B.A. Social Studies
Nothing against interactive whiteboards here, but when was the last time that you used yours and its interactive capabilities? Also, nothing against my district or the hundreds of others that placed a focus on putting one in every classroom. Having this meant/means that you have the technology in place to help students to learn, right? The problem isn’t the technology resources. The problem is that our education system does not promote progressive ideology that allows us to find better ways to use it. It does not promote allowing teachers and students to find the best ways to use those resources, but simply says here’s a cool new tool, now use it in the same way that you used magnets on the refrigerator or on the magnetic chalkboard from the 1950’s. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us aren’t using all of this new technology in the most impactful ways are we? Now, think about the billions of dollars spent on putting this technology in the classroom… I know that this isn’t a question that can be tangibly measured here, but I would like to ask it. “How much ‘bang for the buck’ have we gotten out of all of this new technology?” I recently had the opportunity to hear keynotes from two education leaders (at the Greater Ozarks Cooperating School Districts Innovation Summit in Springfield, Missouri--#GOInnovate @GOCSDMO), George Couros (@GCouros) and Will Richardson (@WillRich45). The general message that I gathered and I hope that all else in that room took with them is that our current education system is not structured in a way that allows our learners to gain the skills necessary to be successful in the real-world. One topic among others that drew my attention was that across the board, schools are laden with the latest and greatest technology but are missing educators trained with and willing to learn how to use it to its full capability. I am fortunate enough to work in a district that has a 1:1 laptop to student ratio from grades 5-12. I’m also very proud of the fact that our district has been at the front of adopting this. It is what is best for our students. They need to have these tools in their hands in order to learn how to use them because that is the direction that the global society is moving. Our students will need to have the ability and skills to use computers, tablets, smartphones, and social media in order to get a job, turn it into a career, and be successful at it. Making connections is huge, and social media needs to become a part of our education culture. Remember the age old mantra, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Go back and take a look at the previous paragraph. What is the purpose for providing our students with this technology? Now here is the real question: Are we fulfilling our purpose and goals in regard to providing our learners with “21st Century Skills” (I hate that we are still using this term a decade and a half--16% of the way through it) that they need to be successful? I would argue that as a whole, we are not. Why? Let’s take a look at this from the perspective of each significant group of stakeholders within education. The Students:As the place that all things in education should begin, let’s discuss our students’ perspectives (from what I see in the classroom every day). Why haven’t students bought into using this technology? The real answer, they have. Now, using it productively and having the ability to do so is different from “using it.” Across the board, our students lack models for how to use technology and social media in a positive and productive manner. Shouldn’t one of our missions as educators be to allow them to learn this skill? I’m not talking about creating a course on “Digital Citizenship.” What I’m talking about is instead, using these tools in every course and allowing our students to become digital citizens. I really worked last year to connect my students to others, having them write “research blog posts,” and trying to find people to review them using my Personal Learning Network (PLN), I also brought in Greg Myre (@GregMyre1) via (failed video call) phone with my students as a resource for a PBL unit on current tensions in the Middle East. That was a start. One thing that I took from Couros and Richardson was that I can and should be taking this way further. I’ve started thinking about how I’m going to encourage regular use of social media, blogging, vlogging, writing, etc. in my classes for next year. This makes learning more relevant, more personal, and provides students with a voice. What better way to get students involved in using technology and learning how to take control of their own learning? If we are using technology, but still using methods from the 1950’s, how is that relevant to our students and to their future? The Educators (Teachers and Administration):So, I’m going to throw this out there. I recently did not get an instructional leadership position in my district that I would have loved to have and felt that I would have been a great fit for. I really do enjoy being a leader from within the classroom though, so why did I want this job? Because I wanted share the perspective with others how making a shift in mindset and learning and how incorporating technology with sound pedagogy can make our classrooms so much more successful and enjoyable for everybody involved. Now, was I the right personality for the job (this is where it gets tricky when you’re really evaluating whether you are actually the right fit)? I probably would have ruffled some feathers, which may be a reason that I didn't get it. I expect for all educators to take pride in being lifelong learners--that includes being open, willing, and adaptable in order to do what is best for our learners. Looking around at our district, and mine is probably the same as yours, we have many that do not have the mindset to meet the expectations that I have for them, both as teacher and parent, in becoming adaptable educators that are open and willing to change along with the pace of the rest of the world. In essence, I’m calling out all of my colleagues at every level of education, to focus on and embrace lifelong learning. From my experience, education is one of the few sectors where it is "OK" to be a part of the status quo and it is sometimes even frowned upon to make changes even when it is evidently necessary. Does the old way work? Maybe. Does the new way work? Maybe. What’s the difference in the outcome here? “Maybe.” There is no difference. So, why not try it? There is no right or wrong way to learn or teach, but we need to be working on our craft continuously. So now another “real question.” Why don't teachers embrace lifelong learning, and why won’t they make changes? FEAR. This is where I’m really going to go on my soapbox, so beware if you are going to continue reading. The atmosphere in education currently does not foster growth, innovation, change, adaptability, or choice. There is significant risk involved if you are going to try any of the items on that list. Why? Because teachers are the ones that get blamed. Blamed for accountability scores from high stakes tests. Blamed for a failing school system. Blamed for the United States standing in the global community on those high stakes tests. Teachers lose and get jobs based on their ability to get their students to perform on whatever measurable test that policy makers throw at them. I have been asked these questions during presentations on the implementation of Project Based Learning in my classroom. Each of them really drive my point home here, I think, and really show the ineptitude that our current system fosters:
