UbD Ch. 13" Yes, but..."

"The work is dificult and requieres constant revision. It is particularly difficult for teachers who have to unlearn their prior practice. " Mark Wise

This quote was very meaninful and personal for me because as I have mentioned several times throughout these assignments and posts and through conversations, I started my journey in education back in 1991. That is a long time to develop bad habits. I have worked in the system at many different districts, and my longest assignment lasted from 1998-2003 before NCLB in San Jose Unified. During this time our district had adopted Success For All, and we were all trained in the program and instructed to only use the SFA model. Everything was to be planned thematically at the kinder level which is the grade level that I taught. All of the planning and guesswork was already done for me I was told. I was told that all I needed was to use the SFA Thematic Teacher Manuals and pull in some additional resources and that would suffice for creating all of my instructional plans. Scripted programs like SFA and OCR allow little wiggle room especially when implementation (police checks I used to call them...or the implementation staff from SFA was better known as the Gestapo) visits were made by the SFA officials or other district big shot administrators. We were always told to perform for these people like a bunch of circus seals and make sure not to deviate from the script while the visitors were present. They always came into the classroom like a bunch of hostile invaders look you up and down, your classroom, and your students. Then they would start to whisper back and forth, make notes on a clipboard, either frown or smile and then later at a staff meeting to debrief you would begin to hear their extensive list of infractions and all their picking apart of things that you had so meticulously planned and followed. After a while I began to think that they did not care too much about achievement or learning. Well they did care about achievement as long as the numbers were good or rising and you were helping them look good. Did they really care about learning? I ask myself that now, and I would have to say that no. They were interested in the process of these programs like they were going to magically save these low performing schools. When it did not happen, the program was dropped and another scripted program was sought to take its place and on and on goes the cycle. It seemed fake to me. I did not feel supported, and I felt picked on for minor details that fell outside of the script. As a sub teacher in Alum Rock for the last four years, I witnessed the same pathetic cycle unfold... a big shot from the district a few cronies maybe one or two from the county office of ed all coming to put in their two sense about OCR. Again I saw the teachers scrambling around like circus seals trying to do everything just perfect during the performance and once it was over, it was business as usual. THere is something wrong with this scenario. It is not about where your question comment board is in your room on the right wall or whether or not you have your workshop menu posted in a certain way that is important. Where were the essential questions? Where were the big ideas? THey were no where to be found. I would get discouraged wondering what I was doing in the middle of an environment that seemed so fake. Many times I felt silenced as a teacher and I did not feel like I could go on my own and do my own thing outside of the script.

Reading this UbD book has been an eye opening experience. It forced me to think in a different way... away from the teaching and focused on the learning. Ihave been a teacher who has been trapped in the process of scripted programs, and for the first time I see a path that takes me on a different journey and to a different destination. I like the destination of UbD. Do I understand all of UbD? No. That will take time and a lot of practice. I need to break my bad habits learned in SJUSD and Alum Rock. That will take time. I have been trained in being allowed to develop bad habits. A lot of co-teachers are also trained in that way. I know this is a process that will not yield results overnight. I am eager to change, but I know this process will require patience, and a lot of persistance. Thank you for introducing me to the backward planning design. I am willing to learn and see where that openess takes me in terms of my teaching and my students learning.

UbD Ch. 11 Curriculum Framework

My response to this chapter is very brief. I did not discover any new information that was not already covered in the previous chapters. At Rocketship the science and social studies curriculum is expected to be designed using UbD. This all goes back to framing curriculum those all important essential questions. Pulling out those really big ideas and moving forward from there to design macro curriculum. By the end of the chapter the authors proposed that all K-12 teachers should be required to design course syllabi like college professors. It is also suggested that it be displayed as a public document accessible to students, parents, and colleagues. Finally, teachers need to work on correcting the bad habit of designin around content instead of logic of learning. p. 301.

UbD Ch 11 The Design Process

This chapter gives us a guide in which to begin the process of planning. Here we find the templates. First, a designer (teacher) must begin with the standards. A teacher would be looking for key nouns and verbs in the standards, identify key knowledge and skill called for in the standards, develop essential questions that flow from the standards, list the activities that will enable performance, and refine the unit across all three stages. Second, consider desired real-world application. Third, begin with key resource or favorite activity. Four, begin with an important skill. Five, begin with an existing unit. What stood out most for me in this entire chapter was the 3rd grade social studies unit about Pioneer life and westward movement done the traditional activity based way and then plugged into the UbD template and done the backward design way. It was amazing to see what the results were using both methods. The activities based method was just full of activities that were not connected in a meaningful way to a big idea or essential questions. The unit was just filled with activities some vocabulary quizzes and such. Even the students' reflections were just comments about what was fun in those activities, but sadly there were no apparent enduring understandings generated from the activity saturated unit. How often do we commit this grave error as teachers? Unfortunately, I think it is too often that we plan this way. Once this same social studies unit was designed using the UbD method using the template, it was jaw dropping to see the differences. The standards were at the top of the template defining the established goals, understandings, essential questions, knowledge, skills, assessment evidence, and finally the learning activities were carefully woven out to achieve the desired results. There was a huge difference between the two. This fully grabbed my attention in this chapter. The UbD way is much more carefully thought out and designed. It is much more detailed and clearer as to the destination that a teacher wants to reach. Finally, I would like to end my response to this chapter by using a quote that was at the beginning of this chapter. It states that "Americans hold the notion that good teaching comes through artful and spontaneous interactions with students during lessons...such views minimize the importance of planning increasingly effective lessons and lend credence to the folk belief that good teachers are born, not made." James Stigler and James Hiebert. After exposure to UbD I walk away with the opinion that good teachers are a balance of effective planning skills; however, I still believe in my heart that the really special powerful assertive teachers do have a special talent. One can be very cafefully trained in the best design methods, strategies, etc. and they have the course work, certificates, degrees etc to prove that. However, in the classroom they still do not know how to apply that knowledge and skill in a way that yields effective results in the classroom. That is just my opinion, but I believe in it 100%.

UbD Chapter 10 Teaching for Understanding

I am moving along rather quickly through the chapters, and I hope that I have not left out the core ideas from each chapter. I am finally in Stage 3 of UbD and chapter 10 It is slowly starting to sink in. I have had over 17 years of practicing unit planning by using activity based planning. This whole concept of backward planning is like a shoe that you think you have put on the wrong foot. It is different than what I am used to. I am having to rewire my thinking and adjust my habits as it relates to planning. I don't feel very comfortable with this planning method yet, but I realize that with practice, practice, practice I can only get stronger. I have developed those bad habits as it realtes to unit planning, and I hope I can break down those bad habits and look at unit planning with fresh insight. I am reminded this evening of the messages in the book Mastery. I must continue to practice even though I may not see any measureable results. To me learning UbD is a journey within a journey.

I liked the difinition of the word achievement. On page 228 " achievement is the result of the learner successfully making sense of the teaching." That is a refreshing perspective for me since we are bombarded with the word achievement at every corner in education. Does achievement mean a certain percentage or number? That is how I would internalize that word, but now I accept the definition given above.

