5 weeks

Unit 1: Becoming a Teacher and Professionalism

*Why do people teach? 

*What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a teacher?

*What are the satisfactions- and complaints- of today’s teachers?

*What characteristics are needed to be a successful teacher?

*Why do you want to be a teacher?

*What was school like for you?

*What are some of your strengths as a person? As a student? As a future professional?

*What are some of your weaknesses? Will they be problematic if you chose teaching as a profession?

*Is teaching a profession?

*What do you need to know about this profession you are considering?

*Is teaching more than a profession?

*How does one decide to become a teacher?

*Why is it important to understand  your own thinking about this career?

*What is the major appeal of teaching for you? 

Introductory Material

Chapter 1: The Teaching Profession

Chapter 1: Why Teach?

Becoming a Teacher: Looking forward and backward at the same time

View Film “Freedom Writers”

• Content knowledge
• Pedagogical contente knowledge
• Curricular content knowledge
• Learning objectives/targets
• intersectionality
• ethnocentrism 
• sterotypes
• Articulate
• Innovative
• National Education Association (NEA)
• Code of Ethics
• Unions
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
• Teacher burnout
• Hidden curriculum
• Professional development
• Learning communities
• Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

• Students will evaluate positive and negative aspects of the teaching profession.
• Students will analyze their strengths and areas of improvement as potential teachers. 
• Students will determine and analyze the qualities a great teacher possesses as well as the qualities an ineffective teacher possesses. 
• Students will describe their own personal education experience.
• Students will determine if teaching is a profession.  

Wells, M., Clayton, C. (2021). Foundations of American education: A critical lens. VIVA Open Publishing:  https://oercommons.org/courses/foundations-of-american-education-a-critical-lens/view

Amatullah, T., Avanzato, R., Baxter, J., Gibbins, T., Graham, L., Fradkin-Hayslip, A., Siegrist, R., Swantak-Furman, S., & Waid, N. (2021). Foundations of Education. SUNY Oneonta. VIVA Open Publishing: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-oneonta-education106/

 Freedom Writers Film

Rita Pierson TedTalk

Kimberle Crenshaw: What is intersectionality?

Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework 

Optional articles:

"Teachers, Schools, and Society" by Sadker pages 6-8,32.

"On Being a Teacher- The Human Dimension" by Kottler, Zehm, and Kotter pages 7-23

"So You Want to Be a Teacher?" by Janice Koch pages 3-19

• Teacher Interview Project  
• Discussion Posts 
• Reflections
• Socratic Seminars
• Film Study 
• Student Critiques
• Educational Autobiography Paper 

10 days

Unit 2: Learning Environment including School Climate and Classroom Culture

• Why is the learning environment important?
• How can a learning environment support learning and development of children?
• How can teachers set a stage for learning?
• What rituals and routines shape classroom life?
• How has the structure of classrooms evolved over time?
• What would your ideal classroom look like?
• How does the arrangement of the classroom set the stage for learning? 

• Observing a School: Culture and Climate activity
• School Visit  
• Classroom Arrangement  
• Creating a healthy classroom environment 
• Designing an environment to promote development and learning 
• Selecting appropriate materials
• The classroom as a safe place
• Planning curricula for children 
• Developing the daily schedule
• Implementing the daily schedule 

• flexible classroom
• curriculum 
• manipulatives
• learning centers
• transitions 

• Students will evaluate components of effective classroom climate.
• Students will compare and contrast the various types of classroom arrangements. 
• Students will analyze and determine what a differentiated classroom looks like. 
• Student organizes and uses relationships, the physical space, materials, daily schedule, and routines to create a secure, interesting, and enjoyable environment that promotes engagement, play, exploration, and learning of all children. 

"Teachers, Schools, and Society" by Sadker pages 77-82

"The Differentiated Classroom" by Carol Ann Tomlinson pages 31-35

"So You Want to Be a Teacher?" by Janice Koch pages 23-24 and 248-260

Chapter 3: Learning Environment from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 75-109

• Research Classroom Arrangements
• Design your dream indoor setting for a selected age group
• Reflection: How does the design you created support learning and development of children in the indoor setting? 
• Plan ideal Classroom Activity 
• Observations 
• So you think you want to be a teacher page 254:“The way you hold your pencil” writing and reflection 
• Reflect on the learning environment and determine how the design reflects how children learn best.  What do you see as its strengths and/or what would you change 
• List the current daily schedule in your setting and identify the age range of the children.
• Describe the parts of the day or daily routines that provide a smooth transition.
• Weekly planning allows you to view activities that have been scheduled each day over the course of a week. Describe the process for developing the weekly plans and how goals are set. 

