Amanda Crocco

Mrs. Kanya
Tomorrow’s Teachers (9)
8 February 2018
Educator Resume Terms
21st Century Skills:
➔ A broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed to be
critically important to success in today’s world.
◆ Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing
information; research skills and practices, interrogative questioning
◆ Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression
◆ Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative
◆ Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening
◆ Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual
workspaces
◆ Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet
literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming
◆ Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy
◆ Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism
◆ Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism
◆ Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method
◆ Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding
◆ Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health
and safety
Action Research
➔ Disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary
reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining
his or her actions.
➔ Wide variety of evaluative, investigative, and analytical research methods designed to
diagnose problems or weaknesses—whether organizational, academic, or
instructional—and help educators develop practical solutions to address them quickly
and efficiently.
➔ Seven steps: Selecting a focus, Clarifying theories, Identifying research questions,
Collecting data, Analyzing data, Reporting results, Taking informed action
Adaptive Learning
➔ Computer-based and/or online educational system that modifies the presentation of
material in response to student performance.
Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic Learners
➔ Auditory
◆ Most benefited from traditional teaching techniques, such as lecture-style and
presenting information by talking. Regulation of voice tone, inflection, and body
language helps all students maintain interest and attention. They succeed when
 directions are read aloud, speeches are required, or information is presented and
requested verbally.
➔ Visual
◆ "Show me and I'll understand."
◆ Benefit from diagrams, charts, pictures, films, and written directions. Value to-do
lists, assignment logs, and written notes.
➔ Kinesthetic (most of the school population)
◆ Touching, feeling, and experiencing the material at hand. Most successful when
totally engaged with the learning activity, because they acquire information the
fastest when participating in a hands-on activity.
Authentic Assessment
➔ A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that
demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills.
Backwards Design
➔ Method of designing educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing
instructional methods and forms of assessment. The three stages are: Identify the
results desired (big ideas and skills), Determine acceptable levels of evidence that
support that the desired results have occurred (culminating assessment tasks), Design
activities that will make the desired results happen (learning events)
Balanced Literacy
➔ This program balances both whole language and phonics instruction, and includes the
strongest elements of each. read alouds, guided reading, shared reading, interactive
writing, shared writing, Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop and Word Work.
➔ Balances the three components when teaching reading and writing: teacher models (i
do), teacher supports learners as they practice (we do), and learners work independently
(you do).
Blended Learning
➔ Combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods. It requires the
physical presence of both teacher and student, with some element of student control
over time, place, path, or pace.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
➔ Set of three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning objectives into
levels of complexity and specificity. The three lists cover the learning objectives in
cognitive, affective and sensory domains. Specific learning objectives are derived from
this and used in lesson plans.
➔ Created in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and
evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just
remembering facts.
Common Core
➔ Set of educational standards for teaching and testing English and mathematics between
kindergarten and 12th grade, in the US.
Community Involvement
➔ Spending the extra time helping out a community, without being compensated.
Competency-based Learning
➔ Systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on
students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are
expected to learn as they progress through their education.
➔ In public schools, they use state learning standards to determine academic expectations
and define “competency” or “proficiency” in a given course, subject area, or grade level.
➔ Goal is to ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills that are deemed
to be essential to success in school, higher education, careers, and adult life. If students
fail to meet expected learning standards, they typically receive additional instruction,
practice time, and academic support to help them achieve competency or meet the
expected standards.
Content-based Learning
➔ The focus of this type of lesson is on the topic or subject matter. Students learn about a
subject (usually that interests them) using the language they are trying to learn, rather
than their native language, as a tool for developing knowledge and so they develop their
linguistic ability in the target language.
➔ Designed to provide second-language learners with instruction.
Contextualization
➔ Contextualized Teaching and Learning is a group of instructional strategies designed to
link the learning of basic skills, and academic or occupational content by focusing
teaching and learning directly on concrete applications in a specific context that is of
interest to the student.
Cooperative Learning
➔ Successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels
of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject.
