Final exam - An Agenda for Action

Part B, Questions 1 - 4

1.
The key components of my personal vision for Secondary Schooling in the 21st century are 1)creating authentic, challenging, collaborative, inclusive, and relevant lessons, 2) working collaboratively with both students and other teachers to decide what students need and how they can become proactive and enthusiastic about their future goals, be they academic, vocational, or personal, 3) remaining open to reflection, adaptation, input, and new technology as they regard my lessons, and 4) designing lessons and communication/teaching styles that not only encourage students to play active roles in their classroom communities but let them continue to grow and learn as individuals, community members, activists, and citizens of a democracy.

2.
I will be creating some sort of journalism unit that allows students to tell personal stories, research historical music or literary figures, opine about injustice, issues, or current events, use music or video, and use different media (print, web, radio, magazine) to bring their writing and analysis to a public audience. I'm not sure what this unit will look like just yet. But I am thinking of having them create an online magazine that has a unifying theme: love, social networking, the appeal of vintage things, personal odysseys, teenagers today, travel, the world around us, secret lives, death to Facebook, globalism, students providing modern responses to old poets and writers, etc. This unit would be highly collaborative because it would require students to decide what content they wanted in the magazine. Do they want assigned beats that must be covered? Do they want news items? Do they want features? Do they want humor writing? Do they want photos, original art? And how will they go about getting those things? (By pairing up with the arts and printmaking classes, for example). Will it include poetry? Who will read it? Who do we want to read it? I would first give them some sample stories from award-winning teenagers that have appeared in an anthology such as "Best Teenage Non-fiction." I would also show them some samples of online literary teen magazines. Then I would give them prompts to generate personal narratives: for example. write about a person or event that transformed your life. Once we have the narratives, we can look for unifying themes that might join these pieces into a magazine. I am hoping to be able to generate prompts that would really cut to the quick of how it is to be a teenager in the world of modern information and learning today. But in a way that really shows the difference between their generation and others such as Generation X and Y. The magazine would probably be completed the last months of school...I am estimating 6 weeks, from May through mid-June. They would start working on drafts of stories the first couple of weeks, and as we decide which pieces make the final cut, we would revise the previous drafts. We would also determine who in the class would help design, illustrate, and translate parts of the magazine. Or, if we do an online magazine, who would like to incorporate music, radio, or video into our magazine. This would not only relate to Paulo Freire's concept of "writing the world" but also to the idea of students being transgressive. I'm hoping it would also lead to issues involving social justice, innovation, and change.

3.
During my first two years of teaching, I would like to collaborate with other teachers, administrators, and students at my school and at other schools to make sure that I am teaching effectively. The first two years are critical in a new teachers' career, and I would want to make sure that I was learning as much as possible those first few years. In addition, it would show that I was committed to being a team player, to thinking of the school's community as a resource and inspiration, and trying to fit into the culture and principles of the school. This would relate to the CSUSM mission to create a "thoughtful educator" and "advance professional practices." We cannot change a school's culture or thinking--or the monolith of education itself--until we learn to be accepted, welcomed, and thought of as integral parts of its system. The first two years are all about creating this foundation. Perhaps this means that I would share teaching materials with another English teacher, or design a project our students can do together. This also means that I would be involved in many extracurricular activities, volunteering for school events, helping fellow teachers out by being a supportive, fun, humorous, and sensitive colleague; and being actively engaged in conversations about teaching all of the time, both on and off the clock. This would set me up so I could accomplish the next segment.

