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Differentiating Instruction and Unit Planning

 Part 1- What is Differentiation? (Heacox) In order to have differentiated instruction in a classroom instruction needs to be rigorous, relevant, flexible and varied, and complex.  Rigorous instruction is providing motivating and challenging instruction to students that are ready to go over and above the work that they are doing day by day.  It is also  providing instruction for students that are at or below grade level.  Those students will have instruction based on where they are.  All students are given instruction that is challenging based on their current level.  The instruction is motivating, yet not over challenging such that the student gets overwhelmed or under challenged.  Relevant instruction is providing students with specific instruction that is essential to their learning.  During this time they should be provided with individualized activities that are targeted to what their needs are at the time.  Flexible and varied instruction  allows students to pick what it is they
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  Engaging the Evaluation of the Student Teaching Assessment The primary purpose of the STOT assessment is to assess and evaluate the teacher candidate in several areas of performance, in a classroom setting while they are the primary teacher.  The STOT was created by the North Dakota Common Metric to ensure that teacher candidates were receiving accurate, appropriate, and relevant training in their teacher preparation program but also that the candidate is prepared and ready to be a teacher in the classroom.  I feel this form has two purposes: first it is to guide the candidate as to what standards they are doing well in and what they need to work on in the classroom; and also to aide the Supervisor and Cooperating Teacher a way to provide needed feedback to the teacher candidate. This form’s primary focus is aimed to give the candidate the necessary feedback as to what is needed to be worked on during their student teaching journey going forward.  This form covers ten standards that
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Personal Philosophy

  Personal Philosophy of Teaching Statement PART 1: Personal Educational History (*Please write a concise and detailed response to each of the three prompts. One to two (5-8 sentence) paragraphs per prompt.) Describe the world you come from--for example, your family, community or school. When I was a child, I remember coming home everyday from school and unloading all the papers from my backpack.  I would show my parents the papers then I would go into my room and set my dolls up at their desks and I would be the teacher.  I would do this for hours everyday.    Eventually, I was a tutor after school, and I realized that I wanted to be a real teacher, not just with dolls.  This would be my dream.   When I was in high school I was told by many people that I needed to go into a field that I would be able to support myself and be independent.  After my parents were divorced, my mother’s mental illness, and moving schools twice, I decided that maybe I should listen to others and put my drea
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Creating a Graphic Organizer/Thinking Map of Important Ideas

  While reflecting on Knight chapters two and three, what struck me the most about making my thinking visible as a learner is that I have been utilizing the learning map method when taking notes.  I also noticed that I took more detailed notes knowing that I had to write notes down.  I usually write my notes in the margin of my text books.  As a teacher, I feel that it is extremely important for students to record their thinking about a topic, subject, project, whatever it is they are working on whether it is on a graphic organizer or a learning map.  Students need to be able to record their thinking their way but in an organized manner in one place so that they can go back to their notes on a particular subject.  Students will also be able to go back to their notes and add things that they may have missed that a teacher covered in class.  Writing notes in an organizer or learning map will increase a student’s comprehension and engagement on the subject.  This method is useful when res
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Intelligence and Knowledge

According to the dictionary Intelligence can be described as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. Children are highly intelligent, however it does not always come across to teachers.  We expect children to know, understand, speak and write what we want them to.  For some children writing an opinion essay about the worst weather disaster is extremely boring and difficult because they know nothing about the subject.  Therefore, the student is either going to not write anything at all or is going to write something that does not show their true intelligence level.  If a teacher’s objective is to have the students write an opinion essay and she knows that a particular student will not do well on this essay based on the subject, the teacher could take the student aside and offer a different subject, one that the student has a great deal of knowledge in, for the essay.  The objective of the lesson is being met even though the essay is not the same as the rest of the student
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1. Describe how you believe teacher "WITHITNESS" (Jennings, p. 43) reduces teacher bias and improves the culture of a classroom. What does "wititness" look like in a classroom setting? What does it feel like? I believe that a teacher that has withitness improves the culture of the classroom by genuinely knowing their students and being aware of what is going on in their classroom.  If a teacher knows that a student had a basketball game the night before and the student came in the next day quiet and sullen, the teacher could take the student aside and talk with him about the game and how he did his best and that there is always another game to improve his skills at.  Just acknowledging the fact that you remembered he had a game goes a long way to improving this student’s mood for the entire day.  Teacher’s that practice relationship management also have a better understanding of self-awareness and social awareness.  They are also able to control their emotions.  T
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Lesson Discourse Analysis Kim Blake November 17, 2020 Voices in the Classroom Part 1: Classroom Context In this video lesson, Voices in the Classroom, we see a fifth grade teacher, Kathryn Bomer, is starting her day with a read aloud.  Her students are from diverse populations in Austin, Texas; mainly spanish (10 students), white (4 students) and black (3 students). The classroom management has been taught and maintained very well throughout the school year.  The students know to sit on the floor or in their designated spot. They sit quietly with the notebook and pencil and they are ready to listen to the story.  When they are asked a question they raise their hand and answer when called on.  When anyone is speaking the students are paying attention to what is being said so they can respond as well. This class of fifth graders is a very interactive and engaged group of students.  Their classroom is an inviting and calm learning environment that has multicultural anchor charts, pictures
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