402 Reflection

1.       First five things to be done about education:

a.       First, I would start by designing a program that allows education to be a community-wide responsibility. Education must come from students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the government cohesively. By establishing an act or law that educates and promotes community collaboration, we take blame away from one subject, and all work together towards a successful democratic public education. This law or act would also implant the importance of education within a thriving democratic society.

b.      Next, I would suggest eliminating NCLB immediately, and then reflect on the variables of why it was an unachievable goal. By reflecting on NCLB, we could learn from our mistakes; however, discuss how accountability should look within our society. By reassessing and interpreting these past two decades of educational theory, we can emerge with a clearer view on how to help public education. I also believe that a strong established curriculum must be enforced on the national level. With a strong content base, students will benefit across the nation.

c.       I would also suggest that teachers receive higher salaries. By giving teachers higher salaries the profession would become more respected within society and attract a greater range of intelligent applicants to teacher preparation programs. Like law school or medical school, educational institutions would exclusively pull the highest level of candidates.

d.      Along with raising salaries, teachers should also have to complete a more intense teacher preparation program. I would suggest a two-three year post-graduate program, in which teaching students are paid for their work in classrooms as resident/apprentice teachers.  This rigorous program would ensure teachers had many years of classroom experience before entering in on their own, and encourage only teachers that are dedicated and passionate to continue within the profession.

e.      Last, once teachers were hired within school districts I would increase the level of professional development among teachers. Trainings, reflections, and lesson studies would promote a collaborative school effort to enhance teacher performance and harbor creativity. Teachers would also have more individual rights, and would be equal to principals and superintendents with their opinions and power.

2.       Ravitch’s ideas about the importance of preserving the public American school system and the history of educational bureaucracy, in the US, were meaningful to my educational background knowledge. Before reading Ravitch I knew little about the history of public education during the time that NCLB was signed. It was interesting to see why the law was created and how the framers justified it as the “ultimate solution”. Ravitch’s arguments about the necessity of preserving our public school system were also enlightening. Although there is not one solution to how to create a perfect education system, we need to continue to allow educational opportunities for all citizens regardless of race, socioeconomic status, geography, gender, or any other variable.

3.       As a teacher and a citizen I have the responsibility to ensure that all students are receiving a holistic education. My responsibility as a teacher is to stay informed with the latest educational philosophies and practices, promote differentiated learning within my classroom, and collaborate with my educational community- teachers, administrators, parents, and students. As a citizen I must stay informed with laws and propositions that promote educational equality and financial support to our system.

4.       State Associations:

CATE: California Association of Teachers of English:

                This association’s website is an online community for California English teachers that promotes English education, events, conferences, and resources. Events and conferences are located all around the state.

California Reading Association:

                This association is a non-profit that promotes literacy and language-arts education. The website includes profession development for teachers, events, and educational texts to support teacher instruction.

5.

A.          BAY AREA EXPERIENTIAL:

Book Readings

             Poetry Slams

Theater Performances

Youth Reading Programs (Public Library System)

Project Second Chance (Contra Costa)

B.            READING:

Things Not Seen- Andrew Clement

                Eragon Series- Christopher Paolini

                Tangerine-Edward Bloor

                Peak- Roland Smith

                Jim the Boy- Tony Earley

C.            JOURNALS:

                Modern English Teacher- A Journal for English Language Teaching

                Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy

D.            EVENTS:

                CATE Conference: Why Literature? What Literature? How?

                Project Second Chance: Volunteer Training for Adult Literacy

E.            WORLD: (Related to my History Curriculum for 6^th grade Core)

                Emperor Qin Shi Huang Tomb/ Terracotta Warriors

                Egyptian Pyramids

                Lascaux

                The Great Wall

                The Acropolis

6.  From my colleagues I received wonderful ideas about my capstone project. I do believe that I will include Goodreads as part of my literacy curriculum and measure, through qualitative research, the increase or decrease on student motivation. I plan to use many pre and post surveys to measure student opinion about independent reading and incorporating technology with literacy.

