EDSS 531: Educational Philosophy/ Model Integration

               After the class presentations of the eight teaching models: Inductive thinking, Attaining concepts, Scientific concepts, Scientific inquiry, Role playing, Memorization, Synectics, and Simulation overview; there are two that fit well with my teaching style and educational philosophy, which are the scientific inquiry model and attaining scientific concepts.

My passion for the scientific inquiry and attaining scientific concept model is rooted in defining the nature of science.  Science is the discipline where critical thinking and analytical thinking processes are required to excel in the subject.  Students must have great attention to details and at the same time be able to compare and contrast their observations.  Taking the information gained through observations, students must be able to organize the information using high order thinking skills to present the information in a concise, clear and understandable way. The scientific process also involves presenting the information discovered to others, teaching the findings or newer questions to others, to the community.  The scientific process is a lot like teaching! I found out during my clinical practice, that if I organize my lesson plans directly to the way the scientific process is, I am also using the higher order thinking skills that the scientific process end result.  The beginning of the lesson, the INTO, is designed to get the student to transition their thinking from whatever subject, topic or thought into the subject you are teaching.  The INTO is a lot like the scientific process of an introduction or surveying the area/background what you already know about a science process.  It focuses your thoughts on the upcoming subject.  The THROUGH is the hypothesis generation which focuses the scientist on the essential question needed to cover the topic.  A teacher must modify their lesson according to the students’ responses or the students’ feedback from the activities and ongoing assessment and progress monitoring. An educator must then test the students’ content knowledge much like testing a hypothesis to see if a certain teaching strategy was effective or not.  If not, the educator then adjusts her teaching style and strategy to re-test their hypothesis and arrive at a conclusion, which is the BEYOND portion of a lesson.

EDSS 541 RR30

The best practices for conducting an IEP Meeting:

1. Develop a common understanding of the student's strengths, interest and needs
2. Share information and observation of the student's behavior and learning in a variety of settings.
3. Understand academic and non-academic priorities for the individual student.
4. Plan measurable long term goals and benchmarks of short term objectives specific to the educational benefit of the individual student.
5. Develop a multi-factored evaluation including formal test results, current levels of academic and nonacademic functioning (social, emotional, and behavioral), written observations from teachers and test administrators and anecdotal records of parent perspectivies.
6. A statement of measurable goals and benchmarks of short term objectives related to meeting the student's academic and nonacademic needs that results from the student's disabilities.
7. Statement of program modification or support for school personnel that will be provided.
8. Explanation to which the student will not participate with non disabled students in regular classroom, extracurricular activities, and other nonacademic activities of the general curriculum.
9. Statement of individual modifications in the administration of state or district wide assessments of student achievement so that the student can participate on these assessments or explain on why the student cannot participate in any state or district-wide assessment or any part of that assessment.
10. A statement that indicates the anticipated frequency, location, and duration of any services and when program modifications will begin.

EDSS 541 RR29

The best practices for preparing for an IEP Meeting are:

1. Review student's past evalutaion and arrange meetings at appropriate times for all team members.
2. Provide sufficient advance notice of meeting date and time to students' parents.
3. Arrange interpreters for parents/grandparents if have a language, sight, hearing limitations.
4. Provide reliable data about the student's achievement, socialization, and behavior in classroom.
5. Provide input from the perspective of a knowledgeable, skillful general education teacher.
6. Be aware that some of the components of the IEP's implementation may be a part of your responsibility.
7. Know that the IEP binds a school district, not an individual,to the provision of services, to which the parties have agreed.
8. Don't worry that the student needs annual goals for all general education academic and performance areas.
9. Consider the IEP a confidential document available on a need to know basis.
10. Make sure each goal statement reflects measurable behavior meaningfully drawn from present performance levels and contains an appropriate time frame.  Don't depend on curriculum guides.

EDSS 541 RR28

The differentiation strategies that I would use to support Mwajabu in my Life Science class are:

Content:
Her strengths are in visual and experimental subjects, thus she will most likely enjoy demonstrations and the option to draw and present visual representations of the content processes versus writing and reading.

