Cesar Chavez Academy
CurriculumAs a charter school, Cesar Chavez Academy, is partnered with Saginaw Valley State University. Our school transitioned to the Common Core Curriculum over the 2012-2013 school year. I was involved in the curriculum development as the eighth grade math department representative. To the right is the pacing guide document that covers the eighth grade math curriculum and a guided timeline. We also use spiral warm-ups, which recycle through content from the year and the previous days misconceptions.
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Career DayI organized and facilitated Career Day for our middle school scholars. Some of the careers included a chef, financial adviser, professor and poet, special team police officers, and interactive media artist. We held an assembly for each grade level where eight participants presented five minutes each giving them just enough time to sell their career. After the assemblies, we scheduled a more personal question and answer session in each classroom for the eighth graders.
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Math NightMy co-worker and I planned Math Night for parents and students. Many of the families at our school are from Mexico and the parents have learned basic math operation a completely different way then is taught in the U.S. Math Night focused on teaching the parents the methods we use in the classroom, methods for helping your student at home, and fun/simple games to practice multiplication at home.
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Coaching
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Summer School
During my second year teaching summer school, I was nominated as the lead teacher with a team of four. We organized the class as follows:
Warm Up (10 mins) Mini-lesson/Direct Instruction (20 mins) Rotating Stations (15 mins each) Exit Card (5 mins) The four stations are shown to the left. We set up a Word Problem station (shown in the upper left picture) to focus on the literacy aspect of math where students would identify keys terms and phrases within word problems from the day's topic. The Drill & Practice station (shown in the middle left picture) was designed to repeatedly practice the concepts from the mini-lesson. The Logic and Puzzles station (shown in the bottom left picture) gave the students an opportunity to think outside the box and be active in their learning. Lastly, the Remedial station (shown in the bottom right) cumulatively reviewed concepts from the previous weeks. Throughout the session, we modified the lessons and organized groups based on the data from formal and informal assessments and previous grades. We gave students highlighters, number lines, factor charts, graphic organizers and other tools to support their learning. We kept running records of progress with a goal of passing with a 75% on the final assessment. We accomplished this goal at a 100% passing rate. |