Educator competencies Cecere

4 domains

Cognitive

  My lesson was designed to help my students become productive citizens with a plan for their future. The Cognitive Domain or need to know for each student was what am I going to do after I graduate from high school.  Students then researched their career that they may want to work in. They not only found out about their career but also found out what kind education that they would need.

Intrapersonal Domain

My students started out with a dream which is a fun way for setting financial goals, They set up a budget, created resumes, interviewed , calculated their investments etc. The students helped each other in many ways throughout the project.

Instructional Domain

 It was based on economics standards from Rubicon Atlas. I worked hard to keep this project true to the standards.  Real life project. Students were able to see if all of their dreams would be able to come true.

Student reflection

 Students reflected on their project through essays several times through out the project.  Many students were able to reflect on how their choices needed to be redone especially after they saw how much their mortgage would be. They all understood that the end game depends on their budget and investing.

The project covered all of these domains

Article - Educator Competencies

Cognitive Domain
This domain includes content knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts and concepts that serve developing intellectual abilities and skills.  Students need to be able to recall, analyze, create and evaluate.  I think this is probably the domain most of us are comfortable in.  We became teachers in a certain subject because that is what interest.  I am so passionate about my subject and showing students how it relates to things all around us.  I like seeing the light come on when they experience science at work in a lab.  It is also rewarding when something doesn't work out the first time and they reevaluate the process and it works the 2nd or 3rd time.

Intrapersonal Domain 
This domain is arguably the most important category of skills for success in college and careers, and also the most difficult to address in school. Together, cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills are the “what” that students need to learn in high school so that these skills can develop into established competencies when students leave high school.  We teach these skills everyday regardless of our specific role in schools, whether we are teachers, guidance counselors, or administrators.  These skills are important because students need to be able to cope with uncertain, new, and rapidly changing conditions on the job, including responding effectively to emergencies or crisis situations and learning new tasks, technologies, and procedures.  This not only helps in the classroom but also in the workplace.  


Interpersonal Domain
This domain is the social, personal, and leadership skills educators need to relate
with students, colleagues, and the greater community, particularly in multicultural, inclusive, and linguistically diverse classrooms.  Interpersonal skills are extremely important in a PBL classroom.  Students need to be able to communicate with each other and the teacher.  Students need to be able to work on these skills in small activities before they start on the big projects.  While some students will step into the leader role and others will follow, communication verbally or non verbally is a must.  Students need to be able to problem solve and decision make when they are working on a product.  

Instructional Domain 
This domain is the pedagogical techniques that educators use—what they need to do—in

order to sustain a personalized, learner-centered environment for all students.  Since most classes have standards it is easy to create learning experiences based off of this information.  The hard part is making sure that all the diverse needs of students are met.  Students should take some ownership in their learning.  Many just want to regurgitate facts but I feel it is necessary to be able to apply what you are learning.  This is why I feel real life examples and experiences are important.

I feel that all of these domains can be covered through the PBL process.  The process covers all 21st century skills while incorporating, technology and collaboration between students, educators and community members.  While not all teachers will buy into the PBL teaching method, there are many who will try to incorporate some of the processes.  I think the hardest part for people is the process of giving up some of the control to the students, worrying about having to justify failure (the process) to both students and parents, and getting people to accept that all classes do not have to be the teacher at teh front of the class lecturing and then the students doing a worksheet.  This is what people in the past generations went through so they expect the same for their children.  I feel completely sure that educators do not want to see students left behind in the learning process.  Not all students will go to college but the skills that PBL learning can foster in students will be helpful in all types of workplaces.  The whole education system is changing.  Students can leave high school and enter college as sophomores or juniors through dual credit courses, they can go straight into manufacturing jobs at seventy thousand dollars a year or they can, learn skills to discover what they want to try.  I think PBL is the way to go.  I know I still have a lot to learn but the process is one that I am willing to sell to others.

Educator Competencies

This was a great article to read and assisted me in reflecting about our diversity project as we concluded right before Thanksgiving break.  Under the lens of each competency, I can value and appreciate our project with a multifaceted approach.  Looking at each competency made me take away something positive and something that needs work for each area, which will be helpful when trying to determine if we were "successful" at implementing our project.  I believe it is a healthy habit  to identify and take responsibility for weaknesses and improve upon them.  I know we did not do everything perfect in our project and I hope that we can make adjustments for next year.

Another twist to gaging the success of our project is thinking about how it was implemented throughout eight different classrooms as we use common grade-level plans.  From the initial plan to weekly plans to how it is interpreted in each teacher's classroom, I did see some varying levels of competencies in each domain, which is kind of interesting.  As my grade level is preparing to meet for a half-day of planning in which we will be looking forward to our next project in the spring, I can only hope I will shed a different light on this past project beyond if it was "good" or "bad."  We often forget to use the deeper level of language and understanding when assessing ourselves, so this article really helped me analyze the project in a more helpful way.

For the cognitive domain, I feel that our project really pushed the first graders to stretch themselves further than they've been stretched before.  Having them research using a variety of online and text sources and then summarize that information into a digital slide was pretty intense, but with the right support, I felt my students were able to successfully show what they learned.  Many of the comments I heard from my team was that this project would be better towards the end of the year, but I disagree to a certain level.  I think setting that expectation earlier in the year for "quality work" is better earlier rather than later.  It shows what they can and cannot do independently and/or with their group.  It also helped mine refine their feedback skills (something we've been working on mostly in writing).  We caught a lot of errors when we looked at the presentation in a whole group setting.  Being able to communicate in the 21st century requires more than just talking to another person face-to-face.  I liked how we used a digital format to have them show what they learned and I hope this sparks more ideas where they can show off their technology skills.  In comparison to other classrooms, I realized I was not doing any kind of crafts or "cute" activities based on my country and I began to worry that I wasn't doing something right in my classroom.  I then had to remind myself what was most important in this project was not providing all the information, but rather teaching my students how to seek out the answers to their questions.  Many parents responded to my email when I sent them the link to the GoogleSlides presentation about how much their child enjoyed learning about the country and how they are still wanting to research at home.  This helped me affirm that their extrinsic motivation was crossing over to intrinsic because they were seeking knowledge without being told to go home and research.  This made me really excited to hear!  One area of improvement I know I would focus on the next time we use this project is scaffolding their knowledge on discerning the most important information, i.e. main ideas of the text and looking at their topic as a whole.  One group that was focusing on holidays and clothing struggled throughout the entire research process and had difficulty understanding what they should be looking for when researching.  I worked with their group almost every day to push them to really look for the information that would answer their questions.  All three students focused on the details and couldn't see the bigger picture.  One way I would change this for next time is to have each group come up with their own questions.  At the beginning of the project, I was trying to invoke lots of wonderings and questions from everyone, so we did it in a whole group setting, but now I realize there wasn't as much ownership because students in different groups had different questions that may or may not have pertained to their chosen research group.

