Critical Reflection

Well, it's hard to imagine that the end of our four week coursework has finally come to end. It has been a long road, but fulfilling in the sense that I am proud of what I have accomplished. I feel that I am a role model to my four children because they can look at their mother as someone who persevered even when things were difficult. Looking at another aspect of a teaching model has also been an exciting endeavor. I would like to further explore the UBD model in my 1st grade classroom. I have already shared my Native American unit with my colleague and we will expand on the unit this fall. My principal has agreed to incorporate the Newark Museum's lending program into our school-wide program this year. I am excited about the possibilities that object-based learning can provide.
Upon reflection of my mission statement the unit design is coherent with my goals of teaching. My principles, practices, and purposes of teaching are congruent with the goals of the unit design and in essence are reflective of the performance tasks that were established. Susan and I created tasks that were based on principles of cooperative learning, critical thinking, and constructivism. The students will be actively engaged in the learning of the life of Eastern Woodland Native American life. I believe that primary grade students learn by "doing." The object-based learning model of teaching that we were taught is a wonderful way for students to have a visual model as an entry point for learning. I was a skeptic when we began our museum study three weeks ago and was told that we would be creating a table top exhibit using museum artifacts. I must admit I was amazed to see how objects can make such a huge impact on the learning of your audience. Because we were so impressed with the statement that the artifacts made and the response that we had from the museum visitors, we tried to plan lots of objects in our lessons. We believed that they would be strongly received and the message of the lesson would be more powerfully spoken by the presence of the items.
Our Understanding by Design Plan was systematically created by aligning the student goals, the student understandings, and the performance tasks. The assessments that we created directly correlate to the goals that address the themes of Eastern Woodland Native American life, basic goods and services, needs and wants, and families. The assessment provides the students with choice based on their learning preferences. The assessment requires the students to select a writing activity, speaking activity, drawing activity, and performance activity. Each task activity provides the student with a multitude of variety. It speaks to their individuality as a learner as well as a member of a group. I believe that students should should have their individual voice but they need to learn so many critical skills in collaborative learning environments. They learn how to work cooperatively, listen and talk through problem situations, and create a project. Some of our assessment tasks are designed so that the students will work in cooperative situations as well.
What I am most pleased about is the knowledge that I gained in the area of technology. I was the most technology challenged individual before this course. I would like to thank you for the knowledge that you provided me with regarding setting up a web page, navigating google docs, blogging and google sharing, and cutting and pasting with ease. I can bring this knowledge and use it with my students this year. Maybe Susan's first grade students and my students can do something using technology. I am very excited about the prospect about the world of technology that is available to us! I will expand my web page throughout the year as pertinent information arises. Thank you for enlightening my world.

Modern vs. Postmodern World

I read an article for a graduate course by David Elkind (1995) titled " School and Family in the Postmodern World." I continue to be fascinated by this article because I grew up in the modern world and I learned so much about why the world was the way it was. The article engages you to look at life years ago and life today and draw conclusions about the children that might have the better lives. The author does not directly address the question with you but you are compelled to draw this question yourself when you see the clear differences in culture, lifestyles, and values between the modern and postmodern world.
The modern family values were grounded on togetherness and the nuclear family. It was characterized by domesticity, maternal love, and romantic love. Domesticity is a belief that each family member's primary loyalty is to the home. Mothers provided the nurturing care as well as making the home a comfortable place to live. Maternal love is an instinctive need of mothers to unconditionally love and care for their family. In romantic love it is tied to the notion that there is only one true mate for us. We will meet them, fall in love, get married, and spend our lives committed to that one person.
The modern school did not have any publicly supported Kindergartens. In schools with Kindergartens, it was not a requirement to attend. Kindergarten was structured to reflect the beliefs of domesticity and maternal love with play being the focus. Many elementary schools were built without cafeterias because it reinforced the roles of the mother and her responsibility to provide her child with a lunch that she prepared. Curriculum planning was founded on the beliefs that children were innocent and naive and adolescents were even considered immature. The curriculum was guarded in what was taught and what was censored.
By comparison, the postmodern world, today's world, differs greatly. We live today's world and know the realities of the demands of life. Today's child is afforded so many opportunities that the modern child could never have imagined. The advancement of technology alone has enabled the children of today to see and do things that we never could have dreamed of. But our lifestyles come at a price. Families do not eat meals together. Children are busy engaging in "abbreviated conversation" via text messaging and instant messaging that spoken conversations between people are becoming less frequent. There are more distractions in today's world to distract from what is truly important in life- family. So, the essential question is, which children have richer lives, the modern children or the postmodern children?

