Final Exam: An Agenda for Action

1. My vision for Secondary Schooling in the 21st century probably does not fit as well with what most would see in the coming decades. Though I find some of the newer practices in education to be very insightful, promising and useful, I do not see a wholesale restructuring in the near future. My vision is not to be so radical that I don't fit in anywhere, but to work with the existing systems to make my personal classroom more student and community centered. Technology will become appropriate for certain projects, but I don't feel is a fair reflection of many careers these students will enter when they exit high school. I want students to be capable young men and women, who know how to utilize technology, people, books, and their environment to make changes in the world. Personal interaction with other students, character development and relevant material I believe are three of my strongest values, and I hope to incorporate them into all of my classes, so that students know how to have meaningful and effective relationships with others, both in and out of career settings. I also want to hold high standards for their learning and behavior in my class, so that they too might believe that they are capable of great things.

2. I already have a lesson in mind to make the content they are learning in class real and valuable. I want to ask a guest speaker to come in and talk to us about what it was like to live in the 30s a few blocks from Al Capone. This lady is going to be 100 in July and has experienced a wealth of life. Making the content real, but using a real person to retell what it was like to actually live in that time would be a powerful statement to the students about the significance of their learning. In addition, I want to ask the students to write thank you notes to the speaker, practicing professional relationship skills, and giving back to community members. I feel that guest speakers really help to foster this kind of vision that I have for the future, and I'm excited about getting started on this in this semester's clinical practice. I fear that they might not take it very seriously, or ask questions that are unrelated, immature, or otherwise cause the speaker to feel unwelcome. My hope is that it will be a powerful lesson that will transform how they approach history and their education in general.

3. I think in order to see my vision through I will need to really work on providing a safe, fun and energetic learning environment. Students respond well to teachers who are engaging, passionate and have a good sense of humor. This might mean having a strong syllabus, managing the classroom well, preparing engaging and differentiated lessons, and learning about my students needs and interests. My goal in the first two years is to earn the reputation as a teacher who is reliable, caring, compassionate, energetic, fair, and holds high expectations for my students. I want my students to know that I am their advocate, and that no matter what else is going on in their lives they will know that my classroom is safe, much is learned, and they leave motivated and empowered to be more with themselves.

4. I think that one action I hope I never lose is my ability to reflect and be flexible with the changing times. I will get older, and maybe not have the same energy I had in my 20s, but I always want to be looking to see how I can make the material fun, engaging and relevant. This means asking colleagues to observe my instruction and providing me with constructive feedback, collaborating with all teachers on best practices, and most of all, really taking a valid interest in my students. I feel that the best way to continue enjoying my job, and staying focused on the students is to talk with them every class. Whether that be about sports, clubs, news, music, movies, ..etc. The point is to always realize that these students are persons first and foremost.

5. Three Plans of Action:
-#2 This Clinical Practice
Action: Guest Speaker
Category: Powerful Teaching
I believe that bringing the content to life and embodied in a person who's been through it all, really solidifies the relevance to students, makes the content "stick", and pulls in community members to justify the content's relevance outside of the classroom.

-#3 First Two Years Teaching
Action: Build Classroom Rapport and Community
Category: Comprehensive Support for All Students
I believe that the greatest way to support students is to know them, acknowledge them, and show them that you care. I want to establish this through really taking time each class to get to know my students on a more personal level, and always trying to relate to the things they struggle with as teenagers. This will be my greatest strength in getting students to work hard in class, participate, and become engaged in their own education and development as a future citizen.

-#4 Later in My Career
Action: Reflecting on Practices and Learning New Techniques
Category: Comprehensive Accountability and Assessment
I feel that continually reviewing how I am teaching, and its effectiveness will allow me to stay afloat as a teacher, manage positive and energetic classrooms, and develop as a professional. Asking other teachers to observe me and provide constructive criticisms, as well as listening to what the students need is important in continually shaping my success and achievement as a teacher.

