“Concluding Post: An Open Letter to My Students”

Dear my past, present, and future monkey friends,

I would like to take some time to share the importance of you as a student in my class, the importance of me as your teacher, and the importance of our life here together.  In order for me to do this, I strongly believe that you need to understand my life, my thinking, and my passion.  I am a very visual learner so I want you to visually understand how teaching is like gardening. 

Let me first share why I selected to compare teaching to gardening.  Ever since I was four, five, or six years old (your age when you were in my classroom) I loved helping both my mom and my grandparents in the garden.  I would run outside in the morning to help my Grandma pick off the dead flowers so that more would grow.  I would also assist in watering the flowers. The best part though was every night in the summer I would sneak my mom away.  We would take our lawn chairs out to the front garden where we would sit and watch the evening primroses pop open. This is where I learned how to count, shared endless silly stories, and learned about life from my mom.  Today I think back to that time and believe this saying. “Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” (Gerard DeNerval).   Now that I have grown up, gone through college, and have begun my teaching career, I still think back to those summers that I blossomed like a flower.  The reality for me is that, my friends, you are all flowers in my garden.  I have taken the time to tend to you, care for you, engage you in learning, and provide the essential learning objectives to watch you blossom as a kindergartner.  This is why I strongly believe that teaching is a lot like gardening. 

The most interesting idea to consider is that anyone can teach, just like anyone can plant a garden.  However, the people that put time into caring for and researching new ideas will become successful at both gardening and teaching.   I, as your teacher, had to and have to be ready for all of you.  All of my different, unique, loving little learners, just like gardens have to be ready for all the different flower seeds.  After all, not all flower seeds start off the same.  Some are small and some are long.  Some grow quickly, while others take more love and care to grow.  Are you beginning to see just how similar flowers and gardening are to teaching?  You are my flowers and you have to remember that. You must realize that “children and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” Jackson Brown. Jr.  I am very aware that for you to succeed there are essential ingredients involved. I will start today with flower seeds.  Flower seeds need the perfect location of rich, nutritious soil, where their roots can stretch out.  They also need the extra nutrients, food, water and sun to keep them growing into a strong and beautiful flower.  Watch as I take each of these key ingredients of growing flowers and compare them with my own views on teaching and life. 

Lets begin with the seeds.  My friends, the seeds are you when you were first born.  Seeds are very fragile items that gardeners have to handle carefully.  Just like your parents had to handle you very carefully when you were a baby.  Many of you had baby brothers, sisters, and cousins when you were with me in class, during your kindergarten year.  Take a moment and remember just how carefully you had or have to hold your little baby brother, sister, or cousin.  Think of how your parents have to tend to them at all times to make sure they are safe, secure, and happy.

Also, as I have mentioned, seeds come in different sizes, shapes, and abilities.  Remember when we measured you on the first day of school.  I had you stand next to the Suzy Zoo growth chart, by the bathroom door, and we measured how tall you were.  We saw that some of our friends were shorter while others were tall.  We continued to measure you at the end of each marking period.  Wasn’t it fun to watch all of our friends grow?!   We began to grow and grow and grow. We grew in our height, our learning abilities, our communication, and our teamwork. 

Roots share with me all the experiences you have had.  Some of your roots pop up or are visible to me, where as others I have to dig deeper to learn about.  The neat thing is that every one of you, my friends, have roots.  Just like all flowers have roots, it is what keeps them sturdy in the ground and provides them with the strength to keep growing.  Or as a student your roots are your life experiences.  You all came into kindergarten with some life experiences.  However, none of your roots look the same.  None of you had the exact same life experiences.  This is the fun, yet challenging part of my job, as your teacher.  The first couple weeks of school I work to thoroughly understand all of your roots, all of your past experiences.  Although now as I reflect back with another close teacher, I realize that throughout the entire year I am constantly working to better understand your roots.  Your roots may share with me why on some days you are just not ready to learn, or why certain things in the classroom might make you angry, or why some friends need quiet working spots while other friends need to be encouraged to work in small groups.  You see my friends, throughout your entire life; your roots and experiences will keep growing.  It is important for me, as your teacher, to understand your roots.  I want to understand what makes you excited about learning, I want to know the areas where you feel successful, I want to know your fears so that I can work to eliminate or minimize them, I want to share with you new ways to show your families what you are learning, I want to give 100% of myself to helping you succeed and blossom as a kindergartner!  For many of you, kindergarten was where your first roots in schooling took place.  I strive to provide you with a strong and positive experience to begin your schooling career!

Soil is the home to where the flowers live.  Flowers need the soil to provide the structure, support, and care.  Soil itself is made up of different ingredients.  Some soils are very sandy, while others have lots of clay.  Soil is just like your home.  Your home consists of different structures, support, and care.  Some of you live in cottages, or trailers, or two story homes.  It does not matter where you live, it’s that you have a structure over you head; you have shelter for support and protection.  Not all of our families look the same.  Some of us live with mom and dad, while others of us live with our grandma.  Fortunately you are all blessed to live with someone that cares so much about you. I have learned that no matter what type of house you live in or whom you live with, we all have a home.  Our homes are so special to us and we are proud of our homes.  No matter how busy our families are or what things our parents’ value, in the end all of our families want to see us grow and want to support us just like the soil supports the flower. 

Parent support is something that I have communicated consistently with a colleague.  My colleague shared with me that every parent wants to care for his or her child.  However, some may need guidance on what caring looks like, some may need time, while others may have varying levels of support.  This is hard for me to comprehend because as you know I strive to provide all of you with support, comfort, and time every day at school.  I bet you all can remember our class hug!  This is just one way we show that we are all here for each other and ready to help one another out.  Remember our compliment chain? I love adding links to our chain because of the kind words that you share with each other.  Remember the quiet morning breakfasts?  I am so glad that the school allowed me to serve breakfast to some of you in my classroom, fifteen minutes before school started.  This truly provided a time for many of you to get emotionally ready to be a learner that day at school.  As you are beginning to see, I am and will always be here for YOU!  Although, I am learning that some of you are receiving the support that you need right at home.  I am so thankful for that!

The topsoil or nutrients are the added boost to help enrich the soil.  These nutrients go into the roots, which then help our flowers grow.  For teaching, the topsoil and nutrients are the teachers.  Teachers are the added resource that is essential to assist the students in growing.  I learned early on, through a reading titled Cultural Literacy and The Schools, that “some children enter school already processing the information needed to make further advance in literature culture, while others come to school lacking that information” (111).  It is my job as your teacher to supply this missing knowledge or provide the nutrients that will help enhance your motivation and intellectual self-confidence as a learner.  We as teachers have to understand that the best teaching does accommodate itself to individual differences and needs.  Some of you may need extra nutrients or extra support to grow, while others may need fewer nutrients.  This is similar to gardens in that some soil is very rich and nutritious and may need only a little bit of topsoil.  While other gardens may be in need of lots of topsoil because it is composed of mostly sand. 

All gardens need water to help the flowers grow.  Water is an essential ingredient for flowers.  Water is the learning objectives or goals in teaching.  Everywhere across the nation there is water to use to water the flowers.  Just like everywhere across our nation schools have goals that are set to help our students blossom and succeed.  I believe that it is important that schools everywhere “should share common goals but their means for achieving goals should be varied and adaptive.” (Dr. Patricia Graham).  For some of you I used the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCES) to help guide me in what objectives I had to teach you.  For others I have begun and will continue to use the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to help direct me in your learning goals.  The GCLES and CCSS are like the water that I need to provide you with.  Every single flower needs the essential water but some flowers need more water to help them grow.  This extra water refers to the extra time that teachers may need to spend teaching, re-teaching, or referring back upon the different learning objectives. 

As I reflect back on the idea of gardening I begin to realize just how much trial and error occurs when it comes to watering plants.  In the past three years I have been teaching kindergarten, I constantly reflect upon the lessons that I have taught.  Remember me walking around with a clipboard?  Some of you nicknamed it my new best friend and would say, “Hey Miss Meyer, don’t forget your best friend!”  This clipboard was where I would jot down how each of you were doing in grasping a particular concept.  I would make notes to myself as to who may need some extra practice on the basic concept or who may need a challenge the next time I present this topic.  I also would make notes to myself as to things that you all really enjoyed and maybe some parts of teaching that just did not go as expected.  I wanted to make sure that I was presenting learning goals to you in a meaningful and stimulating manner, in a way that you would be able to directly connect to the content.  I have learned that I need to strive to provide for you a variety of learning experiences.  These learning experiences should help you develop skills in thinking, help you work to acquire new information and learn what to do with that information, help you develop social attitudes based off of emotional situations, and help you in developing interests that are important to you.   We as teachers strive to provide the accurate amounts of water that will help you grow and blossom into a beautiful flower! 

As I am working to provide you will all the learning essentials, I have become aware of some variables that I cannot control, that will affect your growth.  These uncontrollable variables are the sun.  As a gardener we cannot say how much sun we will get each day.  We may work to plant flowers in a specific location in our garden so that they will get just the right amount of sun.  However, the sun may still shine at just the right angle to provide “additional” light on some plants.  Some days the sun may never shine and that will provide gardeners with extra struggles to keep their flowers growing.  In teaching today, I feel like we are getting more and more used to the uncontrollable variables.  Standardized tests are becoming more and more a part of our teaching and learning time together.  The stress placed on these tests is not only affecting the way that we teach but are also affecting our students.  Even in kindergarten I have to provide standardized tests.  Remember taking DIBLES or NWEA or PASI or MMLA?  We worked hard as learners to focus in so that we could perform well on these tests.  Sadly, for education today standardized tests are one variable that we still need to participate in, in order to blossom as a student. 

Finally I have made it to the flower.  The flower represents all of you at the end of the year in kindergarten.  You have blossomed into a smart learner that is ready to take on the rest of your years in school.  By the end of the year you have learned the essentials of what it looks like, feels like, and sounds like to be a student learner.   I always love the time we share on the last day of school going through our classroom slide show.  This is a time where you are sitting their reliving ALL the wonderful moments you have had in kindergarten.  This is a time we get to reflect back together on the journey each of you take in becoming a flower.  Do you remember being so shy and timid and afraid to leave your families throughout that first week of school?  Isn’t it awesome how easy and exciting school is now!  This just shows that “The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid.  I’m taking more chances, I’m bold, and proud.”  Paula Cole.  You my friends are ready to take on first grade!

