Best of times...

Best of Times/Worst of Times

I think right now we are in a transition period in education. Students have every fact available at their fingertips…so where does that leave the teacher? As teachers we grew up in a different world (yes even us young teachers). There is a huge shift right now and we are finding that “traditional” learning where the teacher lectures, models and then the students practice is heading out the door. Teachers are becoming more of a guide and helper who are now teaching students to problem solve and be independent thinkers. This shift is creating problems where the students learning styles are not being met with traditional teaching.

It is the best of times for some of those same reasons. Students are able to access so much information and have the ability to communicate with anyone in the world. Students are becoming tech savy and are able to problem solve on their own by using their resources. There are so many educational resources that are being created daily that are engaging and great for individual learning styles.

Marzano agreed with the idea that our education system doesn’t always meet the needs of individual learning styles. Teachers may make differentiated lessons but the state still requires students to take state tests where every student needs to perform in the same way. He also pointed out that it is the worst of times because the system focuses on teaching the facts and lacks problem solving opportunities.

The point that really made me question his resources and ideas was when he quoted the reports about 12^th grade students not performing well compared to other countries. I want to know if other countries require their students to stay in school until 12^th grade. If not, you are only comparing students from our country who have to go to school until 12^th grade, to students who want to be or can afford to in those other countries which can make a huge difference in their data. He goes on to say that basically you can make data say whatever you want to which is similar to my thoughts above.

It was interesting to read about the school factors. I agree with each of those factors and I like the way he organized them into similarities. I could think of times when my school has had some of those expectations and the positive outcomes they have had. It also made me think of times when those expectations were not strong in our school and the struggles it brought with. Because I’ve seen leadership come and go I was interested in his view on what a strong leader is. When he listed what a good leader does it made me think of those leaders who were strong and did great things for our school. My district now also is huge on curriculum and rigor, which I was really intimidated by at first, but I can see the positive impact is has on students and the expectations teachers have for students.

            A viable curriculum has been talked about for many years in my new district. I think my old district lacked a plan and every teacher seemed to do their own thing. I don’t think we will ever be teaching the exact same thing every day but I also think we shouldn’t have to, it should be based on our kids. Our district worked very hard to align our curriculum with the standards and we created common assessments so at least we all knew to what rigor to teach and what would  be on the assessments. We are still in the process of doing this but our grade level seems to have a similar vision and plan as a whole which helps eliminate the holes in learning. I also agree with the time factor that Marzano addresses. There is no way to teach everything we are expected to. Our district got together across grade levels and came up with “essential outcomes” which combine or reorganize the standards into a more timely plan. I think this helps teachers know what we can teach in depth but still know the kids won’t miss anything because they will get it in other grades.

            While reading about the goal setting factor I found myself agreeing with Marzano about the powerful impact it has. What got me thinking was the part about common goals. In the past our school has set goals (actually the principal has) but rarely was there any teacher input for an all school goal. I think it would be powerful to involve all the teachers and agree on a common goal for the school. This would make the teachers feel involved and take some ownership in bigger goals. I also agree that goals need feedback. If there is no follow through or reflection with goals then there is no reason to want to achieve them.

            Family involvement, classroom environment and staff climate all set the tone for successful schools. I have seen the importance of family involvement and the values families instill in their students. I think some of this is cultural and we have to learn how families interact with the school based on their values. Either way students who have a supportive family have success in school. The school environment and staff interactions also impact the success. All of these factors makes sense when using them to calculate the success of a school. If one piece is missing I think it has an affect on other factors of the school.

Technology Integration

I am very lucky to work in a district that is rich in technology, collaboration and integrating technology. Our technology director talks about the SAMR model and pushes for us to use the tools for the higher level learning. He has showed us a few resources we could use to meet these standards. I am slowly understanding that it is ok to be the “guide on the side” instead of having all the answers when it comes to technology. We used a website the other week and I couldn’t get it to work. I felt ok asking my students for help. They see that we all need to work together and that others can share their experiences also. At this point I am asking myself if I am just using technology as a substitution. Sometimes I realize that I am, and I think that is ok at times but to make learning meaningful I need to incorporate more higher level implementation. Our school leaves it up to each teacher to decide if they let students bring in their own device to use. I really appreciate this and students feel even more motivated if they can use something they already own and love to use. I have tried a few different ideas in my room this year and they always seem to go well when I use technology. I hope to start our class edmodo soon. We recently got all my students signed up. I am hoping to put discussions on there, group ideas, post assignments and websites etc. It would be great for them to communicate and collaborate online. One thing I struggle with is there is so many apps, resources, websited etc that are out there that sometimes it is hard to pick something or think ahead enough about what technology will fit best with our lessons. I think I just need to try a few things out and let them run its course. I need to implement some of these resources and let the kids take it from there and see where it goes. I think I will be pleasantly surprised and each student will take ownership over their work.

