Nicole Cinader MAET summer cohort Final Reflection July 2013

Looking Back: At the end of the very first day, I felt as though I hadnt learned anything and I was worried that the class was going to be too easy. Boy, was I wrong! During that first day, we were given the opportunity to take a picture of ourselves, defining who we are as an individual. It was a good way to wake everyone up, since most of the people had been on summer vacation for at least a week at this point. Even though the day before I was proctoring tests and cleaning my classroom, I still felt as though it was a good way to warm up to the class. After the get-to-know-yous, we started to get into the real stuff. The first nights readings were another good way to warm up to the program. Shulmans What is learning and what does it look like when it doesnt go well reminded me of a book that I had just finished for one of my other MAET courses The Anti-Education Era by James Paul Gee. They both touch on the fact that the U.S. Education system covers a lot of ground, but doesnt dig too deep into the content. The most beneficial thing that came from this discussion (only because I had read about this before) was learning about the forgetting curve by Hermann Ebbinghaus. It was nice to put a name to a concept that I understood but found difficult to talk about since there wasnt a term for it (in my mind). Similar to the first reading, I had already read the exact same information about the TPaCK from my other courses in the MAET program. I thought that this shouldve been a suggested reading, and not a required one. The only reading that I found useful the first night was Feynmans Its As Simple as one, two, three In What Do You Care What Other People Think. I found this to be an interesting way to show that people think differently, and thus learn

differently. Whats fun is I always tell my students that people picture different things when they are speaking and I ask them to think about what they picture or think of in their minds when they talk. Its a hard activity for my ninth graders to do, but it opens up their minds to learn vocabulary while picturing an action (for a verb) or an object (for a noun) instead of thinking of the translation into English. I think that I will use this example in the future when I have this conversation with my freshman class. The second day was my groups day to Storify and to present Tech Tips. I absolutely loved the Tech Tips portion of each day. It was a great way to share quick tips with everyone that could help make their lives easier, which is the best thing about technology. The Storify was a challenge, since most people hadnt been conditioned yet to Tweet anything and everything we discussed and thought during class; but it still worked out. My group definitely did a wonderful job collaborating and motivating others to help out. I think that I could use Storify in my classrooms to track what weve been discussing and to help my students review what theyve learned during their reflections. The review of Behaviorism was good, since I hadnt spoken or thought about Pavlov, Skinner, Watson, or even conditioning minds since undergrad. The best take-away from this discussion was the review of the terms for punishment, reward, operant conditioning, classical conditioning, etc. Its always a good idea to look back at the classroom and see if we, as teachers, are actually doing any of these things, but we didnt get a chance to do that. So what we shouldve done is ask: How does this term apply to or carrying over into your classrooms? after every definition was given. It wouldve been a great and easy large group discussion. I felt that only the group who presented the definitions was the only one to give in-class examples.

My favorite discussion was the one on background knowledge, and how assessing/knowing what the learner already knows is the most important factor of teaching. I liked that we reviewed that not all learning is taught, that creativity and ingenuity comes from insight. And, how do we teach creativity and insight? By giving opportunities for kids to explore, test, create, etc. through a constructive process (process of transforming understanding of what students already know). Learning can also be GROWTH - growth in general cognitive abilities like problem solving. I liked the example of the child with the red & green balls. It reminds me to give my students time to work on their own and to give them open-ended projects. It was a great reiteration of the benefits of BIG question teaching. Then we discussed memory, since we need to know how to make information stick so that it can make it into a students background knowledge for the future. This made me think of the Why Dont Students Like School novel by Daniel Willingham that we read, since we covered different forms of memory (retention, encoding, and retrieval), and then went on to discuss working memory. In our reading of Levstiks and Bartons The theory behind disciplined inquiry, we discussed how we need to start with the students background knowledge, then guide/teach on top of what they already know; we are modifying their understanding not writing on a blank piece of paper. Another good point that this reading made was: students need to know WHY they are learning what theyre learning. I like to attach meaning whenever possible. Its a motivator in itself, when presented properly and clearly to the students. This then lead into the Theories of Development talk. I did not find this talk very helpful, being in the secondary field. Even though the terms are useful, I did not think it was necessary for me to relearn this information.

But then we discussed the reading Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Childrens Experience by Watson and Kopnicek, which states: Children will modify their experiments to accommodate their beliefs long before they will change their beliefs to fit the evidence. This was the part that really wrangled me back into the conversation. I was aware that misconceptions occurred, because we all misunderstand things, but I was not aware of how strongly we were attached to our background knowledge. Reviewing this now, I think about how maybe we have something in our mind, but then when new information just doesnt make sense or it doesnt seem to fit, then we just go back to what we thought of originally. I can see the background knowledge as the fall back when something new just doesnt seem to click. The presentation over the library database was a waste of my time. It shouldve been at the end of the day, and offered only to those who needed it. Then the rest of us couldve just gone home. I learned nothing new. I agree with Vygotsky when he says that people are naturally curious and actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of new understanding. I see this in my students on a daily basis. I feel it in myself. I liked the review of the terms; again, it was nice to put a real term with concepts that I understood before but didnt have the correct vocabulary to discuss. I strongly believe in the Zone of Proximal Development and in Scaffolding, and I try to incorporate Situated Learning into my classroom when I do my Language Warm-Up at the beginning of the class. I introduce a new topic by asking my students about it in French, then they see the reason behind learning the topic at the same time that their curiosity is sparked. So after the background knowledge and the learning theories, I was reminded that I am a guide in the classroom, and that I should not be speaking more than the students. I think its

