This course was HEAVY! Especially for being a summer course. What I mean by that is the ideas and concepts of this course are so important and we were meant to digest all of it in three-to-four weeks. From day one, I was so interested in learning more about big picture schools and trade-based schools. It wasn't until just now that I even considered that these schools are usually intended of high school grades. I have been considering how I can apply the concepts of big picture schools to my sixth graders, especially with our new distance learning models. I think the best first step will be simply to allow my students to explore their interests. One of my biggest takeaways from this course is that students won't learn what they find boring. Harsh truth, but man is it true! In order to truly engage students, we need to always consider their interests. I have learned that the topic of what students are learning is not nearly as important as making sure that students are actually using and applying the skills they learn. Why not let them do this while learning about things they find interesting?
My topic for the annotation project was project-based learning. The research I read confirmed that student interest is the key to student learning. I want to implement project-based learning this year, and I think that distance learning will actually make it much easier to do so. I can have more time to meet with students one-on-one through zoom to check in as well as teach concepts whole class. When it came to completing the integration project, I chose a CTE pathway and grade-level standards that would allow me to actually use this project with my class this year. One of my goals for this year is to implement this project. However, this is not an easy goal to attain, given all of the requirements of teachers for distance learning. Time, as always, will be my biggest obstacle. I really hope that I can change what learning looks like and feels like for my students this year. If I can change even one student's mindset about learning. I will have reached my goal.
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Wow! Session 8 kicked my butt! I will be honest, I don't even know what else we talked about beside the blended learning workshop and the wonderful (not!) ignite presentation. The trauma of that activity is inexplicable. I am still shaking! However, I learned some very valuable information about blended learning. Blended learning could very well save our students from the monotony that virtual learning presented in spring 2020. A key component of blended learning is that students do get in-person time and alone time. Thanks to COVID, in-person will have to mean one-on-one Zoom meetings. However, it does present a unique opportunity to try some cool stuff. I am hoping to apply blended learning to a lesson series that I created for another class I am taking this summer. I think that it will give students the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning and take the learning in new directions. Either way, those ignite presentations are no joke! It wasn't until the end that I understood that the purpose of the ignite presentation was to encourage us to keep our final presentations quick and to the point. Talk about learning-by-doing!
When I read, I highlight things I want to refer to and make notes about my reactions to statements. In Chapter 6 of The Big Picture, the notes I wrote the most were “Yikes!” and “ouch!” I learned from this chapter that some of the things I consider to be hands-on learning experiences are “not real” learning experiences at all. The example of this is the experiment about why Pepsi sinks while Diet Pepsi floats. Yeah it is hands-on, but it isn’t real. Students don’t care about why one floats while the other sinks. I thought that because the students were “doing something,” they must be learning! This is just not true, and boy did it burst my bubble! I then tried to think about a time that I felt like I was providing a real learning experience for my students. Once, a lot of the students in my class were getting sick and missing school. A student asked me why everybody was getting sick around the same time. I took this opportunity to teach something that is not at all in the standards. Each student got a petri dish with nutrient agar, swabbed any surface of their choice on campus, and let whatever would grow for the next three weeks. They could not wait to observe their dishes. My students took the project further on their own and started testing out some of the cleaning materials used around school to see if they could stop microbial growth in their plates. They were so disgusted to find that most of what we use at school does nothing to prevent bacterial growth. From then on, they were very careful about using hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes rather than just soap and water (which did nothing for bacteria).
This experience was definitely not boring for my students. They were so engaged and excited. They even asked to do a culminating event where they could explain their findings to their families. Even my students who were always disengaged in school activities were excited to talk to their families and show them the bacteria that they grew. I think that so many students describe their educational experiences as boring because most of what and how we teach them does not apply to them right now or in the future. They can’t connect, literally. If we can let them learn what they are interested in, or at the very least, help them to connect the content to the real world, they will be much less likely to find it boring. Let’s get kids out of the classroom and doing things! Chapter 5 actually helped me to plan out some writing units for the upcoming school year. I was really influenced by the story of the girl who started out studying Tupac and went on to study and speak about Nelson Mandela. I would like to apply this to my students this year. I want to ask my students to think about what excites them and about what topic they would like to learn more, anything they want! Then, I would like to have one-on-one conversations with each of them about the direction in which they would like their writing to go. I could help them to go more in depth by teaching research methods, author's point of view, and how to discern opinion from fact. Of course, I will have to explicitly teach writing structure so that they know how to write an informative, opinion, and narrative piece. However, students would be allowed to research and write about any (appropriate) topic in which they are interested. I think that distance learning will actually help me to manage this kind of project much more easily. If I allow students to explore their interests more deeply, they may find their passions or they may find things about which they are definitely not passionate.