As I think back to saying my goodbyes for the summer I still get emotional.  You, my friends, have made a lasting impact on my life.  I never realized that as a teacher I could become so close throughout a year as I do become with you.  The best part is watching you walk out to the busses the last day of school and waving to each of you as you get on the bus.  I sit and think back to that first day of school where I had to place each of you on your bus and in your seat.  Oh my friends, how quickly you learned the routine of our 26 busses!  You simply amazed me and continue to amaze me everyday.  Colleagues often share that I have something special that some teachers just do not have.  That something special is the time and love that I have for you all.  As I end this letter to you, I want you to take this quote with you forever.  “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.”  John Lennon.  I have watched you grow and will continue to watch you grow throughout your schooling career.  I love when you come back and say hello.  I know all my little seeds have blossomed into beautiful flowers and now is the time for you to take on the world! 

Love you all!
Miss Meyer

Cycle 5: What Does A Good School Look Like?

Current Tensions I Have:

Before I even began this cycle’s readings I jotted down two tensions that I am currently experiencing.  Once I completed this cycle’s readings/videos I was able to expand and relate back to my tensions.  Let me explain.

Tension #1:  Student to Teacher Ratio

I currently have 25 kindergartners and am the only teacher in the classroom.  This means that I have a 1 to 25 ratio.  I am asked to differentiate learning, meaning that I need to meet the needs of all twenty-five of my learners.  WOW!  Yes, I am sure many of you are in the same boat.  Since extra funding in schools is just not there, classroom teachers are working to juggle many things.  My seven hour day goes so quickly because I am constantly trying to find time to pull this group of kids, quick review a concept with this child, re-teach an idea with this small group, or challenge these others friends.  I have to say my students are showing growth and they really are learning.  Than I think about Dave Egger’s push for 1 on 1 learning.  He shared that if students can receive 30-40 hours per year of 1 on 1 attention, they will have the ability to gain one full year of learning!  This is truly inspirational in itself.  I love his idea of opening up tutoring programs that allow students to come in and get that one on one attention and help with their homework.  I think about how much my students would gain if I were to meet for even 5 minutes of one on one time, each day!  This has inspired me to strive to have more parent volunteers come into my classroom.  He shared that anyone can be a volunteer, anyone can give back, all expertise are appreciated because it is the time and attention that is valued most!  My goal is to reduce my student to teacher ratio to allow for more success, this will make for a good school!

Tension #2:  Parent Effort to Student Desire

There are some students that so desire to practice what they learned during the school day, at home, but some parent’s effort and time is just not available.  This is so sad because like I previously mentioned, in tension #1, 1 on 1 time is so crucial and parents can provide some of this time for their children.  However, where I teach there are many parents working multiple jobs, have other distractions, or simply just do not have the time to put into their student’s learning.  Unfortunately some of the most excited kiddos suffer.  I have had first hand witness of this happening.  One such time occurred wit the following student.  One of my student’s has been homeless off and on throughout the year and their families’ main struggle is for survival so school work just gets put on the backburner.  These students begin to suffer.  However, it is amazing how in kindergarten the students still want to learn.  Another student struggling with a challenging homelife, just this week signed her own reading log and said that the person she read her book to was her stuffed teddy.  This just melts my heart.  I sit down everyday with her or have her sit with one of my higher readers (buddy her up) each morning to get a special bonus time to read her book.  This little girl is learning and excelling because I have given her the time and attention that she is missing at home.  How can we as teachers expect our students to excel on standardized tests and master each learning goal without providing a caring and safe environment? 

What Makes A Good School?

I feel that everyone has their own opinion on what makes a good school.  Teachers, Administrators, Board Members, Parents, Health Professionals, Businessman, Engineers and everyone else each have their own viewpoint.  All of these viewpoints can relate back to the aims of education and the discussion of who benefits or how it may enhance society.  I found another article that includes John Parankimalil’s viewpoint on the Meaning, Nature, and Aims of Education.  (http://johnparankimalil.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/meaning-nature-and-aims-of-education/ ) This article also states that aims provide direction for activities in education, the aims are “correlated to ideals of life” (Parankimalil).  This does include individual aims and social aims.  These two aims work together in that the individual is the product of the society while society finds its advancement in the development of its individual member.    Therefore there is some truth to the statement that “the function of schooling is to enable students to do better in life” (Eisner, 329).  How might we do this?

I believe that a good school will provide students with a balanced curriculum that is clear and precise.  The Common Core Standards may provide this new set of standards that can lead to a balance curriculum throughout districts, states, and even countries.  A neat video describing the common core standards is as follows, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s0rRk9sER0 . If teachers work as a team to provide the resources and tools to have students reach mastery with each skill, we will have students reach success.

Good schools also consist of a safe and caring learning environment that caters to our students.  The school of work article stated, “catering to a child’s growing independence is a natural part of a kindergarten teacher’s classroom life.” In my eyes, this is completely true.  I strive to provide my students with a safe environment where they can begin to explore and expand their knowledge.   My goal is for all of my students to trust me and know that at school they will be accepted, loved, challenged, cared for, and welcomed.  I believe part of a good school will provide all of these things for its students.

Good schools also consist of dedicated teachers willing to put in 110%.  It is so important that teachers can be counted on to meet all students’ needs.  Provide extra time and energy to create lessons that will match our students learning styles.  Be able to make time to meet with parents or provide other communication systems that will benefit all of your parents.  Teachers have to be collaborators, leaders, caretakers, cheerleaders, hard workers, life log learners, and amazing communicators! 

