Module 5 Chapters 12, 14, 15

Chapter 12  Needs on (pgs. 434-437) 
Maslow's believed that people carry a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or any type of unconscious needs. He believed people were motived to achieve needs. As educaotors we tend to get frustrated with our students, wondering what more we can do to motivate them and try harder in school. Maslow said people have four lower needs and three higher level needs. The lower are survival, safety, belonging and self-esteem. While the high level are intellectual achievement, aesthetic, appreciation and self actualization. When they are met than our motiviation will increase and we find other things to fulfill them. Self determination distinguishes between two different types of motivation. This is like what I had spoken about in an earlier blog. If we give our students a reason to want to learn than they will do better. When we find ways to keep our students interested in school they will succeed but when the child finds the lesson boring or not to his or her liking than they will not do as well. trying to find ways to accomodate to all students will be hard for any educator but we must try to help all succeed.

Chapter 14 Differentiated Instruction (pgs. 531-537)
As educators we need to know how to differentiate instruction to students in the classroom because we have some students that tend to slack off or be lazy and need some motivation while we have some students that do better when given free rein, some do better by concentrating and others need some kind of threat before they do the work. Sometimes educators say lets do groups where they put half smart kids and half kids that are struggle in some way.. Who benefits here other than the smarter kids because the lower kids might get intimidated by the questions the higher group ask or they just might feel like they dont matter next to the smart ones and stop trying. Educators have been differentiating instructioin for a very long time. They are able to do this bu being sensitive to the needs of their students and finding ways to help out the different students in their classrooms. Today we have many sources that can help us to create different techniques to help out the students which can help out many students that need help. When we differentiate teaching it is not a program or worksheets, it is a way that teachers know their students and try to help them. When we differentiate instrucation is when we educators observes and understnads the differences and the similiarities of the students in the class and we use that to help us as we plan our lessons.
Chapter 15 Classroom Assessment Testing (554-558)
Classroom assessment can be one of the most difficult aspects of teaching. The way we judge the students can take a toll on the educator. As much as it may make a teacher crazy in the end it is a good way for teachers to better know their students and beable to help them get better in areas where they may be struggling. Assessments are made to serve some kind of purpose. It can help out in many ways as to diagnose a learning disability  and it can determine if a school district has met the achievment goals are just a couple. We must also rememeber that the assessments that are done in a classroom do not determine everything.
Objective testing has a right or wrong answer, These kinds of test are popular becuase they are easy for teachers to make and students to take.
Mulitple choice tests are a formative way that can be used to measure skills, values, abilities, thinking skills and etc. It is easy to write a mulitiple choice test but if you really want to challenge a student with that try asking for muliple answers or word the answers close to each other that makes a child really think about the answer.
After reading all three chapters I learned a liitle more than I had known. We always tend to live our lives in a routine type setting and we don't stop and think to often but having read these chapters took me back to my job and how we act around our students. We do many things to motivate our students so that they can do better on the school work.  We also have different levels of students in our classrooms and we try to the best of our knowledge to modify work for certain students in order to help them better understand the work. And last but not least when we assess our students we do it to see how much they have grown. Our first test is in the beginning of the year than we test them in the middle of the year and finally at the end and many time we are shocked at how much our children have grown through out the year. Everything we do we do for our students so that one day they can be successful. We need to remember that our students are our future and if we don't show them the way than who will.

Module 4

I watched the first video Constructivist Social Studies, I really do think that letting kids work in groups and giving eachother criticism helps them more than we may think. At the same time this may not work in all classrooms. I noticed that the class didnt have many diverse students in there and the students seemed like they may be more upperclass which means they already have good resources and are understanding the information more than most diverse students would.

Watching video Scaffolding Reading, reminded me of the 3rd grade reading group that I help out a teacher with. She pulles eight students and we work with them almost in the exact way. We read out loud to the students and have them read the last word in the sentence out loud so that we know they are paying attention. We than talk about what we read and do a diagram together so that they understand each chapter of the book. We also have them popcorn read, partner read and coraile read than we have them talk about what they read and see if they understood it or if they need help. So for us it works with our EL students. Having students organize thier thoughts about what they had readhelps them to become better readers when they know and understand what they were reading.

