# data[].attributes.body
Candidates and Mentors, read each of your Induction peers posts from top to bottom.

# data[].attributes.body
Create a separate post under your name for each of the following topic areas.  Please use the same titles below for each post. *MENTORS only need to complete the "Background" post.*

# data[].attributes.body
Candidates and Mentors, for each of your peers, provide the following:
- At least two appreciations
(What do you appreciate about your peer's growth or the growth their students made this year?)
- At least one connection (What about your peer's learning experience in Induction, reminds you of your own?)
- At least one question (What question might push your peer's thinking and reflection on their growth or students growth this year?)

# data[].attributes.body
Candidates and Mentors, share your content, grade level, years of experience, pertinent information about your school or teaching assignment, and one fun fact about yourself. Upload a photo of yourself or bitmoji to this post.

# data[].attributes.body
Describe your inquiry focus question, CSTP focus indicators, and what factors (e.g. student area of need, professional learning goals, teaching context) led you to pursue this area of focus.

# data[].attributes.body
Reflect on your ILP, mentor observations, choice activities and/or any other professional learning activities.  Identify at least  two major ah-hahs or turning points that shaped your growth this school year.

# data[].attributes.body
Select at least one artifact or data point to share that highlights a celebration, milestone or significant growth area for you and/or your students.  Examples may include:

Formative Assessment Data (e.g. quiz, project, assignment)

Summative Assessment Data (e.g. NWEA, iReady)

Student Work Samples (e.g. pre/post focus student data, student work analysis)

Short video clip of instruction or student interaction, <5 minutes (e.g. Mentor observation recording)

# data[].attributes.body
did induction impact your growth as a teacher and/or your students this school year?

What successes or celebrations are you most proud of this school year? What conditions or assets made this success possible?

Which processes from Induction will you use again?  Explain how you plan to build on this work next year.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Content and GL: 8th Grade Math
2. Experience: 7th year teacher
3. School: Work at small charter school
4. Fun Fact: I love going to Disneyland; I go once every 1-2 weeks! 🏰

# data[].attributes.body
Hi! I teach 7th grade Integrated Science at Larchmont Charter School. This is my second year teaching. One fun fact about myself is that I built my own Computer PC System.

# data[].attributes.body
My inquiry focus question as a whole is related to generating more student participation using various methods such as raffle tickets, acknowledging responses, and grading for participation. The CSTP focus I chose was creating and maintaining an effective environment for student learning. This ties in nicely with my professional learning school-wide goals since I aim to create a safe and welcoming environment for students to freely participate and volunteer during any class session.  I decided to pursue these goals because I recognize the difficulty of social interactions after a traumatic two years of online learning. I wanted to create a classroom that felt safe and comfortable for students to be themselves, volunteer to talk, and interact with one another so that it eases the pressure of in-person schooling.

# data[].attributes.body
A major turning point was realizing that not all students are interesting in the ticket raffle prizes. I used the raffle prizes as rewards for participation, whether they were right or wrong. The raffle prizes motivated many students and they were very eager to be called on. However, a select few of students did not care for the small fidget-toy prizes and made comments such as "I can just buy that whole box of prizes and get them from the store" or "why would I want a fidget-toy?" Hearing them say this made me realize that I needed to find other methods to motivate those select few students and I was going to need to get to know them better.

An ah-ha moment I had was finding out that students love to help decorate the classroom. I figured that if they help to decorate and make the classroom feel more inviting, they would respect it and feel welcome when present in it.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Content & GL: Environmental Science, High School (9-12th graders)
2. Experience: first year teaching
3. School: Synergy Quantum Academy
4. Fun Fact: I love identifying rocks (rockhound) and am an expert camper.

# data[].attributes.body
The link includes a video of a real classroom event recorded by my mentor where students were eager to share their own knowledge of real life scenarios such as intentional fire disturbances and their benefits to the environment. Their enthusiasm to volunteer to share this information, informed me that the students felt comfortable enough to teach others and myself about their own prior knowledge.

# data[].attributes.body
Induction has pushed me to create a detailed plan in order to accomplish my goal of promoting an increase of student participation by creating a comfortable and welcoming environment.
I am most proud of students being so eager to raise their hands and participate, even if it is for the sake of raffle tickets. Students participating demonstrates that they are focused and thinking about the lesson. The eagerness in each student shows me that the strategy is working for most students.
I will be using the raffle ticket strategy in future instruction since it has proven to promote student participation and I plan to incorporate different prize options to make sure that there is an incentive for all such as fidget toys, homework pass, first in line for lunch pass, etc.

