Educators are knowledgeable about how children develop as learners and as social beings, and demonstrate an understanding of individual learning differences and special needs. This knowledge is used to assist educators in making decisions about curriculum, instruction, assessment and classroom management.
TRB Standard 3 Evidence #1 (lesson plans - with accommodation)
Reflection on TRB 3 evidence #1
I chose this lesson plan as an example of why I meet standard #3 for a few reasons. The first Reason is that my hook worked really well talking about heros to get the students interested. Some students shared that their heros where pop idols standing up for a cause or famous skateboarders who inspired them to be better. It got students interested because it tied something from their lives to Louis Riel. Canadian history can be kind of dry for some students but It got many of those students interested in the lesson.
Another reason I chose this lesson plan was because in my socials class I had a girl who was deaf in one ear. We(my sponsor teacher, the girl and I) talked about this the first day of my practicum. Turns out she had a hearing device that attached to a microphone that I would clip onto my shirt. The other option was to sit her really close to the front of the class, but that would mean she was sitting away from her friends. I let her sit by her friends and we used the microphone. It worked great, she was happy because she could sit by people that she was comfortable with and I was happy that she could hear me.
The second lesson plan, from my fall 2016 Timberline practicum, has an accommodation where I had to modify an assignment for a recently added student who was ESL. He had a lot of trouble locating different places on the earlier atlas skills assignment. So I ended up simplifying the mapping assignment so he had to label the Canadian provinces, capitals and surrounding bodies of water. He was able to do this and he still gained more geographical information about Canada.
In both of these situations the students were able to learn something and not feel embarrassed because of their unique situations. The fact that we were able to come up with accommodations also seemed seemed to strengthen the relationship between teacher and student.
Another reason I chose this lesson plan was because in my socials class I had a girl who was deaf in one ear. We(my sponsor teacher, the girl and I) talked about this the first day of my practicum. Turns out she had a hearing device that attached to a microphone that I would clip onto my shirt. The other option was to sit her really close to the front of the class, but that would mean she was sitting away from her friends. I let her sit by her friends and we used the microphone. It worked great, she was happy because she could sit by people that she was comfortable with and I was happy that she could hear me.
The second lesson plan, from my fall 2016 Timberline practicum, has an accommodation where I had to modify an assignment for a recently added student who was ESL. He had a lot of trouble locating different places on the earlier atlas skills assignment. So I ended up simplifying the mapping assignment so he had to label the Canadian provinces, capitals and surrounding bodies of water. He was able to do this and he still gained more geographical information about Canada.
In both of these situations the students were able to learn something and not feel embarrassed because of their unique situations. The fact that we were able to come up with accommodations also seemed seemed to strengthen the relationship between teacher and student.
TRB standard 3 Evidence #2 (Formative assessment Fridays)
Reflection on Evidence 2
In my socials 9 class I used a technique that my sponsor had been implementing. On Fridays he handed out a review sheet, the students then got a bonus mark on their unit test or project for completing it. The single bonus mark was enough incentive to get students to complete the review but it also let me know what students were not understanding. I marked the reviews on the weekend and gave them back to students on the Monday. I left very detailed feedback and told them to ask questions if they still did not understand the concept. It also let me know when I had to reteach something. The last question was usually "tell me 5 things that you learned this week?" or " how did you enjoy this week?". The last question really helped me see how I was doing with student engagement -- because if they are not engaged they are not learning in a meaningful way. Then I could use the information I gathered to guide my planning and teaching for the next week.