Middle School seems to be the forgotten part of the education process. Maybe it's because the students want to forget or as our reading from AMLE suggests there wasn't always training for middle school educators. Luckily, this week's reading jumps more into that and how crucial this training actually is. Whenever I mention I work in a middle school and prefer teaching this age level than others I get a look of dread and sympathy from others. The four essential attributes our reading begins with this week I find to be important. The most important to be equitable because I'm not certain you could truly succeed in the other three without first being equitable.
Right off the bat, as well, the discussion of being collaborations, not just with students, but with fellow teachers as well is crucial in successful curriculum, instruction, and assessment characteristics. It's also discussed within the online article about comparing notes and collaborating. We're all at a disservice if we don't collaborate and have open and flowing conversations with one another.
There were two differences discussed within the AMLE text that I find to be incredibly important. The difference between covering and learning and assessment and evaluation. Oftentimes, I hear covering and learning being used interchangeably by students and teachers and the same goes for assessment and evaluation. I think "covering" could be detrimental as educators and to our students. "Covering" could demotivate us as educators as we look at that as being forced to "teach" something to hit a requirement. Since we already have a negative outlook on it, we won't be teaching the material for the students to learn but just to hit the requirement. It isn't pleasurable for either party involved.
During one of my observation placements, I was able to witness a teacher who allowed her students to earn a time to teach the class. They earned the opportunity by achieving a certain number of points for positive behavior or input. I thought of this time due to what AMLE says about Active Learning. "When students routinely assume the role of teacher, and teachers demonstrate that they are still learners, the conditions of a genuine learning community are present" (17). This student's time to teach the class was pre-planned with the teacher so they had all of the materials they needed and it took about fifteen minutes. The rest of the students loved it because it was fun and different and the student teaching was nervous, but you could see them get more comfortable with each passing moment. The teacher also took a seat at an extra desk and acted as a student and asked questions when needed to get the students back on track or to propel the conversation in the direction she wanted the learning to go. However, I highly doubt this was evident to the rest of the students.
During the challenging essential attribute, AMLE states that the "content and methods must be diversified and individualized" (19). When I first read this, I thought this is not easy, but I don't believe teaching middle school students should be easy in any way. We're taking on a difficult task but that shouldn't scare us but motivate us to continuously learn different strategies and aspects of education and the world to make it more diversified and individualized. I listen to an education podcast titled "The Cult of Pedagogy" and at the beginning of this month the podcaster released an episode titled "Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education". She and her guest share their run-ins with educators and administrators that say we don't need this or that book or teach that social-emotional learning aspect because they have mostly white students at their schools. This floored the podcaster and guest with them sharing that those students arguably may need those books or that learning more than anyone. I agree with this but also found it interesting in the role of active learning and relevance. AMLE states that making learning relevant is meant to instruct students to learn more about themselves, others, the content, and the world while motivating them to ask more questions. I believe this is what it means to also make the learning diversified and individualized. Again, not easy, but we can do it if we arm ourselves with the tools to succeed!
Lastly, the online article ends with input from students, which I loved! I come from a market research background so anything that contains a thoughtful survey, I am all about! My favorite student input was the one that suggested teachers take a survey of their students about a quarter of the way through the year to see what is working and perhaps what isn't. I found this key! I know of teachers that take surveys at the end of the year, but isn't that too late? We are serving our students that are right in front of us. We should all check-in before it's too late.
Right off the bat, as well, the discussion of being collaborations, not just with students, but with fellow teachers as well is crucial in successful curriculum, instruction, and assessment characteristics. It's also discussed within the online article about comparing notes and collaborating. We're all at a disservice if we don't collaborate and have open and flowing conversations with one another.
There were two differences discussed within the AMLE text that I find to be incredibly important. The difference between covering and learning and assessment and evaluation. Oftentimes, I hear covering and learning being used interchangeably by students and teachers and the same goes for assessment and evaluation. I think "covering" could be detrimental as educators and to our students. "Covering" could demotivate us as educators as we look at that as being forced to "teach" something to hit a requirement. Since we already have a negative outlook on it, we won't be teaching the material for the students to learn but just to hit the requirement. It isn't pleasurable for either party involved.
During one of my observation placements, I was able to witness a teacher who allowed her students to earn a time to teach the class. They earned the opportunity by achieving a certain number of points for positive behavior or input. I thought of this time due to what AMLE says about Active Learning. "When students routinely assume the role of teacher, and teachers demonstrate that they are still learners, the conditions of a genuine learning community are present" (17). This student's time to teach the class was pre-planned with the teacher so they had all of the materials they needed and it took about fifteen minutes. The rest of the students loved it because it was fun and different and the student teaching was nervous, but you could see them get more comfortable with each passing moment. The teacher also took a seat at an extra desk and acted as a student and asked questions when needed to get the students back on track or to propel the conversation in the direction she wanted the learning to go. However, I highly doubt this was evident to the rest of the students.
