3rd Semester Blog # 5

I fully expect the classroom to experience a sudden burst of anticipatory energy before school leaves for winter break. The key is to always have the classroom expectations enforced and have lessons that engage students. The end of the class will mostly consist of reteaching, relearning, retesting, and enrichment. My high school suffers from a very high absence problem with students so any chance available to teach must be used. My plan is to have students organized in groups by unit that needs to be relearned. The school allows students to retest any exam at least once so I make students below a 70% retake exams for better scores. Communicating with parents is rare and I often only speak to them if a student is having a problem. As for positive incentive, I usually distribute snacks or candy if students behave and average more than an 80% on the final.  

3rd Semester Blog # 3

I teach economics so, while I do use math in the classroom, am not considered to have much STEM in the classroom. However, I do try to incorporate STEM in the enrichment part of a lesson because there are students who understand the material fairly easily. One example is using algebra or pre-calculus problems just to set up a graph that they then will have to calculate opportunity cost for. Also, I have them write a research paper on future technology that will be adapted for goods/services production. They must look up the technology and how that technology can make the good or service more productive or desirable to consumers.  

3rd Semester Blog # 4

How do you plan to implement active engagement?

I try to get students by asking them questions about their daily life or current events and then link them to the material. I hand have them do a "turn and talk" to discuss what concept they learned as well. By having the students engaged they will focus on the instruction and be able to recall the information. Students that usually do no participate in discussion feel it is a bit more open to talk and begin to participate. More often than not, students engaged in the material are in a better mood and the class experience feels like the students have been impacted.

3rd Semester Blog # 2

Have you had to go to your counselor to assist in a situation?

The main reason to talk to our counselor is to help students get their next classes. The school has set apart a class where students are given time to complete online classes at their own pace. The classes are checked for completion by the teachers and the counselor loads the next necessary class once the student finishes. From just being around her office, she also tries and persuade students that come to her to drop out.She does a great job of giving students a time frame for when they can meet graduation requirements if they stay on task and complete the classes. The counselor is extremely busy as well and usually has hourly schedules for tasks to do. That includes meeting with the principal,teachers, students, and parents.  

3rd Semester Blog # 1

Common Core and You!

There was a bit of a change to my curriculum. The standards were similar to my previous ones but they did need to be modified a little. My concert was if this was going to be a drastic change in the way I had to teach, but after comparing my past standards - from the past Arizona one - I just had to modify much of the language in the lesson plan paperwork we turn for my high school's evaluation., unit goals, daily objectives, and lesson standards.