Wrapping Up Fall Quarter -- Where am I as a Blogger?

The biggest difference I’ve seen in my blog posts this quarter is that reflecting on the
real life teaching experiences we are now having adds a lot of depth and richness to the reflecting we have been doing on what we are learning in our certification program classes and therefore my writing is more interesting.  I feel like my blogging is more of a conversation now, whereas before it sometimes just seemed like a statement or analysis I was presenting.  Blogging this quarter has also been a lot more challenging as our schedules have become so much busier and the time to reflect on what we are learning and doing in schools much rarer.  Information and experience is pouring in at an ever-increasing rate while at the same time there is less time to digest it all.  This has been frustrating because there is so much value to our ability to digest, reflect and share our thinking with each other.

That being said, it seems that this quarter we have been commenting more deeply on each others blogs.  Not only are we more comfortable with each other, but also, although we share a fairly common academic experience in our university classes, our student teaching experiences are wildly different and it is so interesting to compare across grade levels, schools and districts and also across different personalities of teachers and students.  We are all seeking harder to make sense of our experiences and anxious to share ideas with each other.  Thinking back over some of my comments to others this quarter, many were just affirmations of what others were saying, some were advice (like these two, for example), and others were part of a really great thread of conversation.

In terms of generating feedback on my blog, I hope that just the fact that I’m writing about real life student teaching experiences instead of just reflecting on course readings leaves more loose ends and unknowns on which people can comment or to which they might add something to the conversation.  I also have been better about consciously writing to an audience of more than just my professor who assigns the blogging.  I’ve always known, of course, that my cohort-mates were reading my blog, but they were all reading the same things as I was in our classes, so there was not as much to say after we had participated in class discussions.  Now, I write primarily with my cohort-mates, not my professor (no offense, Jane), in mind because I am so anxious to compare and learn from our various experiences.  I find myself asking questions in my blog post more often, to which I hope someone will respond.  I started doing this more consciously after I noticed that I was more likely to comment on other blog posts I was reading when they posed a question for me to think about and respond to.

It’s hard to pick a blog that I feel best exemplifies my growth as a blogger.  I guess an ideal post would be one that integrated my student teaching experiences, class readings, my experience as a parent, and my relationship with my cohort (bouncing ideas off of each other, asking questions, etc.).  In most cases, the best blog posts do not answer a question, but instead add to a conversation around an important issue or question.  That being said, none of my posts lives up to that ideal, but I would say that my two best were probably Lost in Translation and Stealing Learning.  One way I would characterize the change in my blogging over the past eight months would be this -- whereas in the spring I was a student blogger, I now feel more like a teacher who blogs.  

On that note, our professor’s pushing us to comment on the professional teacher blogs we were following felt pretty intimidating this quarter and I was a little slow to get started.  It felt a little like sending an email to a rock star.  How could I add anything of significance to the thinking of these teaching giants (at least they seem that way to me right now) and, with so many followers, how would my little comment generate any notice from them?  One thing I’m learning in this program is that when I am pushed to do something outside of my comfort zone (1) it is usually not as bad as I think it will be and (2) I am usually pleasantly surprised at the results.  This was no exception.  In October and November I left comments in three blogs that I really admire: Elementary, my Dear. or Far From It (Jenny Orr), Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension (Pernille Ripp), and Between the By-Road and the Main Road (Mary Ann Reilly).  To my surprise, when I went back to check today, two out of three (Pernille and Mary Ann) had commented back to me.  It felt great to make this small connection with them even if our conversation did not really move “the conversation” forward.  I view it as getting my feet wet and look forward to jumping in a little deeper next quarter.

Lost in Translation

Last week I attended several parent-teacher conferences at my dyad placement.  One was with a mother who spoke no English, only Spanish.  My cooperating teacher made sure that a translator was present, but the dynamic of the conference was palpably different than the other three.  The mother was clearly concerned about her son's academic performance, but also appeared to be very intimidated and overwhelmed by the process.  Time is short with only 20 minutes per conference.  It's a challenge to cover all aspects of a child's progress in that short time period in the best of circumstances, but with a translator, each question and response takes twice the amount of time.  As the conference proceeded and I sensed the teacher feeling pressed for time, I saw her focus turn from the mother to the translator.  I'm sure she did not do this intentionally, she was making eye contact with him to make sure that he could translate what she was saying accurately, but the mother looked more dismayed as the pace picked up out of necessity.  I understand enough Spanish to know that as the pace picked up (as the teacher attempted to cover all her points), information was literally getting "lost in translation."  

Driving home that evening, I found myself wishing that I had spoken a few words in Spanish to this mother to make her feel more comfortable, although as a student teacher I felt that it was not my place and, besides, that would have taken up even more precious time.  I also made a mental note to remember that when I am in this position as a teacher, to try to make even further accommodations -- for instance, allowing extra time for a translated conference so that those parents get the benefit of the same amount of information and question-asking time as the others who speak English.  We need to be aware of the imbalance of power in such a situation and the feelings of vulnerability these parents must have.

These thoughts returned to me again as I read the article "When Learning a Second Language Means Losing the First" by Lily Wong Fillmore for our Social Studies class.  My heart breaks for the parents  who not only are unable to communicate with their childrens' English-only-speaking teachers but, in some cases, more tragically, also are no longer able to communicate with their own children as these children learn English in school and lose the ability to communicate effectively in their native languages.   According to this article, this is especially likely if the children start learning English in preschool when their knowledge of their native language is not yet cemented. This is, as the article points out, a serious situation that needs to be addressed.  I believe that it is important for people living in the United States to speak English as this is the language of our society and our economy (and our schools), but I also believe that it is important for people of other cultures to retain their own languages.  Clearly, this is a very complicated problem to fix.  We want small children to learn English before starting school in order to get a strong start, but according to this article, this practice is highly detrimental to children's ability to retain their native language.  I am wondering, at what age is it "safe" to start teaching ELL children English?  

