Educational Practices

 Stations - Differentiated Instruction

These 3 stations were made up of 3 different fables, each with a different reading difficulty. These stations were made so that students can learn how to infer theme using character actions and the results. Students would work as pairs or as a group to fill in the character actions and results box and  use these actions and results to do determine the theme

This artifact shows competency in using differentiated instruction because students can have someone read a story out loud to them if needed, there were answer choices in the poem for students who struggled with writing to copy if the theme  they were thinking related to one for the choices. It also  promoted collaboration or independent work depending on student needs.  I think the Artifact really helped promote student led discussion and productive struggle through all the ways the students could work through out the station. However, I do think I could improve that stations for next time.

I would modify these stations by making sure that there was more than one copy of the fable for each station. I found not having multiple copies lead to some disruption about who would read the Fable and students not wanting to hear others read. By making sure each student can have their own copy it allows for less disruption and for students to be able to underline and highlight their evidence.

Exit Ticket - Academic Language

I have created a lot of anchor charts and word walls in my time during student teaching. The one below is my anchor chart from our unit on Theme. This anchor chart shows that I make sure academic language is used often in our classroom by creating anchor charts for the students and using them during my lessons to point out definitions or steps. After using the anchor chart for the lesson I hang it on a wall the students can easily look at and i refer to it constantly when discussing theme or anything else on an anchor chart. The students will always have this hanging in the classroom so they can always look at it for any support they need when it comes to theme.

I would modify this anchor chart by putting the lightbulb questions under a subtitle called " Questions To Ask Myself to find the Theme" This way the anchor chart is also telling the students how to find theme, or what questions to focus on to find theme. Right now those questions are only listed where it would probably be more beneficial to the students if what to do with those questions was on the Anchor Chart.

 Educational Technology - Kahoot

During our central idea unit, I created a Kahoot for student to practice STAAR like questions while meeting the objective of recognizing central idea and specific details. The Kahoot makes learning engaging for the students. The students were looking forward to the game of Kahoot all class. It really motivated them to get their work done and pay attention so that they could play and win in Kahoot. The Kahoot shows that I am able to use technology to my advantage, relate it to the learning objective, help engage students participation and use it a way to monitor student learning.

I would modify this by giving students the passages in person as well as on the quiz. Some classes did great with gathering around the board to read the passages but other classes did not. By making sure I have hand held rescources it can prevent problems between students. My students also showed me a site called Blooket, this site allows the students to see the passages on their own computers unlike Kahoot, I will also be looking into if Blooket would be more beneficial to students when it comes to passages.

 Parent Communication - Text messages

One way I use professional communication with students families is through text messages. We recently had parent teacher conferences and one way I had to communicate with parents was by reaching out to confirm the conference was through text. This shows that I know communication with parents is important so that everyone is on the same page. The effect that parent communication has on student learning can be very strong. Involved parents help encourage and push students to do their best, by keeping up with students academics and behaviors through communicating with the teacher.

This students already does really well in class, so not to much change was expected from the student, however it did provide the opportunity to build a stronger student teacher relationship with the student. The students mom let us in one some thoughts and feelings the students had at the beginning of the year towards her teacher, now that she has gotten more comfortable with her teacher they are able to joke about how she used to feel creating a stronger teacher student relationship.

I feel that text messages to parents are important, and can't really be modified. I would only modify the method of communication based off the situation. For different situations that are more serious such as behavioral problems, and issues with other students I would make a phone call to the parents instead of sending a text messages. Certain situations allow for text messages, other situations require a phone call, knowing when to use each method of communication is a key part in a educators role. By using a text message to confirm with a parent it shows that I know how to correctly communicate with parents based of student needs and parent needs.