Process:
Activities involving visual stimuli (drawing, mapping and technology use) will be encouraged and allowed during cooperative learning groups to increase social and adaptive skills with peers.


Product: 
Pair Mwajabu with hearing partner during experiments to encourage improving her social skills.

EDSS 541 RR27

 Key information for Mwajabu that will inform educational goals and supports for her IEP include:

• Mwajabu lived her first 10 yrs in Tanzania, attended ungraded school
• speaks Swahili and tribal language, Second language English learner, deaf
• drawing outstanding, understands concepts through cartoon strips and communicates better through illustrations
• Peabody Picture vocabulary test-3 (PPVT-3) scored 11 years 5 months
• Photo Articulation Test-Revised (PAT-R) articulation errors in production of sounds /s/, /z/, /s/ blends, /r/, /r/ blends, and /l/; omits consonant sounds
• Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-Upper Extension (EOWPVT-UE) scored at 10 yrs and 3 months, significant delay in expressive vocabulary ability
• Test of Language Development-Intermediate (TOLD-I) scored significant delays in all subjects, exception in Grammatical completion
• math is her best academic subject
• likes to read picture books and rather draw

EDSS 541 RR26

The differentiation strategies that I  would use to support Leanna in my Biology1 class are:

Content:
Provide one-on-one tutoring by a qualified instructor (myself or other science teacher) before, during lunch and after school. Needs repetition of new vocabulary words and vocab memorization strategies. Provide hands-on learning, manipulatives and demonstrations of science concepts as much as possible.


Process: 
Information and instructions for laboratory experiments presented visually and kinesthetically in small, sequential steps. Leanna would come to the demonstration/set up table and model each step from the experimental procedure before she would be allowed to work on the experiment.
Product: 
Allow Leanna extra time to complete assignments and provide her with my instructor lecture notes, encourage her to talk to her peers, provide modified rubrics and instructions if necessary for her.

EDSS 541 RR25

 Key information for Leanna that will inform educational goals and supports for her IEP include:

•  shy, hard worker, lacks social skills and close peer friendships
• WISC-IV, Full-Scale score of 64, consistent across domains indicate mild level of cognitive impairment: "Leanna demonstrates considerable difficulties dealing with tasks involving verbal comprehension and expression and those requiring the manipulation of concrete materials and visual-motor skills.
• PPVT-III, obtained age equivalent of 10 years and 9 months (lower average range for speech-language abilities)
• WIAT scores fall below 6th percentile
• unable to answer math problems involving more than one operation, contain extraneous information, or require money skills.
• adaptive skills below average
• difficulty with decoding strategies, does not make generalizations and inferences accurately, reading vocabulary at 3-4th grade levels
• spontaneous writing unorganized, simple sentences
• what she likes: walks, swimming, volleyball, basketball, computer, family, badminton
• what she dislikes: household chores, bike riding, reading, camping
• what she wishes she could do: puzzles, lose weight, draw, decorate, vacations, experiments, more time with family

EDSS 541 RR 21

I can use these assessment strategies during my TPA tasks, by submitting my example of the rubric used to evaluate the interactive laboratory notebooks.

EDSS 541 RR20

Some of the examples of the assessments I am using in my ITU unit are

• Pre when students respond in their interactive laboratory notebooks to the daily warmup
• Formative check for understanding during laboratory activities as I MSBW
• Summative during mini quizzes and end of unit test

EDSS 541 RR19

Some strategies to differentiate assessment are:

Give the students a choice of for any of the  pre, formative and summative assessments. They can have the choice of doing a presentation, drawing, video, music, paper, experiment, test. Etc.
Give the students the option to work independently or as pair, or group. Teacher can also have different assessments that are independent or as a group to address the same content and language objective. 

