Summer Reflections
Looking Back
1. What have I learned this summer?
The first thing I learned this summer was to leverage students' natural inclination to wonder about the universe around them. By practicing with the World of Wonder assignments myself, I have been more observant and not "taking things for granted" as much. I am thinking that I can use the same exercise with my students. While they might not to be explain everything with the most current scientific models, we can organize the different "wonderings" onto a class conceptual map. This practice will also expose students to more complicated research and explanations so that they will be less intimidated by them in the future.
"Í know that if I share my work with other people, the work will become better" -Jaime Casap
As a teacher, I have been convinced of the "Explore, Create, Share" model. I have learned the value of producing and sharing work. In the past, I have been hesitant to share my work because I have been insecure about my teaching and have felt imposter syndrome. I have felt that I am an "imposter teacher" and that I'm not good enough for one reason or another. Through the process of the fellowship, I have learned that I have much to learn from various educators with diverse backgrounds and experiences. I have also learned that I have a unique perspective and voice which can be valuable to other educators. I have learned to connect with "experts" by following twitter hashtags and blogs. I appreciate the ability to collaborate with other educators through the internet much more. With the internet, any teacher can quickly publish their work with images, videos, and digital documents. Additionally, teachers from all over the world can quickly troubleshoot problems through twitter and forums.
2. What is new about this experience ?
Direct Application of Research- The summer fellowship sessions have been refreshing because we immediately put research into practice. The direct instruction is concise and most of the time was spent producing work for use in our specific contexts. The flipped classroom was modeled by assigning readings for homework and doing an activity with the concepts during class the next day. I felt that we produced higher quality work knowing that we were always going to be sharing our work with our peers. (Like high school students, we care more about peer-approval than instructor approval.)
Differentiation- Every product we produced was for specific use in our classroom in our specific context. I was highly engaged because I could use my expertise to produce high quality tools for my own use. This makes me wonder how I can differentiate physics concepts for each student's interest and context. Since students wouldn't be learning tools to take back to their classroom, I wonder what personal contexts students could apply physics models to.
3. How does this learning experience matter to me? Why?
This learning experience has reminded me of the importance of a safe learning environment. A learning environment must be a place where students are rewarded for taking risks. I have been inspired by how GoogleX rewards employees for "killing" their projects. If a team at GoogleX has reached the limits of a project and decides to kill the project, they receive financial bonuses and extra vacation time. This risk-taking culture is not natural, but changes the way we look at failure. Students need to be scaffolded through this process and feel success in taking smaller risks.
I have also been reminded of the pressure learners feel to learn new content and produce products under a time constraint. I felt moments of frustration while learning new skills such as photo editing, video editing, and web-page design.
During the process of learning new tech skills, I was reminded that the instructor doesn't need to model every step nor do I need to be an expert in every tool. It is valuable to have students explore the most common digital tools for a job (eg. Weebly, squarespace, wordpress) , but students will often find the best tools for them. Additionally, students eventually need to decide on one tool to learn and endure through the frustrations of the learning curve.
Looking Forward
1. How do I see this summer's experience influencing me in the future?
As a learner, I will only apply to highly selective programs with long applications so I know all the participants are self-selected. It was very encouraging to see teachers at every grade level and content level share their experience and tools. The diverse perspectives allowed for meaningful collaboration because everyone's unique voice contributed to the conversation.
2. How does this experience change what I think about teaching?
The fellowship reminded me of why education is engaging. Everyone enjoys learning new things if they are allowed to choose what they learn. Students are interested in the nuisances about how nature works. By not taking things for granted, we can appreciate the beauty of nature. By exploring the patterns and connections in nature, we can find our own place in nature and appreciate ourselves also.
I am always reminded that learning new content, skills, or producing new products is both challenging and time-consuming. I will move towards a flipped classroom where students work on problems and projects during class time so they can collaborate with their peers. I have always been worried about students staying on task during group work but I will be proactive by creating more engaging projects and scaffolding tools to tap into their intrinsic motivation rather than creating reactive behavior checklists connected to external motivation.
3. What am I taking from this experience and how can I use that when I go back to my classroom?
From this experience, I will try to give my students an aesthetic understanding of science. I will differentiate how students can represent their knowledge with projects related to their interests. Students will also have the choice of using tech tools to represent their knowledge in different ways.
The fellowship has also exposed me to digital collaboration through twittter, facebook, and blogs. The urban STEM community is incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and helpful. I feel very fortunate to be part of this community and I want to continue to contribute to this community.
The fellowship has reminded me to take time to build a class culture of collaboration of risk-taking. Learning is much more fun and productive when it is social.
