Art of Reflective Teaching (ART) - Week 1: Education Tree

3.Create your lineage/genealogy education tree. * You will find as the weeks progress you will add to this tree, enriching it with memories and new perspectives. Post (this initial version) to your blog and reflect on the following questions:

• What surprised you about your educational history?
• What patterns do you notice emerging? 

I first did an inventory of my education, thinking specifically of teachers and events that propelled me. I find I have a very optimistic outlook on things (made much more obvious by my cynic of a husband - who is also a teacher.) I didn't have very many negative learning experiences. I was a kid who loved school, was sad at the end of every year to have to leave my teachers and afraid I wouldn't like the next one as much ( I always did.) I have a mom who was a teacher, has patience in spades, and is incredibly encouraging. Her passion was in English and reading (she has a great story about what inspired her to teach, but I'll save that since this is about me.) My Dad is very engineer minded, strict and had high expectations. I would say my most negative learning experiences came from his pressure to be good in areas I was the weakest (math) and struggled with the way he thought he was helping (drill and kill :P) I realized thinking back on elementary school, most of my meaningful, memorable learning experiences happened in the gifted program. We were able to explore more issues in science, geography, languages, and the social sciences that kept me interested in school and fostered my natural curiosity. It was fun.  I wonder how many of my classmates could have used this approach to keep up their interest in school. Same goes for junior high. My Spectra class was a drop in program so any time my regular class had down time, I could go explore something I wanted to learn about on my own and I was encouraged to do so. I will admit I spent way too  much time playing the original Sim City, but I would argue that had an effect on my planning, design, and systems skills and interests (and we did other stuff too.) 

    I think I was definitely influenced by my english teachers in high school. They were some crazy ladies! One was a former nun and one taught in Australia for a while. They both had the best stories and were very enthusiastic about teaching and students. They made personal connections, had engaging lessons, and were willing to meet you where you were to get you to learn. They fostered creativity and I definitely thrived on that. My art teachers were also very influential. To this day I have a photo of my senior year self and my art teacher on my desk. Again, someone who was enthusiastic, funny, creative, smart and willing to share that with students. I will say that coming back to my high school after some education classes was pretty enlightening. One of my favorite teachers at the time I was in school (b/c he was cool! and let us did whatever we wanted!) seemed to be a pretty awful teacher when I stood back and observed his class without being a student. I realized I hadn't learned much, because we did whatever with not a lot of structure, and classroom management was almost nil. 

    I would say the most common characteristics of teachers that made an impact on me were the teachers who made connections with their students, whether that was through sharing personal experiences or cultivating a common community in the room, and took the time to get to know me (as a person and/or as a learner); they were smart, shared what they knew and admitted when they didn't know something -showing some humility; they were encouraging and enthusiastic, showing happiness in what they did every day as well as encouraging me to do better than I had before. 

    So much comes flooding back to me about school when I think about it. It will be interesting to see what else comes to the surface as we progress through this semester.

Art of Reflective Teaching: Week 1 Read & Reflect

Week 1 Assignment: 1. Set up Blog: Introductions, 2. qualities Of the 21st Century, post modern educator, 3. Lineage/genealogy tree. 
Read Washington Post Article: "The 12 Qualities Great Teachers Share"  

2. Read & Reflect on your Blog: Washington Post Article. “12 Qualities great teachers share”

-Would you include any additional traits, or
change some of what is there?
Do a self inventory of these 12 traits. Use the following simple rubric to reflect on these traits. Comment briefly on this rating as you read through.

1- Excelling, have strategies in place to maintain this level 
2- Good, developing strategies
3- Fair, about half the time

4- Need support

What makes a great teacher? By Chris Lehmann
1) Passion for teaching. - 1

2) Love of kids. - 1

3) Love of their subject. - 1

4) Understanding of the role of a school in a child’s life. - 2

5) A willingness to change. - 2

6) A work ethic that doesn’t quit. - 2

7) A willingness to reflect. - 1

8) Organization. - 2

9) Understanding that being a “great teacher” is a constant struggle to always improve. - 1

