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Consider the following scenario: You are the technology coordinator for a small school in a rural area along the border region. Your school serves a K-12 population, and has a limited tax base. Over half of the school's population is on free or reduced lunch. The school library has high speed Internet, and each classroom has one or more modern computers with fast Internet. Your principal has come to you and saying that the school board is asking him three questions: "How may we prepare to use technology most effectively over the next three years?" "What programs, grants, professional development or other things should we be considering as ways to make this possible?" and finally "How do we prepare for the future beyond the next three years?". Please address your answer to the Principal in the form of a suggested set of responses that he will take to the school board. You may guide him/her in why you suggest things, including social, legal, technical, pedagogical, or ethical issues.

You need to design a series of professional development workshops for your school spanning a 3-year period. Highlight at least three different (theory-based) pedagogical approaches. You may use as many technological resources as you like. Give an example of each approach as well as a way to assess your teachers’ success. (You may reference a tool like the STaR Chart or other similar if you like).

You school has recently been sued over equal access to technology. The principal and the school counselor have asked you and other technology leaders to prepare a letter for the campus improvement committee that addresses the top three issues that you believe they should address in ensuring that technology is used effectively to ensure that ALL students have equal access to learning tools. Please craft a draft of the letter and defend your points. Keep social, legal, ethical, and economic issues in mind, and support your ideas in those terms.

Your school has recently expanded its technology capacity, adding computers in the classroom, multimedia labs, classroom Internet, and instructional websites, among other things. Your principal has come to you and asked you to draft a plan for helping teachers upgrade their technology skills. IN A THREE-PART RESPONSE,
(1) BRIEFLY Describe a three-year plan that you would suggest to the principal AND
(2) DESIGN a rubric for evaluating the effectiveness of your plan in terms of pedagogical, accessibility, financial, and practical considerations.
(3) Defend the elements of your rubric, IN theoretical and practical contexts)."

Using your own classroom as an example or using your recent research, describe how children develop concepts in the content areas through constructivist learning experiences. Additionally, illustrate ways in which the principles of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) support developmental sciences, mathematics, and Social Sciences for normally developing children, children with special needs, and children from diverse backgrounds. Remember that DAP identifies milestones that help the teacher in the assessment process. Refer to a minimum of five scholarly authors.

Language development in early childhood is a process that involves learning to use language in a variety of contexts. Language development involves the acquisition of phonetic, semantic, syntactic, morphemic, and pragmatic language knowledge from a very early age. Describe the development of language in young children and its connection to literacy by tracing a minimum of three aspects of emergent literacy development in young children. Additionally, contextualize your description in a border community classroom by referring to linguistic and cultural diversity. How do you create a community of learners among children of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds while promoting linguistic and cultural identity? Refer to a minimum of five scholarly authors.

A current movement in early childhood education is the reform of classroom instruction, changing from traditional to constructivist strategies for engaging young children. This change includes teaching integrated content through real-world examples and opportunities for experiential learning which implies play development in a child centered classroom. This theoretical base has been historically promoted in early childhood as “Autonomy”. The inverse to autonomy is “Heteronomy”. Using your own classroom as an example, or using your recent research, describe how children develop concepts in the content areas through constructivist learning experiences. Relate your descriptions to the dichotomy of Autonomy/heteronomy. Write three or four descriptive examples from your own experience that illustrate ways in which your early childhood classroom or your research knowledge, reflects the principles of developmentally appropriate practice and constructivist principles. Refer to a minimum of five scholars who have informed you in these areas.

Describe how Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practices, as a guiding foundation for early childhood education for the last decade, helps you to : (1) be a better teacher relative to your teaching style, (2) be a better assessor of the children you serve i.e. knowing the developmental benchmarks (3) be a better curriculum designer which centers on child centered pedagogy. How will these three items above make you a stronger advocate for children in your community, particularly those in your classroom, and help you to promote social justice. Refer to at least five scholars from the field to support your argument.

