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I am looking forward to engagng all learners in the arts experience and seeing the growth in art as well as other academic areas.

Spending time with my grandkids ,watching them grow, and seeing the world through their eyes. Right now, we are focused on bubbles: How do they happen, who can make the biggest, whose will travel furthest...

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Catherine PIffero
Teacher asks questions to establish prior knowledge.  Students are engaged with animal sounds..How does a wolf sound?  She gives ample time for the thought process and varied responses. She also uses shared learning where the students interact with one another to discuss what pitch is and experiment with different types of pitch: high, low, medium.
Have them share their pitch papers with one another and perform each others pitch charts, continuing on to whole class sharing or small group sharing.

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I need  to use more action and expression.  Give the students more oppotunities for feedback and support.   I also need to work on offering more choices for ways to learn  and engage students in their learning.

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Janelle Jaegel                       One thing I am looking forward to as a teacher is beginning our Gold Rush dioramas next week! We have been learning all about the California Gold Rush and I can't wait to see what creative historical scenes my students create. I am also excited to take more of my lessons outside due to the warmer weather.  

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Janelle Jaegel                       One thing I am looking forward to as a teacher is beginning our Gold Rush dioramas next week! We have been learning all about the California Gold Rush and I can't wait to see what creative historical scenes my students create. I am also excited to take more of my lessons outside due to the warmer weather.  

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One thing I am looking forward to in my personal life is going camping for the first time this year! The weather is finally nice enough and the lake is full!

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I am looking forward to incorporating more art lessons into my kindergarten class. Outside of school, I am looking forward to spending some relaxed time with my boys over summer break. :) Erika Lee 

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I am looking forward to incorporating more art lessons into my kindergarten class. Outside of school, I am looking forward to spending some relaxed time with my boys over summer break. :) Erika Lee 

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Erika Lee
The teacher uses a variety of formative assessment strategies in his dance lesson. He uses observations, a checklist and provides in the moment feedback. For example he states " I want you to work on two things..." In addition, he uses journals, rubrics and takes anecdotal notes. He also sets up the learning environment so that all students can be visible, included and share.  He also sets the students up for success by explicitly explaining his expectations and providing a checklist for reference during the activity.
The teacher could also use a thumbs up/thumbs down assessment to take a quick scan of the room to see how comfortable students are before/during and after the activity.

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I agree with Catherine. I also need to offer more choices for students to increase engagement for all students in my class. I also would like to utilize UDL practices in order for students to be able to show what they know in different ways.

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As a teacher, I am looking forward to seeing the positive growth and change in students who struggle with behaviors and emotional issues. As I incorporate more art into my classroom, I am beginning to see this and it is very motivating!

Outside of school I am looking forward to a wonderful summer spent doing things in nature with my family.

-Jamie Gordon

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Animal Legends: Integrating art with writing

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Animal Legends: Integrating art with writing

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In this lesson, the teacher uses a few different formative assessment techniques. First, the teacher allows the students to use their new knowledge to create art based on the concepts they've learned. The student then gets to discuss what Aboriginal symbols they used in their art, and what they mean. This allows the teacher to see what they have learned about Aboriginal symbols and their meanings.
Second, students take their art and use it to write a rough draft of a "legend". These rough drafts are peer-reviewed, allowing for a twofold formative assessment: the artist/writer shows what they understand before turning in a final draft, and the peer-reviewer shows how well they can use what they've learned so far to critique others.

This teacher only took responses to questions with "hand up". Instead, she could use a more random way to check for understanding. I also didn't see what type of teacher feedback she gave, but if I were to do the lesson, I would give feedback and ask students to make adjustments. I would then give them a +, -, or = to grade how well they used the feedback to improve their project.

-Jamie Gordon

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I have enjoyed learning about UDL. It has put a name on what I “aim” to achieve in my classroom. When I return to school on Monday, the first thing I am going to do is offer multiple means of expression. We have a couple projects going on, and allowing students many ways to respond/share their knowledge will create more engagement. I think that giving students a choice is also empowering to them, thus creating more engagement.