Cross-curriculum/Interdisciplinary Teaching
➔ This type of teaching involves a conscious effort to apply knowledge, principles, and/or
values to more than one academic discipline simultaneously. The disciplines may be
related through a central theme, issue, problem, process, topic, or experience.
➔ Teachers collaborate with other teachers from different departments or grade levels to
find common topics to prepare, so that subjects can be taught jointly rather than
separately. This makes the stream of information clearer for students, the learning
activities more fluid, and the student's reservoir of knowledge and skills fill faster.
➔ Three general phases of collaboration:
◆ Aligned: wading in the same direction as your fellow teachers. Ex. when history
department and English department agree that DBQ's count for English credit as
well as social studies credit, then planning the year so that topics of study in
history are taught concurrently with literary eras. In this way, students can
construct a foundation, and are able to better generalize what is learned in
history because they see the effect on literature.
◆ Cooperative: teachers synchronize their strokes to match their pace. Ex. a math
and science teacher get together and decide on the best way and the best time
to teach motion and cooperatively agree to help each other teach it, either
 separately or jointly. When the math teacher needs models to show students
what the math is good for, he obtains them from the science teacher, and when
the science teacher needs the students to perform mathematical calculations,
she utilizes the same process the math teacher used just a week before. In this
way, students understand math and science with their heads above water, rather
than drowning in confusion.
◆ Conceptual: teacher knows both subjects at high levels and is able to teach both
conceptually. This is difficult for a single teacher to be expert in two subjects, so
the solution is to combine forces and team teach. Ex. when an art teacher works
closely with the science teacher and they both help students understand the
effect of pigments and light by teaching together the science of wavelengths, the
electromagnetic spectrum, and the dual nature of light.
Curriculum Calibration
➔ A process of examining student work and assignments given, to understand what
students are actually being asked to do and what they are given the opportunity to
demonstrate that they know, and to verify alignment to grade level content standards.
➔ Helps develop a deeper understanding of the standards and how they progress from one
grade level to the next.
Curriculum Mapping
➔ the process indexing or diagraming a curriculum to identify and address academic gaps,
redundancies, and misalignments for purposes of improving the overall coherence of a
course of study and, by extension, its effectiveness.
➔ Refers to the alignment of learning standards, teaching, and all the many elements that
are entailed in educating students, including assessments, textbooks, assignments,
lessons, and instructional techniques.
➔ A coherent curriculum is (1) well organized and purposefully designed to facilitate
learning, (2) free of academic gaps and needless repetitions, and (3) aligned across
lessons, courses, subject areas, and grade levels. When educators map a curriculum,
they are working to ensure that what students are actually taught matches the academic
expectations in a particular subject area or grade level.
➔ Goals are
◆ Vertical coherence: what’s learned prepares students for the next lesson, course,
or grade level
◆ Horizontal coherence: what’s learned in one 9th grade biology course, for
example, mirrors what other students are learning in a different 9th grade biology
course
◆ Subject-area coherence: teachers work toward the same learning standards in
similar courses (three different ninth-grade algebra courses taught by different
teachers), and students learn the same amount of content and receive the same
quality of instruction, across subject-area courses.
◆ Interdisciplinary coherence: focuses on skills and work habits that students need
to succeed in any academic course or discipline, such as reading skills, writing
skills, technology skills, and critical-thinking skills. Improving interdisciplinary
 coherence across a curriculum, for example, might entail teaching students
reading and writing skills in all academic courses, not just English courses.
Differentiation
➔ Tailoring instruction to meet individual needs, by differentiating one, any, or all of the four
elements of the classroom: content, process, products, or learning environment.
Digital Portfolio
➔ A collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the
Web. For teachers, it is thought of as a documented statement of their teaching abilities,
responsibilities, philosophy, goals and accomplishments as a teacher.
Digital Storytelling
➔ Multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and
often a narrative voice. They can be used as an expressive medium within the classroom
to integrate subject matter with extant knowledge and skills from across the curriculum.
