This course has been absolutely amazing and I truly have learned so much! I also very much enjoyed connecting and collaborating with other educators from various backgrounds and experiences. Reflecting upon all content in the course and coursework, I have identified some areas that I would like to enhance in the preschool program with Lodi Unified. See the table below for my action plan and steps:
1. Action item: involve more program and classroom staff in creating/building program policies centered around best and developmentally appropriate practices and ground in a strong school readiness foundation
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Post a 250-word review of the movie and include implications for your educational practice.
One topic of Ted Dintersmith's Keynote that include implications of my educational/program practice is play. The Lodi USD SR&P Preschool program implements a play-based learning approach in all of our preschool classrooms. I personally believe that the power of play is something that is very much underestimated and under appreciated in many other grade levels of education. I've written about this is another blog post or two, but I personally find it concerning that there is a lack of play-based learning in the primary grades, especially Kindergarten. Play based learning used to be much more common 30, 40, 50 years ago. To me, it almost seems as we have gone 'backwards' and regressed in what the research shows is actually much more appropriate for all children! I also wanted to note that it very much resonated with me when Ted was talking about federal budgets, the no or little taxed corporations that by percentage, pay less taxes than most everyday people! In addition, I STRONGLY agree with Ted when he talked about how educational budgets are too low and that teachers do NOT receive the pay they deserve. I thoroughly enjoyed Ted Dintersmith's keynote and many portions of the lecture/talk resonated with me. I agree that there needs to be change but I also recognize what Ted had mentioned regarding how education is managed. Boards consist of businessmen and women who typically, have very little or no professional background in education. Those who are seated in elected positions are making requirements and policies regarding education without little to know knowledge regarding education. From my experience, I also have witnessed how heavily political the realm of education can be and get. I strongly believe that each teacher has the power to make big change, but it would also be wonderful if there was reform on how education is reformed and changed 'at the top". Which of your teachers had the biggest positive impact on you, and how were they role models? Were they outliers in the education system?
When I saw this question, I immediately thought of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Busalacchi. Mrs. Busalacchi was hands-down, my absolutely favorite teacher in my K-12 education journey. She by far, had the biggest and most profound impact on my education. Beginning in Kindergarten, I liked school and enjoyed going to school. But when I got into second grade, Mrs. Busalacchi fostered and grew that LOVE of learning. Mrs. Busalacchi was VERY hands-on. We were ALWAYS doing activities, creating projects and being placed in various experiences. I'll never forget, when learning about different cultures, we would come into the classroom and the decor in the classroom would reflect that culture we were studying. We also got to eat customary foods in that culture and even have options to explore customary culture dress wear! I just vividly remember having SO MUCH fun in her class that it didn't feel like 'learning'. I never did experience a teacher quite like Mrs. Busalacchi ever again. She just had this incredible aura about herself. She LOVED teaching, LOVED her students, and saw each child as their own person. Ever student in her classroom felt 'special' and that each person mattered. My understanding and that Mrs. Busalacchi has sense passed, but there still are moments when I fondly recall all of the fun, learning and experiences that I experienced in her classroom! Question A - What are your thoughts about technology in education?
