Curriculum and Instruction
I believe that access to an effective curriculum and instruction program is the right for every student. I believe this because the teachers that made learning accessible for me is how I learned the best. I also believe this to be true, because my teaching experience has taught me that students don’t want to learn solely from turning the pages of a book. They want to be part of their learning and want to know how the new learning is relevant to their lives. There are many aspects of curriculum and instruction, such as: accessibility, delivery, level of engagement, relevancy, and appropriateness. The level of engagement is one of the aspects that is critical. Curriculum is the “what” of teaching and the instruction is the “how” a teacher delivers the curriculum. If the instruction doesn’t engage students, the rigor and appropriateness of any curriculum will not make a difference. A teacher needs deliver the instruction in an engaging manner that causes student to productively struggle. I came to this realization in my first couple of years of teaching. If students didn’t take an active role in the learning process, by having a choice, experience struggle, talk about and share their learning and given the opportunity to discover on their own, the amount of learning diminishes. The Common Core State Standards have changed the teacher and student roles in the learning process. Students should now be stewards of their own learning and teachers are now more of a facilitator of learning. This is a major shift for many and one that is essential to prepare our students to be college and career ready in the 21st Century.
Parent and Community Involvement
I believe that parent and community involvement are of the essence to all school systems. I agree with the ancient African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” My students are the reason that I feel strongly about this. I started my teaching career in an alternative school, and parent and community involvement was almost nonexistent. When I would ask other teachers about the challenges of reaching parents through the phone or mail, they told me that that is the way it was and that there wasn’t much that could be done. This made me very sad. As I got to know my students better, I began to learn about their home life. Some students missed school, because they had to care for younger siblings, or were involved in gangs that their belonged to, or had a parent that was incarcerated. It was until that I realized that many of my students didn’t have anyone to instill in them the importance and value of an education. A school without parent and community involvement can be the cause of many issues such as: lack of parental involvement, the lack of student achievement, attendance issues, discipline issues, and student drop-outs. After a few years at this school, parental involvement began changing. This change began with bringing staff together to brainstorm ideas for increasing parental involvement. As a staff we agreed that we would begin to create opportunities to recognize students and changing student interventions to include parents. We started having monthly parent meetings to recognize student how have improved academically and displayed positive citizenship. The office and teachers made phone calls, mailings were sent home and students were personally invited by the teacher and principal. By the third month, we were filling up a classroom with students’ family and friends. The best part of this was the smile on the students’ faces.
Discipline and School Culture
I believe that the foundation of a discipline and school culture of any school should lie in the habit of Do No Harm. I believe this, because now more than ever our students are faced with many struggles and challenges and do not have anyone to teach them how to overcome them. Without the knowledge or belief that they can overcome these struggles and challenges puts them in survival mode, where their focus is on surviving as best as they know how and not necessarily in the best or most appropriate means. There are many aspects when considering how to cultivate a positive discipline and school culture and one that does no harm such as: rules that are fairly and consistently reinforced, administration, teachers, staff, students and parents are well aware of the expectations, and interventions rather than consequences are in place. I would like to elaborate more on interventions. When a school doesn’t have an appropriate intervention system in place for academic and discipline support and guidance, it will be evident in the culture of a school. One of my classroom rules was come prepared to learn, which meant have all the necessary materials needed for class. So I didn’t know what to do when day after day, several students didn’t have a pen or pencil. So, I would first give them a warning, but it didn’t make much of a difference and they still didn’t have a pencil. After a couple of warnings, I knew this didn’t warrant a referral; however, I knew I had to be consistent with reinforcing the rules. So I was in a predicament and realized that my rules had to be modified. This also led me to the conclusion that my rules or what I now refer to as behavioral expectations should establish the culture that I wanted in my classroom. Schools should cultivate a supportive and understanding culture that addresses students’ academic and social-emotional needs.
Technology
I believe that technology should play an integral role in transforming instruction. I believe this because the learning possibilities available at our fingertips is nearly limitless; therefore why would we not bring in such a rich resource into our classrooms. This resource, like any other, needs to be implemented strategically, so that it transforms learning and increases student achievement. Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR (substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition) model for infusing technology, is an excellent model to guide the integration of technology in the classroom and school. Although there are several issues that need to be considered, such as: creating the infrastructure, identifying what devices are the most appropriate, professional development and on-going support for staff, and acceptable use policies. Professional development is one of the issues, I feel is essential for a school to be successful with technology. In my current position as an Academic Coach, I’m involved in most of the technology professional development in my district. The district started making considerable shifts last year by developing the infrastructure in 90% of the district, and at the end of the year, we purchased five chromebook carts with 35 devices for teachers to use at each site. As a result, the three-day back-to-school professional development was primarily centered on technology, not only content-wise, but also as a resource. It was almost 90% paper-free, making all hand-outs, presentations and other supplementary materials easily accessible online. As a result, there has been a strong, positive response, by increasing the number of teachers using technology and incorporating it into the classroom.
