Educ 531

 

Final Reflection

            In class this semester we learned a lot about integrating our classrooms with other teachers and technology in order to meet the needs of many students.  By working together with other teachers, you can all work together to help students succeed.  When you add technology into the mix, the opportunity for individualized learning is endless. 

            Something I’ve seen while in clinical practice this semester is that every teacher in the department has a role.  For each topic that they teach, the teachers know which staff member to go to for help.  I can see the benefits of department lunches because it allows teachers to talk about what troubles they are having as well as something neat they’ve done in their classroom recently. 

            Personally, my CT and I team taught some lessons.  We were not full time teach teachers but every so often, she would ask me to present something to the class, or I’d ask for her expertise during a lesson.  I do not think this is a practice that most teachers put into their classroom because there is usually only one teacher, but I could see it being beneficial to all parties if fully practiced. 

            I used many of the student inquiry exercises that we learned about in class and even found a way to incorporate technology into the mix.  One of the models I used was Inductive thinking.  I made a bag with items in it and talked about each one and had students guess what I was talking about.  It was a great way to get students hooked into the new book we were reading.  I also used a student inquiry when learning about the author of the new book we were reading in class.  Students were instructed to get into groups of 4 to 6 and make sure there was at least one smart phone.  Once they were settled they had to find as many interesting facts about the author as possible in 5 minutes.  At the end of the time, each group read off their lists and if there were repeats students had to cross it off their list.  I also used repetition and memorization with this because whenever a group had a repeat fact they had to say which fact it was so students were hearing the information multiple times.

            Overall, in this class I’ve learned that it is beneficial to use student centered learning.  We use it in class and I’m more engaged and I can tell my students are more engaged when they are creating their own learning.  I’ve observed many classrooms this semester and while teacher-centered learning is popular and still has its place, many teachers would benefit from incorporating checking for understandings or some student-centered learning activities.  I like that the methods we learn in class also help build student responsibility and accountability for their learning. 

Method Integration and Philosophy

            Many of the teaching models we learned about in class fit well into my educational philosophy.  In high school classrooms, students usually have had enough educational experience to know how they enjoy learning best, that is why it is important to communicate with your students and find out what is and is not working for them.  The great thing about the models we learned about in class is that students are not as familiar with them, so you are introducing something new that will make them curious. 

            My belief in schooling is that it is a place for students to define themselves and discover their beliefs and morals.  It is more than just educating a student with basic knowledge, it is also a place to encourage students to explore and satisfy their own curiosity.  I think school is a place to enforce hard work, respect and accountability and through that you inspire students and provide them with the tools to realize and fulfill their full potential.   Using models that require students to take responsibility for their own learning creates productive and curious students that are willing to put effort in towards the final product. 

            Of all of the models shown in class, Inductive reasoning was my favorite.  It was also the one my group presented so I also learned the most about this one.  What I loved about it is that students have to bring their own backgrounds and connotations into the lesson and work through what they already know to connect it to what they are learning.  In our group we used bags to represent a small idea and then all of those connected into one big picture.  The best part for me was to see groups that were so sure of themselves and what their guesses were question themselves and their peers.  Everyone was engaged and interacting with the material and using their minds and skills to try and figure out what the bags represented.  The main thing that I loved about this model is that it could be used in any content area in a number of ways; it could be an into activity or review.  It is a model that could easily be used and requires students to think about what they are doing. 

            Another one I enjoyed and used this semester was role-playing, but not in the way that students take on roles and act out in front of the class.  Instead, I had students take on a role with their writing.  I gave them a role to fulfill and an audience to talk to and had them write on any number or topics.  I used it for books and for stand-alone lessons about Earth Day.  Role-playing has been a tool that inspires creativity and helps students take risks with their writing.  I love that students are able to see from another perspective and use what they know about a character to make decisions like that character or in a certain time period.  I have seen some great debates and “aha” moments come from students role playing while they are writing. 

            Both of these models fit into my educational philosophy because I believe the learning process is a matter of exploring.  If a student is not enjoying the curriculum, I will need to make it relevant to their life.  By making things relatable, students are more likely to see parallels and take something more meaningful away from the lesson.  Also, going along with existentialism, it is important to make sure to vary your curriculum in order to grasp all of your students’ curiosities and ways of learning.  Each of these models allows the student to relate to the material and make connections from their own life.  That is how I believe students make meaning from what they are learning and by creating meaning they are learning. 