                 

               

               

Technology Blog

1.       Dr. Robert’s presentation was an interesting study of the media usage and exposure of students 8-18 years old. I found the data in this research very interesting and immediately wondered how it applied to my middle school students. The part I found most interesting was the idea that although media usage has increased slightly through the years, the exposure has growing incredibly. The fact students do their homework, while listening to music, and while watching tv was something that I was familiar with, and have often seen within my own classroom. Although Dr. Robert’s discussed this increase in exposure, he collected little data on the effects in the classroom. In addition, the data he did collect on grades was given by the student and may or may not have been truly accurate. If this study continued, I would love to have seen some qualitative data collected from parents, students, and teachers on the effect of media exposure in regards to classwork, grades, and participation.

2.       After reading the NY Times article about the push towards online education, I had immediate concerns about the quality and accountability of these online programs. Who designs these courses? Are they developed using state standards? What accountability do students have when taking online classes? After reading Ravitch, I do believe that choice is an important factor within our American education system; however, all choices must have the same level of rigor and substance. The article states that online classes are growing, but some believe they are “click-click-credits,” which serve high-poverty districts, to graduate students, and still receive federal sanctions. Students should not simply be pushed through the system if they are not able to complete the required work.

 I do believe learning how to participate in an online classroom environment is an important tool for the future, however the level of thoroughness must be accounted for. Online courses require a higher level of intrinsic motivation from students, and clear guidelines must be established for online classes. The fact that Daterrius Hamilton plagiarized an assignment from Wikipedia proves the online classroom expectations and guidelines were not clearly expressed to the students. Within my teaching career, I would be open to teaching online classes as long as strong content was established. I do see the benefits of students being able to complete tasks on their own schedules and at their pace. It also provides more opportunities for students that may struggle within the traditional academic setting.

3.       Four Unfamiliar Links:

A.      Chatzy.com- After exploring this website, I feel this site could be beneficial for literacy groups/online class discussions. I was impressed at how easy it was to set up a chat space for students to access. I also like the fact that students do not need to sign up for individual accounts. I will use this site for my literacy groups.

B.      TitanPad.com- This online wiki space is similar to googlesites, however offers a color coded system for members. As a teacher flipping through the students’ wiki it would be very easy to identify which students had contributed the most/least.

C.      Classroom20.com- This website would help with teacher development, especially in the field of technology. After looking at the site, I was impressed by the collaboration of teachers/ information collected online.

D.      CNet: Cool Timer- I often use online timers but they were more aesthetically geared towards elementary school students. This online timer is a more basic tool that will allow students to stay on track during assignments.

Interdisciplinary Resources

As a Spanish teacher I have noticed that my students have memorized vocabulary, grammar rules, and sentence structures more efficiently when studying through song. Music provides a creative, dynamic, and integrated method of learning a foreign language. I want to incorporate music within my classroom to help support student comprehension and engage student interest. I still remember many of the songs I learned in my high school Spanish classes because they were fun, upbeat, and I felt a sense of accomplishment once I learned them completely. After searching the web, I found many sites that help simplify Spanish vocabulary and grammar through song. I hope to continue to research Spanish music to support Spanish vocabulary and grammar in the future. Listed below was a helpful websites I found:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/spanishsongs.htm

                This website provides songs on almost all subject areas from Spanish 1a students (colors, numbers, months, days of the week, food)

In addition to Spanish I also teach 6^th grade English and History. I am always trying to find new ways to engage student interest when studying the ancient civilizations- Rome, India, China, Greece, and Egypt. Many of my students feel as if these cultures are so old and have no real connection to our lives today. This past May, I had the opportunity to travel to New York and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was shocked to see all of the history we learned throughout the year presented through artifacts and art pieces. When given this assignment I was wondering how I could bring my experience at the Met to my students here in California. After some online research I realized students could search the online museum database to find art and artifacts from each civilization. I realized this resource could allow the students to learn about the civilization through an artistic viewpoint. For each unit, I hope to have students select an artifact or art piece, from this website, that they found particularly interesting and explain how it relates to the characteristics of the culture. I am excited to try this art/history integration within my classroom next year.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections

                This website will allow students to search the different art collections throughout the museum which happen to correlate perfectly with our 6^th grade history curriculum.

