Week 3

This was another strange week since Monday we had off for MLK day and then Tuesday we had an Institute day. The Institute day was good to experience but I was disappointed that a lot of the teachers weren't paying attention during the presentations. I learned about TDQ's (text driven questions) and Close Readings from the reading specialists from the district. I also learned all about the Foutans and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment. On top of hearing some great presentations, I was able to write down a bunch of teacher resources like literacy shed, and receive a bunch of handouts to use in my future classroom. We also worked on writing the grade level SMART goals.

On Wednesday we got a new student! She is extremely bright and made it into the Math Challenge team on her first day! I also went to my first 504 plan meeting this day and it went so well! Everyone was so prepared and it was great to be on such a great planning team in which I could tell the mother felt supported and comforted by the teachers and staff present. I loved that the 6th grade middle school special education teacher was there too to talk about transition into middle school.

On Thursday, I taught a math lesson that was supposed to be a review of equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions in word problems. We had been working on multiplying fractions all week but we were going to have a word problem assessment on Friday so I wanted to review. I was so confused because it seemed like all my students completely forgot the past month we spent learning about equivalent fractions! I assigned some extra review problems for homework and said my prayers that they would not forget tomorrow on the assessment.

On Friday, it was assessment day!! They had a social studies quiz, and a math quiz, and a spelling pre-test! They did awesome. We also did a 3 part activity with the story of the 3 little pigs. First, I read them 3 different versions of the story and we did compare and contrast t-charts. We also did stations in which they noted differences, the point of view, the narrator, and the main characters for each story. Although overall the assessments went well, two of my students who participate the most and who I know knew the material, scored far below the rest. I decided to make a decision to talk to each of them individually about the quiz and they both expressed having anxiety and knowing they did poorly. I decided to pull them out of class during reading contract time and give them an opportunity to redo the parts they missed and earn back half the points so that I could give them a meets for the standard since I knew that they had mastered the skills. I did not want to punish them for one bad performance because of stress.

Overall, it was a great week and I think that I really grew in the areas of professional development and assessments. IPTS standards 9 and 7. Specifically 9A which states, "evaluates best practices and research-based materials against benchmarks within the disciplines."
 
Schmidt Chapter 4

My understanding of culture was changed by my reading of Schmidt in 3 ways. First, on page 77, I was introduced to the perils of color blindness. I cannot count how many times I have heard the phrase "I'm color blind" used in a positive manner to show that a person does not see people's race or cultural differences. In fact, they treat everyone the same, ignoring anything that makes them a unique individual. Through reading this section of the text, I came to a better understanding of why being colorblind is not truly accepting all cultures in the classroom. Instead, we should notice, and celebrate and learn from each other's cultural differences.

Second, I learned that it is better to "keep your eye on the prize" than to use every "mistake" as a teachable moment- especially if they are culturally sensitive ones. Just because a student has a different dialect or a language difference because of their culture, does not mean that every time they do not use proper American English, that you should correct them. Sometimes it is far more beneficial to the student to just respond to them instead of negatively drawing attention to their cultural difference.

Thirdly, I learned that we as teachers must create a culture of inclusion rather than a culture of exclusion. I loved the quote on page 89 that said, "Social equality cannot be attained merely with material resources. Those who have knowledge and education must be ready to share it with those who lack them, for inequality in money and property is not always most tragic. There is an even more crying inequality-- between those who know and those who do not know."  --Golda Meir. I think that that is so perfectly stated. It is quite tragic that there are still those who are not given equal opportunities and are surrounded in exclusive environments.