The Next 5 Years
My short term goal for this school year was to use the fifty minutes that I see my students each day to turn my students into mathematical problem solvers. I have been focusing my Algebra class more this year on group work and problem solving and I have noticed that many of my students are more engaged in the material than they may have been in the past. My long term goal was to work to get the teachers in my department to see how important it is for our students to have a growth mindset when it comes to math. Some of the practices that I see in the other math classes in our school can promote a fixed mindset and I often hear students talking about how bad they are at math and that they aren’t a math person. This is a stigma that I would like to work to get rid of in the next five years.
I am anticipating more change in the years to come. This school year has been the most transformational of my last ten years of teaching. I have started to see the importance of getting past the requirements of passing Algebra and have been working to make sure that my students truly understand concepts before we move on. This may have taken more time to teach particular concepts, but this deeper understanding has helped my students to have a better grasp on other topics as they come up.
My PLN has pushed me to explore using more play in the classroom to help students learn. I have started to implement more time for problem solving play, computer games, and group activities into my classroom through the learning that I have done with my deep play group. This has been a time of safe practice which made it easier to explore new ideas in the classroom. All of the members of my group are implementing new methods for teaching in the classroom and we have been able to bounce ideas off of each other to see what has worked well and what ways could we improve upon failed lessons.
My teaching has morphed this school year and I hope to push it even more in the coming years. This year, through the MSUrban Stem program I have put much more thought and planning into my daily lesson plans. I have been scared to put my students into groups in the past because I am a control freak and like to be in control of everything! This school year I have put most of the control in the hands of my students. I have put in more hours of planning and working to make sure that students have the tools they need to work successfully in their groups, but it is the best school year I have had in the ways of student achievement. I am looking forward to the summer when I am able to work more on transforming my classroom lessons to be even more student centered.
I am anticipating more change in the years to come. This school year has been the most transformational of my last ten years of teaching. I have started to see the importance of getting past the requirements of passing Algebra and have been working to make sure that my students truly understand concepts before we move on. This may have taken more time to teach particular concepts, but this deeper understanding has helped my students to have a better grasp on other topics as they come up.
My PLN has pushed me to explore using more play in the classroom to help students learn. I have started to implement more time for problem solving play, computer games, and group activities into my classroom through the learning that I have done with my deep play group. This has been a time of safe practice which made it easier to explore new ideas in the classroom. All of the members of my group are implementing new methods for teaching in the classroom and we have been able to bounce ideas off of each other to see what has worked well and what ways could we improve upon failed lessons.
My teaching has morphed this school year and I hope to push it even more in the coming years. This year, through the MSUrban Stem program I have put much more thought and planning into my daily lesson plans. I have been scared to put my students into groups in the past because I am a control freak and like to be in control of everything! This school year I have put most of the control in the hands of my students. I have put in more hours of planning and working to make sure that students have the tools they need to work successfully in their groups, but it is the best school year I have had in the ways of student achievement. I am looking forward to the summer when I am able to work more on transforming my classroom lessons to be even more student centered.
Setting Goals
While I was talking to a colleague a few years back we were discussing why it is so important to be open minded when working with teenagers and not take most of what they say during your class to hear and during this conversation we discussed the fact that teenagers are still growing their minds. They are still unsure of what type of person they will be in the future and most importantly are still trying to figure out how to fit into this crazy place that is their high school. I often think back to this conversation when I am frustrated with my students or with the underclassmen that I am trying to help succeed in academics as a way to refocus my approach to dealing with my students.
My short term goal is to make sure that I am doing my best during the short fifty minutes I have with my students each day to make their mind grow in a positive direction. This year, I’ve tried to make sure that I am not only helping my students to learn how to do Algebra, but also allowing my students to work together in small groups and learn how to be positive contributors to these small groups.
My long term goal is to work with the other teachers in my building and make sure that when we are dealing with our students we remember that their minds are still growing. This means that while we may not always agree with the choices they are making during our classes, we need to make sure that we help to guide them to choices that will help them succeed. I will aim to do this through the work that I do with underclassmen and focus on working not only with students to see how they can change the way they approach school but also to working with teachers to see how I can change the way that they approach their work with students.
My short term goal is to make sure that I am doing my best during the short fifty minutes I have with my students each day to make their mind grow in a positive direction. This year, I’ve tried to make sure that I am not only helping my students to learn how to do Algebra, but also allowing my students to work together in small groups and learn how to be positive contributors to these small groups.
