This week we talked a lot about assessing the students needs and then how to plan instruction around these specific needs. In class we were assigned a case and each of us was given a subject and we were the teacher of that subject. Once we were assigned a subject our goal was to read their roll and see how you could apply it. I happened to be the science teacher who had a zero tolerance rule. I was a teacher of a 2nd grade class and to have a zero tolerance rule was shocking to me. Second graders are still kids and they will act crazy, we as teacher just need to figure out what works best to calm them down. Anyways, the student was really struggling with mathematics but he was so creative and so good at the arts. As a group of teachers we collaborated together to see how we could improve this students academics. We talked about implementing the arts into math so he could be more interested, having a buddy or a fast finisher help him, or we even talked about having the attitude of the teacher change. This little activity made me realize that there are so many things that we as teachers can do to help a student who struggles succeed. It may not be easy or convenient, but it is definitely doable!
In this weeks reading we talked about the steps of "INCLUDE".
Identify classroom demands
Note students learning strength and needs
Check for potential areas of success
Look for potential problem areas
Use information to brainstorm
Differentiate instruction
Evaluate student progress
I really enjoyed the activity too. I definitely agree that it isn't always convenient to help a student to succeed, and you really do have to go the extra mile. But in the end it is so worth it! Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a zero tolerance rule is shocking. I think that it as a teacher if we are going to meet our students needs then we need to be tolerant. I think that if you are going to teach that you should have good enough classroom management skills to keep your students under control. I also really enjoyed this activity and actually forgot about it until reading your post since I was so focused on the test. Thanks for reminding me about it because this activity gave me good insight on improvement throughout your teaching years. I too did not agree with the way the teacher that I was playing the role of was teaching.
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