During the challenging essential attribute, AMLE states that the "content and methods must be diversified and individualized" (19). When I first read this, I thought this is not easy, but I don't believe teaching middle school students should be easy in any way. We're taking on a difficult task but that shouldn't scare us but motivate us to continuously learn different strategies and aspects of education and the world to make it more diversified and individualized. I listen to an education podcast titled "The Cult of Pedagogy" and at the beginning of this month the podcaster released an episode titled "Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education". She and her guest share their run-ins with educators and administrators that say we don't need this or that book or teach that social-emotional learning aspect because they have mostly white students at their schools. This floored the podcaster and guest with them sharing that those students arguably may need those books or that learning more than anyone. I agree with this but also found it interesting in the role of active learning and relevance. AMLE states that making learning relevant is meant to instruct students to learn more about themselves, others, the content, and the world while motivating them to ask more questions. I believe this is what it means to also make the learning diversified and individualized. Again, not easy, but we can do it if we arm ourselves with the tools to succeed!
Lastly, the online article ends with input from students, which I loved! I come from a market research background so anything that contains a thoughtful survey, I am all about! My favorite student input was the one that suggested teachers take a survey of their students about a quarter of the way through the year to see what is working and perhaps what isn't. I found this key! I know of teachers that take surveys at the end of the year, but isn't that too late? We are serving our students that are right in front of us. We should all check-in before it's too late.
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you get the dreadful look from people! I hate that that is a common attitude toward middle school teachers. I think that people often just think about their time in middle school and how it might have been "awful" for them. But middle schoolers are pretty awesome! I also agree with how important you said equitablity is. I like how you said it is important to have that first before the others.
I also love how you wrote about the terms "covering" and "learning." I never really thought about the perspective that you gave about the two terms and I thought what you said made a lot of sense. I always heard of teachers saying that they needed to cover certain material with us, but I never understood what that meant as a student. I have also had many cooperating teachers talk about "covering" material in the classroom. Most of the time, it seems as if that word has more negative connotations in the way in which a teacher talks about "covering" material. That was a great point you made.
I never heard of a teacher allowing the students to teach a lesson, but I think that is a great idea, especially for middle schoolers. I agree with you that it makes learning more active and it adds a different taste to the school day. I think that is a great thing to incorporate. And it teaches students how to talk in front of others in a non-intimidating way. I also love how you put that teaching middle schoolers is not easy. I think that was a great point that you made. It also makes teachers in middle school humble enough to recognize that their job is not easy and that they need different strategies and methods constantly to best teach their students. Great point. I also loved the student input - I thought that was a great addition to the articles. Overall, great post!
Taylor -
ReplyDeleteThis is a strong recap. I can emphasize with the dreadful look people give but mine is when I admit I am leaving my corporate job to pursue a teaching career. First thing I am reminded about is the pay cut which I realize and does not deter me. Second is the politics in teaching and within districts which happens in any career so not a deal breaker. Third is you are working with kids in a thankless job. Well I want to work with the kids and I don't consider it thankless because when I make that one connection with a student, it makes all the difference to me. I have coached high school girls and I currently work with Scouts who are in middle school and high school and they are the reason I am changing careers. After reading the pieces this week and reading your blog, I think it takes a special person to be able to teach and at the middle school level.
I agree with your comments on collaboration but I think you left out one consideration which is the parent or guardians. By collaborating with parents, this brings everyone together on the same page with the educational direction and program. The parental collaboration is not just for concerns or negativity but should also be positive feedback, as one student noted at the end of the online article.
Your observations and notes about the student teaching and the teacher sitting among the students was wonderful. I have never actually observed that in practice but I have read about it or heard it from a previous Trinity professor. I must note this practice as it does support the active learning characteristic.
The section regarding the podcast was very interesting and as I was reading it was already thinking what you wrote. I couldn't agree with you more! By linking current events to learning opportunities, it creates stronger active learning but as educators we need to push ourselves and remember to use these tools and continue to learn. I don't do many podcasts and may now need to look more into this avenue of research and education for myself. Thank you!!
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteYou made some excellent points and I am glad you like teaching children in this level. My cousin also teaches in the middle grades and he loves it! I think his situation was more like the text described where he didn’t receive traditional teaching specifically for the middle grades, but rather took it as a job because he needed one and it grew on him from there. He enjoys this group because he feels like they still haven’t gotten “to cool for school.”