10 days

Unit 3: Physical and Cognitive Development 

• How does physical activity benefit young children?
• Why is it important to promote gross and fine motor skills in the education setting?
• Why is it important to understand the major theories of cognition?
• How can teachers promote learning through play?
• How does learning through play support cognitive development? 
• What are the different ways people learn?
• Why is it important to understand how a person learns best?
• How do you learn best?
• How can teachers respond to different learning styles?

• Understanding physical development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
• Promoting children’s gross motor development
• Promoting children’s fine motor development
• Connecting children’s physical development to the development of the whole child 
• Early Cognitive Development
• Major Learning Theories
• executive function and school readiness
• learning through pay
• Supporting children’s content learning  
• Learning Styles: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic

Howard Garner's Multiple Intelligences:

*Logical-Mathematical

*Linguistic

*Bodily-Kinesthetic

*Musical

*Spatial

*Interpersonal

*Intrapersonal

*Naturalist

 Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Quotient:

*Knowing Emotions/Managing Emotions/Motivating Oneself/ Recognizing Emotions in others/ Handling Relationships

• Gross motor development
• Fine motor development
• Unstructured play
• Structured play
• Manipulative movement
• Stability movement  
• Cognitive development
• Constructivist theory
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete operational
• Formal operational
• Multiple Intelligences
• Learning styles
• Cognitive domain
• Affective domain
• Locus of control
• Intelligence
• Multiple intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical
• Linguistic
• Bodily-Kinesthetic
• Musical
• Spatial
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist
• Emotional Intelligence

• Students will analyze their strengths and areas for improvement as learners
• Students will evaluate different learning styles.
• Students will research the different learning styles and determine which style suits them best. 
• Student will use a variety of developmentally appropriate equipment, learning experiences, and teaching strategies to promote the physical development (fine motor and gross motor) of all children. 
• Student uses a variety of developmentally appropriate learning experiences and teaching strategies to promote curiosity, reasoning, and problem-solving and to lay the foundation for all later learning. Student implements curriculum that promotes children’s learning of important content goals. 

Chapter 4: Physical from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 114-134

Chapter 5: Cognitive from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 135-160

"Teachers, Schools, and Society" by Sadker pages 34-43

"On Being a Teacher- The Human Dimension" by Kottler, Zehm, and Kotter pages 24-34

"So You Want to Be a Teacher?" by Janice Koch pages 146-151 

Links: 

https://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-assessment

https://www.edutopia.org/your-multiple-intelligences

• Describe the activities that you include in your setting to allow children to develop and use gross motor skills. 
• Describe a specific outdoor learning experience that you can create to promote children’s gross motor development.
• Observe and describe children using fine motor skills during two different activities in your setting.
• Describe a specific indoor learning experience that you can create to promote children’s fine motor development
• Define cognitive development
• Select a theorist and explain their theory and provide an example from your setting where you have seen evidence of this theory.
• Observe and take notes on a child’s developmental and learning progress in your setting during times when children are choosing what they want to do. 
• Reflect on how young children learn. Think about your values and beliefs about how children learn and the role of play. 
• Reflection Journal on Google Classroom: What are your strengths as a learner?

10 days 

Unit 4: Lesson Planning 

• What are students taught in school?
• What forces shape the school curriculum?
• How do you create an effective lesson? 
• What is the common lesson plan format? 
• How can centers support independent learning? 
• What are the benefits of the direct instruction model?
• Why is thinking dependent on the process of attaining and developing concepts?
• How does the cause-effect model allow students to explore and develop critical thinking skills?

• Goals/Objectives of School
• -Formal
• -Wall
• -Hidden
• Curriculum Time Machine
• *Historical Perspectives
• *Core Curriulum: Boyer/Adler/Hirsch Jr.
• *Critical Thinking Skills
• No Child Left Behind
• High Stakes Testing
• Common Core Curriculum

• Pacing

•  

  Unit Title
• Focus Questions
• Content

• Vocabulary
• Standards
• Skills
• Resources
• Assessments
• The Learning Triangle (276): Objectives, Instruction, and Assessment
• -Collaboration
• -Team Meetings to Analyze and Improve
• Common Lesson Plan Format:
• -Content standards
• -Learning targets
• -Instructional
• -strategies
• -Assessment
• -Evaluation
• -Bellwork
• -Guided practice
• -Independent practice 
• Effective Classrooms and Schools have a Culture of Consistency Wong page 287-288  
• Direct Instruction Model steps pages  44-50 (Pearson) 
• The Concept Attainment Model and The Concept Development Model
• The Cause-and-Effect model
• The Vocabulary Acquisition Model  

• curriculum
• No Child Left Behind
• High Stakes Testing 

• Greeting

• Agenda
• Do Now or opening assignment
• Procedures

• Objectives or Learning Targets
• Rubric
• Assessing
• Positive Expectations
• -Concept Attainment
• -Concept Development
• -Attributes
• -facts
• -generalizations
• -synthesize
• -think-pair-share
• -affix
• -prefix
• -suffix
• -root

• Students will observe teachers and prepare lessons after identifying effective teaching practices.
• Students will evaluate the lesson plan created and make any necessary modifications.
• Students will design and deliver an effective lesson for instructor and peer feedback.

