Problem Solving Lesson Plan Utilizing 21st Century Communication Tools

The following lesson plan is for 5th grade and up.  I will preface this lesson plan with a note that yes, the material learned in this lesson is sad BUT it is reality and it is a problem in the United States. This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I think it's important that everyone is aware of this problem so that we can do whatever is necessary to help.  

Tier 2 Vocabulary Words

cancer

pediatric 

awareness

funding

advocate

volunteer

non-profit organization

disease

research

unravel

diagnosis

budget

infertility

A lesson on Community, Compassion, Awareness and Advocacy: Unravel Pediatric Cancer

To start this lesson, I will not make any mention of pediatric cancer or where this lesson is taking us.  I will have the kids get comfortable and have them watch the following video of a little girl.  A little girl having fun.  

Photography and video by Heather Avrech Photography

After watching the video, I will allow the kids to chat a bit to tell each other what they thought of the video.  Did it look like fun? 

Now, after a short discussion, I'll have them watch the next video: 

Video by Unravel Pediatric Cancer  After watching the above video, we'll have a class discussion.  How does that make you feel?  Did you know the facts shown in the video?  What does it make you want to do? 
To help bring the pediatric cancer facts to life, I'll provide visuals for students to look at.

www.unravelpediatriccancer.org

Do you know what the pink ribbon stands for?  (most students will. Breast Cancer awareness is very high).  Do you know what the gold ribbon stands for?  Most will not since there is a lack of awareness of the reality of pediatric cancer.
After giving the students the background and information on the lack of pediatric cancer awareness and funding, I'll have them work together in small groups and ask themselves the following questions: 
1)  How can we increasing funding for pediatric cancer? 2) How can we bring more awareness to pediatric cancer? 3) As a kid, how can I help?  How can I make my voice heard?
After the students have had some time to collaborate with one another, we will come back together as a class.  We will then have a Skype session with the founder of Unravel Pediatric Cancer (Libby, the founder (Jennifer's mom) is my best friend and so this was easy to set up.  She also is always willing to speak to foundations, companies, schools, really anywhere whenever wanted or needed).  

During our Skype with Libby, the children will have a chance to hear her speak and they can ask her any questions they have, voice opinions or thoughts they might have and they put a real face to the story.  Compassion.  

After Skyping with the founder of Unravel, we'll take our first step in helping having our voices heard.  Each student will email our local California government officials (senators Boxer and Feinstein) to have their voices heard.  We will come up with a template, as a class, for our email and then each student will then personalize their email with their name and any short personal thoughts they have on the subject.

Next, the students will collaborate in small groups and create visuals (students choice) to illustrate lack of awareness and funding of pediatric cancer.  This visual needs to illustrate these facts to someone who doesn't already know these facts.  Our class will later use these visual aids to teach other students about the reality of pediatric cancer. 

After the students have created their visual aids, each small group will go to different 5th and 6th grade classroom and give a speech to bring more awareness to pediatric cancer awareness and it's lack of funding.  (They will also be able to use the videos we previously watched).

Finally, after giving their speeches and bringing awareness to other students in our school, we will come back together as a class and discuss a new term.  "Kidvocate".

We will visit the Unravel Website and look directly at the kidvocate information page.

https://unravelpediatriccancer.org/kidvocate/

After reviewing what "Kidvocate" is and what you can do to become a kidvocate, as a class, we will brainstorm ideas to create our very own kidvocate project.  

This is my daughter Lilly. A kidvocate.  Jennifer was/is her best friend.

As a class, we will come up with an idea we can put into place.  We can get students throughout the school to participate in fundraising and/or volunteering.  Depending on the idea the students brainstorm and the final project idea, this can go many different directions.

Value.  This lesson/unit has a lot of value.  Pediatric Cancer is real life.  Death is life.  We are teaching the importance of community. The importance of compassion.  How to bring awareness.  How to make THEIR voices heard.  That even as a kid, their opinion matters.  All kids matter.  They learn how to be an advocate.  

At the conclusion of this lesson, I'd ask the students a question.

What is important to you?  What do you want to be an advocate for?   

And finally, I'd have them re-watch the glitter video we started this lesson with.  I'd tell my class, THIS is how I want you to remember Jennifer.  This is how I try and remember Jennifer.  Remember her smile.  Remember her joy.  Remember her laugh.  And as Libby, the founder of Unravel, I'd leave the students with this:

21st Century Communication Skills

Let's take a look at the following question: 

Investigate 21st Century communication skills. Describe the use and the necessity of those skills.  How will you assist your learners in attaining those skills? 

