How do I want to receive feedback:
- For this community I would like to receive honest, concise, concrete, and prompt feedback. I want to know when I am off base with something or if I am not making sense. I also want to people to ask me for clarification. Being the only special education teacher in our community, I would want people to ask questions or for clarification if something does not make sense.
How will I do to give meaningful feedback:
- I plan to provide honesty and positivity. I think acknowledging people is important but it is also OK to disagree. I also think raising questions in order to get another train of thought or view point is also important. We need to have open minds and be willing to provide suggestions. I plan to provide this type of feedback to the community.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Reflection Rubric Scores
For the rubric scores, please use the appropriate rubric (assignment and/or discussion) to give yourself the appropriate score(s). Reflections could be anywhere from three to ten sentences.
Teacher Leadership
Six Hats Activities/Discussions
Reflection: For this activity I feel that I did a nice job with reading the selection and responding on D2L. I was able to come up with examples and share them with the community. I also expressed my thoughts about other community member’s comments. The area that I struggled with the most was carrying out the activities within my department. I tried to implement some of the strategies but was not very successful. I am hoping to utilize some of the techniques through my SMART goals.
Rubric Scores: Assignment submission- 3, Demonstrate understanding- 2, Resource- 2, Participation- 2, Online Etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 2
Teacher Leadership
Six Hats Activities/Discussions
Reflection: For this activity I feel that I did a nice job with reading the selection and responding on D2L. I was able to come up with examples and share them with the community. I also expressed my thoughts about other community member’s comments. The area that I struggled with the most was carrying out the activities within my department. I tried to implement some of the strategies but was not very successful. I am hoping to utilize some of the techniques through my SMART goals.
Rubric Scores: Assignment submission- 3, Demonstrate understanding- 2, Resource- 2, Participation- 2, Online Etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 2
District Item of Pride
Reflection: I feel that I did a nice job with this activity. I shared details about a few different items that are implemented in my school. I did not have an actual example of some of the ideas but thought they were all worth mentioning. I also was very excited to share how we are able to involve our students with special needs into our school environment. I was also very excited to hear about what other schools/ teachers are doing. There are many great ideas out there and I am hoping to bring some of them back to my classroom/ school.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrate Understanding- 3, Resources- 3, Participation- 3, Online etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 3
Learning in Community
D2L Strand input
Reflection:
Rubric Scores:
True Colors, Chaos to Community article sharing
Reflection:
Rubric Scores:
Classroom Video
Reflection: For this activity, I was able to post my video fairly early. I am not sure how well the video quality turned out but I think it was ok. I tried to adjust it but I think it was due to uploading it from the camcorder to the computer. I think I explained the layout of my classroom well and addressed the questions that the communities members had. I also made comments to other community members about their classrooms. It was very interesting to see the different layouts of every classroom.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrate Understanding- 3, Resources- 2, Participation- 3, Online Etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 3
Curriculum Development and Assessment
PDP work (SMART GOALS, Baselines, Vision Statement)
Reflection: I have a vision statement, SMART goals, and baselines written. I took time to think about the SMART goals and vision statement but not sure that what I have is everything that I want. I might still have to do some tweaking. I think that I have a good start with my SMART goals but I am not sure. I also am not about the length or if what I have will work very well as I will be taking 10 weeks off in the middle of the data collection. I took time to think about that and wanted to create goals around that to an extent. I may need some more guidance to make sure that I am on the right track.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrates Understanding- 2, Reflective- 3, Quality of grammar- 2, Overall writing- 3, APA style- 2
Educational Research
Article posting & sharing (Month 1)
Reflection:
Rubric Scores:
Power Of Questions work
Reflection:
Rubric Scores:
Mini-Action Research
Reflection: For this project, I think that I did a nice job. I chose something that I could easily implement in my classroom. I was honest with my results and was very interested to see how it would turn out. I was interested because the research that I did shows no correlation to academic progress with doing brain gym activities. I also was able to track progress towards an IEP goal, which is of great benefit.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrates Understanding- 2, Reflective- 3, Quality of Grammar- 3, Overall writing- 3, APA style- 2
Technology in Education
Blogspot work
Reflection: I believe that I fulfilled all requirements that were asked of us with the Blogspot. However, I do feel that I could have done some more self-reflecting on this site. I also could have spent more time reflecting on other’s sites.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 2, Demonstrate Understanding- 2, Resources- 2, Participation- 1, Online Etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 2
Democracy, Diversity and Social Justice in Education
Alchemist work
Reflection: For this assignment I feel that I did a decent job of fulfilling the requirements. I responded to a lot of the online discussions that took place. I also did some self- reflecting after reading the book. I thought this was a good selection and really made us look at things in a different light.