Elkind, D. (1995). School and the postmodern family. Phi Delta Kappan. 77(1), 8-14.

Creating a School Community

Eric Schaps' (2003) article " Creating a School Community" attends to the growing need and benefit of schools creating a sense of community. People have needs that drive their motivation to learn and develop as individuals. These include the need for close relationships, physical safety, or feeling that they belong to something. " When schools meet the students' basic psychological needs, students become committed to the school's norms, values, and goals. By enlisting students in maintaining that sense of community, the school provides opportunities for students to learn skills and develop habits that will benefit them throughout their lives."
Research confirms the benefits of school community building. Students are academically motivated ( Solomon, Battistich, Watson, Schaps, & Lewis, 2000); to act ethically and selfless (Schaps, Battistich & Solomon, 1997); to develop social and emotional competencies ( Solomon et al., 2000 ); and to avoid problematic behaviors ( Resnicknet al., 1997 ). The benefits of instituting a school community in the elementary grades will persist into the middle grades and even into high school. Test scores from community-based schools were shown to have been higher than comparative schools that did not implement a community base. Teachers reported more respectful and appropriately behaved students.
There are four approaches that schools can assume in order to facilitate a sense of community. 1. Promote respectful relationships among all members of the school community. 2. In addition to academic attainment, schools should focus on the value of good character, fairness, responsibility, and concern for others. 3. Provide opportunities for students to work collaboratively for the benefit of helping others. 4. Creating an environment that allows for student individuality and welcoming their ideas as a separate entity.
There are activities that can be implemented to enhance community in one's school. Establishing morning meeting, having inter-grade book buddies, parent volunteer literacy partners, home/school activity links, and PTA functions involving entire families ( Skate Night, Movie Night, Book Fairs, etc.). Community building involves all members of the school community and can bring so many advantages to its implementation. It's a win win situation!


Schaps, E. (2003). Creating a school community. Educational Leadership, 60 (6), 31-33.

Experiential Learning

I learned about experiential learning while researching one of my goals in my mission statement. One of my teaching principles is that children must be in an environment where they feel safe, happy, and respected. Teachers must establish the conditions within the classroom so that the students can feel a sense of inner security and contentment before any learning can exist. I needed to find a theory of learning that supported my principle of teaching. Carl Rogers (1969) is one of the founders of experiential learning. Experiential learning addresses the needs and wants of the learner. The qualities of this approach include: personal involvement, self-initiated, learner-evaluated, and extensive effects on the learner. Rogers believes that all people have a natural ability to learn and the role of teachers is to facilitate the learning. According to Rogers, learning can be facilitated when:" 1. the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction, 2. it is primarily based upon direct confrontation with practical, social, personal, or research problems, and 3. self-evaluation is the principal method of assessing progress or success."
The role of teachers in experiential learning is to establish a positive learning environment. They clearly explain the purpose of the learning. They utilize all resources that are available. They balance the intellectual and emotional elements of learning. They openly share their feelings and thoughts with their learners. Why should someone engage in experiential learning in their classrooms? Significant learning takes place when the subject is pertinent to the interests of the student. Learning which is threatening to the self are more integrated when external threats are at a minimum. Learning progresses at a rapid rate when the risk to the individual is limited. Learning that was initiated by the individual is longer lasting and more meaningful.


