Competencia 2

Conocimiento del estudiante y del proceso de aprendizaje

El estudiante maestro demuestra conocimiento de las diversas maneras en las que se desarrollan y aprenden los estudiantes y organiza las actividades para atender a sus diversas necesidades así como sus intereses y talentos.

"Meeting the needs of all students starts with knowing who your students are"

- Elena Aguilar

In order to meet the students needs it is necessary to understand what their capabilities and abilities are as well as, their weaknesses. Understanding these factors are essential for an educator to accurately address their needs during the teaching process. Therefore, as a result of my practicum experience I include two pieces of evidences. The first evidence is an "All About Me" worksheet that I gave to each student on the first day that I started to teach to them. The first day I presented myself through a PowerPoint presentation and the students had the chance to ask me questions. This was important for the students to get to know more about me. After that, I provided the "All About Me" worksheet in which they wrote details about them and their interests. Doing this activity allowed the students to connect with me and develop a student-teacher relationship that enhanced the learning and teaching process. For my second evidence, I include a video of me reflecting upon my meeting with the Special Education teacher. During this meeting I was able to learn about my students accommodations and special needs. This is extremely important because it is a legal requirement for teachers to adapt and accommodate the material based on the students needs. By accommodating my instruments to their needs I am creating a student-centered environment and tending to their multiple intelligences.

From the worksheet provided to the students I learned about their interests and I also noticed that most of them liked to do sports and video games. I was able to used this information and it allowed me to understand that my students were very active. That was one of the reasons as to why I made educational activities that required the students to move around the classroom. Another detail I learned about them was that they were very technological and I used online games to address this particular interest. This allowed me to ensure the participation of all my students which was something that was important for me. It's important because I believe that through class participation not only I am able to assess the students; they are able to develop their critical thinking skills and also use the language more. Furthermore, I learned that by accommodating my students they are able to comprehend the material being taught. As time progressed and I became more aware of my students needs it enabled me to integrate it to the materials I created.

Which brings me to my next point, integrating and knowing what type of assessment and material to use in order to meet each of my students need was a challenge. It was a challenging process because in my classroom 70% of my students needed accommodations and the remaining students knew and comprehended the material a lot faster. Therefore, trying to find and create materials that takes these particularities into consideration was difficult for me, however meeting up with the Special ED teacher was a necessary part of this process. It also helped me to substantially because the teacher gave me a lot of ideas on what to do with the students that have worked before with her. I had to also combine my previous knowledge of accommodations and internet resources to have a balanced classroom.

For future experiences I would do a student inventory as I did in my practicum experience but at the beginning of the semester. In doing so, I would use their interest and incorporate it into my planning and teaching process. In addition, meeting with the school's Special Education teacher was essential but I will do this not only because it is a legal requirement but because I genuinely care for my students learning experiences. Having gone trough this process of teaching to a group of students with such diverse and specific needs allowed me to become a better person and teacher. This is because it enabled me to provide support to the students that needed special accommodations to achieve the same instructional goals as students without them. As a result of this, it impacted my students performance in a positive manner.

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“If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn"

-Ignacio Estrada

A successful class can be considered one in which the teacher makes the students understand what is taught and that knowledge can be applied later in their lives in one way or another. This last point mentioned, teachers are not always witnesses of this, however, if they can create spaces where the student can participate in their learning process. For this to happen, I believe that every teacher should incorporate in their teaching planning activities, resources or creative strategies that capture the interest of students and incorporate them into class discussions. This is important, because thanks to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which recognizes the diversity of skills and abilities that every human being has, it allows us to take into account the fact that not everyone learns in the same way. Knowing this should encourage creativity and dynamism in the classroom.

In the August to December 2020 semester, I was taking a class called EING 4007: Materials Preparation Workshop. This class consisted of learning and creating different materials that can be incorporated into teaching. The evidence attached at the bottom of this section is about creating three puppets. After creating them a presentation was made explaining the purpose of the puppets and how that creation process was for me. The blue puppet was inspired by a character from a book called "Pete the Cat". It was made with toilet paper cardboard, glitter paper, water bottle caps, yarn, pipe cleaners and cardboard. The second puppet was inspired by superheroes and was made with a sock, blue thread, and plastic eyes. The third puppet was inspired by a bear and was made entirely of felt and plastic eyes.

