A. Graphic Organizer (analog)
B.
1. It's so hard for me to visualize teaching. For some reason, it feels about as fun as it would to look into a black hole. But, I recognize this discomfort as a type of "Novice Syndrome" and when I think of my personal vison as an educator in the 21st century, I begin to grow peaceful. So I want to be a mentor for students potential careers. I want to be a life long-learner and someone who continues to grow professionally, individually and collaboratively. What does that mean for a student? The more I learn, the better I become, the richer their environment will be. I want to work with them some how in their digital domain. Something as easy as a free blog, like this might be a start. Maybe it could cut down on my English paper work as well.
2. I'll be doing research papers with my English 11 students most of this semester, speeches the last two weeks (the papers track a trend over the course of the 20th century as it was defined by war, civil rights or women's issues). I hope to get them turned on to their work with inquisitive caps as opposed to being pulled down by Drudgery's harnesses. As I plan the unit I'll try to incorporate inquiry based methods so they become the researchers who find the answers to questions they want to ask, not mere recipents of research that's already been done. We'll be in the library for the first 3 weeks combing through databases. Over that time I plan to help them find what turns them on by guiding questions back to them and what interests them. AS for an example off the cuff?
For my honors students with whom I'll be reading "To Kill a Mockingbird", I hope to share current articles, and theories that show that yes, we've come a long way but there's many civil rights issues in our society that need to be questioned critically. I hope to instill in them, a group of elite college bound kids, the courage to follow their conscience and be agents of change for social justice.
3.I don't know. I want to say, in 2 years, that I'm part of closing the acheivement gap. I want to become a damn good teacher who teaches in a place where it's needed and wanted. So, what I mean by that is, I'd like to come on board to a place that has the passion for innovative teaching like KIPP academy but I wouldn't want to be in a school that is a sinking ship and I'm the only person who feels optomistic. That could be a case for burn out.
Let's just say, I'll start out small. I won't plan on going into a school, filled with ideas of social justice, and start pounding my fists to make change. But there's some quiet things I can do. I can simply implement group work into my class. I can start the year off taking some time out to introduce my students to a few exercise that will model the desired behaivor I'm looking for in my classroom--collaboration, consensus building, listening skills, personal and group accountability. Something as small as implementing group work can quietly bring about social justice.
4.Eventually, after my two rookie years, I want to be on a team with people who share a common vision and would be interested in collaborating thematic units and ideas to run through our curriculum. I'd like to implement my idea for having a thematic unit that explores food as it relates to sustainablitiy and self-sufficency. I can see getting kids to learn how to garden or even become actively involved in CSAs. With the right colleagues, this could be an amazing ITU which has no problem encompassing science, health, English and history. It could be as long as 2 weeks or 6.
The fear I have is that I'll get to a school and people will be so wrapped up in their own daily grind that any Utopic visions I have will fizzle by the wayside.
5. The ITU I envision is an example of a new curricular path because it teaches holistically and with a theme. Many of the assessments that come out of an ITU are authentic and project based. As an educator, this marks a new professional role because of the amount of collaboration it entails.
The quiet group work is a way to create comprehensive accountability. Comprehensive accountability is an easier way to make sure no child is left behind than any grand bill that is not a panacea for our educational problems today.
And for my immediate goal this semester. I hope to start now with the idea of being a powerful teacher and that means asking powerful, inquiry based questions. So, on ward and up, I ask myself, "What questions will make my kids want to become curious and start to make them generate their own powerful questions?"
Monday, March 8, 2010
Post Modern Maelstrom
Chief, the newly adopted German Shepard, throws his slimy Kong at my feet. Back and forth, gathering the artifacts I'll need in a day--phone, bag, keys, jacket, glasses, bangs dried okay? What next? What to say? Did I tweet in my non-sequential day?