Rogers, C.R. ( 1969). Freedom to learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

The Authoring Cycle as Curricular Framework for Inquiry

Is the authoring cycle the framework as process of a subject area curriculum or is there a more effective way to approach the teaching of these core subjects? Kathy Short's Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers (1996) identifies the authoring cycle as the supportive framework for the process of the curriculum area. Another way to approach the teaching of the curriculum is through the use of theme units. These are the curricular framework for content exploration. There was a growing sense among the author and her colleagues that the theme units were deficient in integration and cohesiveness. Kathy Short and her colleagues believed that there was a disconnect between the system processes and knowledge systems in classroom learning experiences for students. Through further study Short (1996) and her colleagues discovered moving away from the authoring cycle as process and migrating toward an inquiry cycle which assimilates process and content.
In inquiry based learning the learner's focus is not only on solving problems but "wondering" about something we want them to investigate and become engaged in. Short (1996) and her colleagues recognized three sources of knowledge that inquirers extract in their quest for meaningful questions and their investigation of those questions. " These sources include: 1. personal and social knowing through life experiences; 2. knowledge systems as structures of knowledge and alternatives perspectives on our world ( history, biology, psychology), and 3. sign systems as alternative ways of making and creating meaning about the world ( art, music, movement, language, mathematics). The central feature of inquiry is personal and social knowing. Inquiry can enable a learner to know, observe, and feel. Short ( 1993) describes this exploration as " wandering and wondering." Students are offered opportunities to wander and investigate a topic and wonder about all of the different ideas that they develop before having to acquire a question for exploration.
Inquiry exploration can be used in places beyond journals. Students can record their inquiries on charts, webs, charts, graphs, and diagrams. Inquiry exploration can take place in the form of inquiry groups. These groups can work cooperatively to create skits, songs, poems, and other creative forms of writing. "As students engage in inquiry activities, they will require opportunities that will enable them to reflect on what they know (content), how they come to know ( process), and why they inquire ( purpose and goals)" ( Short, 1996).
I have always subscribed to a theme-based method of teaching. I felt that the students were provided with a strong sense of the central concept because of the connectedness within the curriculum subject areas. After reading this article and several others like it I am wondering if the students are making true meaningful connections to the concept or are the activities enjoyable and isolated from significant relevance to the concept. I am interested in exploring inquiry based learning in my first grade classroom. Because my students are naturally inquisitive and knowledge-seeking, this type of learning should be something that appeals to my students and they respond positively to. I would like to see my students engaged in critical thinking activities where they would have to think " outside the box." I would like my students to actively be thinking about thinking. What are the things that they want to know? Some of my units this year can set the stage for inquiry-based learning. My social skill action research unit, my unit on Native Americans, our new unit on habitats, and multiculturalism, to name just a few. Working cooperatively in an inquiry setting can provide the students with a multitude of learning opportunities. These will enable them to build off of each other's prior knowledge in order to formulate new understandings, new insights, and the motivation to dig deeper into the investigative process.

