Practicum Reflection PD by Kaitlin Failing

Cultural Diversity in the Classroom: Stunning Strategies for Fostering Inclusivity - LearningMole

failink — 2024-12-27 15:24:31 UTC

This is a link that gives a teacher many strategies to help foster an inclusive classroom that includes students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The focus of this site is on making a classroom that celebrates cultural diversity and incorporating curriculum that is culturally diverse as well as teaching strategies that incorporate the student’s diversity. Some examples of ways to do this that were outlined in the resource are providing material that includes many cultures and experiences, encouraging collaboration with classmates who come from different backgrounds, working to use curriculum that reflects all learners within the classroom.

Teaching in a Multicultural Classroom: Embracing Diversity and Creating Inclusive Learning Environments

failink — 2024-12-27 15:25:44 UTC

This article gives teachers ways to teach in a multicultural classroom effectively by allowing students to become culturally aware through teaching on different cultures and traditions as well as celebrating these differences. It also touches on making a classroom environment where everyone feels valued and respected for who they are as well as the importance of adapting instruction to meet the different needs of the students. This is a great resource for teachers to read and learn from or as a refresher to best practices of how to create a welcoming classroom for students from all backgrounds.

TalkingPoints

failink — 2024-12-27 15:26:57 UTC

TalkingPoints is a communication tool that allows families and the teacher to be able to communicate using their native language. There are over 150 different languages and the messages will automatically translate into their preferred language. It helps keep parents informed and an active piece of the schooling experience for their child. This is a great resource to help communicate with families on what is going on at school and within the classroom as well as allow the families access to communicate with you. It can be used to share classroom news, important events, reviews or homework with families, discuss student achievements, ask questions, and many more ways to build strong communication between the school and each family.

Integrations & Partnerships | Pear Deck Learning

failink — 2024-12-27 15:29:08 UTC

Pear Deck is a tool that can be in cooperated into Google slides and it allows a teacher to make their presentations interactive by allowing students to be able to answer questions, polls, add numbers, words, audio, etc. There are many different types of ways to make it interactive and it can be uses as a formative assessment to see what students are understand and what they are not in real time as the teacher is teaching the lesson. Examples could be asking questions to see each student's background knowledge before teaching the lesson, having students answer a practice question based on what you just taught, or allowing the students to record their answer to an opinion based on what is being taught.

Seesaw Library - 5th Grade - All Subjects - Seesaw

failink — 2024-12-27 15:29:59 UTC

The seesaw app is an app that allows students to record themselves and allows the student to practice using language. It can be used to have the student explain something they have learned, have a conversation with another student, tell a story, or practice saying given words or sentences. This could be used to allow student to practice saying a sentence or part of a conversation you have been working on, having them retell a story they just listened to, or practice explaining their thinking for a given math problem.

Flippity.net: Flashcards and Other Resources for Educators and Learners

failink — 2024-12-27 15:30:40 UTC

Is a site that can turn Google sheets into online flashcards and games. There are templates available to help guide a teacher in creating the Google sheet to make into fun ways for students to practice vocabulary words or concepts taught in class. This can be used to have students review a given topic before a test, practice vocabulary words they are learning, or practice math problems.

Gimkit - live learning game show

failink — 2024-12-27 15:31:14 UTC

Gimkit is a group game site that offers teachers the ability to create questions for the students to answer within a group game. There are many games to choose from that the students have to answer the given questions to complete the game. Teachers can make the question sets whatever they would like and include pictures to help with understanding. This can be used to review before tests by uploading questions that review concepts they have learned, could be used to learn and review addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts, or vocabulary words the students are working on learning.

Virtual Manipulatives | Mathematical Modeling | Toy Theater

failink — 2024-12-27 15:31:49 UTC

Interactive manipulatives are a great resource to help ELL students show their understanding of math. There are many different ones to choose from including counters, fractions, numbers charts, multiplication charts, place value and many more. These can be used whole group or in small group to help students visualize math concepts. It is a great intervention for students who might not understand what is happening and might need it visually explained as well as for ELL students to visually see what is being explained in math.

What I Observed

failink — 2024-12-27 16:52:58 UTC

I observed the Sociocultural Theory and the input hypothesis of Krashen. When observing the Sociocultural Theory there was a large emphasis on the students talking with each other to better understand the math concepts. The majority of the time within the class was focused on the students working in groups and explaining their thinking, asking questions of each other as well as asking questions to the teachers, and re-explaining others thinking. This allowed the students many opportunities to use and practice English with language support provided by the teachers.

I also observed the input hypothesis of Krashen when observing. When observing this I saw that the teacher placed tasks above the student's independent level, but within reach with support from classmates and the teachers. When the students began many did not know how to complete the problem, but through discussion with their group and the teacher asking questions to deepen the students thinking learning was taking place and by the end of the lesson most students were able to be independent with their practice questions.