• Teachers, Schools, and Society page 205-259
• So You Want to be a Teacher pages 106-112
• The Differentiated Classroom pages 18-24
• The First Days of School page 276 
• The Differentiated Classroom pages 25-30, 75-81, 36-46, 83-86, 61-74  
• Instruction a Models approach  pages 40-58: Direct Instruction Model
• The Concept Attainment Model pages 59-77 
• The Concept Development Model pages 78-94 
• The Case and Effect Model pages 95-110 
• Vocabulary Acquisition Model pages 111-133 
• Resource: Morewords.com and socraticmethod.net

• Reflection: Do you agree with Kohn that standardized testing undermines learning? page 253
• Lesson Plan Template (Wong page 282)
• Collaborative Lesson Planning activity using pages 283-284 Wong
• Find direct instruction videos on the internet and analyze the differences that exist between the model and what you notice in the video (Pearson page 57). 
• Create a ten minute lesson of your choice to teach the class. Prepare the lesson and revise if needed. 

10 Days

Unit 5: Challenges: Self-esteem, Social, and Family

Self-Esteem:

• What role does self-esteem play in learning?
• What major physical, social, and personal challenges impede successful learning?
• How do the special needs and exceptionalities of learners affect the learning process? 
• How does helping a child build self-esteem allow them to take on challenges?
• Why is it important for children to have positive school experiences?
• Why is it important to understand a child’s temperament?
• Why is it important to let children experience failure? 

Social: 

• Why is it important for educators to create a positive classroom community? 
• How is the classroom designed to promote independent activities and cooperative play? 
• How can educators support children in making friends? 
• Why is it important to teach children how to appropriately resolve conflict?

• How can educators promote and support prosocial behavior?

• The Power of Elementary Peer Groups
• High School Adolescent Society
• Challenges: Family Patterns, Social Issues that place children at risk: dropping out, sexuality,  pregnancy, substance abuse, youth suicide, gay, lesbian, and transgender students, bullying,    etc.
• Diversity in the classroom
• Appreciating each child
• Approaches to learning
• Strengths and challenges
• Family circumstances
• Promoting children’s sense of self
• Guiding children in expressing their feelings
• Helping each child flourish 
• Social development
• Using the environment to encourage positive social interactions
• Supporting children’s play
• Encouraging positive relationships
• Fostering prosocial behavior

• Self-esteem

• Self-actualization
• Temperament
• Optimism
• Resilience
• Gender wall
• Dominate male peer group
• Sociograms
• Closed social system
• The Adolescent Society
• Multicultural education
• Bilingual education
• English as a Second Language (ESL)
• Special education
• Mainstreaming
• Inclusion
• Least-restrictive environment
• Zero reject
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Individualized education program (IEP)
• Learning disabilities
• Accelerated programs
• Advanced placement
• Social referencing
• Solitary play
• Onlooker play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative play

• Students will analyze the role of self-esteem in learning.
• Students will identify the special needs and exceptionalities of learners and determine how these needs affect the learning process.
• Students will evaluate major physical, social, and personal challenges that can impede successful learning.
• Student develops a warm, positive, supportive, and responsive relationship with each child, and helps each child learn about and take pride in his or her individual and cultural identity. 
• Student helps each child function effectively in the group, learn to express feelings, acquire social skills, and make friends, and promotes mutual respect among children and adults. 

"Teachers, Schools, and Society" by Sadker pages 49-68, 174-183, 461-473

"So You Want to Be a Teacher?" by Janice Koch pages 155-163

Links:

https://www.businessinsider.com/undercover-high-teenagers-lives-2018-2

https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore059.shtml

Chapter 8: Self from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 217-237

Chapter 9: Social from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 217-252

Journal Reflection:

• Why are peer group opinions such a powerful influence on how adolescents view   themselves?
•  How can teachers help build self-esteem in students?
•  Recall a time a teacher made you feel intelligent? How did that affect your learning?
•  Recall a time a teacher made you feel inferior? How did that affect your learning?
• Recall a time: Describe an adult in your life who made you feel special, appreciated, and loved? What characteristics did they have? What did they do that made you feel special?
• Provide a summary of how infants, toddlers, and preschoolers express their feelings.

