1. My personal vision of Secondary Schooling in the 21st century involves two key components: technology and relationships/student support. First, let’s tackle technology. We live in a technology driven world. In order to prepare my students to live and contribute successfully in this world, I need to teach them how to navigate the technologies that are out there. I do not, however, believe that technology should completely dictate the course of education. Just because we have the technology to teach outside the traditional four walls of a classroom, I don’t believe that schools should go completely digital.
This leads me to my next key point. Relationships and student support. I feel that despite the growth in technology that our world has experienced and continues to experience daily, there is still something so elementally human about actual face to face interaction. In order to provide my students with the best education possible and the support that they need, I need to develop legitimate relationships with my students. I don’t believe that I can fully, effectively develop those crucial relationships without some face to face interaction. Despite the ever-changing world that we live in, I believe that one thing will remain constant throughout time, and that is our human need for connection. I want to connect with my students to help them connect with the world.
2. The first action that I plan to implement in my clinical practice to begin shaping education into what I believe it should be is to incorporate more student use of technology in my teaching. I implemented technology into my lessons in my first round of clinical practice, but all of it was technology that I was using. My students did not have many opportunities to learn about and explore technology on their own. My biggest fear about this is incorporating technology in a relevant way that is still connected with my content area. I don’t want to incorporate technology just for the sake of incorporating technology.
I want my students to have the opportunity to use technologies that are relevant to their lives so that they can develop skills and knowledge that will help them outside of the context of my classroom. Another challenge that I face in implementing this is the various range of access that my students have. I have students with smartphones and laptops, and students without cell phones or access to computers outside of school. How do I implement technology in a way that all of my students can access it equally? And what technologies should I focus my efforts on as being the most relevant?
3. During my first two years of teaching, I hope to take my action plan to the next level. In order to provide my students with a relevant education, I would like to implement some level of interdisciplinary teaching in my classroom. In my clinical practice so far, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing teachers both new and old. This collaboration has helped me to become a stronger, more reflective teacher. However, all of my collaboration was done with teachers in my own content area.
I would like to extend outside of my content area and connect with other teachers in various other disciplines in order to understand (or at least get a basic idea of) what my students are learning about outside of my classroom. I connect better with my students if I know more about them, and one way I can learn more about them is to learn about what else they are learning. If I can collaborate even just a little bit with teachers outside of my own discipline and get a basic idea of the scope of my students’ learning, I can try to make connections for them in my own class in order to create a more relevant, authentic learning experience. My biggest concern about trying to implement this as a newer teacher is whether or not other teachers will be willing to work with me. Will teachers in other disciplines even care to share with me, or bother to take the time? Will they take me seriously before I’m tenured?
4. A final action that I plan to implement later in my career is to inspire change and create community within the school that I find myself at. As a new teacher, I can make some small changes and implement things within my own classroom, but I don’t want to “rock the boat” of an established school – that might not look so good to colleagues, administration, or potential future employers. However, once I establish myself as a professional and a respected member of my educational community I can begin to inspire change within my school community. I want to effect change. I want to create a school culture in which relationships drive everything that we do because I believe that relationships are the key to effective teaching. That is not to say that classroom management skills and content knowledge are not important, however, without relationships I don’t believe that we can achieve these other goals.
5. All of these actions align with the six categories of reform for secondary education. In order to effectively implement each of these action plans, there must be consideration of all six categories. For technology to be well implemented, there must be consideration of creation of new curriculum paths, new professional roles (including professional technological development for teachers), and comprehensive support for all students (in order to provide equal access for all students.) To collaborate across disciplines effectively, there needs to be consideration of the creation of new curriculum paths, potential restructuring of schools (especially as it pertains to scheduling), and comprehensive accountability and assessment (assessments must be authentic and legitimately connected across disciplines.) To create a relationship driven community there must be consideration of comprehensive support for all students and development of new professional roles (to train teachers to develop effective relationships with each other and with their students). Finally, implementation of all of these actions will create opportunities for powerful teaching.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Reading Reflection 5 - I'm thinking...
