A Reflection

"I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.”
-Igor Stravinsky

Indeed, Stravinsky had it right. As humans we are in constant pursuit of excellence. We are always trying to improve upon the norm. Our quest, however, is never a straight path, but rather a serious of progression and regression. Never the less, to cease to strive is to cease to exist and we continue toward our personal goals undeterred by failure. More so than any other professional group, teachers have developed a certain tenacity that keeps them on that perpetual quest for excellence. It is the teacher that continually strives to improve their craft, not only for their personal satisfaction, but for the unselfish and often unheralded wellbeing of their students.

Long before this course began, I, like most teachers, had developed a insatiable desire to make a difference in our educational system. In order to affect a difference, however, I realized that it was essential to identify the problems. I began a study of my students in an effort to identify not only their needs, but on a broader sense, the needs of all students.

I identified these areas which seemed to require attention:
1. Diverse learning in the class room–
2. Poor study skills and the shortcomings of traditional physics homework
3. A need for greater home support
4. Poor math skills needed to support physics
5. Poor note taking skills
6. A sense of student and parental frustration.
7. Lack of a team approach

These categories of concern are typical among teachers and require no further explanation. Based upon these problem areas, I attempted to find a single area that I could focus upon that would affect the changes I was searching for. Coincidently, in May of 2010 I started a college course that required students to create a goal statement in the form of a GAME plan. Since this requirement seemed to dovetail nicely into my personal quest, I developed the following GAME plan.

Goal –
Improve study skills and parental involvement by extending my classroom into the home using lessons that are self paced, teacher generated, internet based home tutorials.

Action –
1. Determine probability of success through data acquisition and student/parental surveys.
2. Select the digital tools most likely to ensure success through ease of use and availability.
3. Use these tools to develop a model test tutorial and poll for effectiveness through data acquisition.
4. Establish close parent/guardian lines of communication.

Monitor –
Data acquisition and continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of my model tutorials was essential. Both standard formative and summative assessments were used as well as online digital surveys.

Evaluate –
Traditional assessments and data surveys of student and parents were used to gauge the effectiveness of my game plan. Appropriate changes were made and reevaluations were conducted. Based upon initial trials last semester, I am encouraged and will continue to develop other tutorials to be added to my Tutorial Library this September..

As noted at the outset of this reflection, more so than any other profession, teachers are continually searching for perfection. It is a natural attribute of the profession. It requires no college course or training. And while creativity in education cannot be taught only encouraged it can be copied, modified and utilized by caring teachers. The eagerness to share is another endearing attribute that teachers possess. A plethora of publications of new teaching ideas flood the internet, presented by teachers who care about continuing educational improvement. In fact,it is the new idea that, integrating technology into the classroom is essential to student achievement, that is the primary subject matter of this course.

Because an idea is published and perhaps even used successfully by many teachers, however, does not mean it will work for all. This is where the individual teacher must be the judge. Teachers must be judicious in the selection and use of a teaching tool. They must know their students.

This course spent a good deal of time emphasizing Story Telling. There is a place for Story Telling in every teacher’s bag of tools. In fact, it is a natural tool used by physics teachers to set the stage of the natural phenomenon to be studied. I use story telling at the outset of a new topic as my Schema Thought Question to stimulate the imagination of my students and draw relevance to the topic at hand. But, when Story Telling is used by the student as a means of expression or self inquiry, it is a tool that requires a cautious eye. It is a tool that students are more likely to use successfully in some courses and not others. Student generated math and science story telling projects could be limited in benefit and time consuming in development. A force fit.

But, successes and failures are commonplace in our quest for excellence. Teachers are continually looking to improve what, to others, might seem the perfect solution. We must do so, because the single most, ever changing variable in our formula for perfection are the students themselves. The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers has been designed to enhance and enrich the learning experience of students through an integration of standard teaching best practices augmented by state of the art digital enhancement. As time goes on the development of new tools will allow teachers even more choices. Like any tool in the craftsmen’s tool box, there is a need for some tools more than others. When and where a tool should be used depends upon the skill of the craftsman himself. As Stravinsky pointed out, we not only learn through our successes, we learn through our mistakes. If a tool does not serve the purpose, discard it and seek a new tool. If we discover a tool that achieves our desired goals, use it and most importantly, share it with others.

The aforementioned reflects my general thoughts on teaching and these thoughts are in alignment with much of the information presented in this course. The course itself was less of a revelation, however,than it was a reaffirmation of what I had begun last January and continue to develop in hopes of creating a new paradigm of home study centered around in class work. A home study plan that:

a. encourages parental involvement
b. is self paced,
c. limits student frustration and the fear of classroom competition,
d. whose effectiveness is measurable and
d. effectively crosses academic discipline boundaries.

Week 7 - NETS

There seem to be two standards within National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for teachers and students standards that are very closely related to my ongoing efforts to design and promote a new approach to home-study. They are:

"Teachers will design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity”

And

“Teachers will participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.”.

By now, reader and fellow students who have followed my blogs are aware of my pet project. That is: teacher generated, home-based, self paced tutorials. I believe that through the use of these tutorials, students can improve their understanding of physics. As such, this personal initiative seems to align closely with the intent of NETS, that is, to strive for ongoing continue improve in our educational system.

Indeed, I am an advocate of the use of technology in our schools where there is a fit. What I will not advocate is technology for technology sake. Teachers must be guarded. They must ensure that the tools they intend to use will yield significant benefits to the student. Anything else is a gimmick. I recall a college professor long before calculators could fit in one’s pocket. His subject was physics. He did more with a piece of chalk and a blackboard than many teachers do today with all the technology they can grab. The point is this. Technology is a tool that we should use judiciously and not at the expense of polishing our teaching technique. When we stand in the front of our classes, we are on our personal stage. We must zealously grab and hold the attention of our students as that old professor did. Anything else is not teaching, it is presenting.

Week 6 Blog
Revising my Game Plan

It is unusual to revise any plan without first testing it, however, I have built upon my original effort.

I have been advocating a new alternative to traditional homework since last March. An alternative that engages students and parents at a pace that can be adjusted to each students learning ability. This has been my game plan and I have endeavored to use technology as the tool for accomplishing this goal. Each in class lesson will be supported by these tutorials as addendums to in-class work.

I teach 11th and 12th grade physics to students who have found science and math a challenge in past years.

Limited in-class time makes revisiting math difficult. Never the less, since math is the language of physics, it is often necessary to revisit certain math concepts to ensure that my students can tackle associated physics concepts. I have revised my lessons to touch upon theses math concepts briefly in class but more importantly, I have included them as a tool in my self-study WEB tutorials. In a preview last March, Juniors who had difficulty in algebra, had shown significant improvement after viewing the tutorials. Therfore, I have added a basic algebra tutorial to my plan. Soon I will be adding trig. It is important to note that because these lessons are WEB based lessons intended as home-study work, physics class time has not suffered.

See Algebra; Some Basic Math at http://voicethread.com/#u723481

What goals do I continue to strive for?

My goal is to continue to focus and improve upon my self-paced physics tutorials. I will continue to solicit input and collect data until my students show significant improvement.