Let's face it, school is MUCH different from when I was in school.  BUT in a good way.  No, really, a GREAT way! Digital technology has come leaps and bounds since I was in school and allows both students and teachers limitless resources!  I mean, just look at this blog!  Blogging isn't new but wasn't really around when I was in school and now blogs are used all over the internet.  From mommy blogs, photography blogs, teacher blogs, etc.  There is a wealth of information out there that is literally at your fingertips!  You can seek out first hand experience from other teachers and their lesson plans.  It's truly amazing all that you can learn and find!  Pinterest, anyone!?  What an amazing tool for teachers, cooks, crafters, DIY projects, and so much more.   

There are a lot of ways the 21st century effects our communication skills and I've come up with what I believe are the top 5 and how I will assist my learners in attaining these skills so that they can be successful in the world outside of my classroom. 

EMAIL COMMUNICATION

Our main form of communication use to be by phone (landlines) and now we're all using our cell phones to access email, text, social media and more.  It's funny, we've become so accustom to these fast methods of communication without actually CONNECTING to a human being since it's all through electronics that we don't like to answer the phone anymore.  Email communication is a tool that is necessary in the real world.  You MUST have an email.  You must check it often and it's helpful if you know how to organize your email folders.  

In order to help my students learn about email, I will have them all create their own email addresses (if the school system allows, we can create one using the school email address for each student).  I can then show them how to write an email, send an email, archive an email, save it to a folder (and how to create a folder), etc.  This is such a simple and mundane task for us adults now but it is something that needs to be learned. 

VIDEO COMMUNICATION

Video communication is another technology that is utilized in board rooms all across the world.  FaceTime, Skype, etc. are all great ways to have meetings "face to face" with people in other cities or even countries!  

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A great and fun way to utilize a technology like Skype in the classroom is to have Pen Pals in another city or country. You could carry the writing lessons into the traditional pen pal system by writing the pen pal letters but you could end the lesson with having each class Skype each other!  It's such a fun way to teach them the technology as well as put a face to the person they have been writing to!

TYPING SKILLS

I think that this skill is so often overlooked.  Typing skills, I believe, are very important.  If it takes you a long time just to type a paragraph, you're going to have a really difficult time in college when you are required to type out pages and pages of work.  

I remember my mom starting me on a typing program when I was, I think, about 8 or so and I'm SO grateful.  I can type relatively fast; faster than most people I know and I don't look at the keyboard when I'm typing either. It's a skill that has helped me immensely, in both school and in business.

In order to help my students master this skill, we will work on typing in the classroom.  This can be practiced in general, just to work on the skills (like in the Mavis Beacon typing program) or when doing other work in the classroom (such as working/typing in email).

PUBLIC SPEAKING

This is a skill that I think has always been important.  Being able to speak in public is an important skill that often times is required of corporate leaders.  It is a skill that many struggle with.  They struggle with nerves, shaking, stuttering, forgetfulness and more.  It takes practice and with more practice, the more confidence one has, I believe.  

This is a skill that I utilize in my classroom often.  We have sharing days and those sharing days require each individual student to speak in front of the class.  We have projects which require speaking to the class about their findings, etc. This is a skill that is practiced constantly throughout the school year.

COLLABORATION

This is another skill, like public speaking, that I believe has always been important.  As a student, an adult, a coworker, an executive, as a spouse, as a person, we all have to be able to work together.  You must be able to work collaboratively...it is what will lead to success in both work and relationships.  

In order to teach my students this very important life skill, students will work together collaboratively very often, in all content areas.  It's something they will be accustom to as it will be done often. 

Motivational Teaching Strategies

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First, let's explore a time when I was a student that I was motivated to perform due to a teachers motivational strategies.  I literally remember this teacher, the classroom, the rewards, etc like it was yesterday even though I was in this 2nd grade class more than 20 years ago.

