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Reflection 104/8/2021 Question 1: Focus on “educating the whole child”. What does this look like in your classroom and on your site? Consider opportunities to foster and reinforce Social Emotional Learning, inclusive and diverse learning environments, and vehicles for student advocacy.
Question 2: Reflect on your overall experience with this course. What changes will you make as a result of the work that you have done? Question 1: Educating the whole child is extremely important. In my opinion, this is the heart of the matter of education as a whole. In thee past, I believe there was an over-emphasis on math, science, etc, probably brought on partly by the Cold War and the importance (in the minds of elected leaders), of producing a new generation of scientists to compete with the Soviets. These days, it seems that there is (fortunately) an emphasis on balancing "reading, writing, 'rithmatic", with the panoply of skills that students also need to become adults. On my site, I see this occurring with PE, art, speech and debate classes, the various clubs, band, choir, and so on. I think that foreign language is very difficult to teach in schools, but this is another example of schools going beyond the rote skills. I also see examples of this beyond dedicated classes. In my class, I make sure to expose kids to a wide variety of texts throughout history, talk to them about the connections between disciplines, mix in history and philosophy, and make sure I cater to various learning styles (although it seems that research has been recently discredited) in my lessons. For example in the lessons I was doing before the lockdown, I would have kids cutting, folding, and coloring paper for projects
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Reflection 94/8/2021 TOD/Reflection: What does it mean to be “digitally literate”? How does Digital Citizenship contribute to digital literacy, and how do they support college/career readiness?
Digital literacy is the ability to work with the various platforms online to "find, evaluate, and compose" information. In other words, to be digitally literate is to be able to use the programs, platforms, apps, web browsers, and so on ad infinitum, effectively, and in a way that separates fact from fiction, good information from bad information. It is essentially a question of synergy. A digitally literate individual will be able to use digital or online tools available to them to intake information and put off content. Similarly, digital citizenship is essentially the necessity to engage in digital literacy in a responsible way, to furtherance of good ends and the betterment of the wider digital community. Digital citizenship guides students into the right mindset and with some guiding principles so they can navigate the waters of the internet and the computer world in a way that promotes the furtherance of learning, and not, for example, the furtherance of memes and misinfo on Facebook. They are basically two sides of the same coin, if in this analogy the coin buys you entry into the wider and emerging world of the "net" and the future. It's very cyberpunk, if you think about it. At Edison (to connect this back to myself and my work), I see the importance of digital literacy and digital citizenship, in furtherance of their support of career/college readiness, nearly every day. Even before the lockdown happened, I was having my kids access computers fairly frequently. It is one of the nice things about being at Edison that I have my own dedicated computer cart. I hear about other teachers trying to get by sharing a computer cart, and I couldn't imagine. Back then, in ancient history when we were actually in school, I saw kids struggling to effectively navigate the online world. If you don't have skills of digital literacy, you can't distinguish between good information, credible, well-sourced and well-written, from conspiracy websites or inaccurate out dated information. After the pandemic began the need to be literate, and have a framework / lense through which to operate (citizenship), when navigating online and digital resources, became doubly apparent. Kids are now expected to access everything online all the time, constantly search the internet, etc. In my classroom, I try to connect the idea of digital literacy to college and career readiness constantly. These days, nearly every modern job requires some ability to find or create information online, use technology, use various apps or online resources, and on and on. This trend will likely continue as time goes on, as the world becomes increasingly technologized. I didn't think that would be a word, but it actually is. Colleges also often require online materials or savvy, and having the literacy + citizenship to tackle those challenges is essential. Fundamentally, digital literacy, digital citizenship, and college / career readiness are three sides of a triangle. They all contribute positively to one another. In my classroom, I am going to continue to preach the important of literacy + citizenship, and will work to inculcate these skills and values in my students. I also resolve to find out more information about literacy + citizenship online, and connect with the wider community of educators interested in our techno future. Reflection 63/10/2021 What is one new thing that you will commit to trying in your classroom/on your site to foster and reinforce family and community connection? I think that one thing I will try to foster and reinforce family and community connection will be to try to involve parents more frequently. Most of the time when I work, I only interact with the students. I feel like we are in a world of our own, where parents never really come into the picture. Even during Back to School Night, or during parent-teacher conference week, I get almost no parents coming through to chat about their kids. During distance learning, almost no parents chat with me over their kid's zoom window. I