Imagine you’ve found out that a kid you know is really interested in astronomy (or cooking, or video games, or fashion, or baseball, or music, or police work, or whatever). How would you help her go into depth in this area? What might she learn by exploring her interest more deeply?
If I had a student who was interested in astronomy or any other specific area, I would push the student to find out more about that topic. I would do this by incorporating time in class for the student to research the topic. I could also guide the student on what questions to ask, and where to go to find the answers to questions they have pertaining to the topic. Modeling how this is done could also be very beneficial for a student that isn't sure how to partake in this activity. I would model how to research on the internet and what questions they should be asking. By exploring their interest more in depth, students can figure out the details of what their interest truly is. Students can find out if their interest is more or less of what they initially thought it was. Students may also figure out if their interest has any corresponding career pathways that could help them determine the direction of their professional career in the future. Sternberg says that “to be successfully intelligent is to think well in three different ways: analytically, creatively, and practically.” What are some methods schools could use to help students become successfully intelligent in each and all of these ways? A method schools can use to push their students to think analytically, creatively, and practically is by incorporating these attributes into standards relating to the classroom content. For example, a strong practice at my site is to have success criteria for students to monitor their learning in the classroom. School could push teachers to have success criteria in the three attributes listed above. By doing this, it shows students on a consistent basis where they're headed with their learning, but, at the same time, it gives them regular opportunities to practice being successfully intelligent. Csikszentmihalyi talks about the importance of “flow,” the state of being totally absorbed in one’s work or play. Think about a time that you were completely in the “flow” while learning something new. How would you relate that experience to the typical learning experiences students have in traditional schools? Did you save any of the papers you wrote for school? Why or why not? A time where I was completely in the flow while learning something was in my 8th grade social studies class where the teacher gave us a project with parameters but let us do a majority of the heavy lifting. What this did was give the students a sense of ownership of their learning by diving into a specific topic that was interesting to us. At the same time, however, we were still responsible for following the guidelines of the project. The project also encompassed a variety of ways to get the learning to stick. Students had to research and create the project on their own while also having a communication piece by having the students present their project to the class. This experience hardly relates to the learning that students experience in schools today. Every now and then teachers incorporate project based learning, however, it is not common. Today, teachers have a conflict of always doing the talking or always doing the heavy lifting during instruction. When teachers do this, students loose out on the opportunity to take ownership of topics. I do not have any of my previous papers I wrote in my secondary schooling, however, I do still have papers I wrote in college. These papers held a more significant meaning for me because they helped shape who I am and what my values are as a teacher. If school assignments helped students learn who they are as a person and got student fully immersed in the learning, perhaps there would be more assignments kept for future purposes. Is there anything you always cut out, file, jot down into a notebook, or add to the pile on your desk? What is it, and why do you save it? Anything I write down or keep is for things that I deem will be important for future preparation or future instances where the information I keep will be needed to ensure success. I keep these things to make sure that I put myself in a situation where I can succeed given the correct information. I also keep data on my students to further drive my practice. On a side not, I also jot down to-do lists on a regular basis to help me organize activities I need to complete in order to be successful.
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Are there any situations in life where “one size fits all”?
It took me awhile to think of a situation that is one size fits all, however, I did think of one that is somewhat humorous. The situation I thought of is hats that are one size fits all. Being a golfer, I often get these hats. Doing some more research on them, though, they only fit a range of head sizes. For example, one of these hats can fit head sizes from a range of 21 to 23 inches. So, although the hat is marketed to fit all head sizes, it can only fit certain head widths. Relating this back to education, I think this situation is similar because education should be fitted to certain types of learners to best suit them. Tell about a time where something you learned motivated you to learn more. What implications does this have for education? Something I learned that motivated me to learn more was baseball related and had to do with my success towards the game. Throughout my baseball career, I often soaked in failure and struggled with letting go when I did fail which would negatively effect my performance in games. I had a coach that taught me to learn and embrace failure rather than look at it negatively. Learning this was not easy and took time, but when I grasped this concept I was able to flush my negative thoughts and turn it into something positive. This completely relates to education due to the amount of students I have encountered that also struggle with accepting failure. By promoting this concept of accepting failure, we can teach our students to engage in learning that is progressive and it can promote learning when students are in the real world. This is a strategy that can be used in all walks of life. Write down what you believe are the most important things every child should learn. Ask your colleagues and friends to do the same. What is different? What is