An educational platform would not be complete without sharing my perspectives about some of the foundational features of school operations. I have chosen to provide some insight regarding my beliefs and experiences concerning:
I feel that these views, in conjunction with the previously stated beliefs on education, shape who I am presently and who I hope to become, as an educator. My learning is never finished. Regarding Curriculum and instruction: I believe instruction needs to be student centered, grounded in research-based strategies, and address the needs of the whole child. The best way to ensure this happens is by giving educators the opportunity to collaborate. I believe this because children are more apt to retain instruction when they have actively participated in the construction of their knowledge. Teachers need dedicated time to plan for these learning experiences. A curriculum program needs to be selected by a group of educators who have explored and tested (with students) a variety of options. It needs to provide a framework for instruction using the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS), yet be flexibly enough for teachers to use their professional judgement to ensure all standards are taught in the most effective and efficient way. I feel strongly that when teachers collaborate together, they will be able to develop rich, meaningful learning opportunities for their students. As a team, teachers can take the one-dimensional curriculum and bring it to fruition in a four-dimensional experience that teaches the whole child and stretches across content areas. There are hurdles to navigate when looking at balancing adopted curriculum with teacher designed curriculum. First, we must adopt curriculum approved by the State Board of Education (SBE). Curriculum should be adopted every 8 years, though in 2009 this law was suspended until the 2013-14 school year. Second, it is critical to look at how a prospective curriculum will meet the needs of a district’s students. To balance these two factors it is critical to have a range of teacher and administrator review before an adoption is made. Many times, teachers develop supplemental lessons or units that align with content standards and the themes outlined in adopted curriculum. Third, I believe teachers will produce better learning experiences when they are given time to collaborate on teaching strategies to address learner needs- not just academic needs, but social and emotional needs too. The life lessons woven in between the content standards will weave the tapestry that will provide our students with skills they need to become successful members of our society. I would like to highlight a strategy for developing curriculum cycles through Professional Learning Communities. In 2011, I was involved in the development of implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in my district. Along with a team of administrators and teachers we reviewed a way to carve out time in the teachers’ workdays to specifically focus on curriculum and instruction. We developed a modified student schedule allowing for 90 minutes each week for teacher collaboration, curriculum development, reviewing of student data, and a revolving plan-teach-assess-reteach plan. This was first implemented in the 2012-13 school year. Now, three years later, our staff and school board still see the benefit PLCs have on our instruction and students. We have utilized this time to dive deep into the CCCS and create focus standards for each grade-level, develop behavior plans for students in need of support, and collaborate on ways to modify the adopted curriculum to allow for collaborative, technology rich lessons. These plans were outlined by a committee made up of teachers and administrators. In the coming years, we hope to give school sites more autonomy in deciding areas of focus for PLC time that best support the needs of their communities, while still moving towards achieving district goals and visions. Parent and Community Involvement I believe parents and the community are valuable resources in education and should be involved in conversations around their local school whenever possible. I believe this because our sphere of influence, as educators, must include the people who we directly and indirectly impact. We directly impact our students and their families with our daily work in schools. Our work in school becomes more meaningful to our students when we make connections to their community. This causes an indirect impact on the community because it involves community members in the education of our children and their families. When parents and the community have a partnership with our schools, rather than an “us vs them” view, we have a wider range of people supporting students and learning. I’d like to highlight a program our school has participated in for the past 2 years called School Smarts. School Smarts is a program for families The School Smarts Parent Engagement Program is a model for creating meaningful and diverse parent involvement. It brings parents from all backgrounds together in support of their common interest: helping their children and schools succeed. One night a week families come together to eat dinner and participate in activities together that build positive parent-child relationships. Then the children transition to a classroom with a leader to work on social skills and art projects. The parents participate in a workshop with a different focus each week. Topics include knowing how to navigate the school systems and various programs from tutoring to Special Education, learning about community resources and how to access them, meeting and learning about the functions of our school board, learning how to talk to teachers about concerns, and helping parents understand the CCCS. We have had waiting lists of parents who want to participate and even parents who have graduated from the program want to return the following school year. We have seen the number of parent volunteers increase on campus and our PTA membership has also risen. This program has helped us build a critical partnership with our parents in the education of their children. Discipline and School Climate/Culture I believe it is everyone's responsibility to promote a positive school climate and uphold the culture of a school. Similarly, it is the leader's responsibility to guide this process and support the staff and parents in implementing desired changes. I believe this because a school is a community created (or torn down) by those who pass through its halls each day. The adults on a