I also liked the clarification of uncoverage and coverage in this chapter. Coverage is viewed as something superficial. When we cover material, we focus on the surface details without depth. An example of coverage would be those memorized facts void of meaningful connections. This chapter also defined to cover as to travel over. We travel a great distance, but come back with no insight from those distant travels. This made good sense to define coverage in this way. On the other hand, uncover suggests to reveal something rather than to hide it. These explanations of coverage and uncoverage were fabulous. I had never thought about it this way before. I had a moment of deep enlightenment after reading this chapter. The last point I want to make from this chapter is the realization that textbooks are to be used as a resource to be used to achieve the desired results in stage 1 but they should not be used as the sole resource in which to guide or push all instruction. This is an imporant key to remember in designing lessons.

UbD Chapter 9 Planning for Learning

Now we move into Stage 3 or the designing activities stage. Normaly this is where most teachers begin their planning, but in UbD, this is where it ends. I love the Chinese proverb at the beginning of this chapter. I have heard it before :
I hear, I forget
I see, I remember
I do, I understand
The essential questions for stage 3 are the following..what do learners need? What is the best use of time spent in and out of the classroom given the performance goals? Pg. 192. Keep in mind the focus is on learning and not on the teaching. The authors make the point that good plans must be effective and engaging. Engaging is defined here as provoking, fascinating, and energizing. Effective means learners become more competent and productive. They proform to high standards and surpass normal expectations. This chapter listed the common characteristics of the best designs:

• Clear performance goals
• Hands on approach
• Focus on interesting and important ideas
• Obvious real world application
• Powerful feedback system
• Personalized approach
• Clear models and modeling
• Focused reflection
• Variety in methods
• Safe environment for taking risks
• Teacher as facilitators or coach
• More of an immersion experience
• Big picture provider

WHERETO. What is this? I asked this question when I first saw it.

W - Where is the unit going and why?

H - Hook students in the beginning and Hold their attention.

E - Equip students with experiences.

R- Rethink big ideas, Reflect on progress, Revise work.

E - Evaluate progress and self-assess.

T - Tailored to reflect talents, interests, styles, and needs.

O - Organize to optimize deep understanding.

The bulk of this chapter goes into depth about each of the WHERETO pieces as it relates to lesson designs.

UbD Chapter 8 Criteria and Validity

Chapter 8 explores what we should look at when assessing and if the assessment aligns with stage I. A very common tool used as a criterion-based scoring guide would be the rubric. I am very familiar with what a rubric is and how it is used. I have used rubrics to assess writing samples; however, I do not have any experience in knowing how to use a rubric to assess math content. Could rubrics be used for math? I know they are set by points like 1-4 or 1-6 and under each point there is a description. This chapter gives the two examples of rubrics. One is the holistic and the other is the analytic rubric. A holistic rubric is an overall impression of the student's work giving a score, and an analytic rubric divides a product or performance into specific traits and judges each separately p. 174. The authors suggest that assessors of understanding use the analytic rubric. Next, in thinking like an assessor, a teacher must obtain the most appropriate evidence of the desired results formed in Stage I. I agreed with the message in this chapter that we pay too much attention to correctness and too little attention to the degree of understanding. After reading the two chapters on assessments, I realize that I will need additional support and guidance from my coach in designing strong assessments for math this year.

UbD Chapter 7 Thinking Like an Assessor

Once I get through Stage I and establish the big ideas and essential questions, I move into Stage II of UbD, and I must begin to think and plan like an assessor. How will I know if the desired results have been achieved by my students? Chapter Seven helps me to determine what evidence shows this. What assessments will anchor or guide the curriculum and instruction and what should I look for to evaluate the level of student understanding? On page 150 the authors provide three basic questions that an assessor would ask. First, what kind of evidence do we need? Second, what specific characteristics in student responses, products, or performances should we look at? Third, does the evidence align with the goals? Chapter Seven focuses on the first question what kind of evidence is needed. Teachers become very comfortable relying on one type of assessment especially in scripted programs all the assessements are already built into the curriculum. I am thinking about the OCR curriculum that I am very familiar with and the Success For All curriculum that was implemented in San Jose Unified when I was teaching in that district. More recently coming as a sub from Alum Rock I am familiar with the OCR assessements that were given religiously every five days. A good assessor should not just rely on this one type of assessment. Chapter Seven gets us away from thinking of assessments at only "the one big test" that counts by itself. Included as other meaningful assessments there are informed checks for understanding, observations and dialogues, tests and quizzes, academic prompts, and performance tasks. As a teacher I need to recognize this and design assessments around real performance where students are given opportunities to show transer to different situations. Furthermore, we can use the six facets of understanding to provide more clarity of how to construct assessments for our students. We must always keep in mind what understanding looks like and use the six facets to help us in the design of assessments. I liked how this chapter went through each facet and provided examples in different subject areas what an assessment of that particular facet would look like. I liked the idea on page 169 for an ongoing assessment and what that would look like. The authors call it a "one minute essay" and here at the end of class I would ask the students to write down what is the big point they learned that day and what is the big unanswered question that they have or simply put what is it that they still don't understand. I can see myself implementing this kind of ongoing assessment with my first grade math students at Rocketship.

UbD Chapter 6 Crafting Understanding

What are some of the rules that teachers should follow in designing or planning? This chapter gives us some help in crafting proposed understandings. Teachers should focus units on a small number of transferable big ideas. Next, it is best to state desired understandings int he following way: "Students will understand that..." The desired understanding should be expressed in clear terms and be as specific and insightful as possible. Four, there are two kinds of understandings. The topical understandings are unit specific, and the overarching understandings are broader. This chapter seemed to be a lot of repetition of some of the previous chapters on understanding. I started reading and became disengaged rather quickly. I did like the little graphic organizer on page 137 which would serve as a guide to forming those all important essential questions. I liked the fill in the blanks. I could see that for some units, it might be a little challenging to come up with essential questions, so this graphic organizer would be a good guide for me to use to help create essential questions. I also like the chart on page 131 that helped frame the differences between topical understanding and the overarching ones. This might be a chapter that I need to go back and reread at some point in the future. I was not as engaged in this chapter. I wish I had more to reflect on for now, but other than what I have written above nothing else comes to mind. Maybe during our one-on-one meetings, you could help me dig deeper into this chapter if it is necessary to grasp concepts that I overlooked here.

UbD Chapter 5 Essential Questions Doorways to Understanding

Forming essential questions is the beginning step in creatin big ideas for a unit according to the Understanding by Design model. Essential questions are not the type of questions that offer a quick, direct, right or wrong answer. These questions will create debate. Essential questions dig deeper into our thinking and produce even more questions full of transfer possibilities. I amthinking of a history teacher who is teaching a unit on the American Revolution. Would that teacher just be interested and focused on teaching dates, and facts or is the teacher who is influenced to use Ubd going to design the unit based on those essential questions? The UbD trained teacher would use those essential questions to help structure powerful and meaningful lessons for the students. A possible essential question for a unit on the American Revolution could be, "What is the cost of freedom?" Clearly in this type of question there is no simple straight forward answer. This kind of questions opens the door for debate and deep thinking. This type of question would undoubtedly spark deeper thinking and more questionsl This is the goal of UbD. Other examples of big ideas mentioned in this chapter would be questions like, What is democracy? What is racism? At my grade level subject area an essential question might be why do we have numbers? Why are they important? The chapter gave many examples of essential questions that are specific to a topic, problem, or field of study. An example given in this chapter was, " When error is unavoidable in measurement, what margins of error are acceptable?" p. 107 This chapter explains that a question is essential if it does the following:


1. causes genuine inquiry into the big ideas
2. provokes deep thought
3. requires students to consider alternatives
4. stimulates vital ongoing rethinking of big ideas
5. sparks meaningful connections
6. naturally recurs

In conclusion, I liked this chapter because it made me think seriously about developing those essential questions and using them as a guide to develop lessons that are geared toward those big ideas. In scripted curriculums, teachers are programmed to teach like robots sticking to the teacher's manual and not going outside of those resources to plan their own units. I am becoming more and more intrigued and drawn to the UbD method. It makes more sense to start with those big ideas first using essential questions to help guide planning.

