Prompt #11: How can curriculum mapping assist you? Do you have one? Does your school\district map? Where would\will you start creating useful curriculum maps for your classroom?

Because my school is an alternative learning school, we do not have a mapped curriculum. The district has adopted a plan that seems to be somewhat in tune with what curriculum mapping has been described. They have timelines for a certain major essay but not for the core concepts departments are teaching. All the schools follow some universal project for the first month and have strict guidelines, framework for how to do it, and has been related to historical areas around. We do not have to follow that month long "mapping" and instead have been given the option to create a similar project. I do not follow it since the project is a lengthy essay that just showcases that a student can write. I would rather have them learn fundamental economic concepts from the start of class.

As for me, I have a nothing that would represent what the lecture shows as curriculum mapping written on paper. I do have a "map" in the form of a binder that shows me where I should be every week for 6 weeks because that is how long our terms are in school. That helps identify if the pace is out of sync and whether I must adjust. I would start creating a curriculum map before the class begins to follow along where you intend to be, but I am fully aware lessons may change if subjects take longer than expected.

Prompt #10: Do you differentiate instruction? Why? Why not? What is the importance of differentiating instruction? What impact does it have on student learning?

Yes, I differentiate instruction. The simple reason is that some students struggle with basic tools to gather information, be that reading comprehension, or verbal communication. For this students a simplified and lowered tempo assignment and lesson is best. On the other side, some students grasp the material extremely well and need to be challenged or they will act out from boredom. Same for the students that does not see differentiation occur and struggles, that student may act out in frustration.

The impact on student learning is apparent in the level of work given to the student and the outcome. A student that still tries and grasps material is still actively participating in the material and is likelier to understand it, while the student that is comfortable with the fundamentals is learning to better master that concept\skill\technique. Both of these hoped scenarios will most likely result in a higher student evaluation for that differentiated lesson than if they were not.  

Prompt #9: General Education Teachers: When working with special education teachers what are your challenges? Strengths? What could be done to increase you skill in the area?

 Much of the challenges I have with special education teachers is the precise terminology they use when describing student's educational programs and what they want to accomplish. Since I have never been a part or taken any sort SPED class, it is difficult to follow along when we have a staff meeting and the principal, guidance counselor, and experienced staff communicate and they know what they all mean. Mostly, its not the acronyms but the process they need us to follow and what doing a certain examination will determine.

One of my strengths is having a very flexible curriculum and can absolutely adjust lessons and assignments to meet the needs special education teachers think are best for the student. Perhaps an informative meetings demonstrating various examples of what a certain type of child would demonstrate so that we could detect problems earlier, or a review of the material we created to see if it is exactly the best modification for the student.

Prompt #8: When using technology with your students, what are your challenges? Strengths? What could be done to increase your usage of technology in the classroom?

Unfortunately, the computers in the class room are very old and some do not have Office products to enhance the learning experience. This is the weakness of my classroom. There are portable computers that students can go and check out from an office, but if we did that from the start of the classroom it would take 20 minutes to initially get and about 20 minutes to put back. The only technology I use is just the more traditional projector connected to my laptop where I use it for students to take notes. This is a strength because I can better observe the class for signs of struggle with the material, move about the classroom and monitor behavior, and discuss the material as it is being recorded.

If the computers were lent out to students so that they had them from the start of the classroom (which doesn't happen in my school but all the district school do) and update software\office to help me prepare lessons to help with going to the next educational level.

Prompt #7: How Prepared do you feel in effectively teaching your students in reading? Is this one of your strengths? A weakness? Have you started to plan Common Core Standards? If you have, how is that going? If you haven't, why not? What support do you need?

I have little to no teaching skills in reading. I am not an English teacher, in fact, my class Economics class is meant for students that have demonstrated appropriate comprehension of the English language. However, I do receive students that struggle with understanding certain and have made arrangements to help the student understand the material. Anything from reading the material out load and simplifying it are techniques used to help the student understand the material, but it does not help the student learn how to read much. I do have give notes during class and as they write them I go over what they mean and place them in context. Not many of the notes are full sentences, but the ones that are I definitely read to the class.

