Nicholas Centurione

April 28, 2015

ELD 465
Artifact Collection
Bridging Theory and Practice
Standard 1: Learning Development. The teacher understands
how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of
learning and development vary individually within and across
the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and physical areas,
and designs and implements development appropriate and
challenging learning experiences.
Students have different ways of learning and one of the more
predominate ways of learning is with activities with hands on
participation. I first remember learning about this while talking my
course about teaching middle school math at Rider. This is when I was
first introduced to ways that manipulatives can be used in the
classroom. I always knew they could be a useful tool but it wasnt until
we watched a video on the subject that I was absolutely sure I could do
everything I could to include them in my classroom. When my class
started the unit on area and perimeter of rectangular figures I thought
the students would gain a better understand of the concepts with the
help of manipulatives.
I was able to get my hands on some tiny, one-inch by one-inch
squares. I was able to obtain 10 bags with 36 squares each so the
students had to work in pairs but I thought it was good working with a
partner. Had many of the students just worked by themselves, I feel
they would have been distracted by the squares and been more
concerned with playing than actually working. Because the students
had to work with at least one other partner, they were able to keep
each other on task as well as share their ideas about how to use the
squares to learn about area and perimeter. I thought the use of the

squares was really beneficial because it gave the students a physical

representation of area, which is the amount of space covered up or
enclosed by a perimeter. Some of the below grade students even used
these squares to help them on a test which I was okay with because is
showed me that they were learning from the squares and using them
for their intended purposes.
According to the Danielson framework I need to demonstrate
my knowledge of students and I knew my students well enough to
know that simply showing them how area and perimeter work on the
board wouldnt be enough. With these blocks I was able to give the
students a chance to move them around and build with them while
maintaining the standards that I wanted. It was important that the
students understood area as square units. If they had to draw the
shapes themselves, they could have been skewed but with the squares
I think the students knew from the beginning that all the side lengths
of the individual blocks are going to be even.
Standard 2: Learning Differences. The teacher uses
understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures
and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments
that enable learners to meet high standards.
My student teaching experience has been filled with many new
experiences that I havent seen in any of my other placements. One of
those new experiences has been working with a wide range of students
from the below level, at level, and above level classes. This is the kind
of variety of student levels that I wasnt able to work with while
completing my course work at Rider. Working with the below level class
has been the most difficult but has also been a very rewarding
experience. While I like to hope that I have been able to influence all
my students in some way I know that one boy has come a long way
since I have joined the class. He has been more active in class, doing

his homework more often and has been scoring better on all of his
quizzes. I just thought he was becoming more mature but when the coteacher wrote me a note thanking me for all the work I have done with
the student, I knew that I was able to reach one of my students.
I think the student sees me as more approachable because I am
close in age to him than all of his other teachers and because I do my
best to work with every student one on one. Unfortunately teachers
are usually too busy to give every student the attention they need but
since there are three teachers in my class now, all the students
individual needs can be met. Hes also a student that has difficulty
staying focused in class, which is something I have seen plenty of
times in the past. While he usually volunteers to read and pass out
papers, I always make sure that he is doing something for me in one
way or another. I believe that it has helped him academically because
it makes him feel as if he is part of the class instead of just being a
distraction. According to the Danielson framework I need to
demonstrate a knowledge of my students and I know not every student
is like that though. Some students dont need to pass out papers or sit
in the front to know they are a part of the class so the students that do
need that should be the ones who are given that special attention.
Standard 3: Learning Environments. The teacher works with
others to create environments that support individual and
collaborative learning, and that encourages positive social
interactions, active engagement in learning, and selfmotivation.
I believe the best environment for students to learn is one that is
welcoming and encourages the students to have fun while they are
learning. While putting together a PowerPoint presentation on
classroom management I was really able to think about how I wanted
to incorporate my students input while building my classroom
environment. I believe students should have a say when thinking of

classroom rules. According to the Danielson framework I need to

create an environment of respect and rapport and I believe I do this by
including the students in rule making. They are the ones who will be
asked to follow them so if they know they are able to create the rules
themselves, the students will be more likely to follow them. I also
believe that students should be encouraged to work together in class.
Late elementary school and middle school are the years where
students really begin to find out who they are and forming their own
circle of friends. They should be encouraged to interact with everyone
they possible can instead of being separated from other students and
forced to work by themselves. Students can learn so much from each
other, outside of the school material, which it is really everyones best
interested to have the students work together.
While at Rider I have had in class discussions with fellow
students who feel that the classroom should be more regimented. A
few of my peers believed that the students shouldnt sit in groups
because that encourages disruptive behavior and sitting alone can
foster independence. I always disagreed with these thoughts because I
think school is a place where students should be able to talk and be
lively. It creates a more welcoming environment. Throughout my
student teaching experience I have really built a rapport with many of
my students which allows me to give them certain freedoms that I
would trust with most sixth graders. Because these students know who
I am and can see me as someone who cares about them, they are
willing to work hard and trust me. They know I want whats best for
them and will help them any way I can.
Standard 4: Content Knowledge. The teacher understands the
central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the
discipline he or she teachers and creates learning experiences