For the intrapersonal domain, this is a huge hurdle for six and seven year olds.  They are still learning how to control their first impulses and this can result in some arguments about work ethic and self-management.  I allowed many opportunities for groups to work together and figure out a solution when there was a problem.  A strategy that worked really well was to have each person in the group responsible for something.  For example, one person gathered the materials while another worked to be the "peace keeper" in the group.  This person especially communicated to me when there was an issue within the group and I assisted by serving as a moderator if they were disagreeing or not staying on task.  It also helped with stressing the expectations that everyone in the group has a job and the group cannot function without everyone on board.  I worked with one individual that was keeping the group from being productive and after we talked about how he could help his group, things were much smoother.  Instead of getting angry with him and punishing him for not being on task, I asked him how he felt about working with his group and had him define what he was supposed to be doing within his group.  One reason he was playing was because he did not understand the expectations for his role in the group.  "Everybody needs a job" in my classroom and I play that out to the fullest extent--everyone in my classroom has a job and they keep their job all year long.

Eventually students are going to struggle, disagree, and be uncomfortable within their group  and that can be hard to watch.  I feel like it made some of my students who are used to being the best at everything start to see that it is more than knowing the material and doing it by yourself.  To manage one's behavior, emotions, and act with intention is a huge accomplishment, but I think it can be achieved through PBL.  Erik Erikson's stage of life virtues "competence, industry vs. inferiority" rings all too true when working with this age group and I try to remember that many students in my class are still very ego-centric with some starting to become aware of others' work ethics and feelings of inferiority/superiority can arise. I think I could have improved in this area by keeping a methodical checklist to know who I conferenced with throughout the project (individuals and groups.)  Something as simple as keeping a running notebook would have helped me as I was reflecting on their rubric grade.  One downfall I've observed in myself occurs when we are getting busy and we're in the thick of learning to not write down my thoughts and reflections each day!

Speaking of moving from an ego-centric mentality to a more worldly view, the interpersonal domain is always one of my favorites to consider when reflecting on my classroom.  So much of what we do requires the need to relate and I feel that I am always striving to develop the whole child in my classroom.  Working in a group can be very tough for such young children, but they are moving into a stage of life where they are beginning to notice others around them.  One group struggled with this part when they were researching because one student continued to play with the materials and not offer any kind of contribution to the learning experience.  Two of them also argued about their roles in the group and both wanted to be the one who used Symbaloo sites to research.  After several conversations where I let them figure out solutions, they did wonderfully when we were creating the presentation because they finally figure out how to work together.  Another group also did not produce as much work because they spent a large part of their time figuring out how to collaborate, but when it came time to produce their digital slides, they finally figured out how to communicate with one another and make a decision as a group.  All year, we've repeated our mantra of "share my materials, share my time, and share my thoughts and ideas," but it didn't make an impact until they were actually being tested in the group setting.  This project required them to work within a group and make decisions for the benefit of everyone.  I got them invested by allowing them to choose the country they wanted to study (after a class vote) and offering choice of what they wanted to learn about.  They also chose what information to put on their slide, they chose a variety of features on their slide from videos to photographs to audio clips.  I think one strategy I would try next time would be a whole group "pow-wow" and talk more explicitly at the end of each day about the pows (struggles) and wows (accomplishments) of working in their group.  This time could allow for the students to reflect on how they are contributing to their group and we could easily practice some self-assessment time through this method.  After we met whole group, they could reflect in a journal how they were feeling about their group.  This could also allow some insight for me to address any needs that I was not aware of during the work time.

The instructional domain may be my weakest area in that I feel there is always room for improvement when I am planning PBL units to be used by a grade level.  I also worry about assessing my students thoroughly enough.  It can be difficult to maintain focus on the project at hand and we could have easily continued our project for another week.  I am at fault in not completing our final step of the diversity project.  Our sharing time for all the other classes ran over the allotted time and we just barely were able to complete everyone's digital presentations before going on Thanksgiving break.  I also felt that our final assessment in which they chose from a menu to define diversity was too loose in interpretation and a little challenging for students to independently access the various modes of expression.  I worried my students would become too caught up in choosing which option to express themselves and not be able to accurately show what they learned.  I also worried they would not be able to access the technology (mainly Blabberize because it was starting to freeze up) that we initially listed on the menu last summer.  In reflecting on this project, I think a better post-assessment would have been to have them answer in the same format that we began the project in the pre-assessment--in which they would post on a Padlet an answer to the question "What is diversity?"  This makes the growth a lot more visible and the students could also see how much they grew through doing the project.  With planning this project within a grade level, I struggle with the revision of content portion because we are expected to have similar, if not the same, plans and assessments.  If I decide to adjust my final assessment, I worry that this will be frowned upon or seen as I didn't teach it well enough if my students do not perform to the level I initially expected of them.  In order to create a change within our plans, I feel a huge burden in addressing this concern with everyone on my team and it can be really difficult at times to come to a consensus.  Even with creating the mid-project assessment, which I administered to my students, I shared what I created in class with my team, but it was not included in the weekly plans and I don't know if anyone else used it.  I found this mid-project assessment beneficial and hope to use something like this again in future projects, but it can just be a challenge and pretty time-consuming to get everyone on board.  Just like in doing projects in my classroom, my grade level responds better to choice and having ownership when they are a part of the planning process.

Overall, I felt this project was strong in helping students develop many intra and interpersonal skills.  I continued to remind myself that this is a process, not just a product and most importantly, my students loved it!

Educator`s Competencies through Socrative seminar (Desai`s Super Students at GHS)

The students successfully conducted their first Socratic seminar in their Environmental Studies Class. I would like to summarize the Educator Core Competencies article using the exemplary teaching strategy Socratic seminar as an example/outcome. In the article the author mentions the words like student-centered, personalized learning models for students. I have struggled for the last eight years in my teaching career since my teaching was more teacher-centered and egoistic in many ways. The switch in my conscious planning towards student centered and personalized learning for students have changed the way I teach tremendously past 1 and a half year.

The four core competencies are practiced in my teaching almost every day and now after having read the article and being more concretely conscious about these competencies, the application of these competencies will be more evident in my teaching moving forward. I agree with the author that learner -centered, personalized teaching models have been pursued by some educators since Dewey`s time and I also like the author appreciate the current massive interest in this mode of teaching due to global markets, career and college ready skill requirements. Using the first core competency , Cognitive Domain,

I had researched a lot and selected the best article for my students to read for their Socratic seminar on Local & Sustainable Food system in their Foody Eco-preneurship Unit. I had made sure that they all had a clear understanding of sustainability and the three legs of sustainability. They were familiar with the involved vocabulary words and understood the content well before evaluating the article and voicing their opinions on these issues. While they were popcorn reading before the socratic seminar, I brought their attention to the key concepts involved.

INTRAPERSONAL DOMAIN: 

I tried out the Socrative Seminar for the first time in all of my Environmental Studies classes. I observed that atleast 30 percent of my students in all these classes were tuned out and these are the same sets of students that I have to put in extra efforts to get their involvement with all the different types of instructions. I will ask  all the students to write down their opinion on their experience with socratic seminar on ticket out of door next week after the second seminar. I shall follow up on those students who were tuned out closely.Make parental contact. Help them see the rewards through splendid reward system and also through the grade book in more involvement on their end.

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN

This socratic seminar was conducted in the Environmental studies class which I call Global Eco-preneurship class since I have collaborated with the Business teacher, Ms. Kathleen Kennedy and I teach the Science part and Ms. Kennedy helps the students with the business and financial aspect of their final project which is the GHS Global Eco-preneurship contest in May for their Green Business Plans. GHS is a business magnet and this helps my students see opportunities in the current climate, energy, food, waste crisis globally. The students are asked to work in groups and pairs on regular basis on small projects for knowledge acquisition and for collaboration. These builds their interpersonal skills. The teachers sere as their models by being creative, courageous and innovative.

