Discussion Board #1-Introduction
Hi everyone,
My name is Trisha Antilla. I have been a kindergarten teacher for the past 20 years, the past 11 years at a charter school in Livermore, California. The student population at my school is very diverse, with many different cultures. In my class of 26 for the coming school year, I will have 7 ELL students. The majority of ELL students at my school are Hispanic, however, we have many other cultures as well.
I received my credential in 1995 from The Ohio State University. After moving to California in 1996, I began teaching Kindergarten and cleared my credential.
I am taking this course to earn my CLAD certification for teaching ELL students. I have taken many online classes and am about halfway through the CLAD through CTEL coursework. I have taken the Orientation, Culture and Inclusion, and Assessment of English Language Learners classes. I took the Assessment of English Language Learners with Kristie Lambert in the Spring of 2016. I am looking forward to learning more strategies to use with my English Language Learners. I look forward to meeting my fellow classmates. The best way to reach me is through email at: [email protected]
Discussion Board #2-Affective Environment
1) What can you do to assure that there is a positive affective environment in your classroom? Please give some examples.
A positive affective environment is essential in a classroom. This begins with the teacher creating such environment. Creating this environment begins with getting to know your students and creating an atmosphere that allows all children to be who they are and to be ok with making mistakes. In my classroom I have a quote on the wall that says “It’s OK to make mistakes.” I tell my students daily to always just do their “personal best”. Each person has their own "personal best." That is our focus. We are also a TRIBES school and our rules for our classroom all fall under the following: Appreciations, no put downs, mutual respect, attentive listening and the right to pass. I believe this helps to appreciate each person and make them feel safe and comfortable in the classroom.
2) How can you make your English Learners feel comfortable?
I can make an ELL student feel more comfortable in my classroom by getting to know them and their culture, pronouncing their name correctly, having them share their language and culture with us, and reading books that reflect their culture.
3) Using the internet, find a website that you feel helps you in teaching ESL. Name the site, and what you find useful about it.
A website that I found to teach ELL learners is:
http://esl.about.com/od/esleflteachertraining/a/t_enonpro1.htm
I liked this site because it was very basic and gave suggestions for helping an ELL student such as: slowing down when you are speaking, modeling and talking about routines. It also broke apart subject matters and gave suggestions on how to teach.
Discussion Board #3-The Every Child Succeeds Act
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been around since 2001. I began teaching in 1997 and since I worked primarily at private schools, I didn’t see the issues with it. However, as my career has changed, and I’ve looked more closely at it, I see that it was not fair to students, teachers and schools. It caused teachers to “pass on” a student even if they didn’t meet the standards. It caused schools to lower their standards or risk funding. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), seems to alleviate the issues with NCLB. It creates a partnership between the federal government and the state in which there is flexibility for each district on setting goals. It also allows teachers, parents, administrators and families to collaborate amongst each other so that they have a bigger input into the education of their children. My hope is that this will work, as it seems good on paper. However, perhaps I am missing something or something is misleading. I think we will only know when it is implemented. I’m anxious to see how the implementation changes how schools and families work together and how it is perceived by the public. I believe this will help English learners as it takes into account their development of English as the criteria for meeting standards. It is more encompassing than NCLB which didn’t take into account if someone was an English Language Learner.
Discussion Board #4-Motivation
Name a topic or subject you teach (or want to teach).What is the grade level? What is a great way to motivate your students to learn that subject? Will you use a video, book, picture, hat, skit , game or manipulative? Be creative! Share a fun way to motivate your students to learn!
I teach math with kindergarteners. I think a great way to motivate kindergarteners to learn shapes in math is with a light table. Light tables allow students to use multiple intelligences, such as kinesthetic and logical-mathematical. Light tables are exciting to use and will keep a student’s interest. An activity for math would be using transparent geometric shapes to sort, identify, and create shapes using other shapes. For example, use two trapezoids to make a hexagon. I am very excited to be receiving a light table for the upcoming school year. The learning opportunities are endless.
Discussion Board #5-Summary of Your Lesson
My SIOP Lessons incorporated the Next Generation Science Standards for Kindergarten. I created a week long weather unit.
My first lesson focused on the effect of sunlight on the earth surface. We will conduct an experiment to see the effects. My second lesson involved observation and tracking of weather to determine patterns. My third lesson focused on severe weather and forecasting. My fourth and fifth lesson involve construction of a shade structure.
Standards I focused on were:
K-PS3-1. Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface. (next generation science standards)
K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.Some activities that I am especially excited about are: learning about different types of extreme weather and how to prepare for them and the hands on activity to determine the effect of sunlight on the earth’s surface.
K-ESS3-2. Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.
K-PS3-2. Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.
The activities I am especially excited about are: conducting a scientific experiment to determine the effect of the sunlight on the earth’s surface, creating a shade structure and using props to learn about severe weather and how to prepare for each type.
I like the SIOP model, and found it much easier than I thought it would be. I like how it made me think of multiple intelligences and how to incorporate them in my classroom.