the same? Are our schools ensuring that children are learning these things? What I believe the most important things every child should learn are accepting failure, being honest, and self-discipline. I asked people close to me, who have no ties with education, what they think are the most important things and they reported that children should learn boundaries, individualism, and personal awareness. The difference was that my values pertain to things that are progressive and can lead to more learning for the child due to my values being more related to education. The people close to me and their chosen values have to do with more social aspects of life and a child's character. The similarities are that our values combined relate to a child's individual experiences. Schools do address these concepts with their students, however, there is more of a focus on academic content rather than a child's individual character. How do you get a student to want knowledge? Once you get them to want it, what are the best ways to help them get it? You can get a student to want knowledge by making the knowledge relate to a student's individual experience. Student's want to learn things that they can show off or immediately use for a conflict they have or could have in the future. For example, a child will want to learn how to count and use money because they understand the necessity of needing to know how to use it. Once they want to learn to learn something, the best way to help the get it is by creating situations that students ay find themselves in based on their prior experiences. By bringing a student's real life into the learning it will fully immerse them in the learning. For example, if a student is learning money usage, a teacher can frame questions based on specific stores a child likes. Tell about a time when you were in school and your learning matched your interests. How was that experience different from times when your learning didn’t match what you were interested in? When I was in school, learning that matched my interests was always based on my personal character rather than academics. So, teachers who focused on building up their students character were more effective for me. What I found was that I also paid attention more during academic instruction with these teachers as well because they already had me interested due to their core values. Learning that didn't match my interests was with teachers who focused on academics only. I felt that I was learning still in these situations, but it didn't hold the same weight as the learning with teachers who wanted me to be a better person. What do we have to unlearn about traditional schooling so that we can educate one student at a time? What we have to unlearn about traditional schooling so that we can reach individual students is the idea that one strategy will work for all students. We have to take a step back a realize that what works for one student will not always have the same results for another student. We have to be able to have many strategies at our disposal as teachers. By doing this, we can give ourselves a better chance at having something that will work for each specific student. What changes would have to happen to make a truly personalized school possible? Where would you begin? Changes that would need occur to make a personalized school would need to start with teacher training. Teachers would need to be trained on this idea that one size does not fit all when it comes to education. Along with this, teachers would also need to be monitored to make sure that this is being met in the classroom. Teacher complacency would most likely be the main obstacle with this. It would be important for administrators to create a positive environment for this change to happen. “You have to start where people are, because their growth is going to be from there, not from some abstraction or where you are or someone else is.” ~ Myles Horton Favorite Quote from Chapter 3:
"If kids are going to be respectful, they must feel respected. And respecting them means allowing them to make decisions about the things that affect them." What would a school that was “a little more human” look like to you? A school that is " a little more human" is a school that respects its students and staff. In order for a school to be human it must have qualities that reflect a positive relationship. To me, these qualities are respect, communication, and trust. Schools can incorporate these qualities by having all parties affiliated with the school (students and staff) adhere to the same expectations and standards related to human decency. For example, teachers should treat their students with respect, build trust through relationships, and communicate regularly. The same goes for staff interaction with other staff. How could a school go about showing its students that they are trusted and valued members of the school community? A school can show its students that they are trusted and valued members by giving them more responsibility and choices to make regarding their education. Lots of schools rid students the opportunity of having responsibility and choices to limit things like negative behaviors, however, when we do this it creates an environment rid of free thinking. To include responsibility and choice on school campuses, administration should consult teachers on how they can integrate these components into everyday instruction. Administration should also look at their own school environments and ask themselves if they have those same qualities implemented into the structure of their schools. For example, in the classroom teachers can give students roles and jobs that require personal responsibility and choice, while outside of class, students are also given roles to practice those same qualities. It is imperative that classroom environments mirror the school environment, otherwise, you create a school that contradicts itself. What rules exist in your everyday life (in your school, in your workplace, in society) that were developed “based on the exception”? A rule that I can think of that exists in my life that was developed "based on the exception" are "optional" PD days. Optional PD days are days where school staff must undergo extensive training about a specific topic. For this, it is almost always required for teachers who are beginners (1st or 2nd year teachers) to attend and for teachers who are veterans this training is often optional. This rule can create a divide among school