Practicing edTPA

      This past month in EDUC 435, we have been working on our mock edTPA experience. This experience included writing a learning segment for our clinical classroom, teaching this learning segment, and writing all three edTPA commentaries.Throughout this experience, I have learned a lot about differentiating for many different needs in the classroom. My CE and I thoroughly discussed the needs in the class before I taught my edTPA experience, and we also thoroughly discussed what worked for each student and what did not in reference to my learning segment as well.
      Differentiation connects directly with standard 2d of the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, which states that "Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs." Adapting your instruction for the needs of students is extremely important, and edTPA makes that evident. For me, differentiating in a real classroom has been extremely challenging. Throughout my time in the education department, I have learned how to differentiate, and I have even learned strategies for differentiating. Although I have certainly used this learning in the classroom and throughout my mock edTPA experience, differentiating for real students is much harder. The strategies that I've been taught for differentiating for different types of children sometimes work, and sometimes don't. Each child is completely different, and I have learned that sometimes the strategies I decide to use for differentiation may fail. Throughout this process, I have learned that in order to learn what works for each child, there is some trial and error involved. Finding what truly helps the students that need adaptions is extremely important, but challenging nonetheless. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, "students in the elementary grades vary greatly, and if teachers want to maximize their students' individual potential, they will have to attend to the differences." In order to help our students truly learn and grow, differentiation is a requirement.
      In my future classroom, I will work very hard at the beginning of the year to figure out the specific strategies and tools that help each of my students learn best, and differentiate my instruction based on the trial and error that will occur at first. I will also remember that not every learning disability, or learning struggle, is ever exactly the same, and I will make sure that I do not expect the same strategies to always work for every child with the same struggle. This will help me to ensure that my differentiation is successful in the future.

Utilizing The School Report Card

     This week in EDUC 435, we looked through all the information available regarding our placement school's report card grade, EOG scores, growth, population data, and anything else that was available. After analyzing this data, we used it to create a parent night for our school that would help the school in an area of difficulty. Throughout this project, I not only realized how much information is available for my use, but also how important it is for me, as an educator, to know all of this information about my school. By completing this project, I learned that the majority of my school is underprivileged, that we have a fairly even number of boys and girls, the ethnicities represented in my school, and more. This helped me to gain a thorough understanding of the students I am teaching every day. Knowing your students relates to the the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, specifically standard 2d, which states that "teachers embrace diversity in the school, community, and in the world." In order to embrace diversity in the classroom, we must know where our students come from. According to ASCD.com, "The most diverse group in the United States is our youngest children, and they will make the nation more diverse as they age. Almost 9 million young people ages 5 to 17 speak a language other than English in their home and 2.6 million of them have difficulty speaking English. For our Children's Class of 2000, we could estimate that almost one-half million are being raised in families that speak no English at home, and that at least 125,000 will need special attention in preschool and kindergarten to learn to speak and read English" (Link at bottom). 
     This project also helped me to have a deeper understanding of the struggles the school faced, and the goals of the school as well. Part of the project required us to look in detail at the school improvement plan that was created by the school improvement team at our placement schools. This gave me in depth knowledge of the goals created by my school. This helps me to mold my instruction and classroom ideas to help support these goals and move my class and school towards completing these goals.
     In my future classroom, I plan to utilize the school report card, accountability model, and any other resources available in order to fully understand my school and students. This will help me to be a better educator by preparing to face the challenges the school faces, and preparing to accomplish the goals the school has as well.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx