Looking Back
A Two Year Reflection
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When I started my career, I had the opportunity to be part of a coaching program offered by the University of Washington. This program brought in coaches that focused on Complex Instruction (more on this later). With this coaching they focused on how to make the best of it, keep students on task, and let them lead the learning instead of being led. In the conversations that we had, one of my coaches said something that has stuck with me. “No matter where you go the students will need you. It is not about the students you serve, but the people that you work with.” As a teacher, students will always look to you for guidance. They will ask for your opinion and look for your approval (or disapproval). It does not matter where you go, there will always be students that need you to make a difference in their lives. But the people that you continue to work with are the ones that can make a difference in your life.
"No Matter where you go the students will need you. It is not about the students you serve, but the people that you work with."
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When I began my undergraduate career to become a teacher, a common question that is asked is why are you going into teaching? Sometimes this question was asked in a room full of teachers, to help show the diversity in reasons, sometimes it was derogatory statement, as in, why would I choose teaching when I have so many other lucrative options. When I was just getting started, my answer was always the same, I want to make a difference to my students. That was the long and short of why I wanted to be a teacher.
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Those words had a tremendous impact on me, because I realized how true they were. In my classroom we use collaborative learning. I have my students use group work to learn different mathematical methods as well as using each other as resources for learning. What my coach said that first year I was teaching, made me realize that I also wanted that from my coworkers. I want to be able to use them as resources for ideas, lessons, and support. If I ask that of my coworkers, I also need to be able to do the same.
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In December, I will earn my Master of Arts in Education from Michigan State University. My concentration for this master’s degree, was P-12 and Postsecondary Leadership. When I began this process, I mainly did it for the pay increase that will come from gaining the degree. I choose a program that I thought would be interesting and would help me in supporting my colleagues. I knew that I did not want to go into administration, but I wanted to be more involved in the changes that come with working in a school. I also wanted a way that I could assist my peers.
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As expressed in my future goals essay, I found a love within this program. I love the diversity found within schools, the equity that we, as educators, strive for, and the learning that takes places. This love grew with the courses that I took in this program. The courses that lead the change the most was Engaging Diverse Students and Families, Psychology of Learning in School and Other Settings, and Teaching School Mathematics. All these courses required more from me than just writing papers. These courses used a lot of collaboration and took us students outside of just ourselves and our classroom. We needed to think of teaching and learning as a whole process, not just an individual classroom.
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In EAD 822 (Educational Administration), Engaging Diverse Students and Families, we focused on how to connect with students, families, and communities that are different than one’s own. My favorite part of the course was completing a memoir analysis. We were required to read an educational memoir of someone that has a different background than ourselves. I read, I Am Malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban by: Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. This book showed me the difference between Pakistani and American education. It also made me realize that it is important to understand where students from different cultures approach education. Different cultures have different approaches, such as the fact that some cultures do not have respect for teachers. It also reminded me that in some cultures, education is not as valued as having an abled bodied person providing for their families.
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When working with students from different backgrounds, it is important to find connections with each student. To expand my knowledge about what I know to connect with my students, their
families, and the communities that they live in. Many of the ways to do that are ways that I already know, but just do not think about when trying to make connections. Some methods are, using culturally relevant material and meeting the basic needs of the student, encouraging involvement and communication with the parent(s) and lastly, with communities, drawing on them like the resource that they are, finding community partners and maintaining sustained involvement. By doing this, I can connect with not only my students but the student’s support system as well.
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This school year I have put more emphasis on changing lessons to try to be more relevant, although sometimes it is just with an accurate meme of their feelings. I have increased my conversations with parents, not just the bad, but the good as well. I have also signed on as a Multicultural Show Advisor for my school. This show connects the school with the students and their cultural background. It has a lot of involvement with families to ensure that they are demonstrating those cultures accurately.
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In CEP 800 (Counseling, Educ Psy & Spec Ed), Psychology of Learning in School & Other Settings we focused on how learning happens. Every teacher has created a teaching philosophy. In this philosophy we talk about how we will reach all our learners. The difference between a teaching philosophy and a learning philosophy is that teaching is how to connect with the different learners and what we, as teachers, believe a school and classroom should be. A learning philosophy is about being able to understand and connect with material as someone that is trying to understand it. This course made me recognize that it is essential to not only look at the material that I am teaching my students from the point-of-view from a teacher, but also think about how it will appear to my students. It sounds like it is not a big deal, but this class showed me that it is. By taking time to remember the learners and not just what needs to be taught, I can help them make deeper and thorough connections to the material that my students are learning.