The Arts as the Central Learning Methodology

Using the arts as the primary source of teaching modality can provide your students with an array of learning opportunities in which they can exhibit their own unique creative expression. In Karen Gallas' Arts as Epistemology: Enabling Children to Know What They Know (1991) she states that " the arts offer opportunities for reflection upon the content and the process of learning, and they foster a deeper level of communication about what knowledge is and who is truly in control in the learning process." The arts encompasses a wide spectrum of mediums including drama, movement, poetry, music, and visual arts. The arts can positively impact a wide range of students spanning wide ability levels as well as interests. For students who might not excel in the area of reading and language is affording them the opportunity to express their abilities using another learning medium. The goal of the educational process is to enable our students to be successful learners. As educators we need to find the creative ways to enable our students to be those successes.
The arts can be a successful piece of the learning process because it has been a fundamental part of the development of the child throughout their formative years. As a toddler and into preschool they explored music, artistic expression through a variety of ways, dance, and dramatic play. The tasks within the concept can be varied as well as the level of difficulty. You can tailor the activity to meet the learning style or intelligence preference of your students. By providing your students with the opportunities to work cooperatively on some of the activities, they may engage in activities that might take them out of their comfort zone and and give them the confidence to try something new.
I am very excited about the tabletop exhibit that Susan and I are planning on creating. We are using art as one of our central themes in creating this exhibit. From our exhibit the students will be engaged in writing, creating works of art, and interpreting art. I can't wait to use this unit with my students this fall. I already spoke to my good friend and colleague and told her about my tabletop exhibit theme. I would love to share this with my first grade colleagues as well. This year my first grade colleagues and I are going to be doing an in-depth unit on land habitats. Each class will study one habitat and will transform their room into that habitat. We will study the animals within that habitat, the plants, climate, etc. I would love to incorporate the concept of art methodology in that unit of study. There would be so many wonderful things that I could incorporate in the unit to enable my students' creative voices to be heard and seen. All children can benefit from the educational process through the arts. It provides opportunity for all students, regardless of ability, to participate and be successful in the learning and expression of knowledge.

Bridging Practices

Many teachers have grappled with the importance of either subject knowledge or pedagogical methodology in determining what teaching and learning depends on. Although there has been mounting controversy regarding this issue, teaching and learning rely on both beliefs. Dewey (1904/1964) believed that good teachers were those who could create "genuine intellectual activity" in students and that these activities were directly tied to teaching disciplines. He also believed that subjects were an extension of the mind, the products of curiosity, investigation, and the search for truth. A significant factor that affects the learning experiences of our students is the content knowledge that we bring to the educational situation. Can we effectively teach a skill that we ourselves are not skilled in? A good teacher looks beyond the content that needs to be taught and finds ways to make meaningful connections that all students can understand. How can we take a difficult concept and present it to our students in a variety of ways that will enable them to understand the concept more effectively? Successful educators are those who assess what their students know and in essence work backwards in designing what activities they will teach and how they will teach them. Our students can dictate what you would need to know and be sensitive to in regard to content knowledge in teaching.
Two features from the perspective of practice and the application of teaching is: 1. analyzing one's knowledge into a less refined form 2. being able to use the knowledge one has that Schulman and his colleagues ( Schulman, 1986, 1987; Wilson, Schulman, & Richert, 1987) called "pedagogical content knowledge:" a combination of knowledge that connects content and pedagogy. There are three problems that continue to plague teacher content preparation. By addressing what teachers need to know, how they need to know it, and helping them learn to use it, we can develop well-rounded educators who are open-minded about the new techniques and teaching strategies that will benefit their students.
It is difficult to step out of your comfort zone and teach a skill/concept that is either new or one that you are not comfortable with. In addition to your assessing what your students know before the actual teaching of the concept, your colleagues can be wonderful resources. Last September my district began a school-wide guided reading program. I was unfamiliar with this approach because I had always taught reading using novels and basal readers in conjunction with a phonics approach. I must admit I was very apprehensive about undertaking such a huge year-long project. My own knowledge of the guided reading program was quite limited and I did not have any experience with it prior to beginning the program. I called upon my colleague who was trained in guided reading. We met on several occasions and she answered many of my questions. I observed some of her guided reading groups in session so that I could get a sense of what one looks like. I did some reading on my own and I began to feel a bit more confident. I started to assess my students by administering a running record to determine their reading level. This would enable me to put my students into guided reading groups.
I began meeting with one group a day until I gradually worked my way up to two and finally three. Your own experience and observing your students' responses in various learning situations can provide valuable insight into the knowledge that you can provide your students.

