Mentoring, Mentor Letter, UbD - Differentiated Instruction

One of the assignments in my 639 Mentoring and Leadership class was to write a letter to a mentor I've had in my life that has positively affected me. I selected my principal, Joyce because of her support and encouragement throughout my first two years of teaching. Because of her, I still have a job... who knows what the future will hold for me next year... although I have been dreaming middle school. :)

Anyhow, I wrote the letter... but found it really hard to release it to my cadre of OMET students. There is a part of me that faces difficulty sharing my feelings with others as in my brain, I feel a sense of weakness. I didn't, however, have any problem with handing the letter over to my mentor. She was grateful and expressed her gratitude with a few words-- me being a light, sunshine to the staff and coming with confidence and fresh ideas-- something of which I also pride myself with and hope that I will remain for the duration of my teaching professional years.

I have been reading some of the books on our agenda and have been getting a bit out of each one. The information in UbD and the Differentiated Instruction book is not necessarily new information to me (I would struggle a great deal without being an educator) being recently trained in a teaching program and seeing the "new wave" design of curriculum that our education system is morphing into, but I do pick up a few pieces of encouragement for what I do read: On page 22 of Integrating Differentiated Instruction-UbD, I loved this quote:

"Learning happens within students, not to them."

This quote remains an eye-opener of sorts for me, being so new to the profession and observing so many teachers I don't want to emulate in the way of teaching. There are others, however, who remain to be a light for me (unfortunately lesser in number).

One final story: A friend of mine, Jen, of whose personal blog is posted as a favorite on this blog site to your right... is a high school math department chair and teacher for an inner-city school just a couple miles from the ritzy, pretentious schools in our beach city area. She has been driven to want to quit multiple times within her 6 years of teaching and has quickly worked her way up the ladder. She has gone through 3 principals and 2 superintendents of her school district that is in utmost turmoil--in addition to the gang shootings and lock downs which are commonly in the news. It is also the school in which students from Lennox, a city with the highest murder rate per capita in So. California, attend. So, as you might guess, teaching and learning isn't much of a focus for these students. Surviving is. Jen has recently had it on her heart to investigate other options in areas of Redondo Beach because of the difficulty of teaching in her school... apparently attendance is a joke as kids simply don't come to school. She has been looking into RUHS - the high school in which I attended in a pretty nice area. By no means is it a Beverly Hills type of school, but it certainly sits in a nice part of town. She has good rapport with the principal and sat in during a math meeting and observed some math teachers to get a feel for the team and job she may be entering. As she left, she expressed to the principal that there was a lot of "untapped potential" within the staff and overall, her experience was "boring" -- which brings me to think that learning should always be fun. I really truly believe that there are ways to help students see the passion that YOU have in teaching what you love. IT IS CONTAGIOUS. Anyhow, I encouraged Jen that although she may feel like teaching there would be a difference, there is an obvious need for teachers to spice things up a bit. It requires someone to take a leap of faith.

Finally, my fiance was also in this conversation with Jen and he talked of his pretentious high school in Middletown Maryland of whose AP Calculus scores were through the roof... but having "smart" kids who can teach themselves does not necessarily mean that the teacher is the root cause of success. As he put it, "the teacher was boring, but with the textbook, we taught ourselves" -- and then test scores go up, no one complains and teaching is just the same as always, boring.

EDC 665 - Week 2 Blog

Using the same learning experience, what were your desired results? Why did you choose these results?

My desired result of the colonial newspaper project was for students to understand the aspects of colonial life and gain a taste of the ammenities that the first 13 colonies had at that time in history. I also desired for students to learn how to research using books for information in which they wanted to include, work together by dividing tasks, and enjoy the process of living through the history of our nation.

Given my new knowledge of understanding and knowledge, I not only wanted my students to be knowledgeable, but to carry on their knowledge into understanding that would trigger whenever they come across another colonial life piece in their own lives. Students would understand timeline of events as they continue through the history of our nation and world and see how these growth patterns affect one another. I want their understanding to be so great that when studying world history the following year in sixth grade, they piece together the timeline and factor the relationships between what was occuring in Europe to what was occuring in the 13 colonies at the time.

I chose all of these results (great appreciation and understanding of colonial life, research abilities, working together in groups, enjoying the history of our nation) for the same reason I chose to begin teaching: I have a passion for learning and I want to share this same passion with my students. I believe that learning about our ancestors and the rich, but new history of our nation shapes decisions that are made today given our constitution, due process of law, etc. I believe it is valuable for students to learn how to find the answers they seek as this world in which they live is about questions. Having the resources to answer those will help each one of us grow. Finally, working together occurs all hours of our (awake) lives.

From the feedback given by my students and their proud faces when their project was unveiled to their parents, families, and friends during Open House, they did in fact learn something. Given their conversations and their watching their faces light up really showed their learning.

UbD - Understanding by Design - "teaching by mentoring it"

As I read through the first chapter in UbD, I came across a passage that reflects (sadly) the very teaching I find myself stuck in often. It's called "teaching by mentoring it." In this method, according to page 21, the teacher talks, checks off topics and moves on, irrespective of whether students understand or are confused.

I am guilty of this! So often I rely on the textbook creators (let us remember, they aren't teachers) to design my curriculum for me. If I do not use the textbook, I am in fear that I won't cover everything or align myself with other members of my grade level team.

Another reason I believe I "teach by mentoring it" is because I am not as familiar with the curriculum I am currently teaching than the other members of my grade level (although I'm not sure they are either at times!). This is my first year teaching 4th grade and I am still mastering the content with the students. That makes the UbD model a little harder, because I have no prior knowledge of teaching the information or what examples I can pull from previous year's lessons.

I'm enjoying the book... but just wish it was more user-friendly in size. It's such a textbook and not a book I can lug around in my purse.