This makes me think back to my education. In all of my years, I have only ever saved two pieces of writing. The first was a poetry portfolio project from junior high where I pulled some of my favorite poems, wrote some original poems, and organized them all by types of poetry. I was so proud of my work, and I still have that project today. The second writing I kept was all of my college notes from biology, cell molecular biology, microbiology, entomology, and human anatomy and physiology. These were my specific areas of interest in biology and they are also the classes in which I learned the most. I will even still refer to these notes when teaching some of these concepts to my own class. Clearly, I saved these notes because that is the subject area in which my passion lies. Choosing chapter questions to answer for this chapter was very difficult. This chapter was jam-packed with valuable insight on how approaching all aspects of school "one student at a time" is really the only logical way to "do" education. My mind always wanders to my current students. I really enjoyed the analogy where Littky compares school to medicine. Doctors see patients one at a time because each person is unique and it just makes sense. Why don't we do the same with our students? Students will only learn when they want to. In order to get them to want to learn, we have to tap their interests. Once you tap a student's interest, they will go seeking knowledge on their own. While this is great, as teachers we need to be sure to guide our students in their quest for knowledge. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to let students learn at their own pace, in their own order, in their own way. Supply them with all of the tools they may need, but do not tell them which to use. This allows students to differentiate for themselves by choosing the tools that work best for them while they learn about what interests them.
The only time that I can remember from school when learning matched my interests was in the last year of my undergraduate education. I was a biology major who, even in college, didn't get to "do biology" until the last year and a half before graduating. At that point, I was in microbiology, zoology, and entomology classes and labs every single day. I was exhausted, but I had never been so engaged in class. I was able to pay attention and I volunteered to complete tasks. Studying was hardly a chore, and that's saying a lot. Most importantly, the content that I learned in that last year and a half of college is the content that I can go on and on about if someone asks questions within that subject matter. This is vastly different from the three years before. Completing the general education requirements was physically painful for me. I can't tell you one thing I learned in history, or English, or statistics, or chemistry, or physics. Those classes were uninteresting to me. Not surprisingly, physics and chemistry were the classes in which I performed the lowest in my entire college career. When I reflect on that experience, I think to myself, "No wonder student A can't score mastery on his math test." or, "No wonder student B constantly loses her history binder, she hates history!" I need to find a way to at least make what we learn relevant to my students, then I can figure out how to incorporate their interests. In reflecting upon chapter 3 of The Big Picture, I note that during my reading, I wrote “GVA!” several times in this chapter to signify statements made in the text that apply to the school at which I teach. I think that GVA is a school that is “a little more human” for the following reasons. First, I consider us a relatively small school with 800 students in grades K-8, including home school. Second, I know my students and their families very well because we loop, so I get to spend two years with the same group of students (first in 5th grade and again in 6th grade). Third, page 63 describes the Met advisory as a second family to these students. At GVA, we have family meetings every day with our students. They really do feel like a second family. Fourth, as a principal, Littky describes every encounter with a student as a “moment when the culture of my school is being set.” I see my principal in my classroom just so he can chat with students several days per week and he knows them by name. Out at pick up, he seeks out students to hold brief, but personal conversations with them. Fifth, exhibitions at the Met are equivalent to GVA’s culminating events where older students often come in to watch presentations, talks, or demonstrations put on by students. Sixth, page 53 talks about how a silent school is not a school at all. I am reminded of how during one of my formal observations, my principal told me that my classroom was alive with organized chaos. He said there was a lot of noise and a lot going on, but students were engaged and learning: best compliment ever.
When I think about how to show my students that they are trusted and valued members of the school community, I think about how to improve upon practices I already have in place. In my classroom, students have some pretty heavy responsibilities, especially when it comes to their jobs, their own learning, and accountability. I think giving students more choice in their responsibilities would help them to feel even more trusted. My students also know that I value their input. I often let them vote on class decisions. I think about how at our daily family meetings, students do most of the talking about things they would like to share or discuss with the class. I would love to extend this into student choice of PBLs in my classroom. However, I am still grappling with creating and implementing PBLs, let alone monitoring 26 student-chosen PBLs. I will get there one day! Session three was a little overwhelming for me. There was so much great, important information that we gathered in two and a half hours. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intimidated. Although, I was relieved to find that most of the class was not familiar with APA formatting. I am glad to know that I will not be the only one learning as I go, and I hope that I can count on some classmates to peer review. I was glad to learn what the annotation project consisted of, however. I actually think that this project will be a great reference for me to look back on in the future and this year even, while completing induction. In discussing The Big Picture with my breakout groups, I actually narrowed down my area of interest for the annotation project. The Big Picture made me see that learning in schools is like learning in a bubble. We don’t allow kids to engage with the resources and experiences of the real-world as they learn. I think that I could use this annotations project to learn more about Project-Based Learning and how that can help me to bring the real-world into my classroom. I would like to go into the classroom this year with one goal: to give my students more opportunities to learn and use real-world, 21st century skills in the classroom.
