Technology Exposure

My current teaching placement at National Teachers Academy has already immersed me in all kinds of technology resources. The kindergarten room I have started teaching in is a one to one Ipad room, and has many other technological resources including an interactive promethean board. In all of my teaching experiences so far, I have never been surrounded by so many resources. Personally I have had an Ipad before our program so graciously required us to buy ours. I used mine for some tools in the classroom, including Class Dojo, or online storybooks and games for students. Those tools and apps though were not a good representation of using these resources in a way that had a smart instructional design.

When examining my school I note that there are many tiers of support in terms of how to implement technology in a proactive way in the classroom, and have it be purposeful. There are technology coaches for each grade level chunk, and an overall technology consultant for troubleshooting problems. Monthly, grade levels meet to plan for content, but also how to integrate technology to create the highest quality educational experiences for our students. Teachers and staff do not simply hop on buzzword trends. Teachers travel to professional developments to add to their technology knowledge banks, and connect with teachers around the country, sharing resources, through blogging and class sharing. As a whole, NTA has a special day on Tuesdays called NTA Tweets. Each classroom has learned purposes of social media, and the safety precautions needed when using it. Teachers and students work together to answer big critical questions regarding their school community and use the #NTALEARNS to share answers with each other in the building. The motive is to start conversations and strengthen community within the building and amongst families.

Coming from school experiences that had little to know technology, this sort of overwhelms me some days in trying to connect the positives and reasoning for why so much money is being spent in this category. The more I am learning the purpose and planning behind the tools, the better I can see the advantages in having a solid technology plan, and team in your school's building. I am looking forward to sharing more of what I am learning in my classroom and how I can connect it to our own NLU classroom knowledge.

Respect Goes a Long Way

I think the rest of my cohort would agree with me when I say that this has been quite the first semester. I have learned so much in many different categories of my life from this class. 

First and foremost I have learned that in order to stretch my thinking and be open to new things I need to drop my defenses. Something that was stressed this semester was that when it comes to understanding the overall causes in education we need to drop our personal experiences to be able to have a more specific picture of what is actually happening. I learned concepts, words, and overall perspectives that I had not been exposed to before. For that I am thankful. I can connect those new tools to the idea of helping our students reach their unique potential. I believe that did and didn’t happen in this classroom. 

Just like Professor Cunningham explained through his illustration, when we have the opportunity to meet new people from all kinds of cultures and backgrounds, we are exposed to know things that push us and help us reach that potential that we have yet to reach. I experienced that through my new relationships with my peers, as well as the talented professors we had this semester. Professor Cunningham pushed us to see things differently, and be able to have a better definition of what we stand for, as well as where we need to continue to grow in our understanding of today’s education.

 I think where there was lacking and was not seen in our class, was an understanding of how we go about reaching that point with our students. I have a full belief that if you want respect, you have to give respect. In my last three years of teaching, I have learned that although it is powerful to be truthful and honest, it is also just as important to develop relationships that show respect to your students. 

We want to make those connections with others who are different than us, and have those unique experiences we can learn from. To do that there has to be some sort of an understanding and layer of trust, both participants in the relationship have to feel a sense of respect for one another, even in differences of opinion. If we want our kids to reach the unique potential, it is our job to help connect those opportunities and bring in those connections and relationships to make that happen for our students. That is not going to happen if bars and guards are raised because we do not show a little kindness or respect to create the relationships that make that happen. Dana Piraino, a wise professor we took this semester, discussed the idea of culture like an iceberg.  We see the surface when we are initially with our kids, but it takes time and effort on our part to learn and understand the deeper larger part underneath that surface. Three hours a week with students does not give you the understanding of who you’re working with. 

When I approach and begin my school year with my kindergarteners, I am going to daily keep in mind the unique potential that is yet to come. I am going to think about who I can connect my kids too, and what experiences of my own can add new branches for my students. I am also going to give them the respect and kindness they deserve, while holding them to high expectations. 

My Journey to Here

            The question “Why do you want to teach in an urban school?” has been asked to me so many times. By now if I do not have confident answer, I might as well hang it up and go home. My reasoning, I believe, will just be the foundation that I will keep building and reflecting on.

          In order to explain how I ended up here, I have to back track a bit and explain myself. I am the oldest child of a two parent, six kid household.  My mom is a stay at home mom, and my dad a UPS driver. Overall though, we lived the basic middle class situation of living pay check to pay check. I grew up in house set in the middle of a 16 acre wooded lot, and my village growing up, only had about five hundred residents. In terms of diversity, the most you could ever expect was the handful of Hispanic exchange students we would get each year in our high school. Otherwise, general attitudes and sharp stereotypes believed by village residents discouraged any possible chance of diversity.

 For my entire life I have always wanted to be some sort of teacher. I spent many days bossing around my youngest siblings, making them do different activities and outdoor tasks. My parents took us to the library each week, and encouraged us in our individual interests. In my elementary years, I was in love with my teachers. I was the kid who cried on the last day of school.

