20% Project Final Reflection

20% Project Reflection Video Blog

Cal State San Marcos Writing Project Conference

Writing Project Conference

I attended the Cal State San Marcos Writing Project Conference on May 3, 2014. The purpose of the conference was to bring together writing professors from the GEW classes and other college level writing classes with high school English teachers. Together we looked at samples of student work and discussed what kinds of things we noticed about the prompt, directions, and the essay itself. We were asked to respond as if we had the opportunity to respond to the actual student writer about his/her essay and to think about how we would respond, what we would say and why we would say it. We took a look at writing from a Fall semester freshmen in a GEW class and we took a look at a college prep high school sophomore’s writing.

It was a great experience talking with college professors as colleagues and seeing what their expectations of students are and discussing how we can best prepare students in high school to meet those expectations in college.

Personally I also found it extremely valuable to see how a table full of English teachers grade an essay. I was able to use this opportunity to kind of calibrate my grading with theirs and I pleasantly found out that I notice all or most of the same issues and good points that they did. I was concerned about my grading scales and so this made me feel more confident in my essay grading skills. I am still very slow but at least I appear to be accurate and thorough.

MA Poster Session

MA Poster Session

The MA poster session was an interesting experience and it gave me a chance to speak professionally with students from the Masters program, professors from the college of ed, and administrators from schools in the area.

Patrick and I worked very hard on our ITU (Integrated Thematic Unit) Poster and website and I felt that our poster stood out among the crowd. It looked professional, colorful, inviting, and informative. We also set up two ipads which people could use to view our websites. We also had printed out copies of rubrics and lessons ready in case anyone wanted to get a closer look at those. I felt we over prepared but it was a good experience I would rather be over prepared than under prepared and regretting it. We received some great feedback about our ITU presentation and ideas. I really enjoyed talking about the project we worked on so hard and hearing what people had to say about our ideas on collaboratively teaching about the issues and history surrounding immigrants and immigration. Some highlights of our conversations included a lengthy and enlightening discussion on how to create a positive and safe classroom environment so that students with personal stories related to the issues discussed in class would feel comfortable and safe sharing their stories.

Guest Speaker GSA Club Carlsbad

Guest Speaker Reflection GSA Club Carlsbad High

Carlsbad High School has developed a strong Gay and Straight Alliance club on campus and have created a helpful teacher workshop that helps teachers better understand their LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bi-secual, transgender) students. Their workshop provided us with a wealth of useful  information such as:

• Information about the different identifications used by this community of students.
• Statistics about this community of students.
• Laws regarding how we as teachers are required to help this community of students.
• Personal stories of students presented to us in writing as well as from a few student volunteers at the workshop.

I have been a huge supporter of same sex and transgender rights to fair and equal treatment since I was a teenager. I have been involved in the community for years and yet even I learned a great deal today. For instance I never really knew the facts about LGBT youth. I didn’t know that 40% of gay and lesbian youth are homeless. I didn’t know that 60% of gay and lesbian youth report hearing homophobic remarks from teachers and school staff. I didn’t know that LGBT youth are four times more likely to commit suicide. These are horrific statistics but they tell a haunting true tale. That these kids are not getting the help and support they have every right to be getting.

I really enjoyed speaking with the club members and hearing their personal stories. One girl in particular I instantly connected with and we shared stories with each other. Afterwards she gave me a hug and told me that she was glad that teachers like me were going into high schools now. She nearly made me cry right there it was such a special moment for me. I love being able to connect and get to know students better. I plan to get more involved in the GSA club on campus and I plan to continue to stay involved in GSA activities at whatever school I end up teaching at. Supporting these kids the best I can is very important to me.

Guest Speaker Del Lago Academy

Guest Speaker Reflection Del Lago Academy

I was extremely impressed with this school and would absolutely love to work here in the future. This is a new school located about eight minutes away from my apartment in Escondido. Del Lago Academy is a brand new public high school. They are required to keep the same demographics as the city of Escondido which keeps this amazing school very diverse in terms of demographics. The school features new state of the art buildings and equipment. They have a particular focus on STEM.

At Del Lago Academy students are not referred to as students they are scholars. I love that terminology. It helps to build their culture of scholarly learners. The school appears to be very student focused. They have something called X block in which students decide what elective subject they wish to learn more about. They could choose Karate, cake baking, game design, etc the options are student chosen. They have no bells and instead students are expected to be responsible with their time and are expected to be in class at the scheduled time without the loud annoying bells as reminders. I believe this encourages and supports their scholarly focus and models a more college like atmosphere.