UbD Chapter 4 The Six Facets of Understanding

This chapter explores the six facets of understanding. When we truly understand we can expain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathize, and have self-knowledge. Let us begin with the first facet which is explanation. This is basically asking the question why is this? This requires students to explain what they know and give good reasons to explain it. As a teacher, I know that the correct answer is valid if the students can explain why and show his or her work and justify it. If a student simply gives me the right answer but fails to understand how he or she got it then I have to go back and reteach. I want to be able to constantly ask my students to prove their answers and not just accept their right aswer and stop there. I will make it a point to make this mandatory in their classwork and homework. I want to set up the expectation that they will be expected to explain the process. Second, interpretation is another facet of understanding. Here this involves asking questions like what does it mean? Why does it matter? In other words, interpretation equals meaning. Next, facet number three is application. This translates to, "the ability to use knowlede effectively in new situations and diverse real contexts." (p92) In simple terms this facets asks the question how and where can I use this knowledge. As an example, the authors offer the following: a couple uses their knowledge of economics to develop a plan for saving and investing (p. 92). Application means a person can use knowledge and apply it to different situations. Perspective is another facet of understanding. This facet asks from whose point of view. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the idea? How does it look from another point of view? The book offers an example of a student who is able to explain two different views of the same situation. As a specific example, a student must be able to understand two different perspectives of the American Civil War ( the union view and the confederate view), The Conquest of Mexico ( the Aztec perspective and the Spanish one), and more recently the views for and against legalizing undocumented immigrants in the United States. These are just a few examples of where a student would gain this idea of perspective. Facet number five is empathy which is defined as the ability to get inside the feelings and worldview of another person (p. 98). These would be questions like how does it seem to you? What do they see that I don't? What was the writer, artist, performer thinking, seeing, feeling, etc.? (p. 98) How often do we hear or use the phrase, "don't judge unless you have walked in my shoes?" This points to empathy. Empathy is one of the core values at Rocketship, and I like this facet of understanding because I see that it is instrumental in understanding such abstract concepts as racism, sexism, poverty, abuse, etc. The last facet of understanding is self-knowledge. This facet involves the question how does who I am shape my views? What are the limits of my understanding? The authors offered solid examples of this facet which would be a student who purposely uses graphic organizers to study because he or she is aware of his or her learning style.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this chapter because it broke down what understanding looks like. It gave me specifics to look for in my students which again are explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. The more I read in this book, the more interested I become in learning more and more about Understanding by Design.

Book Choice Con Respeto

I chose the book Con Respeto because my experiences thus far in education have predominantly been with immigrant families from Mexico. I thought this was an excellent choice for me because I was able to pause and reflect on what I know not only as a Hispanic woman but as a student who has a degree in Mexican-American Studies. I aim to focus on key points that grabbed my attention and made me pause for thought.

First, the author devoted three years to this study, and I believe this was a significant amount of time to really establish a connection with the families on a more personal level. She took the time to really get to know the families, their backgrounds, and their experiences as it relates to the American education system. I was impressed by how much personal information she had acquired on each member of the family. She knew where they came from, their job experiences, their triumphs, and their sorrows. Guadalupe Valdes was very focused on the mothers, as in this culture they have a significant role in educating their children. All of these families were from humble backgrounds. They were hard working, struggling families, who were just looking for a better life. Many had personal challenges to overcome. One of the women Carmen Ornelas had an interesting history because she was the only single mother without legal papers who had to provide for a family of 7 children. I have been a single mom since my daughter was one year old, and I know the stuggles that come with that role. I could not imagine a woman with 7 children to provide for and who had other struggles like language barriers and illegal status which inhibited her ability to find a better life. I developed a deep respect for her courage and wisdom in being able to be a good mom to 7 children. Right away, we as teachers could be sitting there passing judgements about her choices and moaning and groaning about her irresponsibility in having so many children to provide for. I came away with more respect for her than judgement by the end of the book. About half of the book was devoted to presenting the personal stories of each adult involved in this study. This was helpful because it painted a clear, colorful, and detailed picture for the entire book.

I started to see a shift in the book by Chapter 6. In this chapter the author makes the point that in all 10 homes that she visited, the eldest child was always given the responsibility of taking care of the younger siblings. In this culture, parents make clear that when there is a visitor in the house for example, the oldest child usually was put in charge of taking the younger ones in another room or part of the house so the adult could have a conversation with the visitor. The parents also made clear that they were not to misbehave. I thought it was interesting that Guadalupe Valdes observed that even though children were important in the family, they were not "the focus of most of the family energy." The children seem to fit a role within that important family unit. I thought it was interesting that no direct teaching for mastering tasks like potty training or learning how to tie shoes was given by the parents. It was assumed that the younger children would learn those skills naturally by older brothers and sisters. What this might mean for me as a teacher is that these children would be great teachers of their peers. It is also interesting that the parents did not tell the children to show or teach their siblings how to do certain tasks. The older children initiated this on their own. I stopped to recall those moments when I have learned that an older brother or sister has taught a student of mine a particular skill. It happens a lot. In terms of respect, the children knew that meant things like not interrupting, not being a nuisance when mom was busy, and not questioning authority. Next, this chapter explored the traditional sex roles that are present in the home. Women in the study viewed their responsibility to take care of their husbands as their role as a woman. Even though I am Hispanic, I did not grow up being taught that this is my "role." My mom was a homemaker, and she cooked and cleaned and ran around taking care of errands, but I never was told either through words or actions that as an adult woman it would be my duty to "serve" my husband. These traditional values still exist in Mexican homes. On a very personal level, my ex-husband who is from Cuba believed passionately in the idea that a woman serves her husband. He used words like, "sirveme." This culture clash caused a lot of conflict and ultimately became one of the reasons why I became divorced. In my mind, my marriage was a partnership,not my being a servant. In addition, this chapter looked at the mothers' belief that their children should be children and not worked too hard. They believed that they should enjoy their childhoods because later in life they would have a lot of hard work to do. How might this translate into a classroom? Issues with homework might be one. A belief that the work is too hard maybe is another. This might play out in that a parent may seem unsupportive when a large project is due or not being on top of missing assignments. I don't know. I could be wrong on these. Their cultural value of letting children enjoy their childhood could clash with the school's academic and social expectations. Families are extended in nature opposed to the typical American family who many times is defined as the close nuclear family unit consisting of parents and children. Latinos are very family oriented. Many times I have conferenced with an aunt or uncle or even grandparents when the student's parents were unavailable. I never made the parent's absence an excuse for me not to make contact with the child's family. I have had to make phone calls to extended family members to get a message to the parents, and it has been welcomed always. I have always sensed a deep appreciation for doing that, and respecting the reality that aunts, uncles, and grandparents and cousins to make up the family.

