First things first…
This working document is designed to give the reader what my role as a special educator will look like in the 2014-2015 school year. It will provide context into the neighborhood within which my school resides, background into the school itself, as well as who I am and why I am here.
Who am I?
I grew up in a middle class family on the edge of Northeast Philadelphia. Growing up right next to both the city and the suburbs made me acutely aware of the extreme difference of access to education that lay on either side. It was my understanding growing up that if you were born in the city and could not afford to go to private school, then you were not going to receive a good education. In college I taught summer school inside a juvenile detention center serving young men from Washington, DC. This experience showed me the extreme consequences of a child receiving a poor education and inspired me to work in education long-term. Being back in Philadelphia I am charged by the mission set forth by Teach for America and will do my best to ensure that students growing up in poverty receive an excellent education.
Where am I?
Eastern North Philadelphia: Eastern North Philadelphia was historically comprised of a large Irish American population. However over the last half of a century due to economic decline, the majority of the population is now Latino. In the early 20th century, the community flourished due to the Industrial Revolution. However after World War II, many of the industrial plants in the area shuttered, resulting in massive job losses, and catalyzed economic decline and widespread violence that persists today. No matter the time frame, eastern North Philadelphia has always been a blue collar, working class, and relatively low-income area. Due to this historic disadvantage, families typically have less access to the opportunities that families of higher income areas of Philadelphia are privileged of having. Unfortunately the lack of resources in the community combined with the gradual but substantial loss of jobs has led to widespread poverty and an increase in violent crime. Whether it’s police officers, students, or other community members, one can be feel a sense of pride by all community members when talking about the neighborhoods that comprise this part of the city.
Pan American Academy Charter School: The majority of students at Pan American Academy Charter School are Latino, with less than 11% being of non-Latino background. This K-8 school was founded in 2008 by Congreso, a nationally recognized organization that aims to, “strengthen Latino communities through social, economic, education, and health services.” This school was created for the purpose of providing a high-quality education to the students in eastern North Philadelphia in an effort to help these at-risk youth succeed in school and beyond. American Academy is a bilingual school through grades K-5th. It is their goal that every grade will eventually be taught bilingually and each student will graduate being able to speak, read, and write in both English and Spanish.
Pan American Academy is the first International Baccalaureate elementary school in Philadelphia. It is currently a candidate for the Middle Years Program through IB as well. Although the first year “Pan Am” was located in an old Philadelphia school district building, Congreso built an entirely new state of the art school building in 2009.
Pan Am is dedicated to parental involvement and requires all parents to commit to 30 hours of volunteer work for the school a year. Additionally teachers are required to visit each of their student’s homes before the beginning of the school year. Pan Am also firmly believes in the use of technology in the classroom. For this reason, every classroom has an interactive white board and each child grade 6th through 8th has a personal Ipad to be used during the school day. Overall my school has a very welcoming environment that places value on holding high expectations for the children we serve.
What am I doing?
I am a special education mathematics teacher. I am work with middle school aged students in grades 6th-8th. I have a caseload of eleven students for whom I am in charged of writing their Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and making sure that they are being implemented. Additionally, I work with 18 students who have a Specific Learning Disability in mathematics. I push into five different math classes or pull out when necessary to assist these specific students daily. Since I push into general education teachers classrooms, I am continuously looking to develop the relationship that I have with my co-teachers in an effort to create a team that is best for our kids.
Academic Achievement: All of my students have yearly IEP goals that they are working towards completing on a daily to weekly basis. However, most of the goals that have been set are very vague and generic. For this reason I have begun to break down each individual goal into steps that students will be able to understand more easily and progress can be better monitored. For example if a goal says the following:
“Mathematics Computation & Estimation 2.2.6.B Computation M07.A-N The Number System (Computation). M07.A-N.1 Apply and extend previous understandings of operations to add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers. Given a grade level classroom assessment or Benchmark assessment, student will add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, decimals, fractions, mixed numbers, or integers with at least 80% accuracy.”