“Good School”

Raising Voices, a nonprofit organization that works toward preventing violence for women and children in Uganda developed a “Good School Toolkit”.  This toolkit is “a methodology created to help educators and students explore what makes a healthy, vibrant, and positive school”.  Following this link, http://raisingvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/downloads/GoodSchool/Good_School_Toolkit/InD_booklet5SH10sep.pdf  you will open up the handbook for a Good School.  All schools can connect with some values or ideals of their school.  The following are stressed in this handbook and taken into more detail, “good and motivated teachers, a good learning environment, and a transparent and accountable administration.”  The following toolkit  (http://raisingvoices.org/good-school/download-good-school-toolkit/ ) can be downloaded and is free to the public.  It shares all about the Good School and actually has kid friendly books to express their values. 

 I found this to be an interest resource for this weeks reading simply because United States is not the only place concerned with creating this “ideal” school for our students.  We all have many great ideas and everyone wants the best for our students.  I believe that we will continually ask ourselves, what are the aims of education at this time?  Just like Nel Noddings stated on page 434, “Education aims always reflect the aims of the political society in which they are developed.”(The Aims of Education). 

Cycle 4: How Should Curriculum Be Created?

Initial Thoughts Regarding The Way Curriculum Is Created:

The first reading titled, How Christian Were the Founders? was frustrating for me to read.  I think it is because I continue to question the reality that people, other than teachers, are making HUGE decisions in education.  These decisions that they are quick to decide on have a direct effect on teachers and students.  Do these decision makers understand that?  I found the following quote by Tom Barber to be very interesting, “The process of reviewing the guidelines in Texas is very open, but what happens behind the scenes after that is quite different.”  As we read in this article, the board was open to many public comments and viewpoints, some coming from teachers.  As Judy Brodigan stated that the document was very good before the board began to amend and weaken the curriculum.  She said, “The teachers take their work seriously.  I do believe there are board members on the ultraright who have an agenda.  They want to make our standards very conservative and fit their viewpoint.  Our job is not to take a viewpoint.  It’s to present sides fairly.”  This is ultimately what I believe, as a teacher we have to present material in a way that our students will be able to understand it to the fullest, the actual information, not a one sided story.  We reference this curriculum everyday, where as decision makers see it one time, alter it, vote on it, and make it mandatory to teach.  These decision makers do not know how the kids read into certain material or how confusing certain topics may be.  These decision makers do not know the realities of the classroom and all the things that go into teaching children and helping guide our students learning.  I strongly believe teachers should be the ones writing curriculum!  After all, we do have the best insight in what happens in the classroom, the place we spend all of our time!

 How Should Curriculum Be Created?

This leads me into how should curriculum be created?  Today there are many ways that curriculum is being created.  We have decision makers (people other than teachers) creating curriculum.  We also have people like, Salman Khan, who began to make youtube videos to present curricula topics to tutor his cousins. Millions saw these youtube videos and now Salman Khan has over 2,200 videos.  This is an example of “flipping the classroom”.  Flipping the classroom is a way in which teachers can assign lectures for students to watch after school.  While the students are at school they are engaged in hands on learning directly aside their teacher.  The students would progress through the curriculum at their own pace and the teacher can intervene using student data, when need be.

Salman Khan’s teaching through youtube videos interested me so I went to his website 

http://www.khanacademy.org/  

I decided to watch some of his youtube videos that covered topics I currently teach in my classroom.   For example, I watched his basic addition video. 

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/addition-subtraction/basic_addition/v/basic-addition 

I honestly did not find it to be all that intriguing.  I was expecting it to be a bit more engaging and fun but it was pretty dry.  I do not know if my kindergarten students would be engaged the entire time or if they would actually learn from that video.  I did like the practice with the guided help but I think it if was even more interactive my students probably would be more interested.  Today there are so many fun interactive learning games that can be found on the Internet.  I have found better.  I wonder how others feel about Khan’s website.  Maybe for the upper grade levels or for the more complicated concepts these videos are really excellent.  It would be worth hearing other people’s thoughts on this. 

One other way curriculum can be created is by teachers themselves.  I strongly do believe that every teacher needs to participate in curriculum planning.  This will allow teachers to gain the knowledge and understanding of where their grade level fits in with the overall k-12 teaching spectrum, just like Tyler stated in chapter 5.   I also believe that in order for curriculum to be created to its fullest, we have to consider the interactions between the learner and their environment, creating learning experiences to develop skills in thinking, creating learning experiences that acquire information, create learning experiences that develop social attitudes and interests, look into how learning is organized, and how to effectively evaluate learning.  Tyler went into great detail regarding how all of these ideas interact with each other to create an overall curriculum process.  This curriculum process is one that I could relate with.

To start off, I strongly believe that as a teacher we have to set up stimulating situations or experiences that our students can relate and refer to.  We have to provide our students with these experiences so that our students will stay engaged in their own learning.  However, it is important that we know where are students are and that we know our students interests.  Once we have a good understanding of our students and the experiences that will most benefit them than we want to develop skills in thinking, such as problem solving.  As a kindergarten teacher, I work with my students every day to solve problems.  I began to teach problem solving by showing them ways to go about solving their own issues with each other.  This worked to prevent the tattling and allowed my students to take ownership of what was bothering them and talk it through with the other students.  For many, this form of problem solving has worked and the students are doing well with it.  Other forms of problem solving occur during everyday events.  I am providing a model for my students, by allowing them to help me solve everyday problems.  It is important that my students are engaged in learning so that they do not just memorize a thought or rule but actually can connect it with something.  Sometimes these connections can be emotional connections through a traumatic experience or through an experience that was triggered by things or people around them.  The goal is to help our students provide insight and structure with all of these connections and attitudes so that they can continue to learn.   Like Tyler shared, “When experiences build upon other experiences, across grade levels, there will be greater depth and breadth.” (Tyler, 84)  We as teachers need to structure our learning similar to other grades so that students can build upon their past experiences.  We also need to make sure to provide reiteration of major curriculum elements so that our students can get the continuity they need to understand the curriculum.  As a teacher, we can do this because we are with our students everyday. We are constantly evaluating what our students know before, during, after, and even what they still can recall or connect with months later.  We are providing our students the chance to continuously work towards mastery of topics. 