Many years ago as a 2nd grade student, I was HIGHLY motivated

to perform and learn.  Mrs. Powell, my teacher, created an environment that was fun, bright and encouraging.  I remember her classroom; the layout was open.  The colors were bright.  Spaces were comfortable.  And I remember that one BIG wall covered in reward options.  You see, Mrs. Powell, used a ticket reward system to encourage good behavior, improvement and more.  If you turned in your homework, you'd receive a ticket.  If you showed improvement in your writing, you'd receive a ticket.  If you shared your stuff with another student without being asked, you'd receive a ticket.  Any time you did something that Mrs. Powell was happy about or made her proud, you would receive a ticket.  This reward system kept me extremely motivated to do well, behave well, improve and learn.  And in turn, it kept me on task which allowed me to do all the things I mentioned above.  This motivational strategy, to this day, was absolutely the most motivational tool I had been subjected to as a student.  I wish every teacher had done it.  And it wasn't just about receiving tickets; it was about being recognized and praised for my hard work, good behavior, improvement, leadership skills, and more.  It's always nice to be recognized and praised.  

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On the opposite end, there was a time in my schooling when I felt so unmotivated and deflated.  This was in 10th grade and it was an introduction to Biology course.  The class was a basic/intro course but it was, in my opinion, incredibly boring.  It was a read and memorize type course with very little teacher instruction.  The teacher also lacked compassion and was not motivating and didn't recognize improvement or effort.  I remember, very specifically, being 100% deflated when receiving my report card for this class and a little note added in at the bottom stated something along the lines that I didn't put in the effort needed or expected.  I worked SO hard in this class.  I wasn't used to getting poor grades and I did everything I could to do better and that effort wasn't recognized; it was actually put down.  I remember my mom trying to help me and offering to do what she could to help; she had a conference with my teacher and I did all extra credit opportunities that were offered to our class.  I literally worked my butt off in this class but at the same time I hated it.  I DREADED going to this class and once it was over, I'd often be in such a bad mood the rest of the day just because of how that class made me feel.  Inferior.  Not good enough.  Not smart enough.  

How did I pull myself out of that deflation?  Well, to be honest, I never gained confidence in that class and I thought I'd hate every science class after being in that one.  BUT the following year, in Chemistry, I had a fantastic teacher who used multiple strategies to teach the information and he recognized effort and improvement.  I gained a LOVE for science in that class and regained my confidence in my ability to learn and truly understand science concepts.  It was THIS class that showed me how much I LOVED science. And I have taken so many science classes (Biology, Chemistry, Physiology and Anatomy) in college, that I earned a AA in liberal arts with an emphasis in biological and chemical engineering.   I'm so glad I had the chemistry teacher I did after that horrible biology year because, if I hadn't I don't think I'd be where I am today.

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So how will I motivate my students?  

In order to keep my students motivated in my classroom, I like to keep things fun and I use instructional strategies that differentiate so that all learners in the classroom can feel equally included and understood.  I will AVOID one dimensional teaching strategies that leave many students lost, frustrated and deflated.  The fastest way to lose student interest is by teaching them in a way that doesn't appeal to them and/or their learning style and in a classroom full of diverse learners, it can be challenging to reach all learners in the classroom; however, I have found a lot of success in utilizing Chris Biffle's Whole Brain Teaching strategies in my classroom so that all learners are addressed and everyone is having fun while doing so!  I use gestures when I'm speaking to help reinforce important words and/or concepts and it also allows ELL students the ability to understand visually even if they can't understand my language verbally quite yet.  I use games where children can collaborate with one another, challenge themselves and reach new personal records.  Additionally, I like the classroom to have a family like atmosphere so the children feel safe and comfortable in our classroom.   All of these strategies, I believe, help keep the classroom activities fun and the students motivated.


As of right now, I'm not currently in the classroom, as I am working as a certified personal trainer, but when I do come back to the classroom at some point, I will also be utilizing the ticket reward system that my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Powell, utilized.  It is such a HUGE motivator for many students!

Lunches Around the World: Teaching Toward Hierarchy of Thinking-- Bloom's Taxonomy

The following lesson plan is for a 3rd grade class that utilizes the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  Additionally, it will incorporate technology in an appropriate and effective way. 

First, before my students enter my classroom, it will no longer be a classroom.  It will be completely transformed into "Avrech Airlines" where the students will travel all around the world to see the "Lunches Around the World".

How can you transform your classroom?  Well here is what you can do!  Turn your tables into row and covered the sides with long white butcher paper or sheets (whatever you have easily available). Put a symbol in the middle and write flight 23 (or whatever your classroom number is!)  Put some blue paper at the front and cover it with a few clouds!  And for some auditory sensing, play airplane noises in the background (these are easily found on youtube). 