Bloggers Block (Valuing the Struggle)

In the past couple of weeks, we have been exposed to some excellent resources on writing by Regie Routman (Writing Essentials), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird) and Stephen King (On Writing).  And yet, here I sit, wondering how I would model writing to students in this moment -- staring at a blank screen with no idea of what to blog about this week.  It's not that I haven't taken in any new and interesting information.  On the contrary, I think I have taken in so much that it is hard to sort it all out in my mind enough to reflect on it in any meaningful way.  This is when I should take Anne Lamott's advice to just start writing.  I love her advice to just get a bunch of ideas on the paper (what I like to call a "brain dump") and sort through the mess later, but I have procrastinated and "later" has already arrived.  I love to journal (when I have time to be more reflective), but right now I find myself empathizing with the many students I have encountered this year who I have found sitting at their desks staring at a blank page trying to get started on a writing assignment.  They tell me "I don't know what to write about" and I dutifully respond with encouragement and a few prompting suggestions to get their creative juices flowing.  They sigh and continue to struggle to put pencil to paper.  This is how I feel right now -- and I have no one to encourage me or prompt me on.  But wait, I do -- I have my fellow teachers-in-training who are struggling alongside me (not physically at this moment, though I'd bet that the majority of us are sitting in front of our computers right now working on one of the many assignments due this week).  I am encouraged by their support as we all struggle through our heavy-work load this quarter.  I am encouraged by their enthusiasm and their dedication.  I am encouraged (and inspired) by their thoughtful blog posts!  I have what I need to get writing -- an audience (my cohort) and an authentic purpose (sharing my learning).  And look, it may be what Anne Lamott lovingly refers to as a "sh---y" first draft, but I actually have something written!!  

Joking aside, I'd like to share two of my favorite "On Writing" nuggets that I have uncovered the past few weeks.  From Anne Lamott:  "Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.  That thing you had to force yourself to do -- the actual act of writing -- turns out to be the best part . . . the act of writing turns out to be its own reward (p.xxvi)."  And from Stephen King: "At its most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations?  We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style . . . but as we move along, you'd do well to remember that we are also talking about magic (p.137)."  

This blog post is a far cry from "magic," but the act of writing, of "sharpening our pencils" and grappling with how best to transmit our thoughts to our audience in a coherent and meaningful fashion, is hard work worth doing.  I look forward to learning more about how to effectively teach students to embrace and value the process (the struggle) of writing as much as its end result as I also learn to do this myself.

Fore!

A metaphor for student teaching came to mind the other day after I declined to join my husband for a game of golf while on vacation.  Primarily, my reason was that I could not justify the cost to golf at a resort given my lack of skill (though I guess it could possibly be considered a good deal if examined on a cost per swing basis).  I have taken several golf lessons over the years that, more often than not, have left me feeling more uncoordinated and more frustrated than when I started.  I think the reason lies with the fact that the golf pros I have had lessons from have swamped me with a long list of requirements to keep in mind every time I swing the club – feet hip distance apart, toes forward, knees slightly bent, head down, arms straight . . . and that’s just getting set up to start the swing!  The number of details to which I am asked to attend before, during and after each swing overwhelms me and takes the joy out of trying.  You may now be wondering where I am going with this.  Let me be clear that I am not saying there is no joy in student teaching.  On the contrary, I find it extremely satisfying and full of joy each day.  What I am noticing, however, is that during the lessons when I am trying to attend to too many new things – using talk moves, asking only open-ended questions, assessing on-the-fly, trying to differentiate for 25 different individual needs and learning styles – my teaching becomes awkward, mechanical, frustrating, joyless and, most likely, less than optimally effective.  We are learning so many wonderful things about teaching every week from our professors, readings and blogs -- from small details to overarching principles -- but the list of things to attend to (including this week’s Top 10 list on "What Does It Mean to be a Great Teacher? (Ten Ideas)," a blog post by John Spencer) becomes like the laundry list of tips from the golf pro.  The advice is all terrific, but I become so focused on micromanaging what I am supposed to be doing that I am unable to “macro-manage” the lesson and attend to the needs of the children effectively.  What I need to do is focus on only a few new skills at a time and practice, practice, practice.  (A lesson I should apply to my golfing as well!)  Luckily, we are being given a lot of opportunities to practice this school year and I know that one at a time, these important new skills will come to feel natural until eventually we will practice them all without even thinking about them.   This is clearly happening already as I find myself unconsciously “channeling” Allison as I say “Who can repeat what Rafael said a different way?,”  “Who can add to what Sadie just said?,” or “Arya, tell me more about how you got that answer?”  Just as I need to relax in practicing my golf swing, not trying to get every single detail right on every swing, I also need to give myself some grace in my student teaching.  I need to relax and enjoy every moment of this safe practice time and trust that all the wonderful details we are being taught are sinking in and will become second-nature in due time.

Stealing Learning

The teacher I am student teaching under at the moment has a great expression she uses with her first graders when they blurt out an answer while a classmate is trying to construct an answer or when they let a classmate copy off of their paper.  When she sees this happening, she admonishes them to “Stop stealing ______’s learning.”  I love that this is an explicit norm in their young classroom community -- that every child is capable of learning and that every child has the right to learn in their own way and at their own pace.  It reinforces the idea that every learning activity is not a race to the finish line, but a journey to be shared.  It is also a journey to be experienced a bit differently for each student.  