Personal Connection- A Recent Professional Development Experience

Recently I was lucky enough to go see Dr. Robert Marzano speak about Formative Assessment and Standards Based Record Keeping.  He shared the importance of getting ride of the omnibus grade and replacing it with a grading system that continuously shows growth.  Dr. Marzano’s way of thinking intrigued me in that our students would be able to continuously work on skills until they have become mastered.  We would be able to provide this information in a bar graph form so that the parents could see the growth and share in their child’s education.  Dr. Marzano was also a big promoter of multiple assessments.  We sometimes catch students on bad days or the form of assessment is not one the student can relate with.  For example, a student may have a topic mastered and can orally share it with you but may not be able to write it all down in a concise manor.    Dr. Marzano just had this new outlook on assessing students.  I came back from this professional development and presented multiple things I had learned with my staff.  Many were as intrigued as I was.  However, we were stuck…we could not begin to test out this form of grading because as a district it is not what had been agreed upon.  How as educators can we begin to change some of the “old” systems, if we never get a chance to test new practices out first?  I understand that getting rid of the omnibus grade is a HUGE change, so why not start small and add a simple bar graph to each grade so if the student gets the same letter or number grade two marking periods in a row, the parents can than see by the bar graph that there was actual growth still taking place.  This is just a thought for you all to ponder.  If you would like to learn more you can go to Dr. Robert Marzano’s research website. http://www.marzanoresearch.com/site/

I highly suggest everyone to read this book. http://www.marzanoresearch.com/reproducibles/formative_assessment.html.

Overall, I strongly believe that teachers should have a more active process in developing curriculum.  At least allow us to share our insight for each grade level!

Cycle 3: Should the Curriculum Address Controversial Issues

How should I, a kindergarten teacher of four, five, and six year olds, take on the challenges and changes of today’s society; while still preserving their innocence?  Wow, this seemed like a huge question that I continued to reflect back on as I completed all of the supplemental readings/materials for this week. 

Before I dig deeper into this cycles material and my connections or thoughts with it.  I want to start off sharing my initial thoughts as I read the Introduction to Cycle 3.  

Throughout the reading of Cycle 3 I kept thinking back to my experience as a student in kindergarten through high school. Throughout my schooling experience I can remember students that were bullied and students that were just different.  I can remember in high school hearing more about homosexuality but with regards to the way I was brought up I just sort of dismissed it and never really considered it anymore.  Now this does not mean I was not aware that there were students amongst me that were indeed gay or lesbian but I just never really thought of them as being different.   When I was in high school I was very involved in soccer (both club and school), I ran cross-country, I was in the band, I was also a member of various organizations both in my high school and in my community.  Needless to say I had many different types of friends and could easily get along with everyone that I met.  Some of my favorite memories are from my high school years.  It is hard to think that for some people this was some of their worst memories or a time where they actually considered ending their life. I guess in a way I was sheltered from all the bullying and hate that some kids faced on a daily basis.  It was not till my senior year of high school that I heard a real story about how bullying and our society’s attitudes towards gays and lesbians ended a person’s life.  One of my soccer teammates brothers, whom at every practice helped us with ball control, committed suicide because he was a victim of bullying based on the fact that he was gay.  I remember that time clearly and that was a time where I needed my parents support more than ever.  I needed to make sense of this all.

Now as I began to dig deeper into this cycles material I had to put my emotions a side and think, how can I, a kindergarten teacher teach my students about sexuality and tolerance?

When I first started teaching kindergarten, three years ago, I thought that all my students were as innocent as I imagined I once was when I was in kindergarten.  However, I quickly learned that my students are aware of the challenges society faces today.  They are aware in the most simplistic of ways but many of them over hear things through their parents, older siblings, neighbors, or from kids on the bus. It is true that young students are not as innocent as I once imagined.  Therefore, as teachers I believe that we do need to be there for our students and help them make sense of what they are hearing.  As Jonathan Silin, stated, “The role of teachers is to help their students make sense of the world.” (246).  We need to help our young children replace fear with an understanding and misinformation by facts. (Silin, 246).  This is crucial in making school a safe place for our students.  Knowing this I do believe that it would be beneficial to have a time, whether it is a part of our health class, or a part of a social learning time.  But have a time where teachers teach the most simplistic issues that are in our society.  One way I believe that I could fit in a beginning discussion about homosexuality is through the conversation about what is a family?  What makes a family diverse?  During the first marking period, in kindergarten, we have great discussions and lessons covering: Who I am? Where I came from?  Who is in my family?  Who I live with?  These topics spark lots of discussion because we quickly can see that many students do not have a traditional family.  Many of my students are from single parent families, grandparents raising the families, aunt and mom raising all the kids and cousins, just a variety of family settings.  Immediately at the beginning of the year my students can share about their families, which allows them to make a connection and feel more secure at school.  We also talk about what culture we are from and special activities or traditions that our families have.  This is just a great way for each student to feel accepted and appreciated.  This also may be an opportune time for students to connect and ask a question or share a thought regarding a current topic in society.   I agree with Jonathan Silin in that “teachers need to create environments in which human differences are discussed and valued.” (252).  If we create this opportunity, young children, especially kindergartners will share some of their random thoughts or concerns.  For example, I have had a student raise their hand and ask me why do teachers have to be girls?  The student based this information on the teachers that he saw everyday in our wing of the building, and we just happened to all be females.  Young learners are full of these questions and it is up to us as a teacher to help guide them through correcting these misinterpretations.  Erik Eckholm’s article referenced the “welcoming schools” curriculum for grade schools, so I went to this website to explore more.   I found the following video or trailer for this project to be very fascinating.

