Final Reflection Essay
Looking Back
It is hard to believe that I have come to the end of my MAET East Lansing Summer Cohort classes. It has been a time of immense learning and change for me and I am excited for the future. I remember walking (well, running because I was late because I couldn’t figure out where to park) into class the first day and experiencing the feeling of being immersed in learning from the get-go. Our first task was to work in groups to take photos of each member doing something or standing near something that would be representative of that person. I had not met any of my group members before because I had completed all of my previous classes online. This was also my first experience on MSU’s campus. I remember wondering if the all the learning and activities in the course were going to be this fast-paced as we raced around campus to complete the assignment. My suspicions were confirmed during the next two weeks on campus – this truly was the most learning-intensive course that I have ever experienced!
One of the first things I remember connecting with was Punya’s teaching style. I loved how he started the class each day with a “Today in History” segment and I wondered how I could incorporate this into my own Social Studies classroom. I also appreciated the constant connections that he made to other readings and authors and his use of video and experiential learning. I wondered how he did it all!
One of the first readings that I really connected with was the article by Mishra and Koehler. This article stood out to me because it mentioned something that I had attempted to do in my classroom by had never really panned out: microblogging using Twitter. The authors stated that microblogging in this way could be an effective way to enhance instruction, but only within a framework of proper guidelines and as a continuation of what is going on in the classroom. This reference really encouraged me to try using Twitter again this year. However, it also helped me to evaluate why it hadn’t worked previously. I discovered that by making the posts a whole-class reflection activity that was teacher directed, I was putting too much of the effort and management on myself. Ultimately, I didn't give the concept enough focus and attention because I was too busy with other things to “run it”. I’ve decided to try this idea again this year with a more student-based initiative that will extend our discussions to an online environment. It will be part of my connections warm-up activity.
The next idea that I connected with was the emphasis on learning coming from prior knowledge. A quote that I wrote down from David Ausubel sums it up like this, "If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly." However, we also need to remember that another barrier to learning is also what the teacher already knows. When teaching eighth graders, this is a real issue. All of my students have some knowledge of U.S. history (even if they have forgotten a lot of it) and also seem to have a lot of opinions about the government and how it works. Many of my students also have opinions, knowledge, and perceptions about the study of history itself (how they have been taught previously and how they think my class is going to work). Perhaps most disturbing is the notion that many of my students not only have prior knowledge, but also have misconceptions. We learned about the dangers of misconceptions and how difficult they are to remedy this summer as well (A Private Universe video, Understanding Understanding assignment). Overall, I was reminded that my students don’t come into my classroom as blank slates or “vessels to be filled with knowledge". They already have knowledge and a key way to help them gain new knowledge is to help them make connections to what they already know.
Another very influential article for me was the Levstik and Barton article "The Theory Behind Disciplined Inquiry". The authors of this article also stressed the importance of connecting to prior knowledge. At this point in the course I really started to re-evaluate my warm-up or bell work section of my lessons. In the past, I have just had a question on the board from the previous day’s lesson in order to remind my students of what they are learning. However, my new ideas consist of creating more of an opportunity for my students to make connections (more on this later).
The Levstik and Barton article also focused on a concept called “disciplined inquiry” where students gain knowledge by asking questions. This line really stood out to me in the article “people learn when they seek answers to the questions that matter to them” (p. 13). This quote directly related to the main issue that I see as a Social Studies teacher: relevance. I did not know at the time, but this would directly impact my Dream IT project and become my overall goal for the assignment. My goal for the project was to make U.S. history relevant to my students as many of them do not see the purpose of learning about the past.
This idea also connected to a portion of the reading in Daniel Willingham’s book Why Students Don’t Like School. From the moment I received the book in the mail, I was determined to give each chapter a thorough read. The two that stood out to me were chapter three: "Why Do Students Remember Everything That’s on Television and Forget Everything I Say?" and chapter seven: "How Should I Adjust My Teaching for Different Types of Learners?". First, the portion of chapter three that I really connected with was teaching with story elements. Willingham stated that stories have privileged status in our memories and therefore if we integrated story elements into our teaching (like causality, conflict, complications, and character) then our students might retain more information. I really liked this idea because history already is the telling of the story of the people of the past. I saw that I could integrate this idea into my classroom by developing and focusing on the people of history and by leaving an element of mystery (allowing my students to search for answers to questions, rather than just telling them all of the facts up front).
Chapter seven of Willingham’s book stood out to me because it went against so much of my current learning on multiple intelligences and learning styles. My group, My Summer Uploaded, had the opportunity to take a closer look at this chapter. Overall, Willingham makes the point that seeking to find and know your students’ specific learning style (for example visual or auditory) will not benefit learning. Rather, teachers need to cater their instruction to the information and how it would be best presented. For me, this was great to hear because I have often felt guilty for not meeting the needs of each individual student all the time. Now I know that if I vary my instruction and have the delivery fit the content, I am more likely to see results. It is important to note, however, that there are several points of view on this subject and Willingham is not the final word.