The next chapter was a powerful one because it dealt with the stereotypes and misunderstnanding that occur between school and home. We as educators have to take responsibility to change our part in this dynamic. I can only do that if I first start with myself. I have a moral obligation to reach out to the family. Ihave a responsibility to be aware of, understand, and respect the cultural experiences and backgrounds of each students whether culturally or socially or even economically I have that moral obligation to do so. Unfortunately, we as an educational culture are still failing. We make assumptions all of the time about families who do not participate, ask questions, come to conferences or meetings, don't sign and return important information etc. We make the unfair assumption that they do not care. In many instances we are totally unaware that many may be fighting for survival, have no transportation, have more than one job, or maybe it is that they feel an enormous amount of intimidation. Maybe they feel like outsiders and unwelcome. In all of my years in education, I have never once had a confrontation with a parent due to my ignorance. I hope to keep it that way. Ihave always been able to establish good rapport with my Mexican families. Being able to use their language and understand their culture is a huge asset. I am able to understand and make connections in their culture not only because I am Hispanic myself, but because I also have a degree in Mexican-American Studies, and I find that knowledge to be so valuable in this job. For example, Spanish speaking cultures are not programmed and pressured by time like we are here in the U.S. To demonstrate this in Spanish, "time or the clock walks" and in Engish we say, "time is running or the clock is running." Of course to be successful here in this country and in this culture one has to learn to understand this difference and adapt accordingly. However, just with this piece of knowledge I a able to confront or deal with the problem of tardiness in a different way that will not be offensive. I just cannot assume that they do not care and that is why they are late. It is my responsibility to reach out. I would plan to discuss in a firm but respectful way that it is my responsibility to teach their child as much as I can and to the best of my ability. They have trusted me with that job. However, I can only do that if they are in my classroom everyday and on time. THere is no need for stereotypes or assumptions. We can do things like this in a way that is culturally sensitive and respectful. I refuse to believe and behave like a a frustrated teacher who shakes her head and says I give up. I feel very lucky to be a part of a team at Rocketship where I believe the teachers are there for the right reasons. I want to be a part of the dynamics that help convince parents we are on the same team wanting to help their children reach their life dreams. Convincing them that the American dream is accesible for their children too is something that can be used to solidify bonds and trust between school and home. IF we are not prepared to walk the walk and just talk about these things then those words do not mean anything. In Spanish we say se demuestra con los hechos no simplemente con palabras. In English it is "Actions speak louder than words." I don't want to hear that teachers believe that they (the parents) just don't care or they don't want to succeed or that they can only achieve at a lower level. I refuse to be a part of a system that decides that based on race, sex, or economics. That is racist and it is wrong. I have had parents who are illiterate and speak at a grade school level in Spanish. Many have felt embarrassed to meet with their child's teacher. They feel inadequate, and I cannot count the number of times they have said something like the following: " Disculpeme maestra, pero no se nada de esto or no entendi." We need to empower these parents to step forward out of the shadows and to voice themselves and their opinions. I care what they think and feel. It is our moral obligation as teachers to understand our families and not fall into the ignorant convenient excuse that they are just apathetic. I need to discover what is really going on before I make any judgements. That would be doing the right thing.

Classroom Community Cahpter of Choice Chapter Four Responding to Misbehavior

This chapter seemed like it would be the most useful for me to read so I could get some ideas about students' misbehavior and how to implement consequences for that choice. Right away the simple fact that incomplete or weak lesson plans could be the culprit of incidents of misbehavior need to be recongnized and corrected. If students are finished with independent work for example and then left with nothing to do, they will undoubtedly find something non constructive to fill up that empty time. Instead of asking the question what am I as the teacher going to be doing the entire class period, a teacher should be asking the question what their students will be doing. Therefore, it is important to do an exceptional job at creating plans that will minimize this problem or correct it all together. An example from the chapter is that you want to get those other students engaged in the activity even if you just call on a few to do a problem on the board as a part of guided practice, you need to consider what the rest of the class will be doing. Have the rest of the class work out the problem too either on a white dry erase board or in a math notebook. This will decrease the possibility that any disruptive behavior will arise because the entire class is engaged in working the problem. Boredom, unclear limits, and a sense of powerlessness are also contributors of disruptive behavior. You never want to attack the dignity of your students by attacking them personally. Pinpoint the undesired behavior not the person. Linda Albert an educator gives four causes of misbehavior: attention seeking, power seeking, revenge seeking, and avoidance of failure. She breaks down specific examples of each one which I found to be very helpful. She also gave the teacher's typical reaction to the misbehavior, what the student's legitimate need is, and strategies to address that need. This chapter also offered great strategies for dealing with minor and major disruptions. I thought these were brilliant. Some I have done, and others are new to me, so I welcome the opportunity to use someof these new strategies when the situation arises.

Classroom Community Chapter 6 Valuing Hard Work, Team Effort, and Academic Success

Part of the power of being a teacher is that a teacher can decide what their students will value. The teachers who have students who are successful academically do so by following three values. These values are valuing academic achievement, hard work leads to academic achievement, and and academic ahcievement requieres teamwork. In other words, as expressed in the chapter, "This is important! You can do it! I won't give up on you!" What stood out to me the most in this entire chapter was that the messages that we give our students about achievement, hard work, and teamwork are so powerful in changing the environment in the class. This article was saturated with messages, slogans, chants, mantras, etc. that aim to instill these values about achievement to our students. I liked those offered on page 75 which are Academic Achievement=Opportunity, Climb the Mountain to College in 200x, Effort Breeds Success, Mistakes are Learning Opportunities, All of Us Will Learn, We Succeed Together, Team Beats Individual, Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) just to name a few. When I got to page 77 I started reading and then thinking about the idea that we have at Rocketship about reciting the creed every single day. I liked the suggestion about having the students write a slogan or message on the heading of every paper that stresses these values. At Rockeship it could be asking the students to write the core values or things like there are no shortcuts, Together we are all Rocketship Rocketeers, or Aspiring towards Excellence. There is no limit to what you could use. I love the idea of saturating the minds and attitudes of our students with these messages. Sadly I think many students are being brainwashed into accepting mediocracy or failure as the status quo. Fotunately, we have the power to "brainwash" them into believing that the opposite is true. We can inundate them with the message that they can achieve through hard work and team effort. We can show them that mediocracy is not the way. This may sound silly or corny, but I got chills while I was reading this. This is where we have power to decide change, and walk the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Classroom Community Chapter 1 High Expectations for Behavior

My response to this chapter is very positive. This chapter was divided into two equally important messagesd . The first one was the importance of holding high expectations for student behavior and the second one was the importance of holding high expectations for your own ability to assert authority in the classroom. If these two are in place then there will be a focus on learning. This chapter went into explaining some of the myths that are associated with not being able to establish high expectations from all students in the classroom. I was very familiar with these myths as I have heard them used as excuses from others and even from myself I am sorry to say. They discussed 5 specific myths, and I thought it would be a good idea to list them here because they do deserve some attention in my trying to discover the truth and change my way of thinking regarding this topic. The first myth mentioned was the one about emotional problems making it hard for students to behave. I have fallen into this trap before, and the reality is that there are students out there who prove this myth to be false. The second myth is that a lack of good parenting makes it difficult for a teacher to gain control in his or her classroom. Again I have fallen into that trap, and the reality is that we as teachers have the ability to make our classrooms a place where all those other pressures and stress can be left behind. The third myth is that children from poverty are unable to behave appropriately. This myth made me think of not only my own guilt in assuming this at times, but all those teachers in districts like Oakland Unified or LA Unified who make this an excuse for making low expectations for behavior. The last myth that was mentioned was that children with special needs cannot function with appropriate behavior in a regular classroom. A lot of times teachers try to excuse themselves by believing that these children can only be serviced appropriately in an SDC class. The simple reality is that all of these myths are false because they have been proven to be false. There are no excuses to expect anything less no matter the circumstances or situations that these children bring with them into the classroom. These low expectations for student behavior are tied into the teachers' belief that they are incapable of handling challenging situations in the classroom. A teacher has to have the confidence to believe in his or her authority inside that classroom. If you go into the classroom everyday with the mentality that you are not going to be able to handle your business with the students, then you have defeated yourself before you even walk in the door. Asserting your authority does not mean you are a "harsh" teacher though. This article talks about the balance between too lenient and too harsh. I will be in charge of my classroom, and I must take responsibility for what happens in there. I definately do not want to develop bad habits and start ignoring unacceptable behavior because that is just a recipe for disaster. The key is to remember that I can get all of them to adhere to high behavior expectations not just some. This chapter talks about asserting authority in a firm and positive way without screaming, yelling, bullying, degrading, or getting so frustrated that you leave teaching all together. I enjoyed reading the chart on page 10 that had three different situations and the response of the nonassertive, assertive, and hostile teacher. I chuckled a bit because I have experience in all three personally and through observation of other teachers. I have the responsibility of modeling what I say. I cannot stand there and say something and yet through my actions demonstrate something totally different to my students.

