Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 In my previous blog I opened the conversation about applying modifications to a virtual environment. It certainly looks different, feels different and that's because it is! I've spent a lot of time these first few weeks of school thinking about modifications and how to effectively implement them for my students. My co-teacher and I have looked over our students' IEPs, discussed how they would typically be implemented, and what is holding us back.  The reality is that not all the modifications are able to be applied in the same ways, and some have to be changed completely. Rather than having them fully adjusted in the IEP itself, we realized that how we implement the modifications students need is what will make it possible to meet their needs, goals, and requirements in their IEP.  Much like how differentiated instruction can vary based on the content, process, and product, implementing modifications in a virtual and/or hybrid environment can be differentiated (and in th...

Last week my co-teacher and I had a meaningful conversation about modifications- a popular and important topic for the students in our class. Our class is richly diverse with various cultures, abilities, languages, and learning styles that make it unique, yet offer challenges for us as teachers to meet the needs of our learners in this new learning environment we are experiencing this year.  One of our concerns before school even started was how to deliver instruction that was differentiated, and ensure modifications were in place for all of our students, especially those that require them with IEP and 504 reports. We realized that some modifications are going to be altered such as offering manipulatives. We use virtual manipulatives and allow the students to move them, or to direct us as teachers where/how/when to move them. Some modifications (such as extra time) don't require much of a change, however utilizing breakout rooms in Zoom has been helpful to provide a quiet space for...

Recently I read an article from ASCD Express that focused on meaningful grades. Shortly thereafter, I found others relevant to the same topic. The one that I personally focused on is titled: Quality Over Counting: Mindsets for Grading Reform by Tom Schimmer.  One key point that resonated was in section  number three; Standards Over Tasks. Typically teachers, including myself, organize our gradebooks by tasks such as quizzes, projects etc., however, we are grading on a "standards-based" report card. The truth is, the task-organization is not reflecting standards because of the type of evidence included. Schimmer explains how standards are organized by strands, categories or domains.  The challenge comes with how to exactly grade if using tasks were to be set aside, and even Schimmer agrees to this point. Here are some of my thoughts for how we can accomplish this, especially with our current learning environments being different than they have in the past. Which, by the wa...