Rubric Score: Assignment- 3, Demonstrates Understanding- 3, Resources- 2, Participation- 3, Online Etiquette- 3, Quality of writing- 2
Fujishin work
Reflection:
Rubric Scores:
Best Practice Pedagogy
Constructivist work
Reflection: After completing the assignments and readings for this book, I feel that I have a good foundation to work from. I was able to look at my different teaching methods within my classroom and ways I can try to improve my techniques. I also like that I was able to self- reflect and write down ideas so I can visually see my thoughts. I also am happy to have a plan in place to reach my dream victory.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrates Understanding- 3, Reflective- 2, Quality of grammar- 2, Overall writing- 3, APA style- 2
Rubric Scores:
Best Practice Pedagogy
Constructivist work
Reflection: After completing the assignments and readings for this book, I feel that I have a good foundation to work from. I was able to look at my different teaching methods within my classroom and ways I can try to improve my techniques. I also like that I was able to self- reflect and write down ideas so I can visually see my thoughts. I also am happy to have a plan in place to reach my dream victory.
Rubric Scores: Assignment- 3, Demonstrates Understanding- 3, Reflective- 2, Quality of grammar- 2, Overall writing- 3, APA style- 2
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Debate
I have a student that I wrote an IEP for and I think I over did it on the goals. I think when I had the meeting I was in the mode of 'saving' the world. The things that I wrote are all very appropriate but now it is finding the time to incorporate all of it into his schedule and have some consistency. I also tend to forget what I need to cover and sinse this one is so extensive I need to make sure that I try to address all the areas. (On my other IEP's most of the goals are things we do weekly so I don't have to know the IEP's by heart so to say). My debate is that in my history class I have 3 students. I can pair 2 of them together to work on certain things but then I have the other student that I need to work with as well. I started working out of a history book that is at the 9th grade level and he has been apart of this. My struggle is- how much is he getting from this and am I wasting his time when we could be working on more functional things (address, phone number, positional words, months of the year, days of week, etc- all things listed on his IEP). I get excited when I work with him and see his progress and then feel like I am doing him a disservice when I have him join our group as I don't know that it is appropriate. However, I know that I can't give both groups the attention that they need if I keep them seperated. I think I will continue to try to do my best with keeping them together and also seperating them when appropriate. I will try to remain positive that everything will work out for everybody.
Fall Feast Reflection
The day before Thanksgiving break my students always put on a 'Feast' for parents, friends, and faculty members. This is a 1 1/2 week project. We create the menu, make invites, go shopping, and then 3 days of cooking. Day 1 we make the turkey and pies. Day 2 we peel potatoes. Day three the students are in my room and we decorate the room, cook everything else (buns, sweet potatoes, corn, reheat turkey, potatoes, etc). I am very proud of the work that the students put into this day. They sure take pride in the work that they do and love 'showing' off to everybody. Now that I have done this for 6 years, we pretty much have it down to a science as to what needs to be done and what works. The best part of the day is seeing the kids smile, having fun, and taking ownership in their work.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wonderings, puzzlements, and queries- "Power of Questions"
After reading this section of the text and pondering my thoughts, this is what I come up with:
Questions- How do you address paraprofessionals that help too much?
- How do you get student's to retain information that has been taught (over and over and over)?
- What skills are truely functional (where do I start, what will they actually use and be of benefit to them?)
- How do I document progress in an applicable way (usefull but not time consuming)?
- How can I work with parents to understand their child with special needs?
- What techniques/ tools are out there to modify/ change behavior of a student with autism?
Personal life- Why our 4 year old boy doesn't show interest in school related stuff at home (won't count, work on his ABC's, etc) (is it normal? should we be concerned?)
