I believe that schools are an avenue for our youngsters to discover themselves and the world where they live in as citizens and stewards. Furthermore, school should be the source of an accurate and functional view of the world, as well as the mirror of what the youngsters shall become in the future.
Schools for that matter should demonstrate the universal virtues of respect and responsibility, compassion, and accountability, equality and conscience, and integrity and industry in order for us to see the world operate through these universal virtues. Nurturing the mind of the young people in school about who they should be and what they can be, or who their neighbors are and what they can do if they are in their neighbor's shoes, is a preparation for life that is worth investing for the future generations and yonder.
Specifically, the school should provide a pleasant, healthy and safe working and learning environments for both students and the teachers. These are necessary if we want to prepare the children and young people for responsible citizenship and effective participation in the future society. Children growing up in pleasant, healthy, and safe environments will pursue the same environments for their children and children's children.
The schools should also meet the needs of the students and the community from a culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and orientations. This provision is hoped to ensure the development of a just and harmonious learning environment that shall eventually extend into the community and society where equality and respect of individual differences and ideology are fostered and upheld.
At present, schools should be an active instrument in accommodating the demands of the future. Schools nowadays are providing the youngsters with the technological capacity to rule the future in terms of economic predictions, social interactions, and miniaturization. With the foreseen withdrawal of personal touch into the present interactions in our society, i.e., online courses, online purchases, online dating sites, social media, among others, schools should take advantage of the available interactions inside the classroom that would ensure the the young minds would still appreciate the human presence in their future endeavors. The humane touch into every single conversation inside the classroom, and the use of the heart and the mind in every single decision that students are asked to make would definitely provide the youngsters with a solid foundation that schools are called for to establish.
Of is not that the heart of education is the education of the heart?
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Can a Science teacher be a Literacy teacher?
When I started teaching for the New York City Board of Education in 2004, I was practically told that while I am a Science teacher, I am also a Literacy teacher. While I was willing to become one, I was not ready to be one. So I started with the basics. I realized that speaking to my students' former teachers and taking time to study their academic and school records are plus factors, and the everyday encounters in the classroom are even valuable learning experiences for me. I believe that teachers can better raise the level of literacy of their students when they know their students' academic levels. Benchmarking should be the initial step a teacher undertakes in order to seriously and conscientiously teach their students. From there, teachers know where their students are and how they can operate inside the classroom.
As a Science teacher, I always believe in scaffolding my students' learning experiences. What I usually do is present a simple concept model of the lesson, provide them with the necessary concepts and principles that would concretize their conceptual frame of mind. Then I allow my students to ask some essential questions that describe and validate their own conceptual framework. After a thorough discussion and interaction, I allow the students to extend their learning by making some reports, writing activities, booklogging, or presentation. These extension activities are usually geared towards at least four important styles, and my students have the freedom to choose the extension activities that they want to pursue. I also believe that the best way to increase my students' critical thinking capabilities is through collaborative and cooperative learning. I assign students in a group, give them a task and the necessary materials and teacher support, and allow them to validate and critique each other's outputs.
When I taught in New York City schools, I was even provided with more opportunities to learn in the literacy and special education courses that I took. The regular professional development sessions also helped me understand my students more, and have provided me more productive strategies and techniques to teach them. How being a literacy teacher worked for me in my Science class is indeed a result of hard working and careful planning. What successes I have gained and insights I have learned in my classroom are now shared with my colleagues as I regularly present them in the yearly New York City Writing Project's Teacher-to-Teacher conferences, the yearly Science Council of New York City's scientific conventions, and most recently in the National Science Teacher's Association's national conference.
Students in my Science class incorporates reading and writing as part of their project outputs, and using the available information and communication technologies, they are creating projects through multimodal presentation capabilities.
As a Science teacher, I always believe in scaffolding my students' learning experiences. What I usually do is present a simple concept model of the lesson, provide them with the necessary concepts and principles that would concretize their conceptual frame of mind. Then I allow my students to ask some essential questions that describe and validate their own conceptual framework. After a thorough discussion and interaction, I allow the students to extend their learning by making some reports, writing activities, booklogging, or presentation. These extension activities are usually geared towards at least four important styles, and my students have the freedom to choose the extension activities that they want to pursue. I also believe that the best way to increase my students' critical thinking capabilities is through collaborative and cooperative learning. I assign students in a group, give them a task and the necessary materials and teacher support, and allow them to validate and critique each other's outputs.
When I taught in New York City schools, I was even provided with more opportunities to learn in the literacy and special education courses that I took. The regular professional development sessions also helped me understand my students more, and have provided me more productive strategies and techniques to teach them. How being a literacy teacher worked for me in my Science class is indeed a result of hard working and careful planning. What successes I have gained and insights I have learned in my classroom are now shared with my colleagues as I regularly present them in the yearly New York City Writing Project's Teacher-to-Teacher conferences, the yearly Science Council of New York City's scientific conventions, and most recently in the National Science Teacher's Association's national conference.
