Standard 1: LEARNER DEVELOPMENT
1.1 The Teacher creates developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences based on each student's strengths, interests and needs.
Throughout my experience as a MAT student at Westminster I have developed my understanding that all of my students may be at different levels of development. By using pre assessments and my research in context I have created appropriately challenging learning experiences for all of the students in my classroom.
Unit Pre-test
When I created my Science unit on Mass and Matter I designed a pre-test that would show me what my students already know as well as how they prefer to learn. This allowed me to create my lessons so that instead of teaching redundant information I could develop more challenging content to reinforce the knowledge they already had. For example questions 11 -15 on the pre-test the kids scored reasonably well showing they had firm knowledge of these concepts. For these topics I went deeper because I knew that they had the basic knowledge so I was able to scaffold to deeper content.
Research in Context
During my student teaching I did a Community Inquiry Assignment (CIA) in which I had to evaluate the school and surrounding community. This involved researching Beacon Heights elementary, its students, parents and surrounding community. This gave me a better view of my students funds of knowledge and the resources I had access to. I also led student interviews and had and interview with a parent to get a view of my students home life.I also communicated with my mentor Tina Dinh and other school personnel to support my students learning and progress. This research made me able to know my students strengths, abilities and real-world interests. Because I found out that Rayanna gets involved in politics with her mother, I used her as a resource when discussing current news. When I talked to Hossein, an ESL student, I found out that he enjoys working on school assignments much more when he can do it with his friend Francisco. By having background info on my students I am better informed on how to go about instructing them.
1.2 The Teacher Collaborates with families, colleagues, and other professionals to promote student growth and development.
Parent Collaboration
While student teaching at Beacon Heights Elementary the parents were extremely involved in my classroom. From everything from class parties, drama, and the PTA I worked with a majority of the parents to get special events don't. At beacon Heights I found out that they don't even have to rent school busses. The parents have to fill out a form and get fingerprinted to drive the kids on field trips. While I was student teaching I had to communicate with the parents and organize a field trip the the museum of Natural history. Click here to see the volunteer sign up. Each parent could drive a certain number of kids and I had to organize which kids would go where.
Teacher Collaboration
I also had to cooperate extensively with my mentor teacher Mrs. Dinh. For every lesson I taught I had to get the "ok" from her. During Spring SEP conferences I conducted all of the parent teacher conferences, made diverse learning goals for each of the students and discussed them with the parents. I had several students in my class that needed individual attention. I had two students with autism, two students who are English language learners and five gifted and talented students. For each of my lesson plans I had to differentiate for each of these students so that they were each challenged at their own level. Here is a lesson on the French and Indian War in which I differentiated my instruction for these learners with the help of Mrs. Dinh and ELD teacher.