Technology 115 Internet Safety

Question: Was there anything in the internet safety presentation that was new to you? What about your students? Do you think they are aware of this information?

There was nothing new that I had discovered upon watching this piece on interent safety. I am familiar with specific online dangers like My Space, Facebook, im's, chatrooms etc. I have a teenager daughter who is very knowledgeable about online communication so I have had to set up guidelines and rules of what she can do and not do online and make it clear that she has to do these things in an area where I can see her and monitor her time online. There are a lot of online predators who are very crafty in how they seek out minors, and I definately see that we as parents and teachers need to speak with minors about the dangers and risks. I don't however see how for really young children some of these issues might come up, but as they get older and more knowledgeable about technology, these discussions and protections will have to occur more and more often. I think a lot of families who do have a computer at home probably are not aware of many of the dangers that exist. Some families may have more information about online safety than others. I think more teenagers and families with teenagers are more aware than families who still have younger children.

Question #2 What technology do both you and your students have available?

At my school we have a learning lab where the students use computers and specific software to help in literacy and math. They are each assigned a computer and spend a portion of their day on the computers. All of the teaching staff has a laptop which we use to log in daily attendance, create long-term plans, unit assessments, spreadsheets, etc. We also use the computers to access work e-mail and submit documentation to be reimbursed for classroom purchases. The computers are also used for credentialing program and to do online work and submit completed course work for portfolios etc.

Question #3 What kinds of technology do you currently use in your class? I use my laptop to enter attendance, check on powerteacher to access student information. I use the computer to show students pictures of things we are learning about, so they can see what it is I am talking about. I use computer as a resource to look up information about lessons and to search for new ideas of how to teach a specific skill in a different way. I use the internet to look for literature connections to math content. I have used the overhead projector a little bit to show the students up on the screen a specific worksheet or explanation of something. I do not use it very often, but I have used it before.

Health #3

THis chapter had a lot of variety everything from health, diet and exercise to specific learning disabilities at the conclusion of the chapter. I agree with the article that our children are not getting a proper diet of fresh produce and whole grains. Many times I see the students bringing items that are cheap and unfortunately very low in nutritional value. It is a result of their economic hardship, and even though ROcketship spends a lot of money buying organic food for breakfasts and lunches, I do see a lot of food being thrown away or only bitten into. I have heard complaining about the taste of the food which a lot of our students do not like. we make attempts to offer a healthier choice and unfortunately due to cultural tastes, I don't feel that the students are giving it a fair chance. Students are very much influenced by the diet they have at home, and I know a lot of the foods they eat which are not the healthiest. I think that a lot of food in Mexico is healthier and fresher than what we consume here in the United States. I worked with some teachers from Spain one year and within 4-5 months they had each gained about 20-25 pounds eating the American diet which is full of processed foods. In terms of exercise, this is grim also. Our students who arrive at school around 7:30 and those who stay in after school until 5:30 or 6 spend the majority of their day in a sedentary position. I know they get some physical outside time with Coach J, but I don't think it is enough for the full amount of time they spend at school sitting. We as a school have to assume the blame for that because in our push to raise achievement we have sacrificed other things like exercise. I think this can be said for teachers as well. When I worked in ALum ROck I used to go for walks during my lunches, and when I started working here in trying to prepare things and get other things done, I have abandoned that practice and choose to eat lunch in my room and do work. All of the other teachers on staff do the same, and they few times that I have chosen to walk around the block they kids see me and they come screaming, "Ms Serrano... why are you walking.? THey don't understand that I am doing it to exercise. I do talk to them about exercising at home, and fortunately I have changed my habits, but it is easy to fall into the trap of just work work work in order to produce and we lose sight of our health. We need to model these behaviors if we want children to pick up on them and do them themselves. THe last piece I want to comment on is ADHD toward the end of the chapter. I have had children in my classes over the years with the diagnosis for ADHD, and teaching those students is very difficult because their behavior inhibits a lot. I was surprised to find out that one half of students with ADHD have been retained and one third drop out. It seems that we are not doing enough to address this problem when you see statistics like this. I think there has to be more training on this issue and more interventions and modifications in order to prevent the statistics above. I sometimes don't get a feeling like very many people take ADHD seriously. It is very disruptive to the student, the class, and the teacher. I have been frustrated because I know that there are parents who choose not to give their children they prescribed medication, and I know that is their choice, but at some point you have to deal with the problem and figure out how you are going to treat it. It is frustrating for me and for the students who are diagnosed with the disorder I am sure.