INSTRUCTIONAL DOMAIN

The instructions in my classes are planned carefully where students are provided feedbacks through their returned assignments, Google Classroom posts, Google classroom assignments, Kahoot review, Socrative quizzes etc. Every lesson which is 52 minutes in length is divided into an activating strategy, hook, Bell work, Teacher Directed Instructions, Student -Independent TIME and summarizing activity. I let them know that each second in my class needs to be used for instructions and instructions only. The devices are used appropriately in my classes as per the BOYD  rule. Every two weeks, I started having the individual Student Conferences to help student catch up with their grades, assignments, make-up work etc. All my lesson plans couls be found on my website. Daily transtitional powerpoints are posted on each class calendar and also the supporting documents are uploaded to the calendar for the parent and student`s convenience.

Greenville High School is an ideal school for me to be teaching at. The administration serves as a great model for the teachers in setting high expectations for the students and teacher`s performance, mutual respect, sense of belonging and the culture of Excellence. Most of the educators at GHS are an embodiment of all the four educator`s competencies listed in this article. 

Social Innovators Response

Wow, this was definitely my favorite chapter so far!  I enjoyed reading about the STEM innovators, but reading about innovators that are reaching for social change through their ideas really made me excited all over again for PBL.  Not that I haven't been excited, but I really believe this is how students will continue to be impact the world post-graduation and I can only hope I can support that dream.  I remember reading an article in one of my graduate classes about identifying your educational philosophy and I definitely fell into the social-reconstructive category, namely after studying the Montessori method for early childhood.  I love seeing how students can embrace what they are learning and apply it to the real world.  With each of these social innovators, they clearly took "play" as children and eventually turned it into purpose.  Helping students see there is a problem and learning they can be a part to create solutions, to me, is one of the most important pieces of PBL.

One thing Wagner emphasized that I appreciated while reading at the end of the chapter was his observation of the diversity of the innovators, especially in this chapter.  When we read the second chapter earlier in the semester, I was a little turned off by his interview with Kirk because I felt that he came from a privileged lifestyle and had the means to live without owning up to real "responsibility" as he searched for his true calling.  I liked where he noted that some innovators had done well in school and others struggled--or as still struggling in the case of Syreeta and Zander.

I loved the part that Zander's neighbor plays as the catalyst that fuels his interest in sea turtles.  What a true testament to being a "life long learner"!  I hope I am like her one day as a retired schoolteacher, helping neighborhood kids learn. :)  I could easily put a face on him especially.  I have taught many students so similar to that typical hyper, unfocused, and seemingly uncontrollable student.  It just makes my heart hurt that his school did not recognize his talents and achievements at such a young age.  We are not meeting the needs of all students when we try to put them in a box and expect the same results from everyone.  Everyone deserves some form of positivity--even if you have to stretch for it.  What a disservice his school did for him.  Also, it sounds like he and his mom have different expectations for college.  She understands that learning is lifelong and shouldn't be "what you do when you graduate high school."  It sounds like Zander is an unconventional student and will go on an unconventional path to attain his credentials.

Syreeta's story also touched on the struggles she has as a student.  And what a wonderful support system she has in her mentors!  It's amazing what she is learning through her experiences in working with the inner city youth.  I saw there is a chapter called "Innovator Updates" at the very back of the book and I'm having to practice self-control to not read ahead because I really want to know how her story turns out in present day.

This chapter made me feel a lot better because I think it was a more realistic view of our student clientele, perhaps not at my school, but other students I've taught where I knew they were probably not going home to the best situation or had every opportunity handed to them to explore their interests.  It gives me hope for all my students that they can all be active participants in their learning and therefore their futures.  With so much violence, fear, and disrespectful discourse going on in the world today, I feel assured knowing I am helping to teach a generation how to be more patient, tolerant, and kind to one another by teaching them the soft skills of PBL.

Social Innovators---ch 4

Social Innovators-----

I really liked this chapter because I have always felt that giving back through service is one of the best ways to participate in the community. I think I get that from my family, as my father was quite active when I was small in several service organizations and I always knew that he was involved in one fundraising scheme or another as I was growing up. He was active in one group at the University of Cincinnati where he was Physical Plant Director that I recall in particular, a group called Sigma Sigma, where at the Bearcat football games we attended during the football season the members of Sigma Sigma had a special manner of inviting new members. Annually at one football game my father would join the other active and alumni member on Sigma Sigma in attendance at halftime and form a huge circle on the field with several hundred men. The public address announcer would call out to the stadium, "Sigma Sigma calls so and so to the circle..." over and over with different people's names each time. The invitees would come out of the stands one by one from their seats and, dressed in their topcoats and old-fashioned felt hats (as was the custom in that day, the 60s) join the circle as the alums and actives swayed side to side. For a kid, me, the halftime routine was all rather mysterious, but I always knew the outcome, the new people would help the group raise money for different causes; the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, attached to the UC medical center complex, was one of the agencies receiving money from the group annually as I recall. I think one year my dad was even president of the alumni group. So when I started reading about the ways in which social innovators are created I was a bit familiar with the entire process of creating people who work to give back. We have to nurture social innovators the exact same way that we help tech innovators, with support and guidance and encouragement. In this chapter one can see that the innovators had learned by examples from their parents and from other supporting adults. The education system can encourage social innovators as well by modeling the social innovation experience via planned activities and programs where helping others is foremost. We need to have more social responsibility and the upcoming generation seems to haeve a lot of community spirit for aiding others and for producing projects aimed at bettering the lives of others. All in all, I liked the chapter and I will likely go on to finish the entire book.

Kelly Dill's Chapters 1-3 Reflection

Kelly H. Dill

Chapter 1

After reading chapter 1, I reflected on my classroom and practices. Educators are constantly pressed for better test scores. It seems as if yearly, requirements change; forcing teachers to step back and create lessons to meet new needs. I would love to fully embrace developing a child’s intrinsic motivation through play, passion, and purpose. My hesitation is this philosophy requires opportunities to “explore, experiment, and discover” (p.30) in non-structured settings. I am searching for the balance between teaching my students to read and write proficiently, and surrendering instructional time for play.

I believe my classroom provides students with a culture that is curious and safe, where trial and error are norms. We have determined roles within collaborative groups and we can work with hands on problems together. Students need an understanding that our world is ever-changing and the solutions to current problems will continue to change. When presenting our students with problems, they need develop the skill of knowing the correct questions to ask. Communication and collaboration skills should become second nature, where using these skills align with a student’s creative thinking. Classrooms need to become driven to nurture these behaviors and allow students to fine-tune their passion. Children who are exposed to this philosophy of education are the innovators of tomorrow’s work force. “We need to outinnovate, outeducate and outbuild the rest of the world.” (p.6)

I was intrigued by the correlation of innovation with MIT college pranks, the process of creating, planning and executing with a nominal budget. I can see the value of the motivation, process, planning, and collaboration. These students have an intrinsic motivation to execute the prank.

My questions and concerns would be about the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Not all students are going to have a passion and internal motivation to excel and explore the standards I am required to teach and assess. Therefore, developing an intrinsic motivation becomes more difficult. Secondly, there is a relationship between play and the development of these skills. Play is very difficult to schedule once standardized tests become the norm. Also, play is not always aligned with standards. How to I willingly give up classroom and devote it to play when I already feel pushed for time?