The idea of “stealing learning” is one that we, as teachers, must heed as well.  We are learning in several of our methods courses about the importance of posing open-ended questions and fostering discussion of all responses, right or wrong.  We need to create an environment where mistakes and misunderstandings are valued as learning opportunities.  The most important question we can ask in teaching any subject is “Why?”  “Why do you agree or disagree?”  “Why does that make sense to you?  Explain your reasoning to us.”  These questions expand, rather than contract the learning of all involved.  As students are pressed to articulate and defend their thinking, their ideas become clarified and cemented in their brains and the sharing of ideas helps all to extend their thinking in new directions as they consider the new thoughts presented by their classmates.  

As a teacher (and a parent), I often want to jump in to help a child who is struggling, but I am learning that this is stealing their learning too.  It is so hard to give only a vague guiding hint and harder still to answer a question with another question, but I am learning that these are the greatest gifts we can give to a struggling student.  We need to leave them in the struggle, providing only enough scaffolding to keep them engaged in the task. They need to search for their own way to make sense of the problem at hand.  On the other hand, we don’t want to let them get so frustrated that they become defeated and give up.  We must take care to keep them in the Zone of Proximal Development (Zygotsky) -- challenged slightly above their current abilities, but not so far above so as to be unattainable.  I am finding it very hard to find just the right way to nudge students in the right direction without telling them too much.  Also, every student will have a slightly different ZPD so we must carefully consider what types of scaffolding we are providing to each individual student and differentiate accordingly.  We also want to make sure that we aren’t putting students in a situation where they are seeking the one right answer that will please us instead of grappling to make meaning and sense for themselves.

These are skills that I need to continue to work on and also norms that I want to be core values of my future classroom.  I want to foster a community of inquiry and collaboration, one that values different learning levels and styles, and one that values learning over finding the right answer.  I don’t want anyone’s learning to be stolen on my watch!

Great Expectations

One of the greatest surprises I have encountered in the first grade classroom in which I am currently placed has been the incredibly high level of expectations our dyad teacher has for her young students.  I am always impressed by the classroom management skills of primary teachers -- how they keep those wiggly and energetic little bodies all moving in the same direction throughout the day -- but what I am seeing extends far beyond behavior expectations.  Our dyad teacher has great academic expectations for her students -- all of her students.  This month our first graders are doing a unit on spiders.  As you would expect, the room is decorated with spider webs and painted pumpkins, black cats and, of course, plenty of spiders, large and small.  What I was surprised to see is the depth to which our teacher takes this study and the level of academic vocabulary she uses.  She and another first grade teacher have raided every library in the area it seems as they have stacks and stacks of non-fiction fact books on spiders for the children to look at and read.  She frequently reads one aloud to them pointing out text features such as the table of contents, index, glossary, bold-faced type , information bubbles, etc. and modeling how to use these features in order to find information they are looking for.  She has a huge sketch of a spider on the wall which they are drawing ”together.”  As they find out more information as a group, the teacher adds the details and labels.  You can imagine my surprise when I walked into the classroom last week and saw labels such as arachnid, spinneret and cephalothorax!!  Her high expectations extend beyond vocabulary and non-fiction skills.  This extensive spider unit which also includes almost daily art projects and lots of writing activities including a spider fact book that the class is writing together (they compose it as a group, but each child has their own personal copy that they must copy the text into as they go) is completely teacher-created and above-and-beyond the required curriculum.  In other words, our teacher is not required to teach any of this spider related material or do any of these fun October art projects but she wants to expand her students’ worlds by exposing them to science, art, the features of non-fiction, challenging vocabulary and so much more.  All along the way, she expects high quality work from each and every one and explicitly states her expectations at the beginning of each activity.  The students come from a wide range of backgrounds and possess a wide range of skills, so they cannot all meet her great expectations, but I think they are better off for having a teacher who is stretching them to their fullest potential.  

Spider Diagram
(a work in progress)

Using Technology for Formative Assessment

After thinking some more about my previous post, I decided to search my Google Reader for blog posts on formative assessment to see if I could mine some good ideas from seasoned educators.  I came across this one from the blog "Free Technology for Teachers" which involves the use of mobile technology devices:  Mobile Formative Assessment; A One Device Solution.  Among others, it suggests using Evernote (which we will be learning about in our tech class soon) as an assessment tool.  

How Best to Assess? (So Much to Assess and So Little Time)

This past week I had the opportunity to take over a portion of the teaching day in my 1^st grade dyad placement.  I taught an hour-long math lesson introducing money (nickels and pennies) that incorporated prior lessons on addition, equations and counting on.  I also led an interactive read-aloud on Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk, highlighting (among other things) the difference between fiction and non-fiction, noticing patterns (rhyme and sequential numbers) and making predictions.  I feel fairly confident that most of the students understood the lesson objectives but without an assessment that provides data on each individual student (such as a quiz or one-on-one conversation) it is very difficult to know.  Most informal written assessments (worksheets, etc.) for which we, of course, do not require students to use “privacy cubbies” of some sort, have the flaw of students being able to easily look at and copy each other’s work.  Although one-on-one conferencing gives us the best data, time rarely allows it.  One of the most surprising things I have learned about teaching is the importance of almost constant formative assessment to inform our teaching, especially with regard to providing extra support for those students who need it.  I have learned that assessment can be as simple as having a group discussion of a book or math lesson, or looking over children’s shoulders as they work on an assignment.  However, this usually does not capture accurate data on every student in the class.  I feel that in my teaching this past week I was able to get a good general “pulse” of where the class was, but I see that I will have to be a lot more conscientious in seeking out formative assessment data on students who might otherwise “fall through the cracks.”  I like Jean’s suggestion of carrying around a notebook at all times that has the students’ names listed down the side to take impromptu notes on their work and our conversations with them.  Other ideas?  What assessments are easiest for you to do "on the fly?"  Which are most effective for you?  Which do you find more difficult to carry out?