Frustration. Anger. Bitterness. Financial Aid. Epic FAIL. Registration. Absolute disaster. Grr. (Is that a word?) Homework. Blog. Tweet. Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit. Presentation. Simulation. Buzz words. Ethnography. Peer review. Reflection. Wedding. Postponed. Money. Hunger. Fear. Anxiety. Pressure. System overload. Teacher Performance Assessments. Attention Deficit Disorder. Reading reflections. Family. Sister. Puppies. Methods. Brian Reagan. Laugh. Cry. Repeat. Becoming a teacher makes me feel like a circus performer. Memories. Friendships. Professional development. Networking. Resume. Interview. Inadequacies. Inferiority complex. Drained. Observation. Data. Research. Live. Laugh. Love. Youtube. Lesson plan. Unit plan. Brochure. Student survey. Turbulence. Technology. Television. What have I gotten myself into? Teach. Learn. Cope. Full time free labor. Sallie Mae Foundation. Furlough days. Student fees. Rip off. Highway robbery. Empty bank account. Empty stomach. Empty gas tank. Google Docs. Groupwork. Collaboration. Cooperation. Acceptance. Busy work. Vicious cycle. Teaching strategy. Classroom management. Job market. Relationship. Read. Read. Read. Respond. Reflect. Analyze. Theory. Practice. Achievement gap. Inclusive education. Diversity. Differentiation. Study. Type. Delete. Re-type. Print. Staple. Submit. Mmm…Chocolate milk. Download. Upload. Attach. Reply. Forward. Text message. Computer. Google site. Wetpaint. Delicious. Ning. WebCT. Internet. Too many usernames and passwords. Tech support. Clinical Practice. Students. Administration. Community. Perspective. Culture. Voice. Power. Attitude. Social justice. iTunes. iPod. iPhone. Apps. Focus. Distraction. Professional portfolio. Sales pitch. Plan. Try. Reflect. Try again. Fail. Succeed. Struggle to maintain a sense of balance. Communicate. Expression. 1:56 AM… Exhaustion. Identity. Support. Camaraderie. Commiserate. Yawn. Design. Create. Attempt. Trust. Prepare. Write. Organize. File. Car floorboard. Concentrate. Appointment. Schedule. Socialize. Argue. Bills. Payments. Due dates. Responsibilities. Calendar. Smile. Difficult decisions. Growing up. Moving on. Struggle. Faith. Jitterbugs. Nervous tic. Discomfort. Almost there. And yet, still so very far away. Shuffle. Lifeless. Uncertainty. Confidence. Wasted time. Rabbit trail. Bird walking. Piggy back. Confusion. Apprehension. Chaos. Think. Blink. Breathe. Work. Sleep. Fight. Survive.
Barely.
Three…hundred…words.
Barely.
Three…hundred…words.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
CP2 Website
Here is a link to my website for Clinical Practice 2:
http://sites.google.com/site/askmscollier/
Pretty cool, huh?
http://sites.google.com/site/askmscollier/
Pretty cool, huh?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Reading Reflection 4 - Groupwork Chp. 4-5
Creating the Task
One of my biggest questions after reading chapters 1-3 of Designing Groupwork was “What does well designed groupwork look like?” In Chapter 4, Cohen provides an outline of how to create groupwork tasks that are effective. In creating group-oriented tasks, teachers must first decide what it is they want students to gain from the experience. If the goal is conceptual, the task needs to be designed as a “multiple ability task.” Multiple ability tasks have more than one answer or process for solving the problem, are both intrinsically interesting and rewarding, allow for different contributions from different students, involve multimedia and various senses (sight, sound, touch), require a variety of skills and behaviors – including reading and writing skills, and are challenging (Page 68).