staff due to some getting the information and others missing the information. Teachers who are beginners should be getting the instruction from these PD days, but one could argue that veteran teachers need the information as well so everyone can be on the same page. Think of a story you know about the various “communities” in your life: your school, your neighborhood, your workplace, or even your family. What does that story reveal about the community’s culture and values? A story that comes to mind about my school revolves around how teacher/student relationships can negatively effect student behaviors. Working in the special education department, I often encounter students who display negative behaviors regardless of who you are as a teacher. That being said, one instance I can recall involves a general education teacher who had one of my students and myself. This student we shared was exhibiting very positive and productive behaviors with me, but when this student had to go to the general education teacher for class the student would show problematic behaviors. The reason for this, was the lack of relationship the general education teacher was offering to the student. When the general education teacher put effort into the relationship and got to know our shared student, they quickly saw how this student was able to turn things around in their class. What I find works is consistent positivity and relationship building with these students. By doing this, we offer our students lines of communication and a chance to be understood by authority figures. Do you and your colleagues share the same philosophy or vision about your school or workplace? Why or why not? How does this influence the way you work together and think about your work? My colleagues and I do not share the same philosophy about our school. There is a clear divide in the vision between teachers on my campus. Some believe that if something is not in our job description that we do not need to address it with students. Others believe that we as teachers should do what's necessary (job description or not) to teach and prepare our students for life's challenges. For example, some teachers would rather send students to the office for a minor behavior, then take the time to discuss it with a student themselves. This divide has led to a negative school culture amongst all parties involved with the school. I believe this has happened due to a lack of communication and accountability amongst school staff. This influences the way I work, but making me feel isolated in my views about students and the purpose of my job as a teacher. Introduction
Creating a positive learning environment is very important thing to have as a teacher. Positive learning environments are built with trust and respect of all members in the classroom. The topics that teachers should be looking at to build a better classroom environment for their students is building rapport & increasing parent collaboration. Building Rapport Building rapport is an important step in creating a more positive learning environment for our students. Rapport building is how teachers and students can identify similarities and form those similarities into meaningful relationships. For my class, I incorporate several ways of getting to know my students and for them to understand me as well. The road goes both ways when creating rapport. To understand my students, I use three strategies: student questionnaires, ice breaker questions, and small talk. Student questionnaires are very useful in determining a student's interests and can let students feel included into your class right away. This questionnaire would be great for the beginning of the year. I start by having students give me a specific name or nickname they would like to be called throughout the year. By doing this, it shows students that they have the right of choice and personalizes the learning experience for them. After that, depending on the capabilities of my students, I will have students either write two sentences about a prompt or answer multiple choice questions on specific components of class they would like to have. The questionnaire allows my students to feel a sense of ownership on their learning experience. I also use icebreaker questions at the start of my class to understand how my students will react in certain situations. This gives me an idea of their preferences and thought processes. An example of an ice breaker could be, "Which do you prefer, cake or ice cream? Why?". These simple questions spark conversation and it is important for teachers to share their point of view as well in order for students to get to know us at the same time. Lastly, do not underestimate the power of small talk. Small talk (between class periods, lunch, etc.) is a perfect way of getting to know your students. This could look like simple conversations about a certain shirt a student is wearing or a song you heard a student listening to. Sparking these small conversations allows for students to engage in topics that they are experts in and when we as teacher put our students in these situations we give them a chance to thrive. Increasing Parent Collaboration Parent collaboration helps build a better classroom environment by bringing the learning (academic & socioemotional) from class into the household. Parent collaboration can be in the form of phone calls, emails, or other different mediums. It is important as teachers that we communicate the positive things along with the negative. Some teachers get into the trap of only reporting the negative which sets a example that contradicts a positive classroom learning environment. One strategy I use to increase positive parent collaboration is with a shout out wall. On the shout out wall, students' names will be posted when great deeds or accomplishments have been made. When a student makes the shout out wall, I give a positive call home to explain to whoever is at home the awesome reason why their child has made the wall. What I feel this does is show students that I am rooting for them and am willing to openly cheer for them when they succeed. This makes students feel supported and reach new levels of confidence which helps us achieve our goal of fostering a positive learning environment. What are some things you use in your classroom? How should we be preparing kids for the real world? What is the real world, anyway? Can you identify some real-world skills or knowledge that every child should learn or know?
