EDUC 450: Reflection – Ideal School

Top 3 aspects of my ideal school:

After our own group’s discussion and listening to the ideas presented by other groups, I feel that the following characteristics would be those that I would most prioritize.

1. Field Experience – This incorporates the idea of putting a greater emphasis on having learning occur outside the classroom than within the confines of a traditional school setting. Having students able to interact with environments and situations that actively use the knowledge they would otherwise read from a textbook, observe in a video, or copy notes from a board would be the best way to effectively communicate the knowledge as well as engage student interest to deepen understanding.
2. Flexibility – A school that acknowledges the diverse areas and types of knowledge and expertise would further students abilities to explore their interests. Providing opportunities for student to explore interests outside of the academic subjects can still enable critical thinking skills, while promoting creativity and preparation for real world possibilities to pursue these skill sets and specialized knowledge.
3. Interdisciplinary Study/Collaboration – Teachers that work with fellow subject experts or with teachers of other specialties can not only add variety and attract interest in a subject, but can challenge traditional assumptions made of certain types of knowledge. For example, students are able to find the math in art, understand the necessary relationships existing between farming, culinary practices, and marketing techniques. It provides a greater sense of how successful communities and environments need to work with one another to best use each other’s strengths and weaknesses to create success as a whole.

Revision of Inquiry Topics

Previously listed:

1. How changing instruction modality affects student observations? Does continuously changing types of instruction help or are certain topics understood with specific types of instruction?
2. Does the amount of homework (practice) help student understanding?
3. Can frequent review improve students’ long-term understanding of topics?
4. Cumulative vs. non-cumulative instructions, review, and testing.
5. Working in groups: should students’ always be allowed to choose when they want to work with others? 
6. Calculators – to what extent should they be used in lessons and practice?
7. How much time should be focused on using technology within a math classroom? (Graphing tools, Touch pads, interactive programs, etc.)

Given today’s discussion with a focus on school structure, I would like to add a possible topic regarding teacher collaboration within the department and between departments:

• Can collaboration between teachers of the same department help student understanding by standardizing expectations for all classroom learning objectives, as well as sharing the results of techniques used?
• Could increasing student interest and engagement through the use of different subject areas, for example art, help students’ to better understand concepts?

EDUC 450: Reading #7 – Teaching Themes of Care

This article acknowledged many aspects of education that are not formerly identified in curriculum content but is widely known to occur in schools. That is, teachers are expected to act as role models and guides in developing students morals and values in addition to the standard curriculum expectations.

Overall, I support the author’s claim that schools and teachers need to take an active and conscious approach to incorporating care within the classroom. Personally, I attended Catholic schools throughout my schooling and found that a caring attitude was continuously present in all subject matters. I was fortunate to have teachers relate content to current life examples to draw out our thoughts and opinions toward any possible injustices. Even though it was a Catholic setting, religion was not the only factor that influenced this atmosphere. A general desire to help students develop into citizens that care and help their communities, no matter their spiritual inclinations, was chief.

What causes me to hesitate with Nodding’s arguments is the extent to which teachers should assume to role of including social justice in curriculum. Depending on the students, the grade levels, the demographic, the community, the district, etc., teachers may be supported or rejected to take on such a role. In a public school setting, creating a classroom setting that continuously discussed spirituality may cause some students discomfort or be challenged by parents, for example. Other more controversial issues that the author suggests to incorporate in curriculum may also cause controversy from a parent’s point of view.

As much as I would love to challenge my students to become aware of inequalities in the past and present and to then take on an active caring role, is it my responsibility as a teacher? How can I understand the freedoms, or limits, in my school community to effectively foster a caring attitude amongst my students? To truly be effective, it seems as if departments, and whole school staff need to work towards this common goal. Given my past experiences in only Catholic school settings, how are these values promoted in a Public school setting with so many cultures and religious beliefs present?

