Understanding Inclusion: Foundations of Inclusive Practice Reflection

Before I took Foundations of Inclusive Practice, I never really considered inclusion and just thought that students with disabilities were included when the special educator thought it was appropriate. After taking this course, I see the role of an educator a bit differently. Some of the aspects that allow us to be more inclusive make us better educators as a whole for all students, not just students with disabilities.

One of my most profound learning experiences came through the study of Universal Design for Learning. I realized that it will help me be a more effective and more inclusive teacher in the future. My thinking around how I will plan my lessons and my units in the future has shifted as a result of our class discussions and course reading. The UDL guidelines wrap everything that students need into one area, which is helpful. I like how if it is done correctly, supports like scaffolding, external supports such as checklists and graphic organizers, and more challenging material can all be incorporated into one plan naturally. In one single space, we can account for the differences in all of our students and meet all of their needs. This is a change in my thinking as I always had just thought that we would focus on adapting the lesson to meet the needs of students with disabilities. I now believe that the UDL guidelines make the least restrictive environment and inclusion more possible and an easier transition because the curriculum is guided by the students and their needs.

In one of our course readings, it was urged that the curriculum should be guided around differences and planned around those rather than planning for them after the curriculum is already in place. This is an area where I think I currently struggle because my understanding of inclusion was so off before beginning this class. I have identified this as an area where I really need to develop and grow so that my curriculum is accessible for all of my students rather than just for a few. Universal Design for Learning is the best way to design for inclusion in our classrooms.

 

Beyond Universal Design, just understanding how students in our classrooms learn best is important so that we can make sure every student has the greatest opportunity for success in our class. Before taking Foundations of Inclusive Practice, I never could have told you what the characteristics of disabilities were or how I would adjust my teaching strategies to best fit individual differences. As a result of my learning, I now have an emerging understanding of how I can help students with ADHD work on their executive functions so that they may meet a goal of being more on task in my class. Furthermore, I now know that if I have a student who has a learning disability, they are really only going to be able to learn the content if I provide them with direct instruction. Additionally, I see the importance of assisting students with autism spectrum disorders with breaking down tasks and help them with their organizational skills.

By making all of these adjustments and being aware of them before I plan my curriculum, I can integrate these pieces into my curriculum from the start. This means I will be more likely to meet the needs of every student. It also means that by including these aspects, students with individual needs are going to be more likely to succeed in my classroom. By finding ways to work in practice in skills around organization, I can assist all students and it would directly address an area where some of my students with disabilities need extra assistance. It means that students with disabilities are singled out less and can be included in classroom activities more often.

I recognize that there is still a lot for me to learn, but I am confident that I have a much better understanding of the importance of inclusion and how crucial it is to know all of our students and know what they need before we design our curriculum. Through practice and experience, I believe that I will be able to meet the needs of all of my students and create a classroom environment that will allow all students to meet their goals, whatever those goals or long term learning outcomes may be.

Chains - A Reflection on Lesson Three

An element of my teaching that I notice needs improvement is my movement around the classroom. In seeing film of my teaching Lesson Three - where I read two chapters of the novel Chains to students and had them respond to questions - this was clearly reflected. I stayed at the front of the classroom for nearly the entire 45 minute class session. Until I saw myself this way, I didn’t notice that two boys on the left side of the room weren’t at all engaged in the lesson. They were flipping aimlessly through the pages and having what appears to be a nudging war throughout the class session. I didn’t notice this at the time, in part because my face was buried in the book reading to them, but also because I stayed at the front. Had I walked around the room as I read, perhaps the students would have been more on task. Maybe they wouldn’t have, but it probably would have been more effective in helping them focus. Aside from this, I think I created a classroom climate that was positive overall. I think stopping and explaining certain vocabulary terms in the reading that they were unfamiliar with helped create that climate. In the section of the class that was filmed, it didn’t happen but later in the class, a student spoke up and asked what a specific vocabulary term meant. I think because I stopped myself and explained vocabulary terms or aspects of the book that I knew they might not understand, it helped students feel more comfortable speaking up and asking questions when they didn’t quite catch something or didn’t know what it meant.