UbD Template

I spent a considerable amount of time studying the 3 designs of templates that we had to choose from. I pondered which one would be most beneficial for me at this early learning stage of Understanding By Design. I do not want to get myself into something that is too complicated and impractical for me to use in the beginning because then I will never feel comfortable in using the templates. My goal is to ease into this process so that I may begin to feel comfortable with this and therefore I would be more likely to use these more frequently and be able to advance to other templates that were more involved. For the beginning of this process I decided that I would use the one page template as this one seem like he most practical for me to use at this stage.

UbD Chapter 3

Chapter 3 starts out with two quotes at the beginning one of which I thought was very powerful because of its truthfulness in life. The quote is by Kierkegaard which states the following: "Life can only be understood backwards;but it must be lived forwards." How true is this statement?! We live life making sense out of the past experiences we have; however, it is impossible to live backwards. This idea of planning lessons by backward design does make a lot of sense once you begin to understand the concept and its goals. Just like we are able to make sense out of our present situations and choices in life based on our past experiences, triumphs and mistakes. After reading into this chapter for a couple of pages, I was reminded of the importance of the standards that we use to prioritize our work, and "keep our eye on the prize" (p.58) I have often stopped to wonder back in the day when I was in elementary school in the 70's what teachers used to guide their instruction and keep their eye on the prize. In other words, what did teachers use before the idea of standards come along? Today at the GLAD training, the trainers made the point that if a teacher were to teach all of the standards individually it would take 24 years. Obviously teachers do not have 24 years to get through all of them. At Rocketship we as a staff went through the standards for Language Arts and Math at each grade level and pulled out the top 10 standards that we will focus on for the year. I have never been a part of such a brilliant way to tackle the standards that makes a lot of sense. Chapter 3 gets into that dilemna a little bit regarding the use of standards in designing lessons. It mentioned three problems with standards. First, there is an overload problem. Too many and not enough time. The second problem is called the "Goldilocks Problem." This simply means that some standards are too big and too broad. Some are too small, and these send messages to students and teachers that school learning is nothing more than memorizing facts and passing tests of recall. Problem number three is that the standards are open to interpretation and too vague. Finally, I would like to add that learning with understanding is more likely to promote transfer than memorizing. Identify a few big ideas and design around them. Pick the area that will serve as what the authors call the "linchpin." The big idea is the linchpin of understanding. I liked how the authors used this word to demonstrate this concept.

UbD Chapter 2

Here in this chapter, the concept of transfer is explored in detail. Exactly what is understanding and what does it mean? This chapter also explores the difference between knowledge and understanding. On page 38 there is a chart that organizes examples of each. As an example, knowledge includes the facts, right or wrong, truths and verifiable claims. Understanding is much deeper than knowledge in that it includes the meaning of the facts, the theory, and an understanding of why it is. My goal as a teacher is to be able to reach into that understanding for my students. It is not a question of just facts but the meaning of those facts and being able to not only do it the right way, but more importantly explain why. What comes to my mind as a math teacher at Rocketship is not just seeing that my students can solve a math problem but being able to show their work and explain to me how they did it. On page 41 it is mentioned that knowledge and skill are necessary elements of understanding but not sufficient themselves. The powerful idea here is to achieve the ability for students to transfer their understanding to a new situation. I liked the passage on page 43 which states, " a genuine understanding involves another kind of transfer. We go beyond what we see, using big ideas, to make meaning of it."

UbD Chapter 1

Prior to being introduced to Understanding by Design, I had never been taught or seen other credentialed teachers use this method to construct lesson plans. I had seen teachers use activity based plans to design their lesson plans, so I embraced the challenge to learn something that will help me become a more effective teacher. I agree with the quote in the beginning of Chapter 1 which defines teachers as designers. The California state standards indeed play a role in helping teachers construct their designs to meet end results just like an architect designs his plans for the end result of a structure. The whole idea behind UbD is to plan backward. A teacher therefore would start by focusing on the desired learning, then the evidence of such learning, and last he or she would consider and contruct those activities that would achieve those goals. I agree that too many teachers do emphasize the teaching and not the learning. A teacher must be clear about the results before any planning into content methods and activities can be designed to reach those learning goals. This chapter explained the "twin sins" (activity oriented design and the coverage-based design) lead to " hands -on without being minds-on. The three stages of backward design presented in this chapter were stage one the identification of desired results, stage two determining the acceptable evidence, and finally stage three which is the planning of learning experiences and instruction. Understanding this way to design lessons will undoubtedly be a process of practice. I find this design fascinating and am motivated to learn.

Reach Classroom Practices

This assignment was very practical to gain a ore detailed list of procedures, rules, and other items needed to effectively run a classroom. Establishing procedures and rules are critical in creating a classroom that functions smoothlu, efficiently, and effectively for the teacher and students. The big idea out of this article deinatley was procedures, procedures, procedures and their significance. As a substitute teacher for the last four years, I would walk into classrooms with these procedures already taken care of for me. I am thrilled at the opportunity to start from scratch and establish these for myself and my students. This process will be challenging that I know from experience, but with good planning and practice it will undoubtedly pay off for the school year. Establishing signals, appropraite listening and learning posture (at Rocketship it is the LEARN ing position), procedures for clean-up, rotation and transition procedures, teacher directed whole group on rug sitting posture like show me cross cross applesauce and snowball hands are essential to establish from day one. Providing clear, written, oral, and visual prompts to help students master these is essential as well. Indeed this requires a tremendous amount of planning. I look forward to this process and figuring out through implementation and practice and making appropriate modifications as necessary. I remind myself that I have chosen to take the path that will lead to mastery, and I will continue to practice my skills to gain knowledge and improve. How exciting!

