TPE Files University of Redlands

TPE 1 : Engaging and Supporting all Students in Learning

While working as a residential substitute I was assigned as an interventionist to specific classrooms. One particular classroom that I had was a 3rd grade class, with Mrs. Gaméz. I loved the set-up she had and how she made it so that every single student would be able to take advantage of some sort of help for reading during the 45 minute increments where I was available. The only materials that were utilized was the wonders decodable readers, the computers and some folders. We all know that when it comes to reading and reading comprehension, students are all in different levels and different needs. The first step is to sort out students based on their reading levels with their particular groups. In San Bernardino most of the students utilize the program I-ready where there is a diagnostic test done at the beginning of the year. I-ready will sort students based on colors. It is easy enough to gather this data and divide groups. In San Bernardino the general class size is 33 students per class, Mrs. Gaméz divided her class by 4 groups, each group having about 8 students or 7, depending on their grade level. The higher performing students would work only in two stations at 20 minute increments. These groups would sign onto I-ready, a program that tailors itself to each students learning abilities. The other group would work on independent work, where they would have time to catch up with classwork, homework or just reading or AR tests. This is appropriate because these students need less one on one time where as those students who are struggling need more attention. The Two groups that were left would be split between Mrs. Gaméz and I, we would switch groups between 20 minutes. The group sessions would begin with going over 20 sight words, after I would introduce the guided reader, the title, the theme, the essential questions. Students take turn reading and eventually they work on the worksheet that accompanies the guided reader. Mrs. Gamez would be working with one Guided reader and I would be working with the other lowest group. I really did love the way that all students were engaged and the ones who seemed to need the most attention were in smaller groups yet all students were learning about the same themes, the same topics at different simplified versions. This is a great way to engage students and support all levels of reading, students are with other peers who are at the same level and they do not feel as stressed out in hurrying up to read as usually happens when students read out loud. I really liked this method because I felt that the children all got the most out of all of us educators who were in the room and with the limited amount of time we had.

TPE 2: Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning

I have been working in the SBCUSD since 2011 in the afterschool program and substituting in the district since 2014. Substitutes have trainings and as we always note, San Bernardino is a trauma induced district. One particular teacher had a calming center in her classroom, it was her first year as a teacher and she had a student who would get a little distressed at times. When substituting this class, the children already knew that if they were getting overwhelmed or if they were feeling irritated by someone or something. Students knew the rules to the center, they had already been conditioned as to what the rules were. Students were given 10 minutes to regroup, there was activities that you could do in the center, they had fidget spinners, they had a coloring sheet. There was a bean bag in the corner where students could also sit, the corner was tee-pee style. In the video, the tips for your own calming center are: have a discussion with students to what the calming center will be. Provide a soft place to sit, to help them relax and calm down, display calming tools, breathing, sensory play tools. I have seen these tools in action and can say that children do love these methods especially with a counselor. Students need to monitor how long they are in the calming center. The great thing about the calming center is that in the classroom you have children coming from all walks of life and students do get triggered at times and these centers do seem to work. I am excited to one day be able to implement a calming center for my students!

TPE 3: Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Student Learning.

Children these days have access to technology more than ever, everywhere they look there is a screen that tells them time. To some it may seem that this task is no longer relevant to know, but teaching children how to tell time is still as important as ever. Teaching second grade standard Build Understanding of Time

NC. 2. MD.7 Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m. Can be demonstrated in the classroom by understanding what is needed as a foundation to teach time. The student must have a solid foundation on counting by fives and being able to identify numbers in order to tell time. In second grade there are still a lot of students who have trouble with numbers, understanding that numbers may be a challenge it is imperative to organize the parts of the clock to help not confuse. This activity of telling time is pretty easy and effective, it can be organized in a way that is a hands on activity for students in the classroom. You don’t want to confuse the students using the sticky notes for the values of the hours and minutes helps students differentiate hours and minutes. It is important to have the ideal set up as not to confuse students of the two values of hours and minutes. To have all students walk up to the board and physically move the hands also engages those students who learn by doing and using kinetic learning.

TPE 4: Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for all Students

During this time of Covid, I joined in with my co-teacher and watched her and her partner plan one week ahead their schedule. Being that COVID has greatly impacted the instructional time, the way to tackle this school year was to teach the most essentials. I noted that both my co teacher and her partner work elegantly well when coming up with their weekly lesson plans. The following is a visual of how the instruction was planned and designed.

I really do like the way that Ms.Hand Mrs.E z went about in organizing and planning their instruction for the week. Students are able to access their own schedule online with all the links that are associated with class and al of the work that is to be assigned that week. Being that online learning greatly limits what can be done in the sense of planning we resorted to going on google meets and just simply keeping the same template of schedule per week and updating all of the links for the students and activities.

TPE 5: Assessing Student Learning

As I have been administering ELPAC tests and being in the class I can definitely say that students taking boring tests not only tires out the students but the educators as well. For vocabulary/spelling in the fourth grade class that I have been attending, what the instructor does is that she makes or she finds a quizzis. In this class the students work for marbles, when they fill up the marbles they get to have a fun Friday where they can have time to do what they want in the google meet : talking to each other playing, etc. When it is Friday and it is spelling/vocabulary time they are all signing into the quiz and it tells them all questions about the words. Students get points on how fast they answer if it is the correct answer and a class average. The students love it, they love to compete and they love to choose their own usernames, they really enjoy it, so do we it is fun! These times if you have the opportunity to assess student learning and if it is fun I would definitely recommend this website, even after online learning I would use it instead of a boring spelling test.

TPE: Developing as a Professional Educator

Through this whole process of the student teaching portion of the credential program what I have found to be the most effective is to really look at and reflect on the observations that supervisors were giving. I was very nervous in taking over the class and teaching students that I have been spending time with, after the evaluations I would look over and the suggestions were amazing. Sometimes when you are teaching you think that the way you are presenting the content is great, but when you have someone else come in and give you constructive criticism it really does help. I know that a lot of times when you are being observed you are a bit nervous but as a professional educator, I do see the benefits of developing when other educators who have more experience can give you a few pointers. The only bad thing I can see from this type of development is to take it very personal. I was very lucky to have an amazing co-teacher and an amazing supervisor who was only willing to help and offer advice. I really did appreciate all the pointers and the ideas that were brought up to my attention.