Interview Reflection

What was it like to be interviewed?

What was it like to be an interviewer?

What challenges did you encounter?

OCW

Reflection Memo

Friday

It's been a tough week sleepwise. Up until yesterday, my son, Kessler, was running a fever, which meant many middle-of-the-night comforting sessions. So it was a minor miracle when, after going to bed around nine, I awoke to see these digits on the clock. Could it be I'd slept through the night? A good start to the day.

Formal Reflection #3

My blog has been a bit silent today, but fear not -- I've been thinking and writing! Most of the day I've spent on my Action Research Project, and I'm feeling pretty good that I have a solid draft going into tomorrow. I'll need to formalize my Works Cited and internal citations and also want to talk to Kathleen about my Implementation and Data sections, but I think I'll only have small changes to make.

I was reflecting last night on this work and it's importance. There are a LOT of inspiring teachers at this institute with a LOT of inspiring stories to tell. Despite my generally reserved countenance, every time Don gives us a peak into the work he is doing with his students makes me want to leap out of my chair and say, "I want to do that!" And I think that when I first arrived at the institute -- or really whenever I embark on a new professional learning opportunity -- I tend to be on the hunt for a magic bullet that will take me from my practice to teaching that is really worth sharing. I am, in a word, impatient. I feel very strongly that my kids deserve the best -- because they're the best. And it can be disheartening to know that there are other teachers out there doing great things that my students aren't experiencing.

But I've got to learn to slow down. Just as I don't expect my students to become award-winning authors overnight, I can't expect in the five years I've been teaching to be the best I'm going to be. What's important is that I'm getting better. And even more important that my team is getting better. I think that the work I've done here pushes us a little bit further in our current direction. This last spring our school experienced quite the kerfuffle over the enforcement of our dress code. Many parents showed up at a town meeting wanting blood. They painted a pretty negative picture of our school, and it made many of my wonderful colleagues feel as though they weren't valued by the community. While there was a lot of hurt, however, it was also a wake up call -- we need to let the community know about the great things we are doing. Part of that, I think, is demonstrating that we have scholarly research to back up what we are doing in our classrooms. Next year, our team will be doing a lot of new things and my guess is we'll get some challenges from administrators and parents. The work that I've done here will help provide a research-based rationale for what we're doing as well as give us a tool to determine if what we've been doing is successful or not. Should we be challenged, we'll have those items to fall back on -- a safety net of kinds.

So while I didn't necessarily find a magic bullet or even a silver bullet, I did find a bullet. And it's kinda shiny. (Then again, maybe I'd better find a better metaphor...)

Formal Blog #2

Today, as I hope I made clear in my video, my ideas about how I hope to use my remaining time at the institute coalesced. Here is my new learning plan template. Though I did not have a chance to blog about my work in the afternoon, I spent the majority of it on the Redefining Engagement module, which I think will go a long way toward helping me complete the literature review portion of my Action Research plan. Here are my notes on the module so far.

Designing PLP Guided Module

My school experimented with PLPs last year but I think we all felt that they were very unsuccessful. We attempted to base them around the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, hoping that it would serve as a springboard for discussions about values and goals. I never really liked the book and found that students didn't either. They saw reading and discussing the book, as well as the "PLP" we set up to go along with it, as a chore. And, frankly, that's how I had seen PLPs until this session. I gained a better understanding of the rationale behind PLPs. Where once I, along with the majority of my colleagues, saw PLPs as yet another poorly-thought-out mandate from Montpelier, I now realize that PLPs are really about helping students become more successful in their learning. I really like that Act 77 emphasizes that PLPs are intended to be forward thinking rather than as a mere portfolio of work designed to meet prescribed goals. The module we looked at contained several great examples of what PLPs can be as well as the process by which teachers helped students create them. I really wish my team was here to work on PLPs. Perhaps next year we'll be able to attend the institute together and work on PLP design.

In addition to developing as a teacher this week I find myself learning about myself as a learner. Part of the reason that I so enjoyed this module was that I had an opportunity to talk with my fellow "students." I'd always pictured myself as a guy who liked to be working alone. Turns out, that's not the case. I find myself really craving more structure and more opportunities to talk to others. Which might be why personalized learning so baffles me. I feel like one of my missions as a teacher is helping students gain collaboration skills. But how do you do this if everyone is working on something different? How do you balance classroom community with personalization?