The quote I would like to share is: “Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”-Rita Pierson
Hi everyone,
My name is Trisha Antilla. I have been a kindergarten teacher for the past 20 years, the past 11 years at a charter school in Livermore, California. The student population at my school is very diverse, with many different cultures. In my class of 26 for the coming school year, I will have 7 ELL students. The majority of ELL students at my school are Hispanic, however, we have many other cultures as well.
I received my credential in 1995 from The Ohio State University. After moving to California in 1996, I began teaching Kindergarten and cleared my credential.
I am taking this course to earn my CLAD certification for teaching ELL students. I have taken many online classes and am about halfway through the CLAD through CTEL coursework. I have taken the Orientation, Culture and Inclusion, and Assessment of English Language Learners classes. I took the Assessment of English Language Learners with Kristie Lambert in the Spring of 2016. I am looking forward to learning more strategies to use with my English Language Learners. I look forward to meeting my fellow classmates. The best way to reach me is through email at: [email protected]
Discussion Board #2-Affective Environment
1) What can you do to assure that there is a positive affective environment in your classroom? Please give some examples.
A positive affective environment is essential in a classroom. This begins with the teacher creating such environment. Creating this environment begins with getting to know your students and creating an atmosphere that allows all children to be who they are and to be ok with making mistakes. In my classroom I have a quote on the wall that says “It’s OK to make mistakes.” I tell my students daily to always just do their “personal best”. Each person has their own "personal best." That is our focus. We are also a TRIBES school and our rules for our classroom all fall under the following: Appreciations, no put downs, mutual respect, attentive listening and the right to pass. I believe this helps to appreciate each person and make them feel safe and comfortable in the classroom.
2) How can you make your English Learners feel comfortable?
I can make an ELL student feel more comfortable in my classroom by getting to know them and their culture, pronouncing their name correctly, having them share their language and culture with us, and reading books that reflect their culture.
3) Using the internet, find a website that you feel helps you in teaching ESL. Name the site, and what you find useful about it.
A website that I found to teach ELL learners is:
http://esl.about.com/od/esleflteachertraining/a/t_enonpro1.htm
I liked this site because it was very basic and gave suggestions for helping an ELL student such as: slowing down when you are speaking, modeling and talking about routines. It also broke apart subject matters and gave suggestions on how to teach.
Discussion Board #3-The Every Child Succeeds Act
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been around since 2001. I began teaching in 1997 and since I worked primarily at private schools, I didn’t see the issues with it. However, as my career has changed, and I’ve looked more closely at it, I see that it was not fair to students, teachers and schools. It caused teachers to “pass on” a student even if they didn’t meet the standards. It caused schools to lower their standards or risk funding. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), seems to alleviate the issues with NCLB. It creates a partnership between the federal government and the state in which there is flexibility for each district on setting goals. It also allows teachers, parents, administrators and families to collaborate amongst each other so that they have a bigger input into the education of their children. My hope is that this will work, as it seems good on paper. However, perhaps I am missing something or something is misleading. I think we will only know when it is implemented. I’m anxious to see how the implementation changes how schools and families work together and how it is perceived by the public. I believe this will help English learners as it takes into account their development of English as the criteria for meeting standards. It is more encompassing than NCLB which didn’t take into account if someone was an English Language Learner.
Discussion Board #4-Motivation
Name a topic or subject you teach (or want to teach).What is the grade level? What is a great way to motivate your students to learn that subject? Will you use a video, book, picture, hat, skit , game or manipulative? Be creative! Share a fun way to motivate your students to learn!
I teach math with kindergarteners. I think a great way to motivate kindergarteners to learn shapes in math is with a light table. Light tables allow students to use multiple intelligences, such as kinesthetic and logical-mathematical. Light tables are exciting to use and will keep a student’s interest. An activity for math would be using transparent geometric shapes to sort, identify, and create shapes using other shapes. For example, use two trapezoids to make a hexagon. I am very excited to be receiving a light table for the upcoming school year. The learning opportunities are endless.
Discussion Board #5-Summary of Your Lesson
My SIOP Lessons incorporated the Next Generation Science Standards for Kindergarten. I created a week long weather unit.
My first lesson focused on the effect of sunlight on the earth surface. We will conduct an experiment to see the effects. My second lesson involved observation and tracking of weather to determine patterns. My third lesson focused on severe weather and forecasting. My fourth and fifth lesson involve construction of a shade structure.
Standards I focused on were:
K-PS3-1. Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface. (next generation science standards)
K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.Some activities that I am especially excited about are: learning about different types of extreme weather and how to prepare for them and the hands on activity to determine the effect of sunlight on the earth’s surface.
K-ESS3-2. Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.
K-PS3-2. Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.
The activities I am especially excited about are: conducting a scientific experiment to determine the effect of the sunlight on the earth’s surface, creating a shade structure and using props to learn about severe weather and how to prepare for each type.
I like the SIOP model, and found it much easier than I thought it would be. I like how it made me think of multiple intelligences and how to incorporate them in my classroom.
The quote I would like to share is: “Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”-Rita Pierson