Health #2 Chapter 13

This was a lengthy chapter with loads of information. However after reading it, there are a few thoughts that came to mind regarding the interactions that I have as a teacher with my students. I think that child development is so important to understand and teachers and parents should have a really good grasp of the cycle of development in children. We continue to develop over time and children are always changing and growing. I find child development fascinating and worthy of my taking more time to read and explore. I took a child development class at a local community college back in 2004, and it was mostly focused on the preschooler, but t was very helpful to me in my understanding and building relationships wth the preschool children I had. The first piece of the article that grabbed my attention was the part on page 7 about self-esteem. As teachers it is really important that we understand that our action and interactions with our students help mold that. "Concern that too many children receive praise for mediocre or even poor performance and as a consequence have inflated self-esteem." I know as a teacher I want to encourage my students;however, there are certain behaviors, skills etc that are just expected and to make a really huge deal about them I think falls into the area of praising mediocrity. At our school we have value rockets, and I think that there may be a tendency to overuse these at this level meaning for something that really is not worthy of a value rocket just to give it out everyday to someone in each class, I think is falling into the trap of what this quote is driving at. In my room, I don't know who will get a value rocket, and it has to be something that is really above and beyond just a "super purple" on our behavior clip chart. TO earn one in my class is something that has a "wow" factor, and if that means that someone does not earn it that day or for a week or two then that is how it goes. I think our intentions are good in wanting to recongnize and reward students that praise, but I think we can get carried away with it and we can be guilty of rewarding mediocrity.

The chapter listed for things to increase children's self-esteem: Identify the causes of low self-esteem in which children are encouraged to identify and value areas of competence such as academic, athletic, physical attractiveness, and social acceptance. Each individual child excels in at least one area. I know I have students who may be a little weaker academically, but they excel in social skills or other problem solving areas, and building their awareness of their strengths in whatever area is our responsibility as teachers. Second, provide emotional support/social approval. A lot of our students come from conflicted families and situations that are beyond our control. Some have experienced abuse and neglect. I, over the years, have had a multitude of experiences with students I have known who have been sexually molested, witnessed abuse, live in extreme poverty, live with drug addicts or alcoholic parents, and some that are homeless. Again I think it is our responsibility to provide whatever emotional support they need to help foster their sense of self-esteem. Some children probably carry a lot of guilt over whatever situations they have at home, and providing them with a safe environment is definately critical to their development of self-esteem. Third, help children achieve. Here we as teachers need to teach straightforwar real lskills which studies show results in increased achievement. We are so driven in the area of achievement, and communicating and teaching our students real skills and the importance of having that, translates into their achievement of those goals. Somewhere in the chapter it talked about giving them the tools to assess where they are in achieving their goals, and I believe everything we do at Rocketship does emphasize the goals that they are responsible for reaching. They are always aware of where they are in terms of those goals, how far they need to go, and this year I am having all of my students reflect on what they have done that has contributed to their being able to scale the mountain towards reaching their goal by the end of the year. They had to write about what things they had to do to make it there after I gave them feedback on their first round diagnostic in September. Each time they take the diagnostic, they will have to go back and reflect and write what they did to increase their climbing up the mountain or what they failed to do that maybe held them back. I think this will give them a tremendous amount of satisfaction and allow them to take ownership of what they have accomplished. The fourth way to increase self-esteem that the chapter mentioned was helping children cope. Here again, I think Rocketship does a great job at teaching children to learn how to face a problem onad try to cope with it. We use I-Statements which empower children to solve problems on their own rather than avoiding them. THis is critical to developing healthy self-esteem.

The next piece of the reading that caught my attention was the part about the differences between males and females which I find fascinating. As a teacher I really need to be aware of these differences and learn how it plays into my instruction and the results that I get from my students. One cognitive difference that I have heard about before reading this article was that girls are stronger in verbal abilities and boys are stronger in math and visuospatial skills. As a math teacher, I have always kept this in mind, and I had read articles before claiming that in certain studies boys are always called on more in math than girls. THe other area of differences is what the article called report talk vs. rapport talk. What this means is that males do well when it comes to re port talk which is talking that gives information like public speaking, story telling, lecturing with information. On the other hand, females do better when it comes to rapport talk which is language of conversation and a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships. I am going to watch out for this and be more observant when it comes to this in my classroom because I had never heard of such a thing before. Last, according to the reading boys are more likely to hide their negative emotions such as sadness and girls less likely to express disappoinment that might hurt others' feelings.

