Elliot Maxwell Sibert-Sweeney's Education Portfolio

Students’ funds of knowledge are as variable as students themselves, if not moreso, and as such should innately affect how you teach students on an extremely deep level. No lesson can be perfect for every student, every class, every period, every school, it’s just not possible, you have to make alterations, take into consideration what is best for each of those things. By understanding students’ funds of knowledge a teacher can find a plethora of ways to directly connect what they are teaching to the lives of their students. Further, by engaging in culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy instead of forcing mainstream white middle-class culture on students and assuming they will respond to it, one can grow a deeper connection with their students and ensure that they leave their classroom feeling respected and educated and move forward with their lives knowing that who and what they are is accepted and wonderful. I believe a fantastic way to get to know students is through disc...

When I engage with students in small groups they are usually students who sit near each other and have a certain rapport that I can count on. Them being together is also usually why I am engaging with them the way I am since they often are talking with each other or goofing off and I am engaging with them to get them to stop. This allows me to engage them directly and figure out what is squaring with them and allows me to get them to behave better, which squares with my personal understandings of education. When you have troubles, you should engage with the students involved and figure things out one on one or in a group depending on the situation, and I have had that confirmed for me in class. I have had absolutely no experiences with the families of the students in Mr. Earle’s class. I want to know what the childrens’ families are like, how that affects them, how that should affect my teaching, but sadly due to my position and the limited time I spend with these children, I don’t get...

My knowledge of how to adjust and coordinate instruction has been VERY validated as I have gone through 2 shortenings and alterations of my lesson plan. My lesson plan now has to fit within 45 minutes because it’s a short day, so I have had to make heavy alterations and that has proven to me my knowledge of how to alter lesson plans with relative speed. I have also seen Mr. Earle alter his lesson plans day of and create lesson plans day of, which has squared with my belief that one must be flexible as a teacher and make alterations as necessary to assist their students and help them succeed. I am sadly not seeing enough direct instruction from Mr. Earle this week to square anything with his explaining and modeling of content, but I do enjoy the movie he has picked even if I feel it is age inappropriate. I am still asking questions about what the proper amount of preparation is for a class. Further, I am still asking many questions about what would be the best way to proceed with my les...