Chapter 2

As I reflected on this chapter, I thought about my role as a parent and also and educator. I am completely on board with the concept of unstructured play when students are outside of the classroom. I believe a true partnership with parents can develop students who are genuine innovators. Today’s young people are not encouraged to go outside and play. They have the mindset of wanting to be entertained continually. Imagination is being lost in-between Sponge Bob and Family Guy. I hear students groan with “extra recess” and the repeated “I’m tired” comments of the day. This is a drastic change from 25 years ago when we prayed the teacher would forget what time we needed to go back inside.

I believe school and home should be a partnership with a unified vision, but visions are only successful when everyone is on board. I’ve noticed that parenting seems to have 2 extremes: parents that freak out over mistakes, “because my child has always been straight A’s” or the parents who schedule a conference and then never show up. This month I have been amazed at the parents who are frustrated because they want more worksheet, busy work homework. Daily, I send a parent email with details of what happened and questions they can ask their child. I usually include vocabulary and tell parents to have students retell stories. I would much rather encourage parents to communicate with their child and ask them to describe what they are learning, than complete a worksheet to add to the plethora of papers on my desk.

Ultimately, humans usually repeat what they know and are comfortable with, because it is safe. Parents seem to expect to see a repeat of what they did in school and if mom was all A’s then that is the expectation for their children. If both parents are busy with their work and life, the pressure of discussions or listening to your child read becomes less important than paying the bills. The rush and pull of everything in life seems to make it OK for a child to just “go watch TV.” Listening to my sweet eight year olds, I have very few who really experience the unstructured play when they go home.

Although, these examples are from middle class homes and experienced some of the same parenting styles; the kids had intrinsic motivation. Yes, the parents were guiding their children and allowing them to have meaningful experiences; but the teenagers or young adults were not satisfied. It is ultimately the individual who determines their path in life. Parents and educators can guide, make suggestions, and provide experiences, but the student has to have the desire for change.

Chapter 3

I would love to see both of my children pursue their passions, but I must confess; I have had the same conversations with my children that David’s father had with him. I don’t think any parent wants to watch their child struggle with finances through life. We all want our children to have better lives than we had. Parents want to see their children successful and happy and let’s face it, income does make a difference.

After thinking back to my own life, my job as a teenager was working in the local hospital pharmacy as a technician. At the time, it was fun, but there is only so much counting and labeling you can do before you want or need to talk to others. The pharmacist encouraged me to go into pharmacy, we discussed the hours, education I would need, and the pay. Then when time for college came, I chose to go into education. I believe I made the right choice, because I feel very effective in my job, not only did my job help my dyslexic son, but other families where I can honestly say, “I have been there and I will help you develop a plan and begin this journey.” I followed my passion, but like all of us, my passion doesn’t reflect my paycheck.

So far with this text, I feel like I reflect more like a parent than an educator. The students I teach are with me for 180 days, but my children are with me until they are self-sufficient (hopefully before the age of 30.) As a parent of 2 teenagers, how to you trust your child’s judgement? Even though they will be on their own in several years, they still don’t have the ability to analyze all elements of a situation. We continue to have family discussions on decisions that will impact their future. For their entire life I have developed their leadership skills, confidence, encouraged their interests, and allowed them the opportunities to apply their skills. I feel like I have provided my children with a lot of the same guidance and support discussed in these chapters. 

Kelly Dill's Chapter 4 Reflection

Chapter 4- Social Innovators Reflection

Wagner continues to site the importance of play, passion, and purpose with social innovators. He also notes the major difference between STEM innovators and social innovators being their motivation and a liberal arts background. I thought the definition of a social innovator as described by David Bornstein on p. 101 was particularly clear to me, “people with new ideas to address major problems who are relentless in the pursuit of their visions, people who simply will not take ‘no’ for an answer, who will not give up until they have spread their ideas as far as they possibly can.”

All of the examples of social innovators in this book have had the influence and support of another individual. This mentor not only supports the student in their project, but supports them in other areas of their life. These social innovators were able to grasp the bigger picture. The world is greater than just you or where you live. These innovators were acutely aware of the needs of others or their environment. Their awareness developed their sense of responsibility to make a change. These experiences developed their empathy for others.

None of these life stories provided a “fairy tale” model with an easy answer, but discussed the journey and the learning experiences along the way. The experiences provided these students with a level of tenacity that cannot be taught inside a classroom.

Laura noted that exploration was a key element in her development as a social innovator, but the experiences allowed her to become familiar with pressure. She also became aware that she could sit down and accomplish things that needed to be done. She also noted systematic problem solving would have been helpful to have been taught instead of learning by fire.

All three of the social innovators noted that school stifled their creative abilities. If the schools were aware of their accomplishments, they did little to support them. These innovators had a greater ability than what a traditional classroom can provide. They had a way of connecting with others. These connections helped them convey the passions they had for their projects. Laura was described as a pragmatist. She wouldn’t settle for mediocrity.

Zander’s mother, who is also an educator, discussed the impairment that can accompany labeling a child. She also described the painful stress caused by monotonous school. Students can live up to the label we place on them in a classroom. I am the parent of a child, now teen, who is anxious, ADHD, and severely dyslexic. There for, I believe I can view her thoughts through more than one lens. As the parent, I felt it was my responsibility to encourage my child and to push him to keep working and not settle. Honestly, I did not medicate him for ADHD until I taught him in 3^rd grade. When I agreed that his in attention was preventing him from developing as a reader and writer. Socially, he has always been amazing! He has never met a stranger and is aware of others needs just by observing their body language. All parents want the best for their child, and for so long that goal has included classroom performance and grades and test scores.

She also noted the requirements of teachers to all be in the same place. Admittedly, I struggle with that concept. My personality loves a checklist, sometimes adding things just to relive the joy felt when I can add the check. I believe a good teacher can’t always rely on a checklist, nor can we completely follow the lesson plan lying on the desk. When a teachable moment arises, we have to follow.  In that perspective, school can also stifle a teacher’s creativity.

I believe my biggest take away from chapter 4 is the mindset and goals of education. As an elementary teacher I feel the demand of pushing foundational skills. I feel the pressure of balancing reading, math, and writing along with developing a sense of curiosity. Yes, we have standards to follow; I need to know where the balance of time should be? How much time should be devoted to PBL during a school day? How do I make that function with the schedule that I am required to follow and the progression of standards and scaffolding of units. 

Kelly Dill's Article Reflection

Educator Competencies Reflection- blog post

Cognitive Domain

This domain requires that educators foster the development of critical thinking and metacognition of the learning experience. This domain requires that educators have an in-depth content knowledge, proficient communication skills, and a firm knowledge of how to scaffold the content to achieve student mastery. Educator should foster perseverance.

Intrapersonal Domain (educators thought process)

This domain focuses on meeting the needs of all learners; student centered learning and diversity. This domain requires that educators have professional learning and exhibit ethical practices within their classrooms. The learning experiences are prescriptive and meet the student at their level. Inclusion and mutual respect should be the norm. The classroom should be flexible to adjust to the needs and growth of the students.  It also requires that students and the educator have the “capacity to manage one’s behavior and emotions to achieve one’s goals.” The classroom should model high expectations, reflection, persistence, and requirement of student’s independence.

