an equal. It also discusses to ensure that each student is an individual. I plan to pull each student to the side through out the school year and get to know them as a student and as a person. I agree with the part of the reading that calls us as educators the advocate and support system for students. This is true because during the school year a student may spend more time around you and the school than they do anywhere else in their life. The section that kind of hits home is the section of the school actively involves families in the education of their children. I have been in schools where parents involvement is not there at home. For example, I was subbing at a school where a student need to take ADHD meds and he had to wait until he got to school to take his meds because there was no parents at home before he left for school. So he was hyper for the whole first hour because his meds hadn’t kicked in. It is a shame that there was now parent involvement to make sure their child took his meds. There are still some middle schools that need to work on involving the families. It seems that parents are only involved if the student is in trouble or they are a IEP or 405 student and the school team and the parents will have meetings. The idea of involving of local business was a surprise to read about, but it makes sense especially with me teaching business classes. I can get the students out to the community and business to learn the basics. The middle school grades are very important because this is where students are making the most changes and are in the most vulnerable part of their lives. We as educators we need to be there for students so they can be successful in school and life.

Wk 4 Differentiated Instruction

This week’s articles about differentiated learning was very interesting and useful.  They are very helpful to read and retain the information.  I have been subbing for several years and had seen the words differentiated instruction, but never knew what it was.  Even starting this program, I did not know how to implement them in the classroom because I did not know what a lot of the types of differentiated instruction.  Though I may be getting better I still can use articles like the two from the reading.  In the article Food for Thought on Differentiated instruction, the author gives us list of five statement that differentiated is not.  For example, “Differentiated instruction is NOT individualized instruction.”  The second article 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners:  What Teachers Do.  John McCarthy gives us three things we should to use differentiated instructions for diverse learners.  So, in short, the two articles gave us a short list of dos and don’ts on using differentiated instruction in the classroom

This week’s articles about differentiated learning was very interesting and useful.  They are very helpful to read and retain the information.  I have been subbing for several years and had seen the words differentiated instruction, but never knew what it was.  Even starting this program, I did not know how to implement them in the classroom because I did not know what a lot of the types of differentiated instruction.  Though I may be getting better I still can use articles like the two from the reading.  In the article Food for Thought on Differentiated instruction, the author gives us list of five statement that differentiated is not.  For example, “Differentiated instruction is NOT individualized instruction.”  The second article 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners:  What Teachers Do.  John McCarthy gives us three things we should to use differentiated instructions for diverse learners.  So, in short, the two articles gave us a short list of dos and don’ts on using differentiated instruction in the classroom.

In the Food for Thought article we are given what Differentiated Instruction is not.  Of the five a couple stuck out for me.  The first is differentiated instruction is NOT individualized instruction. To me that means just because some students may need help learning the lesson, that does not mean that you have to come up with something that is completely separate from the rest of the class.  You as a teacher you will need to make a variation of the lesson for students.  Making things individualized it would just be extra work for the teacher.  I also like differentiated instruction is NOT just for outliers.  That means the DI is not only for students who have identified learning challenges, but for all students.  There may be students that have met the criteria of being a learning diverse student, but still has some struggles with the lesson.  That DI you developed for the student with the learning challenge will also benefit all students that may be struggling.

I enjoyed the article titled 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners:  What Teachers Do.  When it came to DI, I always thought it had to do with the process, but there is more.  There is differentiating the content.  The best way of doing this is by using various formats for delivery such as video and audio.  With differentiating product teachers allow students develop their own design on learning the lesson.

These articles were very interesting and very helpful.  I will definitely keep them and also continue collecting more resources.  DI is still probably my weakest aspect of my teaching so I will need all the help I can get to be successful in my classroom and helpful to my students.