Exploring Artistic Representation of Concepts

As educators, how do we foster the artistic abilities of our students and channel these abilities into a talent that someday might enrich their lives and identify a part of who they are as learners? For other students, exploring artistic concepts will provide them with another means of learning. In the article entitled Ways of Knowing:Exploring Artistic Representation of Concepts ( Duggan, 2007) the role of artistic expression in educational settings is explored. It is believed that providing your students with opportunities for artistic expression will increase student learning and their creative understanding of knowledge. Robinson et al. ( 2007) stated the importance of introducing arts into classrooms early in the educational process.
In The Unschooled Mind ( 1991) Gardner introduces the readers to "entry points." According to Gardner, " entry points" enables the learners to have an understanding of the subject by providing several approaches to it. The approaches include the narrational, the logical-quantitative, the foundational, the esthetic, and the experiential. The narrational (storytelling, chronology) includes videos, skits, or time lines. In logical-quantitative (numbers, deductive reasoning) equations, statistics, or problems are introduced. Experiential (hands-on, work tasks) approaches include products, inventions, or models. The esthetic (artistic elements and expressions) include poems, paintings, dance, or music. Foundational applications
(conceptual framework and big questions) consist of conceptual models, theories, or position papers. Students can also collaborate and work with their peers when applying artistic expression to a learning situation. Teachers can approach artistic modes of learning in response to everyday assignments through specific content and broad concepts. An example of this is taking a section of a textbook on weather and explain the concept through role play, poetry, creative writing, and drawing. Broad concepts such as truth, honesty, and freedom can be explored using Howard Gardner's eight intelligences. How might the students use their intelligence preference to express truth? freedom? or honesty?
Today's visit to the Asian art galleries was an insightful view into Gardner's "entry points." Kevin presented us with a wealth of information regarding these cultures and posed many reflective questions. It was an inspiring class today that has provided me with not only knowledge but the motivation and ambition to begin my tabletop exhibit as well as integrate art into my classroom curriculum. How can you use art to enable the learner to express the concept in creative and original ways? Our tabletop exhibit will be an example of utilizing art expression to teach a concept (or the understanding of a concept). What will our entry points be? Which mean of introducing the concept will we choose? Will we choose for the students to do a dance? Will we demonstrate an experiment? Will the students do some type of art expression activity?
Susan and I will be creating an exhibit with a theme of Native American children. We have not decided on our concept yet but we're hoping to figure it out tomorrow after we have had a chance to look through the supply list and plan for a few minutes. I'm excited and nervous because I'm not sure what the expectations are for the final product. I was happy to hear that Kevin will be sharing pictures of past projects that have been completed by other teachers. I want to create something meaningful that I will be able to use with my students in the fall. I already do a unit on Thanksgiving but my hope was creating a supplemental unit that can be shared with my colleagues. I already stated to research book titles and I purchased one already. Susan and I are trying to find time to meet so that we can create our design.
We have been provided with the foundational learning of so many skills. These skills will enable us to be not only more knowledgeable, but prepared with the tools in order for them to be successful learners.

Embarking on the Road to Authentic Engagement: Investigating Racism through Interactive Learning Centers