I have to be critical of my instructional strategy. Even before seeing my teaching, I didn’t really like just reading directly to them. But, I also didn’t want to popcorn read, because I know that can lead to anxiety for a lot of students. Upon watching my teaching, I felt bored. If I feel bored by watching it, I can guarantee that there were students who shared my boredom. I don’t know right now what the best way to complete the reading would have been. Perhaps small groups? I need to come up with better strategies for having students read the same text and start and end in the same spot without me having to stand at the front of the class and read the chapter to them. There were aspects of the story that were better because I read to them and could stop and discuss or explain the section, but it’s not the greatest option for engagement purposes.

As a whole, the lesson was decent it just wasn’t particularly interesting. Maybe I would feel differently if the chapter was action-packed and the students were really excited about the reading - but that wasn’t the case this day. My take-away from this exercise is to make a conscious effort to really move around the room more rather than stay at the front of the room. Also, I need to be more aware of my students in the room if I am forced to be at the front. Finally, I need to research reading strategies to try out in my classroom.

A Semester of Growth & Progress

To be completely honest, I don't even know where to begin in trying to wrap up my thinking around everything I have learned and experienced this semester. Despite having a rough semester in terms of the amount of work I had to complete and how mentally and emotionally demanding it has been, I recognize such a shift within myself and my understanding.

For starters, I am much more successful in reflecting. This is relevant to my teaching as I was able to immediately recognize aspects of my lessons that were not working and I was able to adjust on the spot. I was able to reflect after each individual group of students and make necessary adjustments based upon the things I noticed that worked well and what fell apart immediately. After teaching, my reflections were incredible. I recognized what I did well, where I could improve, and over time I began to make those adjustments. This process was SO clear in my lessons by the end of the semester as I feel like my final lesson is one I could actually teach again in the future with only a few tweaks and adjustments. I noticed aspects that worked well and where I needed to improve and I was able to actually do that. It was really rewarding for me to have that experience.

My ideas about teaching social studies have also changed dramatically. I always thought that social studies courses that are rooted in history have to be taught chronologically. That aspect always terrified me because I'm not a linear thinker and I would rather make connections over time than go through an entire school year only moving forward event by event. To learn that we can create thematic units that don't even necessarily have to focus only on world history or only on American history was such a relief. And you know, I've realized that it's probably a million times more interesting for students if it is planned out thematically (when it's done well, anyway). I feel so much better about becoming a social studies teacher after learning about thematic units and then getting real practice with creating one.

Regarding my unit plan, I feel really proud. My first draft of the unit plan feels like garbage compared to what it is now, but I can only imagine what my first unit plan would have looked like next year as a first-year teacher if I hadn't gone through this process now. There is still so much that I really need to hone in on and practice - I'm not even going to pretend that I'm good at assessments yet, that's a real area of struggle for me - but at least I know the starting point. I know that if I am asked to complete it, which I will be, then I know where to begin. I can also recognize in my unit plans where I need to improve, so I can always turn to my coworkers or other mentors to help me in that area if it's something that they really do well with. I've gotten better about asking for assistance and being okay with feedback, even if it's not something that I want to change.

A big part of me still really fears the thought of having my own classroom in eight months. Part of me still feels like I should be a middle school student again so I can redo everything, be a better and less strategically compliant student, and have a clearer vision of where I was going in life. Regardless of this feeling, I know that I'm ready. Every choice I've made in the last six years has brought me here and I wouldn't change it for the world. Now more than ever, I know that I should be a teacher. Within a few years, I'm sure I will become a good teacher. Mostly because I've had a ton of guidance and I have the skills that will make me always strive to work harder and be a better teacher because my students deserve it.

