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When looking at the institution of today’s schools, school systems have shifted themselves from being a three dimensional model of a school culture including church, school, and home, to a quadrilateral model including the federal and state governments. Adding to this mix makes school issues more complex and more challenging for today’s educators. Education provides the foundation for what many people would call “The American Dream”. That dream is more or less the idea that anyone in America can have whatever he or she wishes, providing that students are given the right knowledge, education, or degree. In American society, success of individuals is ultimately relative to their income or wealth. Today’s school culture is much different than it has been in the past. Many schools are now responsible for the moral, social, and educational upbringing of young people. There is less focus on church values, family dynamics are quite often broken with many single parents, and the government involvement in the educational process presents great challenges for schools, administrators, and teachers. In addition to all these responsibilities, teachers are also expected to deliver quality instruction, and administrators are responsible for making sure teachers in their building are delivering quality instruction.
The social aspect of teaching is an area that can’t be ignored. Culture of a school, the influence of America’s idea of what schools should be, and how school is structured by administrators affect the way in which teachers approach the job. These factors have an overwhelming influence in the lives of the students and society. Diversity in schools can not be ignored either. The concept of inclusion, socioeconomic factors, cultural factors, and the “make-up” of a school has a tremendous impact on teachers and their ability to reach every student. These factors also influence the ideals and beliefs of the students and their attitude and motivation in the classroom. It is the job of the teacher to bring the best out of every student and make sure that equality is a priority to making every student feel important. With all these factors considered, the next part is the content. What is taught in the classroom is the responsibility of the teacher and how it is taught to the students has a big influence on the student’s achievement. I think that teachers learn the process of becoming a great teacher by learning to take into account all of these factors when planning instruction for their students. With time and practice, teachers learn to master their craft and become more effective in their jobs. It is not something that happens overnight, but with years of practice. However, if teachers ignore these concepts, forget to care about their students, and stop learning and using various teaching methods, they have not achieved mastery at their profession. Ultimately, the students will suffer the consequences and the teacher will ultimately become ineffective.
Based on these responsibilities of the teacher, when moving into the profession of administration, good administrators must develop ways in which they can help the teachers in their schools reach these goals. The best way is to make sure they get themselves into the classrooms and observe teachers teaching. Getting into classrooms should not be looked at as a monitoring process or to catch teachers doing something wrong, but rather to insure the development of teachers as effective teachers and overall improve the education of the students within the school. I would like to discuss some of the most important factors that administrators and teachers face as society moves forward in making sure that effective teaching is occurring in today’s classrooms and also provide techniques that administrators and teachers can use to make sure this happens.
First, one of the biggest factors I believe teachers and administrators must focus on is keeping students motivated. Motivation plays a key in the success of students in schools. The ability of a teacher to positively motivate their students to want to learn new knowledge is the key to reaching today’s students. When students feel that a teacher really cares about the success they will achieve, the students will be more appreciative of the efforts of a teacher in the classroom. If motivational factors are not met, student achievement will ultimately suffer.
Second, teachers need to develop different ways in which they are giving instruction in their classroom. The most common form of instruction in today’s schools continues to be lecture. Teachers should try new ways of instruction so that the teacher does not get burnt out from their job becoming mentally and physically exhausted from the effort they put into the classroom. If teachers can learn to be more of a facilitator is less mentally challenging and calls upon students to gain knowledge on their own with the guidance of the instructor. The key is for teachers to figure out ways that they can vary their instruction and help move their classroom to a more ACTIVE learning environment. In addition, teachers should also have effective techniques for classroom management in their classroom. Setting forth specific rules and also having students make their own rules can be a benefit for the teacher and students understanding expectations within the classroom and help develop a relationship between the teacher and students.
Third, there are numerous ways that teachers can deliver their instruction. Sometimes teachers may not even think about all of the different ways they make their class unique, but as administrators, knowing ways in which teachers can improve their classroom is important. The use of humor to liven things up, using state changes to keep the attention of learners, use open and closed loops to help initiate and close learning topics, the use of music to increase learning, and many others. In addition, procedural techniques can be done in different ways including zoning areas where instruction takes place in the classroom, framing aspects of how a teacher communicates something specific to students, changes in classroom environment that can heighten learning, varying how resources are distributed in class, using step checks to check for understanding, and many others. Giving teachers these resources and ideas can benefit teachers who may be struggling with certain areas of their instruction. The job of the administrator is to give numerous ideas that will help in certain areas that can be improved. An administrator must use their knowledge of being in the classroom and their graduate level studies to help every teacher be more effective.
Fourth, administrators and teachers must consider state and national standards when planning instruction. The overwhelming truth of the current No Child Left Behind legislation is that testing, at least for the present time, is here to stay. Responsibility of educating the young people who attend the schools lies in the hands of education professionals. Every teacher in every school system has at some point used standards to develop their lesson plans and develop their instruction. Standards are used as a means for teachers to measure what each student should learn in their particular subject at the given age level of that student. In relation to standards, teachers also develop goals for students that are really the by-product of the standards measuring what it is the students have learned and achieved. They work together as a basis for what many teachers use to determine what students have learned. Teachers will see a shift and adjustment from year to year as education, training, the economy, and other factors shift with the changing world. It has always been the stance of our government to make sure that education is important for the nation’s economy to thrive and for individuals coming out of schools can compete and progress in many fields of study and advancing the quality of life for Americans and people around the world. Setting the building blocks for young people to be successful in a career of their choosing is the lifeblood of the American economy. The importance for administrators is to see that teachers are focusing their attention on NCLB guidelines and state developed curriculum standards. Administrators must also help teachers develop ways that these goals can be achieved. The job of an administrator could ultimately be at stake if their school continues to under-perform in state and NCLB testing. The ultimate outlook of a successful school by society and the government will be based on student’s success on these tests and the school helping students achieve this success in the classroom.