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article Embarking on the Road to Authentic Engagement: Investigating Racism through Interactive Learning Centers ( Taylor & Otinsky, 2006) because I found it not only engaging, but also inspiring. My district has initiated a differentiated instruction program for reading using a guided reading approach. While guided reading groups are in progress I have been implementing learning centers. Usually the centers literacy based. I love the value in the centers because the way that I have set them up they are a meaningful way for the students to review skills that have been taught in whole group situations. The students visit the computer center and can visit a program called "Puzzle Maker" to create a word search using their spelling words that they can print out and solve. They can also visit a program called "Star Fall" to practice phonics skills. There is a listening center where the students listen to a story, draw a picture to show something that happened in the story, and they write about that part. In the language center they might edit a paragraph for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes. They might play a matching game to look for synonym pairs. At the spelling center they might use magnetic letters to try to have their partner unscramble the letters to spell one of the words from the week's list. They also play the riddle game in conjunction with tic-tac-toe.
I love the premise of centers but it's the classroom management that can be a problem at times and the transition time between centers that I need to fine tune. I took a graduate course on differentiated learning last spring. It made me think about the possibility of differentiated math centers maybe every Friday or every other Friday afternoon. The students really did enjoy and looked forward to the centers each day. Many students have an ability in math that I feel I need to tap into and I thought that differentiated math centers would be the perfect venue.
I have been thinking about creating a Native American tabletop exhibit. I would love to see if I could somehow create interactive learning centers that would be appropriate for first graders where they could learn about Native American life. I would need to explore the amount of time that would be required to research the information, gather the materials/resources, and plan the course of action. Would volunteers be needed? If so, how many and in what capacity? I do implement centers for other themed units but after reading Understanding by Design ( Wiggins & McTigue, 2005) it has enabled me to examine what type of learning I have selected at each center. Is apple printing a valid learning activity in the study of apples? It is if the student is using the apple to create a pattern with the print design that they create. My goal is to make the activities more meaningful and more tied into the knowledge that the students can walk away from at the completion of the activity. I want to ask my students more of the critical questions such as "Why are we learning this?" " What does this learning have to do with what we have been learning?" "Why will you need to know this?"
I am hoping to build not only academic skills through the use of interactive learning centers but also cooperative learning skills as well through the use of social skill development. Observing my students in these situations will be of great value to me since my action research project is based on social skill interaction. I will be looking to see the roles my students will assume within their groups, their relationship with each other, and the general group dynamics. It will be an interesting observation to make while the students are engaged in the learning process.
So many ideas are racing in my mind regarding the use of learning centers in my classroom after reading this article. My mission is to find meaningful activities to match to the unit themes that will be shared in my first grade classroom. I want the activities to engage all learners using a variety of activities and in a variety of mediums. I was truly inspired to engage my students as learners utilizing this exiting and motivating method.

Complete Engagement: Embodied Response in Art Museum Education

I began last night's readings with the Dewey articles, which I found to be difficult to absorb and comprehend, due in part to to the complex language as well as the context of subject matter. I was happily surprised with my interest in the article regarding embodied response in art. As I was reading it I was relating it to my experience at the museum earlier that day and the connection that I as an educator had made to many of the pieces of art. I shared my enthusiasm with my husband later that evening when he had come home and told him of what I had learned. Imagine what a child can bring away from the same experience!

The premise of embodied learning as written in Complete Engagement: Embodied Response in Art Museum Education ( Hubard, 2007) is that there is a connection of the body and mind and that learners can make sense of the world through feelings and sensations ( Anttila, 2004; Bresler, 2004; Brodky & Fine, 1998; Johnson, 1983; Kerka, 2002; McLaren, 1991; Stinson, 1995). In this sense art can spark the viewer's emotions or bodily reaction but can also allow them to form interpretations of what they view. These interpretations can be based on prior knowledge or based on the logical reasoning made by the viewer. Teachers who want their students to appreciate and work outside the environment of their world, will recognize that " art pedagogy has its greatest power and meaning in its inherent possibility to combine different modes of knowing" ( Anttila, 2004, p. 7).