A student and even a teacher or parent can be easily confused and unsure as to what the goal actually looks like. For this reason steps need to be added to show what individual skills need to be mastered in order to fully complete this goal. In this example the steps would be the following:
-Given a teacher-created probe, Student will be able to subtract multi-digit numbers from multi-digit numbers using borrowing. (ex. 46-29, 401-74, $62- $5.70
-Given a teacher-created probe, Student will be able to multiply a multi-digit number by another multi-digit number. (ex. 34 x 21, 809 x 47)
These steps clearly demonstrate what skills need to be worked on and assessed in order to clearly demonstrate progress made towards the larger goal
Personal Growth: Many of my students are becoming old enough to begin to Many of my students are becoming old enough to begin to understand how their disability affects their learning and academic growth. For this reason many students do not advocate for their needs inside the classroom out of fear of being stigmatized by their peers. This year it is my aim to help my students become fearless advocates for themselves and their education. I have begun doing this by periodically having one on one conversations with each child to remind them of the specially designed instructions that they are entitled to have and have them express any concerns they have with their accommodations.
Additionally, I want to teach my students how to have a growth mindset when it comes to learning mathematics. Most of them have convinced themselves that they are not “math people,” and just aim not to fail. It is my goal to help them grow to feel more comfortable with mathematics and develop a growth mindset where they can believe that they are capable of success with the subject.
Social, Cultural, and Political Consciousness: Pan American Academy’s PYP and MYP candidacy and the bilingual program helps each student develop a cultural consciousness that is not seen in many other inner city schools. For this reason, my vision for this year is to help my students use the cultural competence that they have gained through these programs to inform their social and political education. It is important to know how to use mathematics as a tool to create social and political change in your community. On a micro level, I do this by asking questions that connect what we are learning in the classroom to real life issues. I make a point to always connect our lessons to real life because I want students to know how learning these concepts can help them affect change in their communities and add to their understanding of the world around them.
Access: The way I aim to best build connections for my students to relationships, resources, and networks that will help sustain and accelerate their path to broader opportunities and leadership beyond this year is by helping my students to become competitive applicants so that they can get into highschools that will best prepare them for high school. Since I am on the high school transition team, students know to come to me to ask questions about how to get into their desired high school. I also have discussions with parents during IEP meetings to get them to start thinking about what their child needs to do in order to get into a high school that is a right fit for them.
This working document is designed to give the reader what my role as a special educator will look like in the 2014-2015 school year. It will provide context into the neighborhood within which my school resides, background into the school itself, as well as who I am and why I am here.
Who am I?
I grew up in a middle class family on the edge of Northeast Philadelphia. Growing up right next to both the city and the suburbs made me acutely aware of the extreme difference of access to education that lay on either side. It was my understanding growing up that if you were born in the city and could not afford to go to private school, then you were not going to receive a good education. In college I taught summer school inside a juvenile detention center serving young men from Washington, DC. This experience showed me the extreme consequences of a child receiving a poor education and inspired me to work in education long-term. Being back in Philadelphia I am charged by the mission set forth by Teach for America and will do my best to ensure that students growing up in poverty receive an excellent education.
Where am I?
Eastern North Philadelphia: Eastern North Philadelphia was historically comprised of a large Irish American population. However over the last half of a century due to economic decline, the majority of the population is now Latino. In the early 20th century, the community flourished due to the Industrial Revolution. However after World War II, many of the industrial plants in the area shuttered, resulting in massive job losses, and catalyzed economic decline and widespread violence that persists today. No matter the time frame, eastern North Philadelphia has always been a blue collar, working class, and relatively low-income area. Due to this historic disadvantage, families typically have less access to the opportunities that families of higher income areas of Philadelphia are privileged of having. Unfortunately the lack of resources in the community combined with the gradual but substantial loss of jobs has led to widespread poverty and an increase in violent crime. Whether it’s police officers, students, or other community members, one can be feel a sense of pride by all community members when talking about the neighborhoods that comprise this part of the city.
Pan American Academy Charter School: The majority of students at Pan American Academy Charter School are Latino, with less than 11% being of non-Latino background. This K-8 school was founded in 2008 by Congreso, a nationally recognized organization that aims to, “strengthen Latino communities through social, economic, education, and health services.” This school was created for the purpose of providing a high-quality education to the students in eastern North Philadelphia in an effort to help these at-risk youth succeed in school and beyond. American Academy is a bilingual school through grades K-5th. It is their goal that every grade will eventually be taught bilingually and each student will graduate being able to speak, read, and write in both English and Spanish.