Crimey, so I'm not a post-modernist but the dog is driving me crazy, chomping, whining and slimming his Kong. I appreciate Postman&Weingartners' Pollackesque approach to pedagogy and would like to have guys like them on my side when I start teaching. What I love about this type of investigating is that it does get you questioning and never finding an answer, for "right answers terminate thought."
See guys, like these never shut down thought which is why they're subversive. Their shtick is constantly morphing so it's difficult to pin down, and that worries those who don't like change. The need to be flexible can be threatening. And the desire for holding on to a model, a routine, a definition is comforting. Stasis is a syllabus, answering the question of the day and concluding a lesson. But if we, students and teachers, seek to perpetually keep the question ongoing, like a game of hot-potato, then the learning never stops for either player. The subversive teacher sees the terminal answer, the immovable response, as something akin to "death." As reflective practitioners, we don't want to die in our teaching. We want to keep it fresh with interminable inquiry and investigation. It only stands to "increase competence as learner".
If I were to get a principal, who is rooted in a Victorian model of teaching, on board to listen to my post-modern colleagues like Postman&Weingartner, I'd have him read "Interactive Professionalism and Guidelines for Action". Fullan and Hargreaves propose more or less the same ongoing question and desire to stay "a learner". But they aren't as stylistically inaccessible. They don't require a degree of hipness to get what they're saying yet their message is every bit as subversive and fresh.
Crimey, so I'm not a post-modernist but the dog is driving me crazy, chomping, whining and slimming his Kong. I appreciate Postman&Weingartners' Pollackesque approach to pedagogy and would like to have guys like them on my side when I start teaching. What I love about this type of investigating is that it does get you questioning and never finding an answer, for "right answers terminate thought."
See guys, like these never shut down thought which is why they're subversive. Their shtick is constantly morphing so it's difficult to pin down, and that worries those who don't like change. The need to be flexible can be threatening. And the desire for holding on to a model, a routine, a definition is comforting. Stasis is a syllabus, answering the question of the day and concluding a lesson. But if we, students and teachers, seek to perpetually keep the question ongoing, like a game of hot-potato, then the learning never stops for either player. The subversive teacher sees the terminal answer, the immovable response, as something akin to "death." As reflective practitioners, we don't want to die in our teaching. We want to keep it fresh with interminable inquiry and investigation. It only stands to "increase competence as learner".
If I were to get a principal, who is rooted in a Victorian model of teaching, on board to listen to my post-modern colleagues like Postman&Weingartner, I'd have him read "Interactive Professionalism and Guidelines for Action". Fullan and Hargreaves propose more or less the same ongoing question and desire to stay "a learner". But they aren't as stylistically inaccessible. They don't require a degree of hipness to get what they're saying yet their message is every bit as subversive and fresh.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Survey We Made on Tiff's 'Puter
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dElfNUNuUXB2SG5adlg0Tmx2amtFMkE6MA
Reading Reflection 5 - I'm Thinking . . .
Not like I wasn't convinced before. After all, a master teacher friend of mine has been telling me about the power of group work for over a year, "Put it on the students. They do amazing things and group work ends up taking care of 80% of your class management -- grading, discipline, homework etc. After all a kid can explain to another kid better than an adult ever will."
Linda does not mean to abdicate all her responsibilities; it's more so a proper delegation of authority. When I observed her I never saw such a task master keep a class moving. She really means that we need to tap into our students to make them part of the learning AND teaching responsibilities. This is what I'm hearing from CSUSM and Cohen. This is what is sinking into my head and when I start teaching I suspect that my little yellow Cohen book will become my bible.
In Chap 7 "Letting Go and Teaming Up" Cohen addresses this very trust in telling us not to "hover". You need to be there to observe, especially from a safe distance so they don't gravitate to you. (Lawler, I've witnessed you do this quite often). And you have to know when to move in if the group is floundering (I've seen you do this too when we floundered over the Ethnography).
Letting the students go, however, all hinges upon whether or not you, (I the teacher) created an atmosphere where group work isn't a mystery.