In sum, I find child development very interesting and fascinating and I would like to continue to read about their development not only as a teacher, but as a mother of a teenager. I think anyone who has children or works with children should really take the time and effort to understand stages of development and what that means as a parent or an educator. THere is so much to know in terms of development, and I wonder if it is possible to really learn what we need to learn about child development in one class? Absolutely not would be my answer.

Reach 111 Session #3 article

I chose to read the article about ADHD and ADD since I have two students who have been medically diagnosed recently with each of these. One comment that I found particularly interesting in the article,"A New Approach to Attention Deficit Disorder" is the following: " ADD is not a problem of willpower, however. It is a chronic impairment in the chemistry of the management system of the brain." As a teacher who has been in classrooms for many years, I have had students every year who are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. Some are more severe cases than others and have tested by patience as a teacher. I have been caught up with that same thought that if you can do it behave or be on tast sometimes then why can't you do it all the time? This actually brings me back to a training that I had when I worked in San Jose Unified. We had one whole day's worth of training on ADHD and ADD and one of the issues raised was that teacher's get baffled and frustrated by the simple fact that we see on occasion students with ADD or ADHD perform tasks perfectly and then become confused when they fall back into their not being able to organize, prioritize, focus, sustain effort and manage their emotions. If you can do it once why can't you do it all the time? What is important here is to remember exactly what this quote says which is it is an impairment due to chemicals in the brain that are not being received or delivered to a specific area of the brain. The article stresses that medication for the treatment of ADD/ADHD will not cure it but can be looked at like a pair of glasses to correct the visually impaired individual. It will alleviate those symptoms for the hours of the day that the medication is active in the brain. Since the most recent students to have been diagnosed with ADHD and ADD this year, only one is one medication. She seems to be focusing a lot more and I have noticed a significant improvement in her attention in class. However, the other student's parent put him on medication for one day and decided that she did not like how it effected L, so she stopped giving him his medication. I can respect that decision although I do not understand it because I as a parent would want to try anything that would help my child to do her best and be successful. It seems that one day was not enough time to determine what effects the medication would clearly have on L, so this article is a good reminder that medication although one of the ways to help manage ADD/ADHD still the student needs accomodations. I completely agree that early identification of ADD/ADHD is so critical because if left untouched a student can "become demoralized by repeated experiences of frustration or failure." Finally, there are a lot of myths out there regarding ADD/ADHD, and it is important for me as a classroom teacher to be aware of them and educate myself on what it is exactly and the appropriate modifications that I can make in the classroom that will allow a student with ADD/ADHD to thrive at his or her best. What called my attention is that a person with ADD is six times more likely to have another psychiatric or learning disorder than most other people are. ADD usually overlaps wit other disorders. This particular disorder fascinates me, and I want to continue to learn about it and prepare for those students who come to my classroom with the disorder diagnosed already or those who still do not. Statistics say that 7.8% of children in the U.S. ages 4-17 are currently diagnosed with ADD or ADHD which translates into 2 students er class. That is definately a number that wakes me up!!!

Reach 111 Session #2 reading

After some careful thought about the question, I decided that I have a lot of room to grow as a teacher in regard to providing the appropriate differentiation for students with special needs in my classroom. There are several students who I have in all four classes who present some type of differentiated instruction based on some medically diagnosed disorder. I know that I need to provide more organizers and visuals for many of my students. Specifically when it comes to the 10 tactics to foster attention skills, I paid attention to this one because I for sure have had two students this year L and I who have been diagnosed with ADHD and ADD. Having a highly structured class, display of classroom rules, (I have the core values and the creed posted, but I do not have a separate chart for "my classroom rules" I will focus on having one by the beginning of next school year.), daily class schedule is usually written on the white board and the children know the routine math meeting, homework check, time test, lesson, etc. They know which days to expect centers during the week and so on. The article also mentioned training the class on class cues using bells or charts. The use of two desks for these students and making it a positive is definately something that I would love to implement because it just makes sense especially for L who is up and out of his seat constantly. During assessments, I have had to isolate L completely so he can focus at the task at hand and come and check on him every 5 or so minutes to make sure he is on task and not wasting his time unfocused on someone or something else in the classroom. They all have their own "offices" for testing. L and I have their own specific office away from distractions from others. For these students specifically L he needs to have something in hand all the time to manipulate, so I have given him a small white erase board, marker, and eraser for him to use during group instruction. This keeps him focused and participating and really cuts down on his interruptions and outbursts which were a daily occurence throughout the course of the year. Keeping their desks clear is something that I insist on while testing. Of course visually monitoring them. In terms of providing color organizers I suppose that is something that I could implement as well. I really like the idea of using peer buddies which is just a win win situation when dealing with students with special needs.