Fifth, Curriculum alignment is also a very important topic. When all three elements of instruction, assessment, and objectives all match, true alignment exists. Without alignment, a teacher becomes less effective and the students suffer in their learning. In fact, it was stated that curriculum alignment has been proven to help less successful schools be successful. In addition, it is also important that teachers do reflecting upon their lessons. Teachers must be able to analyze lessons that they have put together and determine the success and improvements to be made on each lesson. This will help a teacher refine their skills and help to provide better instruction to students.
Sixth, administrators must keep themselves informed about new theories of instruction and also have a basic understanding of principal theories of instruction that are currently being used in education today. For example, concepts of Bloom’s Taxonomy use a cumulative, hierarchical system for describing, classifying, and sequencing learning activities. Benjamin Bloom in 1956 developed a taxonomy associated with the cognitive domain and it is widely used today in education. The taxonomy consists of six parts in order or rank: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Each part describes the sequence that students must learn something so that it becomes part of their learning.
Another theory that is popular today is Howard Gardner’s concept of multiple intelligence. Howard Gardner’s work has had a tremendous influence on the way that educators think about teaching students. I personally feel that the concept of multiple intelligence is beneficial to students, however I also find flaws in the realistic approach of the concept. Gardner defines nine intelligences: verbal-linguistic, mathematical-logical, musical, visual, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, naturalistic, and existential. Gardner believes that these multiple intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. He also believes that each person has each part of these abilities and that students should be taught various subjects while including areas from each of these intelligences. I think that the idea and concept of multiple intelligence is a good thing for educators to consider. However, I do not think it is realistic or practical for teachers to be expected to implement. If teachers can realize that these areas may exist in their students, it will help them to identify ways in which they can vary their instruction to meet the needs of these different interests in learners. I don’t agree that they are really intelligences, but more a product of education, application, and background. I have made choices to learn more about certain areas based on my interest, not necessarily by intelligence. I do agree that when a teacher is able to vary their instruction to meet the needs of certain student's strengths, it can ultimately affect the way they learn certain concepts that they may be weak at.
Also popular in education today is Constructivism in teaching. This concept is based on the idea that an individual learner must actively build knowledge and skills in the educational process and that the information exists within a student’s acquired knowledge rather than in the external environment. John Dewey is often cited as the founder of this approach with individuals such as Ausubel (1968), Bruner (1990), and Piaget (1972) considered contributing theorists among cognitive constructivism. In addition, Vygotsky (1978) is a major contributor among social constructivism. From the constructivism concept, there are nine principles of learning. These nine principles are: (1) learning is an active process in which the learner uses sensory input and constructs meaning out of it, (2) people learn to learn as they learn, (3) Physical actions and hands on experience may be necessary for learning, (4) Learning involves language, (5) Learning is a social activity, (6) Learning is contextual, (7) One needs knowledge to learn, (8) Learning is not instantaneous, and (9) The key component to learning is motivation. (Constructivist Learning Theory, 2002). Much of what I was taught in my undergraduate years focused on constructivism. I believe in the concepts that constructivism holds and believe in its principals. Learners actively build knowledge and acquire knowledge on a daily basis. We learn more by actively doing so and we gain experience and backgrounds on particular knowledge through that process. Individuals are not necessarily intelligent in one thing or another, but are more a product of the knowledge that they have acquired. Learning will take time and be a continual process in a student’s life and teachers must try and help reinforce concepts and knowledge so that students are better prepared for college and beyond.
Another major theory is that of Jean Piaget and his stages of development. Piaget’s four stages of development include: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete stage, and formal operations stage. It is important to note that these stages are not meant to be “set in stone” for the age levels they are commonly defined by, but are more thought of as overlapping one another. In addition to Piaget, another concept was developed by Lev Vygotsky’s termed the Zone of Proximal Development. This model highlights the idea that learning occurs rapidly when instruction falls within a child’s zone of development. Anything that is outside their ability level, with ultimately result in a deficiency in student learning. The ideas of these concepts highlight that students are ready to receive different types of information at different ages, stages, and developmental levels in their lives. While one student of the same age and grade level may be ready to handle different teaching strategies, content, and instruction, another will not. Teachers must be able to adapt and make changes to help each student be successful given their particular stage of development.
In
conclusion,
this program has given me many tools, ideas, concepts, and backgrounds
that help
me currently develop as a teacher within my classroom that will
ultimately make
me more effective. In addition, these
ideas and concepts will ultimately help me as a future administrator in
making
sure that the teachers within the building that I work can also have
access to
those same tools and in return will make them more effective. Teaching may be easier for some people to
master and more challenging to others.
Obtaining experience in the field through years of teaching,
continual
education on teaching strategies and theories, and a genuine interest
in developing
student learning in the classroom moves each teacher closer to becoming
master
teachers. The role of any administrator
should be to increase student learning and achievement within their
building. To do this, administrators need
to take a
very active role in providing mastery techniques to teachers and making
frequent observations in classrooms to insure that these concepts are
being
implemented. Ultimately, schools will
develop better ways that they can reach the goals of No Child Left
Behind and
also continue to provide effective teaching in the classrooms year
after year.
Artifact 1: Constructivism Paper
Artifact 2: Multiple Intellgience Paper
Artifact 3: Reflection Log-Effective Teaching
Artifact 4: Keyboard Unit of Study
Artifact 5: Video Reflections
Artifact 6: Rolling Examinations--Intro to EDAD
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