I would define the real world as the tasks and responsibilities that life requires. These things are time management, self-discipline, and communication. As teachers we should be preparing our students for the real world tasks. Every child should learn and know what these things are because of how much they are needed in adult life. You see too often that students leave school not knowing where to even start with things like self-discipline or time management. If schools don't prepare their students with these skills, then they are doing their students a disservice. If our society committed itself to the idea that we care about kids more than we care about schools, what would need to change? In order to incorporate this idea that we care about our students more than the schools, we as schools would need to educate teachers appropriately and change the objective of school to prepare students for the real world. One could argue that teacher education programs are more centered around paperwork and lesson planning. Teachers are also taught about equity and fostering social emotional learning in their classrooms, but it seems that the paperwork side of things takes priority. These components of teacher education are important and are heavily monitored in a teacher's first couple of years teaching. After a teacher obtains permanency, though, an instructor can have much more freedom of what they want to do and some of the core foundations of equity and social emotional learning could be lost. In my opinion, teachers should be required throughout their career to focus on relationship building, ridding their classroom of bias, and building life skills among their students. Schools should also change their objectives. Schools often focus on test scores and numerical values that are assigned to students. In my opinion, this outlook should be changed in order to prove that we care about the students and not the schools. Have you ever thought about the idea that “the world is changing—schools are not”? What are some things we could do right now to bring schools up to pace with the changing world? The world is constantly changing, yet it seems that schools continue to have the same standards and expectations for their students. Some things that schools can do now to pace with the changing world are teach skills that students will always need and incorporate real world situations into everyday instruction. Some skills will always be needed in the real world, and they should be taught in the classroom at all levels of schooling. The skills that come to mind are communication, relationship building, and self-regulation. If we want to prepare our students for an always changing world, we must focus on valuable attributes that will never go away. Schools must also incorporate real life situations into their instruction. A classroom that has real life situations for students to work through is much more beneficial for students than a classroom where students mindlessly work through problems with no context. There is always context and meaning in life and teachers must put their students in similar situations to prepare them for the real world. Do you believe that there is one set of knowledge that every kid should learn? If so, what is this knowledge, and what actions should schools take to make sure that every kid gets this knowledge? I do believe that all students should have foundational concepts such as math, language, science, and history, but students should also have basic life skills incorporated into their education as well. An action schools can take to make sure their students have necessary life skills is to create a specific class and curriculum surrounding life skills. In the same way that core subjects are taught and standardized, schools can create the same system for meaningful life skills to better prepare their students for the future. If you agree that the ability to believe in yourself and to love learning are important skills schools should teach, how would you go about teaching them? I would go about teaching my students to believe in themselves and to love learning by focusing on accepting failure. In today's world, there is a negative outlook on failure, but in order to learn one must be able to fail and learn how to accept it. I would choose to teach this by regularly putting students in situations where they can fail. By doing this, it allows for the development of acceptance and teachers can guide their students on productive thinking processes to use failure instead of shy away from it. Why do you think kids drop out of school? If you have known a high school dropout, what was his or her experience after leaving school? What do you think needs to change in the way schools and society deal with dropouts? I believe that students drop out of school because of their surroundings. A student's surrounding can mean the difference between them dropping out and staying in school. For example, if everyone surrounding a student at home has dropped out then that could influence a student to do the same. A student's support system and immediate environment is very influential in decision making. What schools should change for students who dropout is create an alternative support system and environment to teach students the importance of obtaining an education. Core ideals this support system should focus on is the skills that students who dropout will be without if they chose to leave school. This system should also teach students the possibilities that higher education offers. What is your definition or vision of a great school? How would you go about measuring each of the qualities you choose? My vision of a great school is a school that focuses on the academic and personal development of students. A great school builds their students up to be tremendous people and scholars. Measuring academic of a students can be done using the same systems that are in place which is easy. For measuring personal development, schools would need to implement a new system. This system would be difficult to measure quantitatively. It would instead need to measured qualitatively. A suggestion could be to use student interviews where they are asked questions, like real world interviews, about how they would handle specific scenarios that call for adequate personal skills. Stress is a part of life and not all stress should be looked at negatively. I absolutely loved this perspective on stress during class. I feel like nowadays stress is looked at so negatively and people would rather shy away from it then confront it. If we as teachers really want to prepare our students for the real world, then strategies to cope with stress should be at the top of our to-do list because one thing is for sure: stress doesn't just disappear. We have to be able to use skills to deal with the stress. This is a topic I love, so naturally I'd like to explore some strategies that particularly work for me when coping with stress. For me, I find success in the following coping strategies with stress: breathing, exercise, and sleep. Breathing Okay, I know it sounds weird, but breathing is a necessary strategy I use to cope with in the moment stress. Not just regular, unstructured breathing, but breathing with a purpose to help yourself stay grounded in the moment. This was actually a strategy I picked up through baseball that I have my students try all the time. I believe it's technically called box breathing and what you do is inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and hold for 4 seconds before staring over. What I find this does is it brings me back to the current moment. When we think about our stress, it's often things that haven't even happened yet, just our own imagination about what could go wrong. I'll leave an example below to a YouTube video. There's tons of others too if you search up "box breathing". Let me know what you think! Exercise Exercise is also very important when it comes to managing and coping with stress. What I find is that when I do perform some sort of exercise, it gives me a sense of accomplishment and overall confidence about myself. When we feel confident about ourselves it can give us more courage to deal with the stress that life will throw our way. So don't be afraid to catch a sweat and push yourself to do things you think you can't because I promise you that you can! Sleep Sleep is something I feel is overlooked for a stress coping tool. Sleep to me is the number one thing I can do to prepare myself if I know I have upcoming stress. For me, I know that if I am asleep by 9:30/10pm before a stressful day, then I will be able to cope better. All of my friends call me a grandpa for this, but that's okay let the haters hate! When I get 7/8 hours of sleep I feel more energized, prepared, and can think more clearly. What strategies do you use to cope with stress? What are your “real goals of education”?