Fall Conference

The most beneficial part of the fall conference was the discussion with teachers from other districts. In the morning I was able to talk with about 6 teachers from around the state. We mostly talked about integrating literacy into math. One topic that got me thinking was incorporating more picture books into class. I had done this in the past but I haven't been doing it much this year. I want to try and incorporate more picture books into my classroom especially if I can make them work with math. We also talked more about vocabulary in math. Many people brought articles that had something to do with vocabulary and using organizers and writing to help students understand them better. I came away with many ideas about who to better implement literacy in math and also I heard some great ideas on how to better implement rocket math.  I want to look into Singapore math, which some teachers had used, since it sounds like a great curriculum that builds number sense.

There were many Lisallian concepts present at the fall conference.I think the whole conference was based on Association. We were all able to collaborate and share ideas to help each other become better teachers. Presence and Engagement were also apparent. Everyone was willing to help each other, ask questions and participate to help others. I felt I had those concepts in mind while attending the conference. I was able to give ideas and use my strengths to work in a group. I also was engaged with the ideas other brought and I wanted to learn more from them.

Backward Design Process

I’m finding the backward design idea very beneficial to my instruction and focus. I am able to clearly state my learning goals at the beginning of every lesson and tie it back to our big idea. In social studies being able to come back to the essential question of adaptation has helped the students be more focused. In our first unit it was hard for the students to think that big about our reading on American Indians. The next chapter they were able to use the same big idea and were better able to come up with ideas on their own because we did it the first unit. Knowing where I need my students to be at the end of the unit has helped me focus on the important learning. I’ve been trying to implement more questions into my teaching so the students have to articulate their learning or be able to think deeper about the big idea. Instead of me just telling them, the discussion is put back on them. It has been a big struggle this year to fully implement the BD structure since I am learning a new curriculum. I think once you’ve taught the curriculum you know where the students should be headed.

Questions I still have:

Are there good resources for creating good essential questions?

How do you find a good balance for using the curriculum and activities vs creating your own to fit the desired results?

AR Abstract

How will using cooperative learning affect the engagement in math of 9 5^th graders?

o Summarizes main ideas, findings, and questions in review of literature.

·       Cooperative learning is an effective cross cultural teaching strategy that has many benefits including positive face to face interaction, individual and group accountability and positive attitudes toward learning.

·       Cooperative learning fits well with every learning style and students respond well because they already have the social schema it takes to participate.

·       It eliminates the idea of competition among students and they start to like and care for each other and each other’s success.

·       Cooperative learning engages everyone instead of only one person sharing the answer.

o Communicates the action research’s impact on the learner’s teaching and learning.

Since learning more about cooperative learning I have implemented many strategies that involve group learning and participation. The first few weeks of school were spent teaching what group work should look like and sound like. We’ve modeled and practiced the difference between telling your group the answer and helping them to discover the answer on their own. I have tried to implement many activities where everyone answers questions instead of just calling on one person.

o Demonstrates a deeper understanding of the following components: assessment, discipline, environment, instruction, and teacher identity.

Overall I have been trying different strategies and ideas for implementing and adapting assessment and instruction with cooperative learning. I have discovered ways that are effective and things that don’t work. The environment in my classroom is changing and students have more accountability for themselves and their group. My understandings for each of these components is growing the more I try the strategies I’m learning about in my classroom.

o Briefly summarizes your plan for continued action research/inquiry.

My plan is to take data on the engagement of 9 students during math warm up time during cooperative learning times and when we are working alone. I will use on/off task checklists, student surveys which will ask about their preference and engagement and response journals where they have to describe their understanding of the problems.

Questions I still have:
Are there any online data tools I could use? Possibly class dojo?

Should I leave the groups the same or change it up everytime? Will this affect my data?

How long should I take data for? 

Differentiation

Spelling differentiation:
We recently started our word study lessons a few times a week. We have been studying word patterns and each week students are given a spelling list of words that follow that pattern. After giving them a pretest on words with suffixes ed, es and s, I had 3 students who spelled all the words correctly.

During the week I had most of the students sort their words into groups based on the rules for adding ed, es and s. While they were working I had my students who already knew how to spell the words in a different group working on an extension. They had to use the patterns and come up with their own list of words that followed each rule. They could use dictionaries, computers etc. This was an easy way to differentiate our spelling with minimal planning for myself. This also showed me that those students can apply word patterns to other words.

Math differentiation:
During the day we have a WIN (what I need) time. These are groups that are based on ability and we specifically work with students on skills they struggle with. This week we have been working on rounding. For a few days we have been doing whole group practice and activities. Then I gave a quick quiz on www.socrative.com (which is amazing because I get the results instantly). Right away I knew I had to review rounding and estimating with adding and subtracting. I had 3 students who got all the questions correctly so I knew they understood the concept.
The next day I worked with the students who needed extra practice with rounding. The other three worked in a group to do a mystery number activity where they used what we learned with rounding but did it backwards. I gave them clues to a number and they had to use the clues to find the number:
1. The mystery number rounds to 200 when rounded to the nearest hundred. 2. The sum of the digits is 10. 3. When the number is rounded to the nearest ten, the sum of its digits is 5. What could the number be?
The students who knew how to round had to use the rules and apply them to the clues to find the mystery number. It was a great extension that was related to the same topic and was easy to plan.