Memo #1: To my fellow educators

Welcome to the Power of Knowing Your Discipline Literacy

My Discipline

I have to admit I was not a studious student as a child maybe because

my parents were not educated or maybe because they didn’t know how

to read themselves or both or maybe the school I attended didn’t care

about my kind of student or maybe all of the above. You see my first

language was not English it was Spanish and when I started school they

were teaching in English and I needed to be taught in Spanish. So

began the struggle of educating Elsa. This may not seem at all such a

big deal, but to a five year old it is. I had to learn how to speak English

and also learn how to read and write English too. As you can see the

odds were against me, but I survived. I learned to speak, read and write

in English. Thus, bringing me to discover I wanted to help children like

me learn in any language. I want to help children who are caught in the

web. Trapped with no way of getting out the traditional way. I had to

learn how to survive my way out of school. Then I became an educator

to help children learn nontraditionally. I have a discipline/philosophy that

I use and has helped me teach children of all academic levels to achieve

success in literacy. I know I need to motivate students to learn and if I

can motivate my students to learn, then together we have achieved our

goals.

Knowledge

It is important to know the Standards set by DPI, which

after reading them I realized how important it is to know

them and internalize them to help me be a better

educator. These six core academic standards are

essential to teaching all students. I also included the

following website for more insight,

(http:/21languages2worlds.wordpress.com/2010/12

/27/bilingual-literacy/), which helped me understand

my responsibilities as an educator. Knowing and

understanding the responsibilities and the impact we

have as educator will make teaching fun and meaningful

for our students.

Understanding your Discipline

The tools available to assist you in teaching

are countless. There are the traditional

methods, for example, the blackboard,

books, magazines, newspaper, etc., And

now we have technology, for example the

computer, internet, computer programs

etc. But what good are these tools if we do

not diversify. Our students come from

diverse backgrounds and we need to use

all these materials to bring diversity in the

classroom. The technology bridges the

gap to provide diversity in teaching and

learning.