SED 445_Fall2017

This week, I found myself really engaged with the chapter readings from Gallagher. Not simply because I noted may strategies that I would like to "steal" and try out in my own practice, but these chapters really had three deep ideas of wisdom for me to latch onto as I move forward in the teaching profession. 1. Help students to become test experts When it comes to standardized testing, the outlook and approach from the teacher to the students could drastically impact how they perform. In the case of Gallagher, instead of testing students out of a test prep book or ignoring the exams all together, he implements a unique approach. Gallagher works with students in order to best help them by teaching testtaking strategies in order for students to be expert test takers. Although I'm curious about what his dialogue with the class sounds like during one of these lessons, this strategy seem bold in that students are learning how to work "the system" of education. At ...

Throughout the course of my experience in RIC's education program, I haven't had much exposure on how to effectively teach emergent bilingual students. Although I've gotten some good tidbits of information along the way about language development, I especially got sucked into the chapters by Fu because she actually had some strategies that I could try out during my practicum fieldwork and professional teaching. There are many points of interest that I could touch upon in this blog post, but my golden nugget for this week is definitely the power of code-switching for emergent bilingual students. From my understanding of the definition, code switching is the ability to adapt one's use of language depending on the context and content of the situation. However, code switching also occurs when students are working through emloying conventions of a second language, while in the process, using their native tongue as a meanings of thought processes and planning. As I read thro...

For the longest time, even as an avid English explorer, poetry has been a subject that I've been nervous about teaching. Not necessarily because it can be difficult to get students interested in it, but sometimes I feel like I'm not even particularly good and writing or analyzing poetry. That's okay though, because I know I'm not perfect, but I want my students to be able to leave my class feeling empowered that just hearing the word "poem" won't make them feel like it's a text that's impossible to read. For me these two readings really helped calm my worries about teaching poetry. In fact I found golden nuggets from both blog and Christiansen. In regards to the blog the author did a really good job at convincing me that poetry can be found anywhere even through everyday moments. For example, I found the poem about the orange juice and the grocery store very intriguing, even though the inspiration was from a seemingly mundane experience. As for Ch...

Although I found the chapters from Gallagher and Christensen helpful, I am most inspired by Emdin's piece on co-teaching and student-led lessons. In addition to being inspired, the thoughts he expressed about learning from the students in this way push the boundaries of many of the things that make me nervous as an up-and-coming educator.  Firstly, before I get into the nitty, gritty of the reading, I was shocked to read that the students in Emdin's college-level course responded so negatively to him pretending to be a student at the start of the first class. When I put myself in the shoes of the students, I can understand that it must be really embarrassing to have to sit through a class after bashing the professor to his face for being late. However, I wonder if this "stunt" (so to speak) could have been turned around to be a larger lesson maybe about stereotypes, attitudes, expectations, or even first impressions. I'm all for making larger points through e...

Back when I was taking SED-406, I remember my co-teaching professors vaguely talking about PARCC. My class got a basic overview, but because both were directly impacted by MCAS as Massachusett teachers, I kind of forgot out PARCC as the semesters went on. However, reading this research from my very own professors has opened my eyes to a new level of bad that standardized testing has hit. Considering that I am on the brink of stepping into this world of education as a teacher, I am beyond baffled at what kinds of wreckage I will be walking into regarding the aftermath of this exam. The following are two of the "baddest bits" that I can't stop talking about when anyone asks me about how school is going. First of all, what? Just, what? Grade 3 students being forced to complete a written portion of the exam on keyboards only regardless of their access or exposure to technology? That is ridiculous! Having been a student who was privileged with a fully equip computer lab in ...