After a lot of thought and rereading information on the 4 domains, I chose Domain 1 to research at a deeper level. I am finding it difficult to pick a domain because of the type of work I do which involves very little classroom work. Since I really don’t know for sure what position I will have next year I chose this domain because I think I could utilize this information especially if I am in a classroom.
I am most comfortable with Component 1b…demonstrating knowledge of students. As Danielson says in chapter 4 on this component, he stresses that part of knowing students is knowing which ones require additional assistance in learning parts of the curriculum or which ones must demonstrate knowledge in unique ways. I interact with most of my student’s families which enlightens me in many ways about the student. The students are also assessed at least every 6 weeks or sooner so this also gives updated data to better group the students and reteach certain skills. So I feel I have this component covered from all areas.
I believe that component 1a…knowledge of content and pedagogy is most strongly tied to instruction. Let’s face it, if a teacher doesn’t know the content it would be impossible to have a successful classroom where learning takes place. A statement from the book was “A person cannot teach what he or she does not know.” So I firmly believe this component is strongly tied to instruction.
I would like to focus on component 1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources. While I have ample resources that go along with the curriculum, I know there is a world of information and activities out there to reteach certain concepts that I am not aware of. Danielson says that when teachers are aware of this wide range of resources, they can plan instruction to incorporate the resources into their teaching. This leads back to Domain 1:Planning and Preparation which I would like to focus on. Right now planning and preparation is done with 2 other interventionists. We follow the curriculum but we also discuss activities that worked and what didn’t and supplement with new ideas. We have common planning on Fridays which certainly helps in preparing for the next week.
From my group members I would like to know any useful resources you might use in your classroom to enhance learning in small intervention groups. Hopefully I will learn many throughout this course but I thought you might have a resource that I could use right away. It would mainly be for reteaching kindergarten math skills.
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Dana, many of my resources come from internet research, I have found a quick goggle is wealth of information. Often I will teach a concept in one way and if a student appears to be struggling I will back up and teach in a different way. Also speaking with the general education Geometry teachers is extremely helpful. Since they actually have a degree in Mathematics they have great ideas and offer a simplified way which some students understand better. Usually if students are having difficuly, they will give me a resource that may be helpful.
ReplyDeleteAlso I have found that many students are hands on and visual, they need pictures. Although I have often thought that my planning seems for a specific learning type, I have lots of visuals, hands on, guided practice etc.
I agree with Dana that having the right resources are part of the planning and preparation needed for effective instruction. I think back to when I started teaching and there certainly was not an internet to go to for resources. I went to the library (where I actually looked at real books!) and asked a lot of other teachers what they used for topics. I started to build my own resource base (I have a lot of crates full of books and papers). I think it is a great idea to start building resources but for you who moves around a bit this can be tough. I do like your idea about picking a topic and starting there to generate some resources- maybe this would be a good inquiry - to develop a resource binder around a topic.
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