I think where my school is at, and where I am at, are probably different, although being in a productive, collaborative, and supportive environment has certainly brought me up! In general, I am vacillating between forming and norming, without much storming. There is definitely storming in my classroom, but as far as the staff team goes there is a strong sense of performing, with some occasional norming. Specifically, at the beginning of the year, we conducted a large amount of norming protocols. Since then collaborative work has been fast-paced and efficient, without losing a sense of community and human connectedness.
My place in this is to go along for the ride. I am absolutely contributing to the projects of which I am a part, but as far as altering staff team culture, I do not see it as my place, yet, or as a necessity. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been brought on board with such an incredible group of teachers, all of whom are both professional and friendly, and help to lift me up and show me the way. I am curious to see how the year closes up in six months, as this seems like a strange transition for teaching as a profession. Where you say goodbye for the summer and then rejoin in the fall. However, I have been a part of seasonal employment for so long that I relish the fluctuations of collaboration throughout the different times of the year, as opposed to the repetitive, year-in, year-out nature of most jobs. Moving forward, I want to be more of a leader, as opposed to a follower. I do not feel confident in my practice yet, but I am becoming confident in my place in the school, and I do hold some esteem as an educator. I simply need to step up into these shoes and bring more of my thoughts and ideas to the table with confidence. Only time will really help with this, though, as I am still learning so much.
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One of my biggest struggles this semester (and there have been a lot) is in staying ahead of my planning. I would really like to be better planned out, and more explicitly. Often times I know exactly where a unit is going, and have reviewed the material so that I know the critical pieces and concepts, but then I get bogged down in the day to day teaching and lose sight of the bigger picture as I am trying to plan each individual lesson. I feel as though this leads to a loss of overarching cohesiveness in my units, where even though I am relatively explicit with my students about our main goals, I lose sight of them, and so they do too. This then leads to a lack of motivation because my students are not able to see either the bigger picture of the unit, or the steps we are taking to get to that end goal.
I am disappointed in myself over this, as I feel like I have the capacity to stay more ahead of the ball and be better about the long-term and daily planning. Although I do not think I am completely failing in this area, there is definitely a lot of growth that could be happening here for me. A large cause of this I think is the lack of time. It is possible for me to be able to do this if I were to neglect every other part of my life, which I am not willing to do. However, I am not very prepared with great oversight for NEXT year when I reteach these units. However, I still have two to three more units to teach, and I want to be very prepared for them. Especially my next unit which starts after winter break, as this is the one I am going to be using for my capstone project, and where I will be implementing all of my group work research. This means I need to have sections of the unit very purposefully sectioned off for my individual pieces of data collection, as well as for the sake of my students’ learning! Therefore, over winter break I plan on doing a lot of the bigger picture planning that I have not been able to yet so far this semester. This was my first time using Pear Deck, and I really like it. I wish it were free! If it were I would almost certainly start using it in my classroom, as it hits on most of the things I already do in my practice, but increases accountability, and I would hope that it would improve student engagement! I am a firm believer in “data-driven instruction” even though as a mathematician I am not a huge fan of the name (oftentimes the “data” is not REALLY data, but rather an aggregate of a lot of different pieces of information, many of which, if not most, are almost impossible to quantify). Every action I make, and every lesson I plan or assessment I create is based on data. However, I am still working on being more explicitly “data-driven”, instead of running on the notices and feelings I am receiving from my class. Most of the time I am pretty much spot on with how my students are receiving and understanding the content, but occasionally they manage to sneak past my less rigorous assessments and make it to a formative assessment woefully unprepared. Students can be their own worst enemies. I am lucky in that many of my kiddos are very invested in their education and will communicate to me when they do not understand a concept, or a method of delivery does not work for them. However, not all of my students have this ability, and in fact it is the ones who need the MOST help that are the least responsive to their own education.
Moving forward I plan on having more formative assessments, as well as more exit tickets and “zip-ups” for lessons. The “zip-ups”, as I would like to introduce them, will force students to “close their backpack” on the learning they do in class on a given day which should improve retention as they run off to their next class. More importantly for my instruction, though, is the fact that I will have more frequent touches with my students’ comprehension which should inform my needs for reteaching, moving on, and addressing confusions both minor and major. I feel comfortable with the data tools I have, I would just like to use them more, and get more tools that provide genuine data, and are not simply my noticings... I was fortunate enough to get to go to a conference this week with one of my colleagues from Animas High School. What a great experience that was! In many ways, I find that I am already attempting to conduct my class in the ways that are being advocated for by all of the various experts. Which is really encouraging. However, my class is still not always functioning in the manner that I hope that it will, with students being engaged and enthusiastic, and working hard because they see value in the material.
Although my practice is right, my toolbox is still small, and I am still building familiarity with the tools I have at my disposal. This last week, and in weeks prior, I have had my students reflect on a variety of different things, from their own processes and thinking, to how well they understand a concept, to their efficacy in group work. I have had mixed results, mostly because I do not think I have been scaffolding my students into deep, purposeful reflection enough (or perhaps it is because some of my students are notoriously difficult and just don’t do the work, but this is not the whole truth). After getting to observe other master teachers, and participate in a lot of activities involving thinking strategies, I am excited to apply some of the techniques I learned. Specifically, I am looking forward to being more explicit with a workshop model, scaffolding various thinking strategies for my students. I want to be very specific with which thinking strategies they are supposed to be focusing on, and how they can be building proficiency with that. Specifically, I will be working on having my students develop their skills surrounding their ability to access background knowledge. This will be pertinent in the coming weeks as we are shifting gears to a new unit requiring geometry skills, which my students have not worked with for two years. I am excited to be more explicit with my directions, give better demonstrations of good reflection, metacognition, and self-reflection, but also allow my students more time to grapple with their own thinking. I also plan to be more focused in my questioning and advice. Hopefully, this will help me to help my students more effectively! In some ways, I follow the annotated bibliography methodology. However, this is not quite what works best for me, as I need the thoughts to be put together in a framework in order for me to work with them. If I annotate each source as it’s own piece, I end up with disjointed ideas and writing, and it takes forever to put all the pieces in order. Instead, I prefer to read through all my sources and make brief comments on the themes, values, purposes, etc. Then, I am able to generally structure my writing, at which point I go back and do my deep dive into the literature. This is when I do all of my synthesis, pull quotes, and generally get any information I might need from the articles. As I am doing this, I place all quotes, synthesized thoughts, etc. into the framework of my review that I created previously, along with my own thoughts and comments about how ideas might flow into each other, where there is significant disagreement, or how one author presents an idea differently than another.