Examples of different assessments to differentiate based upon individual learning styles include:

•  Written Reflections, daily journals
•  Completed Graphic Organizers
•  Posters
•  Creative Projects-Travel Brochures, Games, Maps, Songs, Poems
•  Role playing
• Book, newspaper, current events reports

EDSS 541 RR18

The lesson planning resources used in my lessons and for the ITU are:

•  Blooms Taxonomy for Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor Objectives
• Sequence Chain Graphic Organizer 
• Comparison Chart Graphic Organizer
• Worksheet Maker 
• Rubric Maker 

EDSS 541 RR17

I am using cooperative learning in my ITU, speficially during the muscle fatigue lab. The strategies used for each component are below:
1. Positive Interdependence: Assigning each student a role to do during lab. (presenter, recorder, materials/safety manager, leader)
2. Individual and Group Accountability: Assessment of each individuals work following role rubric, then group assessment during presentation.
3. Group Processing: Peer evaluation rubric worksheet, then discussion with group.
4. Social Skills Taught: Provide conflict-resolution worksheet guide and time to practice during into time of lesson.
5. Face to Face Interaction: Arrange classroom so students are facing each other at tables and groups consist of heterogeneous members.

EDSS 541 RR 16-17

RR16: Identify the 5 different components of Cooperative Learning.


1. Positive Interdependence "sink or swim together"
2. Individual and Group Accountability "No Hitchhiking! No Social Loafing"
3. Group Processing "reflections"
4. Social Skills Taught "Interpersonal intelligence"
5. Face to Face Interaction "Promote each other's success"

EDSS 541 RR15

 DESCRIBE in your lesson plans who, what when, how and why in regards to the co-teaching approaches
On Day 3, Bri will along with myself will work on identifying the corresponding muscle groups during their muscle lab and Bri will enhance my lessons with the proper muscle movement for complementary co-teaching approach.
On Days 5 and 6, Pilar and I will be working in the computer lab together co-teaching the excel spreadsheets calculations and the online Web quest activity using the team co-teaching and parallel during the beginning of the lessons.

EDSS 541 RR14

The co-teaching approaches that my other classmates and I will use in our ITU are team co-teaching, parallel and complimentary. 

EDSS 541 RR13

The co-teaching approaches that were modeled this week was supportive, parallel, complementary, and team. Dr. Jacqueline Thousand modeled the supportive and complementary approach during the co-teaching in clinical practice class. Also I have seen Professors Elsbree and Brandenburg team teach our classes at night or during the day.

EDSS 541 RR16

I read  all the ITUs from both cohorts prior to class this past Wednesday. During class, I reviewed two ITU projects and provided feedback to use using the provided rubric.

http://missionhillsitu.weebly.com/theme.html
This ITU did a great job overall but needs to put their assessments with rubrics on their site.

http://welcometowiaasha.weebly.com/
I was impressed with this teams overall collaboration and visually appealing presentation online. There wasn't anything I could comment on that needed more work on.

EDSS 541 RR12

After reading the power points of the model assignments, I found that our ITU needs to work on adding individual rubrics for each subject to our summative assessment. We also need to work on the artistic and visual appeal of our ITU website and make the font and colors all the same.

Personal and Community Health ITU

Solar energy Project

My Brother'sWork

EDSS 541 RR11

Postponed Reading Reflection 11: Read Differentiation Readings, Partially Completed Strategy Matrix and Strategy Matrix PPT. I read and reviewed the powerpoint.
RR11: Complete the Strategy Matrix.

EDSS 541 RR10

Here's the link to our ITU Coversheet!

Health and Community Project

EDSS 541 RR9

Ethnographic Study Youtube of La Costa Canyon High School, Encinitas, CA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFPFKKJVvOk

EDSS 531 Journal 4

My biases stem from my experiences growing up and my family’s culture has influenced how I think, feel, and view myself among others.  I grew up in an upper middle class white suburban town located in northern San Diego County. I lived there since I was one years old, but most of my family is from Baltimore, Maryland.  My parents decided on the town I grew up in, based upon the school district ratings. They were highly educated themselves and wanted to ensure my brother and I had the best educational opportunities.  I never really acknowledged other races and ethnicities until I encountered them in middle school. I had a sheltered life and the African American classmates I knew in elementary school I did talk to and thought they were just as cool as others. I didn’t understand however how they might have felt, if they felt left out at all until I learned about the history of America. I still remember how saddened I was learning about how the Native Americans were pushed out of their own land. It did not seem fair. I then learned about more injustices that human beings had to face and endure all because of their skin coloring. My parents had no clue how I felt because they grew up in a predominately white neighborhood and didn’t encounter the many races I did at school.  My best friend from middle school turned out to look African American but she was Jamaican. I learned so much from her, that I changed my biases and took the veil off my eyes and saw how ugly the world really is. From then on, I was a different person and started to gravitate towards other races more so than my own.

Knowledge definitely is the key to understanding one another! Without my standard required courses in school about the history of American people and my experience with my non-white friends, would I have come to the biases I’m at today.  My heart still aches for those who hurt for their ancestors. I hear their cry and their plea for us to try to sympathize and take time to listen to what their families past journey and story was like.  I try to value each person for their own individuality and take their culture and family history into account.  I understand that we are human beings and it is in our primal instincts to react to differences and because of our primal social behavior, we will impulsively react without thinking sometimes and exclude others.  This is human nature; however we are very intelligent and now know that this is injustice and that we all have the same feelings inside.

My students will know from me that I care about them.  I will have to take the time to get to know each student and their family journeys and what is important to each of them to understand how I can connect my subject to their lives. This is my priority as an educator and role model.

EDSS 531 Journal 3

I think I understand the needs of my students to a fair amount, because doing such “get to know” your student activities during and outside of class instruction time, creates a solid foundation to build upon for further developing a sense of student knowledge.  Also, the day to day interactions and spontaneous behavior and actions displayed by each student also informs me about my students.   I will be co-teaching periods 3 and 5 Biology with Mr. Brubaker and period 6 Biology with Mr. Sills this semester at La Costa Canyon High School.  After my first initial week observing and gathering information about my students, for period 3, there is a total of with 2 IEPs; and for period 5 there is a total of 2 IEP’s.  The school’s demographics lend to a class of a majority of respectful and well-mannered and behaved students. 

What these students will need for the 21^st century is more a focus on critical thinking skills, technology skills, and communication skills.  Also each student must experience well-diversified life skills ranging from survival to cooking, money marketing to fashion, in order to succeed professionally. 

The gap between them and me is somewhat wide because I’m in my early 30’s and they grew up without the notion of pagers, phone booths, typewriters, and the computers were a lot bigger and took a lot longer to work.  The cell phone was as big as a dog. I didn’t start to experience using the internet explorer until I was a senior in high school, so most of the communication was in done in writing, regular post office mailing, and by phone, fax or in person.  Life was done at a much slower pace.  So I think today’s students need to learn how to slow down and not impulsively act on their every whim like they are used to doing.  Information is at their fingertips; therefore my job as an educator is to teach today’s youth the processes of finding information, gathering it, organizing, and applying it to create a better world for them as individuals and for them to use it to become better citizens.  In order to make connections I must tap into their world to reach them, therefore, I can provide lessons online, communicate through a blog, and have Web quest activities to increase their researching skills online.

EDSS 541 RR8

Ideas:

Health and Community

Preparation:

Activity: The Picture of Health. “What does health look like?” What images come to mind when you hear the word health or healthy?”

                Students create visual using magazine collages, draw, take photographs.  Consider having students display all the pictures of health and recommend slogans that could be eye catching if placed at bus stops, on billboards, or in community centers, or given to influential organizations looking to help the community live healthily.  Have students work with cross-age partners depending on the purpose of the experience.  What does this have to do with me? In what ways am I already making healthy choices?  Create lists: what I already do to be healthy; what would be easy to start doing; what requires more long-term commitment.

               

School Wide-Event

-Jump for heart

                -Pennies for Patience

Unexpected Circumstance

-illness or family burden the school community, people want to help

Issue of Common Concern

Ideas for Action:

Serve the elderly by having them learn proper nutrition and muscle building exercises and provide a yoga class to a local retirement home.

