EDSS 531

A Day in Mr. Payad’s Classroom (Journal 1)

            I would characterize a period in Mr. Payad’s classroom as a productive one as I like to inform students at the beginning of the period of the learning goals for the session and my expectations.  This includes previewing the lesson and modeling any activities for the day.  To ensure my students understand the objectives for the day, I ask random student to restate the goals and expectations for the day. In case of any confusion, I readily answer questions to guide my students on the right track.  Once I get the students sorted into their partners and groups I then let them independently complete the activities.

            While my students are working productively toward the learning goals, I like to walk around assessing discussions or groups to ensure that they are being productive and answer any questions they may have during the activity.  I do not mind chatter so long as it stays on topic. 

To complement student investigations, I like to go through their findings as a class.  During this portion of my lessons, I like to display visuals like photos or videos to help make the content more tangible to my students.  This is especially true for topics like geography where my students are awestruck by satellite photos of the Nile River at night or aerial photos of The Palm in Dubai.  In addition to the photos, I like to add my knowledge of the topic and let students share their thoughts, ideas and experience of the topic under discussion.  I like to do this because it makes the class more relevant to my students.

From what I observed at my school site in Temecula, CA, it appears that students are constantly navigating the campus from class to class due to the traditional school schedule.  The students are generally easy going and friendly to one another and get through most days without any problems.  However, since my students are constantly shifting from subject to subject, I try my best to make their daily experience in my class a memorable one for them by answering any interesting questions they may have or presenting them with information that I think they may find interesting.  

Journal 2

Quote from Text	What it Means	Deeper Thinking
1.  “By contrast, the ‘kids do well if they can’ philosophy carries the assumption that if a kid can do well than he can.  If he’s not doing well then he must be lacking the skills he needs to respond to life’s challenges in an adaptive way” (Greene, 2008, p. 162).	This philosophy is in contrast to the popular assumption that a kid will do well if they wanted to.  I view the “kids do well if they can” assumption as a means of building confidence.  It is important for educators to place their students in a position to succeed, ensuring they understand how to successfully complete an assignment, to help students develop the ability to succeed.  This in turn will foster confidence within the student.	Greene (2008) makes a compelling proposition.  I have experienced problem students in one of my CPI classes and when I challenged them during a debate unit they rose to my expectations.  Of course, I worked diligently to ensure that my students understand my expectations and took the time to model the research and the debate itself.  By setting my students up to succeed, I feel some of my problem students developed a sense of confidence and were able to fulfill expectations.
2.   “Creativity, in which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not,  comes about through the interaction of the different disciplinary ways of seeing things”  (Robinson, 2007, 13:34).	What Sir Ken Robinson is trying to convey in his lecture is that to foster creativity in the classroom, educators should use an approach that allows students to utilize different intellectual disciplines in the curriculum.  Of course, such use should not be individually used but used in combination to help students see topics from multiple perspectives.	I found it interesting during my geography class that students were more responsive to thoughts and ideas that allowed them to explore different aspects of a region.  For instance, when studying the Middle East, I found the students engaged and intrigued when they were investigating the social, political, and economic impact of oil in the region.  As a teacher, I think this is an important step toward fostering creativity because I am modeling that some issues do not have simple answers or explanations and require deeper thought.  This also allows me as a teacher to help guide my students’ thoughts so they do understand that thinking critically and creatively requires looking at an issue from various perspectives.
3.   “In an age of abundance, appealing only to rational, logical, and functional needs is woefully insufficient.  Engineers must figure out how to get things to work.  But if those things are not also pleasing to the eye or compelling to the soul, few will buy them.  There are too many other options.  Master of design, empathy, play, and other seemingly ‘soft’ aptitudes is now the main way for individuals and firms to stand out in a crowded marketplace”  (Pink, 2006, p. 34).	Pink’s (2006) observation of thinking in the age of abundance is quite relevant to education.  In an era of education where there is great emphasis on rote memorization and few opportunities for students to apply what they are learning in creative ways, we are not giving placing our students in a position to succeed in this “L-Directed” thinking world.  We as teachers need to promote creativity in the classroom.	One way for me to promote creativity in social science is give students an opportunity to express their thoughts on historical topics through their preferred medium.  Whether it be through art, writing, music, or performance, students should be allowed to interpret historical events in a way they feel most comfortable.  Furthermore, allowing students to present knowledge through their strengths promotes the notion that all talents are valuable and promotes creativity.
4.  “Occupations that have grown require a greater intensity of non-routine analytic and interactive tasks, such as frequent use of mathematics and high executive functioning, than do occupations that have been in decline, which are more reliant on manual and routine tasks” (Preparing, 2009, p. 10).	This quote confirms Pink’s (2006) assertions of thinking in the age of abundance.  “Non-routine” tasks are usually tasks that require a great deal of independent thinking and creativity.  If jobs of the future will require individuals who can think creatively and out of the box, why are teachers forced to teach in a traditional manner that does not prepare students for jobs of the future?	In history, it may be difficult to promote creative and out of the box thought due to the importance of remember historical facts.  However, I can foster creativity by challenging students to make predictions based on the facts they do know.  For instance, after studying the WWI and the interwar period, I can ask students to predict what they think will happen next based on what they know of WWI.