Outside of your classroom, place a table outside of the door that says "baggage claim"; this is where your students can place their backpacks before loading the plane. :)  Also, at the baggage claim they will receive their boarding pass and passport!

Resource: http://paperzip.co.uk/topics/geography/travel/boarding-pass

Resource: http://sparklinginsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2014/05/five-for-friday.html

When you call your class inside, make an announcement like they are at the airport.  Grab a cone and shout out, "Now boarding, Avrech Airlines Flight 23 to London, England"  Be loud and enthusiastic!  The kids get a real kick out of this and before they have even entered your classroom, they are excited, engaged and ready to take on the day full of learning!

This is optional, but I think it's a great way to really continue the classroom transformation to Avrech Airlines!  I came to school dressed in an outfit that look similar to a flight attendant and when I came out of the classroom after making the boarding announcement, I greeted each passenger and checked their passports as they entered our plane. :)

Now that our students are excited, engaged and ready to learn, we are going to break this fun and exciting lesson down into levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  First, this particular lesson in my "Avrech Airlines", my focus is on writing skills.  In order to reach higher levels of thinking, I will utilize Bloom's Taxonomy steps for this particular lesson.  

REMEMBERING

As the students board the plane and grab their seats.  Have them chat with their neighboring flight mate about what they ate for lunch at school yesterday.  

And to review opinion, as we will be writing an opinion piece as well as an opinion speech, have your students tell their partner if their lunch was good or not and to support that opinion with evidence.  

And of course, still filling your role as flight attendant, as the students are discussing yesterdays lunch, you will walk down the aisle, passing out pretzels and water for them to enjoy on their trip (all while observing their discussions). 

UNDERSTANDING

Make an announcement that we have just about landed in the United Kingdom.  Then have them watch the first clip from the youtube video, "Lunches Around the World".

I like to pause the video after each "landing" so they have a chance to soak in and review what they have just seen with their flight mates.  As the students discuss what foods are typically eaten at lunch in the United Kingdom, I will come around and stamp their passport for their visit.  
Continue to your next destination and then play the clip from the next landing (United States, Cuba, Norway, Nigeria, France, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Philippines, India and Korea).  Stamp each passengers passport after each visit!
At the conclusion of the video, have the passengers group up in groups of 4 to collectively work together to compare and contrast the lunches around the world.  
How are they alike or the same? How are the different?

I like to continually play the video in the background without music so they can reference it when needed.  
APPLYING
In order to apply the information learned and to bring a focus to our writing skills, have each student write an opinion paragraph about which lunch they would choose to eat and why.
ANALYZING
Next, I want to have the students survey, which is a great form of analyzation, to see where the majority of our "passengers" sit in preference to which lunch they would choose!
As a class, we will utilize the website SurveyMonkey to determine 

which place we flew to has the most votes for favorite lunch and which has the least.  (You could also, if you wanted to, at this point, review math concepts such as rounding numbers or graphing). 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P2XJH7Q

EVALUATING

To further work on our writing skills, we will evaluate by having each student use their opinion piece (as done above) and transform it into a speech.  Their speech will justify why our school should use the lunch plate they chose.

CREATING

Finally, to reach the highest level of thinking in Bloom's Taxonomy, have each student create a model that illustrates a combination of lunches around the world that they would like to eat!  Additionally, have each student write a short paragraph about their food choices.  Why did you choose these foods?  Did you put foods on your plate that are outside of the United States typical lunch food?  Why is this your optimal lunch plate?

Have students label each food with the appropriate country.

And that's it!  This is such a fun and engaging lesson.  The kids are often shocked to see what school lunches in other countries look like and many times are curious to try some of the food they saw but haven't had before as well!

RUBRIC

This rubric is on a 4-point scale. 

Level 1: Below Level
Level 2: Developing/Approaching
Level 3: On Level
Level 4: Above Level

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Best Practices in Reading Comprehension

Below are five strategies for developing reading comprehension that I use in my teaching.  First, let's look at what factors affect reading comprehension:

"Many factors affect a child’s ability to comprehend text. These include 

• motivation/purpose/goals/engagement 

• vocabulary/word knowledge/background knowledge 

• automaticity of decoding 

• fluent reading

 • understanding and use of strategies employed by effective readers 

• the nature of the text itself (difficulty and interest)

 • the type or genre of text (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, poetry) 

• the amount of reading done"

https://www.hand2mind.com/pdf/miriam/grades_1_2.pdf

In order to help my students retain and fully understand the material they are reading and learning I utilize strategies such as the following:

1) Make the information relatable/allow children to make connections

 Teamwork, entrepreneurial skills, science, math, nutrition: these are just a few lessons that kids of all ages are learning through container gardening.  Resource Link

As we saw in my earlier post regarding what kind of teacher and learner I personally am, you can see why "transfer" is one of my favorite strategies for developing comprehension.  

