Component # 4 Reflection: Working With Gifted Students

Our professional development sessions are conducted weekly in a variety of subject areas, and the monthly school-wide session, using interactive reform activities, align with the Danielson Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 2013) to showcase best practices of teachers and to develop grade-level performance tasks, looking at students’ work to provide individual feedback that is aligned with the teaching rubric in order to show academic progress and growth in the target areas of ELA and Math.

For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a

Promoting confidence that every child can improve will see the child gain satisfaction on their own progress and will give them a sense that they can continue to improve, a teacher or TA can do this by giving

For example, teachers make sure the practice assessments they give out to their students mirror the format of the state assessments. Especially in third grade, where students are taking the test for the first time and have some troubles with filling out bubble sheets and following directions. Across classrooms, teaching practices are aligned to the curriculum and reflect and express set of beliefs about how students learn best through student work products and discussions. In a math lesson, some students worked with the teacher in the front of the room answering a series of tiered questions using large visual representations and some worked with their tables as well. This helps keep students not only engaged but, working together as a team.

Some of the methods which I can be seamlessly incorporate into my classroom include: (A) provide intentional reflection time for the process of learning to discover the growth which comes from effort, (B) offer specific and purposeful feedback along with constructive criticism , (C) praise students wisely and purposely, (D) teach for the future of yet by demystifying talent and providing tools to bridge gaps, and (E) always celebrate effort and progress. Through intentional incorporation and daily delivery of these practices, I plan to create a classroom blooming with effort and expansion and thus transform the character of all my

Adolescents face many developmental tasks: physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. For example, puberty happens, intellectual interests expand, moral thinking happens, sense of identity is initiated, independence is worked towards, there is conflict with adults, and peer influence becomes an issue—to say the least. This particular read focuses on twelve west coast inner city students and the developmental and environmental tasks that impact their education. Professionals often use the word resilience, or suggest that students become resilient, without putting much thought into the difficulties that students must recover from.

Many students at the elementary level perform poorly in mathematics because when they complete kindergarten; they acquire inadequate knowledge of basic mathematics. Due to lack of enough skills and concepts, these students continue to experience this problem even in upper elementary school (Duncan et al, 2007).By the fourth grade, these students performance becomes very poor such that they are not expected to improve when they get to the next grade. The major program to improve student’s achievement in mathematics is the introduction of more intense professional development in teacher-led instruction, providing examples, and teaching problem-solving strategies for all

Her flexibility is an important key in being able to reach every student individually. Mrs. Thompson mentioned in conversation although the children are grouped by the school based on commonality of skill level, she finds every year that the skill level is still very varied. With that said, it is imperative as a teacher that creative ways be implemented to allow each student to learn equally verses “teaching to the middle.” By “teaching to the middle” often times the children who fall behind continue to struggle while the students who are more advanced lack a challenge. Chanel mentioned one way to combat this would be to pre-plan agendas because organization is a key component to a successful classroom

In “Working With Your Advisory Council to Improve Your CTE Program,” select at least 3 key ideas which might be useful to you in establishing an effective CTE advisory committee. Post 4 to 5 paragraphs with your response.

Many educators will argue what makes an effective teacher and how that correlates with the function of the classroom. When we talked about how to be an effective teacher we discussed three components, teaching through problem-solving and selecting appropriate tasks, creating appropriate environments and using appropriate interventions. In my field experience, I was able to observe these three effective mathematics teaching components and understand how they apply to the classroom. After leaning about these components, I was then able to use them in my personal experience and see how they

3. Evaluate the new system and the way in which it was being implemented. What changes would you recommend, if any? Why?

9. What are the main weaknesses in the proposal? Where could it fall down or be rejected it?

Over the past 3 months, I worked with a 5th and 6th-grade teacher to observe one gifted student and one high-performing student at Linden Elementary School in the Lindenwald Neighborhood of Hamilton, Ohio. Linden ES school has a total population of 767 students in grades PK-6. Just over two-thirds of the students at the school are considered economically disadvantaged, and the racial makeup of the school is 80% white (many with Appalachian backgrounds), 11 %Hispanic (ESL students are now served at Fairwood Elementary School), 6% black students, and remainder have mixed origins or are apart of other minority groups. Additionally, the school earned an overall rating of “D” on the State Report Card and has a chronic absenteeism rate of 9.3% The two students observed are fifth graders, and they were observed in their math and science classes and during after-school enrichment. In addition to being a 5th and 6th-grade teacher, the teacher I worked with is also the after-school enrichment teacher, which is a program offered to gifted and advanced students in grades 5 and 6 at elementary school throughout the district.

It is crucial for educators to understand appropriate management strategies to implement at different stages of classroom instruction to ensure consistent and progressive learning. There will be different management techniques depending on the socio-economic status of the school, learning difficulties, resources, and learning area. Therefore, educators should have a dynamic toolbox of ideas that don’t only motivate learners, but also manage poor behaviour, challenge gifted students, and engage those who are disinterested. Some of the challenges a teacher will face in class are those students who underachieve, potentially due to low social competence. This would also lead to students then lacking independence, problem solving skills and even a sense of purpose in the classroom. It is managing these difficulties that are a priority for teachers, as no meaningful learning can be achieved until those challenges are resolved.

The main factor which all my scepticism stemmed from was a lack of focus because of distraction. I questioned if the focus on cooperative learning was taking away from the learning needed to develop the skills needed to effectively perform in fields such as reading, writing, and mathematics. This idea of a sacrifice of more traditional educational skills does not come from a place of bias or tradition, it comes from the conversations within the school itself. Continually I would hear discontent among the teachers regarding the knowledge and skills of students moving up the grades. Many teachers state that students lack the information needed to properly function within their current grade. This lack of information does not only hurt the student in question, but it also hurts the gifted students. The students lacking the information needed struggled to keep up with what is demanded from their grade, which puts the educator in a position in which they must structure their lesson plans to provide information already needed for that current grade. As the classroom lessons are tailored to provide information needed to help catch up students falling behind, the gifted students are left doing school work that they have already mastered. Within “Curriculum Theory and Methods”, the importance of challenging curriculum is noted. Curriculum must be challenging to “assist the children to make connections, see relationships and