I typically don’t receive questions other than that. Those who are really curious and are open to making changes are there to see how it looks, how it’s been implemented, to get ideas, and usually thank me on their way out the door. I understand these questions and why they’re being asked. Our jobs are at stake if something doesn’t work. I’m all for accountability, and it’s a topic for another day, but how we assess students, teachers, schools, and districts needs to be THE topic of discussion for our policy makers, which I will elaborate on later. The Parents:When I think about getting my students connected, I immediately wonder what the backlash could be. There is risk involved and a possible (though small if done correctly) negative outcome. The world isn’t all rainbows and sunshine and there is risk in getting our students connected. When I have discussed the 1:1 Initiative with parents in our district, there are a few (though not the majority) who look at the machine that the students have been provided as a negative thing because it has now exposed things to their child that they might not have been exposed to without it. Is it worth the risk? Even speaking with my college friends about what I do, and how school has changed, they are in awe typically. They realize that education is not the same as it was when we were there (I graduated high school in 2002). They realize that school is and should not be done the same way that it was then. That was before Facebook, text messaging, etc. When I explain it to them that way, it seems to click. Also, we are open to how much technology has changed our lives because we have lived it in our generation. We were raised without cell phones and with the original Apple Desktop Computers in our school wide computer lab playing Oregon Trail and have seen it transform to having more technological capability in our pockets than the vehicle that transported us to the moon. As a whole, I think that parents understand the purpose for implementing technology and progressive methods in the classroom, but may not fully embrace it. One of the issues is that there is risk involved in the lives of our children. My son is entering preschool next year. Do I want him to be in a classroom where the teachers are taking chances and messing with things? Of course I do! If I walk into a classroom where he is expected to sit in one place and complete worksheets all day, I will be ticked! I hope that parents become more in tune with this over time as well. There are many parents though that believe that if teachers are doing that, they are using their kid as a “Guinea Pig,” and don’t want their child to be a part of a failed experiment. I understand that sentiment for sure. I feel the same way. My perspective though is that if an experiment fails and my kid sees it, he should learn from it. As long as we are all learning in the process, there is no risk. There may be reteachable moments along the way, but across the board, what is the risk of having our children in classrooms that aren’t making the changes to keep up with the pace of the rest of the “real world?” It's up to the parents first, to understand the reasons that education is changing, then to demand that our children/learners, educators, and policy makers also do the same. The Policy Makers:Yes, I’m going to broach the topic of politics here. Risky move, I know. That being said, they are often neglected when it comes to a list of stakeholders. That being said, they are the stakeholders with the most power to allow our education system to make significant progress. I propose that together, we have open dialogue with our policy makers to share our qualms with the way that the system is set up, especially in the way that it is assessed. In the same way that educators should be adapting to the times, so should our entire system. No complete change can take place until those at the top realize that the answer is not more high-stakes testing to measure school performance or by labeling schools as failing, then taking away funding. Shouldn’t education work be more like the private sector? Who gets the dollars from consumers? It’s a simple economic concept. In order to continue to sell a product, businesses have to adapt. They have to improve their product, offer more choice, and innovate new ways of doing the same thing in order to earn consumer dollars and stay relevant. Why not promote that way of thinking in our education system? Promote innovation, adaptability, learning and support for educators and assess schools and educators based on the skills that are needed most in society for our students to be successful in the long term. I don’t necessarily have a plan or direction, but I’ll think about it, regarding how this assessment model would look, but doesn’t it make sense if we are going to adapt education to the times in the long-term? Finally, I’m calling for our politicians to be lifelong learners as well. I know that education isn’t the only topic that they have to deal with, but I would think and hope that it’s a top five issue for them to think about and address with their constituents. Wouldn’t it be nice if they dealt with classroom educators, immersed themselves in professional development conferences with them and actually interacted with those that are in the classroom on a daily basis? Ask the questions about what teachers really need in order to help our students succeed, and involve ALL stakeholders in the process, not just a select few on state school boards and in state education departments, who are politicians themselves (whether they believe it or not) that have not been in the classroom for decades or ever in most cases. Only then will real changes take place in our education system. The Challenge:I want to leave you with this to consider: Whether you are one or a combination of these stakeholders, how are you going to make sure that you are making the best use of the resources provided to us? It’s going to take a real change in mindset from all involved in order to make real progress in education. How do we open this dialogue in a realistic way and do what is best for our students and communities in the long-term?
