Hoertel Final Post

For my final project, I chose to create a virtual tour for my students about 8 World Wonders (when I looked up "Seven World Wonders" there were many different categories, so I just chose one collection of wonders). The students will go on a virtual field trip each day and do activities related to each place about the culture, language, food, ext. Students must also write a reflection piece for each day about their least favorite activity, favorite activity, and what they learned. At the end of the unit, they will create a "Museum Box" that will house all the the artifacts they created throughout their "journey" and all of their reflections. They will also reflect over the entire unit. Students will then give the class a short presentation about their favorite place, and why it was their favorite destination. The Museum Boxes will serve as the final project and in turn be used as a portfolio to track their participation and progress. Students will then look at one another's museum boxes "gallery walk" style. I created my rubric to reflect each region. Since there are eight different regions, there are eight categories on my rubric, and each day is sort of planned out based on the World Wonder, and then sub categorized into culture, language, food ext. The students also have a daily project that relates to each area that they get points for completing. So, for the Great Wall of China, students will collectively create a great wall of China out of Styrofoam blocks. I feel like my rubric also allows for partial credit and would also be useful for a class for students with disabilities because a lot of the grades are focused on completion. Even the final project, as a portfolio, is essentially based upon completion. The students could guide this project because all of the places we will "visit" also have a virtual tour component, so students can poke around all of the areas to explore the wonders as if they were actually there. The activities that follow each lesson can also be completed entirely by the students after I give instructions. This type of unit would also be ideal for allowing students to create their own culture pieces, or drawings that are related to the culture or region we focus on that day. I think the concept of a virtual tour in and of itself was very beneficial for me. I had never heard of this type of student experience before, so I learned more from researching things on my own and looking up different sites and videos than I would have with a regular lesson plan that didn't involve a new concept. I was able to find many different websites with information about virtual, interactive tours, and also find new ideas for other potential  virtual field trips. 

Hoertel Position Paper Post

For my position paper, my top three choice were: Phonics, Opportunity gap, and the gender gap.
I chose Phonics as my final paper topic. This topic personally affects and interests me. I have never understood phonics. When I was younger, I never had any problems reading, or learning to read, I just never understood phonics. My teacher and parents tried everything they could think of to get me to understand phonics, and it nothing worked. To this day, I still can't explain the difference between a "long" a and a "short" a and whatnot. I have always been an excellent reader too. Therefore, I am interested to know alternative ways to teach reading, without focusing on phonics so much. I have personal experience, and know that teaching Phonics is not a method that works well with all students, and am interested in finding ways for students to learn without such a focus on phonics.

I chose the opportunity gap as my second choice because this is another topic that I am find interesting. I took a Sociology class last semester , and this is something that constantly interested me. I then did a poster that went on the the USF about the Failure of NCLB. Most of the failures of this law had to do with opportunity gap. Teachers are only part of the equation. The home life of students and their parent's role also makes a major difference in their development. I would be interested in understanding how to close this gap and also how this mainly relates to Urban areas and ways students can overcome these inequalities in order to have the best chance of success.

Finally, I chose the gender gap for my third choice. When I saw this choice I immediately thought of the studies that showed that on a subconscious level teachers call of male students more often than female students and the affect that this has on female learning and male learning/behavior. I looked this issue up quickly before ranking my options, and read something that was concerned about male students struggling in school. I think it would be interesting  to see if there was a correlation between these two things, and also what causes the gender gap and effective ways to close the gap.

I think all of these topics need to be debated. Everything taught should be viewed from both sides. Even if it is a method or study that has been effective for years, there is always chance for improvement and revamping.

