TE 808 Reflections

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.

Action Research Reflection

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.

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.

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.