My long term goal for all of my students and in regards to content being studied is always for them to be able to relate and apply the information to everyday life by making the information meaningful and transferrable.  Students, I believe, are more engaged and interested when the material is relatable and/or pertains to them.  When students have a hands on experience and/or fee the information is tangible to real life, it can create interest and motivate students to learn more.

There are many ways you can make the lessons transferrable.  For example, let's imagine your students are working on fractions; we can do a cooking lesson that utilizes using fractions of 1 cup.  They'll take notice that many and most recipes require knowledge of fractions in regards to ingredients.  

You could also have a super store in your classroom.  Let's say the students earn tickets as reward for good behavior, turning in homework, etc.  At the end of the week, students can use their earned tickets to "buy" rewards such as pencils, fruit, stickers, etc. They'll need to budge and utilize their subtraction skills in order to shop just as they would at the grocery store.  We can even take this outside of the classroom and have an assignment where students grocery shop with mom/dad/guardian (this would be an optional assignment for extra credit/tickets for the super store) and the parent gives them their budget and they have to work out what they can put in their cart to buy based on their budget, utilizing not only addition/subtraction skills but also buying savviness, like looking for sales, name brand vs. store brand pricing, size of package vs. cost (big or smaller is the better deal).  This is 100% a life skill that makes the material being learned tangible and relatable.

I came across this great site with some examples of fantastic ways to utilize "transfer" at home with the parents help; below are the listed suggestions that I find to be wonderful:

Here are a few ways parents can help with this at home:

1. Implement lessons at home. Apply science and math lessons to things around the house. For example, if your child’s science class is completing a unit on temperature, ask your child to check the temperature outside on an outside thermometer and apply the Fahrenheit and Celsius formula to convert it.
2. Practice fractions. Think of tasks that can apply the use of fractions or parts, such as cooking or checking the oil gauge in your car so they will better understand this concept in the real world.
3. Use current events. Prompt kids to read the newspaper then write a creative story from the headlines. This teaches them to convert expository text into real world creative ideas while improving their thinking and writing abilities.
4. Budget together. Ask kids to make a household budget for a month. Subtract common expenses such rent, utilities and car payments. Make it a game to apply what they learn in math. Hold friendly competitions between siblings to see who has the most money left at the end of each month after expenses.
5. Create word problems. Make up every day situational math problems (word problems) that involve multiple operations and mathematical skills. Using this type of problem to illustrate real world use of math skills is perhaps the best way to get them to see that math skills ARE important.
6. Go shopping. Take kids to the store with you and ask them to help you pick out items from a list. Instruct them to stay within the budget allotted and to estimate the amount of the purchase while shopping. This activity incorporates several math skills into real world applications including budgeting, subtraction, addition and estimation as well ascritical thinking.
7. Publish a book. Writing skills can be made more fun with digital technology. Encourage kids to create a digital online book with their own stories. Ask them to illustrate their books with pictures and use attractive fonts. Several programs online do this for them without expertise required. The use of technology appeals to kids of all ages and they will be proud to share their creations with friends on social media.
8. Put on a show. Have kids put on a puppet show or play with neighborhood friends, acting out a story. Most state standards now require some knowledge of poetry, dramatic arts, acting and playwriting. This is a fun way to fulfill this standard and a good social activity too.
9. Make math a game. Create estimation games by placing several hundred jellybeans in a jar and practice figuring out the probability of certain colors. Make it extra exciting by allowing kids to eat some as they figure out the probability problems.
10. Learn from movie night. Teach inference and other thinking skills when watching a movie. Let them see the first five minutes of a movie or television show then turn off the TV and ask them to write or act out their own ending. The ending must make sense, but does not have to be what actually occurs in the show. Allow kids to explore their imaginations while exploring viable creation options to storylines.

