Final Reflection Paper
Final Reflection Paper
Reflecting back on my time in this summer cohort of CEP 800, 815, 822 I realize I have learned a lot. I have grown in the way I think about education, and how I think about technology and its role in education. Prior to this summer, I had learned about and been introduced to the TPACK framework. The TPACK framework helped me put how I was using technology into context and help me see how I could do a better job using technology to support my content. This summer, my understanding of how to use technology to foster education has grown even more. When planning for the new school year, I’m going to be thinking not only about using technology to support my content, but about how to help my students to really understand the content I’m trying to teach them. I’m going to look beyond just where we’re going, to see what my students are bringing into each unit and each topic. This idea of looking at preconceptions and teaching for conceptual change was something that was emphasised throughout this course.
One of the readings that really stuck with me was What is Learning and What Does it Look Like When it Doesn’t Go Well? In this reading, Lee Shulman, the author, talked about common problems with learning. Those problems can be broken into four groups: amnesia, fantasia, inertia, and nostalgia and they are all issues that we as teachers need to battle in order for our students to successfully learn new material. Many of our students currently fit into one of these groups. The amnesia group is where students forget a lot of what they learn shortly after learning it. This is where cramming fits in. Fantasia is where students think they know something, but there are a number of misconceptions in place. In inertia, students are unable to apply what they learned. They know the facts, but can’t apply them to new problems. Nostalgia, is a group that applies to teachers and the way we remember learning and being taught. Shulman talked about the importance of breaking down barriers students already have in place and linking new information to what students already know.
Schulman’s article about the major issues with student learning made me reflect back on my class and my students. I have no doubt that a number of my students fall into these four categories. This made me think about how to combat this, and how to teach for a transformation. Schulman suggested that we need to understand what students really know and build upon that. The new information that we are trying to teach students needs to be able to fit somewhere. By first looking at what students know and aiming to address any misconceptions that are in place I have a framework on which to build off of. This framework will hopefully help my students to have a better and deeper understanding of what we are currently working on.
Levstik’s article, The Theory Behind Disciplined Inquiry, built off of this idea of addressing previous misconceptions. Levstik also talked about the importance of taking the time to look at what students already know and building off of that, but took the idea and applied it to inquiry based learning. In inquiry based learning, students are asking questions, researching information, and drawing conclusions about a topic. Levstik said that students will quickly forget information that is learned through memorizing and procedures. Students need to build off what they already know, and be able to adjust their ideas when they are incorrect. This idea of looking at where students are and what their background knowledge is really made me reflect on my own teaching. Often, I’ll just jump into a unit, and never look at what my students are bringing into this unit. Looking at what understanding they have and how that will affect the way they see this unit and this material could help my students reach a deeper understanding of the material. This is especially important for my ESL students who have various levels of background knowledge, and come from vastly different cultures.
Levstik also went one step further by saying that students learn best when working with others. This idea of students working together to gain a better understanding is one that I have seen work, and truly believe in. When working as an learning assistant (LA) in an entry level college physics course, I was surprised by the way the professor would have students work in groups to tackle difficult problems. I was often shocked by the leaps these groups were able to make in solving problems, and how well they were able to work together to help each other learn. Often, when working in groups, students would naturally address each others misconceptions. This would help each individual student to have a better understanding of the material, and they would be more successful in the end. This idea of having students work together is one that I often use in my classroom. My students often work in partners on discussing problems working through them together. While middle school students sometimes struggle to stay on task, I find that often students are able to address their misconceptions with one another and build upon each others understanding to form a deeper understanding of the material.
Watson and Kopnicek also talked about teaching for conceptual change in their article, Teaching for Conceptual Change. Like previous articles, this one also talked about the importance of dealing with students preconceived notions and ideas prior to teaching new information. Watson and Kopnicek looked at how students were not willing to give-up their preconceived ideas, even when they were proved wrong. The students in the article were more likely to adjust their current ideas before assimilating new ideas. When reading this article, I was struck by how this is not only true for our students, but for ourselves as well. I remember when I first learned about physics, which often goes against a lot of our preconceived ideas, and it takes time for us to let go of those ideas. Watson and Kopnicek argue that for conceptual change to take place, we must connect new ideas to everyday life, make predictions and reflect on results, and stress consistency in student thinking. Looking at the amount of time this would take, it is unlikely that teachers would be able to make it through the entire curriculum. While this is quite the dilemma, I believe it is important that our students understand what we are teaching them, and are able to apply what they learned.
