Know Yourself

A local teacher was a guest speaker in our class today, and she had some great, thought provoking ideas to reflect upon as a teacher. She has been a teacher for 22 years, and after only talking for 5 minutes that she is a perceptive, innovative educator who knows how to integrate instruction with application.

She only allows herself to repeat one book every year, and completely strips and sets her room up from scratch every school year. Nothing like keeping the classroom fresh, and making sure that you never get stuck in a rut! And what a way to make sure that lessons and the entire classroom is for the unique students that enter your classroom each year! I'm not sure I could strip everything at the end of every year, but this is a good idea to keep in mind; sometimes we just have to strip everything away and start over again.

One of her first points was that every teacher must learn what type of teacher they are.

Am I process-based?
Am I inquiry-based?
Am I more inclined to guided instruction?
Am I direct instruction-based?
Am I discover-based?

As a teacher you must know your style, but your style is ever developing and evolving. For the first few years you try a lot of different styles that you pull from your Mary Poppins' bag of tricks. Over time, you will decide what you like and what becomes most helpful for the students in your classroom, but the best teachers are the teachers that utilize all techniques that help your learners.

She gave us three tips for our future classrooms:

1. Create a healthy, safe place for students to learn where making mistakes is a normal growing process.
"Always have more questions than answers."

2. Vary the way you expect responses to literature. Only expect them to come ready to engage in a book chat.

3. Never assign anything that you don't respond to with a few detailed sentences, and expect that some students will write back as well.

Give students choice because this will intrinsically motivate the students to learn.

Know your kids; know when to push and when not to push. Education is about relationship, it's about knowing people, about bringing out their best, and how to take them from where they are to where they can be.

Learn how to answer a students question with a question. This generates deeper thought and discussion with the students. Good thing I already do that!

Individualized Instruction: What is "Fair"?

What should instruction look like? How does a teacher differentiate instruction in such a way that the needs of the "lowest" and "highest" achieving students are met in a deeply personal and academic way? These questions rose to my mind as I worked in a group during my teaching social studies class; we were given a topic, a framework, and in class we created a lesson for a specific grade level on the spot. Differentiation proved the most challenging area of focus for our group because the activity and assessment already implemented choice as a way for students to use multiple materials in order to express themselves. My group specifically struggled with how to challenge more advanced students without just assigning more work.

Many times I have heard that we should not simply dump more work on students who finish work early, or who show excellent and efficient skills when completed the classwork given; some professionals adamantly claim that these students should also not tutor other students, despite the studies that show this can be beneficial to both parties involved, specifically the research on PALS and other tutor programs (Rafdal, McMaster, McConnell, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2011; Codding, Chan-Iannetta, George, Ferreira, & Volpe, 2011). Peer Assisted Learning Strategies, or PALS, when implemented with fidelity, benefit both parties involved, and can be done in such a way that students are not privy to which partner is higher or lower because the class is ranked, split in half, then paired off so that the "highest" achieving individual on the "upper level" list is paired with the "highest" ranked individual on the "lower level" list (with exceptions for incompatibility).

As a group we reached a consensus: if all instruction is to be individualized in such a way that each student gains the most from every activity, how can we judge what is fair? If one student can do 30 problems in 20 minutes, and another student takes an hour to complete eight problems, would a teacher be unjust in making sure that these students are challenged yet not frustrated by the amount of work they are assigned?

One parent may complain that their student is having to do too much, while the other parent may complain that their student is falling behind, but why is it unfair to allow students to rise to a challenge? I understand that in America we value equality and fairness. However, we deliberated and reached the decision that equal treatment does not always mean that every student is treated in exactly the same way. If every child received the identical, rigid education, there would be no room for individuality, for personal creativity, for real, substantial growth. 

