03.02.11 genius paradigm,
...in a beginning.
if time be a shade of context, then allow me to begin by having a ‘google-earth’ moment. taking time to reflect on who i am through this process of teaching, it seems fit to begin this undertaking grazing tunnel walls from where i am now, back to some official starting point in becoming an elementary school teacher- i mean determinedly, explicitly and consciously. a moment sometime in 1998ish. on the phone with someone who had responded to my online resume from the ancient monsterdotcom;the town school for boys in san francisco came calling. the turning point in the conversation went something like, “i went to cal too; what year did you graduate?” at that point i hadn’t graduated with an undergraduate degree. it had been 6 years since i was at cal. and she apologetically she stated that all her candidates must have earned their degree to be considered for the position.
...to be considered for the position.
rather than wave the details of an accumulative 7 years of pre-school teaching in the kensington community nestle of berkeley hills, 6 years as a children’s literature journeyman in two local bay-area independent bookstores, or my afterschool program bicycle mechanics instructing stint in marin county- i’d rather just go into yesterday. necessarily so, writing now just entering 4am’s 2nd quarter.
...right up to my third quarter.
i have a student in my class whom i'm just capable of analyzing on behavioral traits alone; maybe now able to see a strategy to address their behavior. which comes at a time when i was ‘just about done’ with battling their shennanigans for what i began to believe was a defense of a more accessible and smooth educational experience for the rest of my students. and that still may be somewhat true. but the fact is that i have not been in a reflective space to consider a finely detailed plan to reconstruct a successful behavioral paradigm shift that would ‘take’ to this student. i have many site resources overtly labeled to keep student behavior well within expected behaviors for an academic environment. when those resources are expended, well, the child comes to line’s end. the flow chart concludes at options like: a half day instruction schedule, expulsion- sometimes the first to the second.
...the first to the second.
terms and phrases that pervade my grad-study attuned fishbowl of a mind today:
anything from the text that has me well off my state of equilibrium- Curriculum in Context, by Leigh Chiarelott, like:
[i at least now know why my school district has adopted the language arts curriculum it has from this...]
“it would be safer to conclude that behaviorist models work best when the content and outcomes require a predictable , definable, performance, an observable, measurable behavior, and a teacher-controlled environment. This would include modeling desired behaviors, reinforcing appropriate responses, and repeating, through practice, acceptable performances.” [the accountability piece in high-stakes testing]
contextual teaching and learning.
problem and project based curriculum models.
the 5 models for categorizing learning outcomes, questioning the difference between objectives and outcomes.
drawing up a concept map for the curriculum i am to redesign.
should i undertake the double-dutch jump rope arts themed curriculum i created to increase academic performance for kinesthetic learners back in 2007? (Angel David Walker would be watching!)
should i take a unit form open court?
or should i reevaluate the unit of study i crafted last semester- founding blues musicians: a focus in pioneering guitarists?
it’s hard to decide.
...it’s hard to decide, but
in my running moments, all previous excursions are solely past instances.
in a new season, previous championships only linger in echoes.
being present is, well, being present.
and presently some decision will be made.
my 30 minute allotment of reflection time is up for the day. it’s time to get my act together.
au fond de le coer,
-teacher
