EDSE Class Activites 

Question: After your 385 experiences, re-define your definition of PRAXIS for me. What changed? Why?

Answer: 

-   PRAXIS is licensing exams that pertain to each of our concentrations and each subject we want to teach. Each subject has a separate licensing exam that as long as you pass the exam, you are able to teach. PRAXIS also consists of an exam that pertains to the teaching methods, educational psych, classroom management, and more.

-   Critiquing instruction, focus observations, content knowledge, theory,

-   Constant theoretical work, culturally responsive way to teach.

Question: After your 385 experiences, re-define “good teaching” for me. What changed? Why?

Answer: 

Patience, classroom management, critical thinking, increasing content knowledge. 

Specific

What am I going to do? Why is this important to me?

-   I am going to become more comfortable with being assertive with students and being able to have effective classroom management. It is important to me because I feel like I could be a ‘push-over’ teacher and I want to be a confident teacher. With this comes increasing content knowledge and implementing that into the lessons that I create.

Measurable

How will I measure my success? How will I know when I have achieved my goal?

-   I will measure my success by creating and following through with classroom rules and being direct with students. I will know that I achieved my goal by creating an effective lesson plan that shows that I had effective classroom management and affectively taught the content to students using diverse learning methods. I will also know that I have achieved my goal when students are willing to ask direct questions, turn in/ do their work and grasp an understanding for the content being taught.

Attainable

What will I do to achieve this goal? How will I accomplish this goal?

-   Work and practice on giving my lessons and being direct with students. I will accomplish this goal by seeing how my mentor/ host teacher instills classroom management and interacts with students. And then go from there and see how I would like to follow some of those classroom management techniques or use different techniques that I may feel are more effectively useful for students and creating a positive/safe learning environment.

Relevant

Is this goal worthwhile? How will achieving it help me? Does this goal fit my values?

-   Yes, because it will allow me to be better at assessing where my students are and how I need to be teaching my lessons. This goal does fit my values because I am always working to become more confident in the classroom and have structure with students. Structure is very important, and it also allows for a cohesive classroom with a good student-teacher relationship.

Time bound

When will I accomplish my goal? How long will I give myself?

-   I will accomplish my goal in increments and hopefully by the end of the first rotation.  I will give myself until the end of the semester and see which aspects I most improved on in relation to my SMART Goal.

Olivia Baughman

8/22/23

Question: What expectations and worries do you have concerning EdTPA? Why do you feel Ball State requires EdTPA for graduation?

Answer: I am worried about completing EdTPA on time and completing it effectively, in terms of it being comprehensive enough that it coherently shows my teaching skills and the knowledge students have learned. 

Question: Is UDL true differentiation? And does UDL truly encompass the major pieces of lesson planning but focus on the WHAT, WHY, and How of a lesson?

Answer: -   UDL is true differentiation because it allows educators to create lesson planning that meets the needs of all students. UDL encompasses the major pieces of lesson planning because it allows students to recognize the material, engage with the content in differentiated formats of instruction, and learn how to adapt and grow in their skill sets. Relevance gets students engaged and willing to participate in class. HOW students show their learning, and students can do this by talking in small group work and recognition is getting into small groups. WHY could be the hook of a lesson, WHAT could be documented?

Question: Tailoring the learning and education being given to students to make things more accessible for each student. Tweaks are being made to lesson plans to make it flow better.

Question: -   Define “gifted and talented”. What does that mean in terms of the student? The student’s curriculum? The student’s needs? The student’s schedule?

Answer: o   Gifted and talented pertain to students who excel in certain subjects/ disciplines and are often above grade level. The student often or could be ahead of other students and understand certain subjects quicker than other students. The student's curriculum will be different than other students in terms of being in AP or honors classes that align with what they do well. The students will or could be given more work and it may begin to crowd what they are learning. The student's schedule will have classes that align with the gifted and talented.

Re-Answering After Reading: 

o   Educators use professional knowledge of general and specialized curriculum to advance learning. Accelerate and enrich the general curriculum.

o   Gifted and talented is an environment that students are placed in that fosters culturally responsive classrooms that challenge students’ inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. Students have different rules and places/ viewed differently than other students. They may have more access to resources which can give them more opportunities in school than in lower-level classes.

o   Students that you plan lessons a little differently for. 

10/11/23

-   Do you feel like you have approached or met your ACORN goal after the first rotation?

o   If yes, provide examples of you having shown your ability to reach this goal. Do you feel like you want to keep the same goal for the second rotation or draft a new one? Why?

o   If no, why do you feel like you have not met your goal? What circumstances impacted your ability to meet or show progress towards it? Do you want to keep this same goal for the second rotation or draft a new one? Why?

§  I feel like I have not met my goal because, in the classroom that I have been placed in, there are not really any specific classroom guidelines or rules. The classroom is very lax and student-centered, yet my mentor teacher does not really enforce any rules, for ex. if a student is on their phone, he allows them to be on their phone while he is teaching. I have not gotten on any students for being on their phones. I have asked students to focus on their work and get work done, however, I have not forced them to work. I did not want to overstep or be overbearing. I am still working on my confidence in myself when it comes to addressing the class as a whole in being strict in terms of ensuring that they are effectively working. The class usually behaves well so there isn’t really a need for ‘discipline’ in classroom management.

§  I would like to change/alter my ACORN Goal, still work on assertiveness in classroom management but also be able to create and effectively teach a week-long lesson plan.

Question: Aside from how we have already discussed UDL and differentiation for Exceptionalities and G&T what other forms of “broader” differentiation can we use to help plan lessons and support for students?

Answer: 

• Grouping 

  • Small group/large group

  • grouping with students with different learning styles

• Create differentiated lesson plans for students 

• Create differentiated lesson plans that include learning objectives and assessments that are tiered for student 

Question: What is the difference between a student’s ability level and a student’s level of readiness for a lesson/standard?

o   Student’s ability level is what students are currently able to understand and be able to do with their skills. A student’s level of readiness for a lesson or standard depends on more than just their ability level to understand the content. It depends on their motivation, engagement, emotional state, IEP or no IEP, and more. When bringing tiering into this, it makes me think of the part of the lesson plan where if you have more time, then how will I as a teacher expand or extend the lesson in order for students to get the most out of it. Perhaps moving from one tier to another. Accommodating for the different needs of students in a fair and just way. They need to be specific, tangible/ measurable. 

Today in EDSE after listening to instruction, learning and tangibly doing an activity while understanding the concept of how to implement the Understand, Know, and Do into the classroom, we were asked to get in groups. While in groups, we reflected on what we have taken away from our practicum class, mentor teacher's pedagogy and activites based off of tiering and differentiating a lesson. We also reflected on how we ourselves have implemented this into our own lessons we have taught while in practicum. 

We were given a Learning Objectives Activity worksheet and asked to decipher which learning objectives were: Specific, Measurable, Student Centered, and Outcome-Based. We were also asked to rewrite the learning objectives. However, I did not finish the worksheet because a classmate and myself began having a fruitful conversation between ourselves and then our professor about separating and identify Specific and Measurable objectives. We also began trying to break down and analyze the learning objectives and if they could wholy be classififed as one or the other. I found this more beneficial than trying to complete the worksheet. 

Below I am attaching the worksheet.