In EDU 6525 Culturally Responsive teaching we learned about many people throughout history who have influenced the advancement of pluralism in Education. I can take the information learned in this course and apply it by teaching about multiculturalism in my own classroom. By learning about other cultures, students will develop respect for people from different backgrounds, which will create a positive learning environment. I will model that respect in my own teaching taking students ethnic backgrounds into account when planning lessons. By fostering a culturally inclusive environment, student academic engagement and success will increase.

We read The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. I wrote a paper where I summarized his ideas, and wrote a repose including my own thought about multiculturalism.

An Analysis of Schlesinger 

For the Final Paper I synthesized ideas from the readings and lectures and created a multicultural lesson plan. In the lesson students researched and presented a PowerPoint presentation on a minority figure from recent history and then pretended to be that character in a debate. The students answered essential questions. In the formative assessment, students reflected on their learning and how their views or stereotypes had changed.

Integration and Action Excercise

I developed a unit plan about the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead for EDU 6524 Curriculum Design. The Unit plan was based on standards and students can relate to the topic. The activities were planned with the students in mind and the students are highly engaged as they learn new knowledge and skills throughout each lesson.

Dia de los Muertos Unit

My Instructional Technology course was by far the most useful class I have taken in the masters program. Technology is such a new and ever-changing topic that there is always more to learn and ways to improve your teaching and make things easier. Like most new things, it takes some practice and trial and error. I created this blog in my technology course, used my webcam, created a voicethread, and made a screencast, all for the first time. We were involved in  creating our own rubric for the assignments. This was a good example for me to see a way to easily incorporate technology and involve students in decision-making. We also completed the i-safe course, which teaches kids how to use the internet safely. I learned ways to better integrate technology into instruction and ways to enhance professional communication. For my technology tip I created a handout and added voice and a video feed of my screenshots to demonstrate how to navigate the NEA works for me website.

Technology Tip

I have applied what I have learned in EDU 6524 Curriculum Design into my short and long-term lesson and unit planning by keeping the students in mind. I developed a unit plan about the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead including essential questions and enduring understandings. The curriculum is meaningful, students are aware of the learning target and able to show that they understand and can perform the skill. I include modifications for diverse learners and assessments for each activity.

Dia de los Muertos Unit

In EDSP 6644 educating Exceptional Students we learned about many types of disabilities and how to include students with disabilities in the classroom. We learned about special education laws and accommodations and modifications. We spent some time specifically learning about autism and behavior disorders. This was a fast paced course that was assessed using weekly open book quizzes, a project and a final essay. The quizzes had to be passed with 100% accuracy and often included extended response questions. The methods for assessment were useful ways to solidify the process the information we learned.  I did my Power point project on ADHD. I chose the topic because I was looking for some strategies to use in my own classroom. I learned valuable information and techniques for inclusion and ways to collaborate with other educators from the course.

ADHD and Inclusion

In Human Development and Principles of Learning EDU 655 we wrote about our professional philosophy of teaching and personal pedagogy. I addressed how humans learn, what motivates people to learn, my role as an educator, and proposed the best environment and context for learning. I create routines and teach respect, so the student feel safe and stable in my class. I run a  classroom where the students feel empowered and actively participate in learning. I also created a  power point presentation with two colleagues on language development. I focussed on second language learning and bilingualism.

Personal Position Statement

Language Development Power Point

Cooperates with other professionals to bridge gaps between schools and community and between departments/disciplines within schools.

In EDU 6600 I learned the benefits of communication with colleagues and parents. This is something I was already doing, but the information we learned in the course confirmed its positive effects. I wrote an action plan for the high school where I work based on an assessment of needs. Our school had recently gone through the accreditation process, so there was a lot of material available to me to easily assess needs and give recommendations for a plan of action. In EDU 6600 Communication and Collaboration we also learned about what makes a school high-perfoming. Teacher leadership is critical. Professional Learning Communities are a popular way to help improve student learning. I was glad we learned about them in class because my school starting forming teacher learning teams this year, so when the idea was introduced I knew what they were and how they worked. I may have been skeptical about participating if I hadn’t seen the research in EDU 6600 about how effective they can be. I cooperated with colleagues to align curriculum in Teacher Learning Teams. We even plan to do some vertical teaming with the middle school teachers this summer.

 Action Plan

In EDU 6526 Survey of Instructional Strategies we created Pre and Post assessment for use in our classroom. I was actually able to use mine the first week of school and I was able to share it with other teachers in the department to use as well. In the class we learned about different testing strategies and analyzed test scores. We also touched on standardized tests, portfolios, performance assessments, and aligning tests to learning targets and standards.  Many of these topics apply to me for various reasons. First of all, I have led WASL skills class after school and taught and SAT prep course, so it is important for me to be able to interpret test scores and explain them to students and parents. Next, I have been of the team that determined the requirements for students electronic portfolios required for graduation. I use portfolios in my classroom for students to display and reflect on their work. In addition, I use speaking tests in Spanish to evaluate students communication abilities. Finally, I lead a teacher learning team were we discuss curriculum and assessments to ensure that they are aligned with the learning targets. I use the information I learned in the course to improve my assessment of student learning and modify instruction accordingly.

Spanish I review test

In American Education Past and Present EDU 6120 we learned how education has evolved through history. The class discussions were helpful to improve my understanding and memory of the topics.  In the course we engaged in dialogue covering a wide range of topics. We shared our opinions and took positions on educational policy and practices. Although history is not one of my favorite subjects, this was one of my favorite classes due to the way the curriculum was presented and positive interaction I encountered with the students and professor. It just goes to show, no matter what you teach, you can make a topic exciting and enjoyable for students. I chose to research an issue in education that is relevant to all teachers. In this paper I discuss how the foundations of American Education influence teaching and how student academic achievement and well-being is affected by standards.
Educational Reform through Standards

Interpreting and Applying Educational Research was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. It was very difficult to do as online course because most of the concepts were new to me. I believe I could have benefitted much more from seeing the concepts demonstrated rather than reading about them in the textbook. I had to seek outside help to understand and prepare for the tests and projects.  After completing the first and second level courses I had a much better understanding of how research is conduced and reported. Now I can interpret statistics that I read about in educational journals. In the Research Proposal Outline I examined the effectiveness of homework through research articles and designed an experiment to observe the results in my classroom. 

Research Proposal Outline

In my Educational Research II course we learned how to review data. In the project we analyzed the relationship among different variables related to public school expenditures and determined if there was statistical significance related to student achievement. From both of these courses I learned to use empirical data to guide my instruction.

Excel Project Write-up