Mr. D'Amato - My Education Blog

 Learning about the different codes necessary to code a meme was very interesting. I have a slight understanding of HTML coding just from messing around on my own computer but it was nice to actually be able to learn from a reliable source (Dr. Mac!). I believe that it will be interesting to work on coding for Tech4Teens if that's what I end up doing. There is a lot of potential for coding especially in the future where computers will be even more important than they are already (is that possible?). The possibilities of coding are almost endless and the satisfaction you receive from a correctly written code is very nice. I am excited for the upcoming weeks in Tech4Teens and look forward to teaching and learning more. 

 - many factors that are considered barriers to achievement in African American Males. - this could be related to the disproportionate punishment that certain students face in comparison to others - external factors play a huge role... stuff that students may not be able to control.  - structural racism, community, parents, socioeconomic status.  - Soolutions? Teachers need to be involved.  - select appropriate reading material that people can relate to and has positive outcomes.  -modify the curriculum when necessary for your students. this will lead to better discussions.  - use text that matters for the students.  - enabling text - authentic discussions are a must - address the domains of your students.  - acknlowdge the development of the students.  - serve as soft role models.  - relevant reading will increase the amount of attention span. 

 I am very excited to start this journey! I believe it will be beneficial to my future teaching and the topics that we are exploring catch my interest. 

 I have 3 main goals for the Field Work this semester.  1. I am excited to learn about the topics that I will be helping the students with. I do not have a lot of knowledge in coding or video editing but I have a huge interest in both.  2. My second goal is to learn how to use Zoom properly in order to teach students. I have never taught students through zoom and I believe it can be extremely beneficial to my future as an elementary teacher.  3. My third goal for the fieldwork this semester is to learn how to be efficient within a smaller time period for my lesson plans especially for a zoom call. I think it is even more important to make sure that you are prepared when you come to online meetings. Having the most amount of time to teach/work with the students is extremely beneficial to everyone involved. 

With my group today we decided to read If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks" by Faith Ringgold. During our discussion, we talked about how this book is very well written and it also has some good pictures to keep the students entertained. One point that was brought up is how this can be used to teach literature and history to the students at once. This is an essential practice when you are an elementary teacher, it also is great when you can teach students two things at once. One other thing that we talked about is how the story when it to good details about the era it is talking about; therefore this would be more suitable for older students such as 2nd-4th grade. We believe that this book is also excellent to read to your students because the information is accurate, precise, and very relevant for an elementary student to learn about. This book is on the longer side, it takes about 20 minutes to read which is perfect for a read-a-loud within the classroom whenever you ha

*Possible spoiler for a picture book* We discussed this book as a group and came to the following agreement. This book is excellent for a picture book and leads to good discussions. Some of the topics that can be discussed include diversity, creativity, curiosity, and point of view. As a group, we were intrigued by the picture book but also wish there were some words at some points to make the point more clear. The words may add more discussion topics but creativity is also good. The discussion with my group was very good, we all had different points of view on the book which lead to a diverse discussion. My group mentioned that it showed the good and the bad or more of the opposite sometimes. I missed this theme but in the end, I agreed with them. Sometimes picture books depend on your point of view so it was helpful to discuss with others.  For the first book review, I will be writing about "Another" which was created by Christian Robinson and falls under the genre of a pic

 "Education Leadership" by Alfred Tatum took a very important point of view when discussing the "poor performance and achievement deficits of African American males" (Tatum). It is not always the fault of the person but sometimes it is the fault of the system. Within that system falls communities, teachers, administrators, and just overall structures. I believe it is very important to discuss the external factors that play a huge roll in every child's life; this includes but is not limited to socioeconomic status and role models. I believe that having the proper readings that a student in a certain position can relate to can be extremely effective. Taking their background and environment into consideration is a must; this plays a major role in most schools. Through the text we can engage the students in important discussions about the reality in which they live; they can start to question things rather than just accepting philosophies they have been taught. The

 I thought that the article did a great job of breaking down "Teaching Literary Analysis". It often seems easy to do but it is very different to teach. The author did a great job of prescribing specific vocabulary and the necessary steps to teach. In order to make it smooth, you should have the students pick a topic with the main literary elements that he posted. Then you want to make sure that the students are questioning and answer a thesis; also answer the general "why" question. Then after you come up with an answer, make sure you are able to provide textual evidence as proof . He listed 4 important vocab terms which are "identify, categorize, highlight, and label". This is very effective and I found it very helpful when breaking down the text (also the answer to the why ). Analyze the evidence that they have and what it is pushing . This will lead you to the final step of concussion. I believe that this article did a great job of explaining how to tea

 - Students need to be able to understand the text before they start critically analyzing it  - encourages passion when you can analyze a text (goals motives etc)  - Figure out the characters, themes, devices used, where it is taking place, and what is the goal of the author  - Thesis statement and answer the "Why" question.  - In order to answer this question, you must use textual evidence -     It can be put under 4 overarching ideas (Identity, categorize, highlight, and label.)                                    - Identify - themes- repetitions- patterns                                   - Categorize- elements- tone - style                                   - highlight - characterization - setting - foreshadowing                                    - Label - character types - symbols - metaphors  - Evidence should be under quotes, summaries, and paraphrasing.  - come to a conclusion