I had a more difficulty connecting with the theoretical aspect of the course (such as Behaviorism and Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development). I had learned about these previously in psychology and education classes. One thing that I did take away is the idea that we need to evaluate how much praise we are giving to our students and the purpose behind it. One article that related to this was "Caution – Praise Can Be Dangerous", by Carol S. Dweck. I had great discussions with my group members about this article and the different between praising and valuing effort rather than intelligence. The results mentioned in this article had a great impact on my perspective on praise.
Another connection that I made was to the idea of “flow” in learning. Punya talked about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and defined the idea of “flow” as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that they lose their sense of self or time”. To get there, a person has to be at the point where it is just out of reach of our comfort zone - skill level is high, challenge is high (you are focused and happy). In order to get our students to this “flow” zone, we have to be constantly assessing, evaluating, and adjusting throughout every lesson. Students also need to have their basic needs met according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Another main “point of impact” for me was when Missy McCarthy (a student in last year’s summer cohort) came to class to discuss the integration of her Dream IT project on flipping the classroom. This was a great opportunity for me to hear from a teacher who actually took a trending idea and successfully implemented it in her classroom. I have also thought about flipping my classroom by integrating more video lessons and making more time for in-depth learning. I am still wrestling with what this would look like in a Social Studies context but very much appreciated Missy’s insights.
One of the first things I remember connecting with was Punya’s teaching style. I loved how he started the class each day with a “Today in History” segment and I wondered how I could incorporate this into my own Social Studies classroom. I also appreciated the constant connections that he made to other readings and authors and his use of video and experiential learning. I wondered how he did it all!
One of the first readings that I really connected with was the article by Mishra and Koehler. This article stood out to me because it mentioned something that I had attempted to do in my classroom by had never really panned out: microblogging using Twitter. The authors stated that microblogging in this way could be an effective way to enhance instruction, but only within a framework of proper guidelines and as a continuation of what is going on in the classroom. This reference really encouraged me to try using Twitter again this year. However, it also helped me to evaluate why it hadn’t worked previously. I discovered that by making the posts a whole-class reflection activity that was teacher directed, I was putting too much of the effort and management on myself. Ultimately, I didn't give the concept enough focus and attention because I was too busy with other things to “run it”. I’ve decided to try this idea again this year with a more student-based initiative that will extend our discussions to an online environment. It will be part of my connections warm-up activity.
The next idea that I connected with was the emphasis on learning coming from prior knowledge. A quote that I wrote down from David Ausubel sums it up like this, "If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly." However, we also need to remember that another barrier to learning is also what the teacher already knows. When teaching eighth graders, this is a real issue. All of my students have some knowledge of U.S. history (even if they have forgotten a lot of it) and also seem to have a lot of opinions about the government and how it works. Many of my students also have opinions, knowledge, and perceptions about the study of history itself (how they have been taught previously and how they think my class is going to work). Perhaps most disturbing is the notion that many of my students not only have prior knowledge, but also have misconceptions. We learned about the dangers of misconceptions and how difficult they are to remedy this summer as well (A Private Universe video, Understanding Understanding assignment). Overall, I was reminded that my students don’t come into my classroom as blank slates or “vessels to be filled with knowledge". They already have knowledge and a key way to help them gain new knowledge is to help them make connections to what they already know.
Another very influential article for me was the Levstik and Barton article "The Theory Behind Disciplined Inquiry". The authors of this article also stressed the importance of connecting to prior knowledge. At this point in the course I really started to re-evaluate my warm-up or bell work section of my lessons. In the past, I have just had a question on the board from the previous day’s lesson in order to remind my students of what they are learning. However, my new ideas consist of creating more of an opportunity for my students to make connections (more on this later).
The Levstik and Barton article also focused on a concept called “disciplined inquiry” where students gain knowledge by asking questions. This line really stood out to me in the article “people learn when they seek answers to the questions that matter to them” (p. 13). This quote directly related to the main issue that I see as a Social Studies teacher: relevance. I did not know at the time, but this would directly impact my Dream IT project and become my overall goal for the assignment. My goal for the project was to make U.S. history relevant to my students as many of them do not see the purpose of learning about the past.
This idea also connected to a portion of the reading in Daniel Willingham’s book Why Students Don’t Like School. From the moment I received the book in the mail, I was determined to give each chapter a thorough read. The two that stood out to me were chapter three: "Why Do Students Remember Everything That’s on Television and Forget Everything I Say?" and chapter seven: "How Should I Adjust My Teaching for Different Types of Learners?". First, the portion of chapter three that I really connected with was teaching with story elements. Willingham stated that stories have privileged status in our memories and therefore if we integrated story elements into our teaching (like causality, conflict, complications, and character) then our students might retain more information. I really liked this idea because history already is the telling of the story of the people of the past. I saw that I could integrate this idea into my classroom by developing and focusing on the people of history and by leaving an element of mystery (allowing my students to search for answers to questions, rather than just telling them all of the facts up front).