Student teaching: ready or not, here I come.

Protecting the Government in Textbooks

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, Chapter Eight (Watching Big Brother: What Textbooks Teach About the Federal Government).

Reading this chapter was odd to me. I have studied governments and governmental actions in my political science courses for years now and yet I never considered how traditional high school history textbooks treat the government in their analyses. I have to agree with Loewen after reading this chapter that textbooks are doing Americans a disservice by understating the actions of the US government.

To pretend that our government and our society is all flowers and happiness and that we are 100% committed to helping other nations is not a fair representation. To teach this to students is misleading and makes it impossible to have an informed citizenry - something that is necessary in a democracy. Loewen asserts that "in short, textbook authors portray a heroic state, and like their other heroes, this one is pretty much without blemishes" (210). In simpler terms, textbook authors are giving a picture-perfect perspective of the government that is not representative of reality. They also try to protect the government from looking like they are doing anything wrong. When they do portray this type of view in textbooks and admit that something wrong happened they portray it is as if "others misunderstood us, or perhaps because we misunderstood the situation. But always our motives were good" and he continues that they portray the United States government as the "'international good guy'" (211).

Loewen provides multiple examples where it is illustrated that this is simply not the case. Textbooks repeatedly try to rationalize U.S. foreign policy to be about humanitarianism, but it tends to rely more upon our self-interests. Throughout history, the United States and US agencies have made attempts to bring down the leaders of other states, such as the case of Fidel Castro in Cuba. The US has also taken elected leaders out of power in their nations and replaced them with leaders that we agree with, with no regard for the fact that many individuals in these nations will not support the new leader (214). When any of these actions are mentioned, they are always put into a context of not knowing why something happened the way it did or that the US was looking to help the other nation, even though that is not reality. "Since textbook authors are unwilling to criticize the US government, they present opponents of the United States that are not intelligible. Only by disclosing our actions can textbooks provide readers with rational accounts of our adversaries" (217). But this cannot be done because textbook authors do not want to present the real situation because it does not shed favorable light upon the government.

The only real controversy that textbooks tend to cover is the Watergate scandal, but they don't delve deep into that either. Loewen spends a great deal of time outlining the actions that the FBI took against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement, and yet there are still textbooks out there that "actually credit the government, almost single-handedly, for the advances made during the period" when we know that they were trying to make King disappear or let go of the Civil Rights movement altogether (227).

After reading so many chapters of Loewen's text, I have to question why textbooks have been able to get away with these false portrayals for so many years? If textbooks continue to be this way, then we need to really make a point to show perspectives that aren't in the textbook during out class sessions until we can really push textbook companies to be reality-based rather than only covering content that makes the United States look favorable. History isn't perfect and our actions aren't always the most honorable or with the best intentions, but that does not mean that it did not happen. I would rather know the nasty truth than be stuck believing in a false reality for my whole life. I hope that my students feel the same way too.

Project-Based Learning; The Ultimate Personalized Learning Model

Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach by Alan J. Singer: Chapter 11 ("What is a Project Approach to Social Studies?").

Make Learning Personal: The What, Who, WOW, Where, and Why by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey: Chapter 4 ("Where is Personalized Learning Happening?")


To add to the learning process I went through with chapter 10, I saw another direct application of how a project-based learning approach is a personalized learning opportunity. For starters, project-based learning is listed as one of the characteristics of personalized learning models by Bray and McClaskey (121). With project-based learning, students "are required to organize themselves and each other, think critically about difficult topics, and may actually use more demanding reading material and produce more sophisticated writing" than they would in a classroom that was simply content driven (Singer, 182). Singer emphasizes that this way of learning focuses on the skills that students need and learning as if they were actual historians or social scientists rather than trying to drive the content that historians and social scientists "need to know". I argue that Singer's approach is a better one because it is so easy to look information up on Google or through web research in an instant, but skills take a long time to develop. We can find the right answer to a question anywhere, but can we always have the skills to complete a task if we don't practice them for a significant amount of time first? I would rather focus on the skills rather than the content for that very reason.