My long term goal is to work with the other teachers in my building and make sure that when we are dealing with our students we remember that their minds are still growing. This means that while we may not always agree with the choices they are making during our classes, we need to make sure that we help to guide them to choices that will help them succeed. I will aim to do this through the work that I do with underclassmen and focus on working not only with students to see how they can change the way they approach school but also to working with teachers to see how I can change the way that they approach their work with students.
Rocking the Boat
Task Zero: Review
Rocking the Boat by Debra Meyerson takes a look at the many different ways that individuals are able to help initiate change throughout their daily interactions at work and beyond. This book gives us a look at both small and large ways to initiate change in the workplace and then shows many different examples of how to make those changes happen. Ideas from Rocking the Boat can easily be implemented by people in any job as the changes that are implemented range from simply having conversations with others at work to make them aware of any underlying misconceptions they may have without making your co-workers feel bad to how to begin the conversation about controversial ideas such as offering benefits to same-sex partners.
There are ideas for ways to implement change that all employees can use whether they are just beginning a job or are a seasoned veteran in their workplace. I enjoyed that there were so many real world examples of how people have implemented change in the workplace through conversations and making sure that they are reaching the root of the problem and not simply correcting a person without giving them the basis for your correction.
Task One: How Am I Different?
Debra Meyerson defines three different ways of being “different” from the majority. The one which applies to me the most in my current situations is that of “not cultural, but philosophical differences, which conflict with the prevailing values, beliefs, and agendas operating in their organizations”. I have been working at the same school for the past eleven years and this is one of the first years where I have seen that my ideas of what is important in the classroom differs from that of some of my colleagues. It has been a frustrating year full of teachers asking how many kids they need to pass in class to not be bothered by administrators and not looking at their own practice to see what they could be doing to help students gain a better understanding of the material. Through the MSU program I have found myself looking at my classroom in a different way and seeing what things I can do as a teacher to help improve my student understanding and not what is wrong with my students that they don’t understand! As a department, we have just started to read “Mathematical Mindsets” by Jo Boaler and hopefully this will help move other teachers in our departments towards this idea of what can we do and not what aren’t our students doing.
Task Two: Becoming a Tempered Radical
On the continuum described in Chapter 1 I see myself as being in between “resisting quietly and staying true to one’s ‘self’” and “turning personal threats into opportunities”. One of my least favorite things to do is to rock the boat! I have been pretty quiet in my department until this year with my beliefs in what needs to change for the better to help our students. I have been the youngest member of our department for the past ten years and always felt as though it was not my place to try to tell the more veteran teachers of ways that may help to improve their classrooms. Now that I am no longer the youngest and have been involved in programs such as the MSUrbanSTEM program I finally feel like I have some credibility in discussing ways to change the culture of math classrooms at my school.
I aim to keep challenging myself and my colleagues to keep trying new ideas and methods in order to help our students to get the most out of their math education while at Prosser. Students should be challenged and forced to apply their learning in the classrooms and this is something that should be happening daily in classrooms. My goal for the rest of the school year is to not sit back and agree when teachers are talking about what their students are not able to do, but instead to disagree and offer some ways that teachers could change things up in their classrooms to challenge their students to learn and apply more math ideas.
Task Three: Facing Challenges
One of the challenges that I face at work is the “lure toward co-optation”. I am a member of the ILT and was a member of our school Leadership Team for the previous two years. This puts me in a position that some in my department may see me as siding with administration or being used against them. In order to combat this I have had to work at making sure that I have a relationship with my department so that they see that I am trying to marry together ideas that I get from them with ideas from administration to create an environment that is most able to help students learn.
One last challenge that I have started to see in myself is the frustration and burnout. It seems as though some people are never happy and I sometimes drive myself crazy trying to make sure that I am making everybody happy. I have had to learn that it is impossible to please everybody! For me to not get frustrated I need to make sure that I am surrounding myself with people that have the same hopes for my classroom and my students. I also need to make sure that I am taking time for my family and myself when implementing changes. I have found that whenever I take a Saturday to forget about work and focus on my family I generally have a better attitude towards the work when I return.
Rocking the Boat by Debra Meyerson takes a look at the many different ways that individuals are able to help initiate change throughout their daily interactions at work and beyond. This book gives us a look at both small and large ways to initiate change in the workplace and then shows many different examples of how to make those changes happen. Ideas from Rocking the Boat can easily be implemented by people in any job as the changes that are implemented range from simply having conversations with others at work to make them aware of any underlying misconceptions they may have without making your co-workers feel bad to how to begin the conversation about controversial ideas such as offering benefits to same-sex partners.