Chapter seven of Willingham’s book stood out to me because it went against so much of my current learning on multiple intelligences and learning styles. My group, My Summer Uploaded, had the opportunity to take a closer look at this chapter. Overall, Willingham makes the point that seeking to find and know your students’ specific learning style (for example visual or auditory) will not benefit learning. Rather, teachers need to cater their instruction to the information and how it would be best presented. For me, this was great to hear because I have often felt guilty for not meeting the needs of each individual student all the time. Now I know that if I vary my instruction and have the delivery fit the content, I am more likely to see results. It is important to note, however, that there are several points of view on this subject and Willingham is not the final word.
I had a more difficulty connecting with the theoretical aspect of the course (such as Behaviorism and Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development). I had learned about these previously in psychology and education classes. One thing that I did take away is the idea that we need to evaluate how much praise we are giving to our students and the purpose behind it. One article that related to this was "Caution – Praise Can Be Dangerous", by Carol S. Dweck. I had great discussions with my group members about this article and the different between praising and valuing effort rather than intelligence. The results mentioned in this article had a great impact on my perspective on praise.
Another connection that I made was to the idea of “flow” in learning. Punya talked about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and defined the idea of “flow” as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that they lose their sense of self or time”. To get there, a person has to be at the point where it is just out of reach of our comfort zone - skill level is high, challenge is high (you are focused and happy). In order to get our students to this “flow” zone, we have to be constantly assessing, evaluating, and adjusting throughout every lesson. Students also need to have their basic needs met according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Another main “point of impact” for me was when Missy McCarthy (a student in last year’s summer cohort) came to class to discuss the integration of her Dream IT project on flipping the classroom. This was a great opportunity for me to hear from a teacher who actually took a trending idea and successfully implemented it in her classroom. I have also thought about flipping my classroom by integrating more video lessons and making more time for in-depth learning. I am still wrestling with what this would look like in a Social Studies context but very much appreciated Missy’s insights.
Looking Forward
I definitely have big plans for my next five years as an educator and count these summer classes as a major inspiration and a great learning experience for me. A few key important topics that I will be focusing on developing in my classroom are connections to prior knowledge, creativity, extending the classroom beyond the four walls, video integration (or partial flipping of my classroom), and expanding my PLN.
As previously stated, one of the impactful moments for me during this course were the reading and discussions on the importance of connecting to prior knowledge. My plan for this is to intentionally create moments for my students to connect with the material and make connections with other things going on in the world. First, I plan to revamp my warm-up section of my lesson by providing time for my students to reflect not only on what they are learning but how the learning might connect to what they already know or current events. My current (still developing) vision for this is to have a prompt on the screen called “Making Connections”. The prompt will remind students of one of the topics we are learning about and ask them to make a connection. It could be anything (for example, maybe Abraham Lincoln looks like their uncle). I will also have a “This Day in History” section on the screen as well as a “Current Events” section. Students can make connections to anything in those realms as well. They can even reflect on their experience with the topic and how we are learning about it. We will have a class discussion with those that are willing. My vision is also to expand this to Twitter as well. Students will turn in their “Connections Journals” at the end of the week for grading. This is one way that I can ensure that I am helping my students organize the information in their minds, rather than just trying to feed them facts.
Another area that I am going to focus on improving in the next five years is allowing for more creativity in my classroom. It is easy to fall into the “same old” routine as a Social Studies teacher and I am constantly trying to keep things interesting. One way that I am going to encourage creativity is to give more open-ended assignments and more choices in assignments. I will also encourage students with my words to think “outside of the box” and listen to and encourage their questions. Creativity is something that is sometimes hard to do when students, in many ways, have been trained to not be creative in our current school system.
Another goal that I have is to extend my classroom beyond its four walls (just me and my students). There is much value in collaboration and we have an unlimited resource at our fingertips: the Internet. My goal is to actively use Internet resources in my classroom both to bring information in and to send information out. I will integrate Internet collaboration into my lessons using things like Google Docs and Google+. This also links to my goal to integrate more social networking into my classroom (for example microblogging using Twitter). I have previously started a class Facebook page and my goal is to use to post to the page more often (at least twice a week) this year. I also have a class website that I would like to add more resources to and expand its resources for parents and students.
In the next five years I would also like to introduce more video into my classroom. I have already been using some video and have seen its effectiveness. I would also like to do more video creation and have my students create more videos as well (I’ve done this a few times last year with ScreenChomp, Educreations, Jing, and iMovie). Creating videos allows for reinforcement and a sense of responsibility for my students as well as giving us a record of what we have learned in class. As I mentioned previously, I am not sure that flipping my classroom is feasible in history or social studies classes. However, I am still intrigued by the idea and will continue to research and experiment with this concept.