Journal 3

“Creativity, in which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not,  comes about through the interaction of the different disciplinary ways of seeing things”  (Robinson, 2007, 13:34).

Daniel Pink (2006) makes an interesting case for the need of increasing creativity in the future.  Due to abundance, Asia, and automation future workers will need the skills to help differentiate themselves from the rest of the population.  Of course future workers will still need to develop skills to help them complete in demand tasks which Pink calls “L-Directed” functions, but people with highly developed creativity will allow them to express and present these functions in a manner that will differentiate them from the rest of the field.  I believe that modern schools need to reflect this reality that Pink foresees and teachers should adopt an approach that will help students develop their creative thinking and the confidence to express their ideas.   

Being in the teaching profession, I believe that I have a many opportunities to be creative as long as I work within the context of the national, state, and local standards.  On the other hand, I feel that students, especially in an age of standardized testing, are forced to maintain “L-Directed” functions like rote memorization and analysis.  It is rare that students are given an opportunity to investigate their interests and express their ideas through creative mediums.  During CP I, I observed that students in many subject areas  were given little time to synthesize their ideas through projects and were strictly relegated to reviewing content and test preparation.  As a teacher I feel that I need to still teach “L-Directed” thinking to help my students succeed on mandated tests, but I need to complement these skills by helping my students develop their creativity by utilizing technology in creative ways.   

As a self professed “techie,” I feel that I am up to par with my students in terms of using technology for communication and content creation.  However, I feel that I have a better understanding of using technology for academic purposes and research.  I feel I can better prepare my students for future jobs by teaching them how to use technology for as a tool to increase for knowledge and allowing them to demonstrate their new found knowledge through digital mediums like graphic art, video creation, or mass communication through web sites or blogs.  Furthermore, I would make it a point to have students to put their own perspective on these projects to encourage them to express their thoughts and ideas.

It is my hope that by blending academic discipline with art and technology, I will prepare my students for the jobs of the future. 

Journal 5

Looking back at your teaching last semester, what did you discover about the needs of students in your classes? What kinds of “needs” surfaced that surprised you?

After 8 weeks of Clinical Practice, I believed I have developed a better understanding of general student needs, but I still feel I have a wide gap between myself and them.  If anything I am still wrapping my mind around the multitude of social, emotional and personal needs of adolescents.  Of these, I found the personal needs the most difficult to understand because most of the time students will keep these issues to themselves.  It is only when I have met their social and emotional needs are students open enough to tell me their personal problems. 

I found that taking the initiative to ask them how they were doing will invite them to open up to me and tell me their situations.  For instance, when I approached a high performing senior student and asking him why he did poorly on a test he informed me of his living situation that prevented him from studying.  After considering his situation, I allowed him to re-take the test in which he performed up to my expectations of him.  Another example was with a freshman student who was suddenly missing several days of school in a row.  I took a moment to discuss why she was absent and she informed me of a family emergency that prevented her from coming to school.  So I accommodated her by letting her check out a class book and giving her assignments ahead of time until she was able to return to class regularly.  After experiencing the how these students responding, I will take the time to talk with a student if I feel there is something wrong.  

To what degree do you think you really understand the needs of your students? How wide is the “gap” between them and you?

I do not think I have a firm understanding of student needs because each student is different and it takes time to really understand their real needs.  I would say that in the beginning weeks of full-time clinical practice, there was a chasm between myself and my students.  However, as CP went on, I found the gap close quite considerably.  I have a feeling that it is going to be like this every year as I am introduced to new students.

What might have surfaced in the reading or in your teaching (about the realities of students’ needs) that triggered a negative response in you? Try to identify why this response was triggered and how it relates to your biases.

I think one thing that alarmed me was in Silenced Dialogue when learned teachers made assumptions of student needs based on the theory they learned and tried to teach according to their assumptions.  Holding pre-conceived assumptions, despite their intentions, prevents us from identifying the true needs of each individual student.  While I too have pre-conceived, I will try my best to dismiss these assumptions to get to know my students personally to help me determine the best approach to meet their needs.