I might be looking at it with a little bit of a different perspective because I ultimately want to teach business in high school but your thoughts on collaboration are huge. Several projects that I have been a part of seemed as though it was the first experience my coworkers had with collaborative efforts. It is a lot of engineers fresh out of college so I had kind of assumed they would have done more of this type of project in their studies and it would still be fresh, but apparently that is not the case. We have also come together on corporate initiatives trying to solve some type of problem only to find that a subgroup had already dealt with it and met favorable results in their solution. The siloing and isolation really work to the detriment of everyone involved. Especially in a classroom situation where those new ideas can help to invigorate the teacher as well as the students or make a tough concept more accessible. I love being able to experiment with new ideas.
The student input is also something that I loved to see. I was toying with the idea of a weekly worksheet that aligns with some of the practices we use at my company. It gives them the opportunity for weekly feedback which I think can be beneficial for doing some mid lesson course corrections before they fall behind on a topic as well as revamping or replacing projects that aren’t very effective. I think of one teacher I observed who was using the same worksheets for a class since 1992. It was so dated and stale to me and the students looked completely disinterested. He was very lackadaisical in his delivery which also made me feel like he had lost interest in it some time ago. As we age as teachers and become further removed from what is on trend and relevant to students in these age brackets, survey type response can be a huge benefit in maintaining engagement.
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI, too, get many strange looks and comments when I say that I want to work in middle schools. I don't really understand why middle schoolers have such a bad stigma--they can be a ton of fun! I understand someone saying that they wouldn't be able to teach at that age (because I definitely could NOT teach elementary aged students), but to get rude comments from people really hurts. They just don't know what they're missing out on!
I like how you mentioned that we need to make the clear distinction between covering and learning. My dad is on the school board at a small school district in my area and quite often I hear about how poorly the students are performing. Many times, people ask if the information is being covered, to which the answer is always 'yes'. It is being covered, but not learned. Sadly, it seems like some of the teachers only care about covering the material and not if the students are actually learning it. If they are covering the material, shouldn't they just get it? Um...no. It very well could be that they aren't learning the material because the teachers don't have formal training for middle school aged students which does seem to be a recurring theme so far. Maybe some much needed middle school PD is in store for them sometime.
I also really liked the idea of giving surveys to students! I think that this is something that is vastly under-appreciated in schools. I NEVER took a survey about a class until I reached college. So many times in middle school and high school I wished teachers would do things one way or another and many of my friends agreed with me, but we never had the chance to change the way the teacher presented the material. Allowing students to give us feedback (and maybe even a bit of constructive criticism) would help us as we try to work together with our students for the benefit of the whole group and not what is comfortable for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the reading and look forward to reading more in the future!
Hello and peace to all,
ReplyDeleteHello Tayler,
So you made a lot of very good points in your post. There were two ideas that you brought up that I just wanted to touch on a little.
The first is that I am sorry that when you say to some of your friends that you are going to be teaching in the middle schools, they look at you with a hint of sadness, and/or think you’re crazy for doing it. As you know it’s about a calling , and a vocation to want to serve and care for the kids!... It’s definitely a labor of love, and so that others who don’t have this passion, and/or calling, might think it a craft that is very difficult. . And/but, I don’t know if they feel this way simply because you’re going into the middle grade years, or if it’s because you’re going in the teaching.
When I tell people going into teaching (and again, because my primary major is secondary Ed, my friends think I’m teaching high school), they all they are happy for me, and but many of them share that it’s a tough profession. And I think, that today, because of the independence of students, because of the cell phones, and because there are so many complaints about people from everybody, it is a very difficult profession to get into in, some ways.
So, the only point in bringing all this up is that I am not sure that people are reacting that way because you’re going in the middle schools, as much as it is just because you’re going into teaching…. In fact, I have heard many people say to me, that they would much rather teach the middle school kids than high school kids, these days, and that they really feel sorry for high school teachers…. But I could be wrong.
The other thing I wanted to mention from your post was I thought it was a fantastic idea of you to share how if kids gain so many points, they can teach a lesson! What a great idea that the person you seen this from had!… How great is it that you’ve adopted it and shared it with us too!... thank you.
And then, there could be a whole lesson from that , about critiquing the students teaching. And, when the students hear another student teaching who was their age, they might get into it more, and be invigorated in away. So, I thought that was really a great idea to raise ,Taylor.
Anyway, I am enjoying your thoughts and posts, and ideas… Peace Taylor…. Peace all
Hello and peace to all,
ReplyDeleteHello Taylor,
Sorry about the misspelling of your name in the first post. I use a Dragon Naturally Speaking program to type (it is a voice to text program), and every once in a while it makes mistake. Actually, it makes a lot of mistakes, and sadly, sometimes I don't catch them all. So, I apologize about the misspelling of your name in the beginning.
And by the way, sometimes I make mistakes, too, and it's not the Dragon's mistake... although oftentimes it is...when some odd words pops-up once in a while. And, in this case, the spelling mistake was the Dragon program's ....although, it is definitely on me for not catching it, so again, I apologize for that.
Anyway, peace again, Taylor...peace all.