Chapter 2 of The Big Picture was completely focused on the concept of student-centered education. That phrase strikes me as so unnecessary. When I read it, I immediately think, “Well what other kind of education would there be? What other possible purpose does education have than serving students?” School doesn’t even prepare kids for the real-world. They are learning in isolated boxes and then are shoved out into a messy, mixed up world. Think about what the phrase “real world” means. It’s everything we experience every day! It’s the people we interact with, maneuvering societal rules and norms, functioning in a world that isn’t very helpful or forgiving, having a purpose, and contributing positively to society. We need to teach kids how to struggle, how to figure things out for themselves, how to communicate and work with people. I could go on and on with that list. Nonetheless, to prepare them for properly using these skills, we need to do something simple: make them use these skills daily in school. You want them to learn how to collaborate, ask them to work together to find a solution to a problem. You want them to learn to figure things out for themselves, don’t hand out answers to difficult questions.
Now to the idea of making schools about the kids: so trivial right? If our society committed itself to the idea of caring about kids more than we care about schools, we could do away with IEPs, 504s, courses set at different “ability levels,” SSTs, you name it! Take all that funding and put it toward social-emotional development, put it toward counselors, put it toward (dare I say it?) TEACHERS. So many students classified as “low” really just need more support in one of those areas. We shouldn’t be planning curriculum and lessons around the content, we should be planning around the students. Learn who they are, then we can know how to serve them. As Littky stated on page 21, “You cannot know a kid whose voice you don’t listen to, whose interests are a mystery, whose family is excluded, and whose feelings are viewed as irrelevant to the educational process.” The first chapter of The Big Picture was pretty eye opening. I enjoyed discussing the content in small groups during class and was not surprised to learn that my classmates were agreeing with the book and my opinions as well. The most interesting discussion came from the Mirel article. Our class had opinions all over the place. Some really liked the idea of a trade school option for high school, some thought that high school should be purely academic, and some thought that a perfect blend was needed. I truly believe that for some students, traditional high school just does not work for them. It doesn’t matter how much support we give or how we try to motivate them, traditional high school just isn’t for them. These students would greatly benefit from a trade school option for high school. However, a perfect blend is very difficult to achieve. I also enjoyed the class terms gallery walk. Boy did I need a refresher! Some of those terms reminded me of some of the changes I told myself that I would make last year in the classroom and some of them reminded me that I actually learned a lot from the IMPACT program. It was a great refresher for me.
Chapter one of, The Big Picture, did not disappoint! I found myself yelling “amen!” Of course, I was only yelling in my head. As an avid note-taker, I look back at what I wrote and notice that it is mostly quotes. I just couldn’t have said any of this better myself. In one chapter, I took note of so many changes I want to make to my teaching style. I am thinking over my “real goals of education.” I understand more than ever the phrase “teachers wear many hats.” My real goal of education is to help students to become well-rounded, lifelong learners with good character. Ultimately, I want my students to be good people. I want them to contribute positively to society and be brave enough to stand for change when necessary. Above all, I want them to love learning.
To accomplish this goal, I need to understand how my students learn best. To accomplish this, I need to fully understand how I learn best. I immediately turn to my passions – science and math. The concepts I understand the most in these subjects are the ones that I learned in a hands-on setting. I am definitely a kinesthetic learner. But more than that, I learn best when I am making things happen, finding solutions to real-world scenarios and making mistakes. Knowing this, I try my best to teach my students my capacity to learn in the hopes that it will help them to navigate their own capacities to learn. Sometimes, it comes off as a “tough love” approach. However, when I teach, I like to present students with a problem or scenario and ask them to work together to solve it. Once they have had ample time to collaborate, then I will teach the methods I know and use. I think that allowing students to grapple with problems (in all subject areas) and collaborate to solve them on their own in their own ways is the key to helping them discover their capacity to learn. Most importantly, I like to model my own learning by thinking out loud when I do directly teach. I like my students to see me make, identify, and correct my own mistakes so that they can see that the goal isn’t to get it right every time. The goal is to always learn and understand something new. |
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