Final Exam - An Agenda for Action

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.

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.