WEEK 2 SUMMARY AND REFLECTION, BURNING QUESTION

A big part of this week has involved beginning to work on our group design thinking project and getting acquainted with the Design Studio and working on the process of design thinking with our group as we begin to formulate problems and solutions for our project in the Math/Business curriculum area. We also looked at SIOP Method and learned that Nebraska schools mainly utilize CALLA (SIOP Approach) to teach ESL students. Also, the three tiers of vocabulary is useful for refining what to emphasize in language objectives. It was useful to see the six Nebraska ELP levels document to help determine student background. We picked a research paper topic and were introduced to the requirements for constructing a lesson plan.

My thoughts on what we have covered this week include: still trying to learn the “alphabet soup” of acronyms, piece together and/or remember how the different approaches are different from each other (they seem so similar to me) and, regarding our small group project, I have gone from complete chaos in my mind regarding our project to seeing a possible path that possibly makes sense, hoping I have something worthwhile to contribute. Not having ever taught geometry or played a lot of video games, my group is showing me what kids today will likely respond well to. Ah, youth—feeling a bit dated, but love learning.

That only leaves me with a burning question: Brandy, where and what have you taught in the past? Do you have an L2+? You seem to be drawing from a wealth of experience.

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