I prefer my method, as it makes the most sense to me for how I conceptualize the Literature Review. One of my biggest frustrations last year was working with Beth’s rigid structure for building sources for a Literature Review, considering I had already written several successful reviews using my own method, a method that I thought more productive, more efficient, and better able to produce a valuable product. Nonetheless, it was useful for me to be forced to deeply read the literature, as I will sometimes blast through articles to get a general idea and miss important nuances that crop up later and force me to revamp sections of my writing. I am trying to move forward with this lesson and do a better job on my first read-through but still maintain my own general workflow. PLN where you found your tech tool to evaluate Once again I turn to commonsense.org for support in my classroom. I am gone next week for a conference and want my students to spend their time with the substitute teacher working on creating a collaborative study guide, and flashcards, for the first two units of the year. The study guide will be a collaborative effort in google docs where they can each complete their section, and make sure that it flows from the previous section of content into the next. However, I am also challenging them to, along with their notes, create a sort of study guide that they can use and add to as the year goes on. For this, I am going to have my students use Quizlet, an online flash card app that is applicable K-12, or anywhere students have access to computers or even smart phones. Name of tech tool that you selected and brief description Quizlet is a little different from traditional flashcards in that students can add images, sound, text, as well as use an integrated language keyboard that includes math text! This math text is not as advanced as some latex editors out there, but it does allow for relatively easy and simple addition of math symbols which almost no other flashcard app out there offers. Furthermore, the ability to add images and sounds makes this much more appealing for creating flashcards that my students will actually use. There are numerous other features, such as allowing me to see student usage and track which answers are most commonly missed so I can adjust my lesson plans. Additionally, the tool can be used in class as a collaborative game with the live feature. Finally, there are a number of different study styles, as well as different games that can make the material slightly more engaging for students. The only obvious drawback I have found is the potential for this to be used to cheat on assessments, although the risk of this seems about the same as for any other tech tool or old school cheating method. Summary of how the literature supports the implementation of this tool (200-300 words) Quizlet is supported by the ISTE Standards, the SAMR Model, and the TPACK framework. A few of the more applicable ISTE standards include: Empowered Learner b, c: Quizlet allows students to “use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice” as well as letting students modify their demonstration learning in a variety of ways, although this is a little less open-ended. Digital Citizen b, c: Quizlet allows students to share their flashcards with a wide variety of other educators and students worldwide, as well as gives them an opportunity to use and respect digital media rights if they choose to use externally produced images, sound bites, or video. Knowledge Constructor a, c, d: Quizlet allows students to curate others’ flashcards, as well as create their own. Additionally, this app supports students in good study practices and offers them multiple means of studying. Innovative Designer b: Quizlet presents students with a surmountable challenge in their creation of effective and useful flashcards, that requires them to engage in the design process. This tech tool probably is just barely edging into the Modification level of the SAMR model. The fact that this tool allows for a variety of media to be used in the flashcards means that we are no longer simply putting flashcards online. It also makes students become comfortable with creating work that is publically accessible online, thereby significantly augmenting and modifying the original, real-world, flashcard model. Finally, this tool incorporates the TPACK framework because I am constantly trying to teach my students to collaborate, and this tool allows for a number of different approaches to collaboration, from working together to create the study guides and flashcards, to playing the live games as groups and teams, necessitating good group work. Therefore, I am able to incorporate the mathematical skills and subject matter (content knowledge) through the app (technological knowledge) through teaching them about effective study methods (pedagogical knowledge) that they should be mastering for college. Sources: https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/quizlet www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/05/14/professors-warned-about-popular-learning-tool-used-students-cheat www.cnbc.com/2017/08/23/quizlet-a-popular-study-app-faces-a-moment-of-truth.html I can honestly say I have not had any “broken down” days, yet. I am fortunate to work in a community of incredibly supportive, positive, helpful individuals. And the teachers I work with are great too! There are of course trying times, and some of my periods are simply more difficult than others, but after seeing how some classrooms can be, and working with middle schoolers (and in special education classrooms) I am truly fortunate to be where I am.
There have been a few times where I have felt significantly disrespected by my students, either through their actions, inattention, blatant rudeness, or other things. When these things happen I certainly do feel my skin flush, and adrenaline surge. I have a tendency towards anger, and I also have a hard time letting go of slights and insults. Nonetheless, I take a breath, and if need be sit down at my desk for a moment, and I always come to the conclusion that my students are not doing anything directly at me out of maliciousness (as far as I can tell!) and this realization makes all the difference for me. In the future, I would like my classroom management to reach a point where I do not even need to take a breath to calm down because my classroom runs so smoothly that there is not even an opportunity for my students to misbehave. Also, being able to separate actions from individuals, and behavior from malicious intent has seriously helped me not only at school but also in my relationships outside of the classroom. I just need to keep my energy levels high enough that I can process intellectually any rudeness or slights. |
Julian SpringerMath Department - Animas High School Archives
December 2019
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