Trolonda Terrell, Certified Academic Language Therapist
Personal Philosophy of Education
My love for teaching students with learning differences is like a walk along the seashore.
Relationships
Building positive relationships with my students engages them academically and they achieve more.
Social & Emotional Learning
I work on my own social and emotional needs in order to teach my students how to become self-managers, responsible in decision making, building relationships through social awareness while allowing for greater self-awareness.
Engaged Learning
Bob Sullo's book The Motivated Student: Unlocking the Enthusiasm for Learning focused on multiple instructional strategies that engages students to want to learn rather than forces them to learn. I conduct need-satisfying lessons.
Monitor Learning
I monitor my students' learning as a facilitator to clear up misconceptions. Here, I am explaining to a new student how to organize her grammar cards before coding a sentence.
Multicultural Education
Growth Mindset
Dr. Carol Dweck developed and coined Growth Mindset. She describes it as when students understand that their abilities can be developed.
Multisensory Teaching Approach
I believe whole heartily in using each modality to teach in every subject. VAKT has proven to be the best way to teach not only students with learning differences, but all students can benefit from this multisensory approach to learning. The multisensory structured language education or MSLE approach in which I use incorporates intervention and remediation into lessons.
Direct, Explicit, Sequential, Systematic, Cumulative, & Intensive Instruction
I commit to teaching all concepts with student-teacher interaction. I make sure students understand what they will be learning before each lesson and the rationale for the lesson. I state concepts clearly and eliminate doubt and confusion. The lessons are always applied with a a fixed plan with practice and review over time. Instruction extends to an efficient amount of time and extra time if needed.
Be Prepared
I stay prepared by thinking ahead of what my students may need in order to learn a new skill and enhance a familiar skill. I am modeling to students how to use the same color sticky notes on the Take Flight Grammar Card to map a story with who, what, when, where, why and how.
Christine Bennett's and Ruby Payne's books offered me an in depth study of the movement towards equity, curriculum reform, social justice and the goal of becoming multiculturally competent.