Three Wise Teacher Project: What Can These Resources Teach You?

About a month ago I was tasked with reaching out to three teachers that influenced me on my path to becoming an educator, thanking them, and asking them if they had any resources that they would like to share. Though originally I thought it more so a project based around letting those who influenced us know about the impact that they have had in our lives and our career aspirations, the project turned out to be something greater than what I initially imagined it to be. The "Three Wise Teacher Project" acted more as a stepping stone for us, as pre-service teachers, to figure out what influenced the teachers that influenced us.

As I wrote in my previous blog post describing the project, I reached out to three ladies whom, had I not had the luxury of studying under/working with them I do not know if I would be in college, or on the path to becoming an educator.

First, I reached out to Clarissa Thompson, a professor at UMF who taught my EDU102/103 course during my first semester of college. Clarissa, who I swear to god is a walking dictionary of education-related resources, pointed me in the direction of a podcast episode produced by the Cult of Pedagogy, hosted by Jennifer Gonzalez, specifically focused on a Fellowship Program designed by Math for America (MƒA). With the focus on profession development (PD) of proven-successful teachers (that is, teachers not within their first five years teaching, and who have been shown to be successful in terms of content instruction), the Fellowship program designed by MƒA works to help successful teachers receive the support they need as they move away from the "sit and get" model of PD. With the Fellowship Model, as Gonzalez describes it, being based around the system of same-concentration community development MƒA acts as a support system for teachers as they continue with their personal development through cutting-edge classes and instructional opportunities that allow these teachers to continue to learn, as well as gives ample opportunity to lead.

With the concentration of the podcast being based on the Fellowship Model itself versus the program offered by MƒA, the overall theme of the episode was the benefits of being involved with such an organization/program that gives experienced professional teachers the opportunity to continue learning, regardless of concentration area. As it is described in the episode, teachers need the exposure and the opportunity to "do" their concentration. Teachers are expected to be able to teach the material of their concentration area, correct? Then how are they to keep up-to-date with the newest improvements/discoveries in their concentration area if they do not have the opportunity to work with new material? By providing teachers the opportunity to step into the role of students again to learn about the developments in their field by offering a variety of courses based around the interests of their teachers involves, MƒA acts as a facilitator for continued professional development, as the Fellows have the opportunity to learn about on anything they'd like, ranging from concentration-specific material to different pedagogical strategies that gives them a different lens to approach their subject with. I loved this podcast, as it gave me the opportunity to think about my future as an educator, as well as ways for me to continue in my development as a teacher that will ultimately benefit my students.

Clarissa also referred me to the website specific to math-concentrations, https://www.youcubed.org. Being founded by a woman whom she had her EDU102/103 students read, Jo Boaler. Clarissa made a point to refer me to this website, as Boaler explores the world of mathematics education and the significance of mathematics-educational practices that influence a students willingness to learn/develop their mathematic skills- a topic that fascinates me. Specifically, I read an article from the website titled Ability and Mathematics: the mindset revolution that is reshaping education, written by Boaler herself. If you ask a group of people what they think of math, a majority you'll get responses along the line like "ewwwwwww... I hate math!", "I am so bad at math,", and my personal favorite: "I am NOT a math person!". Math, in today's society, is given the stink eye, as most people do not see the significance, nor the reason for mathematics education. In my experience, these people who do not like math struggle with math, and therefore hate math because they do not understand it.

Cyclical idea, right?


In this article, Boaler explores the significance between the grouping-by-level system in place in the United State and in England, and the influence of a students mindset (i.e. fixed and growth mindsets) in regards to their success in the course. Boaler explains that, when students are separated and put into classes based upon their ability to handle the academic rigor, this communicates to the student that they are defined by their outwardly displayed "intelligence" (their ability to perform in academics), which is determined by other (their teachers and administrators).


Grouping high achieving students with high achievement students, and low-achieving students with low-achieving students, the grouping model that schools enact is based on the idea that by putting students into classrooms based on ability allows for educators to alter the course material in a way that will reach the greatest number of students, while not preventing the academic growth of others. Ironically, numerous studies have shown that academically separated classrooms fair worse than mixed-ability classrooms: “the impact of different ability grouping practices have shown that when schools abandon ability grouping practice and move to mixed or heterogeneous grouping, achievement and participation improves significantly” (Boaler 147). Though the idea of leveled classes, in theory, is in the best interest of the student, some students often feel isolated from their academically-different peers, and indirectly told that their ability to handle rigor is static, meaning that they are unable to jump from a lower-level class to a higher level class.

