Man In The Mirror

So something that I have been doing a lot of lately has been reflecting on the lessons I have taught this semester. Prior to being in Social Studies Methods, it never actually occurred to me that it might just be useful to watch myself teach! It turns out, when I paid attention to all of the little mannerisms and particular tendencies I have while teaching. There were some things I am really glad I did, and some things that I cannot wait to, well, correct.

Even the littlest of things such as my enthusiasm and movement in the classroom are two big factors that stood out to me. So, I made a plan to rehearse or write in (my lesson plan) several ways to get myself excited about the subject at hand). It wasn't anything big, but I am sure it will make a world of difference in my students' minds.

To expand on this, I think it is important to say that all teachers should go back and take a look at what is working and what is not working in their daily routine instruction. I was able to attend several Student Teaching Portfolio presentations this week, and one of the candidates described her best pedagogical technique is to evaluate what does well in the classroom. If it works, great. If not, toss it and find a new way to do it. 

This idea of reflection does not have to be as complex as recording your lessons to watch and dissect. If we set aside 15 minutes each day to think about the highs and lows of our instruction, we would probably be amazed at the great things our classroom can do. This is why I am very excited to get in the classroom and experience firsthand how to run and keep running a classroom. 

NCTCS Standard 5 (teachers reflect on their practice) is a direct correlation in regards to professional development, and I cannot wait to implement these practices into my future classroom. If nothing else, I will become a stronger teacher and maybe even inspire the teachers within my PLC to refine their own practices. I am excited to implement reflection in my classroom. 

In The News

As part of my Global Citizenship Project, I have been doing my research on current events, both locally and nationally. One topic that has really stuck out to me has been the presidential election! As any American would, I am entrusting the government to lead our country in the right direction. However, as a future educator, I have found myself paying special attention to what candidates have to say about education!

At the moment, I have gathered that several candidates have strong opinions on where the country should be in terms of being educated. It is interesting to me to see that some candidates are very "gung ho" on abolishing Common Core and doing more to relinquish local schools from national control,  while others want even more central control. 

This combination of the presidential election falling in a pivotal moment of my educational career has allowed me to grow; not only as an educator, but also as an informed voter and a more active advocate. Transitioning into the professional field of education has allowed me to see advocacy in a whole new light. 

Of course, this all ties into NCTCS 1d: "Teachers advocate for schools and students". I am excited to venture into this new role of an educator. During this upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., I plan on seeing how the government plays a role in public education (no pun intended), and what changes could be coming into the picture following the 2016 presidential. Regardless of party affiliation, keep education in mind!

What To Do When Technology Isn't Cutting It

Here in the 21st century, we like our tablets on our wrist and our conversations through a screen. It is inevitable that technology is creeping into every aspect of your life, whether you like it or not. For some little people in elementary school, this means a monumental change has occurred, especially in the public schools.

In an "ideal"classroom today, every student has their own Macbook or iPad, along with unlimited access to the school's wifi connection. The district IT department has seamlessly set up everything so that there is no room for error or crashing. The teacher of said classroom is fully educated on the latest and greatest means of classroom technology integration.

But...

What if the district has yet to accumulate enough funds for students to have that technology?
What if the school has yet to been equipped with internet that can handle 500-1000 students?
What if budget cuts have forced the IT department to cut back on their services?
What if the teacher has 30+ students, and something goes wrong with the technology?

That is a question I have been reflecting on quite a bit this week as I experienced a situation like this first hand. While teaching a lesson, something went wrong, completely out of the blue and unexplained. There was nothing I could have done to ensure that this would not have happened. It just happened.

I was not the only one who experienced this type of mishap. I watched many, if not most of my peers experience the same types of unexplained blunder. This has to be happening in the real world classroom, which must be unappealing for many teachers.

Now, this is not to say that technology is evil and we should throw it in a corner and forget about it forever. Technology has opened a magical door of learning to many students who, otherwise, would have slipped through the cracks. There is so much we can do with technology. The advancements are great for some. I consider myself slightly up to date on technological advancements, and am very pleased with where we have come as a society.

Back to "but".

As educators, I do not believe we should ever find ourselves fully reliant on technology in the classroom. Something will go wrong, I like to believe strongly in Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. As educators, we should always have a healthy combination of teaching strategies, whether that be technology and pencil/paper or not. Technology might be the future, but that does not mean we have to forget about everything else.

North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standard #3d is a primary example of how I want to lead in my classroom. It states: "Teachers make instruction relevant to students". I want my classroom to be up to date, but not overboard when it comes to teaching. If I have a group of students who prefer pencil and paper, then we will do a little of that. But I will not neglect technology, appropriately.

Eenie Meenie Minie Moe...

...Catch a lesson plan by the toe.

I feel like that's all I've been doing this week! I think it is safe to say that those of us in Social Studies Methods have been exposed to many different, new ways of teaching and delivering content. For myself, the biggest change in my pedagogical practice has been the lesson and learning planning formats we use! Taking a step back from planning for students and actually planning for myself has been a change, and I think I can speak for many of us when I say we are still getting used to it.

The main differences between a lesson plan and a learning plan are pretty simple.

In a lesson plan, many people can master the task of how you are going to fill the students' 25 minutes to cover a standard. You glean all of your resources with the intent to find ways to deliver that particular standard, and to find activities that accompany the standard. You might even do a Pinterest search to get creative.

In a learning plan, you are mapping out exactly what the students will be able to learn from both the standard and your content delivery. It is a much more in depth process, and it forces you to think about how your lesson will challenge your students. For instance, you might ask yourself questions such as, "How will I hook my students" and "How can I get students to connect the hook to the content?". This is a bit more than your standard 6 Point.

Is one plan better than the other? It depends on the needs of your classroom. I have been able to work on a learning plan first hand this semester; usually, I am accustomed to using 6 point. After going through the process, I can see pros and cons from both plans.

For instance, the 6 point template is very clean cut and simple. This is good in that it allows teachers to create a concise plan of what the classroom will look like, While working within the learning plan, I found myself getting lost in what my original objectives were. To be quite honest, I had to do a lot of backtracking quite a few times in order to stay true to my objectives.  But on the bright side, the learning plan allows for teachers to write in more detail and specifics to what will be going on.

Overall, I think that the learning plan is good for professional development. Requiring yourself to write down the extra details will eventually lead to the higher level of thinking becoming commonplace. I think that is the best way I have been able to look at all of the extra detail, and rightly so! This can be backed up with NCTCS 2d- Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. By elaborating in your plans, you are pretty much accommodating for all of your students' needs.

I hope to grow enough as a professional educator to create a lesson plan format of my own; one that fits the needs of my students first. I appreciate the experiences I have gained in writing these lessons and plan to use them when I begin writing in my classroom. I think it will be a trial by error process, and that is a good thing!