http://www.welcomingschools.org/pages/what-do-you-know-the-film

After watching this video I explored further because as a teacher of young children I am still hesitant on going into lots of details with my young learners.  This website provided me with a list of guidelines for teachers to use as a place to begin when talking about gender and children.  Here is this link. http://www.welcomingschools.org/pages/gender-children-place-to-begin

As I read through this list, I was relieved to see that many of these things I already do in my classroom.  For example it is important to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the classroom that affirms all children, I do this with my family and who am I unit. Another tip is that teachers need to greet all children and avoid using the phrase boys and girls.  I call my students, “friends” or “learners”.  You can often hear me say good morning friends or learners show me you are ready!  Another tip was role-play with your students.  I do this all the time, especially when going over expectations, procedures, or when discussing bullying.  

I am curious to know if other grade levels could also agree that they follow some or most of the guidelines already for Educators.   Also, what do you think about this guideline, “Establish a gender-neutral bathroom in your school that students can use.”  I have this in my classroom because in all our kindergarten classrooms we have one kid bathroom that all our students use.  I just wonder how this would work for the other grades.   

Finally, I am a teacher that likes to see things in action.  I would like to observe a program or sit and talk with other teachers who have been involved in a specific program before I test it out myself.  So, I began to wonder what programs were out there for kindergarten students.  How detailed did this information need to be presented, while still preserving our young students innocents or the parents right to filtering content?  I found this Sex Education Curriculum for Farmington Public Schools, with a date of 2007.  It is very likely that this information has changed but something for me to refer to.  I scrolled through and a lot of the major discussions began in fourth grade but than if you scroll down to page 25, it provides us with a quick synopsis of the ideas that are covered in kindergarten through third grades.  I felt very comfortable with this information and think that it could be implemented perfectly into my school’s health curriculum as we already talk about drugs, alcohol, good touch/bad touch, strangers, etc.    I am curious as to what others think about this curriculum and if this is something they have seen implemented in your school district or if you use something else? 

http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/curriculum/sex_ed_policy_procedures.pdf

For my closing thoughts, I think back to what City Councilman Joel Burns had to share.  School must be a safe place to learn and grow.  We as teachers need to provide students with the knowledge and tools to be able to function safely and respectfully in our community.  As a kindergarten teacher, I need to make sure to correct my student’s misunderstandings through children’s books or other interactive learning experiences, all while keeping it age appropriate.  I also need to be there to support my students and bring an end to bullying!  After all, it is important for our students to learn at a young age, just how important they are.  “Society will change, please live long enough to see it… The bullying and harassment has to stop!” (Joel Burns, 2010).  We all can make a difference for the students we teach, even if they are just beginning their education process.

Cycle 2: What Should Schools Teach? How Should They Be Held Accountable?

As I went through Cycle two’s readings, I began to see that many of the articles referred to making education practical and current in today’s world.  This leads me right into what should schools teach? 

What Should Schools Teach?

Since I am a current Kindergarten teacher, my initial reaction is that I need to teach to the standards so that my students can become successful.  Also, if my students have mastered the Common Core Standards than I will see them become more confident in themselves and their own learning.  However, keeping in mind what I learned from Cycle One, I know that there is much more to teaching than the standards.  This leads me to ponder about my own teaching and what should I teach in my classroom.  I do believe that I need to teach the standards but how do I go about teaching them.  This is what I feel really brings this Cycle’s information to life.  Technology, technology, technology!  My students LOVE using technology.  Technology is a part of the lifestyle today.  Everywhere we go people are using technology, whether it is through their phone, lap top, ipad, tablets, or a variety of other devices.  Technology has become a part of our lifestyle and we, as teachers, need to bring it into the classroom and have technology be a part of our learning.  I am thankful to have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom, as well as I have access to a computer lab and a tablet lab.  I have quickly learned that my students are fully engaged when we are using some form of technology. 

This brings me to the article titled Learning By Playing Video Games in the Classroom, which highlighted the type of schooling called Quest to Learn.  Quest to learn is a structured school where students’ learning is organized around video games.  This idea was mind boggling to me.  I cannot imagine teaching my students only using video games.  Where would all the social skills go?  Would our students be able to interact in a positive way in society?  What about our students that lack the most simple technology skills?  Would our students be able to collaborate with others face to face?  Many questions continued to come to mind as I read and thought more about this article.  As I reflect on my current students learning I can see when there would be certain situations that it would be very fun to engage my students in a video game type learning.  For example, when we talk about where we live.  It would be fun to find a program where my students could design a city that they would live in.  Adding all the essential needs in a city.  We would be able to discuss location of objects in the city, distance from different places, etc.  I can just imagine how excited students would become being immersed in this form of technology.  I also can see the benefits of making teaching practical for the students and allow them to work in teams to challenge and express their thinking.

