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As an educator I feel that higher education should and could do a better job at supporting the needs of students and prepare them for their career. For instance, the focus in many higher ed programs begins with taking a placement test to assess what reading, writing, and math classes should be taken. For students who have to take the developmental classes, higher ed programs should remove payment for the course. These courses are costly and are not worth any credit towards the degree which makes many of the students feel like it is a waste of time. I also think that instead of having pre-requisites prior to solely focusing on the students' career should be optional instead of mandatory since many students have a purpose of why they attend school and having many obstacles presented with multiple classes can create challenges with keeping up grades in classes your not interested in. I also feel that if internships are a requirement, students should be given stipends to assist them during their year of service. School programs place students who participated in year long internships in financial hardships because many of the internships are unpaid. To adequately prepare students for their career, it is important that we provide resources to keep them interested in the field they would like to pursue.

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I believe that as an educator it is important for our students to understand that they are more than a grade. Inside of my classroom, I always let my students know that despite the grade they receive, it does not mean they are less or more than someone else. When my students receive less than adequate grades on an assignment, I allow them an opportunity to make up the work to increase their knowledge of the skill and focus on understanding what should be learned rather than what they would like to earn. This takes the focus away from the pressures of being perfect and pushing for them to make sure they have the confidence of applying their knowledge in a way that is meaningful to their unique learning process.

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Two meaningful subjects that schools could focus on are reading and writing. Reading is a lifelong skill that all students need to be productive in life. When the teacher understands and has data about a students reading abilities, I believe the opportunities are endless with finding ways to reach the students academically and closing the achievement gap. Another source to use is the students' writing abilities. If students are unable to read, this translates to their writing processes and tasks that they must complete. This is a good data point to have as support for reading comprehension and structures of writing to articulate information. in their own words.

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My students develop their potential by first identifying who they are as humans. My students participate in class lessons that purposely enforce thinking of who they are as people and not just as students. I make sure my students know that they must acknowledge who they are as people before they can learn anything in the classroom. This helps my students take accountability for many of their actions because they often think of how their actions affect others and can explain why they made certain decisions. Inside of my classroom, students often participate in instructional time that implements many types of learning strategies to accommodate the many needs inside of my classroom. The students have a choice with how they learn and how they produce their learning which increases how they feel about their potential because they are in control of many aspects of their learning.

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When thinking about how higher education should support our students I think the biggest thing is a corse either credited or not for skills in regards to life and career. When I was first hired 4 years ago I was just handed insurance paperwork and expected to read though all this paperwork with no knowledge on what anything meant. One thing that I think that AACC did a wonderful job with in the education program was getting students in the classroom from the very beginning. I originally wanted to be a high school English teacher. As we all know I did not go down that path because I had the experience in the classroom and knew it was not for me. Luckily for me this was my first semester so I was able to easily change to elementary education with only needing to take one additional course. I feel that the needs of students needs to be considered as well. Many low income families should be able to attend college for little to no cost. While there are many programs that can already help those students many do not know of them. Another thing to consider is our ESOL  students and their family by offering free basic English courses to help them be successful in the career of their choice. Overall just truly partnering with students and having a support system for them is what I feel is most important for higher education to do.

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One of the biggest things that I instill in my classroom is celebrate failure and mistakes. When we do this we take off the stress of having to be perfect. With the move to 4th grade where testing is a big factor I take the time to review what mistakes are made and how we can improve. A lot of the time my students biggest mistake is self doubt. We recently went over our second literacy CFA and students were shocked that they got 0/4 when they felt like they did amazing. We took the time to discuss what went wrong and how to improve. We recently took our third literacy CFA and there was so much growth in my student. After I graded their test I called them to the back table and celebrated with them even if it was only a point of improvement. When dealing with parents you have to reassure that their students wellbeing is the most important thing to focus on. Once we know that is good we need to work together as a team to make sure that we focus on one thing at a time. Constant communication also helps ease parents mind. Once all three or four of us (teacher, parent(s), and student) become a team success will come naturally.

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I for sure believe that literacy as a whole (reading/writing) and math should be looked at when considering achievement gaps. When looking at students they tend to be successful in one or both of these subjects. To only consider one of these subjects would be unfair to students. I do however think a stronger emphasis needs to be on literacy as it is a big part of their every day life. When looking at the gap that students have we need to make sure to focus on growth. For example if a 4th grader comes to me reading on a Kindergarden reading level and leaves me reading on a third grade reading level they are still not preforming on level. While they are not on level they made almost 4 years of growth within one school year. When it comes to math we should focus on math that is practical to every day life. While some jobs may require calculus skills not all jobs do. There should also be an emphasis on problem solving skills that can be tested through writing.