also get almost no emails from parents asking me about their kid's progress, or why they got a particular grade on an assessment, or what they have to do to catch up. I would like it if they did, but they don't. In order to counteract this, I am planning on trying some new strategies to encourage parents to engage more with me and their charges. I am going to start sending more emails to parents, asking for their responses, and trying to schedule meetings outside of regularly scheduled school hours for us to chat. When we do eventually go back to school, I am going to send home things for parents to respond to, so I can get a better sense of where they are at. I am also going to invite parents into my classroom to assist with the daily operations if they like. I'm not sure if I'm going to get anyone to take my up on my offer, but it's better to try than not to try. I an also going to much more heavily publicize Back to School Night and other scheduled events, and offer more incentives for students to get their parents in. I think if I do all these steps, I'll have a better synergistic relationship with the student and the community they come from, which is essential in today's educational world. I'll let you know how it goes. Reflection 53/1/2021 TOD/Reflection: What are the barriers that some students experience that prevent college and career readiness? What supports are currently in place at your site, district or in your community that will help students to succeed? What intentional changes will you make to your instruction and your classroom environment that will support students in overcoming these barriers? Looking ahead…How will eliminating these barriers/obstacles and providing supports, help students to thrive as citizens in an interconnected world and a global society? There are a number of barriers present at my site, and across the educational spectrum, that prevent students from attaining college and career readiness. One of the major barriers is lack of educational attainment. If students come out of high school unable to write complete sentences, several grade levels below where they should be, unable to do math required of technical or craft type careers, they will be significantly disadvantaged. Along with this, students who come out of high school under educated will likely not go to college, not be successful if they do go, or will start but not finish their higher education. Trying to get as close as possible to grade level is critically important for students in order to overcome that major barrier in front of them. I see this all the time in my own classroom. Although I usually deal with Sophomores, and so don't see the students as they are applying for colleges or getting ready to embark on careers, I notice from iReady scores that many of them do not meet grade level. Additionally, many of my students say that they have, or want to have, minimum wage jobs at fast food places. This is discouraging, because they might stay at poverty-level wages if they don't attain those skills necessary to advance in a college or career direction. I constantly try to encourage my students to push hard to develop a plan to rise above their station and excel in the dynamic, yet competitive, 21st century milieu. At my site, there are a lot of supports to help students. We have counselors that are really invested in student success, and we have a number of faculty devoted to helping kids get work permits, and plan career moves. We also have a lot of caring teachers who individually counsel kids and help them plan out their futures. In 12th grade ELA, teachers generally focus hard on college applications and life plan curriculum. In my own class, I try to give assignments focused around getting kids to understand their college and career choices. To address the last two questions. I already have made a number of changes in my classroom. I have made college and career education an important part of my classes. I intend to keep doing this, and to build on what I've already done. To wrap things up, I think it is evident what will happen if students are more college and career ready when they leave high school. They will be able to succeed a lot more readily in our society. Poverty is high in Stockton, and it's no coincidence that Stockton has one of the lowest number of adults with college degrees in the whole country. Most people will need some sort of education after high school, whether that be trade school, certificate program, or a traditional 4 year degree, if not more beyond that. If kids have the requisite skills to be successful, they will have a much higher likelihood of living happy, productive, and financially stable lives. Reflection 41/28/2021 How do my content standards, CC anchor standards for literacy work together in tandem to support college & career readiness and CTE standards? Looking ahead…How will this help students to thrive as citizens in an interconnected world and a global society? Well, I think the standards synergize fairly well together in order in order to help kids thrive in an interconnected, global, flattened society. There has obviously been an enormous amount of work put into the creation of the various standards, including the content standards, the CC anchor standards, and the CTE standards; I think the bureaucrats did a fairly good job when they did this. I think I still have a lot to learn about the standards. I mostly understand the content and anchor standards as they apply to my work. Since I mostly work with sophomores and somewhat younger students, I don't have a dictionary-like familiarity with the CTE standards and the principles of college and career readiness. From what I understand, however, it seems clear that adherence to the standards in the classroom as a teacher, and more importantly, lifting students up to meet the standards in a proficient way, helps students leave high school feeling (and being) ready and competent to move to the next step on their path. For some students, this