There are many values to interdisciplinary teaching and learning. First, by combining multiple lenses or perspectives on a certain topic, students are presented with a well-rounded holistic viewpoint. Interdisciplinary learning also supports multiple intelligence theory, by combining many learning styles to assist the learner through a variety of resources. However, one challenge of interdisciplinary learning is the factor of time and preparation. Teachers must have a strong background knowledge in those specific areas and combine the different domains appropriately. They must then reflect on the unit integration, to ensure it is actually improving student understanding. Interdisciplinary teaching takes more preparation; however, is so beneficial when organized and implemented effectively.

Blog Reflection "Mind the Gap"

1.       While reading chapter one, a handful of Ravitch’s statements stood out as thought provoking accounts. The first quote I selected was in response to the efforts during the Bush and Clinton Administration (1) “The new thinking-now ensconced in both parties- saw the public school system as obsolete, because it is controlled by the government and burdened by bureaucracy. Government-run schools, said a new generation of reformers, are ineffective because they are a monopoly; such as, they have no incentive to do better, and they serve the interests of adults who work in the system, and not children (p9).” When reading this statement I was disgusted by the idea that politicians wouldn’t place more effort, and attention, to the decision making process at the public-school level. This quote shows an indifferent government that promotes privatization for government-schools. It really affected me that the “client” was the adult and not the child. Investing in our youth and preparing our generation for a successful 21^st century should be incentive enough to place more money and emphasis through government on public-school education.

The second quote I chose was during Ravitch’s conclusion of the chapter. She states, (2) “I do claim, however, that we must preserve American public education, because it is so intimately connected to our concepts of citizenship and democracy and to the promise of American life (p14).” This quote remained with me after the reading and into our class discussion. I kept thinking about our class comments on the unfair differences between charter schools and public schools regarding class size, parent involvement, and government financial support. In a democratic society all students’ should receive equal educational opportunities that will prepare them to be conscientious active citizens. I agree with Ravitch and believe preserving American public education is essential to a thriving democracy.

2.       I agreed with many of the viewpoints that Ravitch states for a well-educated person. A well-educated person must build a coherent foundation of knowledge and skills that continues to grow constantly. We are all life-long learners and should be constantly reflecting, adding, and editing our ideas, beliefs, and understandings. Another characteristic of a well-educated person, a skill that Ravitch does not state, is someone who is able to synthesize and apply their knowledge to a new task. As the technological world expands, I know many of my students will have jobs that have not yet been created. Although their basic k-12 education may not specifically train them for these tasks, I do believe by accumulating skills and understandings they will succeed in an ever-changing society. Last, I do believe that in order to be a well-educated person you must have some form of intrinsic motivation to want to learn. Outside sources can inspire, support, and guide understanding, but ultimately the responsibility needs to come from the learner themselves.

3.       During the class discussion I found Megan and Sara’s point about API scores and the conflicting views between test scores and creativity very interesting. Saint Mary’s does prepare credential students to teach the “whole-child” through multiple lenses, creativity, and numerous other teaching strategies. However, like Megan and Sara explained, schools do require an emphasis on obtaining high test scores to ensure funding and prestige. I also thought Sara’s viewpoints on how API scores effect the housing market of the surrounding neighborhoods was interesting. In addition to the API conversation I really enjoyed talking about the swing towards NCLB in the late 1990’s. The viewpoints and explanations of the class, furthered my understanding and added to my comprehension of the Ravitch chapters.

4.       When creating my list of “gap areas” I pulled content framework from both English Language Arts and History at the middle school level. As the list grew from both frameworks I soon realized that my understanding in English was far more developed than my historical knowledge.  Historical content, in middle school, comprises of many specific people, events, and vocabulary. Although I knew many of the names and events I felt my understanding was only at the surface level. In addition, there are some topics I have not taught before and my only understanding is based on my experience learning as a 6^th grader.   I decided to choose to learn more about Emperor Asoka within ancient India. I had no recollection of who this ruler was so I decided to expand my knowledge within this area. I found three sources that expanded my understanding of this great ruler. The first source was from the Boston Globe entitled “Ashoka the Great” by Pankaj Mishra. The next was a book Asoka, the Buddist Emperor of India by Vincent Author Smith. However the last was a website that I found very useful and could incorporate with my students. The website is called the Teach India Project, and gives  lessons to students, parents, and teachers about the history of India. I found a lot of information about Emperor Asoka. He was a powerful ruler who expanded the Maurya Empire into modern day Pakistan and Afghanistan and established an inscription to document past wars . However, he was most responsible for supporting and incorporating Buddhism into policy and Maurya society. I will keep this site as a reference for students to explore during the India unit.

