Today was the big day! It arrived so quickly and went by so fast. I had an absolute blast making ice cream with the K-2 students at French Camp today. While there were definitely a few kinks to work out for the future (it was definitely a mess...but sometimes exploring is!) I was really happy with how our activity panned out. The students were engaged for the entire activity and didn't want it to end and to be honest, I felt the same way. Even though many of them had made ice cream in this way before, they were so excited to explore, to share their experiences with their friends, and to really get involved. I was really impressed at how well the students did with sharing the materials during their excitement too! Going into today, I was nervous because I knew it would be difficult to enact any management techniques with students that we've only spent an hour with previously - but the students were really responsive to our attention getter and were eager to participate appropriately. While the activity was definitely only a snapshot of a much larger unit, it really gave me insight into how I can incorporate cooking into my own classroom in the fall. I've always been intimidated to try it in my own classroom, but now I feel like it's not only doable, but so much fun! I was also really glad to have Josh as my partner because he brought valuable experience to the table and even demo'd the lesson with his own daughters! What a relief because we found that our original recipe wasn't quite accurate! All in all, I feel like our activity was a success and definitely had the kids excited about cooking and I hope they will go home and tell their parents about their day - and who knows, maybe it leads to them helping with dinner tonight and eventually an interest in cooking.
To Andrew: thank you so much for such an engaging and rewarding classroom experience. I am so glad that I chose to start my masters degree this summer because I really valued the time spent in your class. Have a great summer and I hope to cross paths again soon!
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Today was one of my favorite sessions of our class thus far. I thought it was really interesting to research different school designs, specifically, the article that I read about different learning centers. I really connected with the idea of the cave, the campfire, and the watering hole as important and differentiated areas of education that are necessary for students to truly digest their own learning. From this, my group decided to design our own school with an international focus. It was fun to really explore what we would do if the sky was the limit, funding was no issue, and we had the creative reigns. I was blown away by the other group's in our class and how creative and all encompassing their ideas were... they made me want to go to their schools too! I loved listening to how passionate my classmates were about their visions and their unique strategies for bringing these goals into fruition. This got me to thinking about how it's really easy as a teacher to get into your classroom and shut the door and worry about your students and your class and passively participate in the rest of the school culture. This exercise challenged me to think outside of my own classroom and to really consider the bigger picture of an entire education system. While it might seem impossible to develop schools that are so different than the traditional design, I couldn't help but think back to The Big Picture and schools like The Met. This school didn't just appear, it had to come from a small group of people having a similar dream and drive to make it happen.
Think of a current problem or challenge in your school, work- place, or personal life. How could you view this problem as “a friend”? How could you view it as an opportunity for change or a way to do something differently?
This was tough for me, not that I don't have problems or challenges, but what could I really step away from and look at as a friend? My mind always goes to work because while I love my site and my job, there are of course parts of it that I wish could be better. The staff at my site is somewhat divided, and it's very obvious at times and I feel like it really does bleed into our site culture and I'm sure throughout the school culture too. The teachers are split between primary and upper grade based on scheduling: primary has recess and lunch at the same time, and so do upper grade, so of course they see their grade colleagues more often... but I wonder if it's more than that. When I think of some of the teachers, I realize that I've only had a handful of conversations with them and I've worked at this site for going on my third year! This is sad to me... I'm not sure if this divide started purely out of a scheduling difference or if there was more to it, but it definitely started to show itself in social settings too. I can think of several staff parties and events where there were two distinct groups, separated throughout the event and people felt uncomfortable and it just wasn't fun. I consider myself a fairly social person and I know I have a lot in common with several teachers at my school and would probably develop some pretty meaningful relationships with these colleagues... So here I am, how can I "fix" this, when a group of adults might be very set in their ways? I really enjoyed the quote that Littkey included: "The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation" even though I wouldn't call our current situation a crisis, I think that is an unfortunate and potentially damaging trend that needs to be addressed if we really want to make a change. This year, I joined the site sunshine club so that I could be more involved in creating events and honoring teachers/staff members throughout the school year. This definitely required that I get out of my comfort zone but required that I work with teachers I might never run into otherwise. While this was a good first step, I really think there's more that I can do to bridge the gap. As we begin this school year, we have a new principal stepping in. I hope, with a new principal on site, we as a staff can use this time to reintroduce ourselves to each other while introducing ourselves to him. For me, I think I need to take a more active role in uniting the staff because I feel so passionate about the need for a cohesive team. I can use my role in the sunshine club to plan more events and try to involve more staff members. I can introduce myself