Hello and welcome to the 2007-2008 Career Ladder Pre-Candidacy Class! Our goal for the first session was to begin to provide an overview of the process of National Board Certification and begin to gain an understanding of the Five Core Propositions which are the foundation for the Standards that accomplished teachers demonstrate in their practice. After each session you will find some discussion topics and/or guiding questions to consider. After responding print out a copy to keep in your binder as documentation. We would like each of you to respond at least once each month. Hopefully this will be an easy tool to enhance your understanding of the National Board Certification process. There are no right or wrong answers and we can learn a lot from each other! Just click on "comments" below to post your response(s).
CHOOSE ONE OR MORE TO RESPOND TO:
1) From what you know about the National Board Certification process, list some concerns or challenges you have about pursuing certification. What benefits might you see if you accept the challenges and rewards that come with pursuing National Board Certification.
2) Share some actions you take to get to know and understand your students as learners. Now stretch your thinking a little and describe what is important to know about your students when designing meaningful goals, lessons, strategies, and assessments for students.
7 comments:
One of the ways I get to know my students as learners is by talking to them and observing them during various times of the day (when I greet them in the morning, at recess and snack time, when I am circulating around the room as they work, during whole and small group interactions, when I watch them interact with their parents). One thing I think it's important to know: your students' pre-conceived notions of school and of themselves as learners - what they feel they are "experts" at and what subjects make them feel uncomfortable because they don't feel confident in that area.
I get to know my students' personalities by observing them interact with their peers in class,asking them questions about themselves and talking to them individually.
I get to know them acedemically by observing their work habits- in and out of class, Who does their homework? Who doesn't? Who pays attention to details? Who looks at the big picture? I also watch how students interact with their peers, do they like to help their peers or do they guard their knowledge for themselves? When planing my seating arrangments, I try to keep these things in mind. Who do I think would help whom? Does so and so have a common interest with so and so- might they work well together? This helps with classroom managment and builds team-work. Just yesterday, one of my students made cakes for her table mates- just because she likes them!
Knowing where your student's interests are allows you to tap into natural enthusiasm and helps generate student interes which makes learning more relevant. Also, designing lessons that appeal different learning styles allows students a variety of ways to approach a topic.
Developing positive and meaningful relationships with my students has always been one of my strengths as a teacher. I think it is necessary for all teachers to do this in order for students' affective filters to be lowered. Without this, students are more reluctant to truly feel comfortable in the learning environment and accept challenges. At the beginning of the school year, I always hand out a learning style survey, so that I know how all of my students learn. I also have all of my students fill out a student information sheet that allows me to find out interesting information about them. The most important thing though is to pay attention to them and respect what they think and what they have to say. I feel that a lot of the time, I learn from my students on how to be an effective teacher in the classroom simply by listening and having conversations with them. In terms of creating meaningful lessons, goals and strategies for students to learn, it is essential to know a student's background knowledge of what is being taught. Without knowing this, a lesson may present itself as too difficult or not enough of a challenge. I often provide choice in my lessons, and I pay attention to what the students choose to do because it is often how they like to learn best. I have learned that by allowing choice in learning, it gives students control that they sometimes need to feel in their education. As an LRC English teacher, I always bring in three book options for the kids to read and then I have a book chat about each novel. The class then votes on what we will be reading. It is always interesting to me that the vote is unanimous, and I was suprised that last year they picked the longest book, which was 600 pages. I have found that when a teacher can relate to kids and make a subject exciting, they will rise to the occasion every time.
Concerns – I’m not too much concerned about getting to know my students’ learning style, their personalities, interests and dislikes, their strengths and challenges physically, mentally, socially, and especially their communication means and abilities. These things I have been doing for a long time and do well. They are the areas that I have concentrated on and have been the primary needs of my students, in the past. Most all of my students have been nonverbal and the ones that were verbal had extreme behavior problems. The verbal students left my class as soon as I designed and trained them on methods under which they followed basic classroom rules. I was never responsible for their higher academic development e.g. reading, writing and math. That went to the teacher whose class they went into after mine. Most of my students didn’t move on and their goals consisted of augmentative communication development, basic social skills, and other functional skill development.
BUT now I have a number of students who will be with me for many years who not only need augmentative communication, socialization and functional skills, BUT also have the abilities for beginning reading, writing and math. These are new areas for me, which I will have to learn immediately, plus become so familiar with that I can teach them in the very individual ways that my students require! YOW!
I think the National Board Certification process will help me structure the steep learning curve I now face.
As the only PE teacher on my campus, I teach every child in the school for six years if they attend every year from K to 5th grade. I am in a special situation because I get to watch these students grow up over the years.
Because the amount of time spent in PE class has been reduced in most instances by 66%, it takes much more effort on my part to develop personal relationships with the students. Having two children at the school has certainly helped, but doing things such as being in the dunk tank or having students throw water balloons at me for incentive during my annual Jump Rope for Heart activity helps.
These activities allow the students to see me under different circumstances which enhance the safe classroom environment I strive for.
I've tried doing this 3 separate times and each time it's earased---here we go again
It's great reading and hearing about teachers who are really dedicated to how kids learn---thank you all----I beleive getting to know students from the inside out is the key to egaging them in learning activities---I use interest inventories and multiple intelligence surveys at the beginning of the year. I try to form a class profile as well as individual profiles. Two or three times a week we do journal writing and students reflect on personal issues and values. I'm at somewhat of an advantage being a special ed teacher--My biggest class is 14 students---I think it's easier to personalize instruction when you can actually have the time to speak with students one on one.
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