By creating such a structured classroom environment based upon a students ability to handle academic rigor, students are then “stuck” in a class that defines them as a label, which in turn influences their mindset. “Smart” students take Honors level courses, “normal” students take College Prep, and “dumb” students take Applied-level courses. Though it is not said, it is an unwritten code that the level-course you take what what you are, “smart,” “normal” or “dumb.” Regardless of the name of the class, regardless what a group of students is called, all students defined by their performance in a class, versus their capabilities and their drive to succeed. All students, in all levels, feel this stereotype, not just low-achieving students. In schools utilizing a grouping model, it is not uncommon to see high-achieving students shut down when they do not understand something. These high achieving students, when they don’t understand the material, will feel stupid, because “only smart kids take Honors,” and if they were really smart, would they really be struggling with the material?

By not divide students into classes based on their perceived ability to handle academic rigor, students have the opportunity to collaborate with academically-different peers, meaning low-achieving students can work with high-achieving students, which not only encourages the development of peer relations, but also eliminates the idea that students have different "worths" as students of all academic levels are in the same class. Further, by placing mixed ability students into a single classroom, this further stimulates the development of growth mindsets, as low-achieving students see themselves performing the same work as high-achieving students, indirectly communicating to the student that they, too, are capable of the same work as their peers, regardless of their academic past. Mindset is everything, and by allowing student the opportunity to mingle and work with various-leveled peers, this contributes to their success in and out of the mathematics classroom.

I found this article very interesting, given that I attended a class that utilized the leveled classroom model, and my Practicum placement is in a school that too follows this model. Though I have not experienced the negative impact that Boaler makes not of in the article, I am able to look back and reflect on my time as a student, when I felt that I needed to match the academic-ability of my peers, though I may not have necessarily been on level with them. While I do understand where she comes from, as a teacher, I feel that dividing students based on ability to handle academic provides them a class that tailored to their currently academic level. Some students may need extra guidance on specific material, while other students may be ready to move on after they are first exposed to it. The downside to mixed-ability classrooms is that if some students are ready to move on, while others are not, the teacher must go at the speed of the lowest achieving student, therefore limiting the potential learning of others. Though it something I have experience first-hand, I still am trying to wrap my head around this idea, and would be very interested in spending time in a school with a mixed-classroom model.

After reaching out to Clarissa, I reached out to Elyse Pratt-Ronco, the Assistant Director of the UMF TRIO Upward Bound Program, which I was a member of for the entirety of my high-school career. As Upward Bound is a program designed to aid low-income first-generation college students as they get their foot-in-the-door to post-secondary education, I strongly believe that had I not participated in this program, I would not be where I am today, both as a college student, as well a person studying to becoming Math Teacher. During Upward Bound, I ended up discovering a passion for learning about economic inequalities in education (both secondary and post-secondary). Given that Elyse working specifically with students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, she is well versed in the resources for working with students from said background.

Having formed a close bond with Elyse through my time during UB, she knows of my passion for socio-economic disadvantages in education, as well as my intention to stay and to teach in Maine upon graduation from UMF. Therefore, she suggested I read the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol. Given how a large percentage of Maine students are labeled as low-income (and first-gen), Elyse recommended the book based on the very real demographics of Maine, as it will directly influence the kinds of students I will have in the future. Having read the first five chapters, I can attest to how phenomenal this book is. Though it focuses on socioeconomic inequalities found in urban areas, this book gives a powerful insight as to the reality that some students experience, in both their personal lives, but as well as their experiences in schools. Specifically, the book focuses on the economic struggles that minority students face, as well as to how race plays into the injustice within the school setting. In my opinion, it is important to recognize and to be able to adjust your curriculum based on the background and the needs of your students. Further, I feel that it's important to recognize that, while you may feel that you're lacking the resources needed to properly teach your class, that some schools can't afford to higher enough teachers to have someone sit in and monitor a study hall, provide heat for the building, or even fix the holes in the building that let in rain and other weather.

What's Rubrics Got To Do With It? (hint: everything)

Hey guys,

Recently my class was asked to think about what the difference between a good, and a bad rubric were, meaning, what makes something a quality rubric, and what makes a rubric vague, unclear, and ultimately unhelpful?

To answer this question I want to compare two rubrics, one good, one bad, and explain the differences.

Source:
http://southbayrobot.com/2018/09/socratic-seminar-lesson-plan-template/socratic-seminar-lesson-plan-template-rubric-examples-study-com/

Above is an example of a rubric for a socratic-style class discussion. 

Beginning with the Preparation category, how is not understanding the reading something to dock students on? I am not a strong reader, I understand that, accept it, and make any and all efforts I can in order to get through the material. Should this rubric have been implemented when I was in a class study Shakespeare, I would have failed miserably, as reading is not one of my strong suits. Thus, as I didn't understand the reading, I came to class expecting to take notes on the discussion our class would have over the text, and make note of any key concepts or motifs that I had overlooked due to my inability to dig as deep in the text as my classmates. But, as all students do, I would sometimes zone out in the middle of these discussions, and therefore miss some ideas and notes over the material. Additionally, because I was taking notes and trying to compare the discussion to my (limited) understanding of the text, rarely, if ever, did I speak up and contribute to the class discussion. Thus, for a student like me who's struggling to understand the readings, a rubric like this will, for lack of a better term, tank their grade. At most I would have gotten a "Mastery" in listening if it was a good day, and a "proficient" every other day. Further, I would have not scored very high in both preparation and speaking, as I took class time to try to understand what I had read, versus trying to find the hidden depth as to why the curtains are blue.

