Presence (Lasallian Concept)

To me, the concept of Presence involves being continually, and willingly able to change and grow personally and professionally for the better. It also means that you are empathetic and accepting with others first, before determining your own pre-conceived notions on others or their ideas. To have Presence, you are willing to take risks and are spiritually healthy with yourself.

In my classroom, it means being unbiased towards individual students and their backgrounds. It means working alongside students to guide them in their educational journey with a willingness to try new approaches to change my  teaching strategies if needed. It requires me to create a class based on togetherness instead of a teacher controlled atmosphere.

Lastly, Presence means looking out for the other person, before yourself. It’s making sure no one is left behind. It means making sure everyone that has an idea and shares, is listened to and respected as an important voice in our classroom.

Marzano's Teacher Led Factors

After reading Marzano’s chapter on teacher led factors, I found all factors mentioned differed from those I’d predicted. I originally was more focused on a teacher's ability to create an environment based on mutual respect and rapport with students. I hadn't given much thought to a school’s dynamics. Marzano states the three factors that influence student achievement are instructional strategies, classroom management, and curriculum design. I agree all three of these factors, and might add a fourth from Creemers (1994) research based on student grouping to the mix, but Marzano could have included this into instructional strategies. I also agreed with Marzano’s conclusion that states “if a school is willing to do all that it can at the school level and if all teachers in the School are at least competent in their profession, the School can have a tremendous impact on student achievement (p.76).” I would conclude that school support, consistency, and guidance seem to have drastic effects on student achievement over time.

Goals with Technology in Education

1. Implement technology on a schedule (morning, afternoon, daily, weekly).
Currently, we have 7 iPads for 7 teachers in first grade. I've tried to create a schedule to follow for our teachers to use, which has just begun to gain more interest. It is, at times, difficult to take the iPads on a regular basis, just because of limited supplies. Realistically, I could plan on taking them 3 times a week, morning or afternoon to use while in the classroom. I currently have about 8-10 students who work on 1-2 iPads daily for about 15 minutes. They are using apps to reinforce reading concepts. I'd like to give more independence to them to search and explore the variety of things they are interested in. If I could even get a 2:1 ratio 3 times a week for 15-20 minutes, I think I could see a benefit to their learning.

2. Incorporate creative and augmented learning activities that challenge and allow students to be creative.
I'd like to give more independence to them to search and explore the variety of things they are interested in. Students have currently been active in story building and movie making. They are just becoming familiar with how the iPad works and have a basic understanding of its functions. I will need to do some research to plan out a few more extensive activities that line up with our standards and objectives to make the best use of our time.

3. Engage in more training on how to use them effectively and efficiently.
Time is of the essence when it comes to school and concepts taught. If we are going to do this it needs to be planned and implemented correctly. I'd like to take a few more courses to see all of the possibilities.

2-3 things you need to learn to be able to honor key finding #7: From-http://www.projectred.org/about/research-overview.html

Finding 7: Daily use of technology delivers the best return on investment (ROI).

Schools must incorporate technology into daily teaching to realize the benefits. The daily use of technology in core classes correlates highly to the desirable education success measures (ESMs). Daily technology use is a top-five indicator of better discipline, better attendance, and increased college attendance.

I NEED TO LEARN:

1. What amount of time consists of "daily use" per day. 50%, 75% or more?

2. What types of activities can account for the ESM's? Independant or teacher led?

3. Who will teach the teachers how to successfully implement the technology?

Response to Marzano’s What Works in Schools - Read Chapter 1

It was the best of times...
This sentence prompt can mean so many things in the education world today. We are surrounded in a world with endless opportunities for gathering information from a variety of resources, we have access to most new technological devices and software and have data running out of our ears and noses for each student that walks into our classrooms.

We are changing lives for the better daily! Students who walk in our doors are exposed to some of the best teaching strategies and ideas that have ever come about. Students are learning at a quicker pace than ever before.

It's easy to chat with teachers from outside your daily physical environment and collaborate with others around the world. Websites like Pintrist, Blogger and YouTube can give you endless ideas of how to engage and enrich your students beyond anything you could ever fathom.

It was the worst of times....
Marzano states heavily that the data we've accumulated about what works in education isn't being looked at and isn't being used to drive our instructional styles and classroom practices to reform. Although we do live in a world full of data we seem stuck with teaching styles that mirror a traditional classroom from the early 1900's.I feel that we have an array of teachers who have the skills and talents to educate all students from many backgrounds, but who are stuck with government mandates and educational guidelines that keep us somewhat trapped in the ways of old. We want to educate individual students and meet their needs, but are forced to cover a wider range of curriculum quicker than time allows. Students are lost in the gaps and forced to catch up through Title programs and other support programs. Though the technology is there, some schools can't afford it, or can't afford to have their teachers trained to use it successfully. It's like a doctors office, who has docs ready to operate and tools that are either outdated for the surgery or not enough training on how to implement and use them successfully.

With all of the data we have on students, teachers can't comprehend and compact it into meaningful uses. We see it, try to digest it, and try to make changes in our teaching, but by the time we've tried something new, another data set is on our desk.

Differentiating in my Classroom during Math

Recently, one of my main goals in my classroom was to polish up my differentiation plan during math class. I had heard of several ways to accomplish this and techniques to use. To start, my class has 22 first grade students. I have about 2 students at a 2nd grade level for math, 4 at an end of year first grade level, 10 which are on-level and 6 that would be considered approaching. With this much diversity, the traditional "teach all" at once hasn't worked well. Of course, it is possible to do that, but it's at the expense of my more advanced math students as they sit through a lesson typically bored and ready to move on at any moment. Here are a few things I've been trying.

1. Math Journals: Math journals have been the topic of my action research. At first, I was anxious to use them because I was hoping they would give me more insight into what my students were understanding. To a point they do show this, but I've found that with an assignment scheduled most days, I've already gathered an understanding to each students knowledge. If anything, the math journals have supported a students current ability level in math. Currently, they act as more of a math vocabulary book. We put many things into them using illustrations and words to know. This has been somewhat difficult for my students who have trouble copying things from the board. I will use an iPad, take a picture of our SMART board, while we are completing it and I will place  the iPad next to those students who have trouble looking up and down. I'd like to start using journals to give me knowledge on what students prior knowledge is regarding future math topics, but haven't found time to get that in. I will hopefully work on that soon!
2. The second thing I've been using is our math curriculum's challenge cards. We use Math Expressions, which has a tiering model approach. It provides teachers with an on-level, challenge and approaching level learning plan each day. After we've discussed a new concept as a whole-group, I've got an "unofficial" idea of which students should be able to move on, with limited teacher support. I have also started asking them-"Do you think you'd be able to complete these sets of questions on your own?" or "Who thinks they need a little more help?" I've found that by giving them a little more accountability and independence, they've risen to a higher level of work during math. You need to use your teacher judgement on these questions! If they are ready, my students will take the tiering activity (best suited for them). I have the instructions already recorded via iPad. I will point students to the activity I think they will be the most successful, and they move to that "center." They watch the video for instructions. Students who need more guidance, work with me on the on-level assignment. Now, I'm not going to stay this model is perfectly clean and polished day in and day out. We are a work in progress, and it has taken some loosening of the reins on my behalf, but the expectations haven't changed. There is some noise during math, but the kids are learning and are engaged while applying math knowledge to their own work. Instead of sitting and going through examples of skill problems which they've already mastered. The biggest change I've noticed, is that we've moved from students listening, to students applying and creating.