Lastly, my goal is to both expand my Personal Learning Network and to expand my use of its resources. My experience in the MAET program so far has taught me the value of learning from my colleagues and sharing ideas. Sometimes, however, I get overwhelmed with the amount of resources. My goal is not only to continue to find other teachers to learn from (through MAET courses and my previous PLN connections), but to expand my participation in the conversation. I have long described myself as more of an observer when it comes to online collaboration and social networking (for example, I often just read other people’s posts on Twitter and rarely post myself). Therefore, I am going to commit to participate in one Twitter discussion a month, as a start, in order to push myself to be a more active participant.
Resources to help me accomplish these goals:
I am very thankful to have had this opportunity to participate in the Summer 2012 MAET East Lansing Summer Cohort. I have learned so much more than is even stated in this essay and am very grateful to my colleague and professors for such a rewarding experience.
As previously stated, one of the impactful moments for me during this course were the reading and discussions on the importance of connecting to prior knowledge. My plan for this is to intentionally create moments for my students to connect with the material and make connections with other things going on in the world. First, I plan to revamp my warm-up section of my lesson by providing time for my students to reflect not only on what they are learning but how the learning might connect to what they already know or current events. My current (still developing) vision for this is to have a prompt on the screen called “Making Connections”. The prompt will remind students of one of the topics we are learning about and ask them to make a connection. It could be anything (for example, maybe Abraham Lincoln looks like their uncle). I will also have a “This Day in History” section on the screen as well as a “Current Events” section. Students can make connections to anything in those realms as well. They can even reflect on their experience with the topic and how we are learning about it. We will have a class discussion with those that are willing. My vision is also to expand this to Twitter as well. Students will turn in their “Connections Journals” at the end of the week for grading. This is one way that I can ensure that I am helping my students organize the information in their minds, rather than just trying to feed them facts.
Another area that I am going to focus on improving in the next five years is allowing for more creativity in my classroom. It is easy to fall into the “same old” routine as a Social Studies teacher and I am constantly trying to keep things interesting. One way that I am going to encourage creativity is to give more open-ended assignments and more choices in assignments. I will also encourage students with my words to think “outside of the box” and listen to and encourage their questions. Creativity is something that is sometimes hard to do when students, in many ways, have been trained to not be creative in our current school system.
Another goal that I have is to extend my classroom beyond its four walls (just me and my students). There is much value in collaboration and we have an unlimited resource at our fingertips: the Internet. My goal is to actively use Internet resources in my classroom both to bring information in and to send information out. I will integrate Internet collaboration into my lessons using things like Google Docs and Google+. This also links to my goal to integrate more social networking into my classroom (for example microblogging using Twitter). I have previously started a class Facebook page and my goal is to use to post to the page more often (at least twice a week) this year. I also have a class website that I would like to add more resources to and expand its resources for parents and students.
In the next five years I would also like to introduce more video into my classroom. I have already been using some video and have seen its effectiveness. I would also like to do more video creation and have my students create more videos as well (I’ve done this a few times last year with ScreenChomp, Educreations, Jing, and iMovie). Creating videos allows for reinforcement and a sense of responsibility for my students as well as giving us a record of what we have learned in class. As I mentioned previously, I am not sure that flipping my classroom is feasible in history or social studies classes. However, I am still intrigued by the idea and will continue to research and experiment with this concept.
Lastly, my goal is to both expand my Personal Learning Network and to expand my use of its resources. My experience in the MAET program so far has taught me the value of learning from my colleagues and sharing ideas. Sometimes, however, I get overwhelmed with the amount of resources. My goal is not only to continue to find other teachers to learn from (through MAET courses and my previous PLN connections), but to expand my participation in the conversation. I have long described myself as more of an observer when it comes to online collaboration and social networking (for example, I often just read other people’s posts on Twitter and rarely post myself). Therefore, I am going to commit to participate in one Twitter discussion a month, as a start, in order to push myself to be a more active participant.
Resources to help me accomplish these goals:
- My Personal Learning Network: meetings and discussions with colleagues in my school, blogs that I follow and more that I will find to follow, Twitter posts and discussions
- Conferences and Professional Development: MACUL (online resource and conference), professional development opportunities at my school as we integrate a one-to-one laptop initiative, completion of the MAET program
- Internet Research: beyond sources that I will be directed to through my PLN, I am also committed to finding more ideas for lessons and technology integration online.
I am very thankful to have had this opportunity to participate in the Summer 2012 MAET East Lansing Summer Cohort. I have learned so much more than is even stated in this essay and am very grateful to my colleague and professors for such a rewarding experience.