There are ideas for ways to implement change that all employees can use whether they are just beginning a job or are a seasoned veteran in their workplace. I enjoyed that there were so many real world examples of how people have implemented change in the workplace through conversations and making sure that they are reaching the root of the problem and not simply correcting a person without giving them the basis for your correction.
Task One: How Am I Different?
Debra Meyerson defines three different ways of being “different” from the majority. The one which applies to me the most in my current situations is that of “not cultural, but philosophical differences, which conflict with the prevailing values, beliefs, and agendas operating in their organizations”. I have been working at the same school for the past eleven years and this is one of the first years where I have seen that my ideas of what is important in the classroom differs from that of some of my colleagues. It has been a frustrating year full of teachers asking how many kids they need to pass in class to not be bothered by administrators and not looking at their own practice to see what they could be doing to help students gain a better understanding of the material. Through the MSU program I have found myself looking at my classroom in a different way and seeing what things I can do as a teacher to help improve my student understanding and not what is wrong with my students that they don’t understand! As a department, we have just started to read “Mathematical Mindsets” by Jo Boaler and hopefully this will help move other teachers in our departments towards this idea of what can we do and not what aren’t our students doing.
Task Two: Becoming a Tempered Radical
On the continuum described in Chapter 1 I see myself as being in between “resisting quietly and staying true to one’s ‘self’” and “turning personal threats into opportunities”. One of my least favorite things to do is to rock the boat! I have been pretty quiet in my department until this year with my beliefs in what needs to change for the better to help our students. I have been the youngest member of our department for the past ten years and always felt as though it was not my place to try to tell the more veteran teachers of ways that may help to improve their classrooms. Now that I am no longer the youngest and have been involved in programs such as the MSUrbanSTEM program I finally feel like I have some credibility in discussing ways to change the culture of math classrooms at my school.
I aim to keep challenging myself and my colleagues to keep trying new ideas and methods in order to help our students to get the most out of their math education while at Prosser. Students should be challenged and forced to apply their learning in the classrooms and this is something that should be happening daily in classrooms. My goal for the rest of the school year is to not sit back and agree when teachers are talking about what their students are not able to do, but instead to disagree and offer some ways that teachers could change things up in their classrooms to challenge their students to learn and apply more math ideas.
Task Three: Facing Challenges
One of the challenges that I face at work is the “lure toward co-optation”. I am a member of the ILT and was a member of our school Leadership Team for the previous two years. This puts me in a position that some in my department may see me as siding with administration or being used against them. In order to combat this I have had to work at making sure that I have a relationship with my department so that they see that I am trying to marry together ideas that I get from them with ideas from administration to create an environment that is most able to help students learn.
One last challenge that I have started to see in myself is the frustration and burnout. It seems as though some people are never happy and I sometimes drive myself crazy trying to make sure that I am making everybody happy. I have had to learn that it is impossible to please everybody! For me to not get frustrated I need to make sure that I am surrounding myself with people that have the same hopes for my classroom and my students. I also need to make sure that I am taking time for my family and myself when implementing changes. I have found that whenever I take a Saturday to forget about work and focus on my family I generally have a better attitude towards the work when I return.
In the Room
Step 1: I am currently sitting in my living and dining room.
Step 2: Most of the pictures are of items that my children have left out in the room. My living room is one of the most calming places for me to do work in because it allows me to relax but also get work done. I have a big window that allows it to always be filled with light. Step 3: The Peppa Pig figures set up show me that differences allow us to grow and we should embrace all of the differences when we lead. The candle reminds me that leaders need to light a fire in the people they are leading. The games are a reminder to always have fun in what you are doing. The Legos remind us that we need to slowly build ourselves up . The messy easel reminds us that we can learn from our messes. Finally, the water bottle reminds us to be transparent when we are in a position of leadership. Step 4: A leader impacts the room by how they treat all of the people in the room. If the leaders around you are all optimistic about their job, then it will allow other people to also think positively. The attitude of the leader often times becomes the attitude of those they are leading. Step 5: Leadership is the ability to help guide others into becoming the people they want to be. Leadership does not try to change people, but instead brings out the good traits in all people. All to often people see leadership as trying to change the way that things are done, but instead leadership should be about bringing out the best in everybody and using their best traits to improve. |