Really Seeing Our New Students

As we are diving into our new placements and getting to know a new set of students,  I am reminded of what we learned a few quarters ago from William Ayers' book To Teach.  In his chapter titled Seeing the Student he admonishes us not to fall into the trap of defining students by their incompetencies.  He reminds us that "labels are limiting . . . they conceal more than they reveal (p. 42)."  He goes on to note "the deficiencies list tells you almost nothing about me . . . it doesn't offer you any insight or clues into how you might engage me in a journey of learning or how you might invite me into your classroom as a student (p.44)."  I am reminded of this because before meeting some of the students in my new classroom for the first time, I heard them characterized by others with some pretty limiting labels that negatively colored my first impressions of them.  Without at first realizing it, I found I was predisposed to look for negative behaviors and incompetencies in these students.  Luckily, I quickly caught myself and have since been making a concerted effort to get to know the competencies and unique positive qualities of these "problem" students so that I can ascertain how best to connect with them and teach them.  I need to find out what they do know and what is important to them.  Little by little I am learning more about them which is helping me to help them more each day.  As an added bonus, with a more positive outlook, I find I am enjoying the class even more -- and I think they are too. 

Deciphering the Curriculum

What I am puzzling about in my placement this week is how to get enough of a handle on a whole new set of curricula in order to be able to have an authentic teaching experience in such a short amount of time in our current "mini" dyad placements.  I am curious as to how other teachers and teachers-in-training approach this challenge, whether it be for a new job or a short-term assignment such as the one we're facing, or even as a substitute.  The curricula for math and reading, in particular, are so robust and multi-faceted that it is hard to find a point of entry.  I'd like to start dipping my toes in the water by implementing basic pieces and then layering on more complexity as I master the various tools available.

  

The fact that the curriculum authors give you more resources than you can possibly use is both a blessing and a curse.  It presents great flexibility and also great confusion.  I find myself wishing for a "Getting Started" or "Quick Start" guide like you typically get with a new camera or laptop computer that simplifies the multitude of options and features into a manageable portion with which to get started.  Certainly I will work with our cooperating teacher to decipher the choices, but I wonder if anyone has any "tricks of the trade" in how to best approach a new curriculum. 

Back to School (& Back to Blogging)

Our back-to-school "September Experience" officially came to a close on Friday and as I  must now also get back to blogging, that experience seems an appropriate thing to blog about.  I learned to put into practice so many things that we have been learning -- from backwards mapping a lesson (on latitude and longitude!) to building a classroom community from a group of 28 very diverse 4th and 5th graders.  

Borrowing from my Intro to Field Experience Final Reflection . . . September Experience was amazing, exhausting, enlightening, frustrating, humbling and inspiring.  I learned that 4th and 5th graders try to act older than they are but are really still kids at heart.  I learned that with 28 kids in a classroom, everything takes a lot longer than you think it will.  I learned that, more often than not, things do not go exactly as planned.  I learned that even the toughest kids have a soft side and even the quietest kids have amazing things to say.  I learned that what we say is often less important than how we say it.  I learned that special needs kids are not a burden, but a gift.  I learned how easy it is to inadvertently ignore the quiet, middle-of-the-road kids.  I learned that there are an amazing array of teaching styles and that I need to learn to better appreciate and work with and learn from all of them.  Most importantly, I learned that I cannot possibly learn all of the things that I want to learn in just one year of student teaching!

I wrote that reflection before my final day of September Experience when my cooperating teacher was out for planning meetings all day and I took control of the class (with a sub to assist, of course).  In so doing, I learned a few additional things among which are that it takes a lot longer to plan a lesson than to teach a lesson and that managing transitions is going to be a vital skill to master!!

Food Journal Reflection

Keeping a food journal for our Health & Fitness methods class was not hard for me as I have kept food and activity journals on and off for the last five or six years.  In 2006 I found myself weighing more than I ever had in my life and I became determined to turn it around.  I put myself on a 1200-1500 calorie per day diet and began a more regular exercise routine.  During this time I religiously kept a food and exercise log and I succeeded in losing 30 pounds in about six months.  Give or take five pounds, I’ve largely been able to keep it off.  Writing down food and exercise information each day really keeps my good (and bad) habits in the forefront of my mind.  It doesn’t prevent slips and lapses, but it helps me get back on track more quickly afterwards.  I think I am a pretty healthy role model as I subscribe to diet and exercise habits that are well balanced and allow for occasional splurges in eating as well as occasional rest days from exercise.  The most important thing is to eat a well-balanced diet (no crazy fads), to allow yourself small indulgences, and to not beat yourself up for having a bad day (or week) every once in a while. 