Reading Reflection 6- Tim Woolston: Change Agent

Teachers are some of the most important figures in a society. That's why they are always targeted when a dictatorship or strict regime is trying to take control of a country. We are the ones who will persuade students and influence them the most in life, outside of their own parents.
It's an important duty of each and every teacher to be mindful of issues of social justice, and agents of change in our classrooms. This means, not just having posters that foster safety in our classroom, and respect, but addressing those issues in the textbook. I want to be the teacher that talks about who Columbus really was, what actually happened to all the Indians in America, and the darker side of history. It's a shame to see such heroifying of all historical figures, and leaves a doubt in students minds that they can live up to those patriotic and perfect examples they left. Many of them were hypocrites, biggots, and sexist, yet they are still our heroes. I think as a history teacher I want to ensure that my students know enough of the real story to decide for themselves what they think of these figures. It's also my job to ensure that I bring to light the people groups that history has marginalized as well, and give them their due time.

I think the paragraph I liked the most was the one that talked about teachers having lives outside of the classroom, and that that is what will stave off becoming burdened by teaching. I couldn't agree more! Teaching is an awesome profession, but not my life. It is a way of life, but not my whole focus. I have so much aspiration about traveling, learning more, and experiencing as much of life as I can. In order to do this I will need to have a moderate balance of work and life. I think this will keep me from becoming "burned out" and will continue to provide me with energy to teach for many years.

Reading Reflection 5: I'm thinking...

Preface:
In light of discovering previously unannounced work to do on Monday morning, the accompanying frustration, and the sheer amazingness of one single hour spent hearing from students in last night's class all spurred me on to express these thoughts.

I'm thinking that no matter how many books I read, or blogs I post I will not become a teacher simply by pondering or reflecting. I think the discussion we had with the GSA students from Carlsbad was by far the best class we've had all year long. I think what would really benefit teachers in a program like this would be to have more of those kinds of activities, where we get to hear straight from the students what they look for in a teacher, how effective group work is for them, how effective teacher websites actually are, and what they think of all of the stuff we've been going over.

(You could consider this to be the "comments" section of the evaluations we'll be doing for the last class meeting about the program)

I think in our EDSS 530 class I would much rather not be thrown into a last minute "create a mock-up of a website you might use" assignment, and much rather hear how to make the lame websites we already know how to make "superb!". In addition, having an assignment that challenges my brain more than reading and regurgitating in reading responses, journals or on a blog would be really motivating (ex. "Find a way for students to take their quizzes on their cell phones this week", or "Learn how to use Skype this week and chat with a teacher from overseas", or "write a grant for updating the computers or technologies at your school and submit them"). I feel much like Tiffany does, I don't feel challenged, or that I'm taking much new material in.

I also feel "overgrouped" to make up a word. I literally have had trouble keeping track of the groups I'm in, and the tasks for each project. In my personal opinion, group work is not always the "go-to" for learning, and should be sprinkled in as needed. Also, because of programs like GoogleDocs we really don't need to do much face to face, and with all our assignments piling up there was no feasible way to coordinate a meeting with 4 busy student teachers for every project we had. All that is to say, most of my group work so far this semester has been individual work.

I realize as a teacher myself that creating engaging lessons is difficult, and you're dealing with some very bright young individuals determined to be teachers, so I couldn't understand the pressure on your end to live up to those expectations. I do, however, think some class time to really discuss these issues would be beneficial, not a 15 minute chat so we can move on to a jigsaw reading, but a real sincere look at how to inspire us as teachers.

I think this is more than 300 words, and I hope it comes off in a respectful manner. But I am glad Tiffany opened a door to really voice some healthy critiques of the program, because we all want to be stellar teachers, and we all want to see this program produce even better educators in years to come.
Thanks.

