Week 8 reflection- Differentiation

 This week was all about differentiation. I learned a couple of very important things this week:

1. differentiation can be simple and effective at the same time, 2. differentiation does not have to stand out or be obvious, 3. differentiation should not always look the same, 4. there are a lot of different ways and reasons to differentiate.

In the classes I have observed so far there has been obvious differentiation and no differentiation. I observed a drama class where the teacher gave a great deal of autonomy and leeway on assignments as a general rule and not necessarily to consciously differentiate but just to get students to participate and be creative. The secondary math 1 class I observed had guided notes for everyone each day. The teacher did this to make sure she was accommodating any students that had that in their IEP. Some classes had students that had this and others did not. She found it to be simpler to use them for everyone so that she didn't have to think about who was supposed to get them. 

I feel like I haven't seen a lot of differentiation that was thought out and planned. What I have seen is just what is easy or made sense for the class. I want to be very deliberate with my differentiation. I want to be able to pin point what I did and why I did it. I don't want to take the easy way out. I think this will take some practice to really perfect. I will also have to put a bit more time and effort into it, but I think it will be more beneficial to my students that way.

Week 7 Reflection

 This week we talked about standard based grading and no grade classrooms. I am a big fan of standard based grading. I follow a couple of Tik Tok creators that do standard based grading. I know that I will need to take the time to write the standards in student friendly language. I really prefer standard based grading for math. I think it will help students know what they need to work on and not have to guess at what things they need to work on.  I often got/get tests back and wonder where I went wrong and if it was the same thing on every problem, it would have been very helpful to know exactly what I needed to work on to get a better score. It will also help encourage students to keep working toward mastery if they know what to work on to improve their grade. I also feel that it will help them to enjoy math a little more. It is easier to like a subject when you feel like you can get better at it and do well, I feel that standard-based grading lends itself to this and will be better for the students and also help me to differentiate teaching based on what students need to work on. I am excited to utilize standard-based grading in my classroom.

Week 6 Reflection

 On Tuesday we talked about diversity in our classrooms. My main take away from this discussion is how important it is that we get to know our students and their situations. We can't let our own implicit bias affect how we treat students. Without a true relationship with our students we will not be able to help them succeed. 

On Thursday we talked about formative assessments. I really like how varied and informal formative assessments are. I hope to use many different formative assessment types in my classroom. I feel that varying those assessments will keep my students from getting bored. When a teacher used a single type of formative assessment, such as worksheets, students become apathetic about completing them and come to dislike them. As teachers we need to make sure we don't get stuck in a rut and fall into using only traditional assessments. Doing this puts different students at a disadvantage, such as EL learners, students with learning disabilities, etc. I think it is important to remember that formative and summative assessments can be fun and creative. 

Week 5 Reflection

 I think the main take away this week was not to stereotype your students. Do not assume that all students have the same resources and previous knowledge that will be required for your class. I think it is extremely important to understand where your students are coming from. You can gather information through get to know you forms, personal interactions with the students, and if needed, from other teachers that have taught the student. I am firmly in the little to no homework camp. Partly because I volunteer at the school where I will be teaching and I have seen how much some of these kids struggle with large amounts of homework. The small charter school has quite a few kids with IEPs, a lot of students with rough home situations and even foster kids, assigning unnecessary homework puts these kids at a disadvantage. One class that I was observing had a very bright student that was falling farther and farther behind in her class. I spoke with her and discovered she did not have access to a graphing calculator at home and the online link the teacher suggested hadn't worked. She also had no knowledge of how to use the online version which was quite different from the one used in class. The teacher was assigning 30-60 homework problems each day. There was no way this student could excel in a class where she was at such a disadvantage. Just this week I was struggling with my son and his homework, his school is doing hybrid at the moment, he watched a video for his math class and discovered when he went to do the assignment that he needed a protractor and a compass. I thought we had a compass but couldn't locate it and we did not have a protractor. I did not have time to run to the store so we had to borrow one from someone else. Had there been communication between the teacher and myself, I could have made sure we had the proper tools for my son to do his assignment. But there are many families that can't run out and get extra tools for their children. As educators we need to be aware of these things. If a graphing calculator is required for homework we need to be sure that our "link" works on all operating systems and show the students how to use it. We have to make sure they have access to the internet. We need to be setting students up for success not for failure.

Week 4 reflection

 This week we talked about Rubrics and creating good rubrics. I have been following a science teacher on TikTok that does standard based rubrics and grading and I really like the idea of them. I know it will be a lot of work to translate the current math standards into standards that my students understand but I like how it gives a student the knowledge of where they stand according to what they should learn throughout the year. I also appreciate that it helps to make sure that I am teaching all the standards and lets me know if there is a standard that needs more work for the entire class. This teacher also allows students to do retakes of just the standard that they did not do well on, instead of retaking everything. I like that this concept encourages students to go back and do a little more work to understand the single standard. This would help keep them from becoming overwhelmed and let them reflect on why they struggle with just one standard and not all of the content. I know as a parent it would have been very helpful to see that kind of rubric/feedback on my son's math tests last year. I was never sure which concept he was struggling with when he got a bad grade on a test. It also relieves some of that pressure that comes with retakes, the student can focus their studies and remediation on the standard(s) they struggled with.

Secondary Curriculum Reflection week 3

 It was a week of learning for sure. I appreciate the need to plan ahead and have an idea of what you want to cover and when you want to cover it. It was helpful to go through the standards and think about how a student would view the flow of material. My group talked about how when you follow the standard strands for math in order Geometry and Statistics seem disconnected and like unrelated topics to the rest of the course. This is probably why they were taught as totally separate classes for so long. We looked for ways to integrate those standards in with expressions, equations, and functions so that the students could see how the different parts of math tie together. I feel like that is so important!

I also liked coming up with essential questions that would make students think and start making connections between the different topics. It was also really useful to use Jr High for this assignment so that I will be familiar with those standards and have an idea of what should be covered before I teach them in High School. It is also good in case I need to teach a combination of junior high and high school math classes which is a definite possibility at the small charter school where I will be teaching. It also really had me considering teaching at a junior high level. I was thinking about how I want students to see that math can be fun and I thought about how that would have more impact at a lower grade so that the mindset could follow them into their secondary math courses. I may just ask to teach a junior high class or two and see how it impacts students.

Secondary Curriculum Reflection 2

 My content area is Math. I believe that the purpose of math is to help students understand the language of the world. Math permeates every part of life and most people don't even realize it. I feel that it is my privilege to show students how math is needed in life and how it helps to explain so many amazing things in nature. Math is a universal language and students need to know that learning math is like learning another language. Each piece builds on the one before and when you become fluent you can communicate effectively with others.

This week we talked about Essential questions. I really like to contemplate ways to ask questions in a math class that invokes discussion and differing thought processes. It is so different from the way that I was taught math. I want students to see the advantages of thinking about problems from different perspectives and how sometimes someone else will find a path that they didn't and that both paths can lead to the same place. I feel like this is a life skill that is important. I am excited to teach math in a way that will hopefully spark a more positive outlook on math as a whole. I want my students to enjoy class not dread it and I feel like encouraging discussion and diversity of thought will go a long way towards that.