# data[].attributes.body
Inquiry Focus Question:
If I implement high order thinking activities (DOK level 3 and 4), will students meet my academic expectations and stay engaged, as measured by student work samples.

CSTP focus indicators:
2.4 - Creating a rigorous learning environment with high expectations and appropriate support for all students

2.6. Employing classroom routines, procedures, norms, and supports for positive behavior to ensure a climate in which all students can learn

Factors that led me to pursue this area of focus:
Professionally I wanted to create a flow of learning that was not only of a high standard, but also help students become accustomed to higher standards for I teach at a STEM school. Regardless of the school I teach at though, these students are being challenged to think more critically as they enter their adult years.

# data[].attributes.body
1st Ah-ha moment / Turning point:
There was a lesson in which I needed students to understand the Rain Shadow affect as it related to our unit phenomena (Why Mt. Whitney and Alabama Hills rocks look different even though they are made of the same rock, granodiorite). When planning out this I was wanting more class discussion and peer-to-peer communication. With a lot of help from my mentor, we produced a lesson that totally changed how I approach the explain part of the 5E cycle. Students were asked "What do you see, think, wonder?" about google map images of the Himalayas, writing their ideas on small white-boards, then sharing with one another before randomly selecting students to share out-loud. This moment of providing individual think and sharing ideas time allowed students to process the information I was explaining, as apposed to rogue copying of information from the slides. This was my first ah-ha moment.

2nd Ah-ha moment / turning point:
There was another lesson (part of same unit phenomena as 1st Ah-ha moment / Turning point) was when our class worked on a Stream Table Lab in which students had to set up their stream table and take notes on how sediments were eroded in various sediment scenarios (straight river vs sinuous, varying sediment sizes, and varying gradients). When recording their observations, students were instructed to use my notes template as apposed to their own. This seemed to focus students more on the information and not the ascetics of their notes while also remaining organized and understanding the requirements of their note-taking. Even for students with strong opinions and ideas about how to take notes were eager to use my template. This was my second Ah-ha moment.

# data[].attributes.body
Hello! My name is Vanessa Vargas and I am a 7th Grade Math and Science teacher. This is my first year teaching. After nearly two years of exclusively teaching online as a student teacher, stepping into my own classroom has been a challenge but immensely rewarding. I am currently teaching at Monsenor Oscar Romero Charter School in Los Angeles. One fun fact about me is that I am hoping to start my own blog by the end of this year. Wish me luck! 😁

# data[].attributes.body
Inquiry Question:

If I pre-record resources in Spanish, will students who are English learners show strong academic growth, as measured by assessment results (ie. Unit Tests and Exit Tickets) and pre-and post-survey results?

CSTPs:

1.4 Using a variety of instructional strategies, resources, and technologies to meet students’ diverse needs

3.5 Using and adapting resources, technologies, and standards-aligned instructional material, including adopted materials, to make the subject matter accessible to all students

3.6 Addressing the needs of English Learners and students with special needs to provide equitable access to the content

I chose this focus because at the beginning of the school year I noticed that my EL students were among my lowest performing students.  While I am bilingual and translate all written material for my EL students, I knew there was a lot these students were not getting because verbal instruction and instructional videos (i.e. animated videos explaining photosynthesis) are in English.  I confirmed this to be true after I gave all of my EL students a brief survey where they were asked to identify how much they understood in class.  Half of the students said they only understood the lesson “sometimes”.  Therefore, I wondered if sharing a recording of myself teaching the introduction lesson of each new topic would help close the gap between my EL students and the rest of my students.

# data[].attributes.body
As a first year teacher, I wanted to do it all.  However, I quickly learned that I did not need to do it all ar at least not with the level of detail or the intensity I was doing things.  I’ll explain what I mean. For the first three videos I recorded, I translated all of the slides of the google slides presentation I used in class and went over them in their entirety in Spanish reteaching the entire lesson.   My first turning point came when assessments showed that my EL students had not retained as much of the key information as I would have liked.  I reflected and came to the conclusion that the videos were too long.  I was expecting twelve year olds to be fully attentive and engaged in a video that was 15-20 minutes long.  I then remembered something one of my mentors told me, ”You have to think about how students are going to best process the information you’re trying to teach them.”  I immediately realized I had to make the videos a lot shorter.  I aimed to make all future videos around 10 minutes.  I decided I would achieve shorter videos by identifying the key ideas I wanted students to learn and focusing on those.  I also decided I needed to change my teaching style on the videos.  The first three videos were akin to lectures, I was mostly reading the slides.  I still used slides but my style changed to the style I would use were I doing small group guided instruction.