Interpersonal Domain (educator’s communication and relationships)

Teaching should foster a safe, positive learning environment, focused on the progression and the development of the learner. The classroom should foster a reflective, constructive, collaborative learning opportunities. Develop relationships within the classroom, school, and the community that will foster continued success. These relationships should develop without any bias. The educator should allow for growth and development of leadership skills, seeking opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and the community with the goal of advancing the profession and her students. The educator should help all stake-holders embrace the shift in mindset.

Instructional Domain (educators need to do)

Educators need to develop learning experiences based off of standards and follow effective scaffolding. Teachers should teach to mastery. The planning for instruction should be developmentally appropriate; data driven based off of assessments and customized to meet the diverse need of all of my students, while fostering student ownership of their learning. Presentation of content should include wide variety of instructional strategies. All experiences should be tied into meaningful real-world experiences to enhance learning. All of this can be achieved under the umbrella of Project Based Learning, connected to technology, collaboration and community.

As I read over the competencies, I became increasingly aware that mastery in some of these domains is natural for some teachers. I believe my experience as a teacher has greatly developed all of these domains. No, not every aspect of my teaching is PBL driven, but I collaborate with the school and community. We have a positive, respectful, classroom, school and community. We teach for mastery. I can’t name one educator in my building that is OK with knowing a child has been left behind. I will agree that I am very blessed to be in this school environment, we all strive to meet the needs of our students. Unfortunately, we are not very diverse, but we understand and respect differences in opinions and cultures.  Standards provide the framework to guide students to becoming college ready; this is the guide whereas the competencies provide the breadcrumbs to follow to achieve the final outcome. I agree PBL can meet the needs of the learners in my community. I also strongly believe this will be a difficult mindset shift for some of my colleagues and community members. There are still so many who believe the only way to become proficient are through repetition. Evidence can be provided to support those theories; there is also evidence to support PBL instruction. Again, there must be a commitment and a unified vision for all stake-holders.

Jozi's Chapter 4 Reflection

Chapter 4 – Bog Reflection

Innovation is everything that education should be; creation is innovation, expertise is knowledge, critical thinking skills is creative thinking using connections, empathy, sympathy, and experimentation to generate a broader deeper understanding. What brings us joy in our lives is the very essence of what teaching and learning should be, but often isn’t. Teachers struggle with letting go, time, resources, and the growing apathy of our students towards learning and their world in general. Kids express lack of desire, motivation, and care. They are bored, frustrated, stressed out and often angry with instruction and teachers- with education in general. This forced me to think about motivation, what it, where does it grow from, is and what it looks like.

I really don’t know if I can examine others’ motivation, as well as I can my own. So why do I work so hard at this frustrating, harshly looked upon, often thankless, always chaotic career? The answer is because I was a student and not a very good one. In fact, the beginning part of my adult life was grounded in my experiences in school. I found that I was less, unequal, slow, and generally dissatisfactory in school, I simply was not a success. Therefore, in the earliest days of my adult life I acted as if I was all of those things- and life was not good. Then I had a child and I was really good at being a mother, because that was an education that I could not and would not fail in and from that learning experience I grew. By the end of College, I was aware that I was none of the things that I identified about myself in my earlier educational journey. Today, I see myself in a completely different light defined by my later educational experience. So I teach. I teach like a crazy woman giving time and resources I often don’t have just to ensure that there will be one less poorly defined adult in the world.

So the question is where do the kids find their motivation that changes into a passion? And is every single person innovator material? What if they are not innovators? Are their levels or degrees of being an innovator? This label is worrisome for me only because it comes with an expectation of something great.

I think that the important take away from Chapter 4 is not an understanding that the creation of innovators is success, but an understanding that helping kids find a passion or “intrinsic motivation” for learning through the implementation of student centered, PBL activities because having a passion for learning learning creates lifelong learners and I am certain that the largest byproduct will be innovation by innovators. 

Jozi Rigoli's Blog Post 4 - Article Discussion

Reflection

J Rigoli

Cognitive:

The need to know is accessible due to the high stakes testing. The district provides my content area’s need to know. This is probably the area that I am strongest in as I utilize this resource and couple it with my innate ability for seeing student needs and implementing strategies and accommodations that fit the child. I also have experience supplementing the content in order to enhance the curriculum. Strategies I use are simulation, game / role playing, and high yield organizers.

Intrapersonal:

I consistently use skills from the intrapersonal domain by strategically reflecting on individual student performance. Just this week I have had to streamline my instruction to keep pace with the expectations set by the district on when and where my classes should be, as far as the curriculum. To that end, I have cut back on the simulations and role playing lesson and implement more modeling, student driven instruction using graphic organizers. I typically use these strategies to support students who might need “content grounding”.  What I have found through student feedback and observation this week is that over use of these strategies leaves my students “burnt out” and feeling like they are working all the time. I am reworking the lesson for the rest of the week based on what the students have hinted as “not working strategies”. Throwing a beach ball around to review and I have- who has with both being created and run by the kids.

Interpersonal:

Interpersonal, is an easy one that I implement every lesson I possibly can, in as many way as I can. Content / Historical discussions that I link to topics and issues that are immediately important and relevant to the kids. For example, when illuminating the weakness of The Articles of Confederation I drew a super large circle and a very small circled and labeled them Central and State government.  I then went around the room and asked random students who in their family represented the state power under the articles and who represented the central, the response was always “mom or dad and the kids”. Then I asked them why they thought the kids had so little power and from there they began to point out the weaknesses of a small, powerless central government based on the home life scenario.  They then became very curious about what that image would like today. I have found that if you can pull in the dynamic of home for these kids (especially at this age) they fall back on that dynamic and are able to extrapolate answers that they might otherwise miss if they had learned it as a straight fact. I feel that making personal connections ignites deeper interpersonal communication in the classroom. Once we talked about the family dynamic I posed a question about a compromise we were covering, I implemented a think-pare-share, and the conversations were wildly more animated and the responses were much higher level, as they were able to bring in personal comparisons. This is why I love the interpersonal part of PBL the most. It is probably the easiest to implement for me and the gains are highly measurable.

Instructional Domain:

I don’t know what is going on with me in this area. I work really hard implementing work that is student centered, but at this point I often feel like I am at odds with what the district want, what my kids are ready for, and what I want to do. If there was a fly on the wall it would be dizzied by the changes I make hour to hour and week to week in my lessons. I think that by and large my kids see my planning and lesson as a good, as they never really know what they are walking into but they realize the success they are having. However, I am uncertain of what my classroom looks like “instructionally” to an administrator. I hear the teacher in the room next to me playing games, and doing fill in the blanks, and watching full videos, and I feel bad for my kids as they are heads together trying to figure out what that 250 year old document is saying. But the key is that they are the masters of their learning and they sound like and act like and respond like students that are learning.

I employ a short answer response that the students use to answer the daily discussion / debate question. RACE (restate, answer, cite, and explain). The students are randomly chosen to share their answers for a grade and another student runs through the RACE pointing out that “Hey, your r & a are great, but could you read your explain again?’ Or “what was your citation?” And “I think you did great, but I think that you might need to revisit your explain, or you could write…” This supports a critical friend’s dialogue and clarifies both the readers and the listeners understanding. My students really like this process as they get to be hear and are also running the classroom discussion. I am at the computer implementing my grade using an automated rubric that I type in the comments shared by the students and it is e-mailed directly to the students gmail account. This is great for reflection as they can read the responses and reflect on what was said. I have kids come up to me and tell me that their parents think I really care about their work, when in fact it is the other students that are supporting them.