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I think building relationships is the most important part to helping students develop their potential. If students do not believe you care for them they will not take anything that you say to them seriously or to heart. Like I said in my chapter 5 answer I celebrate wins and losses because they are human and they will learn from their mistakes. Another thing that I do is show how I make mistakes and how I can grow from it. Once that is instilled in the student it is so much easier to help them grow and see their potential in the classroom and in life in general.

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I do feel that higher education is appropriate for some careers that require a solid foundation of conceptual understanding, such as being a lawyer. To be a lawyer,  you have to be able to understand and apply the law. This information can be given by a professor or someone who is greatly familiar with the law. I also think higher education can be great at influencing students to do internships and other opportunities that can gain students valuable experience for their careers. I do think that in some programs, the opportunities for internships or observations do lack and that needs to be pushed in higher education.

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In our school, we encourage what is called "habits of work." These are qualities that we consider important for the success in school, relationships, and really life overall. They include perserverance, social responsibility, advocating, and mindset. I think when students feel confident in their ability in these skills, they are more motivated to make their own decisions and have the right skillls to advocate for what they need and be able to communicate their end goals and how they will get there.

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I generally do believe that reading is a huge predictor of success later in life. I am currently taking a course on the science of reading and in the book it states based on research that reading difficulty is actually a national health concern and deserved high priority on the national research agenda. There is also been research to show that the inability to read is associated with lower levels of adult educational attainment and lower income levels. This makes sense if you think about it, because some of the countries with the highest poverty rates are also the countries with the lowest literacy rate. On top of that. Not being able to read means that you wouldn't be able to read newspapers/the news, health guidelines, schedules or manuals. With that being said, I think its critical that we address literacy difficulty very early on (even as early as pre-k and kindergarten).

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I think teachers need to make learning personalized and ensure that students have agency in their learning. It's important to teach students about equity and how everyone needs different things and accesses learning and different rates. Students cannot feel like their success in a compeitition or that they are constantly being prepared to their peers. It needs to be presented as an individualized process with personalized goals.

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As an educator I believe that higher education can better support students and prepare them for their careers by not requiring college students to take gen-ed or core classes that have nothing to do with their majors. This would allow students to focus on what they want to do and not waste time at college taking useless courses they will never use in their careers

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In my own classroom in order to produce motivated students with skills to be successful I will instill the idea that we all fail, and make mistakes but in order to be successful we must keep trying. I will allow students to showcase learning in their own ways allowing them to be creative and dive deep into learning they enjoy

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A class or topic I think would benefit students and could close achievement gaps could be a career-focused class, or exploration class. In this class students get to experience and explore different career paths and make decisions about the future. They can visit places to observe workers, and hear what is required to have that career in the future. This class would introduce a variety of careers with different education requirements so students know college is not the only option.

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In my classroom students are given many tries to be successful. I tell my students the only way they can fail is if they do not try. Students are given feedback on what to improve in a project or assignment. They are given the opportunity to retry the assignment or fix an issue in the project to be successful. Students do not get a score, but they get a checkmark or star indicating that they completed the assignment or project successfully. When students believe they have to receive an A or a B on an assignment it takes away from the learning aspect and they are stressed to reach these grades resulting in students who hate school.

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As an educator, I believe that I higher education can change some of the courses that students are required to take. On my path to getting my music education degree, I had to take many gen ed classes that I feel were not necessary and do not benefit me in my career. These classes could be substituted with other course that would help to better align with career needs. Such as a course on understanding all of the paperwork that teachers (and other careers) are given when they are first hired. There could also be one on how to read and understand a contract. I did not have the background for either of these and had to learn as I went along.

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In my classroom, I always remind my students that it is okay to try new things and make mistakes. I make sure that when I make a student in front of my mistakes that I admit it and move on from there. I also like to try new things alongside of my students. I also like to give my students the opportunity to make decisions about their learning. Many times they choose songs or activities that we do in the classroom. They also choose how we will complete assignments sometimes, partners/ groups or individuals, paper/ whiteboard, etc. They are given the opportunity to make decisions as a class and as individuals.

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I think that literacy is a meaningful subject when looking at an achievement gap in students. Literacy is a part of everyday life and there are many components to it. This is also something that can be taught/ enriched in every class. When analyzing the data from testing and looking at the achievement gap, it is important to consider how much exposure the students are getting to various types of literacy. It is important to make sure that they are not only being exposed to digital literacy (social media, digital texts), but that they should also be exposed to written and printed materials.

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In my classroom students are given many opportunities to be successful in their class work. We never talk about who was the best or rank each other. When completing assignments, they do not receive a number grade on their papers. Students get a checkmark on their assignments. They are also able to complete the assignment as many times as needed to allow them to understand the assignment and the learning.