My thoughts regarding using technology in education are that if utilized in a high-quality, blended matter, can be beneficial for the learning outcomes of children. I want to strongly place emphasis that I believe it can be beneficial in education depending on how it is used. If technology is offered to children in an unstructured manner, and as mentioned in one of the Khan Academy videos, "as a baby sitter" I think that it becomes almost the equivalent of 'just scrolling through social media'. However, I believe that when technology is integrated at an age and developmentally appropriate in a blended manner, it can have beneficial outcomes for children. Question B - How could these blended learning resources help you to personalize learning for students in your classroom and community? I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of my expertise in early childhood development and also a programatic perspective within the community. Overall technology is not very much encouraged in the ECE setting in today's day because children are already very much exposed to technology outside of the classroom setting. However, there are some opportunities for use of technology in a preschool classroom. For example, teachers have permethium boards where they can show a video of a read-a-loud or chromebooks where students can work side-by-side with a teacher for a short amount of time (10 minutes) on Khan Academy (available district wide in my district). I also want to touch upon how technology has enhanced programming and parent engagement. I started my position as assistant director on February 1, 2020- RIGHT at the 'beginning' of the pandemic. I recall that students went on Spring break, and didn't come back in-person for over a year. Our program had to completely rebuild how to deliver education to preschool children and their families and also encourage parent engagement. My director knew I was comfortable with technology and very much leaned on me for guidance. We immediately created Class Dojo classrooms and invited all families. This honestly changed so much in all of what we do now, even to this day. A very large percentage of the families we serve in our program have a preferred primary language other than English. Class Dojo was integrated with Google Translate and the ability to just have simple back-and-forth conversations with families sky-rocketed. In addition, teachers were able to post lesson plans, create circle time videos and also post Zoom links to large group synchronous instruction. Now that we are back to in-person learning, we still continue to use Class Dojo as a blended appropriate to connecting to families! Reading chapter 9 was bittersweet. This chapter really "talked to me" and ignited the reality that every single person has the capability to contribute to and make a change. When I started my position as assistant director, I was ALL for change. Changing how the program operated, how tasks were delegated, etc. However, I quickly felt like I was constantly "going against the grain". I had to learn how to hide my desire and willingness for change. I'm going to make the professional decision to exclude exactly where this was coming from... but as an assistant director, I am part of the admin team, not the director of the department.
One person in particular who was coming to my mind throughout this chapter was our department's former Assistant Director, Judy Murray. Judy is since retired and is thoroughly enjoying retirement! One of the common sayings that Judy often said to the staff of the department is "change is hard, but change is good". I'm not quite sure if this was a quote of her own wisdom or something that she picked up along her lengthly career, but it has ALWAYS stuck with me. Change is hard... really hard. And sometimes when change happens or needs to happen, there are going to be those that do not WANT to change. But truth be told, that is reality. There will be people who do not believe or will take part in the vision of change. Question #1: How can you foster the ability of the students or people around you to think "outside of the box"? I have found that one way to foster the ability of people to think outside of the box is by questioning or getting someone to reflect on why things are the way they are. For example, I've heard countless times "well we've always done it this way" and usually my first question to that is "you're right.. now why is that? Why have we always done it this way? Maybe there was a reason why 20 years ago we had to do it this way, but do we have to do it this way now?". I think also providing a vision of different paths that can be explored helps others at least entertain the possibility of change. For example, "we've always enrolled preschool students the 'old school way' through appointments and these huge enrollment packets.... but it's 2022. How about we look into electronic enrollments? or look into condensing the information?" one thing I'm personally big on that I tell others "I'm all about 'working smarter not harder'. And sometimes when people hear that another avenue could possibly lighten their workload, it also can get others on board. Question #3: Think of a current problem or challenge in your school, workplace or personal life. How could you view this problem as "a friend"? How could you view it as an opportunity for change or a way to do something differently? To answer this question, I'm going to touch upon some information that I mentioned in my response to question number one. One of the biggest challenges that I have faced in my current role as assistant director is that I was ALL for change. However, my superior was not. Time after time, after time after time of being constantly told "this isn't how it works" or "it's never been done that way, it's always been this way" I grew frustrated in so many ways. I was flustered, upset, and boggled.. "HOW on Earth is this person NOT seeing that these things are not working?!". I'd turn to leadership books to support me and decided to take on a different mindset: this was a journey and nobody said it would be easy. I decided to change my mindset- instead of becoming frustrated and upset, I turned this into a learning and growth opportunity for myself. I can't change this person, their leadership skills, their ideas and thoughts; but what I can do, is change how I operate in my person. I started focusing on building relationships with department staff. I also approached my staff with an attitude that no one person in this department is "better" than anyone else and that every person has an integral and important role in the department. As a result, my relationships with staff began to strengthen and my knowledge base of what everyone did in the department began to deepen and grow. In short, I decided to take a challenge and turn it into a personal and professional learning and growth opportunity. The Big Picture, Chapter 8.5; Standards and How Testing Has Nothing to Do with Them (due 11.14)11/14/2022 Reflecting upon chapter 8.5 of The Big Picture, I immediately thought of the above quote and picture that I've seen many times before. The opening quote in the first paragraph by Kennth Wesson about standardized testing really made me think.... and I completely agree with his statement! This chapter in particular really made me reflect and ask: WHY does the United Stated rely SO heavily on standardized testing? Why does the United States provide more funding to schools who do achieve high scores in standardized testing but not for the schools who don't? I completely agree with the statement in the chapter that this is a 'totally backwards' concept.