In a project-based approach to learning, it can be tailored to student needs. "Students can work as individuals or in learning teams. Projects can originate from student discussions or teachers can present previously developed ideas to their classes. The focus ... can be on academic skill development, the research process, the product created by individuals or groups, or on student presentations in class. It can also be a combination of all of these" (182). The possibilities seem to be endless.

The possibilities are also endless on how these can be completed, and all work in a personalized way. There are examples of flexible pathways through an internship "at historic sites, government offices, with economic development agencies, or with community-based organizations" (182). Those are important community partnerships that provide new learning opportunities for students outside of the traditional classroom setting.

Voice and choice is also at the heart of a project-based approach. If we allow students to come up with any representation of what they know, that provides choice. Or, we can give them a number of options to choose from. Another example of voice and choice in one school was a "'project menu'" where "students select both the type of individual and group projects they want to complete and the topics they wish to explore so that the total value of all their projects is equal to 100 points" (183). Students get the opportunity to say what they want to learn, how they want to represent that learning, and how they will complete it. That is the ultimate voice and choice!

There is a component of the teacher just guiding learning and being a coach rather than spending all of their time at the front of the classroom lecturing and forcing students to take notes. There is opportunity for UDL as there is now flexibility in time for the teacher to have the opportunity to spend more time with students with needs and who really benefit from extra time with the teacher. Learning is self-directed as "students need to take responsibility for their learning" (184). We still guide our students but they need to be reflective and be able to monitor themselves for progress. Furthermore, there is room for flexible learning spaces. The classroom should have spaces that work for every type of project - grouped desks, desks on their own, spaces for movement and to create reenactments, technology areas if there is not 1:1 tech., etc. Additionally, not all learning has to come from the "typical" classroom; learning can take place in museums, historical societies, government buildings, etc.

This chapter really added to my understanding of personalized learning opportunities. Can this project-based learning approach be combined with a thematic unit? This is a question I really seek an answer to.

Thematic Units: An Opportunity for Personalized Learning

Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach by Alan J. Singer: Chapter 10 ("How Can Social Studies Teachers Plan Controversy-Centered, Thematic, and Interdisciplinary Units?")

Make Learning Personal: The What, Who, WOW, Where, and Why by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey: Chapter 4 ("Where is Personalized Learning Happening?")

This was an eye opener for me. All semester, we have been working on thematic units, but I hadn't fully put together exactly how I could translate it into personalized learning. Singer made that happen for me to a new extent that I don't think I had come to yet.

Chapter 4 of Make Learning Personal lists different characteristics of personalized learning models including voice and choice, project-based learning, flexible learning spaces, multi-age classrooms, inquiry-based, and self-directed learning (121). All of this can take place under thematic units, and Singer's explanation made the connection clear in my head. Most of Singer's chapter explores how a thematic unit about human rights could be explored through various topics. "A thematic focus on human rights issues provides a lens for examining social conflicts, as well as social and individual choices" and forces students to consider many different issues and eventually make "informed judgments based on evidence, thoughtful consideration of individual and social values, and respect for difference" while having a choice in what they focus on (171).

Singer illustrates at least a dozen different of potential focal points for students. In world history, they could examine civil rights laws around the world with potential lenses including Nazi Germany or genocides in Africa (172). In a religious context, students can assess human rights in terms of a belief in God. This can be rooted in American history by assessing the Declaration of Independence and unalienable rights, the Catholic Church and their actions throughout history and today, in addition to justifications for slavery and other atrocities by the word of God (172). Additionally a focus on an area in early U.S. history would be acceptable. Again, students can assess unalienable rights and the Declaration of Independence or the ratification of the Constitution and surrounding rebellions (173). In more modern history, a study of the Civil Rights movement could serve the purpose or a study of current rights and assessing if reproductive rights or similar rights should be considered human rights (173). The possibilities are truly endless.