There are two approaches to embodied response. The first one is known as discursive approach. It is the physical and emotional responses to art. Discursive language can also be used to describe the types of feelings that are existing in the artwork. The teacher might ask how something might feel, smell, taste, sound. The second approach is known as non-discursive. In this approach viewers are provided with opportunities to link art with movement, sound, drawing and poetry ( Durant, 1996; Rice, 1995; Zeller, 1987). Within a non-discursive approach there are 5 five strategies that can be implemented in the classroom. 1. Responding with poetry. Allow the students to look at a piece of art and write a poem in response to what they see and feel. 2. Becoming a work. When studying a particular style of art, allow the students to use their bodies to duplicate or create a model of that art. 3. Creating a soundtrack. The students envision the sounds that could be heard if they could become one with the art. They are given the choice of objects to choose and create various musical sounds. Musical sounds can even be created using their own voices. 4. Drawing details. The students are provided with sketch pads in which they can reproduce what they see as pertinent representations of the artist's work. 5. Transforming paper. Students are provided with the opportunities to experiment and artistically create with paper.
My first grade classes have been frequent visitors of the Newark Museum. It has always been an educational experience but these past two days have enabled me to see the museum through different eyes. I would like to incorporate art into journal writing and as social studies extension activities. I was thinking about doing my tabletop exhibit on the Native Americans. The artwork that depicted the Native Americans could be a wonderful starting point for that unit. The students could be asked to write what the feelings of the Native Americans were in the paintings. What were their clothes made out of? What season was it? What sounds did they hear? After the students have completed their journal writing they will pair with another student and share what they have written.
Around Halloween I do this creative art activity called "Bogus Boo." I read the students a poem called " Bogus Boo" about a monster named Bogus Boo. The poem describes what the monster looks like but the students are not afforded the opportunity to see a picture of the creature. They must rely on their listening skills and their imagination. Using the information provided they must draw and color what they think the Bogus Boo looks like. I hang all of the pictures on the blackboard so that it looks like an art gallery. Then I read the clues a second time while the students try to determine which drawing(s) might closely resemble the actual monster. Then I show them the real Bogus Boo and we picked out the drawings the most closely matched its likeness. As a culminating activity the students create their own Bogus Boo and must define its describing characteristics. We play a " Which Bogus Boo Am I?" game to match the clues to the drawing. It is a wonderful learning experience because they are utilizing their skills in language and art as well as communication skills. I look forward to incorporating art into the teaching and learning of my students this year.

My Mission Statement

My goal as an educator is to provide my students with a warm, caring, and stimulating educational environment. Using a variety of learning approaches, I wish to instill a love of learning in all of my students and motivate them with the will to acquire knowledge and be successful in their search of knowledge and understanding. The educational experiences that I provide as well as the skills that the students develop will be the foundation for their future learning.

The Will to Learn

In Toward a Theory of Instruction ( Bruner, 1966) the topic of motivation and its relation to school success is explored. Jerome Bruner exposed the roles of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in our schools today. He stated that in order for students to be successful and for learning to be truly meaningful, the motivators must be intrinsic. Intrinsic rewards are the rewards that you gain from the success of the activity itself. Curiosity is often an intrinsic motive for humans to engage in an activity. Young children are found to be stimulated by and curious with the things in their environment. An amazing thought is that what can be a distracting force for children can also inspire them as learners. Their mind as well as their bodies become the tools that will empower them to secure the resources necessary for their learning success. They are always searching for new learning connections to make in their environment. Maybe that is part of the attraction of science, learning by discovery and the sense of accomplishment when an experiment or lab goes as planned. Students are also motivated by what they know. Sometimes if it is a content area that they have a strong knowledge base of, that knowledge can be an intrinsic motivator for wanting to move ahead academically in order to advance their knowledge.
As a primary school educator, extrinsic rewards have always played a major role in motivating and reinforcing student behavior. Stickers, verbal praise, and a simple thumbs up are a way of affirming student learning. But nothing put a smile on the face of my students more than when they receive their spelling tests back! A sticker, thumbs up, or hearing "great job" couldn't match the feeling of earning a terrific grade on the test. True learning was when the struggling student began earning 100% on his tests each week and I saw his face beaming! What a wonderful sight!

What is a Teacher Leader?