Students in my Science class incorporates reading and writing as part of their project outputs, and using the available information and communication technologies, they are creating projects through multimodal presentation capabilities.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Schools: What can they do for the youngsters?
School is an avenue for
our youngsters to discover about themselves
and the world where
there live in as citizens and stewards. Schools should
be the source of an accurate and
functional view of the world, as well as their mirror of what they
shall become in the future.
School for that matter should demonstrate the universal
virtues of respect and responsibility,
compassion and accountability, equality
and conscience, integrity and industry, in order for us
to see the world to
operate through these universal virtues.
Nurturing the mind of the young people in school about who they should
be and what they
can be, or who their neighbors are and what they can do if
they are in their neighbors’ shoes, is
a preparation for life that is worth
investing for the future generations and yonder.
Specifically, the school should
provide a pleasant, healthy and safe working and learning
environments
for both the students and the teachers.
These are necessary if we want to
prepare the children and young people
for responsible citizenship and effective participation in
the future
society. Children growing up in pleasant,
healthy, and safe environments will pursue
the same environments for their
children and children’s children.
The school should also meet the needs of the students and
the community from a culturally
and linguistically diverse backgrounds and
orientations. This provision will ensure
the
development of a just and harmonious learning environment that shall
eventually extend into a
community and a society where equality and respect of
individual differences and ideology are
fostered and upheld.
My Simple Thoughts on Differentiated Instruction
A
differentiated instruction, I believe, is one that allows the teacher to vary the content, the process, the product, or the environment of the lesson based on the students' capabilities to receive instruction. I always try to distinguish my students into at least two learning ability groups, since in reality, it is very difficult
for a teacher to prepare a lesson that encompasses all learning styles.
I realized that in order for me to start differentiating my classroom instruction, I need to see where my students at, and gather information about them individually and as a class in general. I have tried looking at students’ previous ELA and Mathematics State test scores and analyze some patterns. To the least, the scores are very helpful. But I also assess on my own, as I analyze their quiz scores, observe their language facilities, and read their journal reports.
Based on experience with my students, I have learned to group my students into two: those those who can grasp the concept on their own, and those who cannot. With this grouping in mind, I develop classroom tasks for those who demonstrate the understanding of a concept to be application lessons and other classroom tasks that would require me to apply direct instruction.
The mini-lesson is usually presented to the whole class and students who need direct instruction will be given more attention during the workshop time. Sensing that some of my students can go on their independent pace, I just allow them to go on their own rate of progress , i.e., proceed to do the critical thinking part, which is an independent project or extension activity of the lesson. The struggling students may not realize it, but they are no longer required to do the critical thinking activity, which I usually reserve at the end of the workshop period for the advanced students to do.
I have also tried varying the learning activities of the students by developing alternative paths to learn, process, and analyze the key concepts of the lesson. I usually provide opportunities to my students to use different kinds of graphic organizers, encourage them to express their observations in tabular form, or even draw and illustrate concepts and ideas using a model. The graphic organizers may become complex for some students who can process the ideas and concepts faster and in depth. A simple tally sheet, for example, may require a columnar table to show the number of students who participated in a survey based on gender, grade level, zones, and ethnic groups. With some students, it would actually complete my day to see that they have at least accomplished a simple Venn diagram to illustrate the comparison among the cold-blooded animals and the warm blooded ones.
I realized that in order for me to start differentiating my classroom instruction, I need to see where my students at, and gather information about them individually and as a class in general. I have tried looking at students’ previous ELA and Mathematics State test scores and analyze some patterns. To the least, the scores are very helpful. But I also assess on my own, as I analyze their quiz scores, observe their language facilities, and read their journal reports.
Based on experience with my students, I have learned to group my students into two: those those who can grasp the concept on their own, and those who cannot. With this grouping in mind, I develop classroom tasks for those who demonstrate the understanding of a concept to be application lessons and other classroom tasks that would require me to apply direct instruction.
The mini-lesson is usually presented to the whole class and students who need direct instruction will be given more attention during the workshop time. Sensing that some of my students can go on their independent pace, I just allow them to go on their own rate of progress , i.e., proceed to do the critical thinking part, which is an independent project or extension activity of the lesson. The struggling students may not realize it, but they are no longer required to do the critical thinking activity, which I usually reserve at the end of the workshop period for the advanced students to do.
I have also tried varying the learning activities of the students by developing alternative paths to learn, process, and analyze the key concepts of the lesson. I usually provide opportunities to my students to use different kinds of graphic organizers, encourage them to express their observations in tabular form, or even draw and illustrate concepts and ideas using a model. The graphic organizers may become complex for some students who can process the ideas and concepts faster and in depth. A simple tally sheet, for example, may require a columnar table to show the number of students who participated in a survey based on gender, grade level, zones, and ethnic groups. With some students, it would actually complete my day to see that they have at least accomplished a simple Venn diagram to illustrate the comparison among the cold-blooded animals and the warm blooded ones.
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