Reach 112 Calla Handbook Chapter 3 Academic Language

After looking at my first post on this chapter, I decided that my opinions, thoughts, and feelings have not changed much. It is at present however even clearer to me that academic language is something that I need to make sure I'm teaching my first graders. All of my students with the exception of a few are ELL's , and as this chapter points out, academic and social language are two different things. Academic language takes longer to learn and is more difficult than social language. A vast majority of my students have good social language; however, as the chapter points out this is not at all academic language. I think sometimes we as teachers can be fooled into thinking that just because a student can produce language like a native speaker that he or she has the skills in academic language too, and this is not the case. The simple fact that they are functional in social language does not mean that they possess the academic language. Academic language is going to be taught and used in the classroom, and I definately agree that our students will only have that opportunity to learn and practice academic language in the classroom, so we need to make sure that our instruction delivers this because academic language uses both lower-order and higher-order thinking skills and it encompasses everything from the lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy to the highest and most sophisticated level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Reach 112 Teaching for English Learners Self-Assessment/Observation

When comparing my self-assessment to the observations notes, I realized that I have some holes that I need to fill in terms of my ELL's. Specifically I knew I was weak with explicit forms of academic language; however, upon receiving the observation notes I see where I could work it in and it be successful. I had initially had the idea of incorporating more academic English into the assessments that I give. I see that I could weave it in during the specific opportunity where I constantly remind and push students to show their work. Instead of using "check your work" I could use vocabulary like proving, evaluating, justifying etc.


I knew that I used a lot of visuals like large paper coins, a big model analog clock, base ten blocks, charts etc to conduct my math meeting. Even in the centers I have it manipulative heavy, so the students can work, touch, and see the math. I will continue to to provide manipulatives during math meeting, direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice because I know that ELL's need that.

I need to change how I use my voice. WHen I asked the students how many agreed, my phrasing coupled with my tone clearly let the students know that I agreed, and it did not give the opportunity I was looking for to see who understood and who did not. I have to work on that so I don't give it away with my phrasing or tone.

There was one comment about my sticks being out but I was not using them. I was using them. I don't know how it was perceived that I did not call on students using the sticks. I used them to call students up to the board. Some other questions I called on students because I was targeting specific Broncos on certain concepts. I just wanted to clarify what I was doing.

In terms of thematic instruction, I was observed doing math meeting which is a daily practice of many math skills. Our theme right now is time and clocks.

I liked the suggestion that I need to incorporate more real-life connections into everything that I teach them. THis taps into respect for home language and culture which I should be able to do more. Using the knowledge that I have for the culture andlanguage and bringing that alive more in my lessons and daily math practice would be something that I could certainly do right away.

Reach 110 Equity (Teaching for Equity Resources)

I browsed several websites, and it appears that there are a lot of different resources out there on the topic. I would like to take the initiative over the summer and choose one or two good readings on this subject as it hits a personal chord with me. I hope that I can be steered in the right direction by my coach to narrowing down some possible reading for the summer break.


I took a look at one particular reading on one of the suggested websites. It was Brian D. Schultz's Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way. This might be one of the reading I look into over the s ummer. According to the article, a fifth grade teacher by the name of Brian Schultz who worked in Chicago's Cabrini Green neighborhood took a group of fifth grade students in room 405 to work on a sophisticated advocacy plan calling for a new school building. Brian Schultz their teacher and author of the book, enacted a social action project with the fifth graders to address their concerns. Although the school was never built, their actions did gain a lot of media attention and supporters including Ralph Nader.

The article goes on to discuss how many teachers due to the rigidity of testing and scripted curricula are limited in the likelihood of the enactment of social change or action projects. Many times teachers are so focused and under such pressure to pour all of their energy, resources, and planning into meeting the standards and preparing students for state tests that they have no room to develop projects that address issues of social change.