Your Own Personal Teaching Philosophy

failink — 2024-12-27 22:17:04 UTC

Both Krashen's hypothesis and the Sociocultural Theory can help create a personal teaching philosophy as they are the foundation of language development no matter what grade level or subject that is being taught. As a teacher it is important to base your teaching philosophy on proven theories that can be translated into classroom instruction. By focusing on theories like Krashen's and the Sociocultural Theory a teacher is able to build strong classroom procedures focused on how students develop language best.

How to Write Your Own Teaching Philosophy

failink — 2024-12-27 22:35:51 UTC

When beginning the process of writing your own teaching philosophy there are a few important components that should be included.

To start with a teacher needs brainstorm a goal for themselves and their students. This goal should be centered around something that you aspire to have the students do or learn and what strategies you will use to accomplish this goal.

You then should focus on the why behind your goal. What is making you want to make this change? Is there research behind this decision?

Then focus on what do you want it to look like in your classroom. How do set up your classroom to be successful within your goal.

To finish, is there anything else that needs to be done to help you and your students be successful. Do you need to focus on student relationships, continued learning, reflecting on strategies that have already been tried, or any other final thoughts to wrap up your philosophy.

Cultural Resources for Educators

failink — 2024-12-27 22:43:28 UTC

Here is a link to the resource I made centering around culturally responsive teaching.

Strategies to Become a Self-Reflective Practitioner

failink — 2024-12-28 14:40:37 UTC

Develop a way to personally reflect after each lesson. This could be through a journal, creating notes on the presentation slides, or another way to record what when well, what needs improvements, and how to make those improvements the next time you teach the lesson. How you do this needs to work for you and be a beneficial way to keep track of improvements that need to be made or what went well to use for future lessons.

Strategies to Become a Self-Reflective Practitioner

failink — 2024-12-28 14:42:22 UTC

Allow other people to observe you and provide you with feedback. This could be a second teacher that works within your room, a teacher you invite in to observe you, students, or a member of the administration team. Having a second pair of eyes that has a different perspective than you can provide valuable insight into how to improve your teaching.

Strategies to Become a Self-Reflective Practitioner

failink — 2024-12-28 14:43:07 UTC

Use student's cool downs as a way to reflect on that day's lesson. This can be done by looking at trends in their answers, seeing if most students were able to successfully complete it, asking them a question about how they felt about the lesson on the cool down, etc. and then using the information to inform your teaching for the next day. If most students didn't successfully complete it, what are you going to do tomorrow to help them better understand? If just a few didn't understand, are you going to pull those students into a small group to reteach? The daily information that you are able to collect can be extremely valuable in reflecting and making decisions on what comes next.

Small Group Testing

failink — 2024-12-28 22:06:28 UTC

One accommodation I gave to both students is to work in a small group when testing. This was to allow them the ability to ask clarifying questions or have the question read out loud to them in a setting where they would feel comfortable doing these things.

Adding Images

failink — 2024-12-28 22:07:42 UTC

Adding images to word problems helps ELL students visualize what the question is asking them to do. It allows them to see what they are reading to gain understanding that they might not have gotten just by reading the question. It also gives them a starting point to be able to understand where the numbers belong with the picture as they begin to solve the problem.

Reading Test Out Loud

failink — 2024-12-28 22:08:44 UTC

Reading the test out loud can support ELL students who may not be fluent in English or their native language. The test can be read out loud to students who are not fluent readers in their native language to make sure they understand what is being asked of them. Reading it out loud in English can also benefit ELL students because students might be stronger in listening than reading English and it can help slow them down and focus on the important information within the text.

Highlighting Important Points

failink — 2024-12-28 22:09:43 UTC

Highlighting important information including numbers and what the numbers connect to or highlighting important information within the questions can help ELL students focus on the important information within the question that can help them solve the questions. It can help them focus on what is important and not worry about as much about the rest of the text, especially for long questions.

Equation Frames

failink — 2024-12-28 22:12:40 UTC

Adding equation frames can help ELL students stay organized as they work to solve the problems. They give the students a structure to the math problem so they understand what the problem should look like instead of starting with a blank slate.

Translating Test

failink — 2024-12-28 22:16:43 UTC

Translating questions can help ELL students who are new to learning English and are fluent within their native language. This allows the language of the test to not get in the way of being able to show what they know. Translating could be the whole test or only the directions or important parts of the test. The amount of translating provided will depend on the student's English language ability.

Opportunity #1 Kent ISD

failink — 2024-12-28 22:22:51 UTC

The Kent ISD offer many different ESL learning opportunities to help grow teachers in their knowledge and ability to better support ELL students. This is a great place to go to look for opportunities to participate in professional development opportunities. A recent one I attended was on strategies to improve teaching math to ELL students. Currently there are ELL teacher connect events on the schedule, but more are added throughout the school year.

Opportunity #2 SWEL Learning

failink — 2024-12-28 22:22:59 UTC

Our school is in the process of beginning to implement SWEL (School Wide English Learning) and are offering learning opportunities including providing the SWEL book. These learning opportunities include our ELL staff providing PD's throughout the school year as well as a book club will being in February using the SWEL book so all staff have the opportunity to learn about this program.