2) The Crazy Professor

The crazy professor game was one of Chris Biffle's first and most popular ebooks.  "Used by thousands of K-12 teachers across the country, the Crazy Professor is designed to deepen the students' reading comprehension of both fiction and nonfiction.  In a gamelike format, your kids learn to paraphrase, translate ideas into gestures, skim read for key ideas, [and] connect their reading to personal experiences" (Biffle.  Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.  p.256).

I have found that the Crazy Professor game keeps the kids engaged. They have so much fun while reading and gesturing and whether they realize it or not, this game improves their comprehension of the story they are reading.

Here is a great video demonstrating the Crazy Professor Reading Game:

3) Super Speed 100

Super Speed 100 is a comprehension strategy that allows kids to master 100 of the most common sight words.  This game can be utilized in the earlier elementary grades and/or in special ed classes.  "The key motivator is that sudents are setting and braking personal records for reading and speed" (Biffle, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.  p.256). 

Super Speed 100 is a a FANTASTIC game for students.  Again, it's engaging and fun.  Also it is great for students who lean heavier towards the competitive learning style as it is a game in which they aim to beat their own personal record each time they play.

Below is a video that demonstrates how the Super Speed 100 game works: 

4) Mind Soccer

Mind Soccer "provides a remarkably flexible (and comic!) format for reviewing course material.  The game is so entertaining that kids will work hard, tallying marks on the scoreboard, for the privilege of playing Mind Soccer.  [It allows] a whole class learning with as much energy as possible for the reward of reviewing what they have learned"(Biffle, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.  p.256); furthering their understanding and comprehension of the material. 

Mind soccer, same as the games listed above, is just great tool that keeps the students engaged and having fun while learning and reviewing the content material.  It allows the students to work together, continue to develop relationships, and also teaches to many different learning styles including collaborative, dependent, competitive and participant.  

Below is a video demonstrating the use of Mind Soccer:

5) Brain Toys

"Brain toys are gestures used to engage the prefrontal, visual, motor and auditory cortex in original thinking, learning's highest level." (Biffle, Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids.  p.157).  In the classroom, you can utilize brain toys such as props, air whiteboards, story gestures, sockless hand puppets, and more.  These brain toys and teaching/learning strategies allow for students in a diverse classroom to remain active, engaged and have fun while allowing further comprehension of the material being learned. 

According to Biffle brain toys can aid in reading comprehension. His books suggests you, "divide a reading selection into short units, about half a page.  Have pairs of students read a unit, use a brain toy to explain it to each other and then on to the next unit" in the reading.

Again, brain toys, just as the other tools mentioned above are great resources to engage learners and differentiate instruction to our diverse learners in the classroom.  

I hope you found this blog entry useful and try out some of the comprehension strategies I have found to be great tools in the classroom!

Heather; The Teacher

Who Am I?

My name is Heather Avrech.  I am a 33 years old and mommy to two beautiful little girls (ages 3 and 6) and a wife to my amazing husband, Aaron.

Image by Bre Thurston Photography

Additionally, I am a teacher.  I started my teaching career, in 2007, as a physical education teacher for Rhythm and Moves where I taught K-8th grade.

I have always been interested in sports, the human body, nutrition and physical education.  As well as having a Bachelors of Science in Sports Management with a specialization in health and wellness, I also hold multiple personal training and nutrition certifications.  Currently, I teach in the form of personal training at Retro Fitness to help members reach and maintain their health and fitness goals.

In addition to teaching physical education, I have also taught math, art, public speaking and even taught a "Create your Own Business" course in a middle school summer program.

As a teacher, I believe myself to be creative, fun, challenging and invested.  I create lessons and unit plans that are creative and interactive that engage students in a way that creates a fun academic environment.  I am also heavily invested in my students.  I care for each and every one of them; not only with academic aspirations but also in real life.  I teach my students with a goal for them to have explicit understanding of the material.  I not only want them to understand the material but I want them to be able to transfer that knowledge into real life situations and in order to do so, the material learned must become meaningful and authentic for each and every student.

How do I Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners in the Classroom?

In order to meet the needs of every learner in my classroom, I create a classroom and lessons that allow all types of learners to participate, learn and have fun.  I utilize differentiated learning strategies that include "whole brain teaching" as well as G.L.A.D. (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies such as pictoral charts to aid English Language Leaners.  Furthermore, in regards to differentiated instruction for five-learner profiles, assessment will also differentiate to aid each child to reach success and full understanding of the material.