Finally, it made me think of one of the reasons I have stayed in education for so long. I stay for exactly that reason: social change. I see that at Rocketship we reach out to our families to be involved in things like the upcoming PACT meeting in which the community is able to ask questions of public officials about schools of choice in the community. We do things at Rocketship that are not part of most public schools. Reaching beyond just the adults, this article made me think about what we can do with all of those students who sit in our classrooms everyday. There are so many social issues out there to make society a better place. What is possible is that these social action projects can be done in a way that will simultaneously develop activist and standards-oriented academic skills. This idea is definately one worth futher exploration.

Reach 110 Equity

The reading by Lisa Delpit, " The Silenced Diologue" was an excellent article about how the white middle-class culture is the one in power, and how this shapes education. When the author got into detail about the culture of power and the five aspects of power, the first one jumped out at me right away. I have always been aware that as a teacher, I am in a position of power over the students. I remember taking a multiculturalism in education course back in college that specifically talked about this very issue. Racism can and will be repeated if a teacher holds that power and prejudice. However, this goes further into things that are not under my direct control like the textbooks that are published, the creators and decision makers of curriculum, the power of the state and federal government to establish educational policy, the authors/creators of the very test which are used to gauge who graduates, who gets into college, who earns credentials, degrees, and who can ultimately be successful in this culture.


One quote that touched me in the article was when the author brought out the point that she has frequently heard schools call poor parents, "uncaring." When parents respond they many times say or show an attitude such that, "it is the school's job." I admit that I am guilty of thinking those exact thoughts and feeling frustrate over the years by parents who seem to hold that attitude. I as a teacher have wanted support and needed support in making sure that these students of mine are successful, and I get angry and frustrated at times when a parent is sending me that message. However, after reading this article and specifically this quote, I had not stopped to think where this idea or attitude was coming from until now. As the author points out what we fail to understand is that if our parents belonged to this culture of power they would transmit these codes and rules to their children. It made me think of what I have tried to establish in terms of my own daughter and value education and do everything in a certain way to ensure that the doors of opportunity are open to her. I know the rules of the game because I have played it already; however, many of our families are immigrants who do not have the information to know what all the codes and rules are, and yes they are going to be unfamiliar with those rules and codes. That made a lot of sense to me. The next time I am tempted to react with that opinion that certain parents don't care, I will step back to think of this article and remember that those parents or families probably are not equipped with the tools, codes, rules, etc to play the game of the culture in power. It makes sense that these families would be teaching another culture to their children that would enable them to survive in their communities.


The last quote that I want to bring up is the following: "In this county students will be juged on their product regardless of the process they used to achieve it." I believe that we are results obsessed as a society, and we value more the final result than the process. How can I take this and teach my students that the process does matter? Do I just arm them with what they will need to know or master in order to fall into the culture of power and teach them to ignore the other pieces?

I am looking forward to our discussion on Tuesday.

Reach 108 Differentiated Assessment

These reading were so powerful and generated a lot for me to think about. I am going to start writing and see where that takes me in this blog. More and more I am understanding the significance and power behing good diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. I will get into my personal skill in this area later in the blog. As I started reading, I like the idea that reliable assessments come from multiple sources of evidence. I liked the comparison of viewing assessments like photo albums vs. single snapshots. I thought that was a clever way to phrase it. One single summative test at the end is less likely to provide a complete picture of student's learning than a collection of diverse evidence. I have always thought that we as a society (probably for political purposes) rely too heavily on those standardized tests to be the sole determining factor. My question has always been well then if we know that, then why do we still focus or continue to emphasize that one big standardized test? In my classroom, some children are going to do well on the paper unit assessments and others will not. As an example, the last unit I finished was almost two weeks ago, and I had worked really hard on this unit and decided to extend it a bit longer due to the fact that there were still a lot of students who during the formative assessments like teacher observation were still not showing understanding. While we were doing the fact families, some students were able to put the three numbers correctly in the right order to make correct number families, but they were falling short with that key understanding of how the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems. I was determined to make sure that there was understanding of that concept and not just being satisfied with students providing the correct number sentences. During the unit, one of my lowest students in my first class and probably overall was showing through other means like board problems or through bellwork or other tasks that she had a good understanding of the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. Peggy was even in my room to observe a lesson where I had pulled a small group, and she was dominating the group by answering quickly and quite vocally and drowing out some of the other students in that group session. It had become clear to me that she was exhibiting some understanding during that formative assessment (my observation) and a work sample of building 4 number sentences out of the three numbers given in the fact family extension lesson. Peggy even commented in her observation notes that she was providing a lot of answers and seemed ready to go back to her seat and "graduate" from that small group. I was excited each and every time before this particular day and after that she had made big steps in acquiring that understanding. Then came the unit assessment (big summative paper test), and she did not perform well on it. Should I use that one paper test as the only indicator of her understanding of fact families? Years ago I might have said that the one summative assessment cancelled out everything else, but now I see that my little "M" in the Broncos really does know a thing or two about fact families number sense that a paper test does not show.