Pan American Academy is the first International Baccalaureate elementary school in Philadelphia. It is currently a candidate for the Middle Years Program through IB as well. Although the first year “Pan Am” was located in an old Philadelphia school district building, Congreso built an entirely new state of the art school building in 2009.
Pan Am is dedicated to parental involvement and requires all parents to commit to 30 hours of volunteer work for the school a year. Additionally teachers are required to visit each of their student’s homes before the beginning of the school year. Pan Am also firmly believes in the use of technology in the classroom. For this reason, every classroom has an interactive white board and each child grade 6th through 8th has a personal Ipad to be used during the school day. Overall my school has a very welcoming environment that places value on holding high expectations for the children we serve.
What am I doing?
I am a special education mathematics teacher. I am work with middle school aged students in grades 6th-8th. I have a caseload of eleven students for whom I am in charged of writing their Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and making sure that they are being implemented. Additionally, I work with 18 students who have a Specific Learning Disability in mathematics. I push into five different math classes or pull out when necessary to assist these specific students daily. Since I push into general education teachers classrooms, I am continuously looking to develop the relationship that I have with my co-teachers in an effort to create a team that is best for our kids.
Academic Achievement: All of my students have yearly IEP goals that they are working towards completing on a daily to weekly basis. However, most of the goals that have been set are very vague and generic. For this reason I have begun to break down each individual goal into steps that students will be able to understand more easily and progress can be better monitored. For example if a goal says the following:
“Mathematics Computation & Estimation 2.2.6.B Computation M07.A-N The Number System (Computation). M07.A-N.1 Apply and extend previous understandings of operations to add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers. Given a grade level classroom assessment or Benchmark assessment, student will add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, decimals, fractions, mixed numbers, or integers with at least 80% accuracy.”
A student and even a teacher or parent can be easily confused and unsure as to what the goal actually looks like. For this reason steps need to be added to show what individual skills need to be mastered in order to fully complete this goal. In this example the steps would be the following:
-Given a teacher-created probe, Student will be able to subtract multi-digit numbers from multi-digit numbers using borrowing. (ex. 46-29, 401-74, $62- $5.70
-Given a teacher-created probe, Student will be able to multiply a multi-digit number by another multi-digit number. (ex. 34 x 21, 809 x 47)
These steps clearly demonstrate what skills need to be worked on and assessed in order to clearly demonstrate progress made towards the larger goal
Personal Growth: Many of my students are becoming old enough to begin to Many of my students are becoming old enough to begin to understand how their disability affects their learning and academic growth. For this reason many students do not advocate for their needs inside the classroom out of fear of being stigmatized by their peers. This year it is my aim to help my students become fearless advocates for themselves and their education. I have begun doing this by periodically having one on one conversations with each child to remind them of the specially designed instructions that they are entitled to have and have them express any concerns they have with their accommodations.
Additionally, I want to teach my students how to have a growth mindset when it comes to learning mathematics. Most of them have convinced themselves that they are not “math people,” and just aim not to fail. It is my goal to help them grow to feel more comfortable with mathematics and develop a growth mindset where they can believe that they are capable of success with the subject.
Social, Cultural, and Political Consciousness: Pan American Academy’s PYP and MYP candidacy and the bilingual program helps each student develop a cultural consciousness that is not seen in many other inner city schools. For this reason, my vision for this year is to help my students use the cultural competence that they have gained through these programs to inform their social and political education. It is important to know how to use mathematics as a tool to create social and political change in your community. On a micro level, I do this by asking questions that connect what we are learning in the classroom to real life issues. I make a point to always connect our lessons to real life because I want students to know how learning these concepts can help them affect change in their communities and add to their understanding of the world around them.
Access: The way I aim to best build connections for my students to relationships, resources, and networks that will help sustain and accelerate their path to broader opportunities and leadership beyond this year is by helping my students to become competitive applicants so that they can get into highschools that will best prepare them for high school. Since I am on the high school transition team, students know to come to me to ask questions about how to get into their desired high school. I also have discussions with parents during IEP meetings to get them to start thinking about what their child needs to do in order to get into a high school that is a right fit for them.