For this class, after one week we were asked to set a goal for the remainder of the class.  I set two goals for myself – to increase the intensity of my daily exercise at least three times a week and to get more sleep.  Sleep has been a big issue for me since starting this program and in particular this quarter with our classes all concentrated in the middle of the week.  I find myself wanting to spend time with my family during dinner and early evening and then end up “burning the midnight oil” trying to get my school work done later in the evening and well after they’ve gone to bed.  This not only makes me tired in general but also has a definite (and negative) impact on my eating and exercise habits.  The more tired I am, the less motivated I am to push myself when exercising and the more apt I am to snack between meals to keep my energy up.  Nevertheless, I did force myself to do less walking and more running when taking my 11-month old lab puppy for his morning exercise before school each day and once I got going it really did make me feel better.  I also learned that it was easier to stretch the length of my running intervals in manageable increments rather than setting overly ambitious goals for myself that set me up for failure.

I think keeping food/activity/sleep journals is a great way to increase students’ awareness of their health habits.  It’s amazing how I found myself giving second thought before taking a cookie or other not-so-healthy choice because I didn’t want to have to record it or how the guilt from skipping a day of exercise is multiplied by seeing that blank spot in the journal the following day.  Keeping a health journal is a great way of making us more aware of our choices and also accountable to ourselves for committing to goals and recording progress towards those goals.  This could easily be stretched into an interdisciplinary activity for our students.  Math can be incorporated by calculating things such as calories and BMI and also by graphing progress towards goals.  Science can be incorporated in learning about the body’s needs for a balanced diet, knowledge about the “quality” of calories (nutrient-rich vs. “empty”) and the physiological importance of exercise and sleep.  

Brains

I held a human brain in my hands today!  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever utter that sentence.  I was not even looking forward to seeing it let alone touching it, but I'm glad I did.  It was about the size of a head of cauliflower but really much heavier than I expected.  I also learned a lot about the brain from our micro-teaching lesson today like, for instance, that it is made up largely of water and fat and that carbohydrates and hydration are important in keeping a healthy brain . . . who knew?!  

Information from Anonymity

An interesting takeaway from class today for me was the power of using anonymity to increase the accuracy of information garnered from a group.  This strategy was used by both a micro-teaching team and by our teacher.  In the first instance we were simulating a sixth grade sex education class and the tool was to offer slips of paper that could be filled out anonymously with questions and placed in a box for the teacher to address during the following day's class.  It seems there would still be a glitch in that students might look around and see who is filling out slips and who isn't.  I would solve this by asking everyone in the class to take a slip and write something -- even if it is just "Have a good weekend" -- so that no one feels self-conscious about taking a slip and no one knows who wrote the questions that are discussed in the following class session.  In the second instance our teacher asked us to fill out an anonymous survey about our level of comfort with our preparation to teach various aspects of sex education.  There were ten questions each of which was answered on a scale of one to ten.  She then collected the surveys, mixed them up and redistributed them.  She placed the numbers one through ten on the floor and as each question was read we stood on/near the number reported on the survey (not our own) that we were now holding.  We were able to quickly see how the class was feeling without putting individuals on the spot.  Both were great uses of anonymity to overcome reluctance to honestly share one's opinion or to ask sensitive or embarrassing questions.

Having a Growth Mindset

It was a big day in BEDUC423 yesterday.  We did our micro-teaching unit on bullying (which I think went reasonably well) and at the end of class got our first glimpse (gulp!) of the new TPA that we will need to pass in order to be certified next spring.  Most meaningful to me however was our discussion of our reading from Carol Dweck's Mindset.  The introductory anagram activity really drove home the point about how we can actually teach/learn helplessness which in turn can lead to a habit of giving up when the going gets tough and continuing to give up even when conditions improve.  Dweck refers to this condition as having a "fixed mindset".  With a fixed mindset, risk and effort can lead to failure -- an 'Eeyore' point of view (remembering Jean's reading of Winnie-the-Pooh yesterday), pessimistic at its heart.  On the other hand a "growth mindset" focuses on the means more than the ends.  Success is found within the effort and the risk-taking rather than as a result of it -- more of a 'Tigger' or 'Roo' perspective although there really isn't a good Pooh comparison  for this one.  Instead of the fixed mindset focus on limitations, the growth mindset allows one to see opportunity for growth in every challenge.  I was most encouraged to learn that by choosing our words and modeling actions carefully that we can actually teach children who are stuck in the fixed mindset to learn to have a growth mindset!   On a personal note, I will strive to keep a growth mindset myself as I face the challenges I encounter in this program (with respect to the TPA in particular!).  

Assessment Revelations

I was blown away by the list of assessment possibilities in the Abell & Volkmann article we read in class today.  Prior to today I would have said that being in this program has really stretched my thinking on assessment beyond the traditional paper and pencil test to include projects, portfolios, digital stories, etc., but that stretching was taken to a whole new level with this reading.  I am in awe of the array of creative assessment tools that are available to us as teachers.  It is also gratifying to know that the utilization of  various types of assessment is also leading to greater equity in education as different assessments lend themselves to different learning styles.  As we discussed in class, however, any assessment must be constructed carefully to yield both validity and reliability of results.  So I have learned that there is not just one time (the end of a lesson) for assessment, there is not just one type of assessment but I also learned today that there is not just one level of assessment.  Looking at Bloom's taxonomy (a pyramid of levels of thinking) adds another interesting layer of constructing assessment and that is by the level of thinking that it is measuring in our students.  We must be careful not to hang at the bottom of the pyramid, only testing our students' knowledge and comprehension.  Instead we must stretch ourselves to assess in creative ways their ability to apply, analyze, evaluate and create new ways of thinking about and applying what they have learned.