The Collaboratve Classroom I agree with all she had said in her video but the problem here is you need all staff members to be on track with the ideas. Unfortunately we have many teachers who wouldn't want to do this. Some teachers can't wait to get rid of certain students let alone keep the same students for two years. This seems like it would be awesome to at least try.

Reading Deep Understanding Comes from Collaborative Methods I agree with the "tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand"
because this is how I learn best. I love the part about its not about the right answer but how the will inquire the answers. I had a professor once say something like this. It is not about u memorizing the information but what you do with that information that counts. So yes having the students be involved will help them more in the long run than us just lecturing and having them memorize information that they will later lose after taking a test on it. So this reading had any great ideas that I will try at work next year since this year just about over.

Class Management

Class management videos:
#1 wrong way to deal with students:
://goanimate.com/videos/0gxolfZ_zBzw?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

#2 correct way to handle situation:http://goanimate.com/videos/0L2Cb48dj0lg?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

For my videos I made the scenario of a classroom teacher trying to get her children in their seats so that she can start the day. She wantes to start her day by first collecting the homework, then start teaching her lessons. The students do not want to turn in the homework they want to talk about the field trip that they are going on the following week. The students beg the teacher and promise her that if she allows them talk about the trip that they will turn in the homework and start the day after they are done talking. The teacher falls for her what the students want and they talk about the trip.
My second video was how as the educator can take control of the class after the students try to get out of doing what is asked of them. The students wanted to do one thing while the teacher wanted to start her day. The teacher stayed clam and took control over her class without getting upset or upsetting any of her students.

Making the videos can show the difference of what good teaching is compared to a teacher wanted to be accepted by her students. The first video shows how the teacher wanted to start her day but the students were not ready becasue they wanted to talk about a field trip that they were going to go on the following week. Well they begged the teacher and made promises that they will do what she wants but after they are able to talk about the fieldtrip. Unfortunately the teacher gave in and allowed the students to talk about the trip instead of starting the day as she had wanted.
The second video shows us how an educator should deal with the students when they make  demands of not doing what she had asked them to do and they wont unless she allows them to do what they want first. The teacher knew exactly how to deal with the students. The teacher explained to the children that if they do all that is asked of them and they finish in a timely fashion than maybe she will allow them to talk about the trip but they will not beable to do that unless they do what is asked of them first. That video happens to fall into the positive and negative reinforcement that I read in chapter 7.
When reading chapter 7 the parts that helped me with my videos were pgs. 256-260. 

Module 3

I am going to start with the video I watched about Classical Conditioning.  I don't really know if agree with it. I can't see if we rang a bell to a person and show them food that after a while every time they hear a bell they will think it is time to eat. I mean I know it might work sometimes but its because how we are living our lives. Alarm rings we know its time to get up for work. We work in order to survive but I don't think it works for eveything. I can see that with some commercials they have some kind of whatever that can get us to buy something that we don't really need. So for me I guess it depends on what the situation is. 

I read and took the Positive Reinforcement Exercise boy i felt it was kind of hard I must confess I didnt do as well as I hoped I would. After I seen how I had done I repeated the whole process and of course did better. Just like the IQ test. You might not do to well the first time but when taken again you do alot better because now you know the questions and you feel more confident in your  answers second time around. I really learned how positive reinforcment works. This was an exercise that I enjoyed doing and would not mind doing more of this kind of work. 

After reading chapter seven the part that stuck on my mind was  pages 259-261. Reading about Negative reinforcements was interesting to read because I too something think of it as punishment. I use negative reinforement everyday and didn't realize that is what I was doing. For example, I have recess duty with one 3rd grade and one 2nd grade, after the bell rings if it is outdoor or indoor recess, I stand in front of the students and wait for them to stop talking before i start recess with them. The beginning of the year I explained to the students that they must stop talking in order for me to explain the rules for recess. At our school we rotate weekly. If they are really loud they will not be able to hear the rules for that week, so I stand without saying a word and they know, but I also reward them when they are extra good. Now the students know as soon as they see me stand in front of them they stop talking and we are able to start recess right away.
I can see why we can sometimes mistake it for a punishment. I myself sometimes feel like a neagative reinforement is a punishment.