10) Enough ego to survive the hard days. - 2

11) Enough humility to remember it’s not about you. - 2

12) A willingness to work collaboratively. - 2

I think this is a wonderful list. Teaching is one of those things where it is both an art and a science. There are tricks to know about classroom management, and techniques and strategies to help kids learn (the science) but there is also just something sort of intrinsic about the way you choose to apply what you know (the art.)  Its the magic elixir of the above things with a certain personality in combination with knowledge about pedagogy. Some people don't have to have gone to school to learn the pedagogy part, some come to it naturally through instinct. Kind of like art. You can be naturally gifted at it, or you can work really hard to train yourself at it, learning and sharpening your skills. 
I'm not saying I am a great teacher (although I do like to hope I am at least a good one),  but I found teaching to be easier, more stress-free, and more enjoyable when I mastered or adopted the things on this list. Students learned more it seemed, the classes more fluid and creative, and the environment much more cheerful and productive. Now that I observe teachers informally, I take a balcony view and watch how they implement curriculum (and when I say curriculum I mean the official one, and the un-official one that teachers choose to teach in addition to "what is required".) The teachers I see who often complain or who appear not to enjoy teaching are indeed lacking the items on this list. Good teachers I see have many of these traits and when they get better, I see an additional trait coming out more often. It is funny because I just put together a team of 6 teachers to revise our high school Intro curriculum and I chose them based on strengths they have in the skills and traits listed above. Knock on wood, so far so good! 

Something else I found interesting about this article were the comments about it. It seemed like a couple of people were quite upset about the idea that he was describing teachers of school age children and not all learners. With the exception of #2 and #4, I am pretty sure that each of these would apply to any learning situation. Maybe some more than others at different levels. 

I couldn't help but also think about how teaching has changed over the years as I read. Since I deal with teaching teachers, or at least work with them as a facilitator, I can't help but hear (over and over and over) how "back in the day" teaching was so different, but also at the same time how they are being asked to do the same thing, that "what goes around, comes back around." Would the great teachers from 30 years ago still have the idea that you always try to improve or have a willingness to collaborate? I notice most of the newer teachers, with the exception of a few teachers, have the attitude that they will be lifelong learners, that they are constantly learning about their craft. Now maybe that is because the closer you are to university, the more you feel you still have to learn. Those teachers that self-identify as "not having taught that long" (yet may be in 10+ years) seem to have the attitude that they can always improve, they are more collaborative, and in my opinion are the better teachers for it. Those that close their doors, refuse to share, and are offended if anyone asks what is going on in their class in an attempt to, <gasp!>, converse or bond over work, are the poorer teacher for it. Is it a generational thing or is it the mark of good teaching? Without having a time machine or actually read people's minds, I guess I won't really be able to know for sure.

Art of Reflective Teaching: Introductions

Hey Everyone!
Real excited about this class this semester. I'm taking this and the Human Psychology required class (don't tell my non-art ed teachers I'm way more excited about this class than psychology - or my husband who teaches psych!) I'm hoping an interesting class like this will keep  my brain buzzing and help me keep chugging along in the other.

A little about myself... I teach in a suburban school district outside St. Louis. It is a large district with 4 high schools, 5 middle, and 10 elementary. I have been there for 13 years. This year, although I am not in the classroom, I have been teaching adult learners as the district K-12 Fine Arts Curriculum Content Leader. I design and lead professional development workshops, I oversee teacher teams and facilitate the curriculum writing process, I am an arts advocate, and I am constantly thinking about how to make learning about the arts more engaging and enriching for our students. (Arts meaning I oversee Visual Art, Music, and Theatre at each level) Before moving into this role full time, I taught at two of the high schools and two of the middle schools (not all at the same time!) I was at my last building for 9 years and taught Introduction to Art, Printmaking I, and Printmaking II. I loved teaching middle school and also loved high school students. I could never teach elementary, mostly because I would want to pinch cheeks and play too much (although, maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world!) I received my National Boards in 2011 and that was some of the best professional development I have ever been through. I'm still adjusting to moving out of the classroom this year and miss my students terribly!

I should also add a little about my involvement in the MU program. I started in the summer of '12 with the research in art ed class. I have really enjoyed all of my classes tailored to Art teachers. It has made a big difference to my practice in the classroom. My plan is to finish in the fall of '14, but we will see how it goes! I will be sad to finish, but super glad to get the bump in pay! (Hey, gotta be honest!) I'm hoping at some point to work on my PhD, because I am either a masochist or addicted to learning. Either way, I just can't get enough! What a difference course work tailored to your interests and interesting, dedicated classmates can make!