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This project was created to encourage educators to establish school site gardens. Gardens provide the opportunity to introduce environmental topics, and can become hands-on learning centers for subjects across the course of study.

Thesis (MPA.) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / Refer to document

The Common Core Standards for Math (CCSM) require a fundamental shift in what is expected of students with and without disabilities. Computation and finding correct answers are no longer sufficient. Students need to articulate the basis of their understanding and extend it. Teachers of students with a mathematical learning disability (MLD) are challenged in meeting the immediate academic needs of their students as well as the expectations outlined by the new standards. Students identified as having MLD with a deficit in executive functioning (EF) are expected to utilize the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) to access the CCSM as their general education peers do. Yet, when the three main brain functions of EF (working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control) are considered, deficits in these areas hinder access to the SMP. A compromise in any one of these functions may inhibit the students’ ability to master the standards.   This study examined which of the 11 identified EF skills are perceived deficiencies of students with MLD and deficits in EF, as well as what tools and resources are needed to support and develop EF skills in relation to the SMP. The focus was on the SMP and their use by K-5 teachers who serve students with MLD, coupled with cognitive deficits in EF. A manual was created specifically for this study, which found that the perceived deficit areas did not always align with the actual need areas by users of the manual. Respondents consistently identified resources aligned with EF skills associated with behavioral skills as most necessary, though survey results identified cognitive skills as most required to access the SMP. From a practical teaching perspective, these results are not surprising, as research has shown that a strong classroom culture (which directly correlates to internalization and use of behavioral executive functioning skills) is necessary for learning to take place, regardless of content. Participants indicated that the manual’s skills and strategies were beneficial for both the target population and general education students. Recommendations to expand the target audience of the manual and develop a training companion were crucial next steps.

Despite calls by U.S. researchers and policymakers for more teachers of color, supported by research documenting the significant social, emotional, and academic benefits of having same-race and same-ethnicity teachers, teaching remains an overwhelmingly White profession, even in light of demographic shifts rendering children of color the numeric majority in U.S. pre/schools. Relatedly, even as over one-fourth of children in the U.S. are immigrants, immigrant and transmigrant teachers have been marginalized in teacher education. Seeking to address this problem from a political-ideological paradigmatic perspective, this study sought to learn from transmigrant teachers’ negotiations of identities and practices. Rejecting essentialized notions of immigrant teachers/communities and focusing on Chinese transmigrant teachers teaching Chinese immigrants and children of immigrants, it sought to understand how they negotiated their teacher identities and pedagogical practices in light of occupational, geographical, and migrational intersections of identities and experiences. Further, it sought to document how these were enacted in early childhood public school classrooms. Situated in New York City, home to the largest Chinese and Chinese-American population of any city outside Asia, this collective case study centered the voices, identities, and experiences of three Chinese transmigrant early childhood teachers via Thirdspace theory, bridging identity, and transnational funds of knowledge. Doing so accounted for their individuality and collectivity. Analytically, • Thirdspace theory was used to map how they reconciled transnational identities, experiences, and pedagogical practices in the classroom; • bridging identity helped deepen understandings of how they constructed a professional/occupational identity influenced by, but not limited to, past biographical experiences; and • transnational funds of knowledge epitomized their lived experiences resulting from transnational navigations and/or belonging to transnational communities, capturing the complex flow of knowledges that characterized their experiences and pedagogies. Findings shed light onto the power and potential of Chinese transmigrant early childhood teachers in the education of Chinese immigrant children. Implications underscore the need for teacher education to learn from the experiences of international teacher candidates, recognizing how they may serve as role models for all students while improving the outcomes and school experiences of immigrant students, leveraging the simultaneity of experiences, identities, and experiences in the construction of Thirdspace classrooms.