Education needs to continue to move towards individualized instruction for all, instruction that recognizes each students strengths and weaknesses, and allows students to grow in their area of weakness as they also have opportunities to use their strengths. At the end of the lesson we created, our group decided that having students write journals about the activity was a great wrap-up activity, and we decided that some students were given the liberty to write paragraphs while other students were not demanded of more than they could produce. While some may disagree, there were other forms of assessment used, such as the models, drawings, and presentations that students also did during the lesson. We took into consideration that in first grade, the gap between the struggling student and the overachiever may be wide, and that instruction should meet students where they are.

References:

Codding, R. S., Chan-Iannetta, L., George, S., Ferreira, K., & Volpe, R. (2011). Early number skills: Examining the effects of class-wide interventions on kindergarten performance. School Psychology Quarterly, 26(1), 85-96.

Rafdal, B.H., McMaster, K. L., McConnell, S. R., Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2011). The effectiveness of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, 77(3), 299-316. 

Social Studies and Special Education

This semester I have not had much time to create posts! With eight graduate courses, field placements, and interviewing candidates for jobs at camp this summer, I have not had much time to really reflect on all the information that I jam into my head. In all honesty, that is my one regret this semester; many times I finish an assignment or reading and have to move on to the next one without reflection or expansion. The best teacher is a reflective teacher, and that is why I have decided to break this cycle and begin to reflect upon the lessons and activities that I have been doing.

One passion I have rediscovered this semester is history and social studies; currently I am enrolled in a teaching social studies course for elementary education, and I have been increasingly aware of how social studies is often overlooked, especially in special education. Many special educators do not consider this a pertinent subject for students with disabilities, and I cannot help but wonder how many historians, politicians, archaeologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have undiscovered passion or untapped potential because social studies is rarely considered an integral part of a student's academic experience.

Throughout this course I have been reading about the methods used in secondary social studies, which focuses mostly on reading comprehension, and I cannot help but wonder if there may be better interventions for these students. What if there was a way to scaffold note-taking, so students with disabilities begin with fill-in-the-blank notes, then gradually gain more and more proficiency until they simply are filling in an outline. This would require much more work on part of the teacher, but that effort would be worth it when that student benefits and excels in note-taking and studying for history class. While reading comprehension is imperative, there are many other skills that historians need, such as examining artifacts, interpreting primary or secondary documents, and recognizing cause and effect relationships. There is a stubborn part of me that refuses to believe that reading comprehension is the only intervention worth suggesting for students with disabilities in secondary education, yet there are few other suggestions found in the research.

In general I have increasingly noticed how the social studies, when implemented, focus on a patriarchal, political historical narrative. Before this semester I have never considered how women are affected by this framework that excludes many of the great cultural movers and shakers, as well as many important women in the tale of history. In essence, women grow up learning about how important men have become with few role models that are not musically talented or extraordinarily beautiful. From my limited experience, this seems to create a self-fulfilling prophecy; women do not see successful women besides musicians, actors, models, and they begin to think that beauty is the road to success. But let me stop before I digress.

For my teaching technology course I taught a lesson that was created for eleventh graders to my college level peers on the Emancipation Proclamation. The lack of already present background knowledge astounded me. I simply asked what they already knew about the Civil War and I received blank stares from even the history majors in the room. Shocked, I decided to back up and ask them fill-in-the-blank questions such as: We talked about how the president of the North was... and they would answer Abraham Lincoln. After doing that for the critical background knowledge, the students started becoming more comfortable so I moved on to the portion of the lesson where the students compared the Constitution to the Emancipation Proclamation; specifically, the students looked at how the documents treated slaves in order to find the similarities and differences. They answered the questions: Was the Emancipation Proclamation Constitutional? Then the students evaluated whether the Emancipation Proclamation pulled through for the newly Freedmen, and what had to happen for those who were former slaves to gain their promised freedoms.

After this lesson one of my friends asked what I had learned. I must have given him a quizzical look, because then he asked, "What did the students learn? You both should have learned something, that's the point of teaching." He was right; as a teacher, I should be learning with my students. Not only should I be challenging them, but they should be challenging me. Which caused me to realize that I have not been a reflective teacher this semester. Thankfully, this epiphany only strengthened my resolve to become more reflective and more innovative with my lessons.

