My Professional Growth Experiences And The Related Activities Have Impacted Student Learning

Next, I observed the standards, differentiated instruction, and the phonemic and phonics lessons in the class. The essential questions and standards are listed in the front of the classroom but are never referred to. I think that differentiation is a big part of this class, especially because of the number of students with individualized education plans. During lessons, the entire class will meet around the rug for instructions and introductions. After the class is given instructions, most students will work independently and there will be one or two groups that work with Ms. Dunlap or her teacher’s aide for guided practice. The majority of the lessons include hands-on activities, such as cutting examples of noun and verbs out of a magazine, using blocks to measure student’s heights, and songs that emphasize parts of speech. While I observed I also saw some phonemic awareness lessons. These are lessons that focus on individual sounds of letters and the structure of the words and letters. I think that this class had a wide variety of reading levels. Some students did very well, but others could not write their names yet. The class met on the rug for phonemic lessons, and Ms. Dunlap would use a book that had tons of activities. The book includes different activities that make students find the sounds in words, substitute sounds to make new words, blend sounds to form words, and to take apart words to find the sounds. Ms. Dunlap

During homework, I worked with a couple of students. I found it difficult to connect with the students as they were expected to

My PGEs have had direct and indirect impacts on student learning. As a Transition Coordinator, I was able to have a direct impact on my students through relationship and confidence building. These activities built a positive attendance pattern and created a love for learning, helping them immediately when the school year started. I had an indirect impact of (on) their future learning by educating their parents and sharing community resources with them. With my M.Ed. in TESOL and Bilingual Education, I had a direct impact on student learning using sheltered instruction strategies that allow my students to learn content as they build language. Through my participation on the Early Childhood Task Force, I have a huge indirect impact on student learning for every early childhood student in my district by establishing developmentally appropriate best practices for all classrooms. As a Title I Reading and Math Coach, I have an indirect impact on every student in my building (almost 1,000 students)! I am able to help teachers realize their full potential, which increases student engagement and learning in all areas.

Students in the classroom come from a variety of backgrounds. Their lives are shaped by their families, their communities, but also their peers in school whom they will spend hours a day with throughout their educational career. The ability to form relationships with others, to create lasting friendships that grow and evolve with time, is detrimental to all children and their development. Lacking the ability to do so, whether it is directly because of their conditions or because of how other students perceive them, can dramatically harm them emotionally and mentally.

Teaching is an extremely important profession as we are responsible for training up the future generations of our community, country and in effect, the world. In order to be a successful and effective teacher there are some basic skills and competencies that one must possess. The experiences that students have inside (and outside) our classrooms, schools and various other institutes will shape and mould their approach to our subjects and to life in general. Therefore, it requires a certain level of skill and training to be deemed professionally fit to enter into this career path and even then, continuous

As a teacher I will be allowed to pass on knowledge and skills that are essential for individuals

and be a lot more plausible. Students who have the experience of social life at their

A typical day consisted of, casual conversations between students, Mrs. Hughes, and myself while we wait for more students to arrive. The older female students often got side-tracked talking to one another and on their cell phones. I noticed the majority of the students who come to class are the intermediate/ advanced students, only two beginner students came throughout the entirety of my service. At most, only seven intermediate/ advanced students came to class. Yet, there were two constant students in attendance, Rose (intermediate) and Vicente (advanced). I consider both Rose and Vicente the most driven students in the program, their attendance and participation in class speaks for

Phonics or Oral Language. As you have learned this week, it is essential to understand how to plan for effective instruction in phonics and oral language for students with disabilities. In the classroom, it is important for all lesson plans to not only integrate effective strategies for instruction and accommodations for students with disabilities, but to also align with Common Core State Standards and the student’s individualized needs. This lesson plan will focus on using effective, research-based strategies for

Students watch was going on around them, whether it’s good or bad. Students emulate what they see their peers do.

As I reflected on my observations, I thought it was fairly easy to identify students, as most of them wears backpacks. People were generally quite in the morning, no one really converse in the elevators nor while waiting for the elevators. A common behavior that I have noticed, most people looked at their cell-phones, and avoid eye contacts. In

College is one spot to be seen like that. Start the day studying and then proceed to go home after all lectures are completed. However, many classes contain more than just lectures of academics. Many courses may involve a setting where an assignment or activity may be given that refers to the general population’s doings. To expect students to have a taste in what the large population of students do, shouldn't be done so easily. School is a safespace for many and when encountering situation’s like these, it disrupts that safespace. To maintain that safespace for the students, teachers should have restrictions of certain activities. An environment where every student may relate is something that should be looked for. Such as the idea of every student wanting to attend school to learn new materials for

Interaction also means that students keep in contact with professors to ensure greater success in each of their classes

The characteristics of a dyslexic person can be very different from one person to the other, just as the characteristics of students without disabilities are different. These students show a different combination of learning problems. “Such characteristics are learning style, motor dexterity, time/math, memory/cognition, language/reading skills, behavior and vision. Sometimes the dyslexic youngster has early or late developmental stages, such as crawling, walking or talking” (Grolier’s).

I am a born leader. Even when I am not looking for leadership opportunities they always seem to fall into my lap. My life has been one that is based on service to others, so I regularly volunteer for committees and extend myself to help others. It is important to me to be the best teacher I can, I regularly attend professional development sessions and implement my new learning in the classroom. However, upon starting the Teacher Leadership Master’s program at Lamar University, I was just beginning my career as a teacher leader. I had not had many opportunities to show leadership outside of my grade-level team. During team planning meetings, I normally directed the discussions. My coworkers looked to me for guidance and interpretation of the curriculum. I regularly made suggestions about teaching strategies. Additionally, I was a member of various campus committees including the Campus Performance Objective Committee (CPOC) where worked together with campus administrators and community partners to develop the Campus Improvement Plan. However, I did not view these tasks as leadership opportunities.