Standard 1: Learner Development
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
http://www.htsb.org/standards/teacher/
Indicator 1B: The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account individual learners' strengths, interest, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and accelerate his/her learning.
This is a game that was played during our Exponent Lesson. I chose this game and incorporated it into the lesson specifically because of the interests of the students in the classroom. The 5 boys in my Special Education classroom are easily engaged when relating topics to football and are able to better relate to terms when they are compared to football. This game helped them to gain a stronger foundation of exponents while playing. Students were able to run for touchdowns and kick field goals. Students loved this game so much that it was played more than one day. This also helped us to assess student's understanding of exponents while they were playing. This game allowed students to be "hands-on" in the learning process and to show their understanding through a game of interest.
Indicator 1C: The teacher collaborates with families, communities, colleagues, and other professionals to promote learner growth and development.
Due to confidentiality, I could not get a photo of the many IEPs I attended while student teaching in the Special Education classroom. We met with a student's mother, the vice principal, his general education teacher, and the special education coordinator (3 times during my 9 weeks). At these meetings, we talked about this student's strengths and weaknesses. Together we set goals as he prepares to transition to middle school next year. The focus of one meeting in particular was getting this student prepared for their transition so that they can be as successful as possible. I worked with the student's mother to set short-term goals for the student to reach at the end of the school year as well as long-term goals that will help transition successfully. Her and I communicated and collaborated together to set realistic goals for her child based on the student's strengths and weaknesses. This meeting will help this student development and promote their growth as we all collaborate and work together to reach the best solution for this student.
Indicator 1D: The teacher understands how learning occurs--how learners construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop disciplined thinking processes--and knows how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning.
For this lesson, I had students first explore perimeter by finding the perimeter of a classmate's body and then had them apply it to other objects. Students were able to create their own definition for perimeter after their exploration activity. This gave them a strong foundation on perimeter as they were able to apply it to other shapes on their own. The exploration allowed students to discover the meaning of subjects without me having to explain it to them. Learners were able to construct their own knowledge and acquire the skills necessary to apply perimeter to other objects independently.
Indicator 1G: The teacher understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and challenging.
This is an example of an anticipatory set in a math lesson that I gave. In this lesson, I wrote a number story on the board in a different language, Tongan. I did this for 2 reasons. The first reason being for the English Language Learner in the classroom and the second being that students need to understand what the question is asking in order to solve it. Writing it the student's native language was effective in grasping her attention and keeping it for the remainder of the lesson. Presenting this question in her native language before presenting it in English gave her the background knowledge necessary to achieve the outcome. This helped make the content more comprehensible and relevant to her and to the rest of the students.