Legacy: “Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past” (Merriam-Webster) My grandfather--Papa as he’s known within our family and even to our family friends--passed away recently and I’ve been looking for a way to process my feelings. I know that this post will not be the most “educational,” but I promise that it will tie in at the end… I also know that we have all been through this same scenario in our lives--I’m not expecting and don’t want sympathy, instead I want to celebrate. I want to focus on the word LEGACY, probably the number one thing that my wife and I have discussed and thought about over the past three years as Papa battled ALS (Lou Gehrig’s). I want to celebrate his legacy.
I have spent a lot of time the last couple of months thinking about all of the great times and memories that we had with Papa and as a family: watching (and usually complaining about) the Broncos with passion, playing cards (and catching him cheating), constantly rhyming about nonsense that somehow made sense, heckling Grandma on a regular basis, telling jokes (both good and bad), letting me mow the pasture into a ball field for my cousin and I to have home run derbies (then realizing it looked terrible, and letting me mow the rest of it--then paying me), and showing me how to take care of an ant problem. Then there’s camping and fishing, which we did as an extended family on a regular basis--there are so many memories of those days sitting around the campfire, being kids, and being together as a family.
Papa left his mark on so many lives… As my Grandma said the night after he passed when I got to talk to her, “he was a good man,” and “he was so proud of all of you (his grandchildren),” I think that explains it all. “He was a good man,” and that is his legacy--that is the legacy that still lives after his passing and will continue be passed down to all of those that were impacted by him. His values and what he thought were always evident. He worked hard and was always willing to give a hand in any way that he could. Along the way, he always left a mark, always improving anything that he could put his hands on--both material and immaterial. Those values were passed down to my Dad, Mom, aunt and uncles, and then to me, my brother, and my cousins, and now, his great grandchildren. He instilled the value of family. He was the leader of his family. He lived for and valued his family. He was proud of his family. That is his legacy. All of this has made me think about the mark that I’m leaving and I hope that this post leads you to think about the same. What will your legacy be? I hope that mine follows the same lines as what Papa left to me, his family, and his friends. I hope that when I get to look back at my life and my legacy, that I will be able to celebrate the fact that I held the same values in high accord that he did: hard work, service, consistent improvement, family. I am in a unique situation to have a drastic impact. As an educator I am allowed to model and teach these values. I get to be a mentor to students and teach them through my actions how to work hard, serve, value others and their contributions, and to better themselves and those around them. My philosophy on education, as discussed in previous posts, encompasses all of these values and is passed on to the group of individuals getting ready to jump into the “real world” within the next couple of years. I hope that when they look back on their years in school, that they will think back to their time in my classroom and the values that they learned there. It’s easy to get sidetracked with content and curriculum and the daily grind, but it’s important to understand the impact that we have on a daily basis in regard to developing our students as people in the long-term. In the grand scheme, our jobs are not about curriculum goals, but about passing on the values that will allow them to be successful (whatever the individual definition of success is) in the end. As educators, our career choice is unique from many others in the fact that we have the opportunity to leave our legacy not only on our family members and co-workers, but on the hundreds of students that will pass through our classrooms, then to their thousands of family members and co-workers. The breadth of our legacy is something to keep in mind when we struggle through a day. The impact that we can have as educators provides us with the means to influence thousands. So, I will leave you with this to consider: What will your legacy be? I just returned from the Missouri Council for the Social Studies (MCSS) annual conference yesterday and I would like to reflect on the experience and my top five takeaways from my weekend in Columbia. I had a great time reconnecting with my Mount Vernon friends (it’s amazing how these friendships have grown in such a short time) and making new connections that all created a positive weekend and professional development experience. Here are my top five takeaways (in chronological order) from the conference: #1: Teachers are Looking for Examples of Project Based Learning
#2: George Washington Is Still the Man!I have already written on the lesson that I planned and executed based on my inspiration from my professional development trip to Mount Vernon (http://bit.ly/AntonGW). Our (Sarah Courtney's, Kris Larson's, Alexis Small's, and my) session began with that activity and included three others that could be used as a way of integrating Washington, but also could be used for so many other historical figures. I think that our attendees left with four great lessons and ideas that they can take and use in their classrooms in some variation.