Module 2

While reading chapter 4 what seemed to stick with me the most was the 504 protections on page 135. The 504 plan is a plan developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending school the child can receive accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment. The reason I know about this plan is because I have been in several IEP and 504 plan meetings at work. I work with the majority of the students that have some kind of issue even if it were just speech I am invited to all the meeting because when asked how the child is developing I can give my opinion on how well they are progressing academically. This plan allows children to stop a test and take a break if they need it. The children are also able to get many accommodations that might be made specifically for that student and their disability. You still might have some teacher who feel like the children should not get certain accommodations but because of the law can not stop the children from getting them.

While reading chapter 5 page 184 caught my eye about teaching immigrant students and English language learners. I can relate to that because this is what I do. I work as a paraprofessional in the EL's department. I have been working with EL's for 8 years now and I love it. It is because of them that I am back in school to be an educator. Working with English Learners is amazing because seeing their little faces as they learn the simplest things that we take for granted s just priceless. Even though I can not read or write Arabic I can speak it fluently and that helps me to translate most of the work that we are working on in school.  can honestly say that there have been a few types of animals or few other words that I didn't know how to translate so I pull a picture of it on the computer or iPad and the children know exactly what I am taking about. We as educators need to be patient with these students because it never is easy to learn a new language especially with all the silent letters that we have in the English language and it throws the children off, for example in Arabic they write the word just like it sounds no extra letters and we don't have upper or lower case and that also confuses the children at first. If we don't have patience with the children we might discourage them from learning or putting all their effort in learning. I know that from experience.

In chapter 8 the thing that caught my eye was the memory pages 284-294. What is memory? Memory s the process that is used to acquire, store retain and later retrieve information. There are three stages of memory: sensory, short-term and long-term memory.
Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. during this stage sensory info form the environment is stored and sent to the next stage.
Short-term memory paying attention to sensory memories generate the information in the short-term memory. Most of the short-term memories are quickly forgotten but when we concentrate on something that is when it is past to the next stage.
Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage. We don't really understand just how the memories are arranged in groups but we just go with it. Some of our information is easy to remember and some we just can't remember when we need to. Memory has a funny way of working and we tend to categorize how we remember like for example color, fruit and shapes are just a few.
 I have been working with a student for the past three years, he is in  fifth grade right now but reads like he is in preschool to beginning kindergarten, I love this boy like if he were my own. We had him tested about 3 months ago and found out  has a problems with his long and short term memory and that is what has been holding him from learning and processing the information right. We learned that he is just like a kindergartner. When we understand how our memory works this can give us an idea sometimes of how some children might be struggle with learning we just might be able to help them learn with sometimes minor exercises. Sometimes certain things, sounds, pictures and etc can trigger us to remember a specific task or information.

Module 1

What is psychology? Psychology is the study of behavior in living things. The people that study this are called psychologists. Here in the readings I have learned that everyone develops in their own way. We do have stages that we pass through as we get older but still people might develop either slower of faster than others.

In first chapter (pgs. 8 and 9) one of the concepts I liked reading about what is good teaching? Having read about the different teachers and the different ways they had dealt with students in order to make the learning process easier for the students inspires me. When students are struggling in school they don’t want to go. They might start to act up, become class clowns, or even bullies so that people would look at them in that light instead of looking at them as not understanding  the work they are being taught or given as homework. Having a teacher that comes to you and works with you to see if they can find out what the reason is that you are not learning the lesson and then finds the best solution for you and helps you learn makes you want to learn. Like when I was in 1^st grade and my teacher started to punish me for mispronouncing words made me hate her and hate school. I cried every morning to my mother and begged her to keep me at home because I did not want to go and see my 1^st grade teacher. She made me feel I was worthless so reading in the text how teachers did their all to help the students in need made me want to become an educator even more. Also, recognizing the students that are exceeding in class is something we need to do because if all we do is notice the students that struggle and forget about the ones that are understanding the material can harm them too. Smart children always need to be challenged as well (p.10).