Have students write local, state and federal governments to tax sugar and other “foods”.

Get Up, Power Up: Adolescent Obesity the challenge

Resources:

Kaye (2004). The Complete Guide to Service Learning. Free Spirit Publishing.  Chapter 10: Healthy Lives, Healthy Choices. Pgs. 143-156.

www.farmtoschool.org

www.pbskids.org/itsmylife

www.kidshealth.org

www.mypyramid.gov

EDSS 541 RR7

1. Integrated Service Learning

                a. Preparation

                b. Service Action

                c. Reflection

                d. Demonstration

Preparation

Identifying a need

Investigation and analyzing the theme -need area (Books, Interviews, Field trips)

Making a plan for action (Role Play, Discussions, Collaborative actions with community)

Service Action: Determined by those being served

- Students identify as community members and stakeholders

- Students learn how to work within social institutions and collaborate

- By transforming plans into action students learn how to use what is inherently their ideas, talents, skills, knowledge, enthusiasm, and concerns for others in their natural surroundings

Reflection

- Consider how experience, knowledge, and skills acquired are relate to own lives & community.

- Compare their initial assumptions with what they are doing or have done.

- Ask questions and probe deeper into an issue to lead to further understandings.

- Use poetry, art, and music to express a change in feelings that occurred.

- Students can consider what they would change or improve about a particular activity.

- Built in structured time for reflection

- Reflection happens before, during and after implementation through the different approaches.

- Adult feedback is critical to help students use reflection to elevate their ability to observe, question, and apply their accumulated knowledge to other situations.

- Teachers need to model reflective behaviors for students.

 Demonstration

- Students exhibit their expertise and learning through public presentations (displays, performances, letters to the editor, class lessons, celebrations of accomplishments)

- Through the presentation, students draw on the preparation, action, and reflection stages.

2. Meeting Genuine Needs

3. Youth Voice and Choice

4. Collaborative Efforts among faculty/community

5. Reciprocity

6. Civic Responsibilities

All found from website and Service Learning Powerpoint, http://cc.csusm.edu/mod/resource/view.php?id=443741 (Kaye, 2004)
http://www.learnnserve.org/
http://www.servicelearning.org/
http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/

EDSS 531 Journal #2

Quote from the text/video	What it means	Deeper Thinking
1. “Our first solution is often our worst.  Good solutions usually come to mind after we’ve inhibited our less optimal initial impulses and considered our better options in a more organized fashion.”	When a student is lacking the skills to organize their thoughts, they will impulsively act upon their first thought that is at the forefront of their minds.  They lack the ability to take the time to think of other options and the ability to see clearly the direct result of those options.  Then they can’t analyze those options and critically think which one whould best benefit them.	I think students who lack these skills are more likely to think in terms of a quick fix and they will immediately act on their thoughts, most of the time that first thought is related to a simple biological trigger, like hunger and pleasure.  Therefore a student will most likely need to practice first recognizing those first thoughts, and practice consciously being aware that those thoughts may not be the best answer and to just wait a minute, and see if something else comes to mind. I think journal writing or having the student write down whatever they want to do first, would delay this immediate action response.
2. “Difficulty reflecting on multiple thoughts or ideas simultaneously”	A student cannot handle more than one idea or concept at a time.	The student lacks the skills to see how concepts build upon one another, they would benefit from conceptual map exercises and visual aids to organize the information.
3. “The paradox of prosperity is that while living standards have risen steadily decade after decade, personal, family and life satisfaction haven’t budged.”	People are liberated by prosperity but are not feeling fulfilled by it.	The next generation is more focused on searching for their own individual’s meaning, and what their life’s purpose is.  My lesson plans will need to reflect this trend by giving the students time to reflect and make connections to their world.
4. “Employers demand workers who can thick critically and solve problems.”	Computers can’t think critically, so employers will need to hire people to do the critical thinking tasks.	Our workforce is changing from a predominately left brained industrious market into a right brained one.  Workers will need to invest in greater education into order to fit the market place.
5. “The system of education around the world is a protractive process of university entrance.”	Education has changed the way the job market is, and in order to succeed professionally, a person must acquire higher education.	Structure of education in shifting where degrees will be worth nothing.