One person made the same note about the abundance of Washington sessions, but pointed out that every one of them were passionate and different, showing the diverse amount of information and excitement for G.W. gained from the experience in Mount Vernon’s education programs. #3: How to Use Nazi Propaganda in the ClassroomMoving into the afternoon, I attended Rhonda Ireland’s presentation on “Examining Nazi Propaganda.” Rhonda has an evident passion for studying the Holocaust and she is well-versed on the topic. Her session was centered around her experiences with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHEKC.org). I walked away with a packet full of primary sources that I can use in the classroom. A few of the most interesting documents pertained to Nazi education on the issue of racial education that were very striking and could be used as an introductory activity to use in the discussion of the Holocaust or Nazi ideology. I think these documents would pair well with the Disney film, “Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi.” There is a ton of potential to show that American propaganda was factual in many cases. To me, the most striking part of these documents was how transparent and open the Nazis were in spreading their ideology of hate--something that always astounds me when researching the topic. #4: How to Better Incorporate Photographs as StorytellersFrom my perspective as a high school teacher, I am always skeptical when I walk into a session with an elementary teacher for the reason that there are often methods discussed that are more appropriate for that level than mine. This session was not that way. I walked out with a lesson that I can and will use in my classroom that used photographs and primary source analysis skills to create a timeline. Kathy Wilson and Craig Carson did an excellent job presenting a lesson pertaining to the history of the postal service that could be easily adapted to any historical event or topic. I especially appreciate how it could be used for a local history course where you could have students or maybe a local historical society provide photos to tell the story of the area.
#5: Activity Ideas to Promote Sustained InquiryMy interest in PBL and intertwining inquiry based strategies brought me to this workshop. Paula Keltner provided us with many resources and ideas for use in our classrooms that included primary sources, infographics, op-ed pieces, interaction, and collaboration. One of my key points when incorporating PBL is that there is still structure even though the students are driving their own learning. This session provided activities that I will be able to use in my course as a way to drive and promote sustained inquiry in my classroom. My favorite activity dealt with photographs as inquiry hooks. There were a series of photos on the wall that introduced the idea for the unit that dealt with defining the “American Dream” and whether it is possible to achieve it. We circulated the room and wrote our thoughts on sticky notes based on each photo that helped us to wrap our minds around the differences that perspective has on our views of the American Dream and what it means to have accomplished it or if it's possible. My second favorite, because it is a skill that I have focused on more recently dealt with helping students annotate and see the value in annotation by having the teacher read aloud their thoughts with students as they analyze a text. Personal Bonus: Appointment to MCSS Board of DirectorsI was fortunate to make many new connections over the weekend and was appointed the Vice President of Legislation for the Missouri Council for the Social Studies. This position is perfect! It combines my passion for social studies education with my interest in state and local politics and government. I'm excited to get started and hope that I can provide value to the organization and promote the protection and value of social studies in education.
