How to engage in differentiated instruction

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 A teaching practice I have implemented is having weekly small group rotations. In this small group instruction students are divided into 3 groups including a technology, group-led activity, and teacher-led assignment. Each student spends approximately 15-20 minutes at each station. Technology including students completing ExactPath, an individualized online platform aligned to Florida Benchmark standards. A group activity aligned with the reading to further develop the knowledge outside of an assessment. Along with my personal favorite, teacher-led group. Where I as an instructor can pull 3-6 students who may need more assistance with understanding the objective. Small group instruction offers several advantages for students. The central focus is to foster a personalized and engaging learning experience. At the beginning of the year, I introduced my students to this idea with explicit instruction, various practices, and an accountable classroom. Mid-semester I received feedback that students really enjoyed the opportunity. It helps create space where students who needed more help could receive individualized instruction from the instructor. Along with students who were excelling in the benchmark being able to lead groups in understanding the material. It has also taught me how to tailor certain needs for my students. The new teaching practice helps match the diverse needs of the group while adding flexibility based on individual learning styles. Typically, I group students base on formative assessments (Ex. Exit Tickets, Class Discussions, Table Talks). In the future, I want to implement dividing students base on learning styles (Ex. Kinesthetic learning, audio, or visual learners). Specifically, in teacher-led group it provides immediate feedback with fewer students. The best part of this teaching practice is building positive reinforcing relationships. Being a teacher at a Title 1 school, the goal is to make the student feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment. The personal connection can positively impact the learning experience and contribute to a learning environment. Overall, small group instruction creates a personalized and interactive learning experience. It caters to the diverse needs of students, encourage collaboration, and allows focused support. 

Building Positive Relationships

 Many of my students are unfortunately do not go to a happy home. They do not have the opportunity to sit at a dinner table and discuss their school day. Many times, homework is an option for them due to taking care of household responsibilities.  being the biggest priority. Building positive relationships between teachers and students are crucial to have an impact on both academic and social-emotional aspects of students' life. The top three reasons that I want to focus on includes trust/comfort, enhanced communication, and increased motivation. Positive Relationships create a sense of trust and comfort which can more likely keep students engaged in the learning process and taking risks to academics to learn. When students are more likely to express their thoughts, concerns, and questions when they feel genuinely connected. The communication is essential for address individual learning needs and fostering a collaborative learning environment. Specifically, I have students that come to me before school to discuss issues that are even non-academic. As a teacher, I realize I become the student's educator, mentor, therapist, and even second mother., Finally, students are more motivated to learn when they have a personal positive connection. Positive relationships can enhance student intrinsic motivation making them more excited to participate in class. Along with this giving amazing positive reinforcement when students participate in class discussion. 

Emotional well being at a Title 1 school by Courtney Rolle

 Title 1 school recieve funds federal funding to help ensure all children have a fair, equal, and important opportunity to obtain an education. The schools usually have a higher percentage of students from low-income families. The struggle of educating the under resourced population is navigating the social emotional learning aspect along with successfully achieving learning outcomes for students. How can we balance this well-being as an educator?

Blog Journal #2

There are various factors that input of educators using technology in the classroom. Students use technology in the classroom to enhance different ways to expand their ways of learning. Such as verbal learners using videos, audio-podcast, or even interactive brain games.
The International Society for Technology in Education consists of a group of individuals that support educational technology. The ISTE Standard that I found interest in the most are "Educational Leaders"  that support the standards and are able to enhance the standards by giving information to each group. In the professional growth, they focus on certain topics such as equity, digital citizenship, and system building.
Digital Natives are individuals that are born into an era where technology has already aroused. I honestly disagree with digital native even though it has a lot of easier guidelines, I feel that it has made this generation lazy in not only studying but also it does not fully prepare them for the work field. With technology expanding it is only making our youth but handy on the technology. Therefore, if any technology is down. How would they react to that? I do believe that technology does have its good part but can also lead to our youth only relying on technology.

Commented on Kinsley and Kathryn!

Blog Post #11 : Online Planner

The next technology-related skill that I want to learn is how to create a digital planner on my computer. I have used Google Calendar before but it was very basic to me and only needed for homework or meetings. To add along, it took a long time to create that I had to do far in advance. i find creating a digital planner interesting because instead of carrying my original planner around it will save room and be a daily reminder on what assignments I need to get done. Also, i would like to make it color-coded and creative so I can priorotize which assignments to do first. I will achieve this goal by searching different websites that has a planner template or I can possibly download an app such as "Notes" on my macbook and see if it has a planner feauture!

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Blog Post #10

In this course, it has really broaden my horizon on educational technology. I will plan to use this in my education career by giving students access to technological resources. I will also create lesson plans and interactive games to help different type of students learn more efficiently. More example, students who are more visual-learners will learn better by videos before a lessson then later on teaching the actual lesson to add a project for students who are better at kinetic learning putting the ideas into perspective and relating it back to real-life issues. Specifically, I will use powerpoints, videos, and if able to would even like to have an interactive board or iclickers so the students can be more interactive during practice test or writings.
The past couple of powerpoint projects, I enjoyed completed and have learned a few new skills using microsoft office and google slides. I made a jeopardy template for the first time and it actually was not as hard as what I was thinking. At the end, it end up being successful, useful, and exciting to my eye. I learned how to use the super-link on how to hide the answers and translate to have multiple choice on the different slides. I will defiently take this and use it in my future education career.

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Blog Post #9

 “The Flipped Classroom” is basically the opposite of the typical common structural approach. Instead of teachers teaching their lessons in classrooms and giving out interactive activities/assignments. Some educators take the pre-work or for example a chapter that they assign the students to read and answer questions for before they come into class. This way the student will be prepared to learn the material that has been given to them before the actual lecture.

The "Digital Divide" is the gap between demographics and certain areas that have easy access to technology(cell phones, computers, tablets, etc.) versus those regions that do not including the more rural or urban area. This has an immediate impact on student success in school because students are now limited in their education with a gap on access to technology or not. Some of the causes of the digital divide include lack of access, information, knowledge, and skills. Experiencing this in the classroom would give an impact on the way I would have to teach lessons but I personally would not let that affect the way I teach my children. Instead, I will use resources from books, writing, stories, and try to work on the student as an individual versus a class as a whole.

I enjoyed the Powerpoint project, I find it interesting on creating my own lesson plan draft and recording my own presentation to criticize how exactly I speak and go on how I read things off the slides. This taught me how to screen record my presentation on a MacBook, which I also found it is harder and more steps on a Mac than completing it on Microsoft Office on a PC. I genuinely enjoyed this assignment and the only issue I had was uploading to canvas and simulating a screen record while also recording my audio on a Macbook.

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