that make the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners

to assure mastery of the content.
Knowing how to actually teach the content to students is just as
important as knowing the content for myself. This is why my
philosophy of education that having fun with the students while they
are learning is something I want to do as much as possible. I have seen
it multiple times throughout my short time in classrooms and even
when I am playing the role as student. For my middle school education
class we had to teach a chapter from the textbook as if we were
teaching it to an elementary classroom. Because everyone was fairly
inexperienced in teaching, the lessons were pretty standard. One
group, however, made a game out of their chapter. They made a
competition out of the game by seeing which student could finish a
word search first. This was an awesome change of pace from all the
other lessons was a lot easier to pay attention to.
When playing a game as a review for a quiz or test, all students
are going to be more engaged in the material and according to the
Danielson framework I have to show how I am engaging students in
learning. I had two boys who were always quiet because they didnt
know the material but once we started the jeopardy review game they
were louder than anyone as they kept getting all the questions right. I
knew these boys were having more fun and learning more than they
would from a simple review worksheet and it showed on the quiz the
next day. While you cant play games every single period of every
single day, injecting the class with some fun, engaging activities is
always a good idea. It gets the kids excited and livelier which means
they are more focused on me and the material instead of the clock
hanging on the wall. By playing games youre basically tricking the
students into learning and sometimes thats the best way to do it.
Whatever gets the students engaged in the activity should be done
because engaged students are the ones who learn best.

Standard 5: Application of Content. The teacher understands

how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to
engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and
collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and
global issues.
Before spring break began I was able to finish the unit with the
students a little bit sooner than I had expected to so therefore I had to
find an extra days worth of material to give the students so they had
something to do in class. I gave them the task of finding the area and
the floor tiles that are located in the schools lobby. Before we went
down to the lobby, I first had them find the area of the normal square
tiles in the hallways. I thought of this just as I was walking into school
that day. It made sense to do that first so the students do a practice
problem before moving onto the more difficult one. The tiles in the
lobby were tilted diagonally but to some of the students they looked as
if they were squares because of the students perspective. While this
was a difficult problem that was meant to challenge the students, one
group was able to find the correct answer. They were able to cut the
diamond into four equal triangles and add them back together to find
the area. They used their prior knowledge about the area of squares
and triangles in a creative way to solve the problem differently than
another group.
This is the kind of problem that I always heard my professors
talking about in class while at Rider. Something that really gets the
students to think outside of the box and put all their different problem
solving strategies to use. According to the Danielson framework I
have to show how I am engaging students in learning and I am doing
that by giving them a challenging, but not impossible problem that is
meant to test their creativity and problem solving abilities.

Standard 6: Assessment. The teacher understands and uses

multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their
own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the
teacher and learners decision-making.
While the students were taking the PARCC test, their schedules
got all jumbled around causing them to only have one of their three
normal classes everyday for the three days of PARCC testing. When it
came time for my first class to come in I had my lesson plan all ready
to teach them so that we did not lose any instruction time during
testing. It only took me ten minutes to realize that the students were in
no shape to sit through an eighty-minute class period. Instead I threw
out my lesson plan and moved into an activity I was planning on doing
after the PARCC was over. I handed out the square blocks to the
students again and had them play with them to find different shapes
that could all have the same fixed perimeter.
According Danielson framework I am suppose to show how I
design student assessment. I designed this one with the hope of
having a full class period to teach the lesson but I wasnt able to do
that. Instead I assessed them on what they were able to show me while
doing this informal lesson. The students were instantly relieved
because I could see the look of exhausting on there faces disappear. It
wasnt what I was planning on doing but the students really needed it
so it had to be done. I wanted to do a more formal lesson on fixed
perimeter but this was equally as effective. Because I instructed the
students to just play with the figures, I was able to walk about the class
and observe them as they discovered the concept. Had I just taught
them the concept the next day, they wouldnt have been so lively or
engaged but because they knew they were kind of taking a day off,
they wanted to discover and have fun with the lesson. Because the
students would be testing for the rest of the week, I didnt assign them

any homework but I could tell the next day that they didnt need the
homework to reinforce the material.
They remembered everything they had done because it was a
fun activity that was a lot better than sitting through a lesson. While at
Rider, my professors always stressed the idea of being flexible. We
would talk about how teachers who are able to move and adapt with
their class are the teachers who get the most out of their students and
I was able to really understand what they meant on this day. I had to
break away from what I had planned. It made me uncomfortable at first
because I didnt know how it would go but the positive results were
very reassuring.
Standard 7: Planning for Instruction. The teacher plans
instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous
learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas,
curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as
knowledge of learners and the community context.
When I first did the activity about finding the area of the floor
panels in the lobby of the school, I wanted to make sure that the
students were going to be forced to thinking about the problem. For my
first class, which is the at-level class, I simple told them what questions
I wanted them to answer and sent them on their way. The lack of real
instruction really forced the students to think and because it wasnt
being graded I told them really be as creative as they wanted. I knew
the same routine wouldnt work for my second class, the below-level
class. For them I did a quick review of how to find the area of
rectangles and triangles. During my prep period I also typed up the
questions I wanted them to answer so they had the questions in front
of them.
According to the Danielson framework I have to demonstrate a
knowledge of my students and I did this but knowing they would need

