Step 1
My portfolio will be used to show my first grade math class best math work on each unit throughout the year. Each student will have his or her own 2-inch 3-ring binder that would be stored on a shelf in the back of the classroom. The binder will contain the student’s choice of their best work from each math unit throughout the year. Separated by dividers, each unit will contain some of the students’ best work of my chosen, and photographs of different math games and activities that will take place throughout the course of the year. The portfolio will contain many before and after documents that would show each students progression. The reason for this is to illustrate to the student and I, the growth of the students understanding of the material being taught from the start of the year to the end of the year. At the end of the year I would like for each student to have mastered the skills introduced in each unit, and this includes time, relationship of calendar time, and sequence and duration of events. After each skill is mastered students will check it off on a checklist.
The portfolio will be of the students’ best work throughout each unit, and the student and I would choose this work. The student’s portfolio will also be used as an external assessment. I would pass it on to their 2nd grade math teachers to show their level of learning. Also some of the portfolios will be issued to the school principal for awards for the most progression throughout the school year. All the student’s materials for their parents will be placed in their portfolio to be viewed if any questions or concerns. Also throughout the year I will send different assignments home to be signed and returned so parents could see how much and how well their child knows the material. The portfolio will also be used at parent teacher conferences to show the parents their child’s work and how well they are doing in the classroom.

Step 2
After completing the unit on the time I would like for my students to be able to tell time to the nearest hour and half hour, and understand the movement of the minute hand a how it relates to the hour hand. I will guide them into achieving this by first explaining all the concepts of the clock, and the difference in the hour and minute hand. I would also do daily clock drills by having a toy clock and showing different times on it and have them to write down what they see. Also they would have homework sheets to show the parents what is being taught during that particular time. After completing the unit on sequence of events I would like for my students to be able to compare and/or order the sequence or duration of events. I will guide them in achieving this goal by doing class activities such as letting each of the student’s line five students from the classroom up from tallest to shortest. I would also have in class worksheets for the students that will contain activities and problems on the sequence of before and after, and shorter and longer. After completing the unit on the calendar I would like for each of my students to be able to understand the relationship of calendar time by knowing the number of days in a week and months in a year. I will guide them to achieving this goal by doing calendar worksheets, and by randomly choosing a different student to read out the calendar day and month each morning before beginning the day. After each student has completed each activity in each unit getting 100% accuracy, my classroom goals would be met.

Step 3
To meet the goal of mastering time, learning the days and month in a year, and sequence and duration of events the students completed each worksheet and visual activity given in the 4 stations throughout the classroom. In station 1 there are time worksheets, and I even give an oral/visual clock drill to introduce the clock, and get the students familiar with it. In station 2 they have to complete a calendar and it’s entirety including the days of the week and the months of the year. By doing this it would show that they understand how to correctly know the number of days in the week and months in the year. In station 3 there will be items set up, and the students should put them in order from longest to shortest, this will show that they understand the term sequence. In station 4 there is a quiz that each student has to complete with 100% accuracy. The quiz contains items from each station. Each student in the classroom went through each of these stations and mastered all the different activities, and that shows our classroom goals were met.

Step 4.
When scoring each student on identifying the days of the week and months in a year, I would use a checklist. On this checklist I would be checking off if the student could identify each day of the week with 100% accuracy, and each month in the year with 100% accuracy. Each student will be informed on what to expect on check off day and would do many practice activities leading up to the check off day.

Impact of Demographics and Instructions
My first thought as I was completing my demographics chart for Mrs. Hodges 5th grade class was that the class only had 1 African American. The class was in no way racially diverse, but that was not a problem. As far as the male versus female ratio it was fair because the class had 12 guys and 11 girls, so it was well diverse on the basis of gender. Because there is an almost equal amount of boys and girls in the classroom there should not be a problem for equality in the curriculum.
In Mrs. Hodges class there are four students with special needs, and these students leave the classroom each morning to go to a “fast forward” program. The “fast forward” program helps the child to catch up and learn how to stay on task so they are able to finish their work at the same pace as the rest of the class, or close to the rest of the class. In other lessons throughout the day Mrs. Hodges may use “differentiation” to accommodate the special needs children. She may do this by calling on some of them to be the helper, or let them choose the activity for the lesson being taught (Lemlech, 2006, p.34). In the math lesson that was being taught that day I noticed that Mrs. Hodges chose one of the special needs children to write the correct answer on the smart board, and call him the “smart one” for that particular problem. She first observed him at his seat to make sure he was getting it, and to keep his participation level high she let him help. There is another student in the “fast forward” program that has a behavior problem and independent working problem. When it’s independent working time he cannot focus or keep quiet, but when the class was giving an assignment that allowed them to associate and help each other he done well. He completed the work with no problems and helped others also. According to Lemlech these type of people are known as “field dependent learners” (p.36).
I also noticed that many of Mrs. Hodges students did not do much class participation, and that bothered me. I was amazed at how many there were, and it was not because they were not paying attention, it was kind of like they were scared of failure. Mrs. Hodges told them that the lesson should be a review because they had been introduced to it the class before that one, and this may have brought about fear to many of the students because they still did not understand it. “Teacher expectations can effect student’s motivation an academic growth” (p.42). Mrs. Hodges did not push participation in the classroom to the degree that I thought would have been appropriate, and without class participation it’s hard to tell who knows the material and who doesn’t. She should start pushing participation, and encouraging more students to be leaders of the classroom by volunteering.
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Itec first blog

I'm currently a junior at Georgia Southern University where I am in my first semester of the teacher education program. and for my p-5 Curriculum class I observe at Stilson Elementary 5th grade class.