Philosophy of Education
I believe children learn best through self discovery Mindset
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One of the things I’ve learned as an adult is just how effective it is to learn by building on prior knowledge, learn by interacting with others, and to learn by doing. Because this has been my personal experience, I tend to agree with Constructivist Theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Marie Montessori that true learning takes place when learners are actively engaged in discovery for themselves while building on previous experience and schema.
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DifferentiationOne of the students in my host class was an Alaska Native student. He was quite and sweet and he happened to have slow processing speed. He received support in reading, writing, and math. Weeks before my health lesson, he needed something to do when he returned to class early from the resource room. I gave him “A Boy Called Slow” (the story of Sitting Bull) to read. He said he really liked the book. "That's a really good book," he beamed.
When it came time to do the health lesson on character, I put him in the literacy group with the book “A Boy Called Slow” so that he would have the benefit of being familiar with the story. This helped him to participate in the activity and allowed him give an accurate response on the written assessment, just like his peers. The file below is a more detailed description of differentiation as described in a post-lesson self reflection. 
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Class project for Black History Month, Student Teaching, Spring 2016
DiversityDuring my semester of student teaching I brought in several books from my personal library for students to enjoy. The books I made available all had either multicultural themes or themes that taught character traits. One of the books I brought in was, "Heart and Soul; The Story of America and African Americans" by Kadir Nelson. One of my students asked why we "even have Black History Month?" So, during February, I read a few chapters and we looked at the beautiful illustrations. We had class discussions and the students answered the question themselves. The class made the wreath above as a symbol of peace and to show appreciation for the diversity in our classroom, school, and community.
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Development
The file below will take you to an artifact that reflects my understanding of developmental principles, concepts, and theories. I created this student literacy portfolio during a semester of working with a student to improve her reading and writing skills. I recently followed up with her regular classroom teacher so see how she was doing. She reports that this student is doing well and has made significant progress. More importantly, she has gained the self confidence she lacked at the start of the school year.
| ed615_project_2_~_student_portfolio_pdf.pdf |