Hula Hoop Fun

Today we started out with some fun activities using pool noodles, hula hoops and jump ropes -- germ tag, a relay race and composing jump rope rhymes on a specified topic.  It's neat to see how easy it is to weave academic content and physical activity.  What was most interesting though was the continued interest shown in the hula hoops throughout the rest of the day (they were left at the back of our classroom).  People picked them up to use during breaks and lunch and we even used them to create a human Venn diagram in the afternoon.  It never would have occurred to me to have hula hoops in my classroom but now I can see how they can be used in lots of engaging ways!

Issues of Abuse & Neglect

Today we tackled the tough topic of our role as mandatory reporters of abuse and neglect.  The opening reading from The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down really brought home the point that there are large grey areas to consider and, in this specific example, a fine line between respecting cultural traditions and protecting a child from abuse.  I appreciated all of the examples we walked through and grappled with as a group struggling to decide whether each example was reportable as abuse or neglect or not.  It is sad to think of all the hurt we may encounter in children's lives but also hopeful to consider what a powerful force we can be as teachers as protectors and as agents of healing and resilience.

The Bones of Lesson Plans

Today we had our first crack at formulating a real lesson plan.  It felt good to finally put some meat on the bones (so to speak!) of the lesson plan outline provided.  After doing a bone-related relay race outside we practiced (as a class) articulating learning objectives and assessment criteria.  It was fun to then divide into our micro-teaching teams to work on our mini lesson plans using this approach.  We looked up the appropriate EALRs and GLEs (boy, are there a lot of them!) and came up with some good objectives.  The assessment part is a little trickier.  Luckily we have another week to figure it out.

Summer Quarter Day 1

My brain is swimming after a full day of two new education classes today!  My 'assimilator' self needs to make some to do lists :)   


The most important thing I learned in Health/Fitness today was how many elements can be included under the umbrella of health education.  Each table group made a poster and although we had a lot in common, I was surprised at some of the items other groups included that my group overlooked such as disease prevention, sleep, and the social/community aspects of health education.

We Can

I was just driving along thinking about how all kids are gifted in their own unique way (not what I am normally contemplating while driving but it relates to my paper due on Monday so it's been at the forefront of my mind lately) and I was thinking also that I want to make sure that every child in my classroom believes this!  It is vital that they know that they can refuse to be labeled as deficient in any way and that they are able to achieve greater things than they can even currently imagine -- when onto the radio came a song I had never heard before called "We Can" by Jesse Ruben.  Have a listen . . .

As teachers, we can make sure that our children see themselves without deficits or limits.  We can make sure that they can say "We can!"  

Working Together to Succeed in Teaching

Bill Ayers’ chapter “Working in the Gap” really sums up our work this quarter quite well.  We have learned about the many challenges facing our educational system, our students and ourselves as teachers, but we have also spent a lot of time (in Maxine Greene’s words) imagining how it might be otherwise.  Ayers tells us that we must learn to “work the gap . . . between what is and what could be . . . searching the cracks for spaces to enact something more” (137, 138).  We could get bogged down by the obstacles, but we must keep our eye on the vision to “transform, empower, enlighten, awaken and energize” our students.  There are so many contradictions in the world of education today, including the serious cross-purposes discussed in Stan Karp’s article “Why We Need to Go Beyond the Classroom,” but Ayers urges us to live within those contradictions with hope as our fuel to keep forging ahead, to “press now for an education worthy of a democracy” (141).  

Luckily, as Jane keeps reminding us, we don’t have to work it alone.  Both Ayers and Karp stress that we need to forge alliances and work together at getting involved wherever we can, imagining solutions and fighting for their implementation.  We have to be determined not to fall victim to isolation.

At first I was intimidated by the thought that teaching was not something that we could learn -- that is, something that had an end point of accomplishment.  But now I am inspired and excited by Ayers’ description of teaching as dynamic and never-ending.  Each year will bring new students and each day new opportunities for growth.  One of the most exciting parts of the journey I am finding is how much we will learn from each other as we stay connected through collaboration in-person or online via blogs or forums.  We’re going to have to depend on each other and I can’t think of a greater cohort to be a part of.  So here’s to us as we finish up our first quarter -- we’re off to a strong and united start!

Teaching as a "Calling"

Why does the term "calling" resonate with so many teachers -- including Bill Ayers and other authors we have read this quarter?  As Ryan astutely pointed out last night, this is one of those terms that has secular as well as religious meaning to people.  When I say I feel called to teach, what I mean (as a Christian) is that I am drawn to teach because of my faith orientation to love and humbly serve others (all others) non-judgmentally as well as my belief that God created me with an orientation toward compassion for children and passion for learning.  These reasons could just as well be given by a person who is not religious, without the attributions to faith and God of course.  Dictionaries define “calling” as a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action or career.  

It is with genuine non-judgmental love that I will approach each and every child that I teach.  This is a core value that we have discussed at length this quarter and I’m sure it’s one we all share.  It doesn’t matter that the reason I feel compelled by that core value is my faith and the reason someone else is compelled by that core value is something else within or outside of them.  I think the term “calling” resonates with most teachers, religious or not, because it connotes the very personal and emotional connection to our work which is so important to us all and vital to our success as teachers -- as we have also discussed this week.

On a related note, I would also like to add that just as we should take care in applying a broad label like “poverty” (and its attendant assumptions) to kids in an enormous spectrum of circumstances (from generational poor to temporary poor), we should also be careful in attaching assumptions to other broad labels such as “Christian,” “Muslim,” “progressive,” or “conservative,” (to name just a few examples) which also encompass an enormous array of beliefs and opinions.  In approaching our students, their families and each other, we should just try to get to know each individual person for the unique human being that they are and work on building a bridge from there.  