In the second chapter, the concept that I enjoyed reading was on (pgs.38-39). The Brain and learning to read was interesting to me because we really forget how it was or how hard t was learning to read. For some it comes naturally where other struggle and that is when it can get tricky. Some students slip through the cracks for many different reasons but they find ways to hide the fact that they are unable to read. Looking at what look like just lines on a page can be a scary thing for children. Our brain can usually recognize words. Sounds, and symbols that we had come across before but for some people the brain does not always do that and it makes it harder for students to learn to read. As an educator we must learn to recognize who is struggling and who is not early because then and only then can we help them before the get discouraged and shut down and not want to learn.

In the third chapter the concept that I enjoyed reading most was about Erikson’s of psychosocial development (pg.87-92). Erikson’s theory of development considers the impact of parents and society on personality development from childhood to adulthood. Erikson believed that every person had to pass through a series of eight stages over the time of their life. If we didn’t accomplish each stage Erikson believed that we may lack the positive characteristics in that stage. I agree and disagree with some of his findings because some just need a little longer than others to fully develop. The fourth stage takes place during the ages of 6-12. This stage is very crucial because children learning to read and write can have a big impact on them. Here children have the knowledge to help them learn, create and achieve multiple skills. During this stage children learn to experience a social life with their peers. The parents are not as important to some children because they found a friend that they can confide in. Children can develop low self-esteem here too if they are unable to find themselves fitting in with their peers. It is here that the children feel like they have to prove themselves by doing things to show the other children that they know how to do specific tasks, but if parents or teachers don’t approve and try to stop the children it might affect them and their abilities. We all need a little failure in our lives because at the same time it teaches us to keep trying and not accept failure.

I feel like I am able to handle most situations more after reading and with the experiences that I have working in a school district where we have many English Learners. This gives me the chance to learn to be extra patient and not judge them if they make mistakes. I have also learned that many children just need a little bit more time than others before they pick up on things. Sometimes educators rush to say the child has some kind of disability when in reality they are taking longer in the silent stage. Two years ago we had a 3^rd grade teacher say a child was not learning and something had to be wrong with him. It took him a year and half before he opened up and started speaking and when he did he was learning and understanding much of the work given to him now he is in sixth grade and tested out of ESL/ELL services and is in regular classes. The 3^rd grade teacher felt he was unteachable and she was dead wrong. Educators must be patient before jumping to conclusions. Imagine yourself moving to a new country where no one spoke your language, how would you feel? What would you do? Would learning the new language be easy for you?

This chapter had a lot of great information on how children are developing. I have a better understanding of how I can deal with them or a situation I might be in. I hope to be a role model to my students and they feel comfortable coming to me with any questions or problem that might be bothering them. 

Trinity Christian College Field Experience

Trinity Christian College Field Experience Form

Context for Learning

Description of School and Students

About the School Where You Are Observing or doing Field Experience

School Name and City: Ridge Lawn in Chicago Ridge

Type of School: Elementary school, Middle School, High School, or Other:  

Setting: Urban, Suburban, or Rural:

Write your responses to the three questions below in paragraph form.

1.    List any special features of the school or classroom setting (e.g., themed magnet, classroom aide, bilingual, co-taught with a special education teacher, pull-out program).

2.    Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that affects the planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.

3.    for special education only: List any educators with specialized expertise in the school/district (e.g., specific disabilities, subject-specific pedagogy, English language development, speech therapists).

