I Love Everybody ( A 4 page essay on having humanity in education)

I have been working on a job application to a year round school that values:

"multiage grouping, cooperative learning, learning style differences, multiple intelligences, technology, integrated thematic learning, and graduation standards in a year-round setting."

Wow! How does one begin to convince such an employer that you as a candidate value those things and have experience implementing them. Applicants have to compose a 4 page essay.

My first attempt at this prompted the earlier blog entry, "I hate school."
Frankly, I'm a bit sick of all these applications especially when, in my experience, schools SAY all these wonderful lofty schools but in reality they just care about MCA test scores and they want you to teach the curriculum one boring page at a time. The chasm between theory and practice can be staggering at times.

With that said, I am quite proud of my essay responses to this East Metro Suburban district. Furthermore, as much as possible I have provided concrete examples and anecdotes of me actually living what I proclaim to believe in.

Enjoy:

A. Describe how you, as a classroom teacher, would integrate these concepts into the curriculum and your daily classroom instruction.

The best way to teach every student at his or her unique level is to let the students teach themselves. That means differentiating learning through choice. Academic choice is a concept that I have used in my teaching practice since I was trained in Responsive Classroom back in 2000. Academic Choice means that students choose what they will do, how they will do it, with which materials, or with whom they will work during most of the day. The teacher determines what the choices will be and all of the choices have academic merit.

This is even more important in a multi-age classroom. I have spent some time studying the work and methods of Maria Montessori. In a Montessori classroom, everything is self-directed and a student’s main teachers are his peers. All Montessori classrooms are multiage and naturally, younger students want to be doing what older students are doing. Learning is increased for all involved. Younger students are able to handle more challenging material via mentoring by older students. Additionally, giving older students responsibility makes them act more responsibly and the mentoring to younger students helps cement recent learning in their own schema. I have taught multiage 2nd and 3rd graders at Yinghua Academy and I found it helpful to have times during the day both for single grade and multiage instruction. Academic Choice took many forms, including: choosing work partners, choosing Math and Language Arts stations, and choosing topics for Writing and Science projects.

For young children, learning is best when it is interactive and social. So cooperative grouping is key. One form of cooperative grouping that I have used is jigsaw study groups for research projects. Students become experts on a topic and then team with other student experts to compare and contrast, for example, different immigrant groups and their patterns of immigration to the U.S. An important part of forming cooperative groups is “planned dependency”. Jigsawing is one way to accomplish that.

In other forms of cooperative grouping, students can be assigned specific roles within a group. For Math or Science, having jobs such as getter, recorder, reporter, and a starter can be helpful. For reading groups students can be assigned jobs such as “Word Wizard”, “Summarizer”, “Questioner”, “Character specialist”, and the like.

No matter what jobs are assigned time must be taken by the teacher early in the year to teach the roles and responsibilities and train the students. Most importantly, there must always be a mechanism to deal with problems and conflicts as they arise.

I am highly creative, and I am very adept at integrating technology in the classroom. I have worked for two organizations that are committed to making science and technology accessible and fun for children. With Mad Science, I taught children to build their own robots and rockets while simultaneously educating them in the history and science behind their construction. Currently, on the weekends, I teach primary age kids to program their own computer games and make their own animated movies.

In my classroom I would like to see students using Scratch, Power Point, Kid Pix, Imovie, and other software to illustrate their own learning. I would also like to see older students contribute to a classroom webpage, newsletter, or blog.




I received my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Lesley University in 2006. Through a unique program called creative arts in learning I received training in integrating the arts through thematic learning. For over two years my cohort and I designed units in which puppetry, poetry, drama, movement and other arts were used to teach core subjects such as Math, Reading, Social Studies, and Science.


It is my belief that learning happens best when students construct their own meaning and are able to connect with new knowledge through personal experiences. For most students, I believe the arts provide that bridge to meaning. For example, writing a five paragraph essay is a common culminating project for a study of biographies of famous people. Why not write a piggy back song? A bio poem? A short skit or play? Why not have a town hall meeting where everybody comes in dressed up as their assigned historical figure? I have done all of these with children in the classroom. Here’s an excerpt from a piggy back song that I wrote about one of our famous astronomers:

Galileo Galilei
(Sung to the tune of “Clementine”)
Chorus:
GALILEO GALILEI
What a brilliant man he was
But the church did not believe him
Forced to recant
Just because

1.
Born in Pisa, February 15th
Fifteen sixty four
A music man named Vincent
Had a son who is a star

2.
Born with Shakespeare
Died with Michelangelo
A true genius he became
Without his efforts
Our sweet science
Would never be the same

