Virtual Penpals Write Up
Virtual Penpals Map
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
Chapter 2: Creating a Professional Learning Community
For any teacher, especially new teachers like myself, building a community within the school that you are working in is extremely beneficial to success! Having the ability to talk over triumphs and struggles with others who can relate, offer strategies and provide insight, allow teachers to feel supported and encouraged. Within this connection within the teaching community, teachers can feel "isolated" and alone as middle school teacher, Jeff Whipple does from the text (25).
Another important and useful resource for teachers to have within a school are "technology initiatives" which include "professional development along with hardware or software" so that teachers can acclimate to using new modes of communication, research and organization (25). I have witnessed technology in this fashion used in classrooms where I have student taught. Teachers are able to efficiently communicate, make memos, report behaviors/success/struggles, and make schedule changes so that everyone stays on the same page. In particular, I student taught in a classroom where teachers needed particular communication with their students' other teachers as they switched classrooms throughout the day. Keeping this open line of communication through the software they used, allowed them to share observations, strategies, successes and challenges of students with other teachers efficiently so that when the students returned to them, they knew where the student stood and how to go about teaching them individually for the rest of the day. It was amazing!
The idea of restructuring school to incorporate teacher collaboration within the school day is a wonderful idea! It is well known that teacher's work around the clock to ensure that they are providing their students with the learning experiences and opportunities they feel they need in order to succeed. Typically, this involves one teacher working by themselves to find new ideas, create new tools and implement all of the new strategies. Once they are done, although usually seeking advice and feedback, they are tired and want to return to the life they have outside of school, which makes getting together for collaboration with other teachers less than ideal, although many teachers manage to work it into their lives anyway. However, implementing collaboration within the school day allows teachers not only a resource to use in their future teachings, but ideas to incorporate right away into the current school day in an atmosphere that is supportive and encouraging.
What's even greater about this collaboration, is that modeling it's practice benefits more than just the teachers- it shows the students how to collaborate with each other for immediate support, resources and success. This process perfectly ties into Project-Based Learning and what it seeks to accomplish with the use of team-building, work and cooperation.
Elise Mueller's story particularly hit home for me. I have been in classroom with tablets and laptops, and witnessed the teacher using only one program in one way to help students, instead of exploring the endless possibilities of the technology and despite the attempts of students to utilize it. As she explains, there is literally so much to be done, it's incomprehensible and limitless! Additionally, providing students with the opportunity and encouragement to utilize legitimate resources within technology will benefit them in their future endeavors. I think it's vital to take away that Elise met with other teachers to get their ideas of technology use to continue to build in her own classroom. Technology is constantly changing and evolving. Keeping up to date with new programs, and communicating with others to explore different opportunities using the technology is so important in utilizing it in appropriate, possible way. Why else would schools invest in the technology, if not to use it to it's full potential?
Finally, I loved that the chapter hit on assessing not only the ability of the teacher to collaborate with the students, but their ability and willingness to collaborate with other teachers. Knowing how to give feedback that is positive and critical can be extremely difficult for anyone. It is important to, as the authors explain, recognize the school as a "'learning organization" in which everyone works together to make this business, in this case, education better (30). By working together to accomplish a common goal, which is the success of students, is a wonderfully fulfilling and difficult journey that is both worthwhile and beneficial for everyone involved!
Additional concept map for "Butterfly" garden
Sabrina, I am working on a lesson for the function of a flower and using the GLCE Statement: L.OL.03.31 Describe the function of the following plant parts: flower, stem, root and leaf.
The goal is for students will gain an understanding that the function of a flower is to produce pollen and attract pollinators. The students will use the hot list to research flowers that would attract butterflies to their garden.
Chapter 2, Creating a Professional Learning Community
Jeff Whipple, a
former engineer whom had a career change to the education field, recognized
that teamwork is common practice for many fields in the 21st century
workplace but it remains the exception in education (Boss and Kross, 2007). My question here is in a field that
directly affects the next generation of people whom will run our country, why wouldn’t
we implement the best practices for their success? I know teachers are
constantly on the move and never have enough time in a day to get things done,
but setting aside time to collaborate with other teachers will not only benefit the students but the teachers as
well. From Whipple’s experiences, he found that brainstorming lesson plans
and reflecting about what was going on in the classroom with his co-teachers
was very beneficial. In fact, when he was transferred to a school where he
taught eighth grade science in a self-contained classroom, he absolutely hated
it. He felt isolated because he could not find the time to talk to other
teachers much less share ideas. I think that situation is not only harmful for
the teacher but the students. Unless you are driven to find resources online after
your already draining day, it would be difficult to improve on techniques if you
are not collaborating with others. Since he has joined the laptop initiative,
he now mentors in several schools. He
has stated that, “If I could do one thing for teachers to make school better
for students, I’d find a way to have teachers have more time to work together
with each other and to develop collaborative projects” (Boss and Kross, p.25).
