Madison Smith
Future Educator
Intasc Standards Artifacts
INSTASC Standard #2
Learning Differences
The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
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In the classroom students use the monitor my learning chart; four being I understand completely, down to one being I do not understand at all. I pull the students with ones and twos and I briefly re-teach the lesson, during interventions, and allow them to discuss with a smaller group if they did not feel comfortable discussing as a class. The students also use Exact Path with individualized lesson built for their learning need and their own pace. Students work on either math, reading, or language arts depending on what is their weakest subject and alternate through the week so they are exposed to all areas.
INTASC Standard #3
Learning Environments
The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
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Creating a healthy learning environment is so important for the students growth academically and emotionally. Many students use school as a chance to get away from their home lives. Students not only learn from me, but a lot of what takes place in the classroom is student lead discussions, they are the teachers. My lessons focus on "I do, we do, you do." I show them what it is I am looking for or how to do it, then they work together in the groups of four and we discuss the topic after, then they work on their own or with their shoulder partner. I allow for flexible seating when the students are working on assignments on their own or with shoulder partners, but as a whole class and when I was teaching flexible seating did not work well.
SHOULDER PARTNER
INTASC Standard #4
Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
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All students must be able to access the content taught. The school uses Louisiana Believes for reading and I modify the lessons to allow for differentiation. I focus my lessons on "I do, we do, you do" and the students work collaboratively to complete all assigned activities. All students are expected to quote accurately from the text and explain their reasoning. Pictured below is my RACE sentence stem anchor chart on how I expect them to answer their questions. This remains on the wall at all times so that they may reference it at any point in time.
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RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
INTASC Standard #5
Application and Content
The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
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I use the Foss kits for science and every Friday we focus on a new science lesson. The current focus is living systems. Investigation 1: part 2 had to be broken up into two lessons (two different Fridays) and during the first part of the lesson the students were introduced to ecosystems, but the video did not go in-depth and the students really did not understand what an ecosystem was; which is important to understand for following lessons. One amazing thing about admin is that they allow us to modify these lessons to our students needs, so to differentiate the following week I created just the base of an ecosystem and the students have to create a thriving ecosystem with all the different elements that made up that ecosystem. I was able to monitor their progress and take a quick exit ticket all from the site.
INSERT VIDEO AND OR SCREEN SHOTS
INSTASC Standard #6
Assessment
The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
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I used a range of formative and summative assessment. I set up a Google classroom for the students where they take their weekly and unit tests. I used Exit tickets (on Google classroom) to determine if I can move on to the next lesson or spend another day on the current lesson. I, also, often used Kahoot! to take a quick assessment or to assess their background knowledge. Students will also receive unit summative assessments on what lesson sections we are working on in Louisiana Believes.
INTASC Standard #7
Planning for Instruction
The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
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Every week I would meet with my grade level team. We would go over standards that needed to be met and what lessons from Louisiana Believes or Write From the Beginning we would work on for that week. We would look at the learning target and modify/differentiate the lessons as need be.
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Click for a PDF file of my unit plan for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
INTASC Standard #10
Leadership and Collaboration
The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.
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As a teacher it is important to take part in school activities to bring in the community. I took part in the fundraising committee and help set up a Halloween movie night for the students and parents. I also ran the scooter races for our Harvest Festival and had a blast watching the students race and enjoying their time. I often had ideas that I would share with the committee and quite a few were used. I look forward to being able to participate at my own school and input ideas!
Bonus!
* This is a video of the students rule practicing as a part of my classroom management from Whole Brain teaching. The video is black from the bottom and blurry from the top to block the students faces.*
Click PDF file for one of my Acclaim Lesson Plans
Click PDF file for one of my Acclaim Lesson Plans
I used coding to set the direction of the robot to finish the path.