Questions 1, 2 and 3 are answered below:

              Ridge Lawn is a very lucky and fortunate school. It has many programs that they utilize in order to help the many EL’s students in our area. It has a push-in/pull-out ELL program that has three teachers for k-2^nd grade and three teachers for 3-5^th grade, three Reading specialist that pull out two that pull k-3^rd grade and one for 4^th and 5^th grade, co-teaching with special education teachers/regular teachers in 4^th and 5^th grade, we have Title I kindergarten and 1^st grade with 12 students in each class for extra help with aids, and a special education teacher that pulls-out and pushes-in. I am not sure about exact requirements but all ELL teachers must have their endorsements to teach ELL class, we have a bilingual teacher, we have 3 reading specialist with their endorsements, a special education teacher with her endorsement and most teachers went back to get ELL endorsement due to the large diversity populations in our area. We also have two speech therapists that come and help the many students that have some kind of speech problem. They also work with many other Specialists who need that smaller classroom for whatever type of disability they may have. Our sister school has the self-contained classrooms for the needy children. If for any reason we are unable to help students we do have off site schools that we work with in order to help the children as best as we can.  So Ridge Lawn is very lucky that they have many special area teachers that can help the students.

About the Students in this Class [Give a brief or one word response]

1.    Estimated percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch: 95%

2.    Grade level(s): 3^rd Grade

3.    Number of

a.    students in the class: 27

b.    males: 11

females: 16

c.     English language learners: 13

d.    students identified as gifted and talented: 2

e.    students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans: 1

4.    Complete the chart below to summarize required accommodations or modifications for students receiving special education services and/or students who are gifted and talented as they will affect instruction. As needed, consult with your cooperating teacher to complete the chart. The first row has been completed in italics as an example. Use as many rows as you need.

Special Education Category	Number of Students	Accommodations, Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
Example: Learning Disability	Example: 4	Example: Close monitoring, follow up, and Resource Room
GAT= Gifted and Academically talented	2	We have them do extra work and projects while we monitor them.
IEP	1	See specialists in school and has one-on-one aid.
EL’s= English Learners	13	Are pulled during reading and math blocks an hour each and plus pulled be ELL teacher for 30 minutes.

About the Class You Observed

1.    How much time is devoted each day to instruction in the classroom? Each day differs because depends on what specials the children have or if there is something going on in the schools. But for the most part out of the 6 hours the children are in school I will say about 4 hours are devoted to instruction. Describe the class periods (if applicable)? The class periods vary each day but here is Monday’s day 8:30 -8:45 is breakfast, homework check in and DOL in journals. 9:00- 10:00 reading block, 10:05-10:40 art/music, 10:40-11:25, writing and grammar but also ELL teacher pulls the EL students, 11:25-12:05 lunch/recess, 12:10-12:30 6 minutes solutions and flashcards, 12:30-1:05 library book checkout, 1:05-2:05 math block, 2:05-2:45 science/social studies. Choose a content area of your specialty or major. How much time is devoted to teaching that subject? I work with El’s and I spend all day teaching. It is true I am in class with another teacher but since I work with the newcomers I do my own thing with the students. I teach them from ABC’s. 123’s, colors, shapes, and Basic English to help them get by the everyday routine in school.

2.    Is there any ability grouping or tracking? If so, please describe how it affects your class. I am not sure what you want here but we try to group the non-English speakers together and students who have little English together to better help them.

3.    Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication. With my students we use Pearson English Learning System “Pearson Longman Cornerstone, Pearson Education, Inc. 2013

4.    List other resources (e.g., SMARTBoard, manipulatives, online resources) used for instruction in this class. Inside our classroom we use i-pads; we have many learning games, flash cards, chrome books, and etc.

5. What do you know about what your students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do? I know what my students know because the first day I start working with them I give them an assessment to see what they know and don’t know then I give it to them 3 other times during the school year to see how they have progressed. What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? I like to have the discussions with the students when we first start seeing each other because I want to know as much about them and I want them to know who I am too.

  

6. Describe one teaching event. What best practices in teaching were used? I love group work with discussion because this keeps the children engaged and interested in the subject at hand. I don’t think just lecturing to students is the best way to get to them. Maybe because I work with smaller groups I find it easy to do a lot of discussion and group work children learn from each other and they feel good when they can help another student.