EDCP 342: Reflection #8 – Reading Mathematics

The language of mathematics is exactly that, it is a language with its own set of sybols, rules, sentence structures, definitions, connotations, and assumptions. As math teachers, before we are able to have students’ understand the concepts, they must first be able to interpret what is being communicated and later asked.

The first assumption I feel that is most commonly made is that students are already familiar with common vocabulary lent from other subject areas and can differentiate the use of its many definitions. English language learners have an especially difficult time with this added challenge to understanding English, never mind “math English”, and similarly with students who have not been properly exposed to or scaffolded the needed academic math language with each grade level.

This leads to the reoccurring societal stigma that follows mathematics. Many students have not been properly introduced or taught how to handle math terms in past years. The educator has the added responsibility of checking the level of understanding of students and how comfortably they can work with what is supposed to be assumed knowledge at the secondary level. Teachers must then accommodate these learners needing to build their vocabulary in addition to properly enforcing new terms introduced within the classroom. As outlined by the article, group activities, games, and simply time put aside to break down and explain vocabulary is required.

Next, the way in which information is presented in textbooks provides some challenges or habits that can disrupt students understanding. Using sources that strictly employ a single method to presentation of information, form word problems, or sketch diagrams may constrict definitions. Students may become attached to a single form of presentation or definition and thus become confused when other expressions are used. (This was highlighted with division symbols, multiplication, triangles, polygons, etc.)

Finally, especially at the secondary level, assumed knowledge of prior experience with word problems can inhibit student comprehension. Without stopping to break down problem solving methods or model problem solving while demonstrating thinking patterns, some students may never be taught how to approach problems that are so heavily used in math classrooms. Again, putting aside the time to emphasize and practice these methods can strengthen student abilities to confidently approach problems.

While textbooks offer a rich source of structured lessons to introduce curriculum content, they can actually act as a barrier to student understanding. Teachers must be familiar with how resources accessible to students convey material, simplify or complicate concepts, present examples, ask questions, and be cognizant of the text’s goal to promote necessary or arbitrary learning. On top of this, I feel it is necessary for teachers to be familiar with previous grade level textbooks/resources and following year textbooks to know what kind of knowledge students may be equipped with, or what they need to be prepared to encounter.

EDCP 342: Reflection – Micro-teaching

Yesterday, Miranda, Alex and I presented a micro-teaching lesson on slope for Grade 10 Foundations and Pre-Calc Mathematics. Some of the positive feedback we received included a good into and pace, successfully circulating the classroom, incorporating technology through the applet, addressing possible confusion for students, eye contact, visual aids, and using group work. Areas for improvement were volume when speaking to the class, a clear definition of slope at beginning or end of lesson, and having students practice with app.  General comments concerning the planned activity favored the group aspect, providing good guiding questions, adapting activity to challenge more advanced students, a relevant but fun activity, and if given more time to have students draw more slopes using different colors on laminated planes.

Overall, I feel that our group successfully worked with one another as a team as the lesson progressed to compliment and aid each other’s sections. I think the use of the laminated sheets to have students work in small groups to draw slopes created good discussion. Creating a series of questions/slopes with elements that had not been addressed in the lesson was a great way to challenge those students who quickly understood the concept.

Personally, I feel that I should have better outlined how I was going to use the applet to demonstrate slops and how it changed given vertice movements.  One suggestion described using progressive slopes, 1, ½, ¾, to emphasize the change and movements for the horizontal and vertical aspects. I feel this would have provided a more clear and sequential explanation of the breakdown of rise and run. Also, the original intent to formalize a slop definition was missed given time crunch however; this could be fixed by doing so before the activity and would also act as a guide for students as they work. Another personal aspect to be more aware is allowing enough time for students to answer questions that I pose – must start internally counting after posing questions to the class.

Watching other groups present was a great way to see other approaches to presenting lessons and also inspired me with other ideas to fix any problems or issues with our lesson, or just alternative methods to presenting the material. This exercise also reminded me to not overwhelm a lesson with trying to incorporate as many styles and modes of delivery as possible!