Daily Classroom Practice

I found this article to be very helpful in making the checklist for all the important "must haves." This article was more detailed than the previous one, and I found it to be very thorough. When creating the environment, this clearly requires planning and organization. Proper room arrangement is critical in developing the type of environment that will be conducive to their learning. I know I will need to keep an open space to comfortably accomodate 20 students on the floor/rug area to effectively execute Calendar Math everyday. I also planned to arrange the students' desks in groups of four so as to foster pair shares and small group work and activities. I will also need significant wall space in order to properly display and organize all of the materials and resources for Calendar Math. This will be a major math activity that I will engage the students in on a daily basis. Therefore, I will need to put a lot of thought and planning into its organization. I will also need an area in the room where I could place a large table to be able to work with students in small groups. Dividing the room into sections for centers is a great idea as I want to implement center activities at least once a week. In addition, I will need a clear system to organize supplies and their proper distribution. I want to have a designated "table leader" who will be in charge of passing out and collecting any supplies and materials used for that day. I need to create a space to properly store these materials for easy access by my students in an organized fashion. Next, students' addresses and phone numbers and parent contact information is absolutely necessary. At Rocketship those will be provided on the clipboard;however, I will make sure I have this information for all 80 students transferred into a notebook or binder at school and another set of copies at home to have at my disposal in case I need to make contact with families from my home. I like the suggestion of creating this list by alphabetical order according to their first name instead of their last names. It seems more logical to do that. At Rocketship the students are grouped and named after colleges, so it will be convenient to access and organize that information accordingly. However, I will not need to keep track of busing information like bus tags or bus routes etc because children at Rocketship will not be bused. I see the usefulness of keeping such information in a school where children are bused especially for the really young children like kindergarteners or first graders. The students at Rocketship will go to the after school program after school, so I do not see this as a big issue. Nevertheless, having emergency numbers or other alternate contact information is useful in case a situation arises where you may need that information. I know I will need to create name tags on desks and name tags for their bodies so that I may learn their names quickly. Again this will be a challenge because I will have to do this for 80 students instead of only for 20 or 40 like I am used to. I need that visual display to help me and I think it is helpful for other children to learn names and see those of their classmates written. I definately need a calendar and strong routine to implemet calendar math daily. A classroom library focused on math is another essential must have that I would love to build in my classroom. Indeed a lesson plan book and/or agenda to record deadlines, appointments, duties, meetings, etc is an essential tool for every teacher to have. I would like to generate my lesson plans using technology and make a hard copy for me to file inside of a binder as to have them neatly organized and maintained. I would submit copies to my principal and keep a copy for my own reference. Folders and a filing system is also important to have from day one in addition to a homework policy and routine for distribution and collection. Bulletin boards serve a very important purpose as well. Showing their work on bulletin boards allows for students to take ownership of their work which I believe is very powerful. Due to the number of students I have this year clearing enough wall space to provide for 80 pieces of work will be challenging, but I understand its importance and will be creative in finding a solution so everyone's work is displayed. A behavior policy is another must have. This translates to having a behavior chart, flip cards or some system of managing and tracking behavior and consequences. Finally, the last few pages of the article listed all the operational details/information that every teacher must know in case of emergencies or just for prep work. I liked this article because it helped me go through the checklist and pull out all of the must haves. I knew I needed all of these because of having experience already in the classroom.

Daily Classroom Practices

My list of "must haves" includes, but is not limited to the following: timer, seating chart, daily agenda, daily objective/standard, homework collection/grading procedure, list of parent phone numbers, behavior chart, posted Rocketship core values (rules), popsicle sticks to pull names at random, pointer, transition procedures, calendar, signals, filing system, materials distribution procedure, pencil sharpening policy, bathroom policy, sponge activity (bellwork, DOL etc) These are the ones that I brainstormed; however, there could be some that I have overlooked.

TPE-Summary

It is clear to me that I need to invest energy and time becoming comfortable and familiar with the utilization of the TPE's to guide my instuction as a teacher. These TPE's will undoubtedly help me assess and reasses my performance as a teacher. I plan on using them to help me set teaching goals, and to measure growth. They are also essential in helping me assess my strengths as well as my weaknesses. In the very first assignment for Topic 2 I was not familiar with the TPE's; therefore, I had no clear understanding of some of the expectations. I am even more convinced after reading the articles that each one carries tremendous weight and cannot be left out. I have a long journey in my practice as a teacher, and I will definately use these to guide my improvements.

TPE-F

This article gives the big idea behind the professional learning community. There are three big ideas structured here which include ensuring that students learn, a culture of collaboration, and a focus on results. First, there has to be a shift from teaching to learning. I agree that learning for all has to become more than just a political statement that we make in the moment and then forget about later. We have to take these terms literally and deliver that into the classroom. The second big idea involves creating that culture of collaboration- the type of collaboration that is essential is not the kind of committees or meetings like the ones geared toward operations or a committe like the "sunshine committe." What is important is to strive for the collaboration that is centered around, " Teachers working together to analyze and improve their classroom practice." Finally, big idea number three encompasses a focus on results. This idea brings me to my current assignment at Rocketship. We have assessment wall meetings, and the primary focus is to look over the assessment results to reconstruct instruction. Just recently we made our achievement goals for the year for each grade level and each subject area like math and literacy. In sum. many times schools and/or districts are distracted by other goals such as creating science labs, and the focus is drawn away from raising achievement.

TPE-E The Key to Classroom Management

Since classroom mangement has such a profound impact on student achievement, it is necessary to take a look at how teachers can create excellent management and avoid chaos. It is by no accident that this was the longest article of them all. This involves creating and supporting a high quality relationship between students and their teacher. The article defines the characteristics of effective teacher-student relationships as including appropriate levels of dominance, appropriate levels of cooperation, and awareness of high needs students.

Let us explore the first behavior which is exhibiting appropriate levels of dominance. Wubbels, Brekelmans, van Tartwijk, and Admiral define dominance as not forceful control, but as, "the teacher's ability to provide clear purpose and strong guidance regarding both academics and student behavior." Studies show that students want strong teacher guidance. This reminds me of the saying that kids want structure, and they want those boundries and limits. As a parent, I know this is true. The article goes on to provide the tools necessary to achieve this which are as follows: establishing clear behavior expectations, learning goals, and exhibiting assertive behavior. It is a system of clear rules and consequences. A teacher must reinforce acceptable behavior and providing negative consequences for undesired, unacceptable behavior. How might a teacher employ this? The article suggests that he or she may use verbal and physical reactions to behavior, prearranged signals, providing tangible recognition like tokens, or "buddy bucks", constructing group policies and those practices that would involve rewards and consequences at home. Next, a teacher must establish clear learning goals. Teachers can communicate these goals at the commecement of a unit, provide feedback, revisit the goals frequently, and again provide more feedback. Here the use of a rubric can be implemented to achieve this goal. I have used rubrics before, and the are a very helpful tool. The last point made about establishing dominance is exhibiting assertive behavior. Teachers demonstrate assertive behaviors when they use assertive body language, use appropriate tone of voice, and persist until appropriate behavior is attained.

Next, appropriate levels of cooperations are crucial to fostering effective student-teacher relationships. This simply means that students and the teacher co-exist as a team. The article lists several strategies to implement like providing flexible learning goals, taking a personal interest in students, and using equitable and positive classroom behaviors. I have used KWL charts before to help me provide this. I am open and eager to discovering about other successful ways. In terms of taking personal interest in students, I feel this is an area where I am very strong. Last year at Rocketship, I used my intervention block time of 4 hours ( I was lucky I had that much out of classroom time) to make personal contact with my students even if it was only 5 or 10 minutes with a child. I also enjoyed going over during their lunch time and helping open lunches because it provided me with the opportunity to make that extra contact. Sometimes I would go seek them out at recess to see what they were doing, and every morning I encouraged students to help me before the morning assembly started. I cannot think of functioning as a good teacher without doing this. Throughout the strategies presented in this article there are some that I have practiced and have become part of my management style; on the other hand, others I have heard of or seen other teachers do, but I need to polish them more.