In order to design effective groupwork, all of these criteria must be considered as contributing factors. If there is only one right answer, limited skills are needed, and the task is not challenging, the groupwork will become ineffective as a teaching strategy and issues of status and hierarchical struggles are more likely to emerge, resulting in unequal distribution of work within the group. It is also important to consider the difficulty level of the concept(s) being covered. If it is a more difficult concept or group of concepts, it may be more effective to design a variety tasks, rather than one single task.
Within my discipline this is incredibly important to consider. Some concepts may be less challenging and can be covered by a single task, like smaller grammatical concepts. However, larger concepts, like the use of voice in writing or questions of theme in literature can be more difficult to grasp and may require multiple visits and tasks in order for students to gain a legitimate understanding. As an English teacher, I think my biggest challenge here is determining which concepts to develop multiple tasks for. As each set of students may struggle with different concepts, I will always need to reflect and adapt according to what my students find challenging. The challenge is balance, the key is flexibility.
One of my biggest questions after reading chapters 1-3 of Designing Groupwork was “What does well designed groupwork look like?” In Chapter 4, Cohen provides an outline of how to create groupwork tasks that are effective. In creating group-oriented tasks, teachers must first decide what it is they want students to gain from the experience. If the goal is conceptual, the task needs to be designed as a “multiple ability task.” Multiple ability tasks have more than one answer or process for solving the problem, are both intrinsically interesting and rewarding, allow for different contributions from different students, involve multimedia and various senses (sight, sound, touch), require a variety of skills and behaviors – including reading and writing skills, and are challenging (Page 68).
In order to design effective groupwork, all of these criteria must be considered as contributing factors. If there is only one right answer, limited skills are needed, and the task is not challenging, the groupwork will become ineffective as a teaching strategy and issues of status and hierarchical struggles are more likely to emerge, resulting in unequal distribution of work within the group. It is also important to consider the difficulty level of the concept(s) being covered. If it is a more difficult concept or group of concepts, it may be more effective to design a variety tasks, rather than one single task.
Within my discipline this is incredibly important to consider. Some concepts may be less challenging and can be covered by a single task, like smaller grammatical concepts. However, larger concepts, like the use of voice in writing or questions of theme in literature can be more difficult to grasp and may require multiple visits and tasks in order for students to gain a legitimate understanding. As an English teacher, I think my biggest challenge here is determining which concepts to develop multiple tasks for. As each set of students may struggle with different concepts, I will always need to reflect and adapt according to what my students find challenging. The challenge is balance, the key is flexibility.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Reading Reflection 3 - Groupwork Chp. 1-3
Chapter 1 – Groupwork as a Strategy for Classrooms
According to Cohen, groupwork involves small enough groups of students so that every group member can contribute to a clearly outlined task. Groupwork also involves delegation, which allows the students the opportunity to work and struggle through the task at hand to come to their own conclusion without the aid of the teacher.
I found this to be an extremely classroom strategy in Clinical Practice 1. My freshmen were extremely social, and when I put them into small, heterogeneous groups to work on classroom activities (especially business letter writing and grammar work) I found these to be the times that all of my students were actively participating in the task at hand. I was available to my students for clarification questions and to make sure they remained on task, but I did not hover. I let them work things out on their own.
Chapter 2 – Why groupwork?
Chapter 2 makes the argument for implementing groupwork in the classroom. Groupwork allows students not only to develop and build much needed social skills, but it nurtures intellectual growth as well. Allowing students the opportunity to struggle through a problem gives them a chance to argue, talk out, think out, and solve on their own. This process often leads to students discovering concepts for themselves rather than using the teacher as a crutch to memorize facts. It creates an active learning environment in which students of all learning levels and abilities think for themselves while also learning to communicate more effectively.
This argument for groupwork seems to answer one of the biggest questions I’ve had in teaching so far - How do I effectively teach to a classroom full of students who are all at different levels without boring my higher achieving students or leaving behind my lower achieving students? In today’s diverse classrooms, there is a constant struggle to maintain balance. Groupwork seems to be a key in achieving and maintaining that balance and creating effective education for all students.