CP2 Website

Here's the website I used last semester and could be a good format to use in the future:
http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/jdigiulio/Modern%20World%20History/Mod.%20World%20course%20related%20links.htm

Reading Reflection 4: Groupwork ch. 4-5

From Chapter 4 from the Cohen book, I found the section "Prevention of Dominance" to be the most interesting to me. Partly because I am so outspoken and tend to be the one who speaks the most and dominates groupwork, and also because it was an obvious obstacle in the groupwork I assigned at my first school site.
The section talks about Morris's 4 rules for effective group discussion. 1) Say your own ideas, 2)Listen to others; give everyone a chance to talk, 3) Ask others for their ideas, and 4)Give reasons for your ideas and discuss many different ideas. After a certain amount of time in the groups, the teacher should stop and ask the groups to evaluate if they have been practicing all of the above suggestions. The author also suggests assigning a group monitor to report to the class the behaviors they observed, and lead a class discussion on the effectiveness of the groupwork. It also suggests keeping those rules displayed in the classroom at all times so that students can easily remember them.
I think that dominance by certain students in group work is very prevalent and hard to control. These are some good ideas, and I've heard other ideas before on the subject. It is especially important to remember these things in a very diverse school setting, where some students are native English speakers, and some are not. Getting all of the students, regardless of their abilities in the English language to participate, is vitally important for enriching the education of all the students in my classroom.
I would love to hear more about how to make groupwork more democratic in our classrooms.

Reading Reflection 3: Groupwork ch.1-3

Chapter 1:
This chapter serves to introduce the concept of groupwork in the classroom. The philosophy states that groupwork is not the only way to do things, but one way of making the instruction engaging. It helps to bring students together to communicate, collaborate and problem solve with others. As a teacher it's important that groupwork be outlined clearly, and the methods researched. Not all groupwork works the same, so knowing your students and their abilities is key.
This chapter didn't dive too much into details or have much to comment on, but I do know that groupwork does work differently with different classes, even between 2 classes that are the same subject. We tried different methods in my Clinical Practice at La Costa Canyon, and I felt that doing too much groupwork allowed for certain students to not participate at all, and still get a grade. So devising specific ways for all members to be engaged is important.

Chapter 2:
This second chapter delves into the purpose and usefulness of groupwork. Academically students can learn a great deal from their peers. Groupwork challenges students to work hard on their individual portion in order to benefit their peers. It also pushes students to create roles for themselves and take initiative and responsibility. Groupwork can also be a way to introduce creative problem-solving skills to the classroom, and reinforce concepts that need more attention. Groupwork helps to develop higher order thinking skills and improves other basic skills as well.
In addition, our SIOP book talks about how groupwork is important for language learners. Speaking to students in familiar language instead of academic helps to build their English skills, have other language resources in the classroom, and connect with Native English speakers on a personal level.

Chapter 3:
This chapter serves to expose some of the flaws or possible interruptions to groupwork. Certain students tend to always take leadership roles in groups, while others linger back and allow the group to assign them a duty. In addition, work can be unequally distributed among members, or done by one person by themself. Groups can be off task, lazy and complacent. Groups create loop holes for students.
This was very true in my experience with groups from my Clinical Practice I. It was very challenging to try to get all members of a group to engage and participate equally. If I partnered language learners with strong and patient students, those language learners often rode behind the native speakers in work, and the native speakers were more than willing to "just do it themselves". Some even get frustrated by groupwork and argue against it. With groupwork there will always be challenges.

What I'd like to know next is how to get lower-performing students to step up in groupwork and take initiative. Should I assign roles, and give leadership roles to those students? What about research groups if some students don't have access to the internet? Should I allow for a whole day in the library, or have students go on their own time? How often should groupwork be used? Students can get burned out on groupwork, so how do you motivate them?

School Reform at Lunch

1. The school that I found is South Valley Academy in Albequerque, New Mexico. This school is known byt the "Essential Schools" website as a "Mentor School". This means they are paired up with counselors or advisors who follow them throughout their high school career. In addition, on Thursdays the students spend 3 hours out serving their community in different facets. Community service is used to prepare them for civic engagement and citizenship.
http://southvalleyacademy.org/SVA_Site/Welcome%21.html

2. This school connects to the component for "Providing Comprehensive Support for all Students". They have advisors who help them out, give them support and are an additional resource for them. In addition, the community service is providing them an opportunity to learn real-life application skills, which would fall under the "Creating New Curriculum Paths" or even perhaps, "Powerful Teaching".