Integrating puppets into a classroom helps with integration, motivation, and the development of reading and oral communication skills. These puppets can be incorporated when reading a story, as it can bring a character to life and capture the students' attention, etc. I chose this work as evidence because it demonstrates knowledge in the creation of materials as an educational resource that can address the diversity and retention of interest on the part of the students. In order to carry it out, I had to learn about these resources and expanded my ideas on how to integrate puppets in a classroom. After performing and learning about it, I understood that using puppets in a classroom helps students express themselves, personalize vocabulary and communicate in public. These are aspects that an English teacher should consider, as these resources take them out of a traditional instruction and turn it into a more creative and dynamic one. Trying to capture students' interest is important so that students can retain the information. Using different materials, incorporating activities, or changing pedagogical strategies are key to meet the needs of students in their learning process.

“Todos somos genios. Pero si juzgas a un pez por su habilidad de trepar árboles, vivirá toda su vida pensando que es inútil”

– Albert Einstein

Es evidente que existe una diversidad en el salón de clases, cada estudiante es diferente, con sus fortalezas individuales y específicas, a esto le llamamos inteligencias múltiples. Esto es un concepto de la cual cada docente y futuro docente debe estar consciente, por tal razón se deben buscar maneras de enseñar y evaluar a los estudiantes de tal forma que sea justo y tengan toda la oportunidad de dar su máximo desempeño en el salón. Nos toca educar para desarrollar las potencialidades de cada estudiante, por tanto, debemos de dar una clase participativa, y actividades que complementen esas inteligencias porque de otra forma la retención de los estudiantes no seria la misma. Tendríamos un salón donde unos están pendientes y otros no, aburridos o distraídos por eso buscar diferentes maneras de atender esas diferencias dentro de un salón de clases es sumamente esencial.

El 30 de marzo del 2019 fui a un taller de capacitación de maestros de mi iglesia (Casa de Restauración y Revelación, Oasis de Amor) ya que formo parte del grupo de maestros que dan las clases bíblicas. En el mismo nos instruyeron en las diferentes formas de llevar actividades, como desarrollar una clase, qué materiales se pueden usar para complementar la clase y la administración del tiempo. También hablaron sobre las diferentes edades de los niños que van a las clases bíblicas sus etapas de desarrollo y sobre las inteligencias múltiples. Luego de lo discutido se hizo una actividad donde dividieron los maestros en grupo y nos dieron diferentes lecciones bíblicas y había que desarrollar la misma clase para los diferentes grupos de edades (niños de 5-8, 9-12 y mixto). A mi grupo le tocó desarrollar la clase para las edades mixta y fue una muy gran oportunidad de aplicar lo aprendido en el taller (ver evidencia en la parte posterior del texto).

El desarrollo hipotético que hizo mi grupo y yo fue, como inicio a manera de introducción se cantó una canción donde luego se les preguntaría a los niños sobre alguna idea de lo que se trataría la clase. Al nuestro grupo ser uno mixto, como desarrollo de la clase, la historia se realizó en forma de drama donde los niños de mayor edad actuarían lo que el maestro leyera y los niños más pequeños observarían. Se hizo también visuales con plastilina para que interactuaran con ellos y al final se realizaría una manualidad referente a la historia. Lo que se quería lograr con la actividad de aplicación era, mantener a los niños de mayor edad integrados al actuar y los niños pequeños pendientes al drama y al final con la manualidad tener algo significativo que les haga recordar de la enseñanza integrando ambas edades.

Hay ciertos niños que van a las clases bíblicas que son más visual, otros donde tenemos que ser más interactivos porque de otra manera se aburren en la clase y otros que les gusta hacer manualidades. Como maestra de clases bíblicas me gusta llevar mis clases atendiendo cada una de esas necesidades para lograr que los niños que se den cita allí se diviertan y aprendan al mismo tiempo. Asistir a este taller me ayudo a mejorar esas destrezas que lo necesitaban para así poder dar mejores clases bíblicas.

No puede eliminar este segmentoDescarga de responsabilidades: Los trabajos que presenta el estudiante en el portafolio electrónico son responsabilidad de éste y no representan, necesariamente, las posturas de la Institución. La Universidad de Puerto Rico no se hace responsable de los errores. El estudiante tiene la responsabilidad de cumplir con las políticas de tecnología del Sistema Universitario de la UPR.