This brings me to Geoff Mulgan’s idea of a Studio School.   In a Studio School a majority of the curriculum is done through practical projects where the students are learning by doing.  The webcast stated that this form of schooling is aimed at teenagers, however I can see how even five and six year olds would really excel in this form of schooling.   I found this idea to be so fascinating and I was eager to learn more about it.   I went on a search to see if there was any Studio Schools in the United States.  I found the following website for a Studio School in New York. http://www.studioschoolnyc.org/about_us.htm

Interestingly enough this school has been around since 1971, where it opened as a one-room schoolhouse that taught 25 students’ ages 4 to 12.   The students mission is “educate the hearts and minds of children as we nurture the unfolding of their authentic spirit and character.  Our students learn to value intellectual and creative ideas, and to take pleasure in the process of discovery….” (The Studio School).  As I continued to explore the website I found that there are classes from the age of nearly two all the way through middle school.  This school has its curriculum structured for exploring and mastering how to learn and how to think.  It empowers the students to integrate what they learn with who they are.   This school does teach specific skills like math, reading, dance but instead of just teaching these skills this school provides experiences for the students so that they can “take the skills and concepts they are mastering and use them cohesively and in a productive manner.”  I believe providing experiences integrating math, reading, science, social studies, and the fine arts are a great way to promote learning and teach my students.

 
How Should Schools Be Held Accountable?

However, if I only teach through creating experiences for my students, than how would I be held accountable?  This led me to reflect upon the ways that I am currently being held accountable at my job and my thoughts regarding this.   Currently I am being held accountable through two major systems, one being principal observations and the other being standardized testing.  Let me briefly share my thoughts on both.  Principal observations are a great interactive way for teachers to be held accountable.  These observations are a time where Principals are in our classrooms watching and critiquing our teaching.  At my school my principal does a wonderful job providing positive remarks as to strengths and areas of improvement with our teaching and with the way that she observes our students learning.  I find this to be such a motivating time where I really feel like I am being held accountable for what and how I am teaching in the classroom.  However, this does not provide detailed data that states how my students are performing.  That is where standardized testing comes into play.  Yes, even for my kindergarten students!  Even at the beginning of the year, when some are only four years old and have just stepped into their first classroom experience, we are testing them!  At times I do believe we go a bit crazy with testing.  However, I do enjoy diving into student data to help me determine my teaching weaknesses or where I need to intervene with some of my students.  I do believe that standardized testing is helping me be held accountable but there is just TOO much of it!  In Chapter 5, Cultural Literacy and the Schools, Hirsch states “it appears the chief factor in academic achievement is the time the student spends in studying the material to be mastered.” (Hirsch, 115).  Meaning it is most crucial for teachers to be aware of the student’s time on task.  Interestingly enough, my school just had a professional development afternoon where our presenter had each grade level do a time on task evaluation of your entire day at school.  We had to do a time audit that shared exactly when we were teaching, what we were teaching, and for how long.  If you have not ever done this, do it!  It was so amazing to see how many little things take away from your entire day of learning, like morning announcements.   Doing this time audit allowed each grade level to be held more accountable to students on task learning! Hirsch also stated “schools across our nation should share common goals but their means for achieving goals should be varied and adaptive.” (Hirsh 127).  I believe that this simply makes sense.  Curriculum should be shared across the nation and we should be teaching similar things.  However, should a lot of time be spent on teaching for a test?  This is a hot topic in education today!   The following article, shares some of the side effects of standardized testing.   http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/howard-seeman/the-side-effects-of-standardized-testing/

This article makes me question standardized testing in its validity to being practical and current in today’s world.  Just one quote to end on, the article shared “in inner-city schools, testing anxiety not only consumes about a third of the year, …every minute of the school day…to be directed to a specifically stated test-related skill.”  Is this making learning fun for our students?  Are our students actually learning?  Or should we reconsider creating those well-rounded experiences, where our students can be exploring new ideas while reconstructing older thoughts throughout all subject areas!

Cycle One: What is Curriculum? What is its Purpose?

What Curriculum Meant to Me Before I Became a Teacher:

            Before I began teaching if someone asked me what curriculum was I would begin by stating the different resources or texts that were used to teach mathematics, reading, writing, science, and social studies.  My teaching would be based off of these texts to teach the students the intended concepts.  If the students mastered these concepts than I would believe that my teaching and the way I presented the curriculum was a success.

What Curriculum Means to Me Now That I Am a Teacher:

            Now that I have been teaching for three years, I know that curriculum means much more than just the resources we use to present material.  I strongly believe that teaching curriculum deals with the teacher being concerned with the subject matter and the way it relates to a total growth experience!

            The first step in teaching is to really get to know my students.  I need to become aware of their strengths, their weaknesses, their culture, their home lives, their motivators, and just simply get to know each and everyone of them.  However, this cannot happen if I do not provide a safe and secure classroom environment.

I am a kindergarten teacher in a needy district where students thrive for attention.  Many of my students have not had prior education experience before they come to me on the first day of kindergarten.  I believe the first month of school my job is to create this safe and secure learning environment, where my students feel respected and have trust in me as their teacher.  Like the Donovan article stated, I also believe that the use of emotion and human connection is key to reaching every student.  Once I have created this connection with my students I am able to teach the curriculum in a way that the student’s can most relate with.