We were all given a benchmark assessment to use for Math as the method for placing our Rocketeers at either far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced. The test is pretty good, but now I am in a place to start to question if we should solely be using only the scores from that assessment to place our students at the end of the year? WHat about my "M" who clearly has some understanding about fact families because she has demonstrated it to me on numerous occasions? It will be interesting to see this next round how she will test on that piece of the assessment. Using this big end of the year test to prove what a student can and cannot due seems to be like putting all of your eggs in one basket. I am a bit uncomfortable because of those students like "M" who show understanding inother ways, just not on the paper test.

I liked the piece about giving feedback also. I wanted to take time to make a comment or two about that. I agree that we attach scores and percentages but those are not feedback. Feedback is exactly what the chapter metnioned which is giving students information about their strengths and weaknesses. I am familiar with rubrics and I have seen really good kid friendly rubrics in writing; however, I have never seen one for math. I would like to know if anyone has seen one or has an idea about how you might use one for math. Sometimes math can be so cut and dry because there is one right answer you are looking for unlike writing where one is able to be flexible and more creative. Could a math rubric be developed an if so what would you use it for and what would it include? I share to a certain extent feedback with my students. I probably do not do it in the most effective way, but I do share with them information about what they are doing in terms of showing their work that maybe is stumping them and which specific steps they might have confused or missed in working a problem. Maybe it was that they did not get the key word in a word problem which contributed to the wrong operation being applied. That would just be an example. I always stress for them to show their work and that means that there should be some kind of number sentence or equation or drawings or something there to prove it. I include that in the assessments because at the first grade level the math can be pretty simple and the really advanced ones are able to figure things out in their head without writing it down, but I stress the importance of them working every single problem out and proving it no matter how easy it can be done even if done in their head.

Right now I am so excited to see growth on the big benchmark assessment;however, I know that those kinds of tests even the unit assessments I have are not "fair." As the article mentioned some with be penalized by using that format and it will favor others. I have some pre-assessments and unit assessments in place and I am learning to use a variety of things for formative assessments which is good because I did not have those things going for me years ago. I am in a stronger place now as a teacher, but I need some serious work on creating even stronger diagnostics and summative assessments and that will be a work in progress.

REACH 108 Strategies

These chapters had so much information that I had to read a few pages at a time, stop, and then pick up and read again another day. The chapters listed a lot of different strategies, and I hope to talk about them more in depth during our sessions to get a better idea of how each one works because after reading, I don't feel I completely can envision what each one of these strategies looks like actually being implemented. I guess that says something about the kind of learner I am. I need to actually see things being done to fully understand them and be able to do them myself. The reading mentioned stations, agendas, complex instruction, centers, tiered activities, compacting etc. I really found it difficult to take this all in and make direct applications to math based on the examples that the reading provided. I can understand the concept of centers and stations as this is a target area for me to begin implementing very soon. I have already discussed with this with our coach and a little with our principal, and I am waiting to figure out maybe in which specific direction I can go with it. I have implemeted centers when I taught in another district, and the program we used required a minimum of 7 centers around a specific theme or unit of study. I think centers is the one strategy listed that I feel most comfortable and knowledgeable about. Jason, I know you finally implemented your centers this week, and I wanted to know how that worked out for you and the students. Based on your reaction the other day, it sounded like you had a considerable amount of success with it. I have wanted to ask for some collaboration time for us math teachers just to bounce some ideas off of each other in terms of differentiation, and I hope we can get the chance to discuss and make our math program even stronger. I guess one of the questions, I have for you would be which other strategies mentioned in this reading assignment do you feel would be most effective for math. I liked the compacting one as it relies on encouraging and emphasizing teachers to assess students at the beginning of a unit and those students who get at least three-quarters correct would not continue work on what they already know. I feel like I have made the grave error of falling into the trap of teaching it anyway even if they know it and I want to set this as one of my goals and start using those assessments in a better way to organize and structure my instruction for different groups and levels of students. I am sure I probably bored them a bit, but my rationale was well it will be good review or reinforcement for them. Another idea that I liked about differentiation is providing opportunities for children to make choices. I think this goes back to 105 and our discussion about how people learn, and choice is definately a piece of that. I am struggling a bit right now with the huge difference between the really high groups and the lower ones that are still struggling with number sense or number recognition. I hope we can have a deep discussion at our next session about issues we have and how we see differentiation working to as the author wrote, " the goal is for the teacher to meet a student where he is in knowledge, understanding, thought, planning, and presentation, and then to help the learner push forward." That was the quote that summarizes what we as teachers are trying to learn more about right now in this course.