EDSS 541 RR6

After watching the two videos, I realized that technology changes rapidly and as an educator I must keep up with the pace of my students and communicate effectively through PLN!
Here are a few accounts that I have started, which I never thought I would!
1. this blog
2. Twitter (which doesn't really work for me, because I'm rarely "plugged in" all day) follow me @Megan3sk8
3. Edmodo
4.Wiki Website (thanks to my great ITU team)   "Personal-and-Community Health Project"
5. Diigo

EDSS 541 RR2

1. Our ITU team consists of myself for Biology, Pilar Sanchez for Math, and Brianna Murdoch for PE. The sources that our ITU team referred to included the National Standards for PE specifically, weight lifting. Physiology, specifically the muscular system and for Algebra, Equations, specifically linear equations. We all agreed that this would make sense how all three subjects can enhance each other with further understandings about health and the muscular system.
We are individually planning our unit to the State Frameworks under our disciplines, then using our CT's resources and textbooks at La Costa Canyon High School for lesson activities.

2.  Visual Web of Muscular System

 KEY POINTS

I. Review muscular system

A. Types of muscles

1. Skeletal

2. Smooth

3. Cardiac

B. Structure of muscles

1. Fibers

2. Myofibrils

a. Striated – I bands and A bands make up the sarcomere.

b. Unstriated

3. Neuromuscular junction

4. Motor units

II. Muscle contraction – depends on several cellular and chemical processes to make the myofibrils move.

A. Contractile Proteins

1. Thin filaments

a. actin

b. tropomyosin

c. troponin

2. Thick filaments – The myosin molecule has a “head” and a “tail”.

III. Molecular basis of contraction

A. Sliding filament theory – Individual sarcomeres shorten when the muscle contracts.

B. Crossbridge cycle – Actin binds to myosin and forms a “crossbridge” (linkage) shortening the muscle fiber.

C. Regulatory proteins and calcium

1. Tropomyosin and troponin inhibit actin from binding to myosin.

2. Calcium allows actin to form a crossbridge with myosin

3. Dystrophin supports the sarcolemma against the forces of contracting. Prevents Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

D. Stimulus for contraction

1. Depends on a neurotransmitter diffusing across the synaptic cleft causing a muscle impulse .

2. The muscle impulse causes the release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

E. Energy sources for contraction

1. ATP – is the immediate source of energy but it is only found in small amounts in muscle.

2. Creatine phosphate –

a. Stores high energy bonds that can be used to make ATP

b. present in muscles four to five times the concentration of ATP

IV. Mechanics of muscle contraction

A. Types of contractions

1. isotonic – the muscle shortens

2. isometric (static)

a. the muscle develops tension but does not shorten.

b. the heart must work harder because little vasodilation takes place in the periphery.

B. Neural systems at work when muscles are exercised.

1. “Central command” located in the higher centers in the brain and is responsible for heart rate and strength of contraction..

2. Feedback mechanism which monitors the buildup of cellular waste and signals the brainstem to increase cardiac output.

C. Twitch

D. Tetanus

V. Muscle fatigue – The inability of a muscle to contract (maintain tension).

A. build up of lactic acid

B. lack of ATP

C. lack of blood flow to muscle

Resource: http://www.haspi.org/curriculum-library/A-P-Core-Labs/05%20Muscular%20System/Labs%20&%20Activities/Activity%20-%20Muscle%20Fatigue.pdf

7.2 Possible Essential Questions:
1. How does your health connect to your performance and success at school?
2. How many calories can my specific body process in order to maintain a healthy weight?
3. How can weight training connect to a healthy lifestyle?
4. How does the structure of the muscles relate to muscles function?
5. How can muscles be a useful tool to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
6. How can calorie counting management be a useful tool to stay healthy?
7. How can algebra be incorporated into muscle building exercises?
8. How can the understanding of the muscular system contribute to effective muscle building?