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Despite popular belief, students do not have a certain “learning style”. By exposing students to different methods of learning, I can keep a student’s attention and encourage learning to take place. In my classroom learning can be found in memorization, group work, explanations, individual reflections and in lectures. Learning should also use reasoning that is found outside of school, the more closely relatable to the learner, the better. By stepping back and focusing on the learners, I am better at making sure that learning is taking place in my classroom. Just because a I have presented the material does not mean that my students have learned and understood it.
"Just because I have presented the material does not mean that my students have learned and understood it."
In TE 855 (Teacher Education), Teaching School Mathematics we learned the new style for teaching math. In times before, math was taught in a lecture style. The teacher talks, the students listen, and then practiced the material. This course introduced complex instruction into the mix. Using group work and peers as resources to help students learn and understand the mathematics that they were using. In my student career, the math classes that I attended followed the traditional format. While this method is what I knew, it was not the one I wanted to use. In my current assignment we predominantly use cooperative learning. This course was the first class that I had that validated the use of group work in a Mathematics class. In this course I was able to try to figure how to make something better, instead of trying to figure out how to use it.
Complex Instruction is a program of pedagogical strategies that are grounded in sociological research of Elizabeth Cohen and her colleagues. It “focuses on the following: (1) Access to a rigorous grade level curriculum for all students. (2) Status issues – that is those students who are perceived as smart or not based on issues of race, class, gender, reading ability, language, religion, etc. – interfere with students’ participation and learning. (3) Teachers are responsible for and capable of creating classroom communities that support all students to recognize intellectual strengths and weakness and work collaboratively to learn more content” (Complex Instruction). Basically, Complex Instruction uses group-based learning to help students connect with the math, discover and engage with the math, and to see each other as math experts who can bring things to the table.
This course did not focus on the mathematics that I would be teaching, it focused on how the math was being taught. Through critically analysis of vignettes, studies, and actual experiences of teacher’s I was able to look closely at the role of a teacher in the learning process when using group-based learning. In this process I was able to reflect on my own teaching, and the methods that I do and do not use to help students learn. The final project was to write a paper about math. My focus was how to incorporate the mathematical practices that are used by common core. With this course I was able to express ideas and methods that were not only based on my own experiences but had research and methods to back it up.
This course gave me the opportunity to express ideas with like-minded teachers and the ability to use them. Such as how to get
"...Complex Instruction uses group-based learning to help students connect with the math, discover and engage with the math, and to see each other as math experts..."
continually work without intervention from me as well as how to increase math confidence, without being obvious about it. It also gave me the chance to elaborate on my current school practices and put thought into next steps.
The biggest changes though did not come from individual courses. The changes instead came from the overall focus of my classes. As a whole, this program started as something that I thought would be interesting to focus on while I work on getting a raise. Over the course of the two years it has taken me to complete this program it has changed to something that I am not only interested in, but something that I believe in. The idea of leadership among my peers has become a driving force in how I view my classes. It went from how I could use this to how can I help other teachers incorporate this. This program took me to we. Teaching is not an individual activity, it is a group effort.
With the completion of my Master’s degree upon me I am confident in my choice of concentration. By choosing P-12 and Postsecondary Leadership I have gained the opportunity to reflect not only on my practices but on the practices of my school. I have been able to fully support changes in my school, such as the implementation of Restorative Justice. I have also gained a better understanding of the teaching practices that I am using.
Ultimately, this program has left me with the desire to keep learning. In education there is always something to learn, new methods to teach, new approaches to old topics. As an educator it is necessary and important that you reevaluate the things that you are doing and how you are doing them. By getting a master’s degree in teacher leadership, I am putting myself in the position to keep learning.
References
Complex Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sfusdmath.org/complex-instruction.html
Yousafzai, M., & Lamb, C. (2015). I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Tailiban. New York: Little, Brown and Company.