Concerns

I only have one concern right now. My concern is that I am not going to be in the same cohort as I have been for the past year and a half. It just makes me really nervous to be with new people, because I am so accustomed to being with the ones that I am with now. I just feel like I work really well them and it will be hard to get to know new people. I know that I will get to know new people but it just takes me a long time to get comfortable with new people. That is really me only concern right now. I am nervous for my student teaching but excited at the same time!!!

Toolbox

This weeks reading was very informative. I like that the book included these graphic organizers and templates in the book. It puts things in better perspective for me. All of these organizers can be used to scaffold students and differentiate instruction. I like the first one that I looked at "T.13" I liked it because it would show the students how things are alike and how they are different in a concrete way, rather than just saying it and maybe writing it on the board. Whenever I see things like this I connect it our ESL class. In the class we are learning ways to differentiate our teaching to reach our ELL learners. I think that using one of these worksheets would help your Ell leaner's because they can actual see it on paper, sometimes they may not understand it, but at least they are getting a foundation. I also liked the Evaluation Check list for working with peers. I think this would be a great inventory to give. It gives the students an opportunity to express what they are feeling without being threatened or judged. I wish I would have had the opportunity to fill one of these out when I was in elementary school. Another one that I liked was the learning menu. I liked this one because it was so cute and creative. I think that the students would have a blast with this one. It is something that they can relate to in real life and that is always a good way to get students involved.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7
I really liked this chapter. It really gave me hope that I can differentiate my teaching. There were so many good quotes that I liked from the reading. The first quote that I liked was "What is essential to learners is difficult for teachers to see." I liked this quote because its so true. I really feel like in my own schooling some of my teachers don't really see what is essential. The next quote that I liked was "..effectiveness is creating a positive effect on students achievement as well as other important outcomes that have positive and lasting effects, on the lives of students." We as teachers need to realize what effectiveness really is. Its not just in the classroom and scoring good on tests, its about life long skills that will stay with our students forever. The next quote that I liked was "Virtually all learners benefit when they learn in places with high instructional ceilings and lots of ways to climb to the top." I just really liked this because I can relate to it. When I go into a classroom that the teacher knows what they want and their expectation are set high for me and they believe that I can succeed, I usually always do! I jut think that we need to believe in ourselves and know that we can do it and our students will feed off our energy and they will succeed. I liked the metaphors at the end of the chapter they put the concepts into perspective for me.