Blog 18: Fourth Interview Preparation

Content: Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. The focus of your questions should be on your answer to your EQ.

What is the most effective method to raise standardized test scores?

1. What is the most helpful source you turn to for new teaching methods?
2. Have you seen a change in student performance with the new Common Core State Standards?
3. How do you manage to keep your students on task at all times?
4. What was a method you used for the old California Standards test?
5. Is there any teaching method you implement that works no matter what you teach?
6. What is one method that definitely doesn't work in any classroom?
7. How do you adapt your students to new strategies? 
8.  What excites the students most about learning?
9. Do you think that creating level groups in class helps the students learn better? Why?
10. What do you think is the hardest part of getting high test scores at the end of the year?
11. Have you tried implementing the arts to teach new concepts? Did it work out?
12. How would you explain your personal teaching style?
13. Do you think the students should adapt to the test, or the test to the students? Why?
14. Should the parents be more involved in the students' learning?
15. How does Common Core training help you in the class?
16. Do you think some of the material you teach is outdated?
17. Would a technological approach help students raise their test scores? Why?
18. What is a struggle that people fail to see within a classroom?
19. How can a teacher get at least 75% of their class to pass with a Proficiency score?
20. How would you go about answering my essential question?

Blog 17: Third Answer

Content:



What is the most effective method to raise standardized test scores?  

One of the most effective ways to raise standardized test scores is by allowing a creative outlet during lessons. 

• Creativeness helps students retain information for longer periods of time. 
• When students are allowed to do something they love along with a lesson they become more attentive. 
• Students look forward to learning. 

Press, Associated. "Here's a 50-state Look at How the Common Core Is Playing out in the U.S." Deseret News National. N.p., 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Sept. 2014 

I think this answer might be my second best, I feel like children and teachers both benefit from this method.

Finding Answers

Recently at mentorship I've had a lot of time to help students out one on one, and to see how they've progressed with their grades. I find that since Common Core is still very new, it's hard to try to help answer all their questions as well as trying to answer my EQ. It has been through research that I've come to find answers. I'm hoping that through my second independent component I can find an answer that fits my needs. 

Blog 16: Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

What is the most effective teaching method to raise standardized test scores? 

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

One effective teaching method to raise standardized test scores is to not teach to the test. 

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

Another teaching method to raise standardized test scores is to teach with alignment. 

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

-organization 

-time management 

-learning with discipline 

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

"Teaching Challenges: The Challenges of Teaching." Teaching Challenges: The Challenges of Teaching. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. 2009

6.  What other source supports your answer?

Another source that helped me come up with this is my mentor. 

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

I feel like my second answer won't be my best answer but I know it'll move me along in the process of finding more examples and activities to go song with my presentation. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2

Content:

Please review the component contract on page 12 of the senior project packet.   The Independent Component 2 is an opportunity for you to add a dimension of creativity and/or an additional outlet for research.  The goal of the component is for you to explore your answers in more depth.  On Friday, April 24, 2014, you will be turning in the following to your blog to prove completion of this component:

·       Log of hours on an digital spreadsheet (with total number of hours included)

·       Evidence of the 30 hours of work (e.g. transcript, essays, tests, art work,    

        photographs) as digital artifacts

·       LIA

The senior team expects that your log will be on the right hand side of your blog in the Senior Project Hours link.   In addition to this,  we expect that you will be able to prove the total 30 hours of work by submitting evidence to the blog by the due date.  For this blog post and approval, please answer the following questions.

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I'm honestly not sure what I plan on doing but I was thinking along the lines of helping the teacher with end of the year testing. So I'd be researching and helping my mentor get the students ready to test. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I think I'll show evidence by taking pictures like last time, making my worksheets to turn in and showing up he research that went into it. 

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

This component should help me find in depth research about Common Core and that helps because my whole project is based off of the Common Core Standards and how to teach them. 

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

I did this. 

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, Daisy Torres, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 33.5 hours of work.”

• (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

"A Positive Approach to Teaching Negative Numbers | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.

Apart from that article that really narrowed things down and put the topic into perspective, both of my mentors, Mr. Ball and Mrs. Johnson also helped me find new ways to teach. 

• (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.

I have my hours updated and you can see those through my blog. 

• (d) Explain what you completed. 

Through my independent component I completed hours or service and helping kids as well as the teachers with the stuff I could handle in class I also learned new methods and taught myself, with help, how to teach a new subject to a group of elementary school children. 

• INTERPRETIVE 
  Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  
  

I feel like my independent component is significant because it actually was teaching me how to apply myself when teaching. My whole senior project and answers are based around how to teach and why certain methods are better than others. By me getting prepared with research and by helping the teachers I was able to teach a lesson with a lot of confidence. Not only did I do work while at mentorship but also on my spare time by just observing small things such as how children learn to read. I feel like I truly gained a lot from this experience and I already have plans for my second component. 

• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 

This component helped me understand my topic foundation better because I actually had to go out and dig for answers on my own, not just by interviews. It was a real life experience that I didn't just read about in an article. During my teaching I realized that sometimes it's very hard for a teacher to get to all the questions because you have to focus on the needs of the whole as well as the individual. While I executes the lesson I had been planning for I would have 4 kids with their hands up at a time, and by knowing the children I would know who to go to first and answer their question. I also came to find that relationships with students are very one on one and you build a personal relationship that allows you to understand each of them better. I feel like my first answer really came out of my time with my mentor because I would see the struggle when a student couldn't remember how to do a certain step. I hope that the rest of my time there will be just as insightful. 

Independent Component

With independent component being due right around the corner I have been devoting
a lot of my time to research and rehearsing how I would present this to a class
of sixth graders.  It's nerve-racking to try to teach someone that is younger
because they don't comprehend topics the same way I do. I know I will need a lot of
patience but I have it planned out with a worksheet and I'll have them partner off so
that they can also teach other. I feel like my time at iPoly will definitely influence
the way I'm going to teach this topic on Tuesday.