How Does my Personality Effect my Relationship with Students?

I believe myself to be, and have been told, that I have an outgoing personality and am easily approachable.  I am of accepting nature and many people come to me in confidence as they know they can trust me.  These personality traits, I believe, allow me to have a close relationship with my students in the classroom.  I, personally, want my classroom to feel like a family rather than a leader (teacher) vs. students.  This family feel in the classroom allows students to feel safe and, in my opinion, creates a better learning environment for everyone in the classroom.

After taking the personality test my results are as follows:

The MMDI thinks your personality is closest to the ISFP stereotype and 2nd closest to ESFJ. If your closest personality type is ISFP then you have some deeply-held values that, even though your life may be somewhat unstructured, direct the things that you do and say. You probably take a caring and sensitive approach to others, more so than may be apparent to others because you showing your feelings in acts of kindness rather than in direct statements. You probably have a strong sense of the type of lifestyle you enjoy, which you want to maintain.

Your preference for sensing means you like to deal with reality, with facts, tangible outcomes, and specific information. You also use intuition, though to a lesser degree. It looks at possibilities, at hidden potential, new ways of doing things, or what is not yet known.

Your preference for Feeling means you use subjective values, taking a more personal, subjective view as a participant, and tending to appreciate the important things in life. You also using Thinking, but to a lesser degree. Thinking involves using objective principles, taking a detached, objective view as an onlooker, and tending to analyse or see inconsistencies.

Your results suggest you like a balance between the two - using some judgment, which structures and controls life, makes decisions and sticks to them, and some perception, which goes with the flow, and is more flexible and spontaneous. 

Again, I feel these results further illustrate how my personality effects my teaching style and in turn, my relationship with my students.  I want my students to relate the information they learn to tangible real life situations which is a sensing personality trait that I very heavily lean toward.  Additionally, as I stated before taking the personality exam, I have a caring nature, sensitive approach to others, and demonstrate kindness which allows students to feel safe with me and my classroom.

How Will my Teaching and Learning Style Affect your Teaching and my Students Abilities to be Successful?

I took the following 3 tests in regards to my teaching and learning styles:

Teaching and Learning Styles

Grasha's Teaching Style Inventory

Grasha's Learning Style Inventory

And here are my results.

For the first test (teaching and learning styles) my results are as pictured:

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These test results do not, in the least, surprise me one bit!  I scored very high as a sensory learner and low as an intuitive learner.   Below illustrates the differences between the two types of learners (info pulled from: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm )

SENSING AND INTUITIVE LEARNERS

• Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.
• Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
• Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations.
• Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.
• Sensors don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world; intuitors don't like "plug-and-chug" courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations.

Everybody is sensing sometimes and intuitive sometimes. Your preference for one or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. To be effective as a learner and problem solver, you need to be able to function both ways. If you overemphasize intuition, you may miss important details or make careless mistakes in calculations or hands-on work; if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much on memorization and familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding and innovative thinking.

How can sensing learners help themselves?

Sensors remember and understand information best if they can see how it connects to the real world. If you are in a class where most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have difficulty. Ask your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out how the concepts apply in practice. If the teacher does not provide enough specifics, try to find some in your course text or other references or by brainstorming with friends or classmates.

As I stated above in describing myself as a teacher, I said how my goal is to teach toward explicit understanding.  I teach for my students to grasp the material in a meaningful way in which they can relate it to real life situations.  This 100% demonstrates my heavy lean towards the sensing learner.

The results for my Grasha's Teaching Style Survey are below:

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And finally my results for Grasha's Learning Style Survey, my results are as follows:

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I believe that my results from the above surveys illustrate why I teach the way I do.  First and foremost, as a learner, I lean very much toward the sensing side of learning in which I like concepts to have real world applications.  And that concept is one of my big goals for all my students; to have explicit understanding of the material learned.  I want my students to take the information they have learned and make it meaningful and be able to transfer it to real life situations.

Additionally, as the test results show above, my teaching style shows high levels of formal authority, personal model, facilitator and delegator and moderate as "expert".  I find this to be true to my teaching style as I aim to differentiate instruction as to allow all learners in the classroom to do well no matter what their learning style.  

Overall, I truly have a passion for teaching and love what I do.  I strive to create a successful classroom utilizing open communication, differentiated instruction and provide both an educational and personal challenge for students while making content relatable and meaningful.