Chapter 3 – The Dilemma of Groupwork
Chapter 3 outlines some of the common problems teachers face in implementing groupwork in the classroom. The biggest problem facing groupwork design is the hierarchies that naturally emerge in any group setting. These hierarchies and statuses often create a situation which one student becomes dominant and, as a result, participation in and contribution to the activity becomes unequal between the members of the group.
There are many factors that contribute to the emerging hierarchies in small groups. The biggest contributing factor is often the heterogeneity of the classroom. In today’s diverse classrooms, there are many students with a variety of differing skill sets, ability levels, areas of expertise, culture, and perspective. Although this can create an opportunity for tremendous learning and exposure to take place within small groups, it also opens the door for hierarchical struggles among students which can hinder learning if not properly addressed in the classroom and the management of the groupwork.
Although I am a proponent of groupwork, I often worry about the dilemmas it presents. I understand that groupwork can create an incredibly effective learning environment for all of my students, but my same concern still always remains – how can I teach to every single one of my students unique, individual learning needs? I am, after all, only one person. Cohen claims that groupwork can actually be the answer to this question if it is well designed. So, I ask, what does well designed groupwork actually look like in the classroom? What steps can I take to incorporate effective groupwork in my lessons? And, finally, how do I prepare my students for groupwork to insure success? These are the questions I hope to find answers to in the rest of Cohen’s book.
According to Cohen, groupwork involves small enough groups of students so that every group member can contribute to a clearly outlined task. Groupwork also involves delegation, which allows the students the opportunity to work and struggle through the task at hand to come to their own conclusion without the aid of the teacher.
I found this to be an extremely classroom strategy in Clinical Practice 1. My freshmen were extremely social, and when I put them into small, heterogeneous groups to work on classroom activities (especially business letter writing and grammar work) I found these to be the times that all of my students were actively participating in the task at hand. I was available to my students for clarification questions and to make sure they remained on task, but I did not hover. I let them work things out on their own.
Chapter 2 – Why groupwork?
Chapter 2 makes the argument for implementing groupwork in the classroom. Groupwork allows students not only to develop and build much needed social skills, but it nurtures intellectual growth as well. Allowing students the opportunity to struggle through a problem gives them a chance to argue, talk out, think out, and solve on their own. This process often leads to students discovering concepts for themselves rather than using the teacher as a crutch to memorize facts. It creates an active learning environment in which students of all learning levels and abilities think for themselves while also learning to communicate more effectively.
This argument for groupwork seems to answer one of the biggest questions I’ve had in teaching so far - How do I effectively teach to a classroom full of students who are all at different levels without boring my higher achieving students or leaving behind my lower achieving students? In today’s diverse classrooms, there is a constant struggle to maintain balance. Groupwork seems to be a key in achieving and maintaining that balance and creating effective education for all students.
Chapter 3 – The Dilemma of Groupwork
Chapter 3 outlines some of the common problems teachers face in implementing groupwork in the classroom. The biggest problem facing groupwork design is the hierarchies that naturally emerge in any group setting. These hierarchies and statuses often create a situation which one student becomes dominant and, as a result, participation in and contribution to the activity becomes unequal between the members of the group.
There are many factors that contribute to the emerging hierarchies in small groups. The biggest contributing factor is often the heterogeneity of the classroom. In today’s diverse classrooms, there are many students with a variety of differing skill sets, ability levels, areas of expertise, culture, and perspective. Although this can create an opportunity for tremendous learning and exposure to take place within small groups, it also opens the door for hierarchical struggles among students which can hinder learning if not properly addressed in the classroom and the management of the groupwork.