To me, the real goals of education surround building students to be better individuals. Yes, we as teachers should be teaching content, but at the same time we should be focusing on and identifying life skills students lack. The life skills that come to me first are collaboration, problem solving, and willingness to take risks. Being able to work well in groups is a skill that is a necessity in today's world. If we can create good collaborators out of our students then they will inevitably be able to communicate better in a variety of different scenarios. Problem solving is also a very important attribute students should be leaving our class with. Students must be able to have the skills necessary or the willingness to struggle to find answers to problems. Lastly, students must have the courage to take risks. Oftentimes people shy away from failure because they view it as embarrassing, but failure is the best teacher. A huge focus in the classroom should be breaking down the mental barrier young students have with failure. The beauty of these skills discussed here is that they can all be incorporated in everyday lessons. How would you define the differences between “learning” and “knowledge”? I would define the difference between learning and knowledge as learning being the act of how one grasps new concepts and knowledge as what one can recall over time. What is your reaction to Dewey’s statement that “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”? I like this statement from Dewey. First of all, this statement describes how education is not designed to give you everything you could possibly need to conquer life. Instead, it implies that life itself is going to give you a vast amount of opportunities to learn, and education should be able to give the skills necessary to draw conclusions from happening in life. Do you agree that “learning is personal”? If so, how would you go about explaining the concept to someone who may not be as convinced? I do agree that learning is personal. It has to be. Students must be able to have their own personal way of learning new ideas. The best way I can explain this is by discussing the different learning types. Think about how you learn best, either with visuals, reading, or listening. For you, if you want to learn something then you would do it in the way that works best for you. That is why learning is personal and why we should push students to chose the best ways that work for them. How do you learn best? How would you go about teaching your “own capacity to learn”? I learn best by doing and through failure. I would much rather prefer having something hands on to do where I can make mistakes and learn what works and what doesn't work. I would go about teaching this by identifying one's strengths and weakness they have when it comes to learning. By doing this, one can clearly see what strategies work for them and what strategies don't. What do you look like and feel like when you are really learning? When I am really learning I am involved, focused, and actively participating in the learning activity. For me, things like eye contact, posture in my seat, and note taking are things that help me stay focused on learning activities. Needing to innovate and revise teaching strategies from year to year is extremely important. The reason is that the strategies that work well for one group of students might not work for the next. For example, you can think of revising teaching strategies and differentiating support to students as similar. Beginning learners will need more support than a group of advance learners. A factor that I believe should be considered is what students need. If we as teachers are able to teach what students need, then students truly leave our classes as better individuals.
In today's world, there are new challenges and new necessities that our students have, especially with recent happenings with COVID 19. Students lost opportunities to interact with their same aged peers negatively effecting their interpersonal skills. This being said, a focus I currently have with my students is working in groups and collaborating with others. My students often interrupt others, argue, and perform other inappropriate behaviors when they are put in positions to work together with others. Knowing this, I always use groups in my class to create opportunities for them to act out these problem behaviors. When the problem behaviors arise though, I make it a point to stop what I am doing to address the problem behavior with the class and have a small discussion on why the behavior is incorrect. (Talk it out!) Some will say I am wasting class time but that's just one perspective on it. Mine is that I am preparing my students for future group work and collaboration and, to me, that is not a waste of time. What do you think? |
About MeI am 24 years old and currently in my third year as an Education Specialist at Mae Hensley Jr. High School within Ceres Unified School District. I teach math for 7th and 8th grade students who have mild/moderate disabilities. |