I was only nine years old when I felt given up on by teachers. Once the staff at my school found out that my reading, writing and mathematical grade levels were at and above a high school level, they didn’t really understand how to mold me or how to approach teaching me. This had a grand effect on me because it made me believe that my intelligence was the reason I was being treated like an outcast. It wasn’t until I got to the 10th grade before a teacher actively showed interest in me and my educational potential. Before that, there were clear miscommunications between my teachers and it led to what I felt as a nine year old child, a personal vendetta. Never in my right mind did I ever think that I was “better than everybody,” nor did I theorize that I “didn’t need to be there,” but those phrases often came up in my parent teacher conferences and I never knew what I was doing wrong. I felt emotionally abused and abandoned from an early age in school, at home and within the classroom.

Through all of my misfortunes in school, I did figure out which instructional strategies were the most helpful for me as a learner. It became apparent that given the opportunity to compete against my peers, even if it was only in theory, it always pushed me to do my best at the given material. Another method was getting random quizzes with feedback. This allowed me to have the ability to keep up with all the content we were going over.

I would say I did better with explicit instruction! As long as you give me a solid and concise explanation of what the expectations are for the given material, I will be able to get the work done in a rather quick fashion. Explicit learning also allowed me to be able to work individually thus having an easier time to digest the information into my work.

Growing up in a larger town, having fellow students with a special need was more common than not. The special need in question could be anything and yet we always had students included in the public learning system. That’s what I loved about my school system and even about my classmates. I never witnessed any kind of bullying and before it was “cool” in the media we were always including those who had a need. We would invite them to play basketball or kickball together at recess. A spot at our lunch table was always available to anybody who felt they didn’t fit in. Whether or not you had to be pulled from the classroom or not. We always did whatever we could to send each other home in a good mood.

In my classroom I would implement group projects every month. New seating chart every month. Two to three group activities per week and I would ask the students to keep a personal journal. These are very important strategies in my eyes because it keeps students stimulated in both individual and group learning. Doing so at any age will prompt students to be more social, more energetic and more comfortable with the classroom.

I would sample which lessons work best with my students and increase the time we spend on the efficient methods that way the students are reaching their potential sooner and easier. I would also have core lessons to build on as a foundation that way I can sprinkle in different lesson plans that will offer diversity and more exciting learning environments.

In order to find out which learners need more support I would use the IRIS method of having a standardized test and use those results to figure out which students “need to have Tier 1 or Tier 2 Support”. (IRIS Peabody, Vanderbilt). Within these support methods we will chart their overall growth over a certain amount of weeks that way we will have the necessary information detailing the student’s individual progress.

Within my classroom, disabled students will have as much opportunity as the student to their left and right. As someone who is so proud to be alive, well and in good spirits I believe it is necessary that we all love each other more than we ever could. So in my classroom setting I will deliver my best pitch to the students about how easy it is to be inclusive of others.

It is said in the textbook that “Grades should communicate at least the relative value of a student’s work in a class,” (Slavin, 381). But I truly believe that a student’s work shows not only in their scores but also how they are communicating what they need from myself and their fellow students in order to succeed. This is a team game, life, and it is one of my philosophies in this life and the next to travel with peace, knowledge and serenity. In order to grasp the peace we must be able to work well in harmony as we all prosper. This starts in the classroom as if you can work together to solve issues, learn and better understand yourself as a student then the rest of life will be no issue. It is said that “When we think of student engagement in learning activities, it is often convenient to understand engagement with an activity as being represented by good behavior (i.e., behavioral engagement), positive feelings (i.e. emotional engagement), and, above all, student thinking (i.e., cognitive engagement)” (Pino-James, web). This shows that with a more sociable learning environment the learning will become much more efficiently taught and the knowledge distributed.

Slavin, R. E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Pearson.

How will teachers determine which students need more intensive instruction? IRIS Center. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/rti02/cresource/q3/p08/#content

Pino-James, N. (2015, December 11). Golden rules for engaging students in learning activities. Edutopia. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/golden-rules-for-engaging-students-nicolas-pino-james

love, trev