➔ Encourages students to communicate, collaborate, research, infuse media into the
process, and helps them gain a deeper understanding of history as they explore the
most effective way to retell it.
District Benchmarks
➔ Short tests administered throughout the school year that give teachers immediate
feedback on how students are meeting academic standards. Regular use of benchmark
assessments is seen as a tool to measure student growth and design curriculum to meet
individual learning needs.
Enrichment
➔ Programs or activities made to challenge students displaying exceptional abilities (may
be early bloomers or “gifted”) without giving extra work when they are finished with
classroom work. Also allows students to have their own educational experiences.
Flipped Classroom
➔ Instructional strategy and type of blended learning that reverses the traditional learning
environment by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of the classroom. It
moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework,
into the classroom.
Formative Assessment
➔ Refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations
of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit,
or course. Formative assessments are FOR learning.
Frontloading
➔ When a teacher anticipates a learning difficulty before teaching a particular concept, and
pre-teaches the skill to address the deficit before teaching the actual skill, so that the
students have some knowledge of the concept so that they can connect or anchor their
new learning.
➔ A form of assessment and activities which can be used before reading to assess student
conceptual, procedural or genre knowledge that may be necessary for success on
subsequent reading tasks.
Gamification
 ➔ Educational approach to motivate students to learn by using video game design and
game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and
engagement through capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue
learning.
Global
➔ Global education or global studies is an interdisciplinary approach to learning concepts
and skills necessary to function in a world that is increasingly interconnected and
multicultural.
Growth Mindset
➔ Concept developed by psychologist Carol Dweck
➔ Students who embrace growth mindsets have the belief that they can learn more or
become smarter if they work hard and persevere, which makes them learn more, learn
more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning
and skills.
◆ However, in a fixed mindset, students believe that they are either “smart” or
“dumb” and there is no way to change this. They end up learning less than they
could or learn at a slower rate, while also shying away from challenges. Also,
when students with fixed mindsets fail at something, as they inevitably will, they
tend to tell themselves they can’t or won’t be able to do it, or they make excuses
to rationalize the failure.
Hands-on Learning
➔ Hands-on projects obviously engage kids who are tactile or kinesthetic learners, who
need movement and active participation to learn best. They also engage students who
are auditory learners, who talk about what they're doing, and visual learners, who have
the opportunity to see what everyone else is creating.
➔ Proven to increase student outcomes
Information Literacy
➔ Set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have
the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information."
Inquiry-based Learning
➔ Form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios, rather
than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge. The
process is often assisted by a facilitator.
Learning Platform
➔ Integrated set of interactive online services that provides the teachers, learners, parents
and others involved in education with information, tools and resources to support and
enhance educational delivery and management.
Lifelong Learning
➔ The provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout
people's lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the
knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfilment.
Mass Customized Learning
 ➔ When the instruction is tailored to each student’s needs and interests, and technology
helps make this mass customization possible through personalized digital learning.
➔ About each learner becoming an active, engaged partner with real voice in how he or
she learns and how he or she demonstrates knowledge or skill.
Modalities
➔ Refer to how students use their senses in the learning process. The four modalities:
visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving), and tactile (touching). The more
senses or modalities we can activate, the more learning will take place.
Multidisciplinary
➔ Combining or involving several academic disciplines or professional specializations in an
approach to a topic or problem.
➔ An approach to curriculum integration which focuses primarily on the different disciplines
and the diverse perspectives they bring to illustrate a topic, theme or issue. A
multidisciplinary curriculum is one in which the same topic is studied from the viewpoint
of more than one discipline.
Multiple Intelligences
➔ This theory differentiates intelligence into specific “modalities,” rather than seeing
intelligence as dominated by a single general ability.
➔ Verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic,
bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, existentialist
Multisensory Instruction
➔ Important aspect of instruction for dyslexic students that is used by clinically trained
teachers
➔ Involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways simultaneously to
enhance memory and learning of written language
Outside the Box
➔ Metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective.
Refers to creativity.