In September, I was fortunate enough to be chosen for and attend “A Residential Weekend at Mount Vernon” for teachers from Missouri and Kentucky. I have participated in many professional development opportunities in the past and this one is at the top of the list. It was only four days, but was well organized, the group of teachers in attendance were top notch and passionate, and the scholars were professional historians AND passionate educators--a unique and integral combination for a program like this. The education team at the Washington Library does a terrific job providing a program that balances content with pedagogy--something that is often neglected at professional development opportunities which usually focus on one or the other. This post will focus on the same and is the basis for a presentation that I will co-present at the Missouri Council for the Social Studies Conference in February. I have also had a student-teacher this semester, but have stayed as busy as ever restructuring my government course using Project/Problem Based pedagogy throughout and working to become a stronger leader in and out of my district through this blog and the creation of this website. Along the way, I was able to go to the eighth grade because of a welcoming colleague to present a lesson on what I learned at Mount Vernon. As a teacher that has only junior and senior level courses this is a little intimidating, but I was excited to get out of my classroom and present the content that I gained from my time my experience. One of the key ideas that I took away from Mount Vernon was that there was more to George Washington than the typical person thinks about. To prove the point, ask yourself the question: “Who was George Washington?” Your answer? First United States president… General… The guy on the dollar bill… Maybe even the president of the Constitutional Convention… Before my experience at Mount Vernon, this was pretty much all that I ever thought of Washington, and I am actually quite ashamed as a historian that I would be so shallow. I asked the eighth graders this same question with predictable results. Here are some of the “faces” of Washington that the average person misses: landowner (THOUSANDS of acres), slave owner (a complex topic), westward expansionist (investor in a company to build a canal connecting the Potomac to the Mississippi), land speculator, technology aficionado (I’m convinced that he would have owned the latest iPhone for the sake of organization and efficiency), mill owner, distillery owner, progressive farmer, and one who valued education. Our eighth grade teacher does a great job teaching students to work through primary sources lending perfectly to what I wanted to do. I researched and found documents that displayed all of the different facets that I wanted to expose those students to and narrowed them down to key excerpts for them to digest. I annotated them with questions with the intent of teaching students the value of jotting notes while reading in order to analyze and understand text (See below or the "Identity of George Washington" tab). I was impressed with the ability of these students to take transcripts of letters from Washington as well as his Last Will and Testament and summarize the information. From that point, students completed a “George Washington was….” statement and had to cite their evidence from the readings as justification. In the end, they were given a coloring page portrait of Washington, and asked to fill in the background in a way that depicted his identity based on their assigned document. Obviously, the students seemed to get into this part and eventually, they presented their information to their classmates as the basis for other discussions about Washington and what the documents could tell us about the United States during his time. Student Examples: "Based on the primary source, George Washington was a/an....."The most impressive part from my perspective was how students were able to have discussions about some interesting topics. Slavery is a key topic that is also difficult to teach and for students to understand. The students that had the “slaveowner” document wrestled with the idea that Washington freed his slaves in his will, but not during his life. Others also saw that he was concerned for their health and education and most understood that his reasons were for the efficiency of Mount Vernon. They concluded that he was “a good slave owner,” “a hypocrite slaveowner,” and “a nice slave owner.” All of these conclusions led to interesting dialogue and class discussion based on the idea that "good" and "slave owner" don't typically fit together. Finally, I think that students really understood Washington’s identity as savvy business person and entrepreneur, a point that I really wanted to get across. When you discuss that he had a mill and distillery so that he could sell finished products along with diverse investments in raw materials and crops as well as progressive farming techniques it really opens students’ eyes to who he was as a private person. In the end, I think the students really grasped the idea that along with being the first president, war hero, and great leader, Washington was also very normal in the fact that he was a business person trying to make a profit and had other “regular” identities. This focus is important when looking at American History as a whole. Consensus historians often neglect many of these facets and and many of the Founding Fathers lose their human qualities. A lesson like this really helps students to understand that the founders of the United States were not gods, but real people with real issues, struggles, successes, and failures and allows them to connect and realize this fact. I think that’s key to getting students to understand and appreciate history as a story of individual experiences that culminate into the big picture. Personifying a figure with the historical stature like George Washington adds to their understanding of history and hopefully adds to student engagement and interest in the field. Hopefully this post will help you implement a little bit of "G.W." into your courses as a man of his time and a complex figure in the history of the United States. Lesson Documents:
In the process of contemplating beginning an education blog, I worried that I wouldn’t have anything to write about and make time for on a regular basis. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have so many experiences to share because of the nine years that I have spent in the classroom. Currently, the terms “growth mindset” and “reflection” are buzzwords in education and concepts that I am excited to discuss. They’re not new, but if we understand what they mean and how to apply them to our personal and professional lives, they can be key motivators. With the correct mindset and the willingness to improve through reflection, we all have the opportunity to become better professionals and people. For these reasons, I think that it is appropriate for my first post to reflect on my career and how my mindset has evolved and the impact that my experiences have had on my view in my professional role as an educator. Life! Amazing to think about and reflect on. One of the major struggles that we have is balancing ALL of our roles in life. In an effort to balance those roles it is easy to be happy with rolling along, accepting the status quo. Sometimes, I think we are so busy balancing those rolls that we sometimes forget to work on improving our strategies, whether it is in our professional lives (in my case, as an educator), or personal ones as spouses, parents, friends, etc. My wife (also a teacher) and I have this discussion on a monthly basis. We’re torn between our three major roles: spouse, parent, and teacher. It would just be easier if the both of us were happy with what we have achieved professionally and focused on our personal lives. Or, we could be happy with our personal lives and focus on our professional ones. My point here, is that it is difficult to strike that balance. How do we grow in ALL aspects of our lives? The truth is, through trial and error, focusing on the ones that need the most attention first.