Question #1: What effect does testing have on learning? I believe that testing has many effects on learning. I think that it makes learning stressful, unpleasant, and creates a false sense of failure or success. I personally know people who are horrible at test taking. They get nervous, anxious, and all of the sudden- forget everything they just learned. Testing also seems to create these markers where I found myself studying to pass the test... only to move onto something else and never reconnect everything I just memorized or "learned". Testing also seems to just skim the service on the content but fails to measure the depth of learning and understanding and does not allow the person to express for them, what may have been a very important topic of interest to them. One more thing that comes to mind is that cheating becomes a huge problem in regards to testing. If standardized tests were no longer apart of learning... how would students be able to cheat? Surely there are ways to still cheat, but I believe it would mitigate a majority of the concerns in regards to cheating. Question #3: What do you remember about the tests you've taken in your life? I remember that almost all the tests I've taken in my life, overall, being fairly meaningless to my overall success. In reflecting upon my own personal experiences, I believe that a large chunk of success to taking tests is learning HOW to take tests and strategies to support test taking. A test truly fails to assess the whole individual and rather focuses on that individual's ability to answer the questions correctly. Initially when I began reading chapter 8, I was humored by the real world examples given regarding what really occurs in the real-world (feedback rather than grades) because it's true!
The first half of the chapter really resonated with me and my personal experiences through preschool programming, because it's exactly what we do! I've attached an example in this post how we assess a child's developmental progress in preschool. To not get into too much logistics and detail- essentially preschool teachers collect observational data on all students and then using that evidence, rate each child developmental progress in several domains of development. At the conclusion of the assessment, the teacher then prints out a report very similar to the one above that marks the child's current level of developmental progress and where the child should be for their age. The progress report is then created in a narrative format and it is a shared, back and forth conversation between the teacher and parent regarding what areas are important to focus on and what are attainable goals for the child. This chapter just enforced for me that what we do in preschool is headed towards the right direction! But it also made me ask myself lots of questions.... if THIS model is so beneficial and reaps so many real-world benefits, then WHY don't more grades follow this model? I STRONGLY disagree that grades should define a child. It also made me think of the people who I know in life who got C's and D's in high school, yet who are now VERY successful people in the real world! Question #1: How do teachers evaluate growth? I answered much of this question from the only educational lens I know pretty throughly in the above blog post. In preschool, teachers evaluate growth by measuring students' level of progress through observational data and comparing that data with other assessment time frames (observational assessments occur 2-3 times throughout one year of preschool). Question #4: Dewey writes, "[In] the traditional method, the child must say something that he has merely learned. There is all the difference in the world between having something to say, and having to say something". What does this quote mean to you? To me, this quote simply means that in traditional schooling, children often just repeat or regurgitate the information just to be success rather than saying what it truly on their mind or truly articulating what they have learned. For me, this definitely makes me reflect on high school. To be honest, I think the best thing about high school was meeting my current husband and having the great memories of prom, football games, ditching school... for me, these were the memories. I actually didn't do that great in high school despite in my K-8 grades, getting honor roll most quarters and then in college, getting A's and B's. For me, high school was BORING. I felt like I already had a sense of myself and who I wanted to be, but I felt that I constantly had to be what I was told to be. I had to take notes a way that didn't work for my learning style (AVID notes- I hated them then, and still to this day, I cannot function if I were to take my notes in this style). WHY was my high school SO FIXATED on all students taking AVID style notes? To this day, I still do not understand the answer to that question. The chapter was thus far the chapter that spoke closest to my heart. As a parent myself and also as an administrator of an educational preschool program, family engagement is definitely one of my biggest passions. I was instantaneously in agreement when the chapter started off informing the reader that at The Met, we enroll families, not just the student. YES, YES, YES! This is something I am consistently reminding my staff at our preschool department, "we enroll families, not just the child". Family engagement is TRULY a cultural mindset. I remind staff members often that every single person in our department and all staff in our classrooms all have a contribution in family engagement. Family engagement is the center, hub, and HEART of what we do! After all, the primary intent of preschool is School Readiness: preparing students AND families for school, and preparing TK/K to receive our preschool families.