The best a-ha moment I had all year came when I realized that for some of my ELs the videos had done such a good job at closing the gap the fact that they did not speak or understand English had no effect on their academic performance.  There are two students in particular who are doing so well that they are in the 90th percentile in Math class.  While it is wonderful to see them do so well academically, the best part is seeing how comfortable and confident they are in class especially because it was the complete opposite at the beginning of the school year.

# data[].attributes.body
Above you will see screenshots of the iReady Math Diagnostics test results for three of my EL students.  My other two EL students were not present for the Diagnostic Tests.  As you can see from the results all three students experience growth that is greater than what is typical for a student to experience within a school year given their placement level on their baseline diagnostic.  We will be taking the final diagnostic this coming week and I am very much looking forward to seeing the results.  If my EL students finish the diagnostic before the May 25th deadline I will make sure to come back and include the results.  My hope is that we once again see above average growth

# data[].attributes.body
Induction had a great impact on my personal growth as a teacher.  There is success to celebrate this school year and that is in large part to the mentorship I received this school year.  Thanks to induction I received advice before lessons and feedback after lessons that has truly taken my teaching to the next level.  The advice I got was great!  I loved that it was never overwhelming it was always one small (but impactful) thing that I could add or change to my lessons.  I also loved the reflection component in induction.  I’m a huge believer in reflection and sometimes it’s hard to find the time.  Therefore, I am extremely grateful that it was built into the program.  Finally, I have to share that after doing this assignment and reading some of the things other people did this past year I am sooo excited for next year! I now have so many ideas for different things I could incorporate into my instruction next year.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is the link to view my video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XXGK6A7zIVXjWs61Tt5ApLm8iFdsJY-n/view?usp=sharing

In the video you'll see that we are trying to answer the investigation question - What makes the Los Angeles Ecosystem unique from others? This question is meant to guide students towards answering other larger question, like the chapter and unit questions. We start off by reviewing 12 key terms (). After reviewing, students are to organize the terms on whiteboards in whatever arrangement makes sense to them. The goal for students is that they should start seeing how these terms are uses relative to one another lending itself to what the answer should be, which includes all 12 of those original terms.

I used this method because I have some classes, like the one shown in the video, with a large proportion of students who are very quiet and/or have IEP's detailing their struggles with sharing information out-loud in class. This kind of activity allows the students to show off their thought process without declaring it out-loud.

I also have attached a student example of this activity here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ew3vObwNysV_8qM_bx3zE1JnDGfSugmq5EjLJBWps4A/edit?usp=sharing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Approve

Reject

View Details

Request a review

Learn more

Lourcey, 4/28.MOV

Lourcey, 4/28.MOV

Sign In

# data[].attributes.body
Induction did impact my growth as a teacher. I also strongly feel as though it has greatly impacted my students this school year because of my personal/professional growth. When I'm doing better its my student who benefit.

I am most proud of the last two units of content we have covered because from beginning to end they are both well through out and rigorous; and what's worth more celebration is how my students met all of my expectations for CER's and other high rigor assignments/assessments. This was made possible by the immense support I received from my mentor.

Starting the year off with explicit personal/professional goals for lesson planning and organization of content helped remind myself of what I should be aiming for all year. Once that year is up, I can focus on a new goal, but I will never forget the previous goal(s) since they are recorded. Perhaps I can have a teaching journal or some sort of personalized resource for recording growth, set backs, and goals each academic year. This is a practice I hope to carry with me throughout my teaching career.

# data[].attributes.body
Hey! I'm Delyla and I'm a 7th grade math and science teacher at Monseñor Oscar Romero Charter School. This is my first year of teaching and it has been such a special journey. One fun fact about me is that I'm making my acting debut in our school's play The Audition in 3 weeks.