My college experience had a significant impact on my mindset, both professionally and personally. In reflecting on my successes and failures throughout my life, I have found that most of my failures can be attributed to the times when I fell into the idea of a “fixed mindset.” When I left for Kansas State with the dreams fostered from my adolescence of becoming an architect, I was not prepared for the freedom that life away from home offered me on my own account. I struggled and found myself on academic probation following my first semester and rejected from the second year landscape architecture program. I remained enrolled there for a total of two years, trying to figure out what my new life plan was going to be while mostly keeping my habits the same. Reflecting on this, probably the most significant and life changing failure of my life, I have come to realize that it was a result of my mindset. I thought I was good enough, without working hard to become better, to achieve my goals. I had rejected the values that my parents instilled in me most. I had lost what had gotten me to that point, enrolled in one of the best architecture programs in the country. My failure was a result of a fixed mindset. My mindset started to change when I was accepted into College of the Ozarks (C of O), a private college near my hometown located in Southwest Missouri that I didn’t want to attend initially. I still wasn’t sure of my direction in life, but knew that I enjoyed the history courses that I had taken throughout high school and in my first couple years of college. I also enjoyed baseball and the thought of coaching intrigued me. So what better career to choose than as a social studies teacher/coach? That was all that I knew. After my acceptance into C of O, my advisor called me one evening at around 8:00 P.M. while still in Manhattan, Kansas. We hashed out the courses and a general plan for the next semester with a history and secondary education major in mind. I moved back home that summer and started classes at a new college. Still with the same mindset. The difference and changing moment for me was the focus that was placed on education at C of O. The culture at the school is different than that of a public university. In exchange for tuition, students work part-time on campus and walk out debt-free (a story for another day). Class sizes are small, and the professors are hired as teachers, not researchers. They have a passion for teaching their students instead of focusing on outside ventures. Coming in contact with the professors in both the history and education departments was in essence life changing. It showed me how to build relationships professionally while knowing and treating students as people who need to be taught how to grow so that they can take that with them. That is the true life skill that we need to focus on in my opinion. Teaching students that their success is related to the focus, effort, and energy that they put into becoming better at whatever they do at every opportunity. Student apathy is a major issue and topic of concern in our entire education system today, just ask any teacher or professor. If we ingrain the idea that school is about growing every single day, this could change their mindsets. How do we do that? I don’t have the direct answer, but I think that it starts with us, as teachers, modeling it to our students. The entire purpose of this (what has already turned into longer than expected) post and blog in general. I want to show my peers, former students, and students how I change over time and the impact that has on those around us.