3.
Like Copernicus
First a doctor
Then a mathematician he became
Pendulum, microscope, compass
And a space shuttle to his name



B. Explain how you would team with other teachers to support the learning of all children.

I have extensive experience planning with teams of teachers. I have teamed with fellow classroom teachers, as well as ELL, SPED, and specialists such as Computer or Foreign Language. Whether you are planning a unit of study, conducting a child study meeting, or comparing student portfolio work samples, it’s always great to have multiple opinions. The great part of being on a team is that everyone has different ideas, different strengths, and weaknesses. As long as you are all committed to doing what’s best for children, this is a recipe for success. Some of my strengths include teaching Math, Science, and the Writing Process. I am also adept at integrating technology, gathering resources, and looking at problems in fresh and original ways. One of my weaknesses is allowing plans to become too complex and it is helpful for me to have teammates who know how to simplify. I love teaming because I love learning new ways of doing things and I’m always looking for new ideas. Two heads are always better than one!

C. Explain how you would form partnerships with parents/guardians especially with those families who may be most disenfranchised.

At Community of Peace Academy, during the first three months of school, we would make Home Visits to the families of each and every child in our classroom. During these visits we would establish a positive relationship with parents on neutral ground and establish goals for the school year. The parents, the teacher, and the student herself would all set a goal for the student. These goals would later be revisited at parent teacher conferences throughout the year. Whether via a visit to the home, a conference at school, phone call, or e-mail I have used this process throughout my career. I think it is essential that before there is talk of report cards, grades, academic progress, or social problems we first meet parents on neutral ground to discuss their child. Conversations can begin with open-ended questions such as: What does your child like to do for fun? What does your family enjoy doing together? What is special about your child? What do you want for your child this year? What was good/bad about last year?

I also think it is helpful to have weekly newsletters and/or weekly communication logs with parents. Something as simple as having a small space in a homework folder or learning log is helpful. This could include a space for parents to check off that their child has done her homework, is reading at home, and a place for parents and teachers alike to write messages and ask questions. If it is appropriate to the community, communication via e-mail, classroom webpage, blog, or e-mail is also helpful.

It’s important to get parents into the school building as often as possible. I’ve been in buildings where parents volunteer on a weekly basis as well as places where parents are mostly only seen at conferences or special events such as musical or theater performances. I have planned family nights to showcase units such as a Roman History night or museum showcasing a particular unit of study. I find it best to offer opportunities both during the school day and at night for a variety or parent work schedules.


D. What are the key issues in establishing a learning community that not only is sensitive to diversity but respects and values the differences such as race, ethnic, culture, or economic?

I have been teaching for 10 years. I have taught in schools where the majority of the population is African-American, Caucasian, Japanese, Hmong, rich, poor, and immigrant. What I have found to be true is….

• The heart of good teaching is relationships.
• Students need to feel ownership
• The best way to value difference is to share what we have in common.

I start each year with Hopes and Dreams. Students need to feel ownership of the classroom and that school is a place where they can work towards and eventually attain their hopes and dreams. School should be a place where their questions are valued.

I think the best way to value differences is to talk about how we are the same. For young children, all learning is social and everything is personal. Students construct meaning by making connections between what they learn in school and what they already know to be true in their lives. So in my classroom, everyone shares their hopes and dreams in September, everyone shares at morning meeting, and everyone shares about their personal experience while learning.
So as a community of learners we learn things like, four children want to be professional athletes, and three children want to be doctors and some of them are boys and some of them are girls. Both Mohamed and Joel have parents who will fast this year, Mohamed’s for Eid, Joel’s for Yom Kippur. Tamara and Jeff spend Sunday mornings with their families but one goes to a church and one goes to a Vikings game. Both Ruby and Tamara want to be singing divas when they grow up. Both are taking dance lessons which their parents take them to, but one has one mommy and one has two.
Everybody gets breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks but we differ in how we get the food and nutrition we need. Some may get snack from the teacher but others bring snack from home. But everybody gets what they need: food, love, belonging, challenge, and respect. And getting what we need is not the same as everybody getting the same thing. Billy needs glasses, and Suzy needs to get her blood sugar checked by the nurse, and Tamara needs a wheel chair. Ike sometimes needs to work by myself or go for a walk around the school.
Having universal respect for all children and all adults everywhere is how we create a community that values diversity. I allow zero putdowns and teach students to act with kindness in all situations. We make mistakes despite our best intentions. Responsive Classroom and a decade of working with children has helped me to teach students about restitution and fixing what we break. We create respect for our differences by demonstrating an understanding that we all need the same things as human beings on this planet.