Teacher Work Sample Task 1 PDF

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Teach Work Sample Task 1...

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TWS Task 1 A. Discuss (suggested length of 2–3 pages) the contextual factors in your classroom by doing the following: 1. Describe general information, including the course name, age of students, number of students in the class, and class length and schedule I am currently working in a 3rd grade classroom. There are 26 students in my DT classroom. The age of my students range from ages 8 - 10. My students have 2 teachers that they split their time between. The first half of the day they spend in Math/Science class, the next half of the day they are in ELA/Social Studies. The daily class schedule for 3rd grade is 2 hours per day instructional time in each class, five days a week. The school hours are 7:40 to 2:40. The students have a 45 min activity per day that includes 2 days of PE, one day each of music, art, and library. They have a 25 minute lunch and 20 minute recess. They spend 45 mins a day in BlueTime where they receive remediation and Tier work. 2. Discuss how one contextual factor impacted teaching and learning for each of the following areas: • community • district • school The socioeconomic status in our rural/suburban area makes a huge impact on our community, district, and school. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Mississippi has the poorest population in the nation. Our state is divided into counties and my school is located in Pearl RIver County. The median income in the household's medium range is around $44,734("U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pearl River County, Mississippi", 2019). The poverty level in Pearl River County is at 17.2% ("U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pearl River County, Mississippi", 2019). These numbers make a huge impact in our community. We have a large number of families that live only on government assistance. The nearest large city is an hour away in all directions and to get a good job one must commute. Majority of the citizens in our community do not have a good enough vehicle, or can afford childcare to go off to work in the big cities. Most of the jobs in our area are blue collar jobs with minimal pay. Mississippi also has the lowest rate of pay for teachers. This poor socioeconomic status has a large impact on the physical and mental health of the citizens in our county. Families in our community are barely able to make ends meet. Those who struggle most of the time choose a lifestyle of drugs and illegal activity. Our state has also one of the largest numbers of children in foster care. Our county has one of the largest of all counties where children in foster care are being raised by family members such as grandparents ("U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pearl River County, Mississippi", 2019).

The socioeconomic status of our community has a large impact on our district and it’s resources. Most of our families are from middle to low-income homes. Many of our families are at a disadvantage when their students enter school. Most students do not attend a pre-school or have any training before entering kindergarten. Many families of low socioeconomic status have various health and developmental issues. Funding in our district and state is on the low side. We have a large student to teacher ratio. Mississippi has the lowest of all states in teacher pay, which creates a teacher shortage. This shortage hurts our schools districts immensely. Poverty and the students ' home environment influences the district's success. Some families in the district do not have access to resources in the home to help students reach their full potential. If students can’t reach their full potential because of their home environment, it affects the students grades and the schools data. In the lower income communities the funding is split and we have less extra-curricular than other schools. Children in crisis are larger in low income districts. Our school offers free lunch for every student in our Elementary School. Our student numbers are on the rise and our classes and schools are not expanding to accommodate the number of students we have in our school district. Many teachers are leaving because the students lack respect, and the scrutiny that they feel they are under. The socioeconomic status of our community highly affects our school system. Students come in unprepared to start kindergarten with little or no support at home. Most of our students come from single parent homes or they are being raised by a relative. In the elementary schools most students have a good amount of parental involvement because they are young. In the middle and high school setting students have little to no parental involvement in school because too many parents are busy at work and students are at home alone with little to no guidance. The poverty rate in our county is one of the highest in the state. When students come from low income homes with little to no resources our schools take most of that impact. Low income families struggle to meet the basic needs of their children. This in return affects their ability to learn and succeed in school. Students who live in low income or under the poverty rate are more apt to have developmental and learning disabilities which affect the schools testing and ratings. Student to teacher ratio is very high. Our classrooms are overflowing and usually have only one teacher per twenty-five students. Teacher shortage in Mississippi is at an all time high. Every year there are multiple open teacher positions because some teachers just can’t deal with the culture and environment that low income schools take on.

3. Describe how each of the following classroom contextual factors impacted teaching and learning: • availability of technology equipment and resources

Our school is fortunate enough to know the impact that technology has on learning so each classroom in the entire school district is equipped with a class set of Chromebook computers. The teachers are also equipped with up to date computers and SmartBoards that are used on a daily basis. The resources in the room such as books, tables, and desks are only a few years old and are in decent condition. Our classrooms are very small and are cramped because of the influx of students coming into our district. Teachers are only given a small amount of monetary resources in the beginning of the school year to buy supplies for their classrooms. Most teachers come out of their pockets for any extra needed resources they may have. Having up to date technology our school is able to improve student engagement and effectiveness of the learning process. The use of technology in classrooms offer a wide variety of learning and teaching tools. Students become more engaged in the course of study. They enjoy participating in online interactive quizzes, games, lessons, and the online resources are endless. Technology also changes the teachers role. With the use of technology in the classroom students can become in control of their learning. Using technology in classrooms is extremely helpful with differentiated learning. Students can be assigned activities that are self-paced and it allows advancement if need be or additional coursework or remediation if necessary. Integrating technology into teaching and learning in third grade really opens up engaging and interactive lessons that students are eager to learn and participate in. I think the use of technology helps increase the motivation of student learning which in return creates more self-esteem in the student.