will be entering immediately into the work force. As an English teacher, I really try to stress to my students that being able to read, write, communicate, collaborate, and listen effectively (which are generically the things one learns in English classes) will help them be successful regardless of what they end up doing for work. In terms of college, I know that a lot of college freshman are directed toward remedial classes because they don't have the skills necessary to take, for example, Freshman comp. If the anchor standards are met along with the content standards, this helps students move into college with more confidence and more essential skills. For me personally, this seems like a big challenge, especially because most of my students are several grades below grade level. I try my best though, and am excited to learn more about how the standards resonate with each other to help students be successful throughout their lives. The world is more interconnected than ever, and students of today will have to compete with people from all over the world, especially as a lot of jobs move online. I think that my students will have some advantages because a lot of them will speak English (assuming they can raise their literacy in English). The standards are designed to apply to all students moving into our complex world, and theoretically are updated as time goes on to reflect this increasing complexification. As time goes on, I am going to make my kids explicitly familiar with these standards and how they connect. I haven't done a ton of that yet, but I am planning to. Hopefully with what I learn from this class, and with research I do on the side, I'll inform myself more deeply about this subject as time cavalcades blithely towards its ineluctable flowering fullness (if ya catch my drift). Reflection 31/20/2021 TOD/Reflection: How will this analysis and discussion of the 21st Century Skills impact your intentional lesson planning and classroom instruction? 21st Century Skills are skills that students need to succeed in the modern, rapidly changing world we find ourselves amidst. These skills go beyond the standard "reading, writing, 'rithmatic" skills that are prioritized so heavily in classrooms and schools these days. They include skills like being able to communicate effectively, utilizing creativity to solve a problem, working with a team, having technological literacy, and critically evaluating incoming information. I had a very interesting discussion with my group about these skills, and we collectively came up with some possible ways to incorporate these skills into our curriculum. I certainly recognize that these skills are critical; much of the success I've had in my life comes from a grasp of some of the core principles of these skills, including communication, critical thinking, and creativity. I already try to mention these skills to my students, and explain assignments in the context of skills that will assist them in real life in later years, rather than letting assignments "be their own reward", as it were. I try to explain the "why" of the curriculum I lay out constantly, so that students can understand how what they are learning connects to their continuous hierarchy of development as a human being. Moving forward into the future, I want to make a conscious effort to teach and cultivate these skills in my classroom. I think I can achieve this, first, by educating myself fully about these skills, and reading available literature pertaining to the subject of 21st Century aptitudes. Beyond that, I want to think about which 21st Century skills to focus on at the beginning of the year, and keep them closely in mind as I design every lesson. Giving students every opportunity to be creative, to collaborate, to communicate, and to critically think, is essential to the development of the "whole person", and I will be careful not to neglect this. Finally, I am interested in looking into lesson plans available online that specifically teach to these 21st skills, and see how I can incorporate the core principles, if not the lessons, into my Unit arc. By so doing, I will hopefully encourage students to become lifelong learners, who can survive and thrive in the wild post-modern flattened alienated eldritch vacuous, yet beautiful, world of tomorrow, today. Reflection 21/13/2021 TOD/Reflection: Are there things that all students need to learn? How does the history of education contribute to the current challenges related to post-secondary success for all students? I do think that there are things all students need to learn. Some of those things are contained in the traditional school curriculum, and some are not. Students need to, I think, learn basic mathematics, probably up to Algebra 1. To be entirely honest, I have not used any math beyond rudimentary algebra for some years now, and I probably never will. Some students may choose to go beyond this level, if they are interested in engineering or any STEM careers, but I don't know if all students need to get deep in the weeds of Calculus or advanced algebra. I think that all students do very much need to learn how to read effectively and quickly, and how to write well. I may be somewhat biased because I am an English teacher, but I think my opinion is justified. Any career students may conceivably go into will require reading, some writing, and communication in academic English. I try to emphasize these skills in my classroom. I stress to my students that using proper academic English in a variety of contexts is a prerequisite to enter the professional world. They seem to understand, although I am nervous; many of my students are below grade level in reading, and struggle with academic language production. They also don't read enough. Schools should, I think, teach students how to read for pleasure; this is not sufficiently stressed, in my opinion, and most students do not like reading. Thus their vocabulary suffers, along with associated English skills. I try to encourage my