The Centrality of Emotion in Education

I found it interesting this week to juxtapose our earlier readings on how teachers are (and are not) viewed as “professionals” (and the reasons behind those views) to this weeks readings “The Emotional Practice of Teaching” (Hargreaves) and “A Teacher’s Awesome Power” (Raywid).  Just a few weeks back it would have seemed to me that discussing the emotional or relational side of teaching would be tantamount to falling into the trap of our detractors by giving them ammunition to attack us for being “soft” and therefore non-professional.  This week’s readings have really changed my thinking.  
I am learning more and more about the critical importance of building classroom community.  Central to the formation of a classroom community that can effectively engender optimal learning is the ability of the teacher to emotionally connect to students and to foster students’ emotional connections to each other.  The cornerstone of a classroom community is positive relationships and the building of positive relationships requires emotional sensitivity -- “emotional intelligence” (as coined by Daniel Goleman in his book of that title).  Therefore, as schools are becoming increasingly diverse and our children are facing increasingly complex and stressful circumstances in their lives it is more important than ever that we create space in our school day to share the different life experiences and emotions of everyone in the classroom and to teach tolerance, empathy and inclusion.  Unfortunately, we are swimming upstream against an increasingly strong current as educational reforms are concurrently de-personalizing teaching at every turn by allowing increased class sizes while at the same time binding teachers’ hands with cut-and-dried curriculum that force them to teach to one-sided standardized assessments.  All of these structural changes hinder a teacher’s ability to build emotional connections within the classroom community.


It is critical that we educate the public about the centrality of emotions to teaching -- not because the emotional aspect of teaching is largely what draws people to the profession but because emotional connections and emotional intelligence are essential in creating the relationships between teachers and students, and among the students in the classrooms, that create the foundation for optimal learning to occur.  Emotion may seem like a soft issue but it is really the hard and central core of the profession of teaching.


P.S. Just after posting this I was surfing my blog reader and came across this blog post on relationships in teaching. Coincidentally, at the end of his post the blogger references the article Rosie told us about regarding the principal in Walla Walla and his innovative approach to discipline!

Thoughts on Developing Creativity

I’ve gotta be honest -- I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the thought of the digital storytelling project.  Not by the technology involved, but by the storytelling itself.  I feel a little creatively challenged.  Now that we have watched Sir Ken Robinson’s video on changing the paradigms of education, I at least feel like I have an excuse.  After all, I went through school when it was even more factory-like than it is today, so it is likely that I too had about 96% of divergent thinking sucked out of me along the way!

Robinson defines creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.  He goes on to say that divergent thinking isn’t a synonym for creativity, but is an essential capacity for creativity.  Divergent thinking is the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question, lots of possible ways of interpreting a question, to see multiple answers instead of just one (to think laterally instead of just in linear or convergent ways).

I have been impressed with the extraordinary creativity of many of the authors we have been reading -- most recently, Ayers’ descriptions of developing a complex and dynamic curriculum and Bigelow’s descriptions of his untracked classroom and role playing activities, etc.  I even saw a news story yesterday about a local 5th grade teacher named Mr. Keith who has transformed his 5th grade classroom into a pirate’s cave and devleoped all sorts of fun activities related to that theme in order to engage his students in math (and with great success -- standardized math test scores have doubled). http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Life-of-a-pirate-improves-Kent-students-math-scores-150179455.html

Clearly other people either haven’t lost their ability to think divergently or else they have figured out how to re-learn the skill -- the latter is my aim!  So I did a little googling to come up with ideas and here are a few:

(1)  Prepare for divergent thinking by brainstorming, concept mapping and keeping a journal. Teach yourself to freely associate ideas rather than keeping all of your ideas focused in a single vein or method.

(2) When confronted with a brain teaser or real-world problem, look for the most common solution first. Then, instead of stopping with this solution, begin again from the beginning and approach the problem with a completely different perspective, looking for a solution from a different angle.

(3) Learn to view the world as consisting of a countless number of different perspectives. The more you can get used to seeing simple, everyday issues as a matter of perspective (by looking up news issues from a number of angles, or reading literature written from a perspective different from your own), the easier it is to think divergently in any situation.
[1-3 are from ehow.com/how to think divergently]

(4) A great exercise in fluent thinking is the “List of 100.” Take a problem or an everyday object and write down 100 things about it. You might struggle at first, but the idea is to look at it from all angles and to not censor yourself. In the end, some of your ideas might not be very useful or practical, but others will be, and you will start to notice elements or combinations you never noticed before. Once you have a great list of ideas, you can begin to elaborate and develop the ideas that have a seed of promise.
[from growingcreativekids.com]

Well beyond this course and this digital storytelling project, we will be called on to come up with creative solutions to the myriad of challenges and opportunites facing us as teachers and, more generally, facing public education today. This is a small step, but it’s a start -- I’ll keep you posted!

"Poverty" is too broad of a label

Last night, Jane correctly pointed out an egregious error in my thinking regarding the intersection of poverty and education as she commented on my weekly journal.  Her point was that a lot of the Beegle article really just applies to generational poverty -- the deepest form of poverty -- which is a small percentage of the total number of families in poverty today.  She pointed out that for me to apply Beegle’s conclusions to all students classified as being in poverty (now almost 25% of American schoolchildren) is to apply sweeping generalizations that lead to wrong conclusions.  For instance, although many families in generational poverty don’t see the value in education and therefore exert little effort to overcome the substantial obstacles to their children’s success in school; many other families in poverty see education as their lifeboat, their ticket out of poverty, and will make tremendous sacrifices to keep their children in school.  