# data[].attributes.body
Inquiry Question:
If I rearrange the structure of instructional time and implement various engagement strategies, will students be more engaged and on task, as measured by the reduction of the number of interventions necessary and tasks completed?

CSTP Focus Indicators:
(2.4) Developing, communicating, and maintaining high standards for individual and group behavior.

(2.6) Employing classroom routines, procedures, norms, and supports for positive behavior to ensure a climate in which all students can learn
(4.3) Developing and sequencing long term and short term instructional plans to support student learning
(4.5) Adapting instructional plans and curricular materials to meet the assessed learning needs of all students.

Area of Focus Reasoning:
In the beginning of the year, I quickly noticed my students needed a lot of reinforcement in the classroom setting. My students had a strong desire to socialize, short attention span/low ability to focus, and were highly unmotivated to complete tasks. I believe these observations strongly correlate with coming out of nearly two years of online learning. This posed the biggest challenge in my classroom as it was becoming a battle to create flow during lessons and establish routines that worked for us as a whole. I decided to study this concept and try out various strategies to seek success.

# data[].attributes.body
1. One major turning point was creating self checking independent math practice. I was struggling with juggling giving students feedback/help, intervening misbehaviors, and checking student work. After seeing math pixel art online and knowing how much my students like using the computers, I decided to watch some videos and teach myself how to code on Google Sheets. This was a real game changer in the classroom for multiple reasons. It solved the issue I had intended, but it also engaged students in a way I wasn't expecting. My students completed tasks at a higher rate than they did with regular math worksheets. It gave them a sense of independence to check the accuracy of their answers and it also posed almost as a sort of game. When they got an answer wrong, they were motivated to try again in order to complete the pixel art and get the satisfaction of answering correctly. As a result, I implemented these self checking Google Sheets and pixel art into our weekly math routine.

2. Another turning point was utilizing desk lights which was inspired by my mentor when I student taught. The desk lights act as an alternative to raising their hands by indicating if they had a question/comment, completed their work, needed help, or were ready for a teacher check. We use the desk lights in this way, but I also considered using them within direct instruction and guided practice as checks for understanding. Knowing my students are very social, I would integrate think-pair-share/turn and talk questions within my lessons that offered multiple choice answers. Students would then need to turn and talk with their seat partner as they shared a desk light. After consulting and deciding on an answer, they would indicate that answer with their desk light. Not only did this give an academic outlet for socializing, but it also kept students focused and engaged during lessons as they liked being able to use the desk lights.

# data[].attributes.body
Hi! My name is Sam Lee. I teach AP Stats and Calc. It is my 7th year at PUC Community Charter Early College High School, but previously I taught overseas in Korea, China, and the Philippines. Fun Fact? I have never had a pet dog or cat but grew up with a pet cow.

# data[].attributes.body
This chart visualizes the task completion of my two cohorts with on paper math worksheets and self checking google sheets math practice. I selected 2 assignments for this graph. The number on each bar is the number of students that completed that assignment.

Cohort B is represented in teal. As illustrated above, their task completion nearly doubles when completing work via google sheets pixel art. Paper completion is 44% compared to computer completion at 83%. The red bars represent Cohort A. Cohort A has notoriously had a higher rate of task completion than my other cohort all year, yet the trend applies to them as well. Paper completion is 62% to computer completion at 90%.

# data[].attributes.body
1) Induction absolutely impacted my growth as a teacher. I think my favorite activity was observing other teachers at my school. Seeing different management strategies and procedures were integral in my learning.

2) I'm most proud of all the science labs we performed in class. With the help of my grade level content partner, we planned, developed, and executed at least one lab per science unit. At the beginning of the year, my students entered my class not liking science. With the integration of hands on activities and the fortunate opportunity of having a science lab on campus, our students were able to apply their learning in a meaningful way. Science labs quickly became their favorite days. I had students that would not produce work in other classes but in the science lab, they were motivated to participate. Some favorites were dissecting owl pellet, growing plants from seeds, and identifying rocks with various rock tests.

3) Although I didn't have to partake in many of the choice activities from induction due to edTPA, I still found myself exploring them to some degree in my classroom. I spent a lot of time researching different classroom management strategies, behavior tactics, and engaging content games. I also explored various teacher instagram accounts to find ideas that might offer success in my classroom. This type informal professional development was crucial in finding success in my class. I saved many ideas for next year and plan to continue the search.