• Explain how educators can bolster a child’s developing self-concept.
• Describe how as an early educator you promote resiliency of children in your setting. 
• Provide five tips for supporting social development for the children in our setting.
• Observe the learning environment and describe three elements that encourage positive social interactions. 
• Describe friendships that you have observed in your setting. 
• Think about your setting. Have you observed any child that does not interact with other children? What can you do to effectively support this child forming friendships?
• Describe the kind of things  you do to foster children’s prosocial behavior.
• Examine and Discuss situations and how as an educator you can use certain strategies to support the child in developing prosocial behaviors and expressing their feelings

8 days

Unit 6: Classroom Management and Discipline

• What classroom management skills foster academic learning? 
• How can teachers understand and manage student anger and aggression? 
• What mistakes do teachers make that can disrupt learning and create room for behavioral issues? 
• What can an educator do to maintain a responsive, and caring environment?
• Why is it important to include children in the development of rules?
• How can positive guidance techniques support and encourage children to behave out of choice-not coercion or manipulation-inside and outside your setting?
•  How can educators end bullying in their setting? 

• Good Managers are Good Planners and are organized. 
• Rules/Norms/Behavioral Routines 
• Setting effective rules and expectations to develop a classroom community 
• Good Managers carefully arrange their classrooms to minimize disturbances 
• Strategies to effectively manage the classroom and transition from one activity to the next.
• 5 common patterns that can derail classroom management during times of transition: Jacob Kounin
• Strategies to understand and manage student anger and aggression: Choice, Responsibility, and Voice.  
• Addressing challenging behaviors positively
• Employing positive guidance techniques
• Understanding time-out and effective alternatives
• Addressing ongoing challenging behavior
• Stopping bullying

• Positive guidance
• Punishment
• Discipline
• Time-out
• Natural consequence
• Group alerting
• Withitness
• Overlapping
• Least intervention
• Fragmentation
• Flip-flops
• Over dwelling
• Thrusts
• Dangles 

• Students will evaluate components of effective classroom management and discipline.
• Students will determine and evaluate the ineffective methods of classroom management.
• Students will analyze how teachers handle minor infractions and larger infractions in the classroom. 
• Student provides a supportive environment and uses effective strategies to promote children’s self-regulation and support acceptable behaviors, and effectively intervenes for children with persistent challenging behaviors. 

"Teachers, Schools, and Society" by Sadker pages 77-82

Chapter 10: Guidance from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 253-272

• Look for what’s right with the classroom: How did the teacher’s behavior and procedures enable his or her students to focus on academic content so effectively? Note the strategies used to avoid interruptions and to keep instruction proceeding smoothly. 
• What rules are children expected to follow in your setting? Do you state them in positive terms that tell children what is expected? If not, how could you revise them to be phrased as positive statements?
• Explain why positive guidance is used instead of punishment in the educational setting.
• What approaches will support you in positively guiding the children in your setting? Describe the teaching practices used to guide children’s behavior in your setting.
• Develop three positive suggestions for preventing and reducing bullying behaviors in your setting.
• Describe strategies you can use in your setting to support both children who use bullying behaviors and children who are affected by bullying. 

Field Experience will begin the third week of the course and take place every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Field Experience (includes topics from Units 1-6)

• What is the purpose of observing the education setting? 
• What are the most important roles of the teacher in the 21^st century?
• What attributes do you have that make teaching the right choice for you? 

• Assessing through observation
• Documenting observations: brief notes, anecdotal records, running records, diary/journal observations, and checklists
• "One Size does not fit all" 
• Content will correspond with Units 1-6

Vocabulary will correspond with Units 1-6

• Students is a manager who uses observations, documentation, and planning to support children’s development and learning and to ensure effective operation of the program or group. The student is a competent organizer, planner, record keeper, communicator, and a cooperative co-worker. 
• Students will design and deliver an effective lesson in a classroom setting.
• Students will apply the components of effective classroom climate, management, and discipline. 
• Students will describe, analyze, and reflect on their teaching practices and field experience

• Chapter 12: Program Management from CDA Essentials for working with young children pages 135-160
• So you think you want to be a teacher? pages 270-282
• Other resources will correspond with Units 1-6. 

• Fill out observation forms and participate in discussion 
• Prepare and write lesson plans
• Oservation of students working in an educational setting
• Observation of students teaching a lesson
• Class Discussion 
• Reflection on Google Classroom