Singer also assesses a thematic unit surrounding a social group - in this case women - could be used in a similar way. U.S. history could be the focus and discuss fighting for suffrage rights in America or see how women helped to shape the country. For world history, focus on how women's rights differ throughout the world and why. In economics, "examine the changing role of women in the economy as producers and consumers" over time (176). In government, consider equal pay for women and men, how women's roles have changed in the government, their acceptance into the military, etc. The possibilities are absolutely endless.

This relates to personalized learning because we have some flexibility in how students learn these things. If the focus has to be on government because it is a government course, they can choose any lens that interests them. We don't have to say that they have to learn about a specific event or about a specific topic in order to gain content knowledge or learn the skills that are necessary for them. This is the aspect of voice and choice that Bray and McClaskey talk about. This is also entirely about self-directed learning. We may provide students with a focus by giving them a guiding question that they need to be able to respond to as a result of their inquiry, but we don't have to tell them exactly how to do it, how to answer it, or how they represent their learning.

This chapter from Singer gave me a new perspective on my unit planning. It is challenging me to come up with more examples of thematic units that I could use in courses and just realize how many examples from different areas of social studies could be incorporated into a single learning opportunity.

One Sided Story: Textbook Treatment of Native Americans

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, Chapter Four (Red Eyes).

If I had to combine what I have learned from James Loewen in chapters two through four, it is that we have a horrible tendency of understating or completely ignoring major issues in our history. It is almost like if we don't put it down in the textbook then we can pretend that it never happened. Thankfully, I think teachers today are beginning to spend less time teaching from the textbook so it may get better in coming years and a more reality-based history can be taught to students. I just want to say that I now am going to make a conscious effort in every unit of study that I teach to find examples of the "other" side of the story. In chapter four, the "other" side would be that of the Native Americans. Like chapter three, the Native perspective is almost entirely ignored by textbooks. Loewen acknowledged that in the last few decades, textbooks are giving better treatment to the Native Americans, but historically American history textbooks have a focus on white people and the European point-of-view rather than a focus on teaching reality. Loewen asserts that "authors of American history textbooks need a crash course in cultural relativism and ethnic sensitivity" (91). After reading the last few chapters of his book, I wholeheartedly agree.

I found this chapter to be a bit lengthy and it makes it a little difficult to sum up. But I was surprised by some of what I read. I didn't know that "the Pilgrims so feared Indianization that they made it a crime for men to wear long hair" or that they made it a crime - punishable by death penalty - for individuals to join Native Americans (101). Also, I was aware that this happened to a certain degree but it was good to see that Loewen spent time addressing how Native Americans became more dependent upon Europeans as time wore on whereas the European became less dependent on Natives. Europeans learned the skills that the Native Americans had to provide them, but after that they needed less and less while the Native Americans became dependent upon the technology that Europeans brought to the area (98). Unfortunately, "not one textbook tells of the process of incorporation into the global economy, none tells how contact worked to deskill Native Americans, most don't tell of increased Indian warfare, and only [one] even hints at the extent of the Native American slave trade" (98). Furthermore, the following quote will stick with me on another aspect that the textbooks missed: "Just as American societies changed when they encountered whites, so European societies changed when they encountered Natives. Textbooks completely miss this side of the mutual accommodation and acculturation process" (99). This is such a big deal. We only see how European life changed by the Natives teaching them agricultural techniques and the like, but we spend no time seeing how the lives of Natives were changed by having to interact with and share with Europeans.