important to note, here, that it is the students who should be uncovering the truth, not the teacher doing the uncovering for the students. Its a great reminder to have when lesson planning and when teaching. Its one that I strive to accomplish each year, since I am a bit of a control freak. I thought the discussion on mastery was necessary, but it didnt fit in here. It was beneficial to discuss that we are not master teachers unless we are recognized as such by others as well as ourselves, but it just didnt work here. Now weve reached the day that we discussed praise. Again, the terms extrinsic and intrinsic were useful to have when discussing the readings. Caution - Praise Can Be Dangerous by Carol S. Dweck scared me a little until I thought about it more. I understand her point that telling students that they are smart makes them think that its natural, but we cannot change how society views the word smart. I like the idea of rewarding my students based on the effort that they put it, but I also think that sometimes the amount of effort can be too much for some students when they are really trying to learn vocabulary terms and they just cant get it. What this reading really reminded me is that differentiation is KEY; we need to motivate and challenge EACH student so the task is challenging & solvable, while still not being too easy. So when I give students assignments on using a concept, I need to know what each kid can handle. This past year I really started to do that, but it takes at least a few months to get to know each student on a level where you can do so. The De-motivational posters were fun, but give less time so then people come up with fewer posters. We still wouldve covered the same material, since there was some repetition.

The 3 x 3 x 3 videos were perfect for the novel Why Dont Students Like School? since it was summarizing what wed been reading and would continue to read. But then, it made me wonder why we didnt just read the novel and not all of the extras or why we read the novel at all, since it was covered in all of the extras. My favorite video was the TED Talk by Ken Robinson titled Schools Kill Creativity I think that we shouldve led Day 6 with it, since it was a great jumping off point for our discussions on how we need to become creative with technology. I loved the repurposing bit, but I think that we shouldve chosen TWO different tools from the web site to evaluate, and then we shouldve compiled it onto one large website instead of five, separate ones. The reading Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe was brilliant. I really hadnt thought about the difference between knowing and understanding until this reading. It made me think of the difference between hearing and listening. From now on, when I am lesson planning, I am going to ask myself these two questions: 1. What should students come away understanding? and 2. What will count as evidence of that understanding? Teaching That Sticks by Chip Heath & Dan Heath was also a good one, though it was a little obvious. Maybe its because Im only five years out of my undergrad program, but this reading made me want to say Obviously the entire time I read it. Maybe its a great review for older teachers or its a good use as a theory for newer teachers, but its an obvious inclusion for me. I teach this way, even though I didnt know that I do. I would say that this reading really defines my teaching pedagogy. Now, the Teaching for Aesthetic Understanding by Mark Girod was a great introduction into aesthetic teaching/learning. It was great, again, to gain that terminology

for what Ive already learned about. I love trying to get the students to re-see what they already know. The reading for school leaders was not very beneficial to me. And the reading about the call for change in the digital world was good, but I hate that it doesnt give a how to on the concept, not even a few minor suggestions. The app creation talk was OK, but I dont know if we needed a speaker to come in for that since we really figured it out as we used it. Looking Forward: My ALWAYS goal is to continue learning. I call this my personal professional goal, which always reminds me of my grandmother, who told me once that if were not learning then we might as well be moving backwards. So each of the following topics stem from my one, constant, life goal. The first topic that is important to me is to continue trying new technologies. I will still be a part of the MAET program for at least another year, and I will continue to collaborate with my coworkers, my administration, and my students even if that means across campuses. Other resources that have helped me in the past are the MACUL and ISTE sites, along with Twitter. I know that more resources will come in the next five years, and I look forward to being a continuous learner. My other main focus will be to utilize my new French 9 textbook. Its Vista Higher Learnings Second Edition of Espaces and it comes with an online component. I am looking forward to the new excuse to renew collaboration with the French teachers at the other campuses. My resources will be our old textbook, Vista Higher Learnings web site, the new textbook, and my colleagues.

As another topic to keep in mind as I move forward, I want to continue expanding my differentiated lessons. I have successfully created a few, but I want nearly every lesson to be differentiated while still being relevant to the future generations. I want them to put their own mark on their education. So my resources will continue to be my coworkers, some of which are experts on differentiation, but my main source will be my students, who will tell me what they need and/or want. And for my final goal, I want to expand my learning outside of the MAET program and the International Academy. This means that I want to attend more conferences, become a Google Certified teacher, and possibly present at a conference. The top conferences on my list are the ISTE and MACUL conferences as well as the MYP training conferences. These are the most important to be because they are the most well-known and most revered conferences in the educational technology field. Just by following along on Twitter, I felt as though I learned a lot from these conferences; imagine what I would learn if I were able to attend one. This is a good balance of goals and resources, since some I will interact with everyday and others, only here and there, but each will hold weight at different times throughout the five years. As I say, each of us needs a jumping off point and a concrete landing spot. I see the lists above as a jumping off point for some things and a concrete landing pad for other things. The nice thing about technology is that its always changing, expanding, and becoming user-friendlier. I just need to continue to find ways to repurpose it for my classroom, for my personal life, and for my professional life.