I believe that access to an effective curriculum and instruction program is the right for every student. I believe this because the teachers that made learning accessible for me is how I learned the best. I also believe this to be true, because my teaching experience has taught me that students don’t want to learn solely from turning the pages of a book. They want to be part of their learning and want to know how the new learning is relevant to their lives. There are many aspects of curriculum and instruction, such as: accessibility, delivery, level of engagement, relevancy, and appropriateness. The level of engagement is one of the aspects that is critical. Curriculum is the “what” of teaching and the instruction is the “how” a teacher delivers the curriculum. If the instruction doesn’t engage students, the rigor and appropriateness of any curriculum will not make a difference. A teacher needs deliver the instruction in an engaging manner that causes student to productively struggle. I came to this realization in my first couple of years of teaching. If students didn’t take an active role in the learning process, by having a choice, experience struggle, talk about and share their learning and given the opportunity to discover on their own, the amount of learning diminishes. The Common Core State Standards have changed the teacher and student roles in the learning process. Students should now be stewards of their own learning and teachers are now more of a facilitator of learning. This is a major shift for many and one that is essential to prepare our students to be college and career ready in the 21st Century.
Parent and Community Involvement
I believe that parent and community involvement are of the essence to all school systems. I agree with the ancient African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” My students are the reason that I feel strongly about this. I started my teaching career in an alternative school, and parent and community involvement was almost nonexistent. When I would ask other teachers about the challenges of reaching parents through the phone or mail, they told me that that is the way it was and that there wasn’t much that could be done. This made me very sad. As I got to know my students better, I began to learn about their home life. Some students missed school, because they had to care for younger siblings, or were involved in gangs that their belonged to, or had a parent that was incarcerated. It was until that I realized that many of my students didn’t have anyone to instill in them the importance and value of an education. A school without parent and community involvement can be the cause of many issues such as: lack of parental involvement, the lack of student achievement, attendance issues, discipline issues, and student drop-outs. After a few years at this school, parental involvement began changing. This change began with bringing staff together to brainstorm ideas for increasing parental involvement. As a staff we agreed that we would begin to create opportunities to recognize students and changing student interventions to include parents. We started having monthly parent meetings to recognize student how have improved academically and displayed positive citizenship. The office and teachers made phone calls, mailings were sent home and students were personally invited by the teacher and principal. By the third month, we were filling up a classroom with students’ family and friends. The best part of this was the smile on the students’ faces.
Discipline and School Culture
I believe that the foundation of a discipline and school culture of any school should lie in the habit of Do No Harm. I believe this, because now more than ever our students are faced with many struggles and challenges and do not have anyone to teach them how to overcome them. Without the knowledge or belief that they can overcome these struggles and challenges puts them in survival mode, where their focus is on surviving as best as they know how and not necessarily in the best or most appropriate means. There are many aspects when considering how to cultivate a positive discipline and school culture and one that does no harm such as: rules that are fairly and consistently reinforced, administration, teachers, staff, students and parents are well aware of the expectations, and interventions rather than consequences are in place. I would like to elaborate more on interventions. When a school doesn’t have an appropriate intervention system in place for academic and discipline support and guidance, it will be evident in the culture of a school. One of my classroom rules was come prepared to learn, which meant have all the necessary materials needed for class. So I didn’t know what to do when day after day, several students didn’t have a pen or pencil. So, I would first give them a warning, but it didn’t make much of a difference and they still didn’t have a pencil. After a couple of warnings, I knew this didn’t warrant a referral; however, I knew I had to be consistent with reinforcing the rules. So I was in a predicament and realized that my rules had to be modified. This also led me to the conclusion that my rules or what I now refer to as behavioral expectations should establish the culture that I wanted in my classroom. Schools should cultivate a supportive and understanding culture that addresses students’ academic and social-emotional needs.
Technology
I believe that technology should play an integral role in transforming instruction. I believe this because the learning possibilities available at our fingertips is nearly limitless; therefore why would we not bring in such a rich resource into our classrooms. This resource, like any other, needs to be implemented strategically, so that it transforms learning and increases student achievement. Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR (substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition) model for infusing technology, is an excellent model to guide the integration of technology in the classroom and school. Although there are several issues that need to be considered, such as: creating the infrastructure, identifying what devices are the most appropriate, professional development and on-going support for staff, and acceptable use policies. Professional development is one of the issues, I feel is essential for a school to be successful with technology. In my current position as an Academic Coach, I’m involved in most of the technology professional development in my district. The district started making considerable shifts last year by developing the infrastructure in 90% of the district, and at the end of the year, we purchased five chromebook carts with 35 devices for teachers to use at each site. As a result, the three-day back-to-school professional development was primarily centered on technology, not only content-wise, but also as a resource. It was almost 90% paper-free, making all hand-outs, presentations and other supplementary materials easily accessible online. As a result, there has been a strong, positive response, by increasing the number of teachers using technology and incorporating it into the classroom.