Week 5

Marzano
In Chapter 5 Marzano maintains the use of focused feedback as a means to assess the effectiveness of instruction and development of teaching proficiency. Teacher reflection logs, video data, student survey data, and student achievement data are introduced as ways to obtain focused feedback. Specific guidelines offer suggestions for the organization and use of these methods.

Reflective Teaching Chapters 5 & 6

Reflective Teaching and Educational Traditions

Understanding educational traditions provides insight beneficial to the comprehension of teacher reflection. The authors define four traditional teaching perspectives: conservative, progressive, social justice, and spiritual. Readers are urged to view these perspectives as broad and flexible labels and stress various connotations for each tradition.

Self, Student, and Content in Reflective Teaching
In this final chapter, we are asked to consider the questions: “What is the role of the teacher’s self in teaching?” (p 77), “How do you, as a teacher, attend to students?” (p 78) and “How do my students’ contexts restrict and / or enable their opportunities, and what is my role within these contexts?” (p 78) Zeicher and Liston affirm thoughtful reflection on the perception of practice, the kinds of attention offered to students, and the role of context as means to better understand ones relationship to teaching.

My Reflection

Marzano brought me no real surprises, as previously stated, I am well versed in the ways of Dr. Marzano. Reflective Teaching however, provided some real epiphany moments! As I read through the different traditions I could identify with most of them, though most closely with the Progressive Tradition. I believe this is partly because of my own teacher education which was closely based on the theories of Viktor Lowenfeld. Lowenfeld valued art as a means of self-expression, essential to the well-being of the child. (Bear in mind, classmates, this was a long time ago, prior to most of you even being alive!) It seems to me that to express ones thoughts requires at least some consideration of meaning and relationship. Respecting a child’s self-expression teaches them that they are interesting and valuable, the same as Paley’s observation that in listening to a child, we are validating that child, and laying the foundation for the child to “listen to themselves, and…they may one day become their own critics.” (p 55, as cited in Paley p. 127) I also think that my own high school years contributed to me being more progressive in tradition. Not being familiar with the terminology, I have always reflected on my high school education as ‘touchy-feely’. As the authors described (p 56) instead of learning the basic mechanics of writing and in lieu of critically examining classic literature in Communication arts  I learned to interpret The Who song ‘My Generation’ and considered the Roger Price Theory of Nomenclature. I experienced producing a segment on the in-school radio station.  I may have headed off to college lacking some essential skills, but I learned that my views were worthy and I learned to seek meaning. How does this show up in my own teaching? Cue epiphany music ♫♫♫ For the past several years I have been increasingly unhappy with my skill based curriculum and the standards that I am required to assess. I seek to make my lessons meaningful with real world connections, but sometimes I just teach the skill so I can assess it and move on to the good stuff. Thinking about this question made me realize that (ta-da!!) the curriculum is entirely conservative, and my co-workers are largely conservative, and I am progressive. It may sound silly, but understanding the connotations of these traditions encourages me to believe that I CAN reframe my curriculum dilemma. Does that make any sense to anyone besides me?

How would I describe my teaching self? I have contemplated this question all week. It was a humdinger of a week too, perhaps not one to best reflect on that “mirror to the soul” (p 81, as cited in Palmer p 15). As I deliberated the combination of the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual I was reminded of a self-portrait I created for the Visual Literacy class a few years ago. I think I did an accurate job of depicting my perception of self / teaching self. I'm equal parts student, artist, professional. The fact that I'm a wife and a mom affect the feelings I have in regard to students and the relationships that I have with them, their families, and my co-workers. I am a spiritual person, jester, and more than a little bit smart-ass.

 

A teaching experience that illustrates this:

Like I said, this was a tough week. One of the building 5^th grade teachers has been out for the past couple of months on maternity leave. Directly before her students came to art, she popped to visit them, bringing the baby along for the very first time. To say they were excited when I got them would be a serious understatement. They were literally bouncing into my room. I gave them a little bit of time to settle down, then proceeded to attempt with my plans for the day. These plans just happened to include an assessment. As I proceeded around the room, notebook in hand, jotting info about their work, one girl began to call my name, “Mrs. Lamme! Mrs. Lamme! Mrs. Lamme!” I responded the first couple of times, but she didn’t really want anything other than to disrupt the class. I attempted to tune her out, and the more I ignored, the more she persisted. “Mrs. Lamme! Mrs. Lamme! Mrs. Lamme!” ( think of that annoying Family Guy episode with Stewie calling “Lois! Lois! Lois! Lois! Lois! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mama! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mummy! Mummy! Mumma! Mumma! Mumma!” ) By the time I reached her table I came completely unglued. I pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that my failure to acknowledge her was in no way indicative of my inability to hear her. She turned white, then red, and then tears filled her eyes. Did I stop? Noooooooo, I continued, pointing out that it would be obvious to anyone, anyone, anyone that I was ignoring her because I was TRYING to complete an assessment!!! A hush fell over the room. It was time for the class to go and she filed out with her classmates, tears in her eyes, hurt and angry. I stewed about it for the rest of the afternoon, the evening, and into the next day. I nabbed her in the hallway the first opportunity I had and pulled her aside. I asked if she knew why I had lost my temper in class. Yes, she held up her hand, “I understand!” I went on to tell her that I was not proud of my actions, that I don’t believe in embarrassing and humiliating my students, that it’s not right for anyone to do, and that I was sorry. She looked right at me, big brown eyes focused on my own, and said,”Mrs. Lamme, if someone had been treating me the way that I treated you, I would have reacted the exact same way that you did.” We hugged and she went off on her merry way.

So, how does that experience illustrate the perception of my teaching self? I think it demonstrates the relationship that I have with my kids. I'm human, I have emotions, and my teaching self is part of who I am all of the time, not some neat and tidy persona that I take off and hang in the storage cupboard as I exit my room each day. My teaching self is myself and like the caption says, "It's not always easy but, I'm happy with the way it fits."