students to find something they like to read, and have that on standby when they have a free moment. I also think that schools should teach various arts, and students should learn at least one artistic discipline. All work and no play makes Jonnie a dull boy, as the poet sayeth, and an artistic discipline, developed in the school system and refined in the home, can connect students more deeply to life and their natural faculties. Finally, I think that students should learn about nutrition and physical education. This is more important than ever in 2020, with busy fast food rampant on our street corners. This helps develop the mind-body-spirit connection, and creates a more complete person at the end of education. I try to encourage my students to stretch, move, drink water, and eat healthy food. Of course there are many other things students should learn eventually, including civics and basic science, but time grows short. Foreign language education in the United States should be completely rethought. I took Spanish for 6 years, and can't speak a word. This isn't Europe, unfortunately. We should start foreign language education in second grade, if we do it at all. Certainly the flawed and deeply depressing history of education contributes enormously to the modern problems faced by the graduating senior in 21st century dystopic America. Schools are obviously still figuring out what they are for. Much of what I learned in school, for example, various dates of events in the past and how to balance chemical equations, have been completely useless for me as an adult. Students don't know what they are learning, or why, and often don't, evidenced by the low graduation rates and test scores, particularly in my district, SUSD. That is why I try to stress to my students that the skills I want to teach them are theoretically portable and expansive, and can be applied to other disciplines and life circumstances, variously. We need to get back to the basics: reevaluate letter grades and our grading system completely in favor of holistic grading, teach in smaller cohorts (probably for less of the year), reduce the number of classes students need to take, encourage career/technical and subject specific education tracks within the larger system, and give students a reason to care. Every day, I try to make students feel alive, feel awake, feel engaged, and feel connected; because I believe that fundamentally, teachers can and should teach LIFE more than than anything else, rather than assembly line drudgery or how to just get by. I'm up for the fight. Hope I covered everything. Reflection 11/6/2021 What is School For?School is a place to provide kids what they need. Some of the things kids need are stability, support, and rigorous academic preparation. School is also a place where kids can get good practice for life. In life, people often have to meet deadlines, work in teams, focus over an extended period of time, organize materials, and compete with peers. School gives an opportunity for students to accomplish all of these things in miniature, and get vital practice for their adult life.
School is also a place where students can learn how to question their environments, and dig more deeply into the process of inquiry. Most kids aren't terribly good at inquiring about their environments, so if we can inculcate these skills at a young age, they can interact much more dynamically with their world around them, assess sources of information, and hopefully become better citizens and members of our 21st century societies. At Edison, I try to really keep in mind the various purposes of school. Most of my students struggle with academic English, many come from difficult personal circumstances, and the vast majority are below grade level. I feel like I have to hit on many different cylinders at the same time for my students: I have to be a role model, an English instructor, a shoulder to cry on, and ear to listen to issues, a motivator, a tutor, and ultimately an adult with their best interests at heart who can help them improve academically so they can succeed in the crazy milieu of our 21st Century. I relish the opportunity to do so much, and the challenge of the work is one of the things that keeps me excited about coming back every day. Last semester, a large number of my kids said that I was the only teacher that had their back, that listened to them, that stuck by them, and I really appreciated that positive feedback they gave me. As I grow as an instructor, I also want to make sure that I don't neglect the person-to-person connection, the inspiration, that I so enjoy about being a teacher currently. This semester, I am starting even more strongly, and am developing excellent connections with my students right away. My students fundamentally like coming to my class and trust me to be fair and friendly, which makes the process so much smoother. A number of my students say they don't like going to other classes, which, if you think about it, defeats at least a main pillar of what school is "for", if I may mix the metaphor. I am definitely excited about seeing what this class teaches me about this subject so I can try new strategies in my classes right away. Since they made me PLC lead of the Sophomore team this year, I can also pass on some of the information to the other teachers in my purview, and encourage them to think more deeply about the purpose of school, and their role as an educator at Edison. Finally, schools are places where kids can get meals, interact socially, and talk to adults about problems. In essence, school is a place where kids can get away from the home, interact with the wider world, receive emotional support and other services, and grow into their adult selves. Unfortunately, this important aspect of school has largely disappeared in the era of COVID-19. Hopefully, we get back in the classroom soon, and students can get back to the true purposes of school. Good luck to us all. |
Photo used under Creative Commons from wuestenigel