AMLE is for you!!!

Not only is this resource full of articles that help teachers of all content areas expand their curriculum and teaching materials, but it is also allows teachers to get involved in supporting one another in the work field. Association for Middle Level Education is a membership organization specifically specializing in helping grow Middle School teachers into teachers who are there for their students and their schools. I specifically found an article written by one of the members that wrote about connecting math and literacy. It states an approach to doing this would be the AP Five-Step Process that involves using prior knowledge, explanatory texts,  range of writing, text types and purposes connecting math lessons to an english lessons. It goes through how a teacher would use this process to teach a basic math lesson, but getting down onto a students' level of understanding.

I discovered through the article that this association is more than resourceful tips and strategies for teachers, but also a membership level association. By becoming a member, you are able to write articles full of your own ideas for the association, just be a regular member, and/or serve on one of the various committees they offer. The best part is the membership is free. I believe this can be a great resource for all middle school teachers because the association focuses solely on Middle School teachers and those students. Another great resource to joining this organization is that they have a conference once a year just for Middle School educators where there are over 300 sessions that are geared straight to middle school teachers full of opportunities and information that can then be taken back into the classroom! Overall, AMLE is full of resources for all middle school teachers specifically, so check it out!!

Word Count: 297
Resource: https://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/472/Weaving-Math-and-Language-Arts-Literacy.aspx
Main Website: https://www.amle.org/Home/tabid/401/Default.aspx

Textbooks Are Not the End All Be All!

I believe this chapter was something that all teachers of all subject areas need to read before teaching. As a student, I never truly read a textbook. My teachers would give us reading assignments of 20-page chapters to then just go over the material in class the next day. Because of this, I have always had a negative attitude toward textbooks and their purposes. There is so much more to learning in a class than strictly reading from a textbook and being tested on it. Not only is a textbook overwhelming to a student it is also overwhelming to teachers. Some teachers require their students to read the textbook cover to cover because they are unsure if they can teach absolutely everything that is said in the textbook and want to make sure nothing is forgotten. Teachers can’t even teach because they have too much information to teach on and leave the rest to the students to deal with. However, this does not have to be the case in the classroom.  This chapter gives helpful suggestions to teachers such as picking out specific topics to read from the text or small sections that allow students to dig deep and evaluate the text rather than skim through 20 pages and not remember anything in class the next day. It shows teachers how to choose these topics and pick the best information to teach on, which leaves their students feeling more prepared. If a teacher doesn’t know the best way to use the textbook than a student most definitely won’t. Therefore it is important to allow our students to understand the importance of the textbook as ultimately being the best resource to them, but not the end all be all of the class. 

Subject Matters: Chapter 6
Word Count: 290

Resources For ALL Teachers!!

Literacy is all around the classroom and can be incorporated into every subject. I believe literacy as reading, writing and developing thoughts and ideas. Sometimes, I think, we make literacy into this impossible task when in reality we can incorporate literacy into our content areas with no fuss. I do believe that resources will help us, as future teachers, with this concept and I have found one that all teachers of all ages need to know about for their classrooms and lesson plans. There are grade levels from K-12 with subjects ranging from Math to Language Arts. This resource has everything from lesson plans, to interactive work for students to videos. All of these things help teachers ultimately help their students understand what they are learning better. The best part of this resource is it is free!

I started to explore the site more and found several things I loved about the site. The videos are fascinating and would be a great tool to use in class when trying to better explain a text or class material without it coming from your voice. Another incredible resource included in this site is the lesson plans. The interactive content is also an incredible resource to use within your classroom. These could be used as homework assignments or in class group work. They are fun and easy, but allow your students to continue reviewing new or old material and texts from class.

Literacy is used throughout all of classes through the different type of texts used. This may look like a math equation or a social studies paragraph about the Mayflower. Either way, those are both examples of texts and literacy used in the classroom and there are multiple ways to exemplify those and this resource is just one helpful way to do so.
Resource: https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/grades/middle-school/
Word Count: 301

It is more than a Reading Level

I remember reading materials and constantly asking the person next to me in class to explain what we just read, or just sitting there waiting for the teacher to review what we read. Part of time I was just being lazy, but other times I truly didn't understand the text before me. In this chapter, we learn that that is the norm for a large number of students. I think it is important to understand that we shouldn't water down all the material that students are reading because then they aren't learning anything new and are not growing in their academic learning rather they are just mastering one specific reading level. We need to push our students, but the level we push them needs to be different for every single student. It is so vital as a teacher to know that you can not just teach at one level and expect every student to understand. Teachers have one of the hardest jobs in that they must get to know all of their students and create a learning field in which every student can succeed. As a future teacher, I want to meet my students where they are and at the time it may be more work on myself to find 15 different texts that are at different reading levels, but in the long run I am allowing my students to be successful and feel accomplished which affects their overall academic life. I don't want to have students that look back and say they hated my class because they never understood the reading. I can't expect to separate reading from my content area because I wouldn't be able to teach it without reading. Ultimately, if I don't want my students to be lazy learners than I cannot be a lazy teacher.

Subject Matters: Chapter 11
Word Count: 301