I am convinced that everyone can succeed in pursuit of their goals and that schools should be the place where they helped to approach these goals. I believe that all people should be treated with respect and should have their potential recognized. Every approach at discipline and in establishing a positive school climate and culture must be rooted in these basic understandings. Students come to school and put their trust in me to provide them with skills and knowledge. This is a testament that they believe in my ability to help get them closer to their achievement. Students, and especially those most troubled amongst us, require structure, accountability, and consistency. In order to establish these fundamentals it is necessary that all students be reminded of the values of a school and the expectations for their behaviors. It is important that everyone from teachers, secretaries, custodian, students, be clear as to the values and expectations of school and model these in all of their interactions. Values and expectations serve as a social contract assuring the learning and positive experience for all. In the event of an infraction, the job of a teacher or administrator is to first suppress the infraction, to assure the continued learning of other students, then try to get to the root of problem. Finally, it is his job to intervene so as to avoid the behavior from repeating. An intervention should teach a student a positive behavior just like a math teacher should teach math concepts.
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Parent and community involvement are fundamental for the success of schools for various reasons. We are fond of repeating that it takes a village to raise a child. We know that the better that teachers and parents are able to work in tandem to support the learning of students, the more likely it is that we will get a favorable outcome. It is also important to involve parents and the community because parents and the community want to support the work that we do. Additionally, they want to hear about the successes we have because we all have a vested interest in the education of our children.
I have continuously sought to maintain an open door policy wherein parents are free to visit my class in person or to ask questions via email, phone, or otherwise. Parents always have an open invitation to examine any of my lessons or teaching. I also believe in the need to form partnerships with community members. I have been able to connect with different organizations who have more than willingly given to our school their time and resources. In short, I believe that schools should be prepared to operate with total transparency and should seek to partner with others whose expertise and resources can improve the learning of students. By doing so, we can create schools which are truly connected to the world outside its walls. I believe that technology is a tool that can be leveraged in order to make learning more personalized, engaging, and efficient. The game-changing potential that technology brings to education forces us to rethink just about everything that we do when teaching and learning. As a technology integration coach, I have supported the use of technology in education. I have encouraged students to use technology collaborate and exchange ideas, become digital citizens, be producers as well consumers of digital content, and to supplant more traditional mediums of educational content such as text books. I, along with other similarly tech-minded teachers, have been able to create a Tech Foundation Badge which helped students become better and more responsible users of technology. To earn this badge students were required to think about their digital footprint, thoughtfully create an online presence, demonstrate their learning using various digital presentation tools, and were expected to create websites that would serve as their digital organizers and portfolios. Our tech collaborative was able to get a substantial number of students to complete this badge as well as teachers to support students in acquisition of these tech-based skills. As a result of our Tech Foundational Badge students are now able to more effectively use their assigned iPad to demonstrate their learning and seek out content that deepens their understanding of course content. Teachers are also able to use these same tools to structure more effective lesson plans that personalizes learning for all students.
When it comes to curriculum and instruction, I believe that students should be provided a norm referenced set of skills and content knowledge, such as Common Core Standards. I also believe that students should be allowed to pursue their own interests and abilities. Understanding the importance of high stakes tests, I have taught SBAC and CAHSEE test preparation. I have also taught more open ended units, such as those advocated by 20 time projects. And I have taught in maker studios. Currently I teach a “Design Lab” class. Design Labs are open ended classes at my school whose purpose is teaching the design process, igniting creativity, or fostering technical skills. In my design lab, I teach students how to code, solder, and work on other maker projects. I have seen kids so absorbed in the tasks that I give them that they forget about time and teach themselves new coding concepts in order to learn what I cannot teach them. This exemplifies the type of teaching and learning which I value most. That is, teaching and learning which is student centered and driven. However, I also realize that students must be given more norm referenced sets of skills, such as in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some of my students are years behind in these areas and if I were to neglect them so that they could become better coders, I would be doing their future learning a great disservice. This is why I believe there must a balance between norm-referenced and student centered learning.
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