I was also very impressed with their use of villages. Students in a village share the same teachers. This allows for many collaborative opportunities for both students and teachers. Collaboration between content areas as well as within content areas is a huge focus for me. I really would like to work at a school that values such collaboration.

I felt the layout of the campus and the furniture presents a very positive college like atmosphere. Big open windows in every class feels very welcoming. They have many lounge and study areas to encourage student interaction. They have chalkboard walls by every classroom to encourage creativity.

I love how this school is a one to one ipad school and that every student is provided with their own personal ipad device. This allows for more innovative lessons and activities utilizing this provided technology.  

Overall this is a beautiful school with innovative ideas and a wonderfully positive scholarly culture. I plan to keep a close eye on this school for an opportunity to teach here.

Guest Speaker Reflection Principal Panel

Principal Panel

Through the single subject credential program we were visited by a few principals who provided us with information about the hiring process and what they look for when hiring a teacher.

We meet three principals:

Jose Manuel Villarreal: Principal of Juvenile Court System.

Advice to new teachers: Always put students first. This job is about saving lives. Use alternative educational techniques to engage students. Appeal to multiple intelligences and various learning styles.

Meg Jacobson: Principal of Vista Magnet Middle School.

Advice to new teachers: Have a willingness to collaborate with effectively and often with your colleagues. Use reflective teaching practices. Stay student focused and care about who your students are and how they learn.

Kyle Ruggles: Principal of La Costa Canyon High School.

Advice to new teachers: Be sure to survey your students, get to know your students. Teach in a variety of different ways and use a variety of different techniques and strategies. Develop connections with your students, parents, and colleagues. Bring technology into the classroom as much as possible and explain how you will incorporate it into your content area curriculum. Put the technology into the hands of students. Be sure to inspire and engage students with your curriculum. The more students care about your lessons the more likely they are to fully learn and retain your lessons.  

Advice when interviewing for a teaching position:

• Use professional language.
• Read up on the schools mission statement, beliefs, and culture.
• Explain how you are the perfect fit for that school based on what you know about that school’s mission and values.
• Don’t ask too many questions.
• Pace yourself but follow the time format given to you.
• Dress appropriately and professionally.
• Don’t be negative!
• Know yourself and know your story, beliefs, teaching practices etc…
• Explain any special talents or experiences that add to your teaching abilities and experience.

Reflection:

This was a great opportunity to get feedback from administrators in our area from schools and districts I’d like to interview with. I learned a great deal about how to best prepare myself for interviews and for my first year of teaching. One of the most valuable pieces of advice for me was “know yourself.” I think it is extremely important to know yourself and understand what your personal beliefs are and what kind of teacher you are and want to be.

Guest Speaker Idina Sullivan

Guest Speaker Idina Sullivan

Technology

• Near Pod-online and app for ipad
• Allows you to share presentation with students and allows students to interact with the presentation by answering questions.
• Advice:
• You need to have parents and students sign a responsibility with technology agreement before doing activities with tech.
• Do not use personal emails of students unless cc parents.
• Do not email students late at night. Try to email during school hours or near school hours.
• Remind 101-Program that sends text information to parents and students from an online site thus allowing the teacher to text information without using personal phone numbers. Parents and students set it up.
• SAMR- Big issue in ed tech :
• Tech is a tool not a learning outcome
• Integrate tech do not just use it.
• Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition.
• Substitution: “coffee is still coffee.” In the classroom instead of handwriting a report, type a report.
• Augmentation: “coffee is still coffee but now with ice and milk.” In the classroom they type it but they use word processing, online dictionary and thesaurus.
• Modification: “Caramel Macchiato.” In the classroom instead of assigning a book report or review have students design a newsletter.
• Redefinition: “Pumpkin Latte.” They have a trademark and we can’t make it at home. In the classroom this means doing things they could not do without these tools. i movie, powtown, piktochart, vuvox,animoto,screencast matic, thinklink, toontastic.
• Cannot require students to use technology for homework unless you are sure they have access to the tech.
• Movieclips.com for clips on topics related to your class.
• New York Times Visualizations
• Inquiry Based Learning

I was very interested in this guest speaker and I learned a great amount about integrating technology safely and effectively into the classroom. I was particularly interested in the new tools she presented to us namely NearPod and Ted Ed. I am using a Ted Ed interactive lesson on Shakespearean insults in my next unit.