-Jamie Gordon

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As a teacher I am reflecting on the school year. This was my first year teaching second grade a my new school. It was a wonderful year spent with truly kind and pleasant children. I look forward to taking what I have learned and experienced this year and expanding/improving my instruction to have even more impact on my students next year.

In my personal life I am enjoying gardening and watching my plants grow. I look forward to spending time with my sweet family in the summer sun.
-Andrea Brie Buckler

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I agree with all of the responses above. I too will start planning for multiple means of expression. So often I ask my students to show me learning with one task in mind. I will start thinking of multiple ways students can engage with and show mastery of a concept.
-Andrea Brie Buckler

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Exploring Dance: Movement, Space, and Poetry

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Exploring Dance: Movement, Space, and Poetry

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The instructor used movement, collaboration, demonstration, charts, feedback, and vocabulary to check in with his students.

He spoke of student based criteria and I would like to know more about that and how he uses that strategy. I like the idea from a post above about using a thumbs up/thumbs down strategy to check in with students about how they feel before, during, or after a task.
-Andrea Brie Buckler

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I am looking forword to incorporating more art into my instruction. I think it will be amazing to find ways to illustrate our learning.

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I am looking forword to incorporating more art into my instruction. I think it will be amazing to find ways to illustrate our learning.

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In my personal life I look forward to having time this summer to quilt, read, and visit the family in Oklahoma
Anne Palmer Martin.

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When she had the students make animal sounds she could gauge for understanding. The teacher could do a visual check for understanding when the students wrote out the pitch. Having the students perform each others pitch pattern allowed her to see them follow along and hear if they were on track.
To engage all learners she might have them pair up to preform each others pitch pattern. They could form small groups and create a pitch pattern together. They could label the pattern as high, low, and medium.

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i agree that using multiple means of expressing is a must. I will try to embrace the concept of allowing them to express knowledge in a way that they feel comfortable. Getting away from we all need to be the same, will make me a better teacher.  I have tried to incorporate more peer one on one experiences for my students. I am finding that they find ways to help each other express ideas and information that just amaze me.

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i agree that using multiple means of expressing is a must. I will try to embrace the concept of allowing them to express knowledge in a way that they feel comfortable. Getting away from we all need to be the same, will make me a better teacher.  I have tried to incorporate more peer one on one experiences for my students. I am finding that they find ways to help each other express ideas and information that just amaze me.

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Anne Palmer Martin

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I chose to watch the video Animal Sounds: Learning about pitch (K-5). The first example of formative assessment I noticed was when the teacher gave students time to "role play" by acting out a certain animal and making that animal's sound. This gave her the opportunity to see if students retained information about animals' behaviors (prior lesson) and also get an idea of what students know about animal sounds before she teaches the lesson.  The next example of formative assessment came in the form of Q and A. She explained that she gives students a lot of think time before they answer, and how it also helps her quickly see which students understand the content and which ones are struggling. She began her pitch lesson by asking students what they think pitch is to "gauge their prior knowledge."  Another example of formative assessment was when she put on owl sounds and students had to independently draw the pitch pattern of the owl's hoot (show if it got higher or lower or stayed the same). I thought this was an excellent example of formative assessment because she could collect the papers and compare them to the accurate drawing of the  owl's pitch. What a great way to connect science and music!!

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Looking forward
As a teacher I am looking forward to doing more art projects with my students and using art to teach other subjects like science and social studies.

In my personal life I am looking forward to summer break and my trip to Canada with family and friends.
Maria Alexandru

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Animal Legends: Integrating art with writing.
I really loved this lesson. The teacher used painting, reading, writing and theatre to teach the students about legends and the aboriginal cultures and the shapes they use to create art. Throughout the lesson she assessed the students knowledge of the subject by asking them questions, by having students explain their work and by having students give each other feedback and suggestions. She also mentioned that she created rubrics with the students so the students were familiar with what was expected and were able to assess their own progress.I like that she started with sample work so the students knew exactly what was expected from their work. The teacher is constantly assessing students progress by just observing their work.

