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DM 1 Diversity

To include culturally responsive curriculum in my lessons and instruction for my

TWS I spent extra time getting to know my students and their cultures. I volunteered
from the week before school started so I could get to know them first hand before I would
be able to create my unit plan to help each and everyone of them succeed once I started
my official Student teaching. While creating my unit plan on citizenship I tried to use the
knowledge I knew about my students and their cultures to help make it more relatable
and meaningful. I did this because if it is relatable and meaningful them my students will
walk away with more of the content I taught.
I collaborated with my mentor teacher on ways that I could effectively teach my
ELL students and some ideas that have worked for her to help differentiate the language
barrier with my ELL students. Based off the collaboration I made modifications to my
lessons to help my ELL students succeed.

DM 2 Effective Pedagogy

I used technology on a few of the lessons. I also did read-alouds with my lessons.
However I didnt teach any songs or chants, but when we were creating our Dont be a
litter bug craft many students made up their on chant saying Dont be a litter Bug, dont
be a litter bug. Before I knew all the students were chanting it. Then at recess that day

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and several days after I still heard students chanting it. I guess the phrase Dont be a
litter bug stuck with my students which is want I from all my lessons, because then I
know they grasp the content I was teaching and it is going further than juts that lesson.

DM 3 Subject Matter

After discussing with my mentor teacher what she would like me to focus my unit
on we decided on Citizenship. To be honest I thought how I am going to come up with 6
lessons about citizenship for 1st graders. To my surprise as I was doing my research and
discussing with my fellow teachers the ideas just started flowing and I had so many that I
had to eliminate some from my unit. I was surprised at how much information I could
cover and be affective for my 1st graders.
I felt confident teaching my unit on citizenship and I felt confident answering
questions or comments that my students had because I did my research prepping for my
unit. Actually when I was teaching the lesson about being a good friend I was having my
students give me words that describe a good friend and one of my students said loyalty,
but not pronounced correctly. This threw me off for a second, because lets be real what
1st grader says loyalty. I quickly recovered and explained to my students what loyalty
meant and that is a good way to describe a good friend.

DM 4 Environment

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I wanted to create safe environment for my students when I taught, so I decided
to come and volunteer in my classroom from the 1st day of school long before my student
teaching was suppose to start. I felt this was important for my students to see me as a
teacher from day one as well as benefit me to learn from the beginning of the year. I also
use the attention grabber 1, 2, 3 eyes on me this gets the students attention and is also
something my mentor teacher uses. I also walk around while I teach and quietly redirect
students by pointing to their papers or putting my finger over my mouth o represent
voices off.

DM 5 Reflection

Creating my Teacher Work Sample has helped me realize how much work goes into
prepping, teaching, and assessments. It has also helped realize how important is to have
effective instruction that I expect an outcome for, because if I am just teaching to teach
and I have no reason for it then I am wasting my students time. I also learned from my
Teacher Work Sample that my data is important to look at for my students success, but
also for my success. If I have several students not getting the same concept then I need to
look at myself and the way I am teaching it and change things up. My Teacher Work
Sample was a lot of work and time, but it was well worth it and I learned a lot as a
teacher and where I can still improve as a teacher.

DM 6 Teaching Disposition

Preparing my unit for my Teacher Work Sample has helped me realize how much
work goes into teaching and how much prepping goes into helping my students succeed.
I learned the importance of doing my research and collaborating with my team and taking
suggestions and ideas as helping me to become a better teacher. By collaborating with
my team I learned how to teach about citizenship for my 1st graders to understand on their
levels.
I feel that my success as a students teacher and with my unit plan has been
because of how much time I have chosen to be in the classroom before I had to be. I
have built relationships with my students of caring, respect, and acceptance. I truly love
my students and have a desire for each and every one of them to succeed. I have worked
with my mentor teacher to figure out ways to reach certain students so they can be
successful in the class as well as in life. I believe that my students feel the same way
about me and it shows in my classroom environment as well as when I teach.