Dewey also wrote about inquiry and its place in the classroom in his article, Media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression. Dewey builds on what Watson and Kopnicek said about inquiry, and supported what they said, but in addition discussed technology and its role into the picture. Dewey talks about how technology alters the way people interact and communicate with the world. This is absolutely true! I think about my students who find it impossible to go the entire day without their cell phones. Even when not only their phones, they’re talking about things that happened on Facebook or was said online. People use technology to communicate constantly with each other. Dewey argues that we can repurpose technology and media to serve our own purposes as educators. I believe this is true. We can use today’s technology to keep up-to-date with what is going on in our field. We can also share our own ideas about teaching, not only getting feedback about what we are doing, but ideas on how to improve each lesson. Students can do the same thing! Students can go online and share their ideas to see if others agree with them, or to do more research to see if they are on the right train of thought.
The final article that really resonated with me, was Caution- Praise Can be Dangerous, by Carol Dweck. Dweck talked about how as teachers and parents we need to be careful how we praise our students. Dweck found that students who were continually praised for being intelligent were less likely to take risks and more likely to value intelligence over other values. The danger in this is that we want students to work hard, put effort into their work, and struggle with concepts, and not be unwilling to take risks. According to Dweck we should be praising students for their effort. This is something I believe in and have seen in my students, especially my ESL students. My ESL students are all at different levels and have different educational and mathematical backgrounds. Due to this difference, I always praise my students for putting in effort, rather than simply completing an assignment. My students know that I want them to really learn and understand the material, and that I would rather them take the time and the effort to correct errors and make sure that they are on the right track. With them, I have really seen how effective praising their effort has been, and this is something I hope to continue to do in the future.
Aside from the readings, the projects and assignments were another part of this class that made me reflect on my teaching practices and where I want my teaching to go in the future. The “Understanding Understanding” project was a fun way to really look at the misunderstandings and misconceptions that students may walk into our class with. This project taught me to never take for granted what my students know or where to begin a unit. This project also taught me a lot about video taping, video recording, and webpage design. The website made for our understanding Understanding project was one that I am proud of. I learned how to make a webpage look complete and official. I learned how to add different types of media and how to add text, columns, additional pages, and subpages. All of this information was vital to my portfolio. Had I not had this experience building a website, I would have greatly struggled with the portfolio assignment Luckily, having this information and knowledge to draw upon, I was able to create a portfolio that I am proud of. A part of my portfolio is my dream it project.
My dream it project reflects everything I have learned in this class, and hope to work towards in my teaching. My dream it focuses on a conceptual change in the way my students think about math. I want my students to begin to see math as a tool used in the world, and as something that they use, and as something that affects them. I realize this is a lofty transformation that will take time to accomplish, and therefore I plan on this being a theme throughout the school year. My dream it project specifically focused on one unit, and how this concept can be seen in the unit. The project required me to think about how I could use technology to support this transformation. Looking at this idea from the different TPACK angles allowed me to create a project that was complete and allowed my students to see one way that ratios, proportions, and units are used in the world, and how they can impact my students.
Looking ahead, there are several things that I hope to continue to learn more about and ways in which I hope to continue to grow as a teacher. One way in which I hope to continue to learn and to grow in is web page development. While this is something that we learned about in the form of putting together a portfolio, I would like to learn more about my district’s website tool, Edline. I have used Edline in a limited capacity to post grades and such, but I would like to learn how to develop a more well-rounded class website where parents can go to get information on what is going on in my classroom. This seems to be an easy way to keep parents involved in the classroom and to help them to be better involved in their students education. To help me make my Edline website better, I can talk to other teachers in my building about how they setup their website and how best to use Edline. Also, there are several video tutorials available to help me. One such site, EdTechPortfolio, teaches one how to use the calendar, post assignments, add news, change course information, and send e-mails. Most of the features listed above I was completely unaware of. While I think growing my course website is a valuable feature, it is not the only way in which I hope to grow.
As I continue to grow as a teacher, I would like to learn more about teaching for conceptual change, and inquiry based learning. These topics were both heavily discussed in this class and resonated with me this semester. Looking towards the future I hope to encourage more of this type of learning into my teaching strategy. This will take support, time, and additional research and resources to do. Thankfully, there are many resources available to help me with this. In this article, Inquiry Strategies for Science and Mathematics Learning, the author discusses several different strategies for inquiry based learning in math and science. In another article, Inquiry Teaching and Learning: The Best Math Class Study, by Jerry Stonewater, Stonewater talks about the success several middle school math teachers had implementing inquiry based lessons into their math classes. These articles could help me to begin implementing more inquiry based lessons into my classroom. In addition to articles, there are several websites available to help teachers use inquiry based learning in their classroom. The Information Literacy and Technology Skills website created by one of our groups, and it lists many different websites that could help. These resources are a starting point as I begin to use more inquiry based learning in my classroom.