I do not know if I will ever feel confident in this area while I teach in a traditional setting. I really would like to work at a school that is working towards PBL because I honestly do feel like I am pulled in too many directions.

Instructional domains

John Dewey and the Progressive Movement is one of my favorite topics of study!  Dewey was a innovator in education but not without his many critics.  Any time someone wants to change the way we teach, there will be obstacles.  I have been through many phases of teaching waves but the main ideas are always there.  Students should be able to read and understand what they read and know why being able to read opens doors.  Students should be able to be responsible for what they learn and what they possess.  Students should be able to be productive citizens and be able to change as progress requires it.  If we are unable to adapt then we are no longer useful.  In the introduction to this article I appreciated what was written " many educators find themselves tackling challenges for which they are not fully prepared and devoting immeasurable energy to learning 'on the fly" and on their own."  This completely sums up my teaching experience.  Whew!  I am glad that someone other than me realized it!

To create a true learning environment, there must be a culture of trust among the students and among the fellow teachers.  Trying to work with anyone that you do not trust is difficult and that culture must be developed from the first day.  In a classroom setting that can be overwhelming but not impossible and the lines are very fluid especially with teenagers who all seem to have multiple personalities!  It is also difficult to always be fair or equitable.  The commitment to equity must be clear but all parties must realize it is not something that is always possible.

A PBL lessons works within the 4 domains.  My lesson that I have created was to help my students see the bigger picture of being fiscally responsible.  The Cognitive Domain or need to know for each student was what am I going to do when I graduate from high school.  Students were already in career clusters and they needed to explore within that career cluster that they have chosen a career that they may want to work in.  This exploration has been fostered since they were freshman with their guidance counselor and through a yearly career day that our school sponsors.  As seniors, these students need to know what they will do when they graduate.  It is a pretty serious question that scares and fascinates at the same time.  My students used SCOIS to research what it will take for them to obtain the career that they want.  A weakness in this domain for me is the use of rubrics,  I have them built in but I need to be more consistent in their use and present them from the beginning.

In the Intrapersonal Domain, students used inquiry based approaches to set life goals in terms of a budget and college applications.  Students created resumes for now and for their future self.  This section need some more input especially from maybe an outside source to come in and talk to the students about financial planning.  Some students still were and are not sure how to pay for college.  Many are having to delay college for financial reasons and some chose other career options when they realized how little they would be paid for their choice.  Money is the main motivator of many of my students because they are lower middle class and some of them also have unrealistic choices for careers.  How do I guide them to do something they feel passionate about when the pay is not what they expected or their abilities are not capable of that career?

In the Interpersonal Domain the students were good to work together as well as be good critical friends of each other.  Many of my students are afraid to make a presentation in front of the entire class but are comfortable to present in a small group.  Students encourage each other to realize their goals and potential.  I brought in guidance counselors on two separate occasions to help with the resumes and the career research.  To most of my students, it made their work more relevant because sources outside the classroom saw relevance in what they were doing.

Instructional Domain or pedagogy is strong.  It is based in the standards of economics and I had a strong partner to work with in the planning stages.  It would be ideal to have a partner within my building to assist me.  It would be great to have someone to help especially with building relationships with outside sources to help bring them in.  I hope to make contacts with some of the career professionals who are coming to career day but I am in my classroom when they are in the building so I may need to work on that.  I don't have a "team" within my building but I am a team within myself to continue to strengthen this project.

Student reflection was used throughout and they students reflected on how it felt to create the dream board to how real their expectations are for their career choice to how did creating a budget make them feel.  Students reflected on their current spending habits and their resume creation as well.  Many students were able to reflect on how these choices frustrated them as well as made them more willing to pursue their goals.

These instructional domains are extremely high levels of expectations for any PBL I create.  Having students be responsible for their learning is the ultimate goal and one that I will continue to strive for.

Chapter 4 Social Innovators

Of all that we have read and done during this class, this one chapter was a highlight!  I have been skeptical of reading this book but one part of this chapter really spoke to me as an educator.  Zander is a large percentage of the students that I teach and I am amazed that he has found an outlet for his energy.  The fact that he struggles in school and has ADHD but has become an expert on sea turtles is a great example of how our educational system is failing our students.  Zander has enough education to be proficient but may not finish a college degree in what he loves because there are requirements out there that have nothing to do with his passion!  That is a failure!!!  I and my students question so many times why we have to take certain subjects when we clearly do not not enjoy them but we muddle through them to get them out of the way!  Why must students continue to take math and science when they don't have an interest in them but would much more enjoy taking extra history courses or learning about law enforcement?  Once I have the basics, why must I continue to subject myself to this torture.  These four examples show us how our educational system is failing our students.  Most students cannot be successful at things they are truly not interested in.

Syreeta has the beginnings of a great idea to help those students who are disadvantaged find a way to correct their circumstances by first and foremost realizing that their circumstances do not have to be permanent.  It is very difficult for me to teach a disadvantage youth how to overcome their circumstances when I have never been in their position.  Syreeta can inspire and find others to also inspire these students to want something more and different than their present circumstances.  She is still struggling with her circumstances but hopefully she will find her some success in spite of those struggles.  Parents are a key motivator for the passion and purpose that she is searching.

Disadvantages can be anything and these students represent different ones, whether its socially, economically or physically disadvantaged we all must conquer that obstacle in order to find what we are passionate about.  I now understand more of my students who have attention problems.  We are creating a society that rewards someone who can sit still and listen and give back what is given to them.  Their minds are going in many different directions and I need to find a direction that they want to go in .  I am going to try this in a genius hour.  I am going to allow each of my students to choose any topic that they are interested in and research that topic for the time.  I am going to build in time once a week to do this.  Other components of this will be that they must teach classmates about their topic and they must correspond to someone in this topic.  So far this is just scratching the surface but it is a start.  I did something similar when I allowed my students to research someone that should be added to our history book and give a good argument as to why they should be added.  It's a start and a fun one because I have never done this before. I want to be the elderly neighbor to Zander and I want to be the Daniel to Syreeta to someone in my classroom.  To many right now, I am "mom" because I inately nurture these children but I hope to inspire someone that needs it!

Chapter 4 Social Innovators

While reading chapter 4 I realized that many of the people that were mentioned had a deep passion for their cause.  Our school has a class called service learning.  Many students take the class and truly are inspired at their service sites.  Many students take the second service learning class.  We also offer a class in Peer Tutoring.  This class pairs a special education student with a few regular ed students.  They take them out to eat, school events and even church.  I see students who sign up for this class and enjoy it so much they pursue an education in special education.  I think students are always willing to participate in community service projects but you always have those few who think that they shouldn't have to help because they are the ones who should be on the receiving end.  I always try to explain to students that no matter how bad things are there are always people that are worse off.  I think passion is what drives most individuals in doing things that they enjoy.  For instance, Laura took her passion of swimming and turned it into lessons or Jigna who has taken her passion for learning to help students in her nonprofit.  I think it is very important as educators that we teach students how to be responsible and accountable for their own actions.  I believe that PBL is a great way to produce the next generation of students who are able to be productive citizens.  PBL is absolutely a great way to produce a generation with skills to allow students to be successful.