I have not started out planning for Common Core Standards. Mostly, because what information they do have does not relate to my subject or what "similar" subject they do have does not sync well with mine. I teach at an alternative school and while I understand that the end goals have to be the same for the district\state, we have differences that I have to keep per student necessities and subject matter.

Prompt #6: Go to educationworld.com and read one article on some aspect of Classroom Management. Post a reflection to your blog based on your practice as it relates to what you learn from the article. How effectively is your well classroom management system working at this point in the year? What are your struggles? What are your successes? Reflect with honest hearts and minds!

I choose the article Classroom Management: Ten Teacher-tested Tips to read. The article gives many tips on ways to stop a classroom that is being troublesome like having a system to stop certain students from disrupting the class or stop the class as a whole from being too loud once they have already started. They also give advice on the mindset teachers should have for better outcomes from students. One the points stressed was having teachers like the students, find something to like and let it be real because students respond well to comments coming from a individuals that are not negative towards them. I honestly do not check how my attitude is during class, but I will assume it is not very sunny. Improving that is a definite must.

My classroom management is not very good. I was just recently moved from a school campus, (same overall school) that is more for troubled kids and the system I used before just did not work. I had to adopt practices that I never had to implement like punishments for extreme behavior. The biggest problem is having students focus and not start up side conversations. I'd like to say that it has become easier over time, but it has not. One of the major problems are couple students that instigate unwanted behavior within other students and after repeated warnings one student was suspended. While that student was gone classroom instruction become better and students stayed on task and assignments were finished in a timely manner. The other students have issues but the techniques I've done work. Hopefully, the other student becomes receptive to the negative outcome that could come if his behavior continues, but after several warnings, it seems unlikely.

One of the techniques I started using, that the article has as well, was a three strike rule. The students have three strikes and on the third, they will get a referral. I'm not sure what the minimum punishment is for referrals, but the last one was one week suspension. After the students heard that and since I started implementing the technique, behavior improved for most students; except for the one that I've already mentioned. It almost feels he's trying to pick up the slack for the other student that was suspended!

Prompt #5: Reflect on your use of assessment  in the classroom. On a scale of 1-10, ten being highest, how would you rate yourself. What are your plans for becoming a "10" if you are not there already? How are you using assessment in the classroom to guide your instruction? Describe how assessment results are used to differentiate instruction within your class.

I would not rate myself high on an assessment scale, possibly a 4 at best. One of the main reasons it is not high is because even though I continuously give out quizzes to determine what subject the students are having trouble learning, I have no state standards or comparisons. As an economics teacher I have very distinct subjects that I know students must know for college, but there are numerous ones and each economics instructor may choose different ones. The assessments done by quizzes and chapter recap questions help differentiate instruction because I separate students based on what they've done badly in and go over it again.

This type of summative assessment helps in my style of teaching because I am very lecture based. I give out lectures and have students take notes. Once the lecture is completed, classwork on the material is given and I scan for signs of struggling. During the lecture, I could use more Formative Assessment to help the process so I do not have to spend much time during material classwork time and thus increase the scale for a 4 to higher number.  

Prompt # 4: Reflect on your time in the classroom to this point. How are you feeling emotionally, physically? Do you feel that you are getting through to your most difficult students? What strategies are working? What strategies are not? What are your next steps with student engagement within your classroom?

It hasn't been that long since I started the class and to describe the roller coaster of emotions in a paragraph would be tough. I've gone from laughing, disappointed, frustrated, ecstatic, and apathetic in that short of a time span. The good news is that are more jubilees sentiments than unpleasant. On some day the students seem eager to participate and engage in the classroom and on others its a struggle to even have them take notes.

