Week 2

Topics covered included:

Differentiated Instruction- Introduce, discuss, research the concept on the Internet with PowerPoint and articles.

Project Poster- Demonstrate a teaching tool that provides a multiple media presentation method for students that allows teacher's access to all work from a central page.

Learning Styles- Introduce Learning Style Inventories, methods/benefits

Layered Curriculum- Demonstrate layering the curriculum for the purpose of differentiation

Walk-through on creating a differentiated Lesson Plan based on present week's study of the Sacco Vanzetti trial of the 1930's.

Philosophy of Education: Informal Edition

Many of the applications for teaching request a statement reflecting a philosophy of teaching. Perhaps in Colleges of Education there are courses that explore just that topic and the newly graduated teacher has one all prepared. Well, my undergraduate degree is in General Studies with Minors in History, Psychology, and Sociology. Of the many hours accumulated there as well as the additional hours for alternative certification none such information was included.

My usual practice was to find a suitable quote and write to the question. And, in all honesty, this works fairly well as long as you’re not called upon to defend your elegantly wrapped empty box. My early years in the K-12 classroom have been noteworthy.

My first assignment began in mid-November when I decided not to renew my 4th year contract in my position with the Louisiana Department of Education. I walked right out of the DOE with six pencils and a planner in my hand into the Baton Rouge version of a 7th grade class in a location challenged middle school. It was here that I determined there needed to be something inside the Philosophy of Teaching box. Item number one; wear your key around your neck so they don’t steal it and you can get home at the end of the day. Item number two; throw away the planner, the plan was to survive.

Due to some unfathomable reason EBRPS and LSU did not seem to be able to coordinate Teaching Internships with the start of the regular school year. As a result of this I took a ten-thousand-dollar a year salary cut and accepted a position at a small private school with five preps and the Yearbook Faculty Advisor position for my Internship. This prompted the birth of my second philosophy: NEVER, EVER, UNLESS YOU ARE FEEDING STARVING CHILDREN, teach five subjects at five different grade levels, even if they are all in your content subject area. My Internship was miraculously successful and I received my long sought after certification.

Having by now survived two years in the classroom and feeling exceedingly competent over my certification, I thought I could handle anything. This misconception led me to accept a position with New Orleans Public Schools and in the Desire Street Projects no less. That experience is a story in itself. There rose Philosophy #3: Know where the hell you’re going. By the pure grace of God I was offered an opportunity to teach at what appeared initially to be a dream job in St. Bernard Parish, unfortunately it was administered by psycho-witch; refer to Philosophy #3 (addendum): and who’s driving the bus?

I later added #4 student responsibility for learning and behavior and #5 administrative agreement and/or support on classroom management styles.

I feel that though my package now looks like one that might have gotten lost at the bottom of a UPS truck during Christmas, it contains the essential elements for both teacher and student success. I continue to modify and expand in an effort to fine-tune my teaching styles and curriculum to the learning styles and abilities of my students

National Writing Project Advanced Institute

I will be attending the SLWP (Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project) New Orleans Writing Marathon this week from Tuesday June 12 through Friday June 15. I will return as scheduled to Kennilworth TBR Session for CAMT by 8:30 Friday morning. Please direct questions or concerns to Nicole Bono who has been forwarded my contact information as I will not have Internet access during the week. Thanks. PK

In your INBOX

These are great sites with newsletter features that mail you weekly lesson ideas/plans.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/

http://www.history.com/classroom/classroom.html

http://www.cnn.com/EDUCATION/

PROMOTING RESPONSIBILITY & LEARNING
The Monthly Newsletter by Marvin Marshall Companion

http://www.marvinmarshall.com/aquickstart.htm

WELCOME! Week 1

Teach Baton Rouge Content Area: Social Studies
Master Teacher: Patricia Koksal

Contact: pkoksal@ebrschools.org
Blog Title: If I Had Only Known…
Web address:
http://tbrcontentss.blogspot.com/

Session Objectives:
o Looking at the Comprehensive curriculum for content area
o Differentiating instruction o Instructional strategies/best practices for content area
o Assessment, how to use assessment to guide instruction, pre-and post- testing, Edusoft
o Classroom management with particular emphasis on how it relates to a particular content area or grade level

Schedule of Activities:
Week 1- Introduction
Week 2- Lesson Plans/Curriculum (Am. History), Differentiation, Application
Week 3- Lesson Plans/Curriculum (Civics), Project Based Learning, instructional strategies/best practices
Week 4- Lesson Plans/Curriculum (World Geography), Assessment
Week 5-Curriculum Reflection, Portfolio Presentations, GradeBooks, EduSoft, TAC
System

Session 1 Description:

9:00-9:20 Introductions, preliminary needs assessment activity
9:20-9:30 Schedule of Sessions Overview, Writing Across the Curriculum
9:30-10:15 Looking at the Curriculum as a Whole. Participants will be introduced to the blended nature of the Social Studies discipline as an introduction to exploring each separate entity in following weeks' sessions.
10:15-10:30 Questions/Class Discussion
10:30-10:45 Introduction of Compacted Curriculum, Differentiation in planning and lesson delivery, and Blooms Taxonomy Wheel Handout
10:45-11:15 Planning and Technology, Implementing online resources
11:15-11:30 Assignments, BLOG participation requirements, Specific Requests by participants, Closing

Sessions 2-5 According to Schedule as listed above with participant specific requests addressed