Showcase
On this page, you will find a selection of my work from my Master of Arts in Education program. These selections highlight the work that I did with students, the research I did into different tools that can support student learning, and several websites that I created throughout my program. My work is broken into three different categories: Literacy, Classroom Management, and Individual Support.
Literacy
As a primary grade teacher, literacy is a large part of our day. My coursework provided me with many tools that I can use with all of my students, general education, special education, or English language learners. My work has focused on supporting struggling students rather than basic classroom instruction.
Reinforcing the Prerequisites for Reading
This case study exemplifies the work that I do with individual students, or small groups, to make sure that they are building the necessary foundation to further develop their literacy. The student that I worked with started kindergarten with no English and came to me in first grade having very little. I worked with him to strengthen his basic letter sound knowledge and build his bank of high frequency words, two of the prerequisites necessary for reading.
Literacy Solutions to Support Struggling Students
This site is a compilation of resources that teachers and parents can use to support students in different areas of literacy. Each page also gives a brief explanation of the challenge and how it can impact a student's learning. By creating this site, I was able to identify many resources that can be used in my classroom on a daily basis.
Assistive Technology to Support Writing
This site describes the writing process and the many challenges that a student may face while working. It also provides a brief description of what Assistive Technologies (ATs) are and how they are used in education. This project allowed me to identify and explore many ATs that I can use in my classroom to support students in all aspects of the writing process.
Classroom Management
Classroom Management is an important part of any classroom. My work focuses on the structures and routines that I use to ensure that students are behaving in a way that allows them, and their peers, to be successful in my classroom. This includes a focus on the Social-Emotional learning that takes place.
Positive Behavior Supports
This site includes several subpages that explain how my classroom is set up in regards to behavior. Each page describes a different aspect of my classroom management system. While working on this site, I was able to really look at all aspects of my classroom management to make sure that it is as strong as it can be, in order to develop a safe learning environment for my students.
Social-Emotional Learning
This site discusses the importance of including Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in the classroom. The site looks at SEL in general, but also takes a closer look at one specific SEL program, Kimochis. While working on this site, I gained an understanding of how integral SEL can be to creating strong classroom management while supporting students emotionally.
Kimochis
This presentation focused on the Kimochi curriculum. It looks at each of the characters students meet in the program and what they help kids learn about. Since Kimochis is used in my school, this project really helped me gain a deeper understanding of how the program works and what my students are learning from it.
Individual Support
Although classroom routines and management work for most students, some require extra support. This support can be focused on any aspect of the day or any specific behavior. These projects are examples of working with individual students, one of whom struggled with focusing, and one who struggled with motivation.
Individual Behavior Support
This slideshow gives a quick overview of the work I did with one student whose behavior was affecting his own education as well as those around him. I worked to develop a plan that would help increase the positive behaviors we hope for and decrease the negative ones. This is indicative of the work that is sometimes required to ensure that every student is reaching their potential. Click here to read the whole case study.
Supporting Students' Motivation
This slideshow gives a quick overview of the work I did with one student who lacked the necessary motivation to be successful in writing. I worked to develop a plan that promoted motivation and helped her get excited and stay focused on her writing task. This is indicative of the kind of work that I do to support my students in doing their best. Click here to read the whole case study.
All images are my own.