To expand upon this, it is so crucial to be aware that only one side of the story is presented. One quote really stayed with me following the reading because it shows how important context is in portraying reality. "In Vermont the settlers worried about savages scalping them. This description is accurate, provided the reader understands that the settlers were Native Americans, the scalpers were white" (108). When we began to let Hollywood and popular culture educate individuals on what history looked like rather than being honest in our portrayals of history in textbooks, it gave people misconceptions on what actually happened. Hollywood has portrayed this savage stereotype of the Native American and that makes it difficult to erase those stereotypes when textbooks struggle to back us up on it. Textbooks are thankfully getting better about being honest that there was brutality and violence from both sides, but as a whole textbooks "do not challenge our archetypal Laura Ingalls Wilder picture of peaceful white settlers suffering occasional attacks by brutal Indians" (108).

Turning a blind eye to reality does not mean it did not happen. It also does not mean that because it doesn't appear in our textbooks, that people will not find out the truth. Loewen brings up a difficult but incredibly important point: "We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west 'and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination - by starvation and uneven combat' as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies" (118). This hits home. Just because the truth did not make it into our textbooks did not mean that nobody found out what really happened. We need to accept our past as it truly happened so we can learn from it.

To close my analysis of the chapter, there was a quote toward the end that really made me think about my role as an educator. The quote discusses the role of the historian and it makes me think about what I can do as a teacher to make sure that I give voices to those who have been voiceless in textbooks. "'The duty of the historian,' Gordon Craig has reminded us, 'is to restore the past the options it once had.' Craig also pointed out that this is an appropriate way to teach history and to make it memorable" (119). We need to show students that choices were made along the way that led to the events we study. Everybody chose a certain path. They chose not to actively work against being a racist society. They chose not to allow intermarriage that could have potentially lessened the violence and misunderstanding between the groups. It is also a reminder that there are multiple sides to every story and just reading about the European side is not a fair portrayal of history. As a history teacher, I need to make an active effort to shed light on all sides of the story whenever possible.

False Portrayals - The Thanksgiving Story

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, Chapter Three (The Truth About the First Thanksgiving)

The story of the First Thanksgiving was one that I didn't realize that even I have a ton of misconceptions about or had never heard pieces of the real story. It's frightening to me that these particular students thought that the first settlers were in 1620, because it shows that we follow a "white history" of sorts.

What I found most interesting in this reading was the disease and plagues that ravaged the area following the Europeans coming to America. I always knew that there were diseases but I never knew to the extent that those diseases wiped out the Native population. It seems crazy to me that the healthiness of the Native Americans was actually part of their undoing because Europeans brought those diseases that they were not resistant to. The plagues "wiped out between 90 percent and 96 percent of inhabitants of coastal New England" in a matter of three years (70). Even worse was the aftermath where survivors had to simply leave where they had been because the amount of bodies surrounding them was overwhelming. Unfortunately, leaving meant that they ended up carrying these diseases with them to other places where Europeans never went - meaning that Native Americans who had never even met a European were now dying because of the diseases that had been carried over. One quote will really stick with me following this reading: "The Europeans' advantages in military and social technology might have enabled them to dominate the Americas ... but not to 'settle' the hemisphere. For that, the plague was required" (74). How different would history be if the Native Americans had been able to survive in larger numbers? Of course we are not supposed to ask 'what if' questions, but it makes me wonder what it would look like if disease hadn't made it nearly impossible for the Natives to do anything.

Of course I knew that there was rampant racism at the time, but it was still difficult to read and understand their ways of thinking. The Europeans thought that because they were surviving from Smallpox but Native Americans were dying from it that it meant that God was choosing them (72). They believed that it was a sign from God that they were superior and it was meant to be their land. Somewhat connected to this, the Native Americans had spent time and energy providing assistance to the Native Americans, and yet the Europeans thanked God for the assistance rather than the Natives. I really struggle to follow this line of thinking, but must remind myself to not impose my own values and keep in mind that nobody would have thought the same way that I do.

