Blog 2 Social Studies

Hey friends! This is my second blog of the semester for SS307. It is SO wild to me that midterms are upon us, and the end of the semester is so near in sight. The month of February was very busy for me. I started the month by finishing up my swim season at our Conference meet in Athens, GA. Now that I am in off-season, I am excited to solely focus on all things education and putting my heart into my passion, which is teaching.

We have started volunteering at Washington Elementary school this month! This is something we are doing as a class and we each go to a different classroom to observe/help and do a little bit of teaching. This has been such a fun way for me to get my feet wet with some observation hours that are consistent and very beneficial. I am placed with a fifth grade teacher which has been a blessing so far. Originally, I was not so pleased with being placed in a 5th grade classroom. They remind me of my younger siblings and usually I just get annoyed with that age group way faster than K-2 students..They are a lot sassier and have developed lots of their own opinions!! This can just be a little intimidating for me to deal with. Experiencing this specific 5th grade classroom and beginning to build relationships with them has been such an awesome experience. It has completely changed my opinion on older grades and I honestly would totally be happy if I got a job in a 3-5 position. Even though the younger students are my favorite and I love them so much, I think having more content to teach honestly makes lesson planning a little bit easier. The teacher I observe only teaches English Language Arts for the whole 5th grade. I think that would be something I could be really good at. I think it is easier to convey concepts and content to 5th graders than it is to the younger kids. There is so much more content and it seems like even though there is TON of stuff incorporated into the 5th grade standards, I really do think that they are a special age and very fun to be around. The teacher I am placed with is a recent Gardner-Webb graduate and has been able to share so many great tips and important advice with me. I feel so lucky that I got placed with her! The thing that I have most been involved in has been helping the students in reading groups. The reading has mostly consisted of passages with questions that are similar to the ones they will receive on a standardized test. The short stories have been in test packets & have been really cool and the kids seem really interested in them. I have been going through the questions with them and making "I know because" statements where the students specify where in the text they found their answer so that they can justify whether it is wrong or right. I thought this was a really cool way to help students with persuasive writing while at the same time, helping them to take time to go back and double check their answers, and identify careless mistakes.
For my outside research I looked at a study done by Carolyn Denton, Ph.D. The study was about selecting and implementing Evidence Based Reading Strategies. The article said that students do not outgrow reading difficulties, they need quality intervention to do well and get past difficulties. Kids that are lower on the reading efficiency scale need more practice, more practice, and efficient instruction. Because of their learning gap, they need extra attention or the gap is only going to get bigger. Something I really like about the fifth grade classroom I am observing in is that my teacher does give extra help to those who struggle with reading, and they do not get left in the dust or forgotten about.

https://nysrti.org/files/statewide_trainings/2012/new_york_rti_11-2-12_part_1_handouts.pdf


Ed-TPA

edTPA has been a huge part of our class discussion the past couple of weeks. EdTPA is a "performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system used by more than 600 teacher preparation programs in some 40 states to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom." This assessment is very detailed and is an excellent way for us to prepare for student-teaching. The discussions we have had in class have helped me further my knowledge so much and have answered soooo many questions that I have had about this assessment. In order to score well on this assessment there are so many small details that need to be addressed and proven from my lesson plan and I think it has helped me understand how to completely better my lesson plan. Overall, I think the discussions we have had on edTPA have made me much more aware of WHY I need to plan my assessment first and also just how important differentiation is. In my future classroom, I want to cater to each student to the absolute best of their ability in order to help each one of them succeed. Throughout my high school and college experience, I have struggled significantly with attention-span difficulties. Having teachers and adults who were willing to work with me and help me be confident in my ability to succeed has made so much of a difference than if it were an issue that was just completely ignored. Reading in edTPA how I need to specifically make plans for how I am going to help children with learning challenges is going to help me make my classroom a place where learning is facilitated in the best way possible. This directly correlates with NCTCS Standard 2, which says that teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students. "Diverse" refers to special needs,learning challenges, family life, and culture. It is a teachers job to make their classroom a safe and welcoming so that all learners feel accepted and like it is more than possible for them to succeed. The classroom I am in at Washington displays this standard to me in real life and gives me such a good example of what a diverse and learning facilitating classroom looks like. In my future classroom I want students to feel like differences make them special and differences should be respected and appreciated! I am going to do this by continuing my PDP research, ed-TPA guidelines, and also keeping my students well-being at my top priority over things like standardized testing scores. At the end of the day, all of it is temporary, but feeling loved is something that can change a students life.


Websites:

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf

 https://nysrti.org/files/statewide_trainings/2012/new_york_rti_11-2-12_part_1_handouts.pdf