Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Journal Writing #1

Prompt
Reflecting on your CPI teaching, respond to the following questions: What is it like to be a student in my class? What is it like for a student to move through classes in a day at our school? (Use your CPI school as reference)

Reflection
Throughout my six weeks at Oceanside High School, the site for my Clinical Practice One, I learned a great deal about how to teach, how to manage a classroom and how to grow as a professional. Perhaps the greatest knowledge I gained, however, was the image I developed as a student in my classroom. My image came out of what I wanted my students to learn and experience while in my classroom as well as how I wanted them to view the experience as they passed through my classroom during a school day.

When I first sat down with my cooperating teacher he asked me what I wanted my students to learn, beyond the standards and content. I explained to him that I wanted to learn how to enjoy social studies, prove a point to classmates through valid statements and learn to use vocabulary in the world beyond the classroom. From this I learned what it meant to be a student in my classroom in the last quarter of 2011. A student had to be willing to step slightly out of their comfort zone in order to speak about issues being discussed. A student had to be understanding of a classmate’s difficulty with the content. A student had to be willing to learn. Lastly a student had to be willing to enjoy social studies. With this understanding of how it meant to be a student in my classroom I implemented it in the form of expectations. At the end of the six weeks I had learned what it meant for a student to pass through my classroom each day.

As students entered my class they could always count on me at the door greeting them, thus giving them acceptance into the classroom. Students also could count on laughing at some point in the class period as that was a huge priority for me. Further, students could count on utilizing the four facets of literacy (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) each lesson. Lastly, students could count on being challenged each day to learn and experience something new. All of these combined into what it meant to be a student in my classroom each and every day.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Reading Reflection #6

Prompt
Watch two videos on Youtube: Visions of Students in the 21st Century and Visions of Teachers in the 21st Century.  Create a Personal Learning Network (PLN).

My PLN
In understanding my Personal Learning Network (PLN) I have discovered that most of the individuals I communicate and gather information with come from online. Therefore I have determined that my PLN is made up of the following tools:
- Facebook
- Blogger
- Classroom 2.0
- Diigo
- iGoogle
- Gmail
- Google Reader

Reading Reflection #5

Prompt
Read the ITU overview PowerPoint.  As a school team, identify a theme for your ITU and share ideas.  Draft a cover sheet with your ITU team.

Theme
The theme my ITU agreed upon is heroism.  This theme will allow both of us to give students opportunities to investigate heroic historical and literal figures.  Furthermore students will learn what characteristics heroes and sheroes.  Finally, with the knowledge that students have on what makes a hero, they will participate in a service project that makes them heroes and shereos.

Reading Reflection #4

Prompt
Read the ITU PowerPoint. Identify what tasks you would be well skilled at leading and contributing to for the ITU assignment.

Tasks
Throughout the massive amount of tasks that need to be completed in order to create an Integrated Thematic Unit I believe there are several that I am well-skilled at leading and contributing to. These tasks are:
- Task Four: Unit Rationale
- Task Seven: Unit Calendar
- Task Eight: Technology Applications
- Task Nine: Art Component
- Task Twelve: Student Descriptions
- Tasks Thirteen through Seventeen: Unit Differentiation
- Task Twenty: Final Poster Presentation

Reading Reflection #3

Prompt
Read A Complete Guide to Integrated Thematic Units (Roberts, Kellough). Make a list of models and resources to share with your ITU team.

Models and Resources to Share
- Role of Integrated Technology (Page 3): It will be important for the group to determine how we wish to teach the ITU. Will be teach it one week then address the curriculum or will it be a divided day in which half addresses the ITU and the other addresses the curriculum?
- Technology (Page 26): The examples given about the use of technology in the classroom to generate ITUs was extremely inspiring. The models discussed in the section discussed how a small idea had become a nature preserve or an extended study on the North Atlantic. Further each crossed through multiple disciplines.
- Visual Field Trips (Page29): Due to recent budget cuts field trips have become less frequent. By using technology students can visit anywhere in the world with just the click of a button.
- Developing Essential Steps (Page 30): An important resource moving forward that provides a step by step checklist on what to do next on the path to create an ITU.

Reading Reflection #2

Prompt
Read Teaching in Secondary Schools (Baldwin, Keating, Bachman) pages 164-179 and pages 315-326. Complete activities 7.1 and 7.2 on pages 172 and 173.

Activity 7.1
Potential ITU Theme and Use in Social Studies
Heroism - Within the discpline of social studies I, the insturctior, will present students with information on various histroical figures who fit into the desciription of a hero. These figures will be based on vairous demographics, many of which are represented in the school's community.
- Typical Heroes (Alexander, JFK)
- Black Heroes (MLK, Tubman)
- Women Heroes (Anthony, Joan of Arc)
- Hispanic Heroes (Chavez, Clemente)
- LGBT (Milk)

Activity 7.2
Essential Questions for ITU
- What makes a person a hero or shero?
- How has the idea of heroes and sheroes changed throughout history?
- When does a postive personality trait become a tragic flaw?
- How is a hero or shero rewarded?
- How can I be a hero or shero?

Reading Reflection #1

Prompt
Read the "Focus On" Research-Based Teaching Practices at http://www.nea.org/home/16454.htm. Identify research-based instructional strategies you can use in your Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit (ITU).

Introduction
Upon reading the research-based teaching practices provided by the National Educational Association I discovered several that can be of great use in developing my ITU. The research-based teaching strategies that stood out to me did so because they address the populations that exist at the school site where the ITU will be put into place, Valley High School.

Hispanics
Through the reading and through the use of background knowledge I know that the Hispanic population is often overrepresented in the dropout rate of high schools and in low test scores. Therefore I identified several strategies that I believe can address these issues at my school site:
- Teacher Preparation – I believe that in the era of raising teacher salaries based on test scores many teachers focus on getting the highest performing classes. However by giving incentives for assisting minority students will lower the achievement gap greatly as experienced teachers can assist lower performing students.
- Enabling and energizing the Hispanic community and parents – There is no doubt that the Hispanic population prides itself on community and family. With this basic knowledge it would be absurd not to tap into to the desire for parents to want to see their children do well. This would greatly decrease the dropout rate.

Women and Girls
In an alternative school like Valley I feel young women are subjugated to stereotypes as that is all their male classmates have seen. Therefore I believe it is important for the research-based teaching strategies to address this issue.
- Addressing invisibility – As a potential social studies teacher I know how excluded women are from basic history textbooks. Therefore it is up to my department to show both genders how much women have impacted history.