Journal #5

Teaching last semester taught me more than I thought I would ever learn about students.  At the beginning of the semester, I was amazed at how much my cooperating teacher knew about each student and what they needed beyond their academic needs.  I thought that I would never be able to learn much about my students in the short time I was teaching.  Much to my surprise, students were open and trusting and I learned more than I expected to.  I was surprised at how many students simply didn't think they could succeed so they would not even try or turn in assignments.  I was surprised that the students I thought would need the most differentiation were my hardest workers and did not need as much specialized attention as I thought.  Instead, it was the students that did not feel like they had to try to do well in my class.  It surprised me that so many students did not turn in assignments and did not care to make the points up until they saw their grades toward the end of the semester.  I made sure students knew that I was on their team and I wanted them to succeed, but they still needed to earn their grades.

Being surprised by the students that needed more outreach than others made me realize that every student has needs that I need to meet.  Always taking the time to get to know my students and giving them the time they need is necessary so I can understand the needs of every student.  It is important for me to reach out to every student every year and make sure students know that I want them to  succeed in my class and beyond.  The gap between me and my students is something that I need to communicate in order to close.  Talking to students and letting them know that I am there is the only way to meet their needs because that is the only way I can talk to students and learn what they need from me to succeed.

Some of the things I saw in my clinical practice that made me feel negative was hearing teachers talk negatively about students and have no faith in them to succeed.  It made me feel angry because I did not feel like teachers were willing to put in the extra effort to help.  This relates to my biases of judging when I feel like people are not doing what they can to help others.  I am someone who always puts their all into everything and it bothers me when I feel like others are not doing everything they can and are negative about it.  I need to understand that every one has different strengths and weaknesses.  My strength is being understanding and patient with students and not everyone has that.  I want to do everything in my power to communicate with my students and understand their needs and do what I can to meet them.  I need to be understanding that not everyone approaches educating student the same way and not feel angry or negative when someone does not do something the way I would. 

Journal #4

Everyone has biases that they hold in their minds, even if they do not act out on their feelings.  I have been through a lot of training on tolerance and oppression and it has opened my eyes to how much oppression is built into our society.  I had the opportunity to work on the tunnel of oppression during my undergrad and worked in the oppressive language section.  Before I worked on it, I had not realized how much language has an affect on different groups of people.  Now that I have realized how much our society, especially popular culture, has oppressive language ingrained into it.  Being aware of these things has turned my biases around and turning into judging people who use oppressive language because I see it as something simple that can be changed.  I am quick to judge when I hear someone use language like "retarded" or "gay"and don't think about their exposure or life experience.  Especially when working with high school students, I need to remember where I was and what I knew in high school.  As an educator, judging people who aren't as aware as I am because I've gone through specialized training is not going to help anything.  I need to use my role and impact on my students to educate and raise awareness rather than judge. 

Journal #3

The needs of students in the 21st century to me seems unknown.  I look at the past 5 years since I've been in high school and the technological progress made and I cannot wrap my mind around what else will be invented in the next 5 years.  When I was in high school, I got my first cell phone that I could make phone calls on.  I would leave it off in my locker all day and use it to call my mom when I needed to be picked up.  Now, my brother is in high school, he has owned more phones than myself, his phone can take and edit pictures, he sends and receives over 100 text messages a day and can browse the web in seconds.  With all things considered, the gap between what I had in high school and what is now available is huge.  The gap between their technological know how and mine is not as large.  I think the gap mainly comes in catching onto technology tools and using technology to compliment their way of thinking.  For me, I am comfortable in the way I do things, with paper and writing things out, even though I know how to keep a calendar on my computer and phone, I prefer to write it out because that it what I am used to.  For my students, they are used to doing things with technology, they have had it almost their whole life.  In order to make connections with my students, I need to be more willing to do things in a way that students will respond to.  Things like, keeping up with their grades online and posting homework and allowing them to complete work and be creative with technology.  I need to be willing to learn from them and continue to practice and get used to doing things in my classroom with technology.  It is one thing to know how to use the technology, but I need to make sure I incorporate it and allow my students to use technology and continue to educate myself on how I can use technology in my curriculum. 