A rubric like this does not account for students who have other kinds of intelligences; since this rubric is based upon one's ability to understand the reading, it solely benefits students with a verbal-linguistic  intelligence. 

Source:
https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/teachonlinerubrics/chapter/types-of-rubrics/

Above is an example of, what I consider to be, a quality rubric.

Though this rubric is used to assess writing assignments, I believe that one can clearly see the differences and the improvements that have been made in comparison to the first rubric I provided. Specifically, this rubric takes a more holistic and open-ended look at the assessment of the material. By merely saying that, in the Focus Category, to get a high score that one must clearly state their position and give well-chosen reasons gives the student being assessed under this rubric ample opportunity to earn a high grade. With such vague language, as well as no limits on needing to have X amount of sources, or having X literary devices incorporated into the essay, the focus is more on the message of the paper and the persuasion of the author. Additionally, the language that this rubric uses to describe what is needed to receive a high score is very positive. By phrasing the description in a way that places more emphasis on the reader's ability to understand the argument versus shunning kids for grammar mistakes gives allows students to be relieved of the pressure to pass in a flawless piece of work, versus one that contains a powerful argument. Again, with the focus being on the students ideas versus their execution gives students motivation to put their full effort into an assignment they may not be passionate about. 

More than Face Value: Incorporating Deeper Knowledge into our Units

'Sup guys

Last week my EDU 222 class began a lot different than it normal does. Our instructor had us get into small groups and handed us card from the The Extraordinaires® Design Studio PRO card set each of which had a unique character that we had to interpret to be one of the students in our classroom. Though we could only make assumptions from the design on the front, on the back there were three other pictures that gave deeper insight to the "student."

As a group, we had to make inferences about the students, who they are as students, what their learning style is, and other various factors that give us, as educators, deeper insight into our classroom dynamic. In the beginning, we had to make inferences of one student, known as "Tribal Child" (Mowgli as our group so lovingly referred to him... straight up this kid looked like a carbon copy of Mowgli). Mowgli, we assumed by the picture on the front of the card, that he came from a low-income family and had had little schooling in his life time, which contributed to his distaste for school. Additionally, we made the assumption that he valued family very much, as in the picture he was being taught by an elder how to use a bow-and-arrow, while his younger brother sat close by.

While we made assumptions about Mowgli and who is as a student, eventually we were given three other cards with different characters whom also suppose to be "students" in our classroom, and of whom we also had to make inferences about who they were as students based solely on the front of the card.

Eventually, after we finally overturned the cards, we learned more about each student as an individual that we would not have been able to conclude had we just looked at the front of the card; we learned that one of our students was a father, the second lived in a restrictive household and felt isolated from her school community, and the last one was a very awkward kid who turned out to have a passion for music. Without filling these cards over, we would have had had a full picture of these students.

In the grand scheme, we had to design a GRASPS project in a subject other than our concentrations (we picked economics) that would accommodate the differences between all of the students and allow for them to thrive in their own unique ways. As a group, we decided to create a role-playing version of life, in which students would pick a career that they were interested in pursuing after high school, researching said career and figuring out what they would need to do in order to achieve their career goal, as well as figuring out how to budget based on the income of their career-of-choice.

As a future educator, I feel that this activity is very beneficial as we begin our journey as an educator. As we begin planning units, we need to be aware of the differences amongst our students, as well as their backgrounds as it can influence their ability to understand the material or complete the work their assigned. By being aware of students' background gives us insight as to how we should approach material, whether or not students will be able to complete some assignments (ex. if a student does not have internet at home, they may not be able to complete some assignments requiring internet access), or if they have a home life that prevents them from being able to work on group projects as they do not have access to the transportation need or they have over protective parents that prevent them from going out. By being able to recognize the different backgrounds of your students, you'll better be able to plan a unit that everyone is able to participate in, rather than a unit that students from "picturesque" backgrounds.

TPACK in the Classroom: High School French Class

When I was in high school, there were very few classes that made it a point to integrate technology in a meaningful way that would enhance our learning... except one.

In high school, my French teacher, Mme Duquette, always seemed to have a way to incorporate technology of some sort into what we were learning. Whether it be making movies and having us voice over the visual component, having us record ourselves reading or having a conversation, creating comic strips written in French, to world interactive maps, there was always some way for us as students to reinforce and build on our learning.

