Blog Reflection

The site I chose was blogspot.com and the reason I chose this site was because I had used it in past TE classes and I was familiar with the set up. I felt like it was fairly easy to use and add pages and posts throughout the past classes and also TE 808. I think I will continue to use this blog site because of how easy it was to navigate through and how easy it was to add things to it.

The most challenging part of maintaining this site is that it is something extra that needs some time put into it to make it useful and meaningful. Remembering to update the blog and to add certain things to it definitely makes it a challenge. However, what is beneficial is that it gets updated right away and it is a great way to communicate and share ideas online.

I think that I would like to continue to use this blog in the future. I think it would be a great tool for my classroom and really add the necessary communication between school and home to take place. This would be a great place to have reminders about field trips and projects due. It would also be a great place to upload the homework each week, so if a student loses it they can print off a new one. I think it would also be great to upload videos, possibly Jing, each week of myself going through the homework so if a student gets stuck they can get help.

It is hard to use the blog in the class because our district restricts all blogs on school computers. That is why I think the school to home connection would be great. However, I am aware that not all students have computers at home. So instead of getting help online they would have to get help the old fashion way and come in for a face to face session.

Alfie Kohn vs. Dwight Schrute

I love this video and Alfie's outtake on behavior systems, rewards and punishments. I would recommend these books by Alfie Kohn.

~Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

~Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community

Action Research Proposal

Action Research Proposal

The topic of my action research is the impact student centered instruction has on the academic success of my students. This idea of instruction starting with the students’ interests and then allowing students to explore and develop understanding is not typically what happens in classrooms today. However, I believe that when students have choices in how they are learning they will be more engaged in the topics being covered. A direct result of this engagement and choice will lead to the students creating deeper meaning to the content through the ownership that they will have in their learning. A classroom implementing student centered instruction will be louder and the students will be more active than the traditional classroom. I have observed traditional classes where the students aren’t allowed to talk to each other and the teacher is the source of the knowledge. I think that through student centered instruction my classroom would be louder, but it’s not the noise level but what is being said that matters. By designing student centered teaching/learning lesson plans, how will my 4^th grade students’ engagement, success and inquiry during math instruction improve?

A theoretical framework that supports my research question would a theory called constructivism. Alfie Kohn states that constructivism is where “children must be invited to reflect on complex issues, to recast them in light of their own experiences and questions, to figure out for themselves -- and with one another (Kohn, 1997)” the meaning of concepts. Constructivist do not see children as empty vessels in which need to be filled with knowledge, instead they provide opportunities for children to use their experiences and interests to make sense concepts that are taught in school. This theory is connected to the importance of my topic because it allows students to be the center of instruction and provides opportunities for students to be their own teachers while creating understanding through meaningful connections that they make between their lives and the content being taught.

The research for this proposal will be taking place in a 4^th grade classroom at an environmental science magnet school in Ogden Utah. There are twenty eight students, who are mostly white and middle class. Among the students there are three students are receive services for ESL and all of them has Spanish as their first language. These students’ identities will be protected through the use of pseudonyms.

The goal of this research is to collect both quantitative and qualitative data that will be support the study being done. The quantitative data will be used to support the qualitative data in a way that scores from formative and summative assessments will be used to create connections to anecdotal records as seen in case studies. The quantitative data will be designed similar to a group comparison design (Mertler, 2009), where summative assessments will be compared across the two other 4^th grade classes that have different approaches. Data will also be compared to how previous summative assessments were. Surveys and running records will also be used to assess the everyday activities and everyday perceptions of how the math and reading classes are being run by the students.

A mix between a quantitative and qualitative research design is an accurate way to gauge the success of cooperative learning techniques because it covers not only numerical data but also student’s feelings towards the content being covered. The quantitative group approach will allow me to compare if there is a numerical difference in success rates between a cooperative learning approach vs. a traditional approach. The data collected to support the successfulness of this research project will also be based on quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitatively speaking post tests and weekly formative tests will be used and compared to previous test scores and other test scores from other 4^th grade teachers. To ensure reliability weekly tests, and post tests will be done in the computer lab with zero help from instructors, unless stated in students’ IEPs. That data will then be analyzed through graphs and spread sheets.