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Higher education can help support the needs of students and prepare them for a career but it has to be in a meaningful way. Higher education needs to provide real world experiences and provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge learned from their classes. The classes that are being taught also need to be meaningful and teach the students useful skills and content. Many times there are the intro classes that every student has to take that do not pertain to their degree or future career. Higher education should focus on hands-on experiences such as internships and observations of professionals in their chosen career path.

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Higher education can help support the needs of students and prepare them for a career but it has to be in a meaningful way. Higher education needs to provide real world experiences and provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge learned from their classes. The classes that are being taught also need to be meaningful and teach the students useful skills and content. Many times there are the intro classes that every student has to take that do not pertain to their degree or future career. Higher education should focus on hands-on experiences such as internships and observations of professionals in their chosen career path.

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Higher education must look to real world training instead of just using books and theory. Numerous schools supposedly teach technology training or HVAC or something else. The problem is these classes and programs stay inside a classroom inside a book. Before I was a teacher, I was an electrician and builder. I learned by doing not reading. Numerous professions require real world training over books. While I do agree, books are needed for understanding weight ratios in building a house and and moisture contents in concrete mattering where you live. However, actually building the house requires more than a book, it requires a know how to use thousands of tools. If you can't or don't know how to use a tool than you can't do the job. I see it far to often today that students are only being taught book smarts. We need to teach real world smarts and book smarts. This will allow the coming generations to be balanced in both theory and action.

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Higher education can better help support students' needs and prepare them for a career when it's based on hands-on, real world experience. Dintersmith explains that students deserve an “education that equips them with competencies,” He goes on to explain that they “have to relate what they’re learning  in the classroom to their own life,” Some key ways he hints to helping support student needs is by helping them build connections and ties to the community. Doing this with internships, reaching out to experts, developing ties to businesses and providing immersion in programs that have mentors and meaningful certification opportunities are some examples of how career focus can become a priority. I know in my own experience I had the most rewarding experiences when I was able to take classroom knowledge and apply it in my real life. When I attended Sorenson Video Relay Interpreting Institute I had the opportunity to watch the interpreters relaying phone conversations, but it wasn’t until I was the one on the headset and in front of the camera myself completing sandboxed phone calls- that I truly was able to feel that I could achieve more and became much more inspired. I think the same is true for all students. When we are just watching or listening to others we aren’t able to make the same deep whole hearted connection to a task until we are the ones truly doing it and learning from mistakes.

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I can work to produce motivated students who will have the skills, experiences, and confidence to make their own decisions in their education when I provide students with opportunities to realize they can say “not yet.” Many of my students give up almost immediately when they face a challenge. Just today during a flex make-up block I had a student say, “This is too hard. It's way too fast,” He put his pen down and went to close his chromebook. I explained, “It's just too hard now and it's just too fast now. But when you keep trying you will find that it suddenly doesn't seem so fast or so hard. Don’t give up.” We reopened his Chromebook and we watched the video in parts at a time. We focused on what he already knew and used resources on the walls and in the dictionary to help him find clues. At the end of the assessment he said, “I think I’ll try to make up another one.” Within the hour he had submitted another make up assignment. While he didn’t get a high score, this was huge for him to be trying. Dintersmith speaks on how “there's a healthy stress that comes from setting a big goal and pushing yourself to excel in the face of challenges and deadlines.” While I know that my students may not view ASL class as a big goal, I do try all I can to put emphasis on being proud of the effort you make and looking for the best version of themselves in all challenges. I think that encouraging students to keep this mindset is a great way to help instill confidence in them and help them build in the grit to work through stressful situations and experiences in the future.

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The most meaningful subject or topic schools should analyze when looking for gaps in student achievement would be citizenship, social emotional learning and community building. I do think that there is a huge disconnect between student achievement and student resilience. I think that this plays a lot into the impacts technology has made on our youth and relationships, as well as the most recent impacts of the covid 19 pandemic when it came to work ethic in our youth. Dintersmith says we should focus on, “how students perform on messy real world problems that require resourcefulness and staring down failure.” Allowing students to focus on teamwork and collaboration in content using social emotional learning strategies, building ties to citizenship and public services would be the best way to help students close gaps.

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I always give my students as many chances with their work as they need to grow. When a student asks to re-do classwork or homework I am happy to allow them to find more support and then re-take for full credit. I am always very focused on the way I speak to my students. If a student is struggling or not trying I consider ways that I can encourage them to see things in a new way or find support around them such as using resources or peers. By complimenting something I noticed they did very well in the past or making sure they find connections to their real life they are knowledgeable about they tend to find their confidence and motivation again.  In the text Dintersmith spoke on how Ed Blackburn commented, “life is all about respecting human dignity, motivation, and choice.” I think that perfectly sums up how we should help our students recognize their potential. The more we can give students positive reinforcement, a chance to see that they can change and grow and make mistakes and grow and it's okay to do that,  the more vulnerable they will be willing to become and the higher their potential will soar.

