Teaching+Cases

Teaching case...1) Jacques and Alex

What an unfortunate situation. First of all, it's hard for me to be to sympathetic toward alex. However, I don't know the entire situation, so this could be said with a bit of bias. I think possibly Alex could come in after school for maybe a half hour or so and quickly go over the lesson with him, or give him the notes for the day. Then the homework and other class materials can be handed out. This way he wouldn't miss too much and fall behind. Also, any labs that needed to be done could be made up. I think this would be a good remedy because he would be in everyday and could keep up with the class. As for Jaques, he would also need to be kept up with all of the work. In order to do this, the teacher may need to be a little more creative. I think that the internet could be extremely useful here. The information and assignments could be emailed to Jaques. This would be a good idea for keeping Jacques up to date with the rest of the class.

Teaching case...2) Andrew

I think in order to effectively get the most information to Andrew and to make the class most effective for him it would be very important for the teacher to work very closely with Andrew's parents. I would pray that they were actively involved in Andrew's education. If Andrew is going to miss weeks at a time, then a lot of the responsibility of his education would rest upon the parents shoulders. This would be a case in which the internet would be very helpful in giving and recieving information. It would be wise to meet with Sally and talk with her about some of the lessons that will be missed. This will, hopefully, give both her and the instructor a more comforable feeling about the situation. In order to effectively assess Andrew's learning, I would have the parents send the teacher the Andrew's work through e-mail. The teacher could then respond and reply to how Andrew is doing with the information.

Teaching case... 3) Dianna

I think that one of the things that I would first do is see if it was possible to get a textbook that is in spanish. Although all of the resources are in English I think that it would be essential for her to be able to get the information in her own language, even if it costs someone a little more money. Also, I would see what kind of resources the school has for ESL students. Perhaps the district could provide someone to either translate or to help with studying and homework outside of class time. It would also be important to distribute homework and tests in Spanish. The information that she is a good student get give some insight into how she should be performing in this class. If she is not doing well, then perhaps it is due to the fact that she is unable to understand the information or what is expected of her.

Teaching case...4) Gabriel

Because Gabriel enrolled two weeks after the class began, he would obviously have a lot of make up work to do. However, since this is an AP class, I would suspect that he is a good students who will put in the work to make up any work that he has missed. As for completing the labs; it is unfortunate that his school does ot have the proper supplies to produce the labs, however, I would be lent to suspect that there is some school around Gabriel that probable has the necessary equipment. The first thought that comes to my mind is to contact one of the schools and simple explain to them the situation and ask if they would agree with letting Gabriel and his mentor come in once or twice a week and use the equipment, under the supervision of one of the physics teachers from the school, of course. I would think that there would be a school around where Gabriel lives that would agree to this.

Teaching case...5) Jacob

Jacob was a student that was in my art class when I was a junior in high school. Jacob suffered from autism. Jacob was able to interact with his peers to a certain degree. He ran cross country and was the number five runner on a team that got 4th at state. Though limited in his ability to communicate, he was able to have simple converstations with people and was highly integrated into normal classrooms. Jacob was an amazing artist. His attention to detail was unbelievable. He was able to draw an absolutely perfect representation of the Kindome with each section drawn in and labeled. He would also often draw (a lot of the time in the sand at a meet) a map of the United States with each state outlined and each capital labeled. Although Jacob was a very good artist he was unable to understand what was being asked in different assignments and was unable to do the assignments as the rest of the class was.

I don't recall what the teacher did in the class that I was in. I'm not sure what kind of grading scale he had for Jacob or how he evaluated his work. It's hard to say how I would handle a situation like this. I would have understood that Jacob was fine around his classmates and his peers liked him so it would seem reasonable to have him work at a table with his peers. The goal would be to have him as integrated into the class as much as possible. The question on how to grade him is a completely different one. I would have to speak with his parents and come up with some sort of plan. Working with his parents would give me a better understanding of what he is capable of. I think that this would be important in my attempt to help Jacob with his education.