Qualitative data will be designed and collected in a different way. With the quantitative group approach I will be comparing how the same set of students’ attitudes to learning, including engagement, inquiry, and motivation have been affected by the infusion of cooperative learning strategies. To collect data during the group approach there will be running record observations of student engagement and participation in class as well as student interviews and student surveys. To ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the data, the qualitative methods will be done by more than one person and will be compiled together to get a full picture of the observations.

Both the qualitative and quantitative data will be analyzed with the aide of computer programs. Different graph representations, including bar graphs, stem and leaf plots, and line graphs will be used as a comparative measure for the formative and summative assessments. Inductive qualitative analysis will take place during the running records to show common themes observed (Mertler, 2009). Inferential analysis will be used to make statements based on small sample size comparisons of classes with twenty eight students in them (Mertler, 2009). The small sample size and limited comparisons between other classrooms could prevent gaps in the data and not provided for an accurate generalization. With a larger sample size and more classroom comparisons, the data and conclusions collected would have more empirical evidence to back it up.

Timeline for Action Research

· March 9^th: Student Pre Survey on traditional instruction in the classroom.

· Week of March 12^th: Cooperative Learning Strategy Implementation and Qualitative Data Collection.

· Week of March 12^th: Analysis of Pre Student Survey

· Week of March 19^th: Cooperative Learning Strategy Implementation and Data Collection (Post test data)

· Week of April 2^nd: Post Student Survey on how classroom instruction has changed.

· Week of April 2^nd: Data Analysis and Survey Analysis.

· Week of April 9^th: Data Conclusion as means to Action Research Question.

References

Kohn, A. (1997). How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education. PHI DELTA KAPPAN. Retrieved online from alfiekohn.org.

Mertler, C. (2009). Action research: Teachers as researchers in the classroom (2nd edition). Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

TE 808 Reflection

The action research has been a very beneficial project for me professionally and I recommend it to all teachers wherever they are at in their career. This project has influenced my teaching practice by allowing me to understand the connection between teaching and learning. It is important that in order to move forward professionally in education I need to never be complacent with my teaching practice and never stop learning.

After taking TE 808 I have learned that I am a reflective practitioner, or at least try to be. As a reflective practitioner I need to always be trying to find new ways to connect the content to my students. By doing this I can prepare my students for real world by instilling certain skills, such as being creative, social, and solve problems. I’ve learned that every student is different and that they have their own special skills that need to be fostered and developed in the classroom, not smashed. I do not want to create little robots that all have the same ideas or have the same outlook on the world.

I have also learned that my students want and need to be challenged each and every day. They also want to work together to solve complex problems and that they need to be taught certain social skills that will allow to work collaboratively in groups not only in school, but in the real world.

In future MATC courses I have learned how to read and digest complex research articles and interpret data that will help me not only in classes but professionally as well. I will also take with me the process of writing a professional paper. I think too many educators do not view themselves as professionals (by the way they dress, act, and think) and I think it is important that we view ourselves that way.

 The most challenging part of TE808 and I think any class at this time is balancing the classwork with the school work (balancing being a student and a teacher). The energy and effort it takes to be effective at both is tough, but is something that is necessary to become better professionally. What has been beneficial is that it has forced me to take the time to look inward at my teaching practice. This class gave me the opportunity to explore and test out practices that I have wanted to try in my classroom.

If a colleague wanted to take TE 808 I would tell them to be prepared to work hard and put a lot of effort forth. Which should be a given for any type of course. The collaboration and exposure to new technology and techniques is very useful.

Reflecting on my Action Research Project

Topic:

If I design student centered teaching/learning lesson plans, how will my 4^th grade students’ engagement, success and inquiry during math and reading instruction improve?

