Amy Barrett

8/17/16

Instructor-Mollie Smoke Kesselring

This course has allowed me to accomplish a great deal of lesson planning for the
upcoming 2016/2017 school year. I completed a great deal of curriculum work with
2nd grade Social Studies as well as some other subject areas. I was able to research
and plan my scope and sequence for the school year, as well as spend hours on
Atlas comparing units of study and developing motivating learning extensions to go
with each unit. Dominican Universitys independent learning has allowed me to
have a great feeling of preparedness for the next school year. I had time to
research Smart Notebook lessons and download them to go along with specific
standards and units of study. I spent a great deal of time searching, critiquing and
downloading appropriate materials on Teachers Pay Teachers, also. I was able to
download I Can statements for Social Studies witch really helped me to internalize
the standards that I need to be teaching. I am very interested in advancing
technology use in the classroom because we were given one to one tablets for our
students this past school year. I spent several days previewing videos and saving
them to go along with specific units of study. I worked on finding appropriate video
clips on You Tube and transferring them to Go Noodle and View Pure for safe viewing
without pop ups. I spent a great deal of time on Discovery Education creating
content in different subject areas and finding motivating clips to complete
anticipatory sets or clips to culminate our learning units in a motivating way.
Some of the other activities that rounded out my learning experience include
creating templates on Planbook to help prepare me so that I can spend more time
creating differentiated, engaging lessons for my students that correspond to the
applicable standards in a more meaningful way. I spent a tremendous amount of
time updating my Weebly Website and adding learning links to benefit students and
parents. I had the time and opportunity to dig deeper into some of the learning
links and locate potential problems and learning outcomes. I was able to
collaborate with some of my second grade colleagues about our Social Studies
curriculum and get input from them on scope and sequence for the next school
year.
One of my biggest goals as an educator is to self-reflect on my teaching
practices in order to improve my skill set. I spent many hours taking the selfassessments from the CITW book (Classroom Instruction That Works) by Howard
Pitler and BJ Stone. Although I had the training prior in my career, we were never
given the time or opportunity to really use the reflection portion of the program. I
went through each chapter and wrote my professional Growth Plan so that I can
continue to grow as an educator and increase my effectiveness using a research
based approach to best practice. Not only did this self-reflection help me to see
where my strengths and weaknesses lie, it also allowed me time to reread material
to help me improve on those practices.
One of my personal goals is to increase my electronic and hard copy
organization. This independent study allowed me the time to go through my

electronic files and update, organize, and delete what I have had saved since my
career began 15 years ago. I went through my Dropbox storage, hard drive, and
One Drive to organize and update as needed. This activity is something that I never
could seem to find the time to do. I feel much less stressed when my files are
organized and I can find materials more readily. These previous paragraphs include
most of the major accomplishments I was able to complete during this coursework.
My coursework aligns with the most current Social Studies standards that the
State of Michigan has. I chose to focus a large chunk of time on this subject area
because our school has not updated our Social Studies in several years and I felt
that I needed a better grasp on content area and how I was going to successfully
meet each standard using the most current practices from CITW. A great deal of my
focus centered on learning about what other curriculum work has been done on
Atlas and how I can model and add content to what successful school districts are
doing to engage my second graders. My work encompasses all of the SS standards
and many cross curricular standards for public speaking and writing. Some of the
key standards include;
2-C2.0.1

Explain how local governments balance individual rights with the common good to solve local community problems.

2-C2.0.2

Describe how the Pledge of Allegiance reflects the core democratic value of patriotism.

2-C1.0.1

Explain why people form governments.

2-C1.0.2

Distinguish between government action and private action.

2-C5.0.1

Identify ways citizens participate in community decisions.

2-C5.0.2

Distinguish between personal and civic responsibilities and explain why they are important in community life.

2-C5.0.3

Design and participate in community improvement projects that help or inform others. (See P4.2.2) Economics

2-C3.0.1

Give examples of how local governments make, enforce, and interpret laws (ordinances) in the local community.

2-C3.0.2

Use examples to describe how local government affects the lives of its citizens.

2-C3.0.3

Identify services commonly provided by local governments (e.g., police, fire departments, schools, libraries, parks).

Geography
G2 Places and Regions
Understand how regions are created from common physical and human characteristics.
2 G2.0.1 Compare the physical and human characteristics of the local community with those of another community.
G4 Human Systems
Understand how human activities help shape the Earths surface.
2 G4.0.2 Describe the means people create for moving people, goods, and ideas within the local community.
Civics & Government
C1 Purposes of Government
Explain why people create governments.
2 C1.0.1 Explain why people form governments.
Economics
E1 Market Economy
Use fundamental principles and concepts of economics to understand economic activity in a market economy.

2 E1.0.3 Describe how businesses in the local community meet economic wants of consumers.
Civics & Government
C5 Role of the Citizen in American Democracy
Explain important rights and how, when, and where American citizens demonstrate their responsibilities by participating in government.
2 C5.0.1 Identify ways citizens participate in community decisions.
2 C5.0.2 Distinguish between personal and civic responsibilities and explain why they are important
in community life.
2 C5.0.3 Design and participate in community improvement projects that help or inform others. (See
P4.2.2)
Discourse, Decisions
P3.1 Identifying and Analyzing Public Issues
Clearly state a problem as a public policy issue, analyze various perspectives, and generate and evaluate possible alternative resolutions.
2 P3.1.1 Identify public issues in the local community that influence the daily lives of its citizens.
2 P3.1.2 Use graphic data and other sources to analyze information about a public issue in the local
community and evaluate alternative resolutions.
2 P3.1.3 Give examples of how conflicts over core democratic values lead people to differ on
resolutions to a public policy issue in the local community.
P3.3 Persuasive Communication About a Public Issue
Communicate a reasoned position on a public issue.
2 P3.3.1 Compose a statement expressing a position on a public policy issue in the local community
and justify the position with a reasoned argument.
P4.2 Citizen Involvement Act constructively to further the public good.
2 P4.2.1 Develop and implement an action plan to address or inform others about a public issue.
2 P4.2.2 Participate in projects to help or inform others.

2.W.3

Write narratives in which they recount a well elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe
actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

2.W.2

Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and
provide a concluding statement or section.

My students will benefit a great deal by my increased knowledge of

curriculum, scope and sequence, and CITW best practice. Being a more
prepared, organized educator will allow me to differentiate better and to
improve on my instructional practices. I have had the time to research and
find more engaging student activities and my confidence level has greatly
increased. I am certain that this will be reflected as I work with parents in
the community and share my curriculum knowledge at P/T conferences.

I found this to be the most beneficial learning experience that I have had
post graduate due to the fact that it was tailored to fit my needs as a
classroom teacher. I felt that I did an increased amount of work due to the
fact that it was directly benefiting my students and myself as a professional.
The most beneficial aspect of this coursework was the ability to outline a
flexible plan and to execute what I found most important to serve my current
needs as an educator. I would highly recommend this coursework to other
colleagues. I am also proud that I was able to practice my movie making
skills on Animoto to document my journey through this Dominican University
post graduate course. Thank you for the opportunity to continue growing as
an educator.