Finally, I hope to continue to grow my personal learning network. During the past few weeks I have learned a lot about the different ways social media can be used to connect teachers. By growing my personal learning network I will have additional people that I can use as resources for lessons and ideas on how to handle situations. I can also continue to learn about different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom as well as continue to add to my technology skills. I am currently using an RSS feed to keep up-to-date on current research in my field. I would like to add several blogs that focus on teaching math and science. This would allow me to see what other teachers are doing in their classroom, what is working, and what is not working. I would also like to connect to other math and science teachers using tools such as twitter and facebook. I already belong to an MAET Math group that was created this summer for math teachers. I would like to find other such groups where I can continue to connect to other teachers. I would also like to use twitter to connect to other teachers.
As a whole, I have grown a lot through these summer courses. I have continued to learn about TPACK and how to use technology to support students learning. I have also been introduced to the idea of teaching for a conceptual change. This idea has forced me to reflect on my teaching and the goals I have for my students. While I always hope that what I’m teaching has meaning to my students, and try to find ways in which it is relevant to their lives, I feel that I could do better. Adding inquiry based assignments to my lessons will help my students to have a deeper understanding of the math that will stay with them. Also, by continuing to share ideas with other math teachers, I will get feedback that will help me to become a better teacher. Seeing what other teachers are doing will also give me new ideas on how I can help my students better understand the material. By focusing on teaching for a conceptual change and starting from the background knowledge my students bring into the class, I believe that my students can have a deeper and better understanding.
Resources:
Reflecting back on my time in this summer cohort of CEP 800, 815, 822 I realize I have learned a lot. I have grown in the way I think about education, and how I think about technology and its role in education. Prior to this summer, I had learned about and been introduced to the TPACK framework. The TPACK framework helped me put how I was using technology into context and help me see how I could do a better job using technology to support my content. This summer, my understanding of how to use technology to foster education has grown even more. When planning for the new school year, I’m going to be thinking not only about using technology to support my content, but about how to help my students to really understand the content I’m trying to teach them. I’m going to look beyond just where we’re going, to see what my students are bringing into each unit and each topic. This idea of looking at preconceptions and teaching for conceptual change was something that was emphasised throughout this course.
One of the readings that really stuck with me was What is Learning and What Does it Look Like When it Doesn’t Go Well? In this reading, Lee Shulman, the author, talked about common problems with learning. Those problems can be broken into four groups: amnesia, fantasia, inertia, and nostalgia and they are all issues that we as teachers need to battle in order for our students to successfully learn new material. Many of our students currently fit into one of these groups. The amnesia group is where students forget a lot of what they learn shortly after learning it. This is where cramming fits in. Fantasia is where students think they know something, but there are a number of misconceptions in place. In inertia, students are unable to apply what they learned. They know the facts, but can’t apply them to new problems. Nostalgia, is a group that applies to teachers and the way we remember learning and being taught. Shulman talked about the importance of breaking down barriers students already have in place and linking new information to what students already know.
Schulman’s article about the major issues with student learning made me reflect back on my class and my students. I have no doubt that a number of my students fall into these four categories. This made me think about how to combat this, and how to teach for a transformation. Schulman suggested that we need to understand what students really know and build upon that. The new information that we are trying to teach students needs to be able to fit somewhere. By first looking at what students know and aiming to address any misconceptions that are in place I have a framework on which to build off of. This framework will hopefully help my students to have a better and deeper understanding of what we are currently working on.
Levstik’s article, The Theory Behind Disciplined Inquiry, built off of this idea of addressing previous misconceptions. Levstik also talked about the importance of taking the time to look at what students already know and building off of that, but took the idea and applied it to inquiry based learning. In inquiry based learning, students are asking questions, researching information, and drawing conclusions about a topic. Levstik said that students will quickly forget information that is learned through memorizing and procedures. Students need to build off what they already know, and be able to adjust their ideas when they are incorrect. This idea of looking at where students are and what their background knowledge is really made me reflect on my own teaching. Often, I’ll just jump into a unit, and never look at what my students are bringing into this unit. Looking at what understanding they have and how that will affect the way they see this unit and this material could help my students reach a deeper understanding of the material. This is especially important for my ESL students who have various levels of background knowledge, and come from vastly different cultures.