Teaching Children in Poverty

About once a week I will go on a news binge and read about the major events that are happening in our world, and amidst the stories about Congress' internecine budget arguments and the wars near and far, I stumbled upon a piece that caught my eye. This talks about a family that faces homelessness, and what that means for the children in the family.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=4

Let me give you some background as to why this article made me do a second take. When I was doing my undergraduate studies at James Madison I spent two of my Spring Breaks in New York City with the New York City Urban Project (NYCUP). While we were there, we served the homeless and recovering addicts, tutored students in charter schools, and learned about the social injustices that surround the prevalence of prostitution and poverty. These trips changed my life, and changed my heart. After these trips I knew that I wanted to teach in an inner-city environment where I can be more than just an activist for change, but also a catalyst for hope.

As I read this article I thought about what school would have been like for me if I had grown up in a shelter, if I found myself dealing with these adult responsibilities at a young age. I assume that you are familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs) which states that we as humans must have primary needs met before we pursue secondary needs. This is so important to students because if a student is hungry or exhausted, the student can't focus in class! That is only one example of what students in this situation may be struggling with; there is a myriad of other problems as well, such as peer rejection, completing homework, and placing value in an education that does not immediately improve their ability to sustain themselves and provide for their most basic needs.

This has also been further investigated by the fact that I am reading "The Freedom Writer's Diary" (the 10 year anniversary edition). If you have seen the movie or read the book, you know that these high schoolers write about the problems they face in their lives as they toe the line to adulthood in an inner-city school; many of them have to grapple with the false expectation that they will fail regardless of hard work or talent. Most of these teens feel alone in this war against race, against drugs and violence, or they have succumbed to believing nothing will change. These teens change their lives when they are empowered by the written word, inspired by the lives of survivors, and challenged by their English teacher to fight back against inhumane circumstances. United they stood together against hate and violence, and reached for goals beyond what anyone had ever dreamed for them. Many times they found within themselves courage and strength they never knew they had.

Both of these pieces have made me realize that unity and support (moral, real support, not just monetary support) can do worlds of difference in the life of a student who faces a war every time they walk out their front door. That is a lesson that I want to bring into my classroom, that I want to teach to my students: compassion for humanity and a willingness to stand for change.

In dismay, I must confess to you that I am still disappointed that despite this book, many believe that "they don't want any help from outsiders," and "there is nothing that can change their situation." Yes, I have actually heard this from people who pride themselves in their education, yet completely ignorant of their intolerance and preconceived notions of groups of people. And that is why we continue to educate and bring self awareness whenever and wherever we can.

The Art of the Teacher

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

~Albert Einstein~

When Finals Week Hits

So it is almost finals week!

Which means I am writing this post when I should be writing a ten page research paper! I like to think of this as my warm up, because I need to get the juices flowing somehow! What better way to begin than to rant about issues that I see in the world of education!

The prevalence of ignorance regarding special education astounds me, especially among future educators. Understandably I don't always blame an ignorant person, because I know that in our society you can live your whole life without encountering a person with a disability for an extended period of time, or the people that you know with disabilities may only have mild or moderate disabilities. But, I have to ask, how can we teach students if we don't know our students individually, and how can we teach students with disabilities unless we read about those disabilities and how they can manifest themselves in our students? This is one of the biggest frustrations I have experienced: working with teachers and fellow students who have no idea how to treat a student with a disability. Not that I am an expert, I know that you can study special education your whole life and still feel as though you are a novice, but a teacher should at least try to gain some understanding of disabilities. If nothing else, gain a sense of what that student needs to reach their own personal goals. Throwing your hands up in the air and saying, "I don't know," just causes the student to mimic that apathetic attitude and expect failure throughout their life.