Along a similar line is another quote that will stay with me. "In this invocation, the Pilgrims supply not only the origin of the United Stats, but also the inspiration for democracy in Europe and perhaps for all goodness in the world today! ... This notion that 'we' advanced peoples provided for the Indians, exactly the converse of the truth, is not benign. It reemerges time and again in our history to complicate race relations" (86). The textbooks that some history teachers are instructing from are providing this false idea that the Europeans that came to America provided for the Native Americans, and it is simply untrue. Omitting the truth that Natives were enslaved, that there was a plague brought to the area because of European disease, and that people were grave robbing speaks to the fact that these textbooks aren't concerned with telling the truth - they seem to be more concerned with spreading a false story that makes white people look better than the truth would.

So, what does this mean? A quote from Loewen shows the consequences: "Today, when textbooks promote this ethnocentrism with their Pilgrim stories, they leave students less able to learn from and deal with people from other cultures" (87). We have to be more honest in our representation of history so students can learn from it. They're not learning anything if we don't present them with reality.

End of the Road

Yesterday was the last day of my Practicum II in Mr. Scott's room. I know in my last blog post I expressed that I was so relieved that I would be returning, but that feeling is present now more than ever. I honestly don't know that I would have been happy leaving my cooperating teacher and the classroom at this point in the year. I can only imagine how tough it will be when I leave in May!


My semester in the classroom has taught me so much. I learned new technology and new ways of teaching that will change the way I look at education forever. I honestly can say that I never once saw a lesson in the classroom that I questioned if it was really getting through to students or if there was thought put into keeping students engaged. I can clearly see that students are learning in the classroom. I hear it in their discussions, I see it in the classwork that I collected after teaching my final lesson on Monday, and I can read it in their responses on Schoology.


On Monday when I taught, I saw how much I have changed already as a result of my experiences. My lesson was on the Declaration of Independence. I had students translating the Declaration into sentences that middle school students could understand without background knowledge. I saw how my experiences have been changed because I was using graphic organizers - something I have never been comfortable finding and implementing before. I used a PowerPoint to guide the introduction of the class - something I did because it's sort of a norm in their classroom and I wanted to try it out. While I didn't really use the PowerPoint for an extended period of time, it was still a good challenge for me to begin to think about how to use visual aids with my lesson so I can get through to more students. I also recognized how much more comfortable I was teaching these students at this point than I was the first time I taught them two months ago.


I am so thankful for my experiences in Mr. Scott's classroom. I can't wait to add to these lessons, and I'm already anxious for their winter break to start and come to an end so I can get back into the classroom at least once a week until student teaching begins.


Furthermore, I am particularly happy that we were required to blog about our classroom experiences. Spending the time twice a week to reflect upon my experiences has given me a different perspective. It's kind of funny how much I realize and recognize the next day as I am writing my reflection when I hadn't noticed it as I was actually experiencing it. It is my goal to continue this practice at least twice a week during my student teaching (regardless of if it is a requirement or not) so that I can continue this practice of reflection.

Peer Observation & Substitutes

Today was a completely new experience in my practicum. Mr. Scott was absent, so the daily routine was thrown off as we had a substitute teacher. Thankfully, the special educator who works with the team came in and assisted during our advisory block because students were expected to complete what could be a difficult assignment. In preparing and developing their PLP, they were provided with a handout that has sixteen habits of mind listed and described. They included things like perseverance, finding the humor in situations, creating and innovating, striving for accuracy, etc. They were required to choose one of these habits of mind and describe three examples of how they have worked toward it this year. In other words, they begin the process of gathering evidence that they are meeting a proficiency - which in this case is a habit of mind. By the end of the class session (about 40 minutes), they should have completed this process for two habits of mind.

Some students really excelled with this and other students really struggled. I am happy to say that I was able to step in and really provide assistance since I have been in the classroom so long. I've gotten to know some students well enough that I could point toward extra-curricular examples that they hadn't considered. For instance, there is one habit of mind that essentially boils down to being able to work in groups and think with others to come to one good idea. I was able to mention that he plays a sport and that he should think of an instance related to that. Once I opened his eyes to the potential outside of just classroom curriculum, the entire process became much easier and came more naturally to him.