The difficult students in class are becoming less troublesome. Since most do not have an idea of what economics is about, once we connect the real world to the material in class they are the ones most interested in participating; some even become so enamored that they blurt out questions and distract when lecturing, but that's a win in my book. I have to attribute the success catering the material to their reading and writing level and giving positive reinforcement when they participate. One of the biggest problems in my class is confidence, or lack their of, in students' school ability. Economics is not all mathematics, it actually studies human behavior as a whole so when a student is asked a question, most of them know the answer intuitively. I attempt to always ask questions that they would rationalize by just being themselves.

My next step in engaging the students in the classroom is to provide current data and intertwine the lesson plans with relevant world events. Most of the concepts in beginning economics is fundamental and finding information to relate is a bit difficult.  

Prompt # 3: What are you doing to meet the needs of your special education students? If you do not have special education students, how are you meeting the needs of your low students? Have you met with your school's pre-referral group about these students?

As mentioned in prior discussions, most of the students in the high school I instruct in are deficient in some core subject and it will most likely be either reading and writing English. While I have cater my classes to individuals that lack reading comprehension and have evidenced success, I find it very difficult to assist students that have verbal communication problems. Firstly, while they know I can understand them when they speak to me in Spanish, I legally cannot respond to them in their most proficient language and thus speak to them in English. Secondly, stopping instruction and focusing too much time on the few students these circumstance would take an enormous amount of instruction time. As a remedy, I allow students to work in groups so that they can use their partner as a resource to solve simple issues, and always attempt to explain normal words, used casually in conversation, and explain them so English deficient students know what was said.

When I do sense a students has a problem that is not typical of other students, communication with the school's SPED instructor is started and eventually observations begin to identify if the students does need special instruction. Unfortunately, I am new to teaching so the few conversations I've had with the SPED instructor have only mentioned testing after observations are finished; after that I have no clue of what the next steps.  

Prompt #2: This year what has worked and what hasn't in your classroom? What will you do differently?

     One of the expectations for the the classes I teach was believing students, as uninteresting as the material was, would still attempt to finish it. Economics is an elective class and most students know they could make up the credit with another elective. At some point within the first half of the six week term students stopped doing the classwork. Another idea that has not worked was conducting the class in a mixed high school\college style where I have a notes on a Power Point and instruct them to takes notes in which ever manner they feel is best. None of my students have any note taking ability and have always been instructed to copy word for word what is presented and ignore the information verbally instructed.

What has worked really well was modifying the worksheets and book assignments to a level adequate for the students. I use problems straight from college books and rewrite them for English deficient students and have seen a general decline of questions typically asking "what does the question mean" and more of "does this look correct to you" which is exactly the question I want to hear.

In order to fix the parts that aren't working in my class I may have to adjust my syllabus and point values to increase the weight class assignments have on the overall grade; incentivize the students to do class work by risking possible failure. To fix the second problem, a small class time in note taking instructions in the beginning of t he term would be acceptable to prepare students for this course.

Prompt 1: Write about two things that are going well in your classroom that you are proud of. Write two things in your classroom that you wish to improve. What steps will you take to improve these items?

For the most part, distractions are decreasing and attendance is improving within the classroom. Wish I could say it's all because of adjustments I did, but that's far from the truth. The students who know the limit amount of days they are allowed to be absent already met the limit and with almost a lifeless stare stagger into class. On the bright side, distractions decreased due to modifying classwork that originally wasn't meant to be evaluated for a grade and now is because students openly opted to avoid participating in it. 

Though those two areas have improved, verbal class participation when instructing and interaction with other students is much desired to improve. In-class relevance to immediate outside consumer and supplier behavior is a daily goal for me and it is difficult to get students to engage discussion in all subjects of economics; the U.S.'s Federal Reserve system of controlling economic inflation,expansion, and contraction via monetary policy tops the list as the quickest way to have students daydream. The class assignments can be worked on individually and in groups, but none communicate to even double check if their answers.

Possible ways to fix those issues are to have engaging activities that explain the Fed's ability to control the economy in more interactive way and create class activities that force students to communicate with one another. I definitely do not want to cruise over the material and skip to the next subject that is probably more relevant to young adults and thus naturally more engaging.