➔ You can help students develop creativity by: ask open-ended questions, establish
discussion routines, model creativity, use visible thinking routines, praise out of the box
thinking, and specify end goals rather than the process.
Paperless Classroom
➔ A classroom where paper documents (textbooks, homework submissions, grade reports)
are replaced by electronic documents.
Parental Communication
➔ A communication tool that demonstrates to another person that we understand how they
feel. This tool shows that we care enough about what our children have to say.
➔ Used to show concern for a student or help improve their behavior and academics.
Personalized Learning
➔ Refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are
optimized for the needs of each learner. Typically technology is used to try to facilitate
personalized learning environments.
Portfolio Assessment
 ➔ An assessment form that learners do together with their teachers, and is an alternative to
the classic classroom test. The portfolio contains samples of the learner's work and
shows growth over time.
Prior Knowledge
➔ Students come to the classroom with a broad range of pre-existing knowledge, skills,
beliefs, and attitudes, which influence how they attend, interpret and organize incoming
information.
Professional Development
➔ Refers to a wide variety of specialized training, formal education, or advanced
professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators
improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness.
Professional Learning Community
➔ Group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to
improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students.
Response to Intervention
➔ Multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and
behavior needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal
screening of all children in the general education classroom.
➔ Ongoing student assessment.
Rigor
➔ Describes instruction, schoolwork, learning experiences, and educational expectations
that are academically, intellectually, and personally challenging.
Scaffolding
➔ Refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem,
and then step back, offering support as needed.
Standards-based
➔ Refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are
based on students demonstrating understanding or mastery of the knowledge and skills
they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.
Summative Assessment
➔ Evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against
some standard or benchmark. Summative assessments are often high stakes, which
means that they have a high point value. Example: a midterm exam.
➔ Summative assessments are OF learning.
Synthesis
➔ The fifth level (second to the top) of the Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid, synthesis requires
students to infer relationships among sources. The high-level thinking of synthesis is
evident when students put the parts or information they have reviewed as a whole in
order to create new meaning or a new structure.
Technology Integration
➔ Use of technology tools in general content areas in education in order to allow students
to apply computer and technology skills to learning and problem-solving. This is where
the curriculum drives the use of technology and not vice versa.
Thematic
➔ Instructional method of teaching in which emphasis is given on choosing a specific
theme for teaching one or many concepts. Thematic learning takes place when different
disciplines are all centred towards one definite concept.
Today’s Learners
➔ Want to have a say in their education, have higher levels of digital literacy than their
parents or teachers, demand the freedom to show their wild creativity, are better
educated than any generation before them, and know they are the future.
➔ Expect transparency in their parents, teachers and mentors.
➔ Want you to tell them when you have messed up, apologize for it, and move on.
➔ Don’t care as much about having a job as they do about making a difference.
➔ Want to connect with others in real time on their own terms, can collaborate amazingly
well as they love teamwork, really can multitask, appreciate a “trial and error” approach
to learning new skills, and learn by doing.
➔ Have a “can do” attitude, and thrive in an atmosphere of controlled challenge.
➔ Have multicultural awareness and appreciation, are open to change, increasingly aware
of the world around them.
➔ Are equal parts “consumer” and “creator.”
➔ Know where to go to find information.
➔ Expect interdisciplinarity, as they understand that subjects are inherently interconnected.
Whole Brain Teaching
➔ Approach designed toward maximizing student engagement, and focusing on the way
the brain is really designed to learn.
➔ Highly interactive form of instruction that delivers information to students in short
“chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners, using
hand-gestures to help remember specific vocabulary.
Whole Child Teaching
➔ Meant not just to improve students’ academic performances, but also contribute to their
overall development. This approach aims to provide students with the assistance and
structure for attaining long-term success in all areas of their life. Maintaining the main
statues - when students are healthy, safe, supported, engaged and challenged -
students are then able to learn to the best of their ability.
Zone of Proximity
➔ Difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with
help. Concept developed by Soviet psychologist and social constructivist Lev Vygotsky
(1896-1934).