Link to the article Curriculum and Teacher Motivation Crucial for Quality Education

Neupane, Babu Ram. (January 16, 2013). Curriculum and Teacher Motivation Curcial for Quality Education.  The Himalayan Times. Retrieved from:

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Curriculum+and+teacher+motivation++Crucial+for+quality+education+&NewsID=362147

This article shares that curriculum alone cannot make students succeed or make students learn.  It is up to the teachers to take that curriculum and find the way to best motivate our students in order to get them to understand and learn the curriculum.  I strongly agree with this, as I do believe that as a teacher it is our job to motivate and model what learning looks like and how to be a successful learner.  I also agree with the article in that curriculum is useless if teachers do not take a minute to determine what needs to be taught, the best way to present this material, and reflect back upon how the material was presented.  As a teacher, we need to take an active role in teaching curriculum in a way that our students can best relate to it.  That means teachers need to use familiar vocabulary and examples in which our students can base new knowledge off of.  This brings me to the idea that children are not blank slates.  Children bring their culture, language and experiences into the classroom.  It is up to the teacher to provide a quality-learning environment where the students can use their experiences to motivate new knowledge.  

The Purpose of Teaching Curriculum

            I believe that the purpose of teaching curriculum is to make learning an active process in the student’s lives.  I like how the Child and the Curriculum article stated that “it is the child and not the subject=matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning.”  (Dewey).  This year in my classroom, I have informally assessed my students learning abilities by using observations and by keeping anecdotal records.   I have documented ways that my students learn best.  Having this knowledge allows me to teach curriculum in a way that they will be the most successful. 

In my classroom, I agree with Dewey in that nothing can be developed from nothing (Dewey).   I am constantly modeling and selecting material that will allow my students to gain new experiences, while making connections to existing experiences.  I believe the purpose for teaching curriculum is to keep these students prior experiences in mind so that the students have a schema to build on from.   This is my goal everyday in the classroom.  I want my students to be able to relate to the curriculum that is being presented to them.  I strongly believe that if I can get my students excited about learning, they will be more apt to take in more knowledge, therefore allowing them to master new skills or concepts. 

Link to the Advance organizers: Activating and Building Schema for more Successful Learning in Students with Disabilities article:

https://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journal%20of%20Special%20Education/Volume%201-4%20PDF%20Articles/DanielK%20-%20Advance%20Organizers%20-%20Activating%20and%20Building%20Schema%20for%20more%20Successful%20learning%20in%20students%20with%20disabilities.pdf

The article titled, Advance Organizers: Activating and Building Schema for more Successful Learning in Students with Disabilities, presents many visual organizers that can be used to actively tap into student’s previous knowledge on a concept.   I wanted to highlight one of the visual organizers that I recently tried out with my kindergarten students.  This organizer is called PLAN. PLAN is a strategy that offers, pre, during, and post reading tactics.  The steps are:

P: Predict by previewing the text and creating a concept map.  (Use a tree trunk with extending branches, for the visual.)

L:  Locating prior knowledge on the map with checks and new concepts with questions marks.  (Put the ideas on the branches)

A: Add new branches to the map to represent new knowledge acquired while reading.

N: Note:  After reading how new knowledge can be applied to everyday tasks.  (May add leaves to the branch to add how we can apply the new “branch” information or idea.)

By using this visual organizer with my students I was able to actively engage my students in their knowledge about a particular concept.  We used this in my classroom most recently with weather as the topic.  It was exciting to be able to incorporate so many curriculum and standard goals.  For just this strategy the students were involved in asking and answering questions about details in a text, make connections to events or ideas, identify events, compare and contrast different weather climates, support their own thinking, and overall be actively engaged in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. Incorporating active learning allows the child and not the subject matter to determine both quality and quantity of learning.  This is crucial in the purpose of teaching curriculum. 

~Caitlin Meyer

Introduction

Professional Life:

I am currently in my third year of teaching at Houghton Lake Community Schools.  I am very fortunate to be teaching kindergarten, my dream job.  Everyday I live for this quote with my kinders, “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” ~Aubrey Hepburn. 

Throughout my first three years of teaching I have witnessed just how much we, as teachers, impact our students everyday!  I know in my district there are many students that come to school thriving for attention, acceptance, and a chance for success.  It has been my job to create a warm and caring environment where all my students feel safe and are ready to succeed.

I have also been fortunate enough to be involved in multiple committees at my school.  These committees include being on the school improvement team, being the kindergarten grade level chair, being on the achievement team, hosting family nights, and I am a afterschool tutoring teacher.  I enjoy being active and informed at my school. 

Academic Life:

In 2005 I graduated from Holland High School and went on to Central Michigan University to pursue my teaching career.  It was here at Central that I really began to realize how passionate I was about teaching and working to engage young learners.  In May 2010 I graduated with honors from Central Michigan University.  I was the first class to graduate in our football stadium, during a SNOW storm!  What a day it was!  That summer I landed my first teaching job at Houghton Lake Community Schools and just knew I was ready to continue my learning.  Last summer I began my studies here at Michigan State.  I am pursuing a Masters degree in Teaching and Curriculum with a Reading Specialist endorsement.  I am excited to see what new knowledge I gain from this course and can bring back to my current teaching!

Personal Interests:

In my free time I enjoy hanging out with my family and friends, going to the beach, taking mini vacations, and creating games for my kindergartners.