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Week 6: Recap

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There has been a lot of useful information provided during this course that I plan to take with me and use within my classroom.  I'm excited to execute many of the strategies that were discussed in our text and the online articles. There are too many take-aways to compile a full list of from this course, but I'll discuss some that I found very important or that may have resonated with me. I really enjoyed learning and understanding about the importance of middle schoolers thriving now and in the future really requires becoming lifelong learners and demands more than a basic understanding of reading, writing and mathematics.  The curriculum, pedagogy and programs of middle grades schools must be based upon the developmental readiness, needs, and interests of young adolescents.   It's also very clear and vital that teachers know their job goes beyond the academia part and doesn't end when the bell rings for the day.  For example, in the article,...
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Week 5: Culture and Community Characteristics & Call to Action

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This week in AMLE , I enjoyed reading about how schools need to actively involve families in the education of their children.  As the text points out, the involvement of parents starts to dwindle at the middle school level versus where at the elementary level, parent involvement is strong because parents believe that their children need support at this level.  When students get to the middle school level, parents are uncertain about how they can be involved in this new, much larger school and may be uncertain about the most appreciated way to deal with all of the changes taking place with their child.   I'm living this first-hand as my daughter is preparing to head into middle school in about four months.  The school is much larger and I don't know any of the teachers or even the layout of the middle school, but I have to remind myself that just four years ago I didn't know any of this about my d...
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Week 4: Instructional Best Practices & Diverse Populations in the Middle School

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This week's articles focused on differentiated instruction and learning.  What I like about differentiated instruction is that teachers need to get creative and be aware of all the different learning levels in their classrooms.  A one size fits all approach will not work.   Differentiating instruction means teaching the same material to all students using a variety of instructional strategies, or it may require the teacher to deliver lessons at varying levels of difficulty based on the ability of each student.   Teachers who practice differentiation in the classroom include the following: d esign lessons based on students’ learning styles, g roup students by shared interest, topic, or ability for assignments, a ssess students’ learning using formative assessment, m anage the classroom to create a safe and supportive environment, and c ontinually assess and adjust lesson content to meet students’ needs. I've been in classrooms where differentiate...
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Week 3: Leadership and Organization Characteristics

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What I liked best about these section in AMLE was the part that focused on ongoing professional development for middle school teachers.  I think it's important for teachers to constantly be thinking about how they can help students improve academically and personally.  This is can be accomplished when teachers form learning communities to share ideas, sessions where instructional and assessment strategies can be reviewed or by attending workshops with other teachers to improve practices or content knowledge.   I believe what goes hand-in-hand with this is also a lot of self-reflection.  I work with a lot of teachers that are really great at self-reflecting.  If their students are not grasping a concept they take time to reflect on themselves and what they could have done to improve their projects, lessons or method of delivery the message.  I've seen the opposite where a teacher doesn't partake in and self-reflection and just b...
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Week 2: Blog Post - Essential Attributes and Characteristics

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In This We Believe , I enjoyed reading about the section that covered when students and teachers are engaged in active, purposeful meaning, a genuine learning community is present.  I know exactly what this entails.  We all have our roles at school.  There are the teacher's roles and responsibilities and then the student's roles and responsibilities.  However, these can be crossed over from time to time in order for meaningful learning to take place.   One of these ways is to allow students to become the teachers in your classroom.  I've seen this work first-hand in my classroom.  The kids love when they can come up and teach their peers a strategy they may have used to solve a math problem.  It's builds confidence and also they are actually learning more about that specific skill as they are teaching it.  Teachers can take on the role of a student too.  Often times I've seen various teachers at my school take on th...
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Week 1: Blog Post - The Importance of Middle Level Education

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Week 1 Blog Post Hello!  I'm Kirsten Zinzer!  I'm pursuing my license to teach English Language Arts at the secondary level with a middle school endorsement.  I hold a B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University.  Currently, I work at Fairview Elementary School as a math support services instructional assistant helping out students that need an extra boost in math instruction.  I also push into various math classes throughout the day which I love because I get to observe first-hand different teaching strategies and approaches along with various classroom management styles.  I love working with my students even on the challenging days.  I'm lucky to have found a very fulfilling position and look forward to my day at school and the learning possibilities that lie ahead. Before I began teaching, I was in the corporate environment for 16 years where I wrote and edited proposals, marketing materials, websites and p...
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