Specifically, one of the most crucial moments that I remember as a student in the class, as well as a student teacher in the class, where the various recording that we had to do. Being first taught the words, the phrases, and the syntax, Mme Duquette supplied us with all the resources that we needed in order to properly speak in French. However, the point of the recordings was a way for her to check in on our development, our pronunciation (which was the thing I struggled most with), and to make sure that we understood the complex syntax of the language. In addition to acting as a formative assessment tracking our understanding, Mme Duquette also used the records as an opportunity to individually provide the support that each student needed. Example, since I struggled with pronunciation, Mme Duquette would use records as a chance to correct my mistakes by sending me proper pronunciations of words I struggled with. In a subtle way that allowed me to correct my mistakes without being embarrassed in front of my classmates for my inability to speak, I received the help I needed in a sort of 1:1 manner.

As Mme Duquette incorporated the use of technology into her pedagogy, as she provided many ways for us to use technology in a way that would appease our learning styles as well as our individual needs as students, I feel that I took more out of her class than out of any other class. By the time senior year rolled around, I had gone from a timid Freshman unsure of my capabilities to speak foreign language to a enthusiastic senior who was more confident in her ability to speak French, but who also made note of the various forms of activities used in French class to hopefully one day apply it to my own classroom (fun fact, I was awarded most-improved French Student my at the end of my senior year, but honestly I'm still not great at pronunciation). 

I feel I had a positive experience with the TPACK model in my French class, even though I am not sure that was the intention of my teacher to follow it. Today, I would be interested to see what suggestions Mme Duquette could make to help me to have the same sort of model in my future Math classroom. Given that French and Math are two totally distinct fields, I want to learn how to have such a successful model of teaching and learning within my classroom.

Bringing Community into the Classroom

Hey y'all

So as part of an assignment for my EDU223 class, we were asked to think of ways to incorporate community into our classroom and curriculum in an enriching and effective way.

As many of y'all know by now, I am a math concentration, so, being the hot mess that I am, I immediately started to panic:

HOW CAN I INCORPORATE COMMUNITY INTO MY CLASSROOM? WHAT DO YOU MEAN INCORPORATE COMMUNITY INTO MY CLASSROOM? I'M GOING TO TEACH MATH, NOT HISTORY OR ART OR ENGLISH? HOW THE HECK DO I DO THIS?

I'm going to be frank, this panic has not completely subsided, but after thinking about it some, I realized there are a couple avenues you can go down depending on your topic of study and your unit.

If you were approaching this quest of community involvement in the classroom as a statistics teacher, you could send your kids home and have them poll their family and friends about all sorts of stuff, ranging from favorite flavor of ice cream to where and and when they were born. After students return to class with their data, you could begin a lesson using the statistics they collected to teach probability, related events and the probability of an outcome,
as well as other statistics-y things (I haven't take statistics yet, so don't be too judgmental on my lack of examples on how to incorporate that data).

A project like this could meet the Common Core Mathematics standards:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.CP.A.2
Understand that two events A and B are independent if the probability of A and B occurring together is the product of their probabilities, and use this characterization to determine if they are independent.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.CP.A.5
Recognize and explain the concepts of conditional probability and independence in everyday language and everyday situations. For example, compare the chance of having lung cancer if you are a smoker with the chance of being a smoker if you have lung cancer.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.CP.B.6
Find the conditional probability of A given B as the fraction of B's outcomes that also belong to A, and interpret the answer in terms of the model.


As a geometry teacher, you could take a walk around down and examine the architecture of the city. Different house-styles have different features, and therefore serve different purposes. You could have your students make note of which styles of houses they see, take pictures of them and their roofs to measure the angle of the trusses used in it's construction, as well as research why different styles of houses use different roof designs and their purpose. Though this is not an activity where students directly interact with community members, it can teach students a lot about the original development of the city, the though processes behind building design, as well as the why these designs were picked over others. Additionally, this can be a great time to look at and find various geometric shapes in the community (eq circular cylinders being modeled through trees) and describing them.

A project like this can meet Common Core Mathematics Standards:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSG.MG.A.1
Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).*

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSG.MG.A.3
Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).*

Additionally, if you're looking for someone to come in as a guest speaker, you could reach out to someone from the local historical society to come in and to bring in either sale-records of stores, or tax documents that students would be able to look at and go through the math of, seeing what percentages of someone's income went to groceries and/or taxes, giving students a real-world example of how people are suppose to manage their money.


Though it may not be as easy as other concentrations (looking at you English and Social Studies), there are ways to incorporate community into a math classroom. And since it's easy to panic about such things (like I am right now), the best advice I can give a fellow Secondary Ed- Mathematics major is to breathe. Math is the hardest subject, and we will get through it, even if it requires a mental break down or five. You can do it.

Breathe.

You got this.