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!