to our new principal and share some of my ideas about team building opportunities that I believe will bolster our staff partnerships and really get us acquainted with one another outside of our classroom settings. I know we're all busy and we often complain about staff meetings being unnecessary or a waste of time, but would it be a waste of time if we started to develop real bonds with one another? Would this eventually change how we take on our school culture and school pride? I truly hope so. What effect does testing have on learning? The reading regarding testing was really interesting to me and made me think back to my own perspectives as a K-12 student. In particular, I was fascinated about how standardized tests seek to find if students have learned what "they're supposed to" and teachers have taught what they're "supposed to" all the while, the test themselves don't even measure what they've set out to. It's a big mess and it's really discouraging as a teacher and a student to know all of this but still feel the immense pressure to meet these seemingly impossible goals. Testing should be an effective way to measure your own teaching, the goals you've set for yourself/your students, and of course their progress toward achieving those goals. Somehow, this has become twisted up into mandated state and federal standards that are not reflective of what students are really learning and capable of learning. For the most part, I think this is setting us up for creating students that are uneasy about tests in general and testing anxiety that will impact their learning journey. I think that the way testing is formatted really limits students and inhibits them from taking risks because they might be afraid of looking "dumb". This is so sad to me because I really believe the purpose of education is opening the door for students to seek out new information, take risks, and be passionate about their own journey instead of simply checking boxes off of a list. I was really impressed by the student essay that Littkey included about standardized tests really got to the heart of the issue in such a concise way; she realized that failure does not need to be the end of the line and that it shouldn't be. Her metaphor for learning to ride a bike especially spoke to me. I'm amazed that this young student seems to have a better grasp on what's wrong with testing then most adults do and definitely more than state and federal "officials" do. I think this really goes to show that when students have the reigns for their own academic journey, they begin to understand that the process isn't always going to be easy, but that it should always be worth it. It's shocking to me that we're already have way through my first class of my masters degree. Looking back at our first week, I felt really unsure of how I could possible meet all of the goals and requirements of our syllabus... slowly but surely here I am checking off each item one at a time.
For me, what's really stuck out has been shadowing the students at French Camp Elementary School. Thinking about those students and how excited they were to have us visiting and interacting with them really has been by driving force. Our integrated unit has been a labor of love that requires us to consider how these students and students like them would benefit from the CTE standards and hands on experience with real world applications. I'm definitely nervous to be teaching to a new group of students and especially students that are older than the groups that I'm used to, but I am looking forward to the challenge. My partner and I have been excited about how our unit has come together organically; one section just naturally leads to the next and culminates in a project that we would both be proud to be involved in. I feel like this project is asking us to step away from our typical format of lesson plans and unit development and really require our students to explore and actively participate. I have loved The Big Picture readings. I feel like I've gained an entirely new perspective on how teachers and administrators can become mentors to students instead of gate keepers or baby sitters. When students are given the tools to actively steer their own educational path, they will absolutely rise to the occasion and we as educators need to provide more opportunities for them to do so. This also goes for parents and families; if they feel welcome and valued, they will become partners for the larger vision. While reading, I can truly feel the passion that Dennis Littkey has for his students and it makes me want to do more for my own.
It can be intimidating to open the door to parents and allow another adult to take such an active role in what we consider our "territory". As a teacher of very young students, I've grown accustomed to have parents involved. I allow parents to begin volunteering in the classroom as of October (to allow me and the students to get into our routines and procedures and get used to one another first) and involve parents in special events whenever possible. Each day, I do my very best to check in with each parent and give them a snapshot of their child's day, answer questions they might have, or voice any concerns that I may have. I find that this has created a partnership with parents that really benefits us both; I feel supported by the parent at home and the parents have a real, day-to-day updates how their child is progressing and what they can do to further support their child. I've been pleasantly surprised at how welcoming the parents of my students have been and how willing they've been to go above and beyond for their child, and our class as a whole. I think, that once we get over the initial fear of parent involvement, the partnerships that are forged are invaluable to teachers.
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When I relate this to my classroom, I think in terms of the quality of products that my students are completing. It's easy to get in the habit of passing out a worksheet but I really want to start asking myself the why behind the tasks I'm asking them to complete. Even though my students are very young, it's never too early to invite them to take ownership of their education and what they produce. This is definitely a challenge that I am willing to take on and I need to do more research about how to make this age appropriate but also really instill this love of learning and ownership into my young students.
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