Moving towards Authenticity

Working Portfolio - Rob Heinrichs March 2012

Teaching like any truly human activity emerges from ones inwardness for better or worse. As I teach I project the condition of my soul onto my students my subject and our way of being together. The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of my inner life. Viewed from this angle teaching holds a mirror to the soul. If I am willing to look in that mirror and not run from what I see I have a chance to gain self-knowledge and knowing myself is as crucial to good teaching as knowing my students and my subject. - Parker Palmer

I am learning how critically important knowing my students is to teaching them well.  

I have always believed this, but I am only now truly understanding how I can do this effectively.  By trying to meet the different learning needs of my students more effectively in math, what I realized is that to do that I need to know where they are, how they learn and what motivates them.  Once I got a better handle on that, I was much more effective in guiding their learning.  Assessment and feedback where huge parts of this understanding.  Moving around the room, observing and interacting with them was the most important strategy that I used.  I moved from mostly standing at the front to joining them in their learning.

Research educational theories and philosophies to inform your use of technology in the classroom. I want to become much more grounded in my understanding of differentiated instruction so that I can better meet the learning needs of my students, particularly in mathematics.  As well I want to understand how I can better use digital tools to differentiate effectively.

ISTE NETS 2C: To customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies and abilities using digital tools and resources.  I want to research digital tools that can help me to better differentiate my math instruction.

Inquiry Project1. Start with the learning outcomes.2. Design my math lessons to incorporate two differentiation strategies: open questions

& parallel tasks. (Marian Small, Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate)

3. Assess frequently so that I know where all students are. This included using a variety of different assessment strategies, but critically important was to circulate around the room asking questions, and differentiating on the go.

4. Encourage students to try different ways to learn and explore.5. Develop my class website so that it incorporates different activities and learning tools

to enhance what is done in class.

Evidence

manips

So what I am finding now is that I can design a lesson that allows me much more time to circulate and check in with students.  I have a much better understanding of where each student is at, as well as being able to support those that need help and challenge those that need it.  I am able to “mirco-differentiate” or differentiate on the fly.

I no longer stick to the textbook and work through each lesson.  I may use questions from the book, or examples from it, but I don’t rely on it.  I use open questions that focus on the skill or concept that I want the students to learn.  An open question is one that students at various levels can work on and be challenged by.  Coming up with these question is perhaps the hardest part of teaching this way, but the more questions I create, the easier it seems to be to create them.

I hope that I am better meeting the needs of my students.  It seems to me that I am.  It feels like I am.  I guess I need some data that supports the changes I have made?

Where to now?I want to take what I have learned in during this inquiry and apply it to the rest of my practice. I want to have a clear idea of where I am going. I want to design lessons so that all students can enter into them. I want teaching and learning to be terms that apply to all members of the learning community. I want it to start tomorrow.

The more I learn about teaching, the more I understand how complicate it is & how purposeful I must be.

Working with this TPACK model highlighted the emphasis on the different knowledges that I need to teach today's learner.  Yet the knowledges that I need are much more diverse than Technology, Pedagogy and Content.  I really need to have knowledge of myself and what I believe, and that needs to be clear and well thought out.  I also need to know my students.  Not just what they know, or how they learn, but also to know who I am teaching.  There are so many different variables to teaching well, and I feel like I am just at the tip of the iceberg. 

Evidence

Teachers, like the conductor, are trying to weave life into their lessons.  Encouraging the student to care about what they are learning.  Encouraging them to learn with, not just to learn what. Moving them to see beyond them selves.  We cannot do this without teaching from who we are and knowing whom we teach.

If I were to redesign the TPACK framework I would draw it within two circles.  The inner circle would be self,  the teacher’s knowledge of themselves.  The outer circle would be knowledge of the community of learners, the teachers understanding of who they are teaching.  Perhaps that is what Koehler and Mishra label context?

In fact, the more I learn about technology, teaching and learning, the more I believe that  we need to ensure that technology is used in ways that enhance our core beliefs, not hinder them.

Where to now?I want to be much more thoughtful in how I design my lessons, taking TPACK into consideration. I need to be purposeful, remembering to use the technology that best fits my content and pedagogy. I also need to stay true to my core beliefs.

I am learning to be authentic in my teaching.

Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse. As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together. The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of my inner life. Viewed from this angle, teaching holds a mirror to the soul. If I am willing to look in that mirror, and not run from what I see, I have a chance to gain self-knowledge —and knowing myself is as crucial to good teaching as knowing my students and my subject. - Parker Palmer

Evidence

I think there is a lot of value in struggle.  In fact, most of the time, I think it if it is easy to learn something, it may not have been worth learning.  If it didn’t take a lot of effort or any struggle, perhaps there wasn’t much learning at all.  At the very least the learning was not very deep.

I want my students to see the struggle as a challenge.  I want to spend my time helping them struggle.  Providing the right amount of support so that they don’t feel like they are incapable of learning, but not so much that they feel like the learning is easy.

With learning at the centre of the environment, all are able to make contributions.  Both students and teachers can shift between many roles, including coach, guide, learner, teacher, partner and helper.

Where to now?I want to teach in a way that clearly reflects who I am and my beliefs. I want to be authentic. I want to continue to close the “Knowing / Doing Gap.” I have begun to do this through inquiry. My math instruction is clearly more in line with my beliefs than it was prior to this inquiry project.

I have also entered into conversations with my administrator about developing a team that does learning in different ways. A team that encourages curiosity, that does not shy away from struggle, that encourages deep learning and student independence and interdependence.

Bright futures lie before you. There's the world's work to be done, and there are never enough citizens with determined hearts, courageous character, intelligent minds, and idealistic souls to do it. Yes, our world already has quite enough guns, political platitudes, arrogance, disingenuousness, self-interest, snobbishness, superficiality, war and the certainty that God is on our side. But it never has enough conscience, nor enough tolerance, idealism, justice, compassion, wisdom, humility, self-sacrifice for the greater good, integrity, courtesy, poetry, laughter, and generosity of substance and spirit. It is these elements that I urge you to carry into your careers, and remember that the great game of life is not about money; it is about doing your best to build the world anew. - John Bogle