I was regarded as a successful teacher immediately and was recognized as an “Outstanding Beginning Teacher” from C of O and the state association of college educators. I thought I was doing a great job. In hindsight, I was doing a decent job, but my students weren’t learning as much in my classes as they probably could have. My teaching methods, were "so Twentieth Century." My students were there, but they weren’t engaged. Not for lack of effort on my part, but for lack of recognition that those old methods weren’t the best in regard to getting my students to learn. Also, I was in the mindset that when I get my first year done, I can keep my methods the same, continuing on with the same old pedagogy that my teachers had used along with their teachers, and those before them. I went stagnant. My first couple of years had to have been a drag to walk into my class for my students. I crammed content down their throats, but not into their minds, by forcing them to listen to me and all that I knew about history and government. In hindsight, I didn’t know that much either. If they struggled on tests, I blamed them for not studying. “Why didn’t they get it? It was in the PowerPoint!” None of it was my fault in my opinion at the time, but I questioned my strategies. About three years into my career, I was confident enough in my content knowledge to really start moving away from the whole PowerPoint lecture style that included supplemental primary source analysis and other small projects just to try to break things up. I switched to discussion based direct instruction time. In hindsight, it wasn’t much different. Because students didn’t understand the content, it turned into a glorified lecture. I think students enjoyed my class, but knew that they would be busy with activities that didn’t have any value to them personally. I struggled getting my students to make the connection between the assignments that they had and the content that I was trying to teach. I was trying to get them think more critically, but I was not giving them the tools to do it. I used primary source worksheets, incorporated as many reading strategies that I could, but students still were not making the connections. This disconnect between purpose and value of class activities created an environment where students were going through the motions, much like I was at this point in my career, focused on their grade and end result, but not learning the material. In essence, I was not achieving my personal goals: making social studies interesting and having students learn the content. I became disenchanted with the system, with education, and with my students. I went to work, but I had no interest in working to change my strategies. I felt like it was a lost cause. Why should I work to change if students weren’t willing to accept anything that I tried to do because they saw it as work and didn’t associate any value with what I was trying so hard to get them to understand? This was my struggle and a very trying time in regard to motivation and purpose. I had just earned my M.A. in history from Missouri State. I wanted out and was searching for opportunities to move to another career. I was too good at what I did to be stuck in the classroom with students who don’t care. I know that I’m not the only one that has thought this way at some point in my career as an educator (or any field for that matter). If I was going to remain in the field of education, I had to find purpose and motivation.
The implementation of 1:1 changed my philosophy as a teacher. I had heard of the Flipped Classroom Model, but had no way of incorporating it previously. I started by bringing the mobile lab to my dual-credit American History students every day that it wasn’t checked out by another class. I flipped the class and went 1:1 in that class essentially. My version of flipping is different and is a story for another post, but it allowed my students to begin understanding the value of the information that I was providing because I could make real-world connections to the material and content through my discussions. This class was my pilot for what was to come. I loved preparing the new material for them and they seemed to “get it.” These were some of the best students in school, but still, they were getting it. I think the biggest thing that it showed was that due to the fact that students saw me working hard to get better, they worked hard to accomplish our goals as a group. They understood my goal for them and it meshed with theirs. This was the turning point in my career. I understood that I had to work to make myself better and if I had that goal, it would rub off on my students. Because I bought into the 1:1 pedagogy and ideology so early, I was able to take on a new role in my building and district. I was one of the first to try to incorporate technology lessons on an almost daily basis (due to resources the year before complete rollout). My peers started asking me questions and I was able to tell them about my experiences both positive and negative in trying to incorporate this new learning environment. I had value outside of the walls of my classroom. Now I was able to help my peers if they asked or needed it. I realized that I had become over the scope of a year or two a leader in my district because I had worked to make a change and grow professionally. "I have renewed passion for my role as an educator and truly enjoy my job [...] I get happiness out of the learning process and motivation from the fact that I am at the front of great things in the new age of student-centered pedagogy [...] Being passionate about learning and growing every day has had an impact on myself and my classroom environment. I have renewed passion for my role as an educator and truly enjoy my job (with the natural more trying days). By working to change to make things better every day for myself, my students, and my peers I have found new motivation and purpose in regard to my professional life. I have focused recently more on reflection and improving myself and have turned a corner. I enjoy coming to work and currently spend more time working to create a successful learning environment than I ever have, and I’m happy to do it. I find that the harder I work to grow, my students see that. I get happiness out of the learning process and motivation from the fact that I am at the front of great things in the new age of student-centered pedagogy and the fact that I have experiences to pass on to others. Being passionate about learning and growing every day has had an impact on myself and my classroom environment.
This blog will document this process through reflection on both past successes and failures as well as current ones, with a particular focus on "new" methods such as the implementation of project based learning and the flipped classroom. I hope that anybody who reads this blog will be able to grow as a result of the experiences that I share. |
AuthorBrian Anton currently serves the Purdy R-II (Missouri) School District as the 7-12 Principal after working in the PK-12 Assistant Principal and Athletic Director roles for two years. In the 12 years prior to moving into administration, he served as an award-winning high school social studies teacher. Archives
September 2018
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