Roland S. Barth's Teacher Leader (1990) describes the powerful role that teacher leaders play in our educational system. All teachers are called upon to fulfill the leadership role that each individual has the ability to achieve. Barth believes that all teachers have leadership qualities that can be extracted for the purpose of improving one's school or increasing pupil performance.
An interesting fact presented by Barth was that in a study of one thousand schools "in high-performing schools (those with few discipline problems and high pupil achievement), decision making and leadership are significantly more democratic. Teachers are more involved and influential in establishing discipline, selecting textbooks, designing curriculum, and even choosing their colleagues than are teachers in low-performing schools."
Everyone would benefit from teacher leadership implementation within a school system. Students would have addition role models who could support the current administration. Teacher leaders could also assume some of the roles that might ordinarily be handled by the building principal. A teacher leader has the ability to wear a variety of hats. Just as teacher leadership affords opportunity, there are also obstacles. For some teachers the commitment of time and their lives already bustling is the reason for their hesitation to take on the role. For others it is dealing with their colleagues and the repercussions that would come from the resistance they would receive from their fellow peers. What we as educators need to examine is would the benefits of our role as teacher leader make a difference in our school community? If the answer is yes then to what degree would this role cause me any personal conflict? Can this conflict be worked out?
I look forward to being a teacher leader in my school community and in many ways I already am. I need to learn to be more vocal about my thoughts and feelings. That is my personal goal for teacher leadership. I am an active member of my school community and I have always been an "I'll do that" person. I need to bring the vocal piece into my role of leadership.

Schooling by Design- Chapters 1 and 2

These two readings provided me with an introduction to the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTigue. In their book Understanding by Design (2005) they introduced the concept of "backward curriculum design." The foundation of backward design is beginning with what you want your students to accomplish; the goals you wish to achieve. This innovative and compelling design has directly impacted the structure of curriculum, the development of state standards, and even the manner in which many teachers approach the delivery of their units of study.
Wiggins and McTigue used real-life situations in order to explain backward design in a manner that was clear and easy to understand. They explained how the blueprint or model is what the final product will look like on a construction job. In education the final product could be the goals that are established in the school's mission statement. The building codes on the other hand represent the standards in education. They are rules that need to be met but they are not the purpose of the construction. The construction workers, as do teachers, do their best to honor the codes in their professions, but their goal is to achieve the final product.
Because the backward curriculum design requires you to have foresight and see what the end result should look like, I decided to examine and revisit my own school's mission statement. Here is the mission statement for my K-4 elementary school:

The T. Baldwin Demarest School provides a high quality education to over 470 students in Kindergarten through fourth grade. The teaching staff subscribes to the philosophy that children learn best in a supportive, nurturing learning environment that immerses students in a style of curriculum delivery which reflects the key principles of active participation, cooperative learning, hands-on instruction, and interdisciplinary teaching. The school is continually developing educational programs with the intent of promoting children's academic, social, and emotional development. Educational initiatives in the areas of heterogeneous grouping, cooperative learning, enrichment, technology, multicultural education, literature-based reading, and science have afforded students opportunities for a more in depth exploration of the world in which they live. With the guidance of supportive parents and dedicated educators, the students are destined to become responsible citizens prepared to participate in a constantly changing society.

This mission statement is the building block for much of the learning that exists within my school. It involves all members of the community in the learning process and establishes a goal that all members can work cooperatively to achieve. My goal is to ask more insightful questions of my students this year to see if they can make the connection to their learning. Why are we learning this? What did we do in the past few weeks that relates to this? These articles have presented me with a new way of thinking about curriculum delivery and instruction. I look forward to implementing this design model with my first graders this year!

What makes a person educated?

An individual is educated when they they have been provided the skills that will enable them to be functional members of society. The goal of education is to build knowledge, and regardless of the age of the individual, each person has the ability to learn and increase their understanding of the subject matter. Educated, according to the dictionary definition, is "well taught, having had a good education or knowledgeable, having the benefit of experience or knowledge." An individual can benefit greatly from the knowledge he/she gains from the experiences in his/her life. These experiences teach individuals to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.
An educated person meets the challenges of the ever-changing demands of our schools and the world in which they live. They learn to adapt to new ways of learning and successfully implement these ways as they build their own knowledge related to the skills being taught. An individual can build knowledge based on what they learned in educational settings as well as in real life situations.