Another shocking attitude that I encounter would have to be apathy. I am genuinely shocked by how many students who are going to be teachers do the bare minimum; do you not realize that everything we are learning impacts our future careers, and that these are life lessons, not just grades? I am astounded that these teacher students then actually have the opportunity to educate others when they refuse to learn themselves. We must be students of our students, lifelong learners who foster environments that create more lifelong learners. I recently read an amazing blog post { http://lindanathan.com/2013/12/03/asking-the-hard-questions/ } that has caused me to think of teachers are artists. This has truly inspired me to look at education in a new light. But I ask, how can teachers be artists if they harness an attitude of apathy? Artists are passionate, insatiable seekers of truth and meaning. There is not room for apathy from teachers if we are to truly be an artist.

How can we change this? I just hope that one day I will be able to ignite passion in my students for learning, and I hope that fellow educators feel the same way.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

In the Defense of Lecture

Recently I had a friend send me a link to an interesting article about lectures, which spurred some deep thoughts and conversations about the lecture method.

While some would argue that lectures are coma inducing, painstaking, note-taking endeavors, lectures allow students to gain a foundation of knowledge and to accumulate a plethora of information before engaging with the facts in a constructive way. There have been numerous times when a student will try to use information before they have achieved mastery of the subject, leading the student to misuse and abuse what little they know. Lectures provide a foundation for students, and how well a student engages with the material depends upon the responsibility the student feels towards the learning process; this is what I would call true student-directed discovery. However, I cannot proceed without stating that teachers can do a lot to motivate students, so this responsibility does not fall on the student alone.

But all this led me to think: Why do lectures get such a bad rap? I honestly believe that unqualified teachers and uninterested students give lectures a terrible name, but why throw out the good with the bad? Lectures are not all bad, and they have a powerful purpose in the learning process. There is some knowledge that students need to be taught. One example that I can think of from my personal experience would be from my psychology and history courses. No one came into the course knowing the material, and if the teacher had not used lecture at the beginning of each unit, the students would not have been able to use that knowledge to inspire deeper thinking. The same can be said of many introductory courses in the secondary and post-secondary levels of education, in the humanities, sciences, and mathematics. At these points in the learning process, students need to be taught through the honest, tried and true transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student.

I say all of this knowing that there is a time and a place for every method of instruction, so I am not cutting down any other method for the sole purpose of glorifying the lecture. But, I do agree that many experts who call this method outdated or overrated may need to consider that there is merit in the simple exchange of knowledge from teacher to student. Lecture cannot be the only method of teaching used because students benefit from teachers using multiple forms of instruction; but, there are times in which lecture benefits the student, and that cannot be overlooked.

Source Referenced: A Defense for the Benefits of Lecture
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/dont-give-up-on-the-lecture/281624/

On a Cloudy and Windy Day

The wind keeps blowing my shutter open and closed because the last construction man that moved it when they were working never secured it back to the building. This startles me, and I jump every time it slams against the windowsill or the wall. I lose track of where I was writing in my lesson plan, and readjust in my seat as I try to focus on the work at hand.

The clouds and the wind continue to dampen today's vibe, but it's for the best since I need to do two lessons for tomorrow, both of which are very intensive and somewhat challenging. One involved building fluency with multiplying and dividing fractions, and the other is about the jury system in Ancient Greece. Both of these lessons are engaging; I never could stand teachers who just read from worksheets and assign seat work. In fact, I even detest the word "worksheet" because it implies work and boredom. Why can't we call it a hand out instead? They should be visuals, not busy work anyways! They say a teacher is only as good as their lesson plan, and if a plan only entails worksheets and busy work, what does that say!? But I digress.

This week also marks the beginning of training for a run of some sort; I don't know what run, all I know is my running buddy Em and I are training, and we are doing 8 minute miles this week! So I am trying to revive my body to become more than a shadow of it's former glory, when I ran the mile in 7.30 in the 7th grade.My body is already responding well, I have been getting up early everyday, and really getting the most out of my time.

All this to conclude that today has been strange. I had a weird dream last night, and woke up feeling as though I am out of place here. Yet as I get to work, I know that what I am doing must be valuable; why else would I be called to do it? If nothing else, I am learning a lot, and that is what I am here to do!