I would have used the “no hands up technique” where students are not allowed to raise their hand except to ask a question. When she asked questions she picked on the students who raised their hands to answer; it probably would have been better if she used name sticks to randomly pick students to answer questions.
Maria Alexandru

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I enjoyed learning about UDL. We’ve known for a long time that children learn and express themselves in different ways, and it’s nice to finally have a framework to help us design more engaging and accessible lessons that are inclusive and help all students learn.
I will try to use UDL to design lessons that support students’ full inclusion in learning, and give all students the opportunity to be more engaged in the learning and assessment process.
Maria Alexandru

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One way I plan to utilize UDL practices to make learning accessible for all learners is through choice. By offering choices to students, they take more ownership of their learning and are also able to choose activities/assessments that fit their needs best. For example, during math I could have a menu of 3 choices and tell students they must complete 2 of the 3 assignments. This also helps with student engagement because they are more likely to choose an activity/assignment they are interested. Another way that I will utilize UDL practices is by displaying information in multiple ways. Students learn in very different ways, and making information available to students in ways that they can "digest" best. For example, one student may be more of a visual learner and another may be more kinesthetic. learner. I will design my lessons using two or more ways to display information to reach and engage as many students as possible.

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One thing I am looking forward to as a teacher is incorporating more art into my math and reading dominated classroom.
Personally, I am looking forward to my first child being born, in 7 days!! :)

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As mentioned previously, using multiple means of expression would be something that I could utilize in my classroom more often. I love the idea, I would just have to dedicate time to incorporating it into my lessons. I think my students would benefit and love the idea of having choices to show what you know.

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I watched the video, Animal Sounds- All About Pitch. The examples of formative assessment that I saw included checking for prior or background knowledge of her students, giving thinking time to answer a question, allowing students to discuss together to gather what their response was, and then whole group sharing. This is a method I use frequently in my classroom, think-pair-share.
To add to this lesson, I would use the "no hands up" technique. I think it would be easy to walk around the classroom and listen to discussions and then pick who to share based on what I heard.

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One thing as a teacher that I am looking forward to taking what i've learned from this school year and applying it to making next year even better!
In my personal life, Spending quality time with my kids this summer.

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I watched the video about "Modern Nursery Rhymes: A Musical" The teacher does several different types of formative assessments, one would be she lets the students work in groups creating a dance to an 8 count, she watches and listens to students to see them progressing. She gives students positive reinforcement when they are working on things. I think that the teacher could add in some peer corrections in order to help with formative assessments.  I think that when students work together they can often provide each other feedback that a teacher may not be able to provide due to dynamics.
Nicole Dominguez

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I think that providing students different ways of completing a task would be one way to help students. Knowing that you are trying to appeal to different learning modalities and reaching as many students as possible.

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As a teacher, I am looking forward to how I may possibly make every school year flow much better by reflecting on my teaching, the lessons I use, and the materials as well as setup I provide in the classroom.  I look forward to the small accomplishments and successes that I may have   impacted on my young learners.  At the same time, outside of school, I also look forward to have similar outcomes with my own children in their journeys.  I hope to rejuvenate myself during the summer break to re-energize for the upcoming new year ahead.
Cindy Thao

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Media Arts (All grades) - “Modeling: The Digital Demo”

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Media Arts (All grades) - “Modeling: The Digital Demo”

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In watching this video, the teacher clearly models what the requirements are and how students may get there. His expectations are set for them as he shows them a visual presentation as to what to do before sending them off to begin on their own digital creation. Just from that short video, he walked around to provide feedback to students that includes direct observations before putting in questionings with students to have those oral discussions.  He could probably provide a checklist for students to use as well as provide opportunities for students to provide feedback of others' work at some point to see if there is more things they can do.
Cindy Thao

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It's so amazing that the Universal Design for Learning is set. As educators, I feel we do get lost in our teaching and forget to show learning in different ways, or allow students to demonstrate understanding in their own ways, or provide different options to engage in learning. I feel the need to work on providing alternative ways to engage all learners.  It's been hard to do so with the limited minutes in the day to "do it all,"  so it will require me to do some re configuring of my planner to make it work.

Cindy Thao