As we saw in our role-plays on Monday night, there are definite differences between the situations of families in generational poverty vs. working poverty vs. temporary poverty which affect their attitudes toward education in important ways.  When I first read Beegle’s article, it felt like her distinctions between different types of poverty were in some cases “splitting hairs,” but now I see more clearly that those distinctions can cause vastly different perspectives on education -- primarily whether the family sees education as a source of hope or a source of frustration and futility.  One of our cohort members even mentioned on Monday about her experience as being part of “immigrant poverty” which was not characterized by hopelessness.  On the contrary, they pinned all of their hope on education because they saw the value of education in lifting them out of their circumstances.  As a result, they placed a very high priority on obtaining education for their children.

I am reminded that even when we apply labels in an attempt to help certain groups of marginalized people by drawing attention to their plight, we can do so too broadly and to the detriment of what we are trying to accomplish.  As Jane commented on my paper:  “poor kids come in many forms” and many now live not just in cities and rural areas but even in suburbs.  It comes back to the lessons we have been learning about getting to know each child and their families individually in order to build unique bridges to each of them.  We need to be wary of putting families in “boxes” that seem convenient and useful to our understanding of their situation, but are, in fact, barriers to our truly getting to know them and help them.

Following up on Imagining a Better Future

I was inspired to read Donna Beegle's background story this week and to learn how a counselor challenged her to dream beyond her wildest imaginings and a teacher mentored her in breaking free of her generational poverty!! This is an excerpt from an article in The Oregonian, a Portland newspaper, by author Bryan Smith (http://www.combarriers.com/WomansJourney) published on January 29, 1995:

The women at the program treated her differently. They didn't laugh at her "ain'ts'' or tell her she dressed wrong or call her the name she hated most: white trash.  One day, the program teachers asked the class to dream.  "If you could do anything you wanted, be anything, what would it be? Don't think about obstacles. Just dream.''  Donna let her mind drift, back to her enjoyment of writing and reading.  "I'd like to be on TV, like Mary Hart. I'd like to be a news anchor.''  To her amazement, no one laughed.  "Oh, you want to be a journalist,'' the instructor said.  "That's a terrific dream.''

That night, she recorded two modest goals in the "hopes and wishes'' column of her class journal. Before, her dream had been to find a man to take care of her. Now, she wanted to make her own way.  "One day I'd like to finish my GED,'' she wrote. "And take a college journalism class.''

A little further along on her educational journey, Donna Beegle was also mentored by a professor, Bob Fulford, who noticed that she was hard-working and exhibited a deep understanding in her papers but that she had horrible grammar. He gently offered to help her and she grabbed at the opportunity. Her speech began to improve dramatically. She'd make notes of words she didn't understand and look them up or seek out her professors to explain them further. With the encouragement of counselors and teachers, Donna was given the opportunity to imagine a better future for herself and to obtain it. It wasn't without incredibly hard work and many sacrifices as a single mom with two young children, but she was able to persevere with the support and encouragement of counselors and teachers. Originally a 9th grade drop-out, Donna went on to not only earn her associate's degree (at age 30), but also bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees!

As future teachers, we need to always have our antennas up and eyes wide open for children who are struggling with poverty or any other obstacle to their educational advancement. We can be the ones to fuel their dreams and awaken their imaginings of better future -- or in Maxine Greene's words -- to help them to be aware of "the possibility of things being otherwise"

Imagining a Better Future For "At Risk" Children

Imagine no injustice

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

It’s time to take a stand

Imagine all the children learning hand in hand

You may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one . . .

[my apologies to John Lennon J]

Today I’m thinking about the awesome power of imagination and I love how our reading by Maxine Greene (Imagination, Community and the School) stretched my thinking about applying this to education in new and powerful ways.  We’ve been learning a lot about current issues of social injustice in education and our readings are helping me to imagine a better future for all children.  The trouble is that there is a huge number of families so weighed down in their daily struggles, and facing such high obstacles to success, that they cannot imagine a better future for their children.  Their children are at risk of falling between the cracks of our educational system, dooming them to a future as bleak as their current reality.  “The American Dream” has become “The Impossible Dream.”  As teachers, we can invite these “at risk” children to dream the impossible dream by exposing them to the fulfilled dreams of others.  We can teach them about major historical figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. but we must also be sure to include the stories of people just like them, like Dr. Donna Beegle whose article on poverty we will discuss in class next week.  We must do everything in our power to stir their “wide-awakeness” to the “possibilities of things being otherwise” – allowing them to imagine their own future potential.  We must prove to them that they are worthy of such a future by valuing them in their present circumstances, inviting them into the inclusive community of our classroom, listening to the stories of their lives, and loving and respecting them deeply as human beings.  We must let them share their stories and dreams in creative ways including art, singing and dance while also exposing them to the art of others which gives them a window into others’ imaginations -- and more possibilities.  I love how Greene describes Martin Luther King’s impact on a group of people he was addressing in a church, trying to empower them to fight for their civil rights:  “As they came awake to a dimension of lived life they could scarcely have predicted for themselves, they came to feel a transcendence that came from their being together in a particular way (40).”   I believe we can find a way to “be together” with at risk children in that same “particular way”.  We can provide healing, freedom and hope by helping them to imagine a better future for themselves, but we must do this from within the context of a supportive and interconnected community that believes they can break free of their current circumstances and that they are worthy of a better future.  Mostly we must be willing to help them do it – to actively join in imagining their possibility to be otherwise!