• extent of parental involvement Parental involvement happens more often in the lower grades. Parents seem to care more and check on their students when they're in the elementary grades. When it comes to middle and high school students, parents usually let the students worry about school. Most students come from single parent homes or are raised by family members that have no choice but to take them in. We have a large number of students that are also in the foster care system. It is usually hard to get most parents involved in their students’ learning and participation in school. This makes it extremely hard to teach students when they know their parents do not care. Teachers have to find a way to teach students to take ownership of their learning opportunities. Parental involvement is a very vital part of teaching and learning. In order to run a successful classroom, parental involvement is the key to the student’s success. Students that have parents that are involved are more apt to make better grades and score higher on the test, and have better behavior. The environment that students are in also impacts how a student behaves and participates in learning. If students have little or no parental involvement it makes the teachers' job harder to convince the student that their role in the classroom is important and they can succeed. If there is minimal parental support in the classroom teachers have to take on both roles to ensure a successful classroom. Students with

minimal parental involvement miss school, lack self-esteem, and are harder to reach. If a parent shows that they don’t care about their students' learning, it's harder for the teacher to convince that student that it does matter. 4. Explain how two specific learning needs (e.g., students with exceptional learning

needs, English Language Learners, students with physical challenges, students with behavioral challenges, accelerated students, students with IEPs) of students in your classroom may influence the design of instruction and assessment of learning. Students with behavioral challenges are on the rise and we have several in our classroom due to the elimination of resource and self-contained classes. Our district has decided to integrate self-contained resource classrooms into the general education classrooms. They no longer want to separate students with exceptionalities but integrate and include them into the general education classes with an extra teacher in the room. This has caused a large rise of disruptions in our classrooms. Most of the students have never been in a general education classroom and do not know how to act in this type of setting. Teachers are constantly having to redirect these students during instructional time because they do not know how to act. This really adversely influences the learning environment in our classroom, because we are constantly having to redirect these students. Students who are always demanding attention because of behavioral issues must be handled in a different way than their peers. You have to learn how to avoid making the situation worse than it is. There are several strategies that myself and my HT use to avoid conflict with those students. We avoid pointing out the negative behavior by praising something positive, we keep a consistent schedule so they know what is expected, we divide their work in smaller lessons instead of larger lessons, we try to always give those students choices instead of you having to do this. In order to be successful and support that student we need to find the underlying problem and treat that. They mostly act out because they struggle to be successful in some way or another and act out to cover it up. To reach those students we must compliment or acknowledge them on every small or significant success. In my classroom we have 8 students with IEP’s. Our school allows classrooms that have a large number of students with IEP’s their own personal teacher that follows them daily. He or she switches classes with them and are called Inclusion teachers. They are their to ensure all accommodations and resources are met for those individual students. The regular education teacher does all the teaching and the Inclusion teacher accommodates them. The regular education teacher is constantly using different types of differentiation for our classroom to meet the needs of every type of learner that we have. In our classroom there are several levels of learners so differentiation is of the utmost importance to ensure all learners and learning styles are offered. When I design my lesson, I have to plan accordingly to meet the different students need. You have to take in consideration, the diverse needs and abilities of each individual student. Each student with an IEP have different accommodations, or modifications that have to be

reviewed and understood before a lesson can be planned in order to meet that students need. Students with an IEP participate in the classroom on an equal basis as their gen ed peers. Lesson planning is a vital part of meeting the students needs. Lessons have to be made to support the goals of each student. I have to keep in mind each students abilities, challenge, and interest when designing my lesson. Some examples of things that I am using or the HT uses are : visual prompts, providing sensory breaks, allowing quiet time, posting schedules and expectations on the wall, repeating directions, positive behavior techniques, technology supports, non-verbal cues, manipulatives, and keeping to a schedule. For testing most students are tested in a small group setting, or individually.

Resources:

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pearl River County, Mississippi. (2019). Retrieved 18 September 2019, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/pearlrivercountymississippi Mdek12.org. (2019). MS Student Information System (MSIS) | The Mississippi Department of Education. [online] Available at: https://www.mdek12.org/otss/msis [Accessed 18 Sep. 2019]....