TELLING MY STORY

Telling My Story Lara Landry National University

Abstract The following paper gives a brief background of my teaching experience and also

TELLING MY STORY evaluates my success in meeting TPE domain D: Planning Instruction and Designing

Learning Experiences for Students. A rationale as to why I chose this domain to begin my PDQP will be offered as well as three artifacts I chose to include to demonstrate my competency in this area. I included as artifacts of my competency a differentiated lesson plan, a list of different activities for each of Garner's Multiple Intelligences, and a review of a scholarly article which discusses ways to accommodate students with advanced math abilities.

My teaching experience is in private school. I started teaching sixth grade English and Social-Sciences during my last year in undergrad at Cal. State Northridge in 2005

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and I continued to teach at the same school for the next seven years. It was due in part to the desire to further my teaching career that I decided to pursue my teaching credential and Masters in Education at National University. Although there were some great perks of working where I was: small classes, great students who wanted to be there and wanted to learn, great parental involvement and support, generous parents... I knew I wouldn't want to, and couldn't, stay where I was forever. And, although I didn't necessarily need a teaching credential to teach in another private school, in order to be competitive in the current job market with so many credentialed teachers out of work due to budget cuts, and to really feel qualified in my career field, I needed to get my teaching credential. I knew obtaining a Master's Degree would only be another five to six classes and would only help me in my career, so I decided I would pursue the masters as well. After two years, I have now come to the end of my program. I can confidently say, I am so much more prepared and much more confident as a teacher due to what I have learned in the program, especially what I learned of Best Practices in the master's classes. Because of my experience, having taught for so many years without a credential, and based on all that I have learned in my credential and master's classes, and the many tools it has given me, I feel that all teachers, private included, should be required to obtain a teaching credential. As expected, I had no idea what TPEs (Teacher Performance Expectations) or a PDQP (Professional Development Quest Portfolio) were prior to starting this program. In fact, I was pretty ignorant to all the education acronyms, and there are a lot. This being said, it does not mean that I was not meeting the requirements of the TPE domains before I started my credential. One aspect of teaching I have especially enjoyed is planning

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instruction and designing learning experiences for students. This is TPE Domain D, which includes TPE 8: Learning about Students and TPE 9: Instructional Planning. Because planning instruction and designing learning experiences for students is an aspect of the TPEs that I enjoy, to begin my PDQP I decided to highlight my competency in this area first (Appendix A: TPEs, 2008). I find it important to get to know each one of my students and their families and to have open communication. I understand the connections between students' health and their ability to learn and realize there are accommodations that need to be made to maximize the learning opportunities for all of the students in a class. I believe the more you get to know a student, the better you are at determining how best to teach him or her. By developing relationships with each of my students I am also better able to keep them engaged during a lesson because I know what excites them. I like to make references to topics students are interested in or activities they are interested in to make personal connections to topics covered in class. I try to connect content to be learned with students' backgrounds, experiences, interests and developmental learning needs to ensure my instruction is comprehensible and meaningful to my students (Appendix A: TPEs, 2008). In planning instruction, I find it important for students to have both short and long term goals for their learning. I like to use explicit teaching methods such as direct instruction and inquiry using Best Practice techniques like white boards, quick writes, and think-pair-share exercises. I always connect new material to previously learned material so students can see the interconnectivity of concepts and subjects. I plan how to explain content clearly and try my best to make abstract concepts concrete and

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meaningful. I understand the purposes of a variety of instructional strategies, one of which is examining student work for accuracy and completion to ensure comprehension of the material taught. I always reflect on what could have made a lesson better; run smoother, keep students more engaged or on task, or been more time efficient. In planning, I know that each class has a different dynamic and lessons must be altered to meet the needs of each unique class. I plan differentiated instruction when putting lessons together, which means I select and adapt instructional strategies, grouping strategies and instructional material to meet student learning goals and needs (Appendix A: TPEs, 2008). To demonstrate competency in the teacher candidate expectations of TPE Domain D: Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for Students I have selected three artifacts to include; a differentiated lesson plan for fourth grade social-science on faster ways of communication between the East and California, a list of activities, one for each of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, for sixth grade Earth Science Content Standard 3.a. on energy transfer, and a review of an article which discusses ways to accommodate students with advanced math abilities called, Mathematical Problems that Optimize Learning for Academically Advanced Students in Grades K-6. The differentiated lesson plan meets much of the criteria for TPE 9: Instructional Planning. The lesson covers the development of faster ways of communication between the East and California in the mid-1800s. It covers the development of the Pony Express, Overland Mail Service, and the Telegraph. It incorporates multiple Best Practice differentiation strategies; peer-pairing, quick-think-focusing, and skimming the lesson. Instructional and group strategies were selected to meet the needs of a diverse group of

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students. The lesson follows the three curricular elements of Best Practice instruction: Teach, Practice, Apply. The Apply section of the lesson asks the students to create knowledge into something new. They have to create an advertisement and conduct an interview using knowledge from the lesson. And, including both heterogeneous and homogeneous grouping patterns in the lesson helps meet the learning goals and needs of a diverse group of students. The second artifact for TPE Domain D is a list of different activities for each of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, which meet the sixth grade Earth Science Content Standard 3.a. This standard states: Students know energy can be carried from one place to another by heat flow or by waves, including water, light and sound waves, or by moving objects. I created eight different activities for each of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musicalrhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. This artifact serves as an example of TPE Domain D because it supports the needs of students with different abilities, ideas, aspirations and interests. It allows for specialized instruction to meet the needs of student diversity (Ventriglia, 2010). The chose to review the article Mathematical Problems That Optimize Learning for Academically Advanced Students in Grades K6 to support TPE Domain D because it discusses different implications teachers can make to meet the needs of advanced math students. There are nine different ways of thinking in math that are discussed and the author suggests three implications for teachers to meet the needs of the nine ways of thinking; the carefully scrutinize the curriculum to make sure it meets the needs of all students, including academically advanced students, to provide for conceptual algorithms

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through the use of mathematical problems and authentically challenging tasks, and to utilize supplemental material in conjunction with the text in teaching.

References Appendix a: The california teaching performance expectations (TPEs) (2008). Cal

TELLING MY STORY TPA: California Teaching Performance Assessment Candidate Handbook. Sacramento, CA: California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Retrieved from http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/tpa-files/candidatehandbookappendixa-tpes.pdf Chamberlin, S. A. (2010). Mathematical problems that optimize learning for academically advanced students in grades k-6. Journal of Advanced Academics, 22(1), 52-76. Costantino, P., De Lorenzo, M, and Tirrell-Corbin, C. (2009). Developing a professional

teaching portfolio: A guide for success (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Ventriglia, Linda D. Ph. D. (2010). Best practices differentiated instruction: the rule of foot. 8th Edition. Mexico: Younglight Educate.