Why I chose it:

The debate between traditionalist and constructivist approaches to teaching is one that has been going back and forth a long time. From my teaching experience I believe that having a constructivist approach to teaching is one that will benefit my students the most. By constructivist I mean, designing lesson plans with the help of my students’ interest and using cooperative learning strategies in my classroom. When I mean benefit I not only mean success on high stakes tests but also success in the real world when they leave school. I wanted to see how my students’ views of math and reading instruction would change when I implemented cooperative learning strategies. Throughout my short teaching career I have been criticized for there being “too much noise” in my classroom. I wanted to show that it’s not the noise level; it’s what’s being talked about that matters in the classroom

I believe that the problem in our education system today is the focus on achieving certain scores on certain tests, and not on giving our students the skills needed to succeed in a competitive global market. Problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork are just some of the skills that cooperative learning strategies employ and are skills that you won’t find being tested on a high stakes test.

Proposal:

When trying to prove ideas or find the best solution, in today’s academic world there needs to be a researched based approach. I think this is especially true when you are trying to go out of the box with your instruction and out of the norm of what the teachers in your school normally do. Writing the proposal and doing it in a professional and academic way will provide me with the base to use my findings in my classroom and defend the choices I make with my instruction. I know it is important to be thorough and complete when conducting academic research and it starts with the research proposal. If the research proposal is not done with quality, that sets the grounds for the rest of your research.

Literature Review:

The literature review is a very important step in preparing your academic research. Without a solid literature review your finding might not be validated and your research might not be as authentic as it could be. While writing the literature it was very important to find empirical research from numerous sources expressing numerous viewpoints on the topic of your proposal. When I was able to collect research supporting different theories and creating different conclusions I was able to see the whole picture surrounding my topic. Without doing this I do not feel like I would have had the wherewithal to have research outline and proposal that covered all the corners of my topic. While writing the review, it was very important to situate the articles’ findings and themes into my topic in a way that made it my own while keeping the integrity of the research that was done in those articles. The importance of using direct quotes and direct ideas from already solid research is very important when trying to come up with solid research of your own.

Peer Writing:

I think the peer feedback was a very important part of the academic writing process. I think getting someone else’s view, which has different experiences and a different teaching background is very important. Peer’s with these attributes help you see things in your writing and in your proposal that you might not have seen. I valued the ideas of the professionals conducting the peer review process because I know that their ideas and critiques came from a professional place with innovation and cutting edge ideas. It was also great to see other educators’ proposals and drafts and see the approach that they were taking to the writing process. I think this helped me take the best from their writing and incorporate it into mine. Their constructive feedback was very beneficial to creating the final product.

TE 808 5 week reflection

Reflecting back on the first five weeks of TE 808 there are a couple of things that come to mind. First, it is great to be in touch and learn from quality educators around the country. The communication and sharing ideas between educators is something that is missing from my professional practice, and when you are teaching you seem to be in your own little world, so seeing what others are doing is something that has been very beneficial for me. Coupled with the communication is the research and reading about what great educators have done in the field. This gives me a new sense of energy and really gets me fired up about the role I have in educating young minds. I think, at least for me, it’s easy to get caught up in the district and school mandates we work in, and forget about the great teaching practices we learned at Michigan State, and taking classes like this is a great reminder.

I also love the application to my classroom and teaching practice TE 808 provides. It is a unique position where we are students and teachers at the same time, and really have control of both venues. I loved reflecting on my practice and what I would like to do better or change. Coming up with the question that I would pursue (cooperative learning) has been a great revitalization to my year and teaching progress. The control that I have as an MSU student has allowed me to investigate and explore various research that will without a doubt make me a better educator this year and in the future. I cannot wait to see where the research and investigations takes me in this class and also as an educator.

Another aspect that I have really enjoyed is the technology refresher that we receive each and every week. The different ways to show information is very applicable to me and my classroom. I have already used many different aspects of the technology that we investigate each week, and I think my students really respond to the fact that I keep up on the latest technology and usually keeps them engaged in classroom material not only in the classroom, but at home too.