Third the awareness of high needs students is critical. It was helpful to identify these students and categorize them into these groups according to unique behaviors. As a teacher, I know every single classroom has and will have these unique teaching challenges. I began associating names of children from last year and years past with the specific groups of high needs students. I will definately go back and refer to these categories, definitions, characteristics, and suggestions and infinite number of times. A common message that popped out at me during this section of the reading was, rewards rewards, rewards when these students exhibit successes.

In conclusion, this entire reading selection made me stop and think about how I can impove in my management skills. Under effective management, the classroom operates more smoothly, more effectively, and those important relationships between me and my students will blossom.

TPE-D The Culturally Responsive Teacher

This reading penetrated down to my core. I began thinking about all of those students I have had over the years who come into my classroom with unique and sadly sometimes horrible homelife experiences. The demographics continue to change and this reality forces us to let go of old practices that do not work. There are six qualities and shared ideas of culturally responsive teaching. Let me begin with the first one which is the use of prior knowledge. Teachers must tap into a student's prior knowledge because in this way he or she is able to make sense of new concepts at school. It boils down to making it personal for the students. This was demonstrated in the example given where Belki would be able to learn more on a unit about immigration if her teacher uses her very own personal experiences of coming to the US from the Dominican Republic. Other ideas mentioned would be to invite immigrant parents to talk to the class.

Second, teachers must learn about their students' lives. Learning about their family history, immigration history, strengths, and concerns . A useful strategy would be the implementation of home visits. I have made many home visits over the years; however, this was not for every single student. These were the ones that I had to reach on a deeper level. For a short time in the summer of 2004, I did work for Head Start, and home visits were mandatory. They took a lot of time and energy, but the results they yielded were precious. The most solid bonds that I made with my students and their families have been the ones where home visits and steady contact was made. I definately agree that this is critical for the culturally responsive teacher to apply.

Third, one's worldview is influenced by personal experiences. This suggests that teachers who rely on their own personal experiences to make sense of their students' lives will end up in misinterpretations and miscommunication (p3). I am thinking about the example, and let me know if this fits here of the differences in how to show respect in the Mexican culture vs. the Anglo culture. A Mexican child is brought up to show respect by not looking directly into the eyes of an adult when a reprimand is being given. On the other hand, how many times are children in this culture told, "look at me when I am talking to you." A teacher with no cultural sensitivity would perceive this Mexican child to be disrespectful and lacking proper upbring. You cannot impose your own worldview and beliefs on everyone.

Fourth, holding affirming views about diversity is another key element to the socially responsive teacher. Teachers should not fall in the trap of associating a student's socioeconomic status for example with either low or high achievement. Here I am reminded of the excellent film "Stand and Deliver" in which a group of East Los Angeles barrio kids were labeled as low performing simply because of who they were and where they lived.

The fifth piece is the implementation of appropriate instructional strategies. Several strategies were given to help guide the teacher. One of the strategies mentioned was providing additional reading in their native language for the the students who demonstrate literacy in their native language to help build background knowledge. It also provided the idea of using bilingual dictionaries. Another was using examples from their student's lives like hip-hop recordings to make sense of rhythm in poetry.

Finally, the sixth piece for a culturally responsive teacher is the idea that a teacher must be an advocate for all students. They key word here is all. I agree with the argument that teachers have an ethical obligation to help all students learn.

TPE-C- ELL

Due to the constant change in demographics, learning to effectively service ELLs will be a constant challenge for me. I have always worked in districts with a high percentage of ELLs. I feel blessed that I am bilingual; however, this does not entirely address the issue facing me as it relates to my ELL students. Even though the majority of the ELLs I have worked with are of Mexican origin, I know that within even this group, there is so much diversity. Students from the city vs. students from the rancho (country) and even those students who were born and raised here but who still primarily speak Spanish at home. I have had some Spanish speaking Mexican students who have never been to Mexico. I need not forget about my Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Philipino, or Central American and South American students that have been in my classrooms too.
The three student examples given in the article all describe students that I have had. The range of their backgrounds and experiences are mind boggling. I do not think I have ever fallen in the trap of believing that all students who speak Spanish are Mexican. I make it a point of asking information about where their parents are from. I am usually able to distinguish that by the Spanish dialect that they speak or by other pieces of information like knowing if they eat pupusas, they are from El Salvador. All of this makes me remember that period when I worked as a teacher is San Jose Unified. The principal at the time and one of the resource teachers would get together and go through grouping cards and new enrollments from the enrollment center and make various changes to the class lists before school started in the fall. I cannot count how many times Philipino students were placed into bilingual classrooms by mistake because I guess they were only paying attention to the surnames. These two created problems assuming that students with a Spanish last name were probably Mexican and needed to be placed into the ALA Program. They even made assumptions that a Mexican family would want their child placed automatically in the bilingual program. There were many Spanish speaking families who did not want their child places in the bilingual program. Did the administrator and the resource teacher assume that all were the same? Yes. I think so in many cases. This really bothered me as a teacher, and it bothered me as a parent as well because my daughter has a Spanish last name, and I would not want her placed in a bilingual program solely because of her last name. "Few states require teachers to have training in second language acquisition, ESL, or cross cultural communication." (p. 2) It seems that this would have to be reformed across the 50 states to require this especially for those states like California that are so culturally and linguistically diverse. The reality is that more and more ELL students are filling our classrooms, and it seems highly irresponsible to not address this in terms of adequate teaching training.
Finally, this article gave five strategies to assist teachers in the area of academic literacy as it relates to English language learners. These appear to be very practical strategies.

TPE-C Neuroscience

The message here is that classroom environments must be fun. Unfortunately, the current focus in most schools across the country is standardized testing, and that has placed a damper on excitement. I tend to look at it like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I have questioned myself before about the lack of excitment. The last thing I want is a classroom that is boring, stressful, and monotonous. Have I sometimes been worried when it looks like there is too much fun going on during a lesson? What will the principal say? Will I get in trouble, and do not even mention those times when someone from the district, county or state comes in. You do not dare look like you are having a good time. Am I overexaggerating? Probably, just a bit. However, I have felt that many times there is no room or tolerance for fun and excitement. How do I create that in a way that does not produce complete chaos? This article gave me some suggestions. I want to build a classroom environment that makes my students feel comfortable and welcome. I want an environment that will allow them to take risks. I want them eager to come into my class wondering what exciting and thrilling adventure we might discover together. According to the article, students will, "retain what they learn when the learning is associated with strong positive emotion." (p.2) In other words, if the environment is stressful, learning stops. It is amazing how all of these chemical reactions in the brain work to either facilitate learning or stop it cold in its tracks. There is real science to support this. I was reminded of the many times I probably have put stress on my students for their making certain errors in judgement and poor choices like not doing homework or for certain other behavioral infractions. I want to create a plan with structure and consequences that is aligned with the Rocketship core values; however, I have to find a healthy and supportive balance that does not create the type of stress that will slow the currents of learning if not to stop them entirely. One of the solutions to the complex problem is found on page three "make the lesson more personally interesting and motivating." Constantly asking the questions, "why are we learning this and why is this important" should become part of the classroom culture. Presenting information at a level that they are able to connect with and understand is huge. Some of the ideas given were using the names of the students or celebrities, and items they are familiar with help provide that bridge. How many times have I created word problems, situations, or stories centered around students or their interests to instruct a lesson? Too many to count. I have been on the right track. They key is to make the information practical and comprehensible to them. When working in Alum Rock as a long term sub the past 4 years, I liked to use experiences about stores, restaurants, food, music, cultural connections, toys, movies, and anything that they were familiar with in their neighborhoods to get across information, so they could more easily apply it and made connections to what were were doing in class. It is showing children how knowledge is applied in the real world. I liked the idea about giving the students a three minute break. Each math class with be approximately 100 minutes long, so this may be a wise strategy to implement this year. I also paid careful attention to the suggestion about calling on students who have not raised their hands. I know from first hand experience how stressful that is! My classroom should be a safe haven. I need to develop ways to create nothing less than that.