Social Innovators

As I read chapter 4 about Social Innovators, I realize how lucky I am to be at a school that offers so many opportunities for our students to see how they can have an affect on the world around them.  We do many community service projects and it amazes me how engaged the students are in these and are willing to learn about the problems around us and how they can help. I think that by exposing them early to see that they can make a change is how to get them to want to make changes in the world around them in their future.  I know that my daughter is much more cognizant of how she can impact society than my son is.  I truly believe this is because of the differences in their high school education.  My son went to a typical high school where they did Sprit Week.  My daughter went to a Catholic high school where they focus on the community.  She was always doing community service above and beyond what was required of her.  As an adult, she still sees ways to volunteer in her community to help others.  

I agree with Erica Ford, Syreeta Gates’ mentor when she says that students have been “trained not to think, not to go past their breaking point, to settle for mediocrity”.  This is a difficult mindset to change in our youth but change it we must.  By constantly challenging our students we can certainly try to get them to reach their full potential.  We need to make sure that they have opportunities to realize what they are capable of.  I also agree with what Syreeta Gates said about discovering what she was good at so she could find her passion.  Students need to be exposed to many different experiences so they can discover, for themselves, what they are passionate about.

I am so happy when I see commercials like the one that Kiki Sukezane for Shell (makethefuture), this shows students that anyone with an idea can make a change, they can be the future.  She is a person that students might know and relate to; this would give them an opportunity to hopefully realize what they are capable of.

When I read about Zander Srodes I was amazed at not only what he did but the excitement he had for it.  So many students don’t get that opportunity to go and explore their excitement.  I also agree that many times we need to rethink how students get to learn in our room.  I have long been a believer that students need someplace other than their desks to learn, many cannot sit still, need to stand or just need to move.  As long as their movement isn’t a distraction, movement can be a good thing.  Being in a school with very movable furniture (everything has wheels), it's been interesting learning to be okay with students moving their desks in a circle at random times during the class.  Sometimes I just have to smile at how they cope with their need for movement.

Ch 4

Ch 4 was interesting in that play, passion, and purpose was brought up again a couple of times in chapter four and id the commonality of all three social entrepreneurs. If we can get these students to engage in the play. We will create opportunity for passion and purpose. In doing so we will create more social entrepreneurs. I also like that the chapter talked about service in the community. At Woodmont HS on my Bass Team we are collecting canned food itemsfor the homeless and the anglers are also going to volunteering at a soup kitchen in Greenville.This is real life.  If the kids have a purpose I feel that they will rise to challenge if they feel it is worth doing. I think this why PBL is such a great way to teach students.

Ch. 4 Reflection

I find an immediate connection to PBL learning when Laura states problem identification as one of the essential skills for social entrepreneurs. On the final day of the Furman PBL class, we generated a list of local issues (problems) that would make for a good PBL project. We all agreed that it would be powerful for students to create their own list of problems so that they have more agency and connection to the project. Prior to reading Laura’s comment, I would have said that it is easy to identify a problem and that it is extremely difficult to solve it, but I now realize that is not necessarily the case. Many of our students are, to a large extent, sheltered from the hardships and injustices that confront significant portions of the world population. I, too, am rarely witness to the plights of the disenfranchised; the difference, however, is that I have consumed enough secondhand information through reading to be able to identify a whole host of social, economic, and political problems. As an English teacher, one of my primary goals is to expose students to local and international issues that should incite them to outrage and action. The exposure part is relatively easy – I hand them an article from Mother Jones or The Atlantic or National Geographic and tell them they’ll be shocked; teaching students how to process that information and act on it is much more difficult and definitely one of the takeaway questions from chapter four.  

One of the answers is to help students find their passion. The “play, passion, purpose” mantra was cited several times in chapter four as the common element among all three social entrepreneurs. But to be honest, I do not know how to teach students to have a passion. Is it teachable or does it simply happen by chance? A passion is not going to develop unless a student is exposed to an issue. But here’s the key: in all three cases, the social innovator had a personal connection to the problem. Laura saw firsthand that inner city children were unable to swim; Syreeta created the SWT Life because she grew up in the same environment as the girls that her program targets; Zander’s initiation into sea turtle research started with a neighbor educating him about the deleterious effects of fireworks on sea turtles. To state it another way: I don’t think Zander would have become quite so passionate about sea turtles had he merely read an article about it in National Geographic; instead, he had to be personally invested in the  issue. Students are not going to take action unless they have a passion for their project, and it seems they are not going to find that passion unless it originates out of a life experience. And I think this is why PBL has such potential: students can use their life experiences as topics for research. I am reminded of a project that I gave my students last year in which I asked them to propose educational reforms for Eastside High School. Students were able to use their experiences as catalysts for suggestions for change. Exposure plus personal experience yields passion. I feel quite sure there are more variable to that equation but that is a start.

Syreeta made an interesting observation that stood out: “In high school, they tell you to work hard at what you’re bad at. But for me, it was so important to discover what I was good at and to find my passion.” Her statement is not unique to her school, and it is probably attributable to the fact that schools need students to achieve proficiency on standardized tests in all content areas. But I wonder if Syreeta is on to something when we devote so much time and resources trying to tutor students in subjects in which they struggle instead of harnessing their talents and creating opportunities for student to excel with their skills. I guess you could argue that this is the purpose of extracurricular activities, but I don’t think highlighting students’ talents would produce an overly one-dimensional student, especially since this is one of the many purposes of college – pursuing a limited field of study that you enjoy and are good at. Wagner also states of passion that it plays an even more important role in the lives of urban youth or disadvantaged students. It gives them a reason to go to school and to say no to the many things in their environment that prevent them from being successful. My real concern, though, is that in all too many cases, students use sports as their passion and reason for going to school. How do we tell students that a sport is no substitute for the skills that build actual careers?

The other big takeaway from chapter four was that teachers have to remove the stumbling blocks that have historically defined the traditional classroom. Two of the three featured students stated that school was an impediment to their learning, which is really shocking when you think about it. Having to sit in a seat and complete busy work are real challenges for creative students who have a desire to be active and challenged. Again, PBL solves for this in a number of ways: students are doing something, asking questions, creating a product, solving problems, etc.

As I wrap complete the museum exhibit PBL project, I am reminded of how important passion or interest is to any project. Many of my students have up to this point not enjoyed the project because they didn’t have an interest in art (even though they got to pick their work of art) or didn’t care for history. Despite that, students did take seriously recording their podcasts because they knew other students would be listening to them and didn’t want to be embarrassed. From this, I conclude that no PBL unit is going to capture every element for every student, but it seems that one of the eight criteria should ensure that students take seriously the project and potentially even enjoy it. And you don’t even need a passion for that. 

Educator Competencies

There is a lot that I like about the educator competencies, and I think they perfectly complement the goals of PBL. I am comforted that I have the background knowledge and the experience, albeit minimal, with PBL to not view the indicators as complete game changers. Although the authors acknowledge that many of the indicators carry over from time-tested teaching techniques, I still think a teacher new to PBL would find many of the indicators overwhelming and classroom-shifting concepts. For those of us who have undertaken or are planning a project-based curriculum, this guide should not seem unfamiliar.

