During my third year as an educator, I was selected to be the model teacher for our district's Teacher Development and Feedback System. This footage was used to train appraisers on how to script low-inference evidence and use it to evaluate a teacher's performance. In addition, the video was used to demonstrate best practices to new teachers in the district.
Differentiating instruction is an effective practice to meet the needs of all learners. In this video, Gifted-and-Talented (GT) students used geo-boards to model their understanding of classifying 2-D shapes and geometric terminology. I provided them with the shape properties and characteristics, following, they had to create the shape on their board using rubber bands.
In my classroom, assessing student knowledge extended beyond the traditional "paper-and-pencil" method. In this video, students took a performance assessment over dividing decimals. TEKS 5.3F/G state that students must understand how to use objects, pictorial models, and standard algorithm to divide decimals. Therefore, students were provided with base-ten blocks and construction paper to solve individual problems. They were not allowed to use standard algorithm until the problem was modeled using manipulatives.