DLU HOERTEL Post

I think it is extremely helpful to write lesson plans and create units. I have had minimal experience creating lesson plans, and no experience creating a unit. This activity has helped me understand how much planning goes into a single lesson and additionally how much planning goes into a unit. This experience will help me prepare for my future students. I also think it is important to create lesson plans and units because it helps teachers be more prepared. Obviously, teachers have to be flexible because nothing ever goes as planned, but having a solid plan allows for many different ways to change the lesson, or change the order of the lessons if a problem arises. Having a solid plan also helps teachers look back and see what has worked, and what hasn't worked. Some of the best plans do come from spontaneity, but it is always better to have a plan and then work off of that, rather than going into something without any ideas. By creating a lesson plan that keeps all types of learners and disabilities in mind, teachers are able to reach out to all students. It makes sense to automatically modify a lesson plan to fit all students in the classroom, rather than creating a cookie cutter lesson plan. This ensures that all learners will have an opportunity to learn and also lets teachers get materials together for the modifications. I have struggled with this unit some, because I have gotten frustrated trying to fit everything together in a way that makes sense to me. It has definitely been a challenge, but a valuable challenge. I have discovered that I am capable of creating an outline for a unit, and that it is also very helpful to have mini outlines of possible lessons. This makes it much easier when it is time to write actual lesson plans. I have not written any of my lesson plans yet, but I think making the accommodations helps keep in mind that students learn in a variety of ways and that it is important to address that in every lesson. This has also been a good exercise for my future since I want to be a Special Education teacher and will be working with students with a variety of learning disabilities. I think it will be very helpful if I already have a mindset to accommodate all students.

Hoertel Blog about Formative Assessment Strategies

I enjoyed reading this article because I felt that it offered useful information that I can actually use in my classroom one day. Sometimes I feel that the textbook offers common sense information. This article gave specific ways to test students in a non-traditional format that allows feedback for both teachers and students in a way that maximizes learning. For  the Summaries and Reflections category I like the idea of the whiteboard. I have used this in classes before and have always found it helpful and fun. The article also mentions that whiteboards are useful for visual and tactile learners. I have never enjoyed math and using whiteboards was a strategy that many of my teachers began using and the times when they did use this strategy, I actually enjoyed math.  In terms of Graphic Orgnanizers and Lists and Charts, I like the idea of a top ten list. A top ten list can be a variety of things, such as top ten favorite things the student learned, top ten important facts about the subject, or even top ten things that the student didn't know before learning the material. This allows students to organize material in a new way. In terms of visual representation, I think a unit collage sounds interesting. When I do reading responses, I much prefer drawing pictures and writing words sometimes instead of typing  a response. This allows me to feel creative and also allows me to present the information in a different way. By using a collage students can also have visual representations of the material which is helpful for spatial learners. Finally for Collaborative activities, I am a fan of the "Turn n' Talk" Method. In 8th grade, we had a really awesome substitute teacher who used this method on my class. She is also the only teacher to ever use this method on a class I've had. This allows students to move around in their seats some, and  talk. Older students also benefit from the value of another's opinion. This would be an especially useful strategy to use in a literature or history class. This also allows students to learn the material in a different way, since all students understand things in a different way. I think many of these would be easy to apply to a classroom and manipulate for younger ages.  I also like that this article highlighted the importance of a differentiated  classroom. I feel like a lot of these methods could be implemented in the classroom without a lot of extra effort, or time. These assessments are also a springboard for teachers and allow them to have instant feedback from students about their knowledge of a subject. In my own classroom I would much rather use formative assessment strategies rather than summative assessments.

Hoertel, Learning Styles in Action

Even though not all of the learning styles were demo'd,  I think it was important to see some different ways to teach students. These were mainly kinesthetic activities, but I do think they are valuable to all students because the kinesthetic activities usually include more than just one learning style. For example, with the poke hole activity, this combines kinesthetic, visual, and auditory if the students chose to read the activity out loud. Kinesthetic activities are also usually set up more like games instead of a regular worksheet. This entices students to complete the activity. These sorts of kinesthetic activities also allow for variation in the classroom which is also extremely important to students and learning. Even if it is not their particular learning style, students benefit from varied instruction and having things explained in a different way. These kinesthetic activities, like the matching board, also mimic the ways tests are set up. Most tests are not just multiple choice, or true false. Tests usually include a variety of formats and types of questions. These kinesthetic activities help prepare students for different types of tests and test questions.