campus must set the standard expectation with their everyday actions. Students are always watching and our actions speak far louder than our words. How do we handle conflicts between us or between students. Do we act in a calm proactive way or are we reactive? It is the adults that must lead by example. We must take the time to directly teach students about choice words and ways they can support their peers through their successes and missteps. Ideally, the students, staff and administrator on a campus would work together to create a standard expectation for school behavior. Then the administrator would support staff as they help to develop these outcomes in their students. An administrator may provide support personally or provide opportunities for professional development. The leaders of the campus are ultimately responsible for providing clear and consistent boundaries which allow students to develop an understanding of how they can appropriately interact with their community. I’d like to highlight a unit of study I found highly effective. At the beginning of the past two school year all teachers have been provided with mini lessons for directly teaching campus expected behaviors. For example, on Monday all teachers did a lesson on how to behave while at the lunch tables. The mini lessons included group discussions/brainstorming, role playing, and reflection on how lunch time went after lunch that day. Since all students were receiving the same information using the same expectation, and all the adults on campus were reinforcing this positive behavior as they saw it at lunch, the students then began to understand that this is part of our school culture. The reinforcement of this expectation continues on all year. It doesn’t just stop after the lesson is over. We provided similar minilessons about walking in the hall, how to ask for help in class, how to say no to a peer without causing an argument, etc. The critical part of this is that all the adults on campus are supporting these lessons through their actions in and out of the classroom. While this is just the beginning of developing our culture on campus consistency is a key component of its success. Technology I believe technology is a vehicle for creating amazing learning opportunities, yet it is developing very rapidly. We need to continue to support teachers in developing new teaching skills with technology as a major presence and design curriculum and policy that promotes best practices. We need to provide students to opportunity to develop digital literacy and critical thinking skills that will help them to be successful as our technology ever grows and changes. I believe this because the resources at our students fingertips are far beyond our wildest dreams just 8 years ago. In 2007, the first iPod touch was released. This device began to change the face of our classrooms with the subsequential development of iPads and other tablets. It became possible to easily have one-to-one devices in classrooms. A majority of teachers have been teaching with strategies that were developed when iPads were not even a possibility. While this does not invalidate these strategies, many teachers need to develop a new skill set for teaching with this type of technology readily available. Professional development on best practices and laws involving technology and student privacy are imperative for the success of our teachers and in turn the students. It is in a district’s best interest to support the professional development in these areas. Privacy and confidentiality of data is a paramount issue, in and outside of K-12 education. I’d like to highlight the SAMR model for designing technology rich lessons. Teachers can use SAMR to reflect upon how they are integrating technology into their classrooms. SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. Several years ago our TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment) provided an inservice on using the SAMR model when planning lessons with technology. They outlined each area and gave clear examples of what each level of integration might look like in our classrooms. Teachers were then given time to develop a lesson using technology and referring to the SAMR model for guidance. Since then, when I create lesson plans, or look for lesson ideas, the SAMR model is always one of the lenses I look though as I analyze the content. Using google docs to collaborate on revising my students’ writing with my students in real-time is a good example of technology completely redefining the learning process. It was incredible to be able to view 8 students’ writing at once, be able to provide feedback, and then view their work in real-time. Once my class became comfortable using this method for review writing, I was able to partner up students to do a similar revision process with their peers. This type of collaboration would not be possible without our one-to-one iPads and the capabilities of Google Drive. As a further extension, students can create interactive books using an the App called BookCreator. This allows them to put their writing into a digital book, add sound, graphics, and then share it in a format that preserves these features. Using the SAMR model to help design these types of lessons allows me to purposefully utilize technology to support and extend students’ understanding and ownership of their work. Technology has become so interwoven into our daily routine in classrooms it is a slippery slope to just substitute pencil paper tasks with technology. The SAMR model is a good reminder that even in a technology rich environment teachers and expertise planning are needed to bring learning and technology together in a meaningful way. Resources 1. (2010). Instructional Materials Evaluation and Adoption - California ... Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/cefimadoptprocess.asp. 2. (2015). School Smarts | The California State PTA. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://capta.org/programs-events/school-smarts/. 3. (2011). Apple - Products - iPod History. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from https://www.apple.com/pr/products/ipodhistory/. 4. (2014). Keeping Student Data Private -- THE Journal. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/04/10/keeping-student-data-private.aspx. 5. (2014). Introduction to the SAMR Model - Common Sense Media. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/introduction-to-the-samr-model. |
Author: Kerry StrongEducator. Student. Mom. Wife. Traveler. Archives
March 2015
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