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.