Blog Three: Learning Styles

After taking the learning styles quizzes, I wasn't really surprised to find out that I am a visual and auditory learner. I'm including both because there was only a few percentages between them when it listed my top learning styles. I have always excelled in history classes, which are usually lecture based and best for auditory learners. One of the descriptions from the quizzes definitely did not fit me though. It was describing an auditory learner as one who would more likely remember a name rather than a face. This is the opposite for me. When I meet a person, I rarely remember their name, but always remember their face. My strength in visual learning was also not surprising. If I read something from the book, and go back later to do some kind of activity with the material, I can always remember the location on the page and what the page looked like. This sometimes also works when I take tests over maps and capitals. I have found that filling out a blank map over and over helps me memorize and retain the material. When I was younger I used a similar method to learn my spelling words. I would write the words over and over on a piece of paper until I could spell them correctly. For my learning styles activity, I am in the process of creating a puzzle of the U.S. If I did this activity in a real classroom I would create an outline of the U.S. and then section each state out of the outline. I would then color code each region (Midwest, East, West, ext.) and then have states on the front, and capitals on the back. Since I am only creating this as a demonstration I will choose one region to work with: the Midwest. So, I will draw the Midwest and label each state. Then I will turn the state outlines into flashcards. Finally, as a way for students to check their answers instantly, the states will be color coded on the back by region. This is pretty similar to the task cards we created. The flash card component and color coding will help visual learners. Kinesthetic learners will benefit from being able to touch the each piece and fit them together like a giant puzzle. Auditory learners can say each word and state out loud as they go through their "notecards". This is a fairly simple activity and reaches out kids with many different learning styles.

Chapter One

I thought this was an interesting chapter, though pretty lengthy.  I forgot how different it can be to read a textbook rather than a regular book. One of the subjects discussed in this chapter that I found most interesting was the difference between "ADA" and "IDEA". Under IDEA, a plethora of learning disabilities are covered such as : Intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, hearing impairments, visual impairments, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, and speech, or language impairments, in addition to gifted or talented students, and at risk students. In terms of the ADA, I found it very interesting that this act applied to everything with the exception of churches and clubs, and unless a private school is associated with a church, it does not have to comply by these standards. This was an interesting concept to me. I also thought it was interesting that the book listed some supposed "negative" effects of inclusion. I have never thought of inclusion as something that would create a distraction in the classroom. The little girl that I nanny/babysit throughout  the year has Downs, and is in an inclusive environment, and has been very fortunate to have excellent teachers. However, her parents often tell me that there are problems with the resource teacher communicating with the "regular" teacher. In one case there was so little communication between the teachers that Grace was getting penalized for not taking AR tests, because both teachers were relying on the other to test her, and therefore nothing was accomplished. This was a main issue the book discussed. Programs that encourage inclusion are hinged upon the teachers ability to communicate and also the attitude and behavior of the teacher. I thought it was really interesting also that the book mentioned that in addition to the strict standards set forth by IDEA that teachers are also supposed to adhere to the NCLB guidelines. For my sociology class I did quite a bit of research about the ineffectiveness of NCLB. In my opinion a teacher focused both on the ridiculous standards of NCLB and "teaching the test" would put students with disabilities to the wayside, not intentionally, but just because they were more focused on NCLB accreditation. I think it will be interesting to see how the phasing out of NCLB will effect the education of students with special needs as the "common core" idea is being embraced. As a future special needs teacher, these are some very important issues to consider. One of the most valuable bits of information in this chapter was the focus on different types of special needs. I was also never aware of the rights parents of a special needs child had in concerns to their   child's education such as the due process rights and due process hearings. Although the chapter did not specifically word it this way, it also highlighted a lot of the paperwork involved with being a teacher.   This was a very useful chapter in introducing special needs children and methods used to educate them.