Fast forwarding a decade found me at Grand Valley State University, smack dab in the bible belt of West Michigan. I was in a state of transition. For personal reasons I had just bailed out of the music education program, switching into language arts, and was in a bit of a mental funk. I was ready for change. My drive to teach in an urban school came that year in Susan Carson’s Cultural Education course. That class sparked a bit of magic for me. Dr. Carson’s class took place in the library of Coit Creative Arts Elementary, an urban Grand Rapid’s Public School. The school had nearly an all-black population, with a low socio-economic status. Here we worked with students twice a week doing math and reading tutoring. We also worked with members of the community completing service projects like local food trucks, and student outings. Between our experiences within the school, Dr. Carson’s personal stories of teaching in severely impoverished areas, and serious class discussion, I begin to view education with a whole new perspective and as a whole different purpose.

 We learned from reading LisaDelpitt about how to be a warm demander, meaning that we need to hold our students to high expectations and standards, while also caring and encouraging our students to bring out the best potential.

* A great Lisa Delpitt read* 

http://www.amazon.com/Multiplication-Is-White-People-Expectations/dp/1595588981

 I learned how a neighborhood school works, and how important it is to create strong relationships with community members and outside resources. I began understand the value of relationships in education, and how understanding others’ perspectives can evoke the best solutions for our students. I learned how developing a strong classroom community can make or break your teaching year. I saw poverty through a new lens. I thought I grew up struggling, but I felt like an idiot when I began to process that there is a huge difference in not being able to afford mall style clothes, shopping at Save-a-lots, not having second car or soccer camp, and worrying about the next time you would eat during the week. I had, and still have, so much to learn about the different components of poverty and systematic inequalities. I began to examine my own bias, and although I personally think I am one of the most open minded thinkers to come out of my small town, the reality is we do not always see what is embedded deep down within.  What these students struggle with every day is something that I can only try to understand and do my best to help them reach their fullest potential. These experiences changed me forever. After that I knew there was no way I could accept the idea of teaching in a suburban or close minded classroom. I found my passion for teaching in urban in education.           

That still does not answer how I ended up in the AUSL residency. When my class with Dr. Carlson ended, I spent much time working with the at-risk, particularly Hispanic, urban population of Grand Rapids. This past year, bring me to my application to AUSL. Last year I worked as a behavioral interventionist for Parkview Elementary, the highest at risk/behaviorally challenged elementary school in our district. My job was essentially a cheaper knock off of a second social worker for my building. I was qualified because at the time I was obtaining my Masters in Special Education with an emphasis in Behavioral Disorders. Through the high-highs and low-lows, I loved my job immensely. A handful things kept eating at me.

. In our district we were seeing changes in our school population. With each year our ELL population keeps rising, along with the poverty level and need for outside student services also matching that trend. Teachers are doing their best to keep up, but the education and burn out rate is also matching that rise. My building has truly dedicated teachers, but the handful of teachers who had the clock in-clock out mentality, dragged our school down. Teachers did not have the strategies, and often energy, to try different things to reach students. Sometimes there was not even enough momentum to share ideas on what was working within the staff.

While working, I was in school full time. My hope, along with learning how to teach diverse learners, was that I would be receiving teaching that was specific to urban education. That these “expertise” professors of the field would be able to help fill in these knowledge gaps of what to do differently. I found overall this was not the case. My behavior disorder professor, Mark King was wonderful. He gave fantastic strategies, and stories of experience, discussed the importance of building relationships, and most importantly not being afraid to fail and pull yourself up and try again. My other class content though was not reaching my needs. I would ask questions about issues in my building, and they could not answer my questions. Everything was based off of the perfect white suburban classroom. I would have class days where tech materials, culturally biased texts, and classroom strategies were presented by the professor. In my district these would not work because of lack of funds, resources, space etc. When I would ask for ideas on how to differentiate these to a setting similar to my building I would either get an eye roll, or a brush off conversation. I hit early winter and I was angry. I was sick of the lack of motivation make change, and university education that could not keep up with the surrounding population or provide me with needed answers.

 That is how I ended up in my AUSL residency. I found it attractive in that it had a master’s program specifically with the content I have so badly sought after, while also giving us the hands on experiences from a turn around school.

In my last little bit I want to wrap up with the challenges I think I will face. I first and foremost know in my head I will nag myself wondering if I made the right decision to be in a program that is so data driven. Many of the strategies we are being taught are almost identical to behavior management in my behavior disorder program. I will face the challenge of going down that rabbit hole in my head of whether I think it is fantastic because I know these approaches work with behavioral challenged kids, or whether I should be unsure about that used as a whole based approach With poverty and culture being so multifaceted, I think every school will have different kinds of problems. I am excited to be able to learn from my peers who will face different and similar challenges that I will. I think a challenge will be to keep my bias in check, as well as building trust with my students and staff.  Above all, especially being in a program like AUSL, I think we will be challenged to prove we are not the white knight wannabe trying to save the day, but teachers who truly are devoted to making a difference in education.