- How do you determine if he is ready for Kindergarten (should be starting next school year but has a July birthday- will he be ready? how do you know? how does a parent make that decision?)
Exitement- - Seeing the progress a student has made academically in the last month (reading, money, numbers, days of the week, independence, etc).
- Seeing the exitement on student's faces when they talk about graduating (even though I am sad on the inside knowing that they are leaving).
- Watching the student's develop into young adults that are entering the workforce.
- Assisting a student with finding a job in the community and seeing the joy on his face- watching him progress into a young man knowing all that he has had to deal with.
- Establishing new relationships with students/ parents and gaining their trust.
Puzzlements/ wonderings- Why people stress over things that they have no control over?
- How can one person have so much control over what a school does (parent)?
- How does the mind work (observing students and how they interact/ choices they make)
Questions- How do you address paraprofessionals that help too much?
- How do you get student's to retain information that has been taught (over and over and over)?
- What skills are truely functional (where do I start, what will they actually use and be of benefit to them?)
- How do I document progress in an applicable way (usefull but not time consuming)?
- How can I work with parents to understand their child with special needs?
- What techniques/ tools are out there to modify/ change behavior of a student with autism?
Personal life- Why our 4 year old boy doesn't show interest in school related stuff at home (won't count, work on his ABC's, etc) (is it normal? should we be concerned?)
- How do you determine if he is ready for Kindergarten (should be starting next school year but has a July birthday- will he be ready? how do you know? how does a parent make that decision?)
Exitement- - Seeing the progress a student has made academically in the last month (reading, money, numbers, days of the week, independence, etc).
- Seeing the exitement on student's faces when they talk about graduating (even though I am sad on the inside knowing that they are leaving).
- Watching the student's develop into young adults that are entering the workforce.
- Assisting a student with finding a job in the community and seeing the joy on his face- watching him progress into a young man knowing all that he has had to deal with.
- Establishing new relationships with students/ parents and gaining their trust.
Puzzlements/ wonderings- Why people stress over things that they have no control over?
- How can one person have so much control over what a school does (parent)?
- How does the mind work (observing students and how they interact/ choices they make)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
"Six Thinking Hats" Reflection
After reading the two sections in the "Six Thinking Hats", I was able to understand better the two hats.
First the 'white' hat. This hat is the factual hat. I think that this hat is beneficial as everybody in a group needs to be aware of the facts. I think if some people in a group have the wrong facts or miscued facts, it could put their thinking at a different level. To lay the facts out on the table so they are clear, will help everybody involved. I also liked how this section talked about the difference between a 'checked' fact and an 'unchecked' fact (belief). I feel that this is important as not all meetings will have 'checked' facts and may be more belief based facts. I also liked how they discussed how different cultures handle disagreement. I again feel that it is important to understand this as not all group members may be of the same culture.
The next hat that was discussed was the red hat. This is the emotion hat. One point that I really liked that was made in this section, was that everybody in the group had to state how they were feeling. It is not to take 'sides' or to form an opinion. It is more about stating how you feel. You don't need to justify your feelings just state them. I think it is important that everybody feels like they are heard and that their feelings are also heard. I think it is also important that this hat can be constantly changing. I felt the book did a nice job with making this clear. People are always adjusting how they feel on topics based on information provided. I think checking in with your red hats through out a meeting is very important for that reason.
These two sections gave me ideas to use when communicating. In my position, it seems that I am always involved with meetings or some kind of group work. I think there are some great ideas behind this book. My struggle will be implementing the ideas with others. I am not the type of person to step out side of my comfort zone and this would be something that I would have to do in order to get co-workers to use these techniques. I also can see some of my co-workers (ones that I would really like to use this with) blowing it off and not wanting to try it.
First the 'white' hat. This hat is the factual hat. I think that this hat is beneficial as everybody in a group needs to be aware of the facts. I think if some people in a group have the wrong facts or miscued facts, it could put their thinking at a different level. To lay the facts out on the table so they are clear, will help everybody involved. I also liked how this section talked about the difference between a 'checked' fact and an 'unchecked' fact (belief). I feel that this is important as not all meetings will have 'checked' facts and may be more belief based facts. I also liked how they discussed how different cultures handle disagreement. I again feel that it is important to understand this as not all group members may be of the same culture.