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Within my classroom I explain to my students that they are here to learn but more importantly they are here to progress. Having students understand that they may move at different paces takes the stress off of many students. Working towards their goals is my goal not working towards one goal for all students. At least for me, every student has a talent and drive it is the goal of the teacher to understand those drives and talents and embrace them to where the student know you are on their side. Another major stress reliever is teaching students how to better control their emotions, specifically anxiety. Students today are much more stressed because they have more to worry about in a school setting. Teach them how to control those stresses empowers them not just for the present but for their future professional careers.

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The four major subjects should all be part of the process.  Science, Math, Reading/English, and Social Studies should all be part of it.  Also, I think their is a good argument for some of the arts to be included as well.  Not all students are bound for jobs that need science but many jobs today are overlooked when it comes to the arts.  In the 21st Century its not about just drawing a tree correctly, art has evolved in to design. Designing buildings, sewer systems, and more require creative knowledge as well as technical knowledge in that field.  For me the more we spread out the testing to multiple contents the more we show our students the endless possibilities they have in front of them.

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In my classroom, I not only try to teach my students the content from the curriculum but I try to teach them life skills as well. Students not only need to understand math, reading, writing but things such as their last name, how to ask for help, realize when they don't understand something or just realizes and regulating their emotions. We use a program called Second Step that helps students with social emotional learning and other content like goal setting and their future. Students need to start advocating for themselves and I teach them that it is ok that they don't understand and to ask for help. Students need to also see the teacher or others asking for help or showing that they don't understand but also while showing them what to do when this happens. Being good examples to students and modeling what to do can help students advocate for themselves as they get older.

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As I said earlier, I tell my students its not specifically about the schools goals they must reach. What is most important is the students progress in their own minds. When students believe in their own progress they are much more likely to believe they can push even further than they first thought. I like told my mentee teacher at the beginning of the year. Students are going to mess up and make mistakes. Have students embrace those mistakes, explain that when you mess up it is a learning experience. Not only tell the students its ok but reinforce that mistakes are made by everyone, it is part of the process of life. Ranking students is just another way of dividing them to where they don't work together a progress together. It is actually one of the worst things a teacher can do in a classroom. My mentor teacher many years ago told me it is a classroom killer

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The two main subjects that schools should look at when looking for gaps in student achievement is literacy (reading and writing) and mathematics, which standardized tests focus on however it is a test. Literacy is needed in every aspect of life and is needed for almost every career. Literacy is also needed within every other subject and can hinder their grades in these subjects due to the struggle of reading. Also looking at math is important as many careers need math as well. However, I think with math it is tough as some math concepts are not used in careers or in life. Money is a huge part of life and looking at life skills such as budgeting, credit cards, etc. are important and may need the basic fundamentals of math in order to understand these bigger concepts.

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In my classroom, students first need to figure out who they are as people and students and what their role in our classroom is. We start off the year by talking about ourselves and what we can do to build a positive classroom climate and how our actions effect others. Students can be all over the place in reading or writing or math but celebrating each individuals' successes both academic and personal is key in my classroom. Many of my students are just learning how to spell their last name this year and it is important to recognize that this is a success in their lives. My students realize that is not what reading level you are on or how many math facts you know but what you can achieve when you put forth effort, ask for help, and lean on our classmates.

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I believe that higher education needs to be reformed. Many students are graduating high school with little to no knowledge on what career they are working towards. As Dintersmith states, "our country's community colleges are a powerful potential resource." (pg. 92) If students choose a community college over a four year university to start, it will give them more time and it will be a much cheaper opportunity to complete general courses. Better yet, I believe that colleges should support our students financially. If they charge less for these general courses, it will meet the needs of our students and our economy down the road.

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This is a hard question! Our students are faced with so many challenges at home and at school. "Good" has a different meaning for every family, but I will say that we need to focus on effort rather than grades. We should also focus on progress over data points. We are too caught up in standardized testing, which in turn makes our families caught up in it too. I believe we need to take out standardized testing to alleviate the pressure these students are getting. Instead, we should focus our efforts on testing the content, which is more in the student's control. From there we can develop good study habits and organizational skills.

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I feel that schools should focus on literacy and mathematics in order to close achievement gaps. As we look ahead, every student will need to have fundamental skills in reading, writing, and math. The data we look at should not be from standardized tests however, but rather from benchmark assessments that are equitable. We are relying too much on one single test to dictate the progress these schools/ kids are making. If we test to what we teach in class, we will have more evidence of the areas we need to work on.

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One thing I often tell my students is that they are always learning from their mistakes. If they can't get it the first time they can try again. I am a major proponent of second chances, although I do not believe we should always get second chances in life. Because of this, teaching the importance of effort is just as important.