In terms of the cognitive domain, I find it interesting that the authors used the phrase what teachers “need to know” in order to foster student growth, which is directly modelled after PBL. The idea that we would use progression charts toward mastery would be an additional structuring goal of PBL in that each new project would have to feature new skills but also build on previously learned skills. It almost seems as though a teacher would have to plan an entire year’s worth of projects in order to work backward from the long-term mastery goals. Of course, no longer would we be able to say that mastery is passing the EOC or the class; rather, the authors call on teachers to give feedback, develop students’ ability to evaluate their own learning, and self-regulate. Metacognition, communication, and self-reflection are all significant parts of the PBL process, and we already have many tools that address these objectives. The language in one of the indicators is about having students do all of this over “extended periods of time,” which is a component to many of our projects that cannot be completed in a week or even two.

With the intrapersonal domain, there is considerable overlap with the goals of PBL. The first indicator seems almost out of place in the competencies guide – I think all teachers want to see all learners succeed, regardless of background, but I suppose they include it to remind teachers that a learner-centered classroom means a diverse population that needs individualized goals and attention. The personalized learning goal includes an indicator about knowing when to give students independence and when to step in to assist. So much of PBL is about letting students struggle to find their own answers to the questions that move them forward in a project. However, there is definitely a balance. With my own project, I had to step in and provide resources for where to find quality art other than Pinterest. If I were to redo that specific point in the project, I would have had students research museums in the US and abroad and have them determine which ones have viewable art images or virtual tours. I also really like the indicator under the third goal about using failure and mistakes as teaching opportunities for growth. This idea plays into PBL’s risk-taking focus and helps teachers anticipate how they can prevent students from getting frustrated when an idea doesn’t pan out. A key word that has come up several times already is “flexibility.” This is essential to PBL because unexpected issues will definitely arise with new projects, students will struggle at different points in the project, and technology will certainly fail if nothing else does. Finally, being reflective about our practices is nothing new in the teaching world; however, instituting learner-centered instruction does call on us to constantly tweak our lessons and rethink how students can take more ownership of their learning, something that does not happen overnight or in isolation.

The interpersonal domain requires that teachers foster collaboration among students but also model that collaboration by being a leader in the field. The three phrases (self-assessment, peer assessment, and student voice and choice) jump out immediately because all are necessary steps in the PBL process. Again, I am thankful that we have the protocols to address these needs. Building the relationships with parents, businesses, and the community is something that we have addressed several times in trying to get parent buy-in to PBL and make our projects authentic. It also seems that the ultimate goal of this domain is to take the knowledge of PBL and get other teachers on board. This could be done in team planning PLCs or through professional development presentations at conferences. Although I feel the others would not be so thrilled about this idea, I think it would be interesting if presenting about PBL at your school or a conference were a graded component of the third course.

Finally, the instructional domain incorporates a lot of the strategies and practices that we have been collecting over the past several classes. Displaying standards walls, making essential questions, using formative assessments, creating collaborative groupings, and even instating protocols such as Critical Friends would all fall under this category. Interestingly, project-based learning is first mentioned in the final domain but seems to be the only instructional mode of delivery that would encompass all of the objectives in the manual. The authors urge teachers to consider clearly defined roles in group work which reflects back to the need for students to monitor their own roles and progress in a group project. The use of standards and assessment data is also nothing new to education, but the suggestions for using portfolios, exhibitions, and public showcases is a welcome reminder, particularly for the humanities classroom. Bringing in professional from the community ensures a real-world experience and can oftentimes be achieved through a digital platform.

While much of this document correlates to my understanding of PBL, the ultimate objective is to make learning personalized for each student. I have serious concerns about my ability to achieve this goal. I fear that I do not have the work ethic needed to customize the learning experience for a diverse group of students. While I believe personalized education is a worthy goal, when I read “tracking student progress,” “document[ing] learning trajectories,” and “co-design[ing] an individual learning plan with each student and family,” I can only think that we will have to move toward a co-teaching model that would include resource teachers in the classroom, possibly another content-specific teacher, and more participation and support from parents. Out of everything in this guide, I believe this is the biggest challenge and most significant shift in thinking. I’m not sure PBL correlates with personalized instruction. If PBL predominantly functions with group projects, I wouldn’t think it is compatible with the custom learning experience that is the ultimate goal of the teacher competencies. I would be curious to see what other people think about this. 

Social Innovators Chapter 4

I liked this chapter a lot because of the story of Laura White who had an experience of being a social innovator early on during her school years. I envision my children having similar experiences and while I was creating my own company, I also dreamt about all the other non-profits that I can contribute too and in the process, expose my own biological children, students at Splendor and students at Greenville high school too. Slowly but steadily, I am working towards that goal and see my students getting involved in laying the foundation of that non-profit as well. I tell my students that we are a family, I learn from you and you learn from me. As an innovator, i learn from my children all the time and hopefully I will be able to set up an organization for my current students to go to after their graduation for help in their entrepreneurial endeavor. I don`t want to give out a lot of information on the non-profit yet but, I perceive that the world will need more social enterprenrurs than ever with the current challenges that humanity faces and also with the technological advances that can foster the culture of collaboration and innovation.
I also like the way the chapter talks about the importance of time-management and prioritization etc. As our children grow up, they will be wanting to do more and more seeking out for personal and professional expansion for their satisfaction. IT is very important that educators in our times, teach students time management, collaboration etc. I think I appreciate PBL mode of teaching more and more as I grow into being a PBL teacher.

WONDER WALL for my classes

Environmental studies students engaged in the Wonderwall activity exploring current innovative energy solutions.

Field trip to the Twin Chimney Landfill

Field trip to the Twin Chimney Landfill. The students learned about different things that could be recycled and the leachate tank and how does the landfill work.

Jigna Desai`s chapter 2 post

This chapter caught my attention since as an Indian immigrant in United States, I wanted my children to have the best of education. I knew the needed supplementary education outside of the school and looked into tutoring centers. The tutoring centers like Kumon, Huntington center, Sylvan etc. were not  offering what I wanted my children to have. I was looking for a tutoring center that would be customized, built my children`s self-esteem, ensure that all their Homework from school is done and at the same time, help my children be intuitive and creative. A learning place that is fun,joy and students want to learn. I created my own Splendor Learning Center and am happy with the instructions which are essentially PBL mode that my manager runs. I am writing about my business, since as a parent and an educator, I had to create a place for my children and other children since I felt the need for it. I like what Kirk Phelps parent did for him too. I am very hopeful about the future of our nation`s educational system since Project Based Learning is the way to go in teaching these children in a way that helps them with critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and creativity. Play is an important component of learning. I am from India and educational system in India does not allow for much play but, I remember mostly the stuff that I learned on my own and not what were taught to me in the school.However, it has to be a structured play. Every parent in India wants their child to be a doctor or an engineer. I grew up thinking I will be a doctor since my parents said so. I struggled with that decision until I started teaching poor children for free during my college years and realized that I was born to teach. It is nice to see that at least our generation in investing in children`s mind and consciousness. Our generation is thinking pro-actively about creating innovators and about things that most of the Indian Parents that I saw when I was growing up didn`t do. Even today, I have hard times convincing some Indian immigrant parents that let your child follow their own passion and don`t bog them down with the pressure of being a doctor or an engineer. When my husband makes a comment to my sons that they will grow up to be a better lawyer than him, I chuckle internally and wonder how the career clusters and professions will change in next 15 years and who knows what these kids will grow up to be?

These are excellent times to be a creator and especially a creator educator. As an educator and as a parent, I try too hard at times to offer opportunities for all the children that I teach with learning and Brain-growing  opportunities.