Levstik also went one step further by saying that students learn best when working with others. This idea of students working together to gain a better understanding is one that I have seen work, and truly believe in. When working as an learning assistant (LA) in an entry level college physics course, I was surprised by the way the professor would have students work in groups to tackle difficult problems. I was often shocked by the leaps these groups were able to make in solving problems, and how well they were able to work together to help each other learn. Often, when working in groups, students would naturally address each others misconceptions. This would help each individual student to have a better understanding of the material, and they would be more successful in the end. This idea of having students work together is one that I often use in my classroom. My students often work in partners on discussing problems working through them together. While middle school students sometimes struggle to stay on task, I find that often students are able to address their misconceptions with one another and build upon each others understanding to form a deeper understanding of the material.
Watson and Kopnicek also talked about teaching for conceptual change in their article, Teaching for Conceptual Change. Like previous articles, this one also talked about the importance of dealing with students preconceived notions and ideas prior to teaching new information. Watson and Kopnicek looked at how students were not willing to give-up their preconceived ideas, even when they were proved wrong. The students in the article were more likely to adjust their current ideas before assimilating new ideas. When reading this article, I was struck by how this is not only true for our students, but for ourselves as well. I remember when I first learned about physics, which often goes against a lot of our preconceived ideas, and it takes time for us to let go of those ideas. Watson and Kopnicek argue that for conceptual change to take place, we must connect new ideas to everyday life, make predictions and reflect on results, and stress consistency in student thinking. Looking at the amount of time this would take, it is unlikely that teachers would be able to make it through the entire curriculum. While this is quite the dilemma, I believe it is important that our students understand what we are teaching them, and are able to apply what they learned.
Dewey also wrote about inquiry and its place in the classroom in his article, Media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression. Dewey builds on what Watson and Kopnicek said about inquiry, and supported what they said, but in addition discussed technology and its role into the picture. Dewey talks about how technology alters the way people interact and communicate with the world. This is absolutely true! I think about my students who find it impossible to go the entire day without their cell phones. Even when not only their phones, they’re talking about things that happened on Facebook or was said online. People use technology to communicate constantly with each other. Dewey argues that we can repurpose technology and media to serve our own purposes as educators. I believe this is true. We can use today’s technology to keep up-to-date with what is going on in our field. We can also share our own ideas about teaching, not only getting feedback about what we are doing, but ideas on how to improve each lesson. Students can do the same thing! Students can go online and share their ideas to see if others agree with them, or to do more research to see if they are on the right train of thought.
The final article that really resonated with me, was Caution- Praise Can be Dangerous, by Carol Dweck. Dweck talked about how as teachers and parents we need to be careful how we praise our students. Dweck found that students who were continually praised for being intelligent were less likely to take risks and more likely to value intelligence over other values. The danger in this is that we want students to work hard, put effort into their work, and struggle with concepts, and not be unwilling to take risks. According to Dweck we should be praising students for their effort. This is something I believe in and have seen in my students, especially my ESL students. My ESL students are all at different levels and have different educational and mathematical backgrounds. Due to this difference, I always praise my students for putting in effort, rather than simply completing an assignment. My students know that I want them to really learn and understand the material, and that I would rather them take the time and the effort to correct errors and make sure that they are on the right track. With them, I have really seen how effective praising their effort has been, and this is something I hope to continue to do in the future.
Aside from the readings, the projects and assignments were another part of this class that made me reflect on my teaching practices and where I want my teaching to go in the future. The “Understanding Understanding” project was a fun way to really look at the misunderstandings and misconceptions that students may walk into our class with. This project taught me to never take for granted what my students know or where to begin a unit. This project also taught me a lot about video taping, video recording, and webpage design. The website made for our understanding Understanding project was one that I am proud of. I learned how to make a webpage look complete and official. I learned how to add different types of media and how to add text, columns, additional pages, and subpages. All of this information was vital to my portfolio. Had I not had this experience building a website, I would have greatly struggled with the portfolio assignment Luckily, having this information and knowledge to draw upon, I was able to create a portfolio that I am proud of. A part of my portfolio is my dream it project.