5.       Since researching about reading motivation and the use of technological literacy sites, I have found many articles that have expanded my understanding and have supported my capstone questions. One article I found especially interesting, and helpful, was a qualitative study from Vermont interviewing students about what reading strategies were engaging and what types of reading strategies were tedious. This article was especially supportive because students were asked to express their opinions of when they felt more confident and engaged during school reading. I learned that many of the students enjoyed independent silent reading and being read out loud to by the teacher. Times in which students felt less engaged was during popcorn reading or round-robin reading because of the varying levels and paces among the students. One criticism from this article is that all the students selected for the study were strong or at least proficient readers. I would like to follow this article up with another similar study that grasps opinions and viewpoints of struggling readings. It would be interesting to see if the same activities still engaged struggling readers as well.

Another article I found particularly helpful was a study conducted at a world school in Hong Kong that tested the effectiveness of integrating Facebook and Goodreads into literacy circles at the middle-school level. The study showed many students enjoyed book discussions online and continued to use their accounts even after the study concluded. This study is very similar to the study I am hoping to incorporate into my classroom. The difference is that I plan to focus more on motivation and determining if Goodreads/Facebook provides an increase in engagement and in the reading quantity of my students.

6.       My question to Joan is if it crucial to find quantitative research along qualitative research to gage motivation with middle-school readers? I keep finding all qualitative research, however, and struggling to find quantitative facts regarding motivation.

Responded to:
emymait.blogspot.com
tenjaian.blogspot.com
rdguha.blogspot.com

Blog Reflection in response to Ball Article- June 28, 2012

1.       Outside-school experiences are essential when expanding subject area content knowledge. As stated in the Ball article, teachers must become lifelong learners within their subject area, and supplement mandatory texts with personal experiences in  real-world settings. As a Spanish teacher, most of my language knowledge was acquired during my time living in Mexico. Although I studied Spanish in both high school and college, my true understanding of the language, culture, and importance came from my time living within a Spanish speaking country and talking to native speakers. Textbooks taught me how to conjugate verbs and speak conversationally; however, using the language in its authentic form gave me a much deeper understanding of all aspects behind the language: origin, usage, meaning, culture.

2.       During the class discussion on the Ball article I reaffirmed my ideas on the importance of loving the subject area that you teach. Ball’s article states that all teachers need to continually learn in order to progress, improve, and deepen content knowledge within their subject area. As a new teacher, I know that only after many years of teaching, learning from other teachers, experimentation, and additional outside-learning experiences will I be able to feel confident about my background knowledge within English, History, and Spanish. During the discussion I also enjoyed hearing other teachers’ views on how to support teacher progression and growth over the years. Many of the teachers within the class mentioned how they constantly reassess their methods of instruction, even after years of teaching the same curriculum. This reflection and desire to continually learn how to improve instruction and increase content knowledge is what makes an excellent teacher.

3.       At this point I am gathering articles and information about my capstone project topic. I began my search by looking for the benefits of using technology within the classroom. Next, I researched if other schools were using social networking sites or programs to promote reading. Now, I plan to move into finding more research based on motivation, and what motivates students to read independently. 

Currently my capstone project question is:  Does using a social networking literacy site help promote motivation and quantity for independent reading at a middle-school level? Although I am not satisfied by the exact wording of my question, I do feel closer to narrowing my topic. I am not sure about my experiential learning resources; however, I have collected many articles on literacy and technology.

My responses:
Katherine Asch
Jennifer Temple
Christina Mignano

Possible Guiding Questions

How does social media and social networking support or negate student literacy?

What are the statistics and data that prove student achievement increases with increased reading?

Will students reading motivation increase with the help of a social media site?

Do students learn and participate more successfully when interacting online?

Are students interested in being part of an online reading project?

Does extrinsic motivation work to promote reading for middle school students?

Will social networking provide ownership to students’ reading?

How can I get students to buy into my online reading database?

How will the database affect low-level readers?

Will all students be able to participate due to technology requirements?