February Blog

I am currently pursuing my MA in ELL through CU Bueno Center, and have decided to create a website of resources for teachers to use with ELL students as part of my practicum. I plan to share this site with all teachers at Adams City High School as well as my fellow Global Learners. My hope is that this site will help teachers who have no background knowledge about how to effectively teach ELL students create lessons that meet their students' needs. Without the knowledge I have gained through my graduate program I would be completely lost this year. I now have more students than ever in my classes who speak little or no English, and need to provide an appropriate education for them as well as the other students in my classes. The website will provide teachers with articles they can read about ELL students and multicultural education, assessments they can use with their students to determine their language ability levels, vocabulary strategies/handouts, literacy strategies/handouts, and writing strategies/handouts. Once I have the site published I will be asking for some additions to the site from my fellow Global Learners who teach middle and elementary level students. Eventually I, with the help of others, would like to create a comprehensive site all teachers can use when working with ELL students.

January Blog

Implementing the Teach for Success model has been a difficult transition at the high school. I constantly question what the best method is for our students and how we can best prepare our students for success in high school, college, and the workforce. In some ways, because we are at the beginning stages of implementing Teach for Success, I feel we are teaching to the lowest level students and not providing the rigor necessary to help our middle and high achieving students grow. I know this is not the intention of the program; we need to fix it immediately! However, in its current implementation, the day to day monotony of "I do", "We do", and "You do" seems to be blocking our students' critical thinking processes, because we tell them how to think; it hinders their creativity because we are all required to reach the same outcome; and it has unfortunately almost completely eliminated teaching students how to appropriately use technology (not a GLET in many cases). None of these should be what is happening in our classroom, but after being in some classrooms that is what I am seeing. I know this program has merit and has been successful in other districts. I have had some opportunities to do walk-throughs with the Teach for Success trainers and see how it can help teachers and students of all ability levels grow when it is used appropriately and the feedback is meaningful. I think the fear teachers have of not getting the check marks and the way in which the program has been introduced to teachers is where there is a disconnect. I have faith that the next steps of implementing this program will allow us to truly differentiate for student and content needs. There is not a one size fits all program for education. We all teach differently and learn differently and some allowance must be made for individual differences if we want to see passion for learning in our classrooms and hallways.

21st century learners should not be spoon fed information!