4. Once I am somewhat established, I want to design and implement an Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit with another teacher. I would like to implement an ITU soon and may even attempt to do it earlier in my career. But I think after two years, I will have forged alliances with staff, students and teachers and learned the structure well enough to know how to go about implementing one. I really do like the "Food-o-nomics: The Dark Side of How We Eat in America" ITU we designed in Joe Keating's class using English, Math, and History. But I have countless ideas for other ITUs. I would start small--maybe with just a two-week unit. Other topics I'm interested in for ITUs: World Literature; World Music; World Explorers; Education Unplugged; The Future of Social Networking; Renaissance Thinkers vs. New Thinkers; What We Can Learn From the Ancients; World Scientific Achievements; National Geographic Then and Now; Adventure; World Travel; Globalism; Ecology; Oceans; Multilingualism...as you can see, the list goes on and on. I would hope to hit on a theme that resonates not just with the students but with the school and maybe even beyond the school, especially if it could culminate with some sort of real business proposal that we could send off to a non-profit or charitable organization. Or maybe a model for a community garden. Or a cafe. Or a radio program. Or a radio station. Or a National Geographic website mention. Or a field trip with Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Or...

5.
I could make all of my responses fit into the six categories of the graphic organizer in some shape or form. But I think the categories they would most closely tie into are:
1) Creating new curriculum paths - because I am trying to go where other teachers have not gone before in terms of tapping into dynamic, real-time interests of students that honor their perspectives on our brave, new, socially-networked and plugged-in world
5) Comprehensive support for all students - because I am trying to design lessons and create collaborative communities that assess students' interests, personal and cultural backgrounds, and abilities in a way that can be honored in our class projects and readings
6) Powerful teaching - because I am committed to collaborative, inclusive, and relevant learning as well as authentic classroom and community experiences that students can take anywhere they go next...and hopefully in a way that empowers them, honors them, and teaches them to be critical and vocal about the changing world and its future

Reading Reflection 6-Millie Org: Change Agent

So I am so excited about this article that I'm not just going to Tweet about it I'm going to link to it here as I talk about the readings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?em

"Building a Better Teacher" talks about the comprehensive study of 1.200 schools to find the "best teachers in America" and the attempt to find what qualities they have and whether their skills can be taught. Some excerpts:

"....But what makes a good teacher? There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification exam on the first try. When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added a rueful caveat. “Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,” Gates said. “I’m personally very curious.”

When Doug Lemov conducted his own search for those magical ingredients, he noticed something about most successful teachers that he hadn’t expected to find: what looked like natural-born genius was often deliberate technique in disguise. “Stand still when you’re giving directions,” a teacher at a Boston school told him. In other words, don’t do two things at once. Lemov tried it, and suddenly, he had to ask students to take out their homework only once.

It was the tiniest decision, but what was teaching if not a series of bite-size moves just like that?

..."

The findings were posted on a website with videos, strategies, etc. of these "effective teachers" at http://uncommonschools.org/usi/aboutUs/taxonomy.php

Jeff Green, veteran history teacher at Vista High School, told me last semester that teaching is one of the few professions that requires you to grow into your own voice, and to have a healthy sense of awareness and acceptance about yourself. In light of "subversive teaching," I think this is very true. After we have awareness of our subject area, hope, enthusiasm, humor, and all of those things, however, there is still quite a bit a teacher must have to succeed. After re-reading my letters of recommendation from a few teachers, I realize it also has to do with these interstitial, spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous planning moments, too. Or, as my 7th grade French teacher Anne Marie Godfrey put it (she's now at Torrey Pines High School), "the most important qualities of a teacher are a sense of humor, strong organizational skills. a strong sense of self, and the flexibility to adjust to plan A or B. And an appreciation of our increasingly diverse population."

We must always keep the seed of reflection, subversion, activism, etc. within us. I like the idea of "learn the culture, be the culture, change the culture." These ideals are the lanterns that we must always keep lit, even if the environment around us seems dark and murky.

Developing a voice and strong sense of self...it is certainly good to know that these are key characteristics. But there is no 24-hour or year-long plan that will magically produce this in people. I have spent years trying to solidify my sense of who I am and using my own voice as a writer and speaker. I don't think I could even attempt teaching now if I hadn't started working on these core traits years ago. But what if someone doesn't have it? Can they grow into it in time? Or is this also part of the "you either got it or you don't" package?