The next hat that was discussed was the red hat. This is the emotion hat. One point that I really liked that was made in this section, was that everybody in the group had to state how they were feeling. It is not to take 'sides' or to form an opinion. It is more about stating how you feel. You don't need to justify your feelings just state them. I think it is important that everybody feels like they are heard and that their feelings are also heard. I think it is also important that this hat can be constantly changing. I felt the book did a nice job with making this clear. People are always adjusting how they feel on topics based on information provided. I think checking in with your red hats through out a meeting is very important for that reason.
These two sections gave me ideas to use when communicating. In my position, it seems that I am always involved with meetings or some kind of group work. I think there are some great ideas behind this book. My struggle will be implementing the ideas with others. I am not the type of person to step out side of my comfort zone and this would be something that I would have to do in order to get co-workers to use these techniques. I also can see some of my co-workers (ones that I would really like to use this with) blowing it off and not wanting to try it.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Reflection
"Reflection is at the Heart of Practice"- How will reflection help you to become a master teacher? What gets in your way of reflecting? What will you do to clear the barriers or get around them?
How will reflection help you to become a master teacher?
I feel that reflection will help me become a master teacher in several ways. One way that it will help me is by having me analyze my teaching. I think that by taking the time to analyze, not only what I am teaching but how I am teaching, will only make me more confident and aware of what I am doing. By taking a step back to reflect on my teaching, I will hopefully be able to recognize areas where growth is needed. I will also be able to see where my strengths are.
What gets in your way of reflecting?'
There are several things that can get in the way of my reflecting. One of the bigger things is time. This can be a big issue as it seems like there is never enough time in day. Reflection is something that can take time. Another thing that could get in the way of my reflecting is not being bias. I think it is very critical to have an open mind and to be honest with yourself. I think at times this could be difficult. That last thing that could get in my way of reflecting would be having a process to follow. I am kind of a concrete person, so having a guideling to assist me with my reflection would be helpful.
What will you do to clear the barries or get aroung them?
In order to get around the issues that could get in my way of reflecting would be to make reflection a priority and to include it into my schedule. I think if I set aside time and incorporate it into my schedule, it will be easier to complete. I think just knowing that reflection will help you grow as a teacher, it will take the biassness out of the equation. A reflection isn't a 'judgement', it is a tool to help you improve. After reading this article, it gave a foundation of a process you can use to implement reflection. I liked the layout, so having a guideline will help.
I think that reflection can be a strong tool to help a person continue to grow. I think that by incorporating this into your practice, you will learn about yourself and have growth.
How will reflection help you to become a master teacher?
I feel that reflection will help me become a master teacher in several ways. One way that it will help me is by having me analyze my teaching. I think that by taking the time to analyze, not only what I am teaching but how I am teaching, will only make me more confident and aware of what I am doing. By taking a step back to reflect on my teaching, I will hopefully be able to recognize areas where growth is needed. I will also be able to see where my strengths are.
What gets in your way of reflecting?'
There are several things that can get in the way of my reflecting. One of the bigger things is time. This can be a big issue as it seems like there is never enough time in day. Reflection is something that can take time. Another thing that could get in the way of my reflecting is not being bias. I think it is very critical to have an open mind and to be honest with yourself. I think at times this could be difficult. That last thing that could get in my way of reflecting would be having a process to follow. I am kind of a concrete person, so having a guideling to assist me with my reflection would be helpful.
What will you do to clear the barries or get aroung them?
In order to get around the issues that could get in my way of reflecting would be to make reflection a priority and to include it into my schedule. I think if I set aside time and incorporate it into my schedule, it will be easier to complete. I think just knowing that reflection will help you grow as a teacher, it will take the biassness out of the equation. A reflection isn't a 'judgement', it is a tool to help you improve. After reading this article, it gave a foundation of a process you can use to implement reflection. I liked the layout, so having a guideline will help.
I think that reflection can be a strong tool to help a person continue to grow. I think that by incorporating this into your practice, you will learn about yourself and have growth.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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