REACH 109 ASSIGNMENT 2 STEP UP TO WRITING

I really loved the two articles given for the writing piece of 109. Years ago, I would have never stopped to think to incorporate so much writing into math, but through good training and excellent guidance by my school and my teacher program, I am starting to see the value in doing so. I push my students for oral explanations to their answers which is good, but I also understand that having a time and place for them to process their thinking and express it in written form would also give me great insight into their exact thinking process, their strengths and their weaknesses as mathematicians. I want them not to just give me the answer whether it is right or wrong, but I constantly push them to defend their answer to the "jury" the rest of the class. Going along with pushing them for oral answers, I could continue to expand on that and give them an outlet for writing it down and explaining it through words, sentences, and drawings. I do provide them with some ways in which they can write it down. One of the ways is to write it down in their math journals. Since they are only in First Grade, I have had to provide prompts to get them started, and I have asked them to write in their own words something that they either did today in class or learned, or reviewed that they can share. I provide vocabulary words in their unit assessments in which they have to provide a definition of the word and use it correctly in a math related sentence. I see that I can model more some think alouds and model the writing process more as it relates to their own thinking and answers so that they can see how that proces works and how they might apply it in their own process of understanding concepts in math. I think I could improve by asking this everytime we do an activity and it goes into their notebooks. I could ask for it also by choosing one or two math problems of the day on the board, and then upon going over the answer going a step beyond and modeling my thinking process and writing it on the board. I also think that I can incorporate more writing into their homework assignments even if it is writing down one thing that was easy or difficult about the homework and explaining why it was either easy or difficult. I think there are so many different ways a good teacher can incorporate more writing into math, and I am excited about improving and pushing them more and more in math but also with the literacy piece as it relates to math.

Reach 108 Self-Assessment

Differentiated instruction is such a powerful piece of a quality classroom. Being at Rocketship and in the Reach program is helping me to put the pieces together so that I can more effectively teach the diversity of learners all 82 of them who sit in my classroom everyday. At the beginning of the year, I had very little information about those 82 students and it has taken months to really grasp all of the factors that combine to make each student who he or she is. I began thinking about how I could possibly teach all 82, and know each one of them in specific ways relative to their socio-economic background, language, motivation, experiences, personal interests, and learning styles. There is so much information to consider when evaluating and creating differentiated instruction. Although I am no master at the grandiose task, I feel like my school and my teacher training program are guiding me in the right direction. I find that I am doing certain things right like carving out effective blocks of time to work in either small groups or one-on-one students. I am searching for appropriate ways to teach the curriculum and implement those strategies to ensure that all of my students are understanding the topic in relevant ways. I have looked at where I fall in terms of the continuum and I have placed myself professionally in between emerging and applying for TPE 4,5, and 7. In terms of TPE 2 and 3 Monitoring student learning during instruction, and interpretation and use of assessment, I again have placed myself between emerging and applying. After reading the articles, I am more aware each step of the way how important those pre-assessments are because they provide the information for alternative learning paths for students. These pre-assessments will guide me into the right direction of making sure instruction is where it should be for individual students. UbD planning will help me plan and focus on the "what" part of instuction, and the DI piece will focus on the who, where, and how. I am understanding that these two pieces of a quality classroom need each other, and even the best curriculum will falter if it does not address the who, where, and how. I look forward to growing professionally and developing my skills as a teacher to tap into combining UbD with Differentiated Instruction and finding effective strategies that meet the needs of a wide range of learners. I would like to challenge my students to achieve at their level and eventually moving over into more innovating teaching where as to guide my students to start making appropriate choices for their learning. I have a way to go on this road to mastery, but I am on the path and seek any and all support in that adventure.