Not only is
it important for teacher collaboration but we must also have shared vision in
our learning communities. For three of my ten-year stent in the Kalamazoo
Public Schools, I worked under the Reading First grant. Reading First is basically
a state grant given to schools that have high poverty rates and low reading
scores. With this grant came many stipulations and inspections by the state to
make sure we were following them. The program draws on scientifically based
reading research and targets k-3rd grade students. One of the
stipulations was that teachers had set 90-minute reading blocks. Part of the
money spent on the grant was for the literacy coach to train paraprofessionals
in reading interventions. During that time, I was assigned to two classroom-reading
blocks where I ran a literacy center, the rest of the time I pulled students
for group reading interventions and individual testing. My teachers were night
and day. One shared the vision of Reading First and wanted to learn everything
she could to make her students successful. The other did not want anything to
do with the program and wanted to continue in her ways. The sad fact of the
matter was that our literacy coach knew that collaboration was key and she
allocated funds to try to make it happen. She started with a plan of bimonthly,
grade level collaboration meetings with teachers and their paraprofessionals
(their classroom was covered by building substitutes at that time). Each grade
level but first had one opposed teacher which turned the “collaboration meeting”
into a complain fest about the program. They were not willing to become a “learner”
and their negativity wasted valuable time for us all and funds for the program.
We decided our time would be best spent in the classroom while these meetings occurred.
However, when I actually had time to collaborate with the interested teachers, we
were able to discuss the techniques that were successful with specific students
and generate more ideas for their literacy centers.
Elise Mueller writes, “Working together didn’t cost us
anything other than time, but it made a huge difference in our classrooms” (Boss
and Kross, p.28). Not only was that true for me when I worked in KPS but also
today on this project. I spent hours researching other PBL ideas then I went to
Facebook and simply asked my education friends what their ideas were. I had
more inspiration in the few minutes of chatting with friends than I had in
hours of research. Without collaboration, I would easily waste more time!
When I teach my own classroom, I hope I have a
supportive staff that is interested in collaborating. We have learned that
there are many benefits to learning communities and that they can make your
professional life more productive and satisfying. They create a culture of
collaboration for school improvement, ensure that students learn, and focus on
results. There is definitely a shared responsibility and more powerful learning
going on (Boss and Kross, pp 32-33).Even when I think, my ideas are great; I
find that the uniqueness that others bring makes it reach a new level of awesomeness.
One thing I will have to work on in collaboration
is being able to scrutinize others instructional choices and classroom
practices. I tend to stick with the positives and feel that I will hurt feelings
giving constructive feedback. I have to keep in mind that our end result is to
help each other be more effective teachers and without my input I am not
helping them grow or their students.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Chapter 1: "Mapping the Journey- Seeing the Big Picture" Summary
Having only had one experience with Projected-Based Learning, I recall it being one of the most beneficial things I have done thorough out my schooling experience. In fact, of all the countless projects and assignments, it is the one that I most clearly remember and refer to constantly. This is most likely due to the fact that it uniquely did as the text states, "The teacher's role shifts. He or she is no longer the content expert" (11). This experience was the first time in my schooling that I felt like I was in control of my learning. This empowerment prompted me to excel, challenge and gladly take the responsibility of learning into my own hands.
In Chapter 1, Boss and Krauss validate this method of study by explaining, "The business world demands employees who know ho to work as a team, access and analyze information, and think creatively to solve problems" (12). Boss and Krauss recognize that this is not a new idea as traditional project-based learning is a more familiar, although not concrete, concept in many classrooms. However, the incorporation and necessity of technology integration into students exploration of an open-ended question and reporting on those findings is still emerging. The text also refers to how, "Some tools open new windows onto student thinking..." (12). Since we know that students learn in many different ways, using technology allows those students who communicate and can explore more effectively via technology, the equitable opportunity to excel in the learning.
Another great benefit noted in the text is that project-based learning allows students the opportunity to imitate real-world problem solving approaches and job positions. When the students participate in project-based learning with technology integration, they go about researching and reporting the way that professionals do, using much of the same online resources and databases, as well as reporting programs such as Word and Excel to create representations of their findings. This is extremely beneficial to students as it not only provides them with relevant practice, but can give them a great idea of where their interests may truly lie and what paths they may want to seriously pursue for the future.
According to the text, what gives us hope as teachers and learners, is our willingness to and excitement to learn new things that can help ourselves and our students learn more effectively and in a way that is beneficial for the long term. We are constantly finding new ideas, strategies and mediums for learning and thus improving the support the performance of our students. Using this 21st century approach to learning will greatly benefit students for their future and will prepare them for the real world in a way that we have not been able to before.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
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