Erika Teaches

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Post #1 - Inspiring Children to Shape the Future

Inspiring children to shape the future. What does that mean? What does that look like?  

Fellow teachers and student teachers, we are introducing a campaign with the purpose of reminding teachers of the crucial role they play in shaping children’s futures and who they become.

Our goal as educators is to create instruction that is good for children. We believe that instruction that is “good for children” is instruction that prepares them for their future.  Many things will come into our students lives: testing, new content, new teachers, further education and technology just to name a few. As teachers, we play a major part in helping to prepare students for their future and so it is vital to design instruction that will help them prosper in the future and reach their goals.

Through our campaign there are a few things that we hope to accomplish. We want you to see that instruction truly designed for students does not happen on the fly, but takes thought, time and effort. We want to encourage you to make instruction that is relevant to individual students, their backgrounds, and where they are heading in the future. We want to inspire you to make instruction that grows students as a whole, not just academically.

Over the next few days, you can look forward to getting an in-depth look at what instruction that is good for children looks like, some obstacles that can be anticipated when designing this instruction, and the solutions that can be used for those challenges.

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Erika H. November 18, 2016

(1) Reflect on our assessment “teacher in-service.” Recall that this part of the course began with a look at Boyer Elementary’s School Performance Profile as the impetus for the training. Considering our driving question, why do you think we framed this part of the simulation the way we did? What insight does the assessment critique scenario provide for our driving question?

(2) In regard to our driving question, describe how your thinking has evolved over the course of the semester. Has anything come to light for you in your field placement this semester as a direct result of our EDUC 330 simulation?

After going through the teacher in-service on assessment and reflecting on the other parts of the simulation I feel that the framing of this part of the simulation helped me to make a core concrete connection to the semester’s driving question. Before learning about assessment we got a peak at the school’s performance profile and I think this shows that there is an important connection between effective instruction and assessment that lets students effectively show what they have learned. The semester’s driving question involves creating effective instruction that connects our personal philosophy with school and other external mandates. We can’t know if the instruction is effective unless we are able to test students’ performance in regards to the instruction and this is where assessment comes in. Assessment is an important part of instruction and also requires us to maintain a balance between personal philosophy and external mandates.

As I reflect on the simulation and how it has effected my thinking this semester, I don’t even know where to begin to describe how much has changed. Walking into my field placement at the beginning of the semester I could have gone on and on about what I have learned about the laws and mandates that revolve around education. I could have also told you about what my personal philosophy in teaching is - although, I find that this continues to evolve as I gain more knowledge and experience. However, less than three months ago I could not have told you much of anything about what it looks like to create effective instruction. I knew about the need to maintain a balance between philosophies and external mandates but did not fully understand the connection to effective instruction. Now I have learned more than I ever thought I could in the course of one semester-long class about instruction and have gotten to experience this balance first-hand. In my field experience I have gotten to experience the process my mentor teacher goes through to maintain this balance in her instruction and making it as effective as possible. A major way I have seen this is in my mentor teacher’s strong advocating for holding students back for a year when it is necessary for the child. I have seen her modify her instruction and work with the school and their ‘typical rules’ to accommodate for students who she feels she needs to advocate for. 

http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_311JCR.pdf

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Erika H. September 22, 2016

Part I: In light of our driving questions, discuss an instance in our simulation in which you’ve been asked to do something you haven’t felt equipped yet to do. Write from the perspective of the school administration as well as your own. 

Part 2: What kinds of things could a district do (generally, not necessarily in this simulation) or could a teacher do to close this gap?

The model of this classroom has been one that is completely unique to any class I have ever experienced. The simulation is a core aspect of this class and is something that has made this class more engaging but has also been overwhelming at times. As the simulation has progressed over the past several weeks I feel as though I have been introduced to so much new content - some of it thrown our way at quite a speedy way. This has been something that is generally a positive experience but has, also, sometimes felt overwhelming as there is so much new knowledge. With all of the new information being presented to us in this simulation, we have started having the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice. 

While I think it is vital that we are given opportunities to practice working with all of this new information, I definitely did not feel well-prepared when completing the beginning stages of the Unit Plan. While there was an abundance of information thrown at us about what this project should look like and what needed to be done and what resources could be used, I feel like getting so much information in such a short time and then just being told ‘go!’ made the entire thing very overwhelming. As our drafts were turned in for the beginning stage of this project and we began receiving feedback and took a closer and slower-paced look at the expectations, the overwhelming feeling went away.

I understand that this part of the simulation was necessary in many ways as a way to accurately portray what a teacher in-service will probably feel like in our first year of teaching. This simulation is designed the way it is for a reason - as a learning and preparation opportunity for us. I recognize that and think that it is a great idea and is going to make the stress of our first teacher in-service a lot more bearable.

While I understand the reasoning for the simulation, there is also the fact that during my first ever teacher in-service I will not also be a full-time student and balancing the classes, field experience, and multiple jobs that go along with that. This semester we get to be out in the field so much more and gain so much more experience on different aspects of being a teacher. The simulation is a huge contribution to that and I feel like I am learning so much from it. With so much to do and so much that is so new, everything seems to be coming at once and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. That being said, I think laying out the expectations and more specific outlines for the beginning stage of the unit plan would have gone a long way in making this project not seem so daunting if it had been presented to us before drafting. After going over more thoroughly, the expectations, I felt much better about this assignment and much less overwhelmed about it.

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September 8, 2016