Although I am a proponent of groupwork, I often worry about the dilemmas it presents. I understand that groupwork can create an incredibly effective learning environment for all of my students, but my same concern still always remains – how can I teach to every single one of my students unique, individual learning needs? I am, after all, only one person. Cohen claims that groupwork can actually be the answer to this question if it is well designed. So, I ask, what does well designed groupwork actually look like in the classroom? What steps can I take to incorporate effective groupwork in my lessons? And, finally, how do I prepare my students for groupwork to insure success? These are the questions I hope to find answers to in the rest of Cohen’s book.
Monday, February 8, 2010
School Reform at Lunch
Orange County High School of the Arts
Mission Statement:
"We provide a creative, challenging, and nurturing environment that offers bright and talented students unparalleled preparation for higher education and a profession in the arts."
http://www.ocsarts.net/Page.aspx?pid=183
Mission Statement:
"We provide a creative, challenging, and nurturing environment that offers bright and talented students unparalleled preparation for higher education and a profession in the arts."
http://www.ocsarts.net/Page.aspx?pid=183
Reading Reflection 2 - BPHS
3 – Of the many practices in place at BPHS, I believe the size of the school, community experiences (particularly internships), and the supportive school climate are what make it work. The small size of the school creates more support options for students which protects individual students from being overlooked or ignored. This relates back to components 4 and 5 of Comprehensive Reform. Providing students with internship opportunities allows students to connect their schooling with the outside world and creates new, professional roles for students, which relate to components 1, 5, and 6. Finally, and most importantly, BPHS has had a focus on creating a supportive school climate from the very beginning to support students and help them through this crazy time known as adolescence. Components 1, 4, and 5 are all represented by BPHS’s supportive school climate.
2 – At my CP1 school site, the freshmen class was divided into three “houses”. Students belonging to each house have the same set of teachers, so many of freshmen have classes with the same groups of students. This helps to build community amongst students and helps freshmen transition comfortably into a large high school without getting lost in translation. This practice represents components 4 and 5 of Comprehensive Reform. Another practice I saw at San Pasqual High School was common assessments (benchmark exams.) In theory, this can be a great way to create common, authentic assessments of student learning, however, in practice it needs a lot of work. I think benchmark exams can be a great tool for teachers to use school wide if implemented properly and so long as it doesn’t become just another meaningless standardized test. This is a tall order and requires a lot of work, but it is possible to achieve. These common assessments at SPHS fall under component 3.
1 – Although the author’s expressed the importance of capping enrollment at 400, I think this will be difficult to achieve. The population will continue to grow, and I believe it is the nature of schools to grow with the population. That’s why new schools continue to open even in crazy times. This goes back to the Comprehensive Reforms component 5 – restructuring the school. I think over time, BPHS will have to consider restructuring again, maybe breaking the school into houses to keep a small feel, in order to allow for expansion without sacrificing the importance of small size.
2 – At my CP1 school site, the freshmen class was divided into three “houses”. Students belonging to each house have the same set of teachers, so many of freshmen have classes with the same groups of students. This helps to build community amongst students and helps freshmen transition comfortably into a large high school without getting lost in translation. This practice represents components 4 and 5 of Comprehensive Reform. Another practice I saw at San Pasqual High School was common assessments (benchmark exams.) In theory, this can be a great way to create common, authentic assessments of student learning, however, in practice it needs a lot of work. I think benchmark exams can be a great tool for teachers to use school wide if implemented properly and so long as it doesn’t become just another meaningless standardized test. This is a tall order and requires a lot of work, but it is possible to achieve. These common assessments at SPHS fall under component 3.
1 – Although the author’s expressed the importance of capping enrollment at 400, I think this will be difficult to achieve. The population will continue to grow, and I believe it is the nature of schools to grow with the population. That’s why new schools continue to open even in crazy times. This goes back to the Comprehensive Reforms component 5 – restructuring the school. I think over time, BPHS will have to consider restructuring again, maybe breaking the school into houses to keep a small feel, in order to allow for expansion without sacrificing the importance of small size.
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