SEED 522 Multi-genre Blog 2

 Scene:

Two teachers from different eras meet up in a coffee shop. The elder one, Jim, taught in the 1980’s and 1990’s and is currently retired. He is friends with the father of Micah, who is currently teaching. Jim taught at the secondary school level, from 7-12^th grade. Micah does the same.

Jim: So Micah, what grade do you teach?

Micah: Currently 8^th grade, but I have done anywhere from 7-10^th grade. I love teaching the middle schoolers.

Jim: I mostly taught the 11^th and 12^th grade. I hated teaching the younger kids.

Micah: Really, why is that?

Jim: Because they were unfocused. They talked to each other constantly, passed notes, got up and walked around for any damn reason.

Micah: Well they were middle-schoolers. It’s a very awkward phase. Some have issues sitting still. I allow them to stand or walk. Some are even allowed to walk out to the hallway for a couple of minutes. As long as they don’t disturb anyone. Usually they catch my eye and I just nod.

Jim: I didn’t allow any of that. These kids can’t sit still for 50 minutes? Have a little discipline.

Micah: Some of these kids have attention issues, ADHD, ADD, or anxiety. You didn’t have kids on with 504’s?

Jim: 50-whats? We had “different” kids. The teachers all used to talk about them in the breakroom. I guess we weren’t very sympathetic. They either straightened out, or more likely, their parents eventually pulled them and put them God knows where.

Micah: Really? All these kids deserve to learn. It’s not their fault they are like that. Many of them have problems at home. Social issues. We work with the parents and school councilors on solutions.

Jim: Eh, wasn’t my problem. Anyway, I didn’t have time to babysit these kids. I had to get through all the content. If they weren’t paying attention in class, they were going to miss some of the subject matter. I expected everyone to have their heads down taking notes on everything I said. Western Civilization is a very involved topic.

Micah: You didn’t review the material later on? Maybe present it in different ways? What if they missed a class?

Jim: They could get the notes from a friend. Everyone knew who took the best notes. Anyway, I gave out a study guide before the exams.

Micah: Did you provide the content in different ways? Web sites, PowerPoint slides?

Jim: You forget how long ago I taught. They barely had computers by the time I stopped teaching. Most people didn’t even have internet access from home. If they wanted to look things up, they could browse the encyclopedia in the school library.

Micah: How about teaching methods? Was your classroom student-centered? Did they feel like they were in an ideal environment for learning?

Jim: I talked and wrote the content on the board- it was up to the students to take if from there.

Micah: You never taught in a multi-facet way, where students created projects out of the information? This is a really useful for them to analyze and synthesize the information, not to mention really learn the material.

Jim: Now that you mention it, the last few years, based on a colleague’s suggestion, I had the students create a posterboard-sized newspaper “front-page”, with relevant events from the Civil War. I let them know I could overlook the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Little Round Top and Lincoln’s assassination didn’t happen on the same day.

Micah: How did that work out?

Jim: Well, if I recall, the students did do better on the Civil War unit exam. I figured it was just because they were more invested in doing well because it was the last unit before Christmas break.

Micah: Well, there you go. Studies shows that utilizing multiple learning and teaching methods to teach the material allows for better understanding and retention. Did they use PowerPoint or something to create the page?

Jim: It was the 1990’s. They used posterboard, markers and pencils. Anyway, it was the last few years of my career. It wasn’t really my style. That is not how teachers were taught to teach back then. That project was a departure from my normal routine, that I implemented reluctantly. I didn’t have all the resources you seem to have today. The kids learned just the same.

Micah: Well the good ones did. We prevent many more from falling through the cracks, by implementing child-centered educational methods.

Jim: Isn’t all school child-centered? If it wasn’t for the kids, I certainly wouldn’t have been there.

Micah: Well, we customize the teaching to how the kids learn. They all have different capacities and different ways of learning. Like I said, some of the best ones can learn in almost every environment. But we have to tailor some of the learning to the student’s strengths. That’s why we utilize so many different tools. Kids have more opportunities to utilize those that work best for them.

Jim: Sounds exhausting. I don’t know if I could do it today.

Micah: Well, I barely know any other way. Over my 10 years of teaching, new methods based on educational research crop up all the time. We discuss what works. Our department head might ask us to research and implement trials of new methods and assess their effectiveness. I have had some success with this.

Jim: New educational methods were slow to evolve in my day. Communication about these methods didn’t just pop up on the internet. I just went with what I know. Like I said, sounds exhausting.

Micah: Well, I didn’t get into it because it is easy. It all about how rewarding it is to see I am making a difference.

Jim: Different times.  Anyway, good to talk to you. Say hello to your dad.

Micah: Will do.

 

Analysis:

Clearly, teaching practices have changed over time. So much more is taken into account regarding a student’s ability to learn, and how best to implement methods to enable them to do so. From my viewpoint, as both a former student and now a parent of students, the involvement of schools in all facets of a student’s life - from food distribution to specialize learning plans - seems so much more enhanced than what I experienced.

The teaching methods I discuss from above do come from my personal experiences. I did have a high school history teacher who just lectured the entire time, and we were expected to write down everything he said. For me, this was a terrible way to learn. He was somewhat of a legend, and I don’t think in a good way. I did have another social studies teacher, in 8^th grade, who implemented the Civil War “front page” project. I remember really enjoying that assignment, and getting a lot out of it.

As I embark on this experience to become a teacher, I feel that I will definitely embrace new, more comprehensive methods for student learning. I did not have the opportunity to experience much of what is available today throughout my public school career. At the time, I believed that was just how we learned. I have since had many other opportunities to understand how I am best able to absorb knowledge, from graduate school to prerequisite classes for this program.

Learning by doing, using multi-faceted project-based methods, will allow students to learn more comprehensively. “The more this concept is applied, the more interested students will become, and the more they will absorb information” [1]. I certainly saw that with the “front page” project, as well as while learning from other teachers who thought outside the narrow box.

Additionally, the concept of student-centered learning, though overarching in its definition, has overtaken the ideas of teacher-centered or school-centered methods [2]. It would seem that even this course (SEED522) with its asynchronous format, allowing students to learn anywhere at anytime, is considered student-centered. Though student-centered may be an umbrella term that involves other modern methods of teaching, I think these methods are here to stay, and I looking forward to utilizing them to best allow students to learn in ways most effective towards their success.

The category  used in this blog is category 1- Interactions between more than one actor/agent

 

                References:

Teaching Methods: Multifaceted Projects As Central Strategies For Education by Lily Barber, Braydon Fox, Medium.com, July 26, 2017, https://medium.com/@braydenfox/teaching-methods-multifaceted-projects-as-central-strategies-for-education-8b9e70393040

Student Centered Learning, The Glossary of Education Reform, May 7, 2014, https://www.edglossary.org/student-centered-learning/

Fairfax County Public Schools, https://www.fcps.edu/node/32193

1