In addition, family engagement is a two way street: families contribute JUST AS MUCH to the program as they receive. It warmed my heart when I read towards the end of the chapter the importance of parents needing to know that their input is wanted AND needed! Question #1: Name three reasons why a parent would be interested in, or even excited about, bring involved in their child's education.
Question #2: Now name three ways a school could engage this parent.
Reflecting upon the information presented in chapter 6, there are two pieces of information presented that really made me reflect on what an amazing educational system SOUNDS like and what our current educational system looks like. These two pieces of information are: the three R's: relationships, relevance and rigor; and the concept of internships/apprenticeships and the importance of mentors. I personally believe that as long as you can 'hook' a student in with their interests, you can build a strong foundation of learning opportunity and build/integrate so many concepts into the interests of a student.
Question #1: Why do so many students describe their educational experience as boring? I think many students describe their educational experience as boring because they're not interested and they're not "sold" on the information. Sitting in a room, for 6-7 hours a day, listening to the teacher talk about different subjects... BUT it' not connected to their interests. They're bored, they are DOING anything, they are just listening.... day in, day out- about the same typical things in the same typical schedule. As adults, some adults love the typical schedule; however, many don't! I think that as educators, we would agree that although there are some things that are the same in our lives, for the most part, everyday is different! We are also, hopefully, in a job/role that we are passionate about :) Question #3. Tell about a time when you (as a student or a teacher) were working on or teaching an assignment that you now realize was “fake real.” There are two memorable events that immediately come to my mind: 3rd grade projects about a 3d model for missions, and 7th grade science experiment. I was SO BORED out of my mind with these projects. I felt like I didn't have any creativity or real 'say' in my projects because of all of the guidelines and requirements. I did at the time, and to this day believe that SO MANY students projects were actually more of their parents work than a real reflection of their own work. In my book, these projects were "fake real" because I was just completing them to get my grade, not really learn something! Reflecting upon the information presented in chapter 3, it really solidified my personal beliefs of the educational supports that really support children and following their interests. I have mentioned in previous posts that all of my experience in Education is solely in State Preschool/Head Start with Lodi Unified. In preschool, we have a very strong individualized, play-based approach that is solely driven by each child's own interests. We do have an adopted, research based curriculum that provides supports and educational opportunities to all children of preschool ages (3's, 4's and 5's). What really stood out to me in Chapter 5 was the concept of "depth of breadth". I whole-heartedly agree that if you can allow children to explore the environment and optics of interests, and focus as much as possible building and integrated many subjects and concepts, the children can learn something at a deeper level rather than just 'memorizing' the information and 'moving on'.
Question 4: Did you save any of the papers that you wrote for school? Why or why not? This question really got me thinking about what projects I had indeed saved. I vividly recall a project that I completed in about 3rd/4th grade and it was solely focused on a state report of California. Admittedly, history is not necessarily my forte, however, I recall very much enjoying the project because I LOVED to draw and color. I vividly remember drawing out the California state bird, state flower, etc. It's something that I will have to dig up at my mom's house. I also saved a lot of projects from my junior and senior year of highschool from art class. Although, to be honest, I'm not amazing at art, I reflect on what I've saved and it makes sense: crafting/art is something I VERY MUCH enjoy! Crafting has always been an outlet an interest for me. This includes a variety of crafting such as using my Cricut Maker, drawing/coloring, beading and even a little bit of sewing. It's something that truly 'refuels and refreshes' me and it makes me feel good to see that I have created something. 5. Is there anything you always cut out, file, jot down into a notebook, or add to the pile on your desk? What is it and why do you save it? Yes! I often find myself saving recipes and crafting projects. I don't necessarily have these filed or piled on my desk- however, I do have them digitally organized on my Pinterest in different albums. Interesting how this all is a connection! I will a majority of the small amount of free time I get to either browse new recipes, crafting projects or actually start working on something new! |
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December 2022
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