the questions in front of them in order to do their best work. Even with
this extra little help that the first class didnt have, the problem was
still challenging for many of the students. Without the help I believe
that they wouldnt have had an interest in solving the problem because
it would have been too difficult. While planning for this lesson I had to
really understand my students and what would be best for them. Ive
heard on many different occasions from my professors that the
students should be challenged when doing their work. If the students
arent being properly challenged, then they will become bored with the
material, which could be more detrimental to their learning. I wanted
this problem to be challenging but still interesting for the weaker
students.
This is why I wanted to differentiate amongst the two classes
because they each have different needs. The first class was able to do
their work but they did struggle with the concept a little bit. Once I saw
this I knew the second class would have even more difficulty with it.
The second class had too many students who I felt would give up if I
didnt provide them with enough instruction so I made the educational
decision to give them a little more help than the first class.
Standard 8: Instruction Strategies. The teacher understands
and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage
learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and
their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in
meaningful ways.
When we first started working with area and perimeter of
rectangles, I was able to find a very good worksheet online that asked
the students to draw their own rectangles of a certain area or
perimeter. During my classes at Rider, the idea of using the Internet as
a resource was a very important idea that the professors always
stressed to us. Each question had its own eight by eight square of dots

for the students to connect to form the rectangles. I really liked the
worksheet because it asked the students to know the difference
between area and perimeter and they had to come up with their own
shapes that met the criteria. There were no one right answer and some
of the shapes are to be a little bit different than a normal rectangle so
the students really had to make sure that they had a deep understand
of the material before they started to draw their shape. Some students
had a real difficult time with this because the space they were given
wasnt big enough to accommodate their idea of what the shape would
look like. I had to be careful when talking to these students so I didnt
give away the answer. I asked them questions about other times we
had seen shapes that may not have been rectangles and that they
should read the instructions again.
According to Danielson framework I have to engage students in
learning and I did this by allowing them to answering their own
questions. I didnt want to give them the answers so I made them find
the answers themselves. After putting some thought into it, they
discovered that they didnt need to draw the perfect rectangles and
that the shapes could have a few added blocks here and there on the
sides. I know that not all of my students are that creative and could
think outside of the box the way the worksheet asked them to do but I
wanted to give it to my students anyway. Just because a student lacks
creativity doesnt mean that their creativity shouldnt be tested. I
wanted these few students to have their weaknesses tested.
Standard 9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practices. The
teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses
evidence to continually evaluate his practices, particularly the
effects of his choices and actions on others and adapts
practice to meet the needs of learners.

I attended one of the after school professional developments on

unpacking the standards. For this we were given a standard for math
that had some of its words taken out and replaced with blank spaces.
We were tasked with filling in the correct missing words to see if we
had an understanding of the types of words that we should be focusing
on while reading the standards. After were we done we formed groups
and were asked to come up with three different activities that relate to
that standards and Blooms taxonomy. It was really interesting to work
with other math teachers and see what words they focused on while
reading the standards and what kind of activities they were able to
think of. It really allowed me to reflect on myself and where I am right
now as a teacher.
Ive always heard that the first few years of teaching are the
hardest and I know this will be true for me. I will really need to use my
resources as best as I can when I first start because I wasnt able to
come up with any ideas close to what the other teachers were thinking
up. It showed me how valuable experience really is in this field but
equally as valuable is what you do with that experience. In the fall I
was able to attend the NJEA convention in Atlantic City, which was a
wonderful experience. The whole convention was filled with teachers
who set on refining their craft. No one will every stop growing as a
teacher so it is important that I am constantly reflecting on my
teaching and learning every little bit I can from each lesson. According
to the Danielson framework I have to reflect on my teaching, which is
something I try and do everyday.
Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration. The teacher seeks
appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take
responsibility for the students learning, to collaborate with
learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and

community member to ensure learners growth, and to advance

the profession.
One of the most important steps you take whenever you start in
a new classroom is to properly introduce yourself to the parents of your
students, which is something that dont really teach you how to do at
Rider. In my welcome letter I told the parents about myself, my
educational background as well as the organizations that I am a part of
on Riders campus. According to the Danielson framework I have to
show professionalism, which is something, I do by telling the parents
about the different educational organizations I am a part of on campus.
I include a brief explanation of my philosophy of education because I
wanted them to know that I believe that their children are the most
important part of the classroom and that they should be having as
much fun as possible while in school. Building a relationship with the
families of your students is critical. I have seen many different emails
thanking Mr. Z for working with the students and being so
understanding. Without that kind of relationship with the parents,
teaching can be a constant battle inside the classroom and outside.