My dream it project reflects everything I have learned in this class, and hope to work towards in my teaching. My dream it focuses on a conceptual change in the way my students think about math. I want my students to begin to see math as a tool used in the world, and as something that they use, and as something that affects them. I realize this is a lofty transformation that will take time to accomplish, and therefore I plan on this being a theme throughout the school year. My dream it project specifically focused on one unit, and how this concept can be seen in the unit. The project required me to think about how I could use technology to support this transformation. Looking at this idea from the different TPACK angles allowed me to create a project that was complete and allowed my students to see one way that ratios, proportions, and units are used in the world, and how they can impact my students.
Looking ahead, there are several things that I hope to continue to learn more about and ways in which I hope to continue to grow as a teacher. One way in which I hope to continue to learn and to grow in is web page development. While this is something that we learned about in the form of putting together a portfolio, I would like to learn more about my district’s website tool, Edline. I have used Edline in a limited capacity to post grades and such, but I would like to learn how to develop a more well-rounded class website where parents can go to get information on what is going on in my classroom. This seems to be an easy way to keep parents involved in the classroom and to help them to be better involved in their students education. To help me make my Edline website better, I can talk to other teachers in my building about how they setup their website and how best to use Edline. Also, there are several video tutorials available to help me. One such site, EdTechPortfolio, teaches one how to use the calendar, post assignments, add news, change course information, and send e-mails. Most of the features listed above I was completely unaware of. While I think growing my course website is a valuable feature, it is not the only way in which I hope to grow.
As I continue to grow as a teacher, I would like to learn more about teaching for conceptual change, and inquiry based learning. These topics were both heavily discussed in this class and resonated with me this semester. Looking towards the future I hope to encourage more of this type of learning into my teaching strategy. This will take support, time, and additional research and resources to do. Thankfully, there are many resources available to help me with this. In this article, Inquiry Strategies for Science and Mathematics Learning, the author discusses several different strategies for inquiry based learning in math and science. In another article, Inquiry Teaching and Learning: The Best Math Class Study, by Jerry Stonewater, Stonewater talks about the success several middle school math teachers had implementing inquiry based lessons into their math classes. These articles could help me to begin implementing more inquiry based lessons into my classroom. In addition to articles, there are several websites available to help teachers use inquiry based learning in their classroom. The Information Literacy and Technology Skills website created by one of our groups, and it lists many different websites that could help. These resources are a starting point as I begin to use more inquiry based learning in my classroom.
Finally, I hope to continue to grow my personal learning network. During the past few weeks I have learned a lot about the different ways social media can be used to connect teachers. By growing my personal learning network I will have additional people that I can use as resources for lessons and ideas on how to handle situations. I can also continue to learn about different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom as well as continue to add to my technology skills. I am currently using an RSS feed to keep up-to-date on current research in my field. I would like to add several blogs that focus on teaching math and science. This would allow me to see what other teachers are doing in their classroom, what is working, and what is not working. I would also like to connect to other math and science teachers using tools such as twitter and facebook. I already belong to an MAET Math group that was created this summer for math teachers. I would like to find other such groups where I can continue to connect to other teachers. I would also like to use twitter to connect to other teachers.
As a whole, I have grown a lot through these summer courses. I have continued to learn about TPACK and how to use technology to support students learning. I have also been introduced to the idea of teaching for a conceptual change. This idea has forced me to reflect on my teaching and the goals I have for my students. While I always hope that what I’m teaching has meaning to my students, and try to find ways in which it is relevant to their lives, I feel that I could do better. Adding inquiry based assignments to my lessons will help my students to have a deeper understanding of the math that will stay with them. Also, by continuing to share ideas with other math teachers, I will get feedback that will help me to become a better teacher. Seeing what other teachers are doing will also give me new ideas on how I can help my students better understand the material. By focusing on teaching for a conceptual change and starting from the background knowledge my students bring into the class, I believe that my students can have a deeper and better understanding.
Resources:
- Shulman, L. (1999). What is learning and what does it look like when it doesn’t go
- Levstik, L.S. & Barton, K.C. (1997). The theory behind disciplined inquiry.
- Watson, B., & Kopnicek, R. (1990). Teaching for Conceptual Change.
- Dewey, J. / Bruce, B.C. & Levin, J.A. (2011). Media for Inquiry, Communication,
- Dweck, C. (1999). Caution: Praise can be dangerous. American Educator, 23(1), 4-9
- Jarrett, D. (1997) Inquiry Strategies for Science and Mathematics Learning.
- Stonewater, J. (2005) Inquiry Teaching and Learning: The Best Math Class Study,