blog #3

        The video on our home page "testing bias produced by South High students" I've been in those students shoes and it's not fun. I do agree that a student should be able to choose how they want to test, for example I'm not the best test taker so I would want to take my test in a quiet room to take my time. I agree with Vichnet Chhuon when he said "students of color still don't the same privilege as white students." Being a mixed child has it's ups and downs, for example I'm not the color of my skin the way people judge me because of the color of my skin isn't okay. People think that because I'm mixed doesn't mean I'm not smart. Growing up I grew up with two different family's. My moms and my dad, on my moms side I have is black and Mexican and my dads is white. When I would go to my dads side of the family they would say things like how's your moms side doing as if they don't like them because of their race. I never understood it when I was younger, but now that I'm older it's as if they are ashamed of me because of my race. I love my race and where I come from I honestly wouldn't change anything about me. I just hate how people can try to judge you from the color and not to get to know you for who you are. I feel like some teachers that I had in my past thought of me less because of the color of my skin. When it came to taking test I would freak out and overthink and then I would fail because I spent so much time over thinking. I feel like that teacher thought because I'm black that I'm not able to pass my test, but in reality I just overthink when it comes to taking tests. I want to teach my students our classroom is a safe classroom and that everyone is welcome and that no one is going to judge therm.

Blog 7

Today we talked about the pedagogy and for some reason I felt uncomfortable. When we were talking about the different systems like for example the banking system. One of my questions in our small group was, how do teach our students the system without overwhelming them? When I was student growing up I questioned my learning because I was always overthink everything I did. So I as a teacher I'm going to try not to overwhelm my students because I know how it feels. We also talked about a course on campus American Indian. I took that class a couple of semesters ago and learned a lot. We talked about how the class was being taut by the teacher and I got upset because to me it seemed as if they were talking badly about the teacher, when they were really talking about how we should watch our words. For example the teacher uses words like "we and you did this." When as a student we didn't do anything we are trying to learn some thing new about that culture. As teachers when talking about race it's a taught topic to talk about, but it still needs to be talked about so our students understand what really happened back in the day. When hearing about other people sides on how they feel its okay to ask why do you feel this way vs keeping it inside just wondering about it later. How do we get questions out of that they maybe to shy to ask the question? I feel like we should teacher our students our classroom is a safe environment, so you shouldn't feel ashamed of the questions you may have. No question is a dumb question, I'm learning others may have the same question as you, they may just be waiting for some one else to ask it first. That doesn't always work though because if you don't ask the question it may not get answered. When walking into a classroom we should always encourage our students to start the off with an open mind and take deep breaths before class starts, it always helps me right before class. 

tech tool kit 5

Building a Math Center in an Early Childhood Special Needs Classroom

This is a seven minutes long video where it is explained how to build and set up a math classroom for special needs children. I believe that having the children play games is a tool to teach the students how to do math and not only learning math she is showing us how we can use different coloring actives to teach our students colors. I love that she played a game where the using toy dinosaurs teaching them the colors and using a graph to see how many colors there were of each color. I really think a child with disabilities  will really be able to give this a try without over thinking about the math problem and just have fun while learning something new. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i7XO0YJC3Y

tech tool kit 4

Body Check Music Therapy in Autism

When I was working at Asoka Hennepin school district we had a specialist come out and do musical therapy with our special Ed classroom. The kids really enjoyed it, I think I will be using music therapy in my classroom. I think it will be a great idea, it will be a fun way to start off my students day. Music therapy to me is a way for my students to express what they are feeling through body movement. Something that I find hard at my center is that we don't let our students express themselves. For example i think we are all guilty of this, have you ever planned an art project but you lay out everything for your students in the place it went, but one of your students wasn't doing it the way you wanted so. You did it for them?  So I ask did you let that child express them self? As a teacher we are going to make lots of mistakes, but that's okay no one is perfect. Life is filled of mistakes that's how we learn.                                                                 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGKTnRPQfu8

Tech tool kit 3

TECH TOOL KIT  1

Visual Aids for students with Autism

As a future Special Educator, I am interested in Autism students and how can I get into their minds in order to teach them.

Based on research, it is known that children who are autistic learn better using images and visual aids. Therefore,  with this website I can find some sources to use with Autistic children.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/picture-symbols/7010

In this website, it is explained some of the most common sources that can help  students understand the procedures and rules inside the classroom.

Autistic children need more visual aids than the other  students, therefore, with K-3 Special Education students, teachers can use these pictures and their students  will understand the directions better than if they are only mentioned verbally.

Besides, the daily routine can be explained easily with these picture posted in the classroom and with small versions hanging them in our badge if needed.  

 

 In this image it teaches students when hearing the word no and understanding when it's appropriate to touch and not to touch things. When a child see this picture they will understand why they can't touch, it also keeps the child safe.

 In this picture it shows children different ways to communicate and how they can use their words when asking different questions. I find this website very useful for teachers to use in the classrooms and even with children that don't have a disability.

tech tool kit #2

study stack is a great way to get children wanting to study. I'm going to encourage my students to try it. Study stack is a website that helps you study for a test for example you can make online flash card. They turn what ever it is your study into a game to help you remember the terms your studying.  It really will help my students feel confident to take a test knowing not only they study for it, but they had fun doing. I am going to remind my students that if you try it you will have a great time learning how to do it.

update on how cize is going for me

I can honestly say sense I've been doing cize with my mom it's been a lot of fun. There's days where I'm not up for working out, but as soon as I start I feel great after I do it.  These last couple of weeks have been really hard with work and a death in the family it's been really hard to focus on anything, but when I go to workout with my mom we keep each other up and the teacher is really helpful she really helps you to not give up to stay positive saying you can do it. Sense we've joined cize it brought me and my mom closer than ever. That was one of my goals for joining cize, I've learned how to work with others and also stay on beat while the music is playing.