5. In a Constructivist environment children actively interpret their experiences in the physical and social worlds and thus construct their own knowledge, intelligence, and morality. NAEYC supports the constructivist view of play as critically important for children’s development and education by stating: “Developmentally Appropriate Practice is “child-initiated, child-directed, teacher-supported play”. This emphasis on play carries on a long tradition in early education and child development. Consequently, early childhood constructivist teachers create a culture of inquiry and evaluate curriculum content in terms of activities that promoter inquiry, seeks appropriateness to the intellectual abilities of the children, does the activity allow for a wide range of possible responses, will the activity lead to a new insight and awareness, will the activity provoke curiosity, does the activity allow the children to do most of the thinking?
Taking all the above descriptions, design a scenario in your classroom where you develop an environment that follows the above pedagogical approach. Describe how you will empower children by using play, developmentally appropriate practices, and allow the children to be the thinkers in your classroom. How will you stimulate children’s interest, experimentation, and cooperation? Hint: maybe your favorite lesson which uses those characteristics can help you describe your early childhood constructivist classroom. Refer to at least five experts in the field that support your descriptions.

Some scholars argue that the debate about bilingual education has less to do with the pedagogical effectiveness of the model than with the place that linguistic diversity is given in society and among dominant ideologies. Reflect on the readings you have done during your masters program and discuss:
1) What are language ideologies?
2) How do language ideologies influence the everyday practices of teachers, administrators, students and parents?
3) How can teachers resist dominant linguistic ideologies that discriminate against the native languages of our students?
In your response, please describe specific examples in classrooms, homes, peer groups and other community settings where linguistic ideologies are enacted in everyday practices. Use the work of at least three scholars in your response.

1. Briefly summarize the basic facts of one of the following court cases that has impacted bilingual education (Lau v. Nichols; Castañeda v. Pickard; Alvarez v. the Lemon Grove School Board).
2. Discuss at least two implications that this case had for Bilingual Education students and/or classroom practice.
3. How is this case relevant to current federal and/or state policy with respect to English-only policies, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, Proposition 227, Proposition 31 or another selected policy of your choice?

A number of scholars have described the challenges that many English language learners (ELLs) face in that they are simultaneously learning English as a second language while learning content concepts in their second language. In attempting to explain this challenge, several of these scholars have directed our attention to the fact that learning English in and for school implies learning more than one variety of the language.
Drawing on the work of at least three scholars:

1. Explain your understanding of the forms (varieties/types) of language that ELLs must learn in order to achieve academic success
2. Explain or describe the relationship between everyday conversational English and learning English for academic purposes.
3. Drawing on the work of scholars you have already cited, describe how the nature of learning academic English impacts:

a. ELLs’ academic achievement as compared to their native English speaking peers;
b. The types of language programs or other academic support that you believe are best able to address ELLs’ language learning and academic achievement;
c. The knowledge base and/or types of training teachers of ELLs need in order to support their language development and academic achievement.

Henry Trueba (2002) believes “The mastery of different languages, the ability to cross racial and ethnic boundaries, and a general resilience associated with the ability to endure hardships and overcome obstacles will clearly be recognized as a new cultural capital that will be crucial for success in a modern diversified society, not a handicap.”

a. Why do you think Trueba believes that knowledge of languages and crossing cultures will be so beneficial to those who possess such skills today and in the future? Cite three authors whose theories and philosophies can support your position.

b. What kind of policies or practices in our schools impact student resiliency and how?
c. What kind of educational policies/practices impact a student's resiliency? Give examples. How might improved classroom practice assist students in developing resiliency?

The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) has promoted a model of literacy development that focuses on the components of literacy as established by the NRP (National Reading Panel) Report of 2000. This model includes the following components: alphabetics (including phonemic awareness and phonics), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Some educators feel that these components do not adequately describe the literacy and/or biliteracy development process for bilingual students. Please reflect on your knowledge base and experiences in the area of literacy development for bilingual students. Think about how you would enhance this model for application to your bilingual students. Please describe:

a) Two aspects of literacy and/or biliteracy development that you would add to the model to more adequately describe those processes for your bilingual or English language students.
b) Describe the theoretical rationale or principles that support the two aspects that you have added to the model, and cite the authors/researchers whose work supports the practices you have described.