1. What have I learned this summer?
The first thing I learned this summer was to leverage students' natural inclination to wonder about the universe around them. By practicing with the World of Wonder assignments myself, I have been more observant and not "taking things for granted" as much. I am thinking that I can use the same exercise with my students. While they might not to be explain everything with the most current scientific models, we can organize the different "wonderings" onto a class conceptual map. This practice will also expose students to more complicated research and explanations so that they will be less intimidated by them in the future.
"Í know that if I share my work with other people, the work will become better" -Jaime Casap
As a teacher, I have been convinced of the "Explore, Create, Share" model. I have learned the value of producing and sharing work. In the past, I have been hesitant to share my work because I have been insecure about my teaching and have felt imposter syndrome. I have felt that I am an "imposter teacher" and that I'm not good enough for one reason or another. Through the process of the fellowship, I have learned that I have much to learn from various educators with diverse backgrounds and experiences. I have also learned that I have a unique perspective and voice which can be valuable to other educators. I have learned to connect with "experts" by following twitter hashtags and blogs. I appreciate the ability to collaborate with other educators through the internet much more. With the internet, any teacher can quickly publish their work with images, videos, and digital documents. Additionally, teachers from all over the world can quickly troubleshoot problems through twitter and forums.
2. What is new about this experience ?
Direct Application of Research- The summer fellowship sessions have been refreshing because we immediately put research into practice. The direct instruction is concise and most of the time was spent producing work for use in our specific contexts. The flipped classroom was modeled by assigning readings for homework and doing an activity with the concepts during class the next day. I felt that we produced higher quality work knowing that we were always going to be sharing our work with our peers. (Like high school students, we care more about peer-approval than instructor approval.)
Differentiation- Every product we produced was for specific use in our classroom in our specific context. I was highly engaged because I could use my expertise to produce high quality tools for my own use. This makes me wonder how I can differentiate physics concepts for each student's interest and context. Since students wouldn't be learning tools to take back to their classroom, I wonder what personal contexts students could apply physics models to.
3. How does this learning experience matter to me? Why?
This learning experience has reminded me of the importance of a safe learning environment. A learning environment must be a place where students are rewarded for taking risks. I have been inspired by how GoogleX rewards employees for "killing" their projects. If a team at GoogleX has reached the limits of a project and decides to kill the project, they receive financial bonuses and extra vacation time. This risk-taking culture is not natural, but changes the way we look at failure. Students need to be scaffolded through this process and feel success in taking smaller risks.
I have also been reminded of the pressure learners feel to learn new content and produce products under a time constraint. I felt moments of frustration while learning new skills such as photo editing, video editing, and web-page design.
During the process of learning new tech skills, I was reminded that the instructor doesn't need to model every step nor do I need to be an expert in every tool. It is valuable to have students explore the most common digital tools for a job (eg. Weebly, squarespace, wordpress) , but students will often find the best tools for them. Additionally, students eventually need to decide on one tool to learn and endure through the frustrations of the learning curve.
Looking Forward
1. How do I see this summer's experience influencing me in the future?
As a learner, I will only apply to highly selective programs with long applications so I know all the participants are self-selected. It was very encouraging to see teachers at every grade level and content level share their experience and tools. The diverse perspectives allowed for meaningful collaboration because everyone's unique voice contributed to the conversation.
2. How does this experience change what I think about teaching?
The fellowship reminded me of why education is engaging. Everyone enjoys learning new things if they are allowed to choose what they learn. Students are interested in the nuisances about how nature works. By not taking things for granted, we can appreciate the beauty of nature. By exploring the patterns and connections in nature, we can find our own place in nature and appreciate ourselves also.
I am always reminded that learning new content, skills, or producing new products is both challenging and time-consuming. I will move towards a flipped classroom where students work on problems and projects during class time so they can collaborate with their peers. I have always been worried about students staying on task during group work but I will be proactive by creating more engaging projects and scaffolding tools to tap into their intrinsic motivation rather than creating reactive behavior checklists connected to external motivation.
3. What am I taking from this experience and how can I use that when I go back to my classroom?
From this experience, I will try to give my students an aesthetic understanding of science. I will differentiate how students can represent their knowledge with projects related to their interests. Students will also have the choice of using tech tools to represent their knowledge in different ways.
The fellowship has also exposed me to digital collaboration through twittter, facebook, and blogs. The urban STEM community is incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and helpful. I feel very fortunate to be part of this community and I want to continue to contribute to this community.
The fellowship has reminded me to take time to build a class culture of collaboration of risk-taking. Learning is much more fun and productive when it is social.