Throughout this entire article, I made one connection after another to my personal experiences in education. Fortunately, I did not struggle as much with this article as I did with the previous one. Immediately after reading the first two paragraphs, I could empathize with what this author was communicating. I had no formal educational training as a teacher either when I was first hired by San Jose Unified in 1997. I too when through the process of doing exactly what I was expected to do except for thinking outside of the box. I fell into the trap of viewing assessments as just "tests." They were confined to paper tests that were assigned a grade for which I therefore transferred over to the report card. I failed back then to take in all the considerations of different types of assessment that this article discussed. Assessments are not to be confined to the end of the chapter or unit tests. Assessments have a range of components that a teacher must pull together to create the whole picture. I am understanding that now; unfortunately, I did not see it back then. I had become programmed that first year to give tests without full understanding of their true purpose. How does that make me feel now? I feel relieved that I have grown and expanded my understanding of the concept of assessments, and I am farther along on the path than I was over eleven years ago.
Assessments go beyond the paper test. Assessments include the observations by the teacher on a daily basis. A student will demonstrate in many different ways his or her understanding of a particular subject area. As a teacher I have to open my eyes to that. The author makes the point that a teacher has to find a match between the student and his or her appropriate method of assessment. For some of my students this is not necessarily the paper test. It might be showing understanding through other means like notetaking, questions and comments in class discussions, or other practical measures. As an example, the unit on money was very difficult for the majority of my first graders to grasp. After giving the assessment provided in Hartcourt Brace, I knew that my assessment could not start and end here. The pictures of the coins provided on the test confused them. I then decided that I needed to go beyond just the paper test and utilize my intervention block to pull students as necessary to demonstrate with coins money amounts that I had given them. I asked them to show me as many ways as they could to make the same amount but using different coin combinations. This yielded much more valid results than the plain paper test. Periodically, I decided to retest this unit by pulling them individually during the course of the school year. Assessments are always being given in different ways on a daily basis; I just need to fine tune that skill and use those observations in calculating results.
I liked the idea about carrying around a clipboard to take notes on students because all students work and interactions qualify as worthy assessments. Indeed a teacher's ability to connect a students personal struggles with his or her performance gives great insight into the student's overall performance. Fortunately, I believe this is one area where I have some awareness, and I take it into consideration when determining the overall picture. Each year in every classroom there are always students who are encountering events like divorces, poverty, single parent households; the list goes on. I think we would all agree that these situations definately have an impact on the child in school. This is another piece of the assessment puzzle. Another useful piece of this article is that the author describes assessments as tools to make sure students at different levels are working at their level. In my two classes from last year I had a whole range of levels. In designing assessments and evaluating all available observed information, I see that I have the power to give them options to demonstrate what they know and how to express that knowledge. Finally, this awesome article concluded with the idea that assessment is not just confined to me as the teacher. It involves my working with my students as my partners.

alicia serrano

Wow! This is another filling feast for me to digest! First, I would like to communicate that these are hard concepts for me to wrap my brain around. I am processing the information and attempting to make connections with my own experiences as they apply to addressing the questions for this assignment. The beginning of this article was basically asking the question how classroom teachers around the world know when their students need help learning how to think. The answers that were listed in the article are the very ones that I myself have witnessed from my students over the years. The list included the following: blurting out answers, relying on me to answer, giving up easily, inability to work in groups, inability to apply knowledge, and fear of taking risks. When I read about being afraid to take risks, it immediately reminded me of the the book Mastery, as this book is still fresh in my mind, and learning to surrender and take risks to stay on the path. Teaching students to surrender and take risks is a monumental challenge. I just wanted to include this connection here because I think it is an important one.
The five themes to shape curriculum that were presented in this article are excellent guides. The quotes that were given in each of the themes were very powerful for me personally because they initiated deep thinking about that particular point. The quotes also made it easier for me to understand the article. Let me begin with the first quote which was given under learning to think. "Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." - Leonardo da Vinci. After pausing a few minutes, I thought of the quote in George Leonard's book in which he said that human beings might become worn out from a lack of use. Clearly, my students have the capacity to think; however, the key is to get them to think as Costa states on p. 2 "critically, skillfully, and creatively." Furthermore, it is not enough to have this only confined to the walls of my classroom. I want my first graders to apply this skill independently outside the walls of my classroom.
The second quote that produced a valuable connection for me was, "friendship is one mind in two bodies." This concept of learning being a reciprocal process had me thinking about implementing more instructional strategies centered around more group activities. Last year, I did not take advantage of opportunites to implement lessons structured around more group activities. I would like to be able to structure and put into place more math lessons where my students could engage in different ways they found to view and solve a math problem and share those with one another. I was fortunate enough to witness in an intervention a stronger student whom I decided to utilize as a tool to help me teach the concept of counting money to one of my struggling students whom Leonard identifies as "slowest on the mat." He had a different process for counting the different combinations of coins that made sense to the other student. There is definately power in understanding that children (learners/students of any age too) do learn from each other. Doors open into different levels of thinking.
Next, in terms of metacognition, I am inspired to ask the following: how will I get my first graders to develop the skill of metacognition as it applies to first grade math? The author of this article suggests that there are important self-reflective questions that can help pave the way. He states that through verbalizing plans and sharing their thinking students can get on the path to developing metacognition. I would like to explore this further and find practical ways to make this age level appropriate.
The last piece that spawned a response from me was the idea of thinking big. This part of the article brought me back full circle to the reason why I am in education in the first place...to inspire effective change in the world. I have an undeniable role to play in encouraging my students to think big and ultimately change the future. Can the seeds be planted at such a young age? Yes, I think so.

alicia serrano

This is the very first time I have ever read the California Teaching Performance Expectations. I was overwhelmed! I printed out a copy and must have spent 45 minutes reading this multiple times trying to digest it all, so it would make sense to me. I carefully went back to the initial questions for this specific assignment each time I analized each TPE. These standards seem to be very complete; however, I would think that a teacher would need to be reminded of these standards on a daily basis to properly and effectively run a classroom. Would it be wise to post these in my own classroom in the same way a grade level's standards are posted? I am thinking about including a copy inside of lesson plan books because each piece seems critical. It seems that everything that seems essential and logical for a teacher, students, and academic content to flow positively has been included. Academic planning, assessments, monitoring student learning, making content accessible, student engagement, developmentally appropriate teaching practices, teaching English learners (with constant changing demographics this piece seems essential), learning about students, instructional time, social environment, professional l, legal, and ethical obligations, and professional growth combined make a very powerful package. I do not see how one piece of these standards could be labeled as irrelevant in my opinion. They all come together as puzzle pieces to complete the picture. To delete one would make an incomplete picture. Could we debate eliminating some parts of the academic standards that we are held accountable for teaching our students? Is one standard irrelevant or more important than the others? This is a critical question that I have.