Month: November 2014

Scurvy

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

So, recently my students have been studying the social life of the 1700s and one of the diseases that they talked about that was really popular among nobles which basically was a deficiency in Vitamin C.

I immediately made a connection with my PC Video Game, League of Legends with the champion named Gangplank. He has an ability called Remove Scurvy and he eats an orange to heal himself.

As I was telling my fiance about my game and my students my fiance was watching the show Mother Up Season 1 Episode 6 and it mentions scurvy. Thought it was really cool that these things popped up like this.

FTCE: Professional Educators Test

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

So, I just did my second attempt for the FTCE: Professional Educators Test. The FTCE is what Florida uses through Pearson to certify teachers. You take the General Education Test first and in order to get into the actual College of Education at UCF you must pass this test first. Before hand, you are just put as pending (i.e. Social Science Education Pending). Once you complete the entrance requirements you are moved into the actual degree (out of pending status).

As you go through your education courses you are to learn all the skills needed to be an effective teacher. For me I feel as though my classes didn’t teach me much. A lot of things to do with teaching is common sense. The court cases, Code of Ethics, different types of assessments, and how to create a more effective assessment is what we mainly learn along with the developmental stages of infants till adulthood.

So, back to the FTCE. The other two tests that you must take and pass are the Subject Area Exam and the Professional Educators Test. The PET is a more general sense of how to be an effective teacher, like the assessments, developmental theories, ethics, ESOL, ESE, etc.

The SAE is more specific to your major:

  • Elementary Education
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Science Education – Biology
  • Science Education – Chemistry
  • Science Education – Physics
  • Social Science Education
  • Music Education
  • Art Education
  • Exceptional Student Education
  • etc.

I have now passed my PET test after the second attempt and will be studying for my SAE for the next few weeks to pass that. My SAE is Social Science Education, which is considered one of the more difficult ones.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

So, I participated as a teacher in my first parent teacher conference today, just observing. The student has a low grade in the class with assignments that were not completed. Her mother before the past week or two, was teaching during the day and working retail at night but she quit her retail job to help her children with their school work which myself and my supervising teacher found admirable.

But the parent started to discuss test anxiety which is very common these days in children because there are such high stakes on tests that the students get scared of tests. My first time taking the FCAT was 6th grade (moved from New Mexico) and I got so sick from just studying for it that I threw up. Then on the day of the test, I passed out at my desk. Throughout High School I would have panic attacks at night while I slept, having nightmares, and I would stop breathing. One time my dad had woken up at 3:00am which he does quite often and he heard me yelling in my sleep and he couldn’t wake me and he said that I had stopped breathing a few times. This is what anxiety can do to someone.

But this student’s mother said

“My kids are normal, we don’t have any kind of disabilities, so when she said she had anxiety we would laugh at her for it.”

I almost started yelling at her when she said this. Anxiety is real and it is a learned attribute majority of the time. But I told my story to the mother and she finally understood and is wanting to work with her daughter to help her with her school work. It was successful and I hope my next conference, which is this afternoon is just as productive.

ESOL Inclusion EXPLOSION

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

There is a term in education called ESOL which stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. Basically a student is labeled ESOL if 1) their native language is anything other than English; 2) their parents speak another language at home as the main language. There are many ESOL students across the country. In my internship classes I have no students labeled as ESOL, however, with their grammar styles, I can see the obvious language acquisition mistakes in their writing and when they speak.

However, I am writing this post because of something that I saw on Edmodo today while logged into my supervising teachers account. Another teacher posted this:

I have just received a student from China. He speaks absolutely no english. He has been placed in my most behaviorally challenged class. My district is total immersion ESOL- so I will not be provided with any supplementary texts in his native language.
Any time I spend trying to work one in one becomes time that the other 21 students debilve into chaos. We do not have 1 to 1 tech, and he does not have a BYOT device. Does anyone have any ideas or resources that I could use?
The course is 8th grade US History (exploration to reconstruction).
I am at a total loss. This is my first ESOL student that speaks not a word of English where no other student speaks the native language.

I know this happens all the time, but I still can’t believe that this type of thing happens like this. Especially since there is no one to translate in her school and there are no resources available at her school. Some other teachers from across the country have given ideas as to what to do.

What about trying to get some of the good students form a helping group? By giving them specific instructions on what you would like them to help this student

I am wondering, also, if you can find a resource from the chinese community in your area to help you.

if he has a smartphone, download a translator app that he can use in class. try and take the key vocab from the unit and post it in your room in both English and Chinese. Google translate can also be a powerful tool.

What about using one of the many free chinese to english translators and print.
Not sure how this helps. Unless you can buddy him up with some one. Any candidates? I feel for you -I’m assuming no english no writing no nothing! How hard is that:(

You also should get to know his other teachers and form a support system with them for him and yourselves on ways you can help him

I feel for you. I had a similar problem but fortunately I had a student to help with translation. Besides translating all of her work (Google), I gave her the English copy as well. That helped and, by the end of the year, she was able to point out some of the grammatical errors in the translation. I also have a hard time NOT using slang but it was critical in that class to avoid confusion. Good luck

I’m sure the student needs some materials in Chinese to start with. I found an online course teaching ‘A brief introduction of American History’ from the Khan Academy. The four online lectures are in English but translated with both English and Chinese subtitles if you turn them on. I don’t teach history, nor do I know much about American history. So I’m not sure whether it’s suitable for your student. But you can try it:)

Hello! I teach four ESOL students in a fifth grade inclusion class. A resource I have found that works well is Rosetta Stone. My school district provided the licenses so my students could use it. I put them on there for the first hour of reading instruction. It counts as three of their reading stations (independent work, writing in response to reading, and vocabulary on their grade level just isn’t happening right now). Then they sit with me for the last two stations for direct instruction. I also use iPads with translator programs on them for individual use when the students are working independently.

Edmodo is definitely a good place to collaborate and have a support system when needed.

Has anyone else ran into this problem? How did you work around it?

Agricultural Revolution Project

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

So, today we are starting the Agricultural Revolution and they have a really simple project. The students are creating a Wordle on the different vocabulary words from the chapter.

 

For Example:

Vocab word: Open-field system

Associated Words: village, farming, Europe, peasants, land, plots, fences, hedges, strips, narrow, plowing, sowing, harvesting, nitrogen, soil, crops, FertileLands, rotations.

 

I could keep going but for times sake I’ll stop. But the students seem to be excited to do this project. You can honestly do this activity within just a day and they can draw it out and color it on printer paper in class.

Today’s Lesson

Posted on by Mr. DeLaere

Today my students are learning about the Monarchs during the Age of Enlightenment.

What they need:
– Textbook
– Paper
– Pen or Pencil
– any notes

Procedures:
– I used GoogleDocs App for Mindmapping the different monarchs
– Catherine the Great
– Frederick the Great
– Maria Theresa
– Louis XV
– Others may varry
– After mindmapping the information as a class, they work in pairs to create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting two monarchs of their choices from the ones covered on the mindmap.
– Then they are to write a Thesis statement on the following prompt:

Analyze the extent to which ____ and ____ advanced and did not advance enlightenment ideals during their reign.