Reading Reflection 2: BPHS

3 -
Of the Best Practice I learned from BPHS, I think the three that I think would have the most impact on the school are, the different "Houses" or departments for subject specialty, the personal advisors, and the flexibility of the schedule. I think that splitting students up into various "Houses" like a "Humanities House", or a "Science House" makes high school very dynamic. Students must make a decision at that young age what they think they might be interested in, and even maybe what they'd like to do as a career. I think that this can be either really positive and motivating for those who have a career in mind, or it can be really stressful for those who are undecided and haven't formed strong interests in those categories. This practice aligns with the component for "Creating Curricular Paths". The group advisors that take a section of students and follow them all four years through high school is another practice that I actually think is a really great idea. It allows students to have a point person or "go-to" teacher for questions and just to connect. This would fall into the component for "Providing Comprehensive Support for All Students". And finally, the flexible schedule of BPHS is designed to give more efficient instruction to students, and provide a better learning environment. For this practice to really take root in a high school the teachers must be on board to have flexible schedules, and the students must be alert as to how the schedule works and where they have to be at what time.

2-
My first Clinical Practice school was La Costa Canyon High School. Though they are new, they are still very much a traditional high school, and not geared specifically towards this vision of schools from Second to None. La Costa Canyon had the priviledge of being built in a very affluent community, so one connection I make is their ability to incorporate technology into the classroom. Teachers have computers, projectors, document cameras and more in every class. Almost every teacher has a website, and the school itself communicates with teachers about grades and attendance through an online interface called "Aeries". This would fit into the component for "Establishing a Comprehensive Accountability and Assessment System" and "Developing Powerful Teaching and Learning". Students also have access to a library full of new computers, and the school runs an after school study hall for students who don't have computers, or need to use one, to access their computers and receive help from aids and tutors walking around the library. This practice is a great component for " Providing Comprehensive Support for All Students". Though LCC doesn't look very much like BPHS, the roots of good teaching, accessing technology, and providing school supports are all there.

1-
I'm confused by the wording of this question. I will take it to read, "What practice from Rethinking High Schools will no longer be in practice at LCC?" I think that because there is such a cultural tie to traditional schedules in San Diego, that developing a flexible, and sometimes confusing schedule, would make LCC undesireable to attend if they can go elsewhere. Students are so used to an 8-2pm schedule, and either traditional or block period schedule, that any change, or additional classtime would come with some hesitancy from both parents and students.

Reading Reflection 1- Rethinking High School

When reading the first chapter about this new school in Chicago my first thought is, "Wow, this sounds excellent!" But like most things, I like to have a healthy and modest skepticism about things that sound too good to be true. I think what resonated most with me was this schools desire to make kids feel like the school cares about them, is relevant and important to their lives and development as working citizens, and doesn't classify or "track" them. I think that this sort of atmosphere should be fought for on every school campus, not just the high schools that are given some academic freedom. Teachers should strive to give students this kind of environment on a school campus, knowing that it will affect the students engagement, participation, and achievement in their education.
I think one of the reforms that I was less keen on was the "House" system of organizing students. I remember in high school that whenever a decision arose about where to go for lunch, what classes to take, or whether or not I did honors depended on how many friends were doing the same. It's fair to say that with choices like these it would be very difficult to keep students from just being followers of friends, and not interactive and entrepreneurial citizens.
I noticed that just like "Second to None", teachers were expected to be very flexible with their schedules. Teachers at these schools have to be all-stars at what they do, and be willing to put in long hours and display incredible flexibility and versatility. That will be my role as a teacher, whether in a school like this or not.
I would like to learn more about how these students did once they got to college. Because colleges are structured more to teach to public high school students, and work with traditional schools' graduates, how would these students from a school like this do in a college classroom? Is their ability to think critically and problem solve enough to get them through a notes and lecture class in college?