After that, I actually spent time watching one of my peers teach a lesson. On Monday I will be teaching about the Declaration of Independence, so it was actually twice as valuable for me to watch because she was teaching about the Declaration as well. It gave me with ideas on things that could really work well with my own students as well as seeing things that probably wouldn't work in my classroom.

As a whole, watching my peer teach a lesson was an incredibly valuable lesson. Something that I personally struggle with is classroom management when students are working in small groups and I'm going around the room helping them. I noticed that she also may have struggled with this as she spent time with one group and the students on the other side of the room became louder and less productive as time passed. Mostly, I recognized a lot of strengths and what she did well. It provided me with a nice reminder that we may not feel the best about a lesson when we walk away from it, but the people who are watching it may see it a different way. I know she didn't walk away from the lesson feeling spectacular about it but I thought it was a good lesson and she tried a lot of different teaching methods and at the end of the lesson, the students certainly had learned something. It's nice to get a little perspective on this.

It was a great day in my placement and I'm definitely feeling a little disappointed that I'm going to be away from the classroom for over a month. Thank goodness I will be returning for the spring semester!

Flexible Pathways and Creativity

It is absolutely insane to me that I am in my final week of my Practicum II. I'm really excited that I will be returning to Mr. Scott's classroom for student teaching in a month and a half, but it will be so strange to step away from the classroom for over a month!

Classes were shortened on Wednesday, so I saw my usual two eighth grade classes in the time span that I would usually see one. They're currently working on a project for the American Revolution project where they are taking on the role of either a real or imaginary individual, deciding if they are going to be a loyalist or patriot, and write a letter to a loved one explaining what's happening. They're expected to be able to apply what they know about the positions of loyalists and patriots and the various acts such as the Quartering Act, Stamp Act, Intolerable Acts, and their reactions to events like the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party and have that be reflected in their letter.

There is also a component to it where students should handwrite it on fake parchment paper, to pretend that they are actually writing this letter in the late 1770s. Most students have decided to write it in cursive as they felt like this was more realistic. One student even took the time to do calligraphy on the "D" in "Dear". They are having the opportunity to make their learning a little more real, and for the most part, they seem to be enjoying it.

The second part of the day was spent touring the local technical center. While these students are only seventh and eighth graders, they could begin taking courses at the tech center in tenth grade. We got to explore 12 or 13 of the available programs, hear from the students and teachers in the programs, and see what they are currently working on. It was actually really incredible to see what they're doing. Jerry, a male student in seventh grade, immediately lit up with excitement when we entered the creative media and digital arts classrooms when he saw the large iMacs, photography equipment, heard that there is a radio station down the hallway, and that he would have the opportunity to use all of this equipment for free and gain college credit for it in his high school years. He turned to me and said, "this is the perfect classroom for me!"

Seeing Jerry's excitement and the excitement of other students as we visited culinary arts, construction, business, and other programs showed me that personalized learning and flexible pathways is SUCH a good thing. I've always thought it was a good idea but seeing how these flexible pathways are helping students who knew what they were interested in and that they could apply their math, science, and other knowledge to create something like an entire house while still in high school was eye opening. I turned to my friend and fellow student teacher and told her that if I had known what was taking place at the tech center when I was in school, I would have definitely attended the business program when I was a senior.

I know the tour was meant for the middle school students to see what options are available to them, but I honestly think I received as much information as they did. It should be a requirement of all area teachers to visit the tech center and see what options are available to students. It helps put everything into perspective and even come up with our own ways of making some of these projects real in our own classrooms even if students don't attend the technical center. I know that if I personally keep the visit in mind and apply aspects of it to my own classroom, I'll most likely be a better educator as a result of it.