Capstone Curation - William Hortman by William Hortman

Multicultural Autobiography - Cultural Diversity and ESOL/TCLD (TCLD)- Spring 2025

wh03292 — 2025-04-20 14:25:03 UTC

The multicultural autobiography was the first assignment that I had for my Spring TCLD class. This assignment took me on a journey of reflection. You think you know who you are and what characteristics and traits you present, but it is important to try and understand what shaped your upbringing. Going through this assignment had me reflect on my childhood, what I was grateful for, and what makes me who I am. But this assignment also looked into my experiences and view of discrimination and racism. Being from the South I think it is a stereotype for people to assume that racism still lives here, and for some people that is true, but when I actually reflected on these topics I really couldn't find any personal experiences to being a witness to racism or discrimination. I feel that most of the noise and instances of discrimination/racism I see are on social media. It made see that while it is an issue, the reality of it is that we think we are exposed to it more often because of social media, but in our own communities it is not near as prevalent. This assignment made me think about these experiences and it helped me grow, because I had to be honest with myself.

Formative Assessment Plan - Enhancing Student Performances (ESED) - Fall 2024

wh03292 — 2025-04-20 17:41:01 UTC

Last semester I had to develop this Formative Assessment Plan. This activity took a lot of preparation and it was also rewarding. It allowed for me to dive into the way that I prepare my assessments. I was able to dive in and analyze a power standard that is typically difficult for my students and I wanted to figure out new strategies and activities to help my students better preform on this standard. I developed a range of differing formative assessments by including white board reviews, graphic organizers and reflective journals so that students with differing learning styles could be met. In this assessment I needed to reflect on the data and determine why students preformed well, or poorly on assessments. I learned that not one strategy fits all learner needs and that in order to understand how to better help my students, I need to ask questions about my own pedagogy so that I can reflect and come back with a better understanding on how to create better, more clear formative assessments.

Final Reflection - Trends in the Content Area (MSED) - Fall 2024

wh03292 — 2025-04-20 18:52:01 UTC

This final reflection review culminated my own pedagogical practices and new practices that I learned throughout the semester. It allowed for me to have a more nuanced perspective on how to approach and help solve many issues that students face when it comes to connecting and relating with content. I was able to dive into the forms of technology, the growing use of AI, Brain-Based learning and understanding the importance of disciplinary literacy. This project allowed for me to take all of the key components and modules throughout the semester and piece together everything that I learned from them. For a decent amount of these issues in education I was aware of them, but I failed to realize that there is a term that is tied with it. Overall this reflection reminded me of the importance to always have an open mind, to remember that a learner's background will influence their learning styles and perceived notions about education, and what outside factors influce learners in both a positive and a negative way.

Portfolio - Foundations of Technology-Enabled Learning (ITEC) - Summer 2024

wh03292 — 2025-04-20 19:36:29 UTC

Creating this portfolio was a project that I had never done before. It was a chance for me to display all of the work that I had created in the class during that semester. The purpose of this portfolio was to dive into and research differing topics in my content are and also observe teaching strategies and tools that would be useful in a social studies classroom. I was able to look into things that I was passionate about like Teddy Roosevelt's life work, reading comprehension platforms, and U.S expansion before the 20th century. I learned a great deal during my time working on this portfolio. I was able to gain more depth in some of the content areas of U.S History that I find important, while also teaching me how to devlop a website on Google Sites. This portfolio gave me the opportunity to hone in my organizational skills and to allow for my work to be shared with people who are interested. I can take these skills and use them in the future as I seem fit, I also want to try and have students do something similar once I get the chance to plan it out. I have also been able to use some of my projects in this assignment to help facilitate learning in my own classroom, mainly by using the Great Depression Comic Strip to better help students understand the severity that the Depression had on average Americans.

Final Project Application of Theories - Learning Theories and Applications (EDUF) - Spring 2024

wh03292 — 2025-04-21 02:43:35 UTC

This was one of the first classes that I took to start off my Masters course. In undergrad we learn about theories and theorists like Piaget and Vygotsky. During this class I learned about how the mind develops and the different stages that it goes through from adolescence to adulthood. It was a very interesting class and gives insight on critical times for young learners. This project was a synthesis of what I had learned throughout this class. It also answered some of the questions that I had about student learning, even though I may not have asked those questions out loud this class still answered misconceptions about adolescence and how their brain works. A couple of takeaways from this assignment that I would like to point out were The Four Types of Achievement Goals and Motivated Working Memory Allocation. The four types of achievement goals are examples of motivation, the whole concept is that no matter what your task is if you are not motivated or driven you are less likely to complete that task. When analyzing different forms of Human Cognition I chose Motivated Working Memory Allocation. They are similar concepts, but this type of human cognition is the concept that interest drive your working memory and more information is stored when you are working towards something you are interested in. With that being said it will be easier to pull from your stored memory when you are applying knowledge related to the skill, task, or event you are interested in.

Summative Assessment Final Course Project - Classroom Assessment and Data Literacy (EDUF) - Spring 2024

wh03292 — 2025-04-21 03:02:24 UTC

This class really helped me develop formative and summative assessments. For this project I had to develop a self assessment that would reach many different learning styles. In this assessment you will find questions that are multiple choice, short answer and presentations. One of the things that this class taught me is that there is not one assessment that will be the best form for students to show their understanding. Some students are more creative, others are more analytical, but many of the assessments that students have to complete to show their understanding are multiple choice questions. This form of assessment is used most often because it typically covers most of the students in a classroom and is typically easy for educators to assess a student's understanding of the content. Though I try to allow for students to have alternative ways to show their understanding. The purpose of this assessment project was to provide a way for students to show their understanding and skills in the format that best suits their learning style, whether it be through multimedia presentations or writing a traditional essay. When giving multiple options for a student to show understanding you must ensure that the performance assessment will be reliable. One task should not be easier or harder than the other. This class changed my perspective on traditional forms of assessments and I try to give students options to show their knowledge as often as I can.