Perhaps the most important foundtion in group work lies in setting our students up for success. For example, assigning certain roles that will keep the project moving along is just a start. A facilitator, a reporter, the leader. All these roles will keep a student engaged, part of the group. It will give them a sense of belonging to the group. Most importantly, every single one of these roles is designed to give the students a chance to take a crack at "asking questions, requesting justification, predicting, hypothesizing, inferring and concluding." (92) This might be the single most compelling reason to teach our kids how to work in groups successfully. To give our kids the gift of this higher order thinking and in such away that is super inclusive (I mean they are empowered to guide their practice!) is a very powerful teaching tool.
Another reminder of successful group work resurfaces in chapter 8. Yes, we do have to insure that everyone gets a chance of becoming an expert, even the "low status students". A step I've taken in this direction already (and I never really understood why I did it) was a question that I put in my "Get to Know You Survey". I ask my new students to tell me something they are good at and then in parenthesis I state,"this can be anything, whistling, skipping, skateboarding, singing, etc" Maybe my regard for what Dave Letterman calls "stupid human tricks" might be my ace-in-the-hole when I start to teach. I am in awe at the things people can do and how the way in which they discover to do them. I've always recognized people's multiple intelligences. I will, however, be sure to keep in mind what Cohen says about not bolstering intelligences that don't carry heft in Western Civ--such as being good w/ your hands. Hmmmm, in writing this, I don't totally agree w/ her. I believe that if you point out how good someone is, especially coming from the position of a teacher, then you can sell these intelligences on the students as well.
Linda does not mean to abdicate all her responsibilities; it's more so a proper delegation of authority. When I observed her I never saw such a task master keep a class moving. She really means that we need to tap into our students to make them part of the learning AND teaching responsibilities. This is what I'm hearing from CSUSM and Cohen. This is what is sinking into my head and when I start teaching I suspect that my little yellow Cohen book will become my bible.
In Chap 7 "Letting Go and Teaming Up" Cohen addresses this very trust in telling us not to "hover". You need to be there to observe, especially from a safe distance so they don't gravitate to you. (Lawler, I've witnessed you do this quite often). And you have to know when to move in if the group is floundering (I've seen you do this too when we floundered over the Ethnography).
Letting the students go, however, all hinges upon whether or not you, (I the teacher) created an atmosphere where group work isn't a mystery.
Perhaps the most important foundtion in group work lies in setting our students up for success. For example, assigning certain roles that will keep the project moving along is just a start. A facilitator, a reporter, the leader. All these roles will keep a student engaged, part of the group. It will give them a sense of belonging to the group. Most importantly, every single one of these roles is designed to give the students a chance to take a crack at "asking questions, requesting justification, predicting, hypothesizing, inferring and concluding." (92) This might be the single most compelling reason to teach our kids how to work in groups successfully. To give our kids the gift of this higher order thinking and in such away that is super inclusive (I mean they are empowered to guide their practice!) is a very powerful teaching tool.
Another reminder of successful group work resurfaces in chapter 8. Yes, we do have to insure that everyone gets a chance of becoming an expert, even the "low status students". A step I've taken in this direction already (and I never really understood why I did it) was a question that I put in my "Get to Know You Survey". I ask my new students to tell me something they are good at and then in parenthesis I state,"this can be anything, whistling, skipping, skateboarding, singing, etc" Maybe my regard for what Dave Letterman calls "stupid human tricks" might be my ace-in-the-hole when I start to teach. I am in awe at the things people can do and how the way in which they discover to do them. I've always recognized people's multiple intelligences. I will, however, be sure to keep in mind what Cohen says about not bolstering intelligences that don't carry heft in Western Civ--such as being good w/ your hands. Hmmmm, in writing this, I don't totally agree w/ her. I believe that if you point out how good someone is, especially coming from the position of a teacher, then you can sell these intelligences on the students as well.
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