A Rainy Day in Charlottesville

Days like these cause me to stay inside and do a lot of reading and reasearching, and if you know me well, you know that I will most definitely learn a lot about special education or about history whenever that happens.

Today was no exception, and I found myself watching a documentary for class about the Virginia Lynchburg Colony that fell into the Eugenics movement in the early 1900s. If you don't know what that movement entails, don't worry, I didn't either. If you are queasy or if social justice issues fire you up(as they do me), then let me first warn you that this post will cause you to wield some unruly anger against the perpetrators of this movement.

During this time period the Lynchburg Colony (also referred to as the Virginia Colony) was an asylum created for those with epilepsy and the "feeble-minded," which was a loose term that can be interpreted as those with mental disabilities. In the time period, this institution actually ended up being a place where welfare workers would send those seen as "socially inept" or "mentally retarded."

In reality, these workers rounded up the poor, the homeless, orphans, the uneducated, run aways, criminals, and those who were not accepted in the local community. Honestly, there were no real tests or standards for admittance into the Virginia Colony besides someone having the power over another to admit them. To make matters worse, the director of the colony wanted to sterilize the residents, and he had  friend, Dr. Laughlin, who helped draft a law that allowed for the sterilization of inmates, criminals, the homeless, the poor, and the "feeble-minded." Not only was this law actually passed and put into affect in 1924, but the Supreme Court actually upheld this law in 1927 in Buck v. Bell. Mr. Strode, who represented Lynchburg, and Mr. Whitehead, who represented the plaintiff, Carrie Buck, were in cahoots with Dr. Laughlin and Dr. Pretty to uphold this sterilization policy. Yeah, how about that for the liberty and justice for all!

Just in case that did not enrage you enough, let me also explain that many of these children and teenagers who found themselves in this institution were not actually informed that they were being sterilized. Oh no, if there was any explanation or choice at all, these innocent individuals were told that they were being given an operation in order to improve and ensure their good health. Imagine the surprise and humiliation these individuals felt years later when they were released from the institution, married, and found out they could not have children.

Why was this done? Because a premise of the Eugenics Movement is that those with "bad genes" that cause these tendencies in individuals are passed on when someone with those "bad genes" have a child. Not only does this scarily remind me of a white elitist argument, but this movement actually historically inspired the Nazi's in Germany to sterilize, separate, and finally slaughter those who were presumed to have inferior genes. The Germans thanked the US scientists that promoted this theory, and these American scientists actually praised and encouraged the Germans for what they were doing, saying that the Germans were beating them at their own game.

A part of me is thankful that we could learn from those mistakes, and these scientists were discounted due to lack of real valid scientific evidence, but the lasting affect for these people's lives cannot be compensated. In fact, the state still refused to pay for reversal surgeries for these individuals at the time of this documentary (which may have been in the 90's judging by the nappy hair and the shoulder pads).

All in all this documentary is an eery reminder that we need to stay informed and engaged with how those with disabilities are treated in our society. There are still institutions where wards rape or beat patients, there are still enclaves and group homes that can get away with paying those with mental disabilities well below minimum wage, and there are still injustices and discrimination occurring everywhere. Despite this pervasive problem, I am willing to bet that a majority of the American society feels as though these problems have been solved through the ADA and other legal measures that have ensured that those with disabilities can have equal access. But I ask, what is the value of a law if we as the people do not make sure that it is implemented with fairness and fidelity?

Be the Change

There is nothing quite like feeling you are making a difference, and while this week has tested my patience, professionalism, and me sense of competency on the job, I have to cling to the belief that somehow, somewhere, I did touch someone's life. However, I know that this life is a learning experience, and that after some rest and relaxation I will get to enter next week with a renewed mission to make a difference in the lives of those around me. That change is going to start with myself. I am going to keep a positive attitude and look at the positive differences that I can see, and I am going to focus on the positive instead of the negative. Reflecting on the negative allows me to think about what I would do differently next time, but after that conclusion has been reached, I no longer need to hold on to what has happened. This will be my approach to this week, and I know that this week will only be better than the last!