Mrs. Vanderford's Education Blog

Good Morning Teachers,  Last semester in my SPED Resource practicum placement I got the opportunity to plan out a lesson on Order of Operations and deliver it to a small group of students. The standard for my lesson is as follows:  AZ Mathematics Standard:  5.OA.A.1 Use parentheses and brackets in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols (Order of Operations).  The standard was chosen based on students’ needs, IEP goals, and objectives. Students’ current math levels were assessed based on progress monitoring (collected student work evidence).  Prior to this lesson students should have an understanding of the symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and parentheses. Have basic mathematical terminology (ex: add, subtract, multiply, divide, equation). Know how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide in one and two-step equations. Know how to solve multi-step equations with one type of operation.  ...

Good Evening!  Technology is easily accesible for most of our students but many don’t know the precautions that come with it. Today, I’m going to discuss the importance of teaching our students how to be good global digital citizens as they work with technology in and out of the classroom, more specifically with an educational resource I shared a few weeks ago, Seesaw.   There are four factors when it comes to Global Citizenship that teachers and students need to be aware of.  1. Safe, Ethical & Legal Use of Technology  2. Socially Responsible Digital Use 3. Equitable Access of Technology 4. Global Awareness & Cultural Understanding  The following poster does a phenomenal job putting it into student friendly language.  In what learning environments would Seesaw be appropriate? Seesaw is a great tool to use in the classroom in collaboration with our peers, our school, and other classrooms around the world. Seesaw allo...

Hello fellow teachers, Today we’re going to discuss the importance of continuous reflection in our profession. Deep thought and consideration is needed when planning lessons, during instruction and after teaching to ensure that we are being successful in reaching out to all our students while keeping their unique needs in mind and how we’re able to improve our lesson for next time. John Dewey said it best, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflecting on Assessing Prior Knowledge and Planning Instruction            Students should have an understanding of the following symbols +, -, x, ÷ and () along with the basic mathematical terminology (ex: add, subtract, multiply, divide, equation) prior to the lesson. At this point most students know how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide in one-step equations and solve multi-step equation with one type of operation or set of operations such as + ...