Journal #1

To be a student in my class is challenging.  In my classroom I ask students to explore their way of thinking and develop opinions with reason.  Having the opportunity to work with 11th grade students allowed me to challenge them in ways that enabled them to grow as individuals.  As I observed other teachers around campus I discovered why my students saw my reflective questions as difficult.  Many of the classrooms I had the opportunity to observe rarely asked the students what they were thinking; and when they did, after a few moments of silence, teachers gave up and moved on.  At first, this discouraged me from running my classroom the way I wanted to.  But then I looked at the students in their desks, after asking a question, I did not back down.  When I saw teachers move on and let students "off the hook" I could see the relief in students' faces.  When I fell silent and told students we would not move on until I received three different well supported opinions, they started to think.

The first time I waited and had 38 faces staring back at me, I was uncomfortable.  It felt like I had just delivered bad news, but I waited.  After what felt like hours of silence, one brave soul half raised their hand.  I called on them and expressed how valid their observation was and praised them for initiating conversation. After positive feedback, a few more hands went in their air.  This made me smile.  While I still had to wait after asking students for their opinions, my wait time got shorter each time.  I was only with my classes for 8 weeks, but I saw growth and that was worth the wait.

Journal #2 
 

Quote	What it means	Deeper thinking
From the TED video. “ Schools are squandering creativity.”	This quote means that schools are not encouraging students to be creative, rather they are requiring students to come up with “the right answer.”	Watching this video brought me to tears that had weld up yesterday as I sat in on lunchroom of teachers.  These teachers were venting about how difficult it is to teach students grammar and proper writing when everything they read breaks the rules they are teaching.  They were going on about how it is ok for an author to break grammar rules for the art of writing but students can’t because they have to write in MLA format.  I wanted to stand up and scream, “why not let them write creatively?”  Sure, as said in the video, there is a difference between creativity and wrong, but we must enable students to think in a way that feels right to them.  Even if the writing will turn into a MLA paper, let the students do a creative pre-write where they write for a certain amount of time, no rules, no grade, just putting everything they love and hate about a topic or book on paper.  Afterwards they read it and highlight 3 main points. Magically, a well thought out academic paper starts to form because the teacher let the student think in a way that felt right to them.  The teachers were also talking about where the spark for learning fades between elementary and high school and I believe it is because school goes from creative and new to the right answer and formatted.  In order for students to enjoy school and benefit from their education we MUST allow them to think and work creatively.
Quote from, A whole new mind, “This century, new technologies are proving they can replace human left brains.”	This quote means that a computer is the ultimate left-brain thinker because it has NO human qualities to interfere with its intelligence.	Even the strongest left brain thinker has human emotions, thus interfering with their efficiency.  The book talks about how a computer can’t choke or get distracted because it has no human qualities to get in the way.  While this is true, it does not talk about the human instinct that is needed at times doing left-brain work. If a part is missing, or a piece was mis-shaped, a human can see that and know when to step in.  The computer only knows how to do it and would not have the human instinct to catch mistakes or make smart decisions.
From Kids do well if they can, “Kids do well if they can.”	This article is saying that if a student is provided with a safe and ideal learning environment for them, they will succeed.	Just because a student does something differently, or doodles while you lecture, does not mean that they are misbehaving.  Sometimes, it helps students to process information.  This goes along with the creativity in school.  We cannot treat our classroom like a one size fits all giveaway.  We have to give our students the ultimate individual experience that enhances their education in the way that they need.  Like Disney Cruise promotional DVDs.  When you request information they ask you every question in the book to get to know you and how they can make a Disney vacation look most attractive to you.  Young couple with no kids?  They show you other young attractive couples having a good time at the bars, dancing, parasailing etc… They show you the vacation that is going to peak your interest.  They don’t send everyone the same DVD with the married couple with 2.5 kids splashing in the pool together, meeting Mickey, that doesn’t work for everyone. When something isn’t working, don’t blame it on the outside, or the students, look at yourself and make sure you are doing everything possible to help this student succeed.
From Kids do well if they can, “He has a bad attitude.”	Teachers often use this as a reason for a students misbehavior or lack of effort in their classroom.	I think that if a student seems to have a bad attitude, it is for a reason.  It could be that they broke up with a significant other last night or it could be a learned defense from a background full of obstacles and challenges.  Don’t just write off a student because they are being difficult, take the time to be patient and understanding and reach out to the student.  Chances are, just your effort will mean a lot to them and small changes may start happening quickly.