Standard 8 - Present Professional Practice to Colleagues

Teacher leaders will present professional practice for the review of colleagues.

As I reflect on my time in the Teacher Leadership program, I am reminded of where I began and where I have ended up. Prior to this program, I was not at all comfortable presenting information to my peers, especially things related to educational practice. I felt as though I did not have enough knowledge and experience to deserve the attention of my peers. As I have progressed through this program, I have grown in my confidence and knowledge and am now able to present information to peers and not feel out of my element.

Through classes like Accomplished Teaching and Survey of Instructional Strategies, we constantly and consistently researched various teaching practices that would work well in various classroom settings. In Accomplished Teaching, we looked at various teaching strategies that culminated in our Synthesizing Elements of Accomplished Teaching final paper. My focus at that time, as has been throughout this program, is figuring out how to differentiate well. Looking at differentiation as a means to open access to my content, math, has been a goal I have pursued for a while now. This goal is also something that most, if not all, teachers in my building are working toward as well. This is a pursuit I can help lead with the tools I have learned in this program.

Some of the differentiation tools I was introduced to through the Survey of Instructional Strategies class. The differentiation skills we learned dealt with what Hattie (2012) dubs, “Multiple Ways of Knowing” (emphasis in original, p. 113). There are many points of information in this particular section of the text, but the one that I find myself drawn to time and again is, “Materials presented in verbal, visual, and multimedia form provide richer representations than can a single medium” (p. 113). Utilizing multiple representations is something that I have worked on with my instructional coaches. During this program, I had the opportunity to work on implementing a Nonlinguistic Lesson Plan where student utilize a visual representation of functions that outline what they are and how to figure it out.

Another element dealing with differentiation we looked at deals with cooperative learning. Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, and Stone (2012) state, “cooperative learning provides opportunities for students to interact in ways that enhance and deepen their learning” (p. 37). In creating a lesson for cooperative learning, I had to work with fellow math teachers to utilize their knowledge of groupings. This shift to group learning was not easy for me and is not something I have done regularly. The utilization of nonlinguistic and cooperative learning are things that I could bring back to my school and help to engage teachers in shifting their focus and practice. This shift actually started in my work with my fellow math teacher on the collaborative inquiry project. We worked on helping our students to increase their confidence and persistence. Through the differentiation strategies mentioned above, we were able to begin helping students elevate their understanding and confidence.

In relation to helping others to improve their practice, I also had several opportunities to present information to our peers in class. Sharing our practice and things to look out for was beneficial for both the individuals presenting and those observing. This practice of presenting to our classmates was great practice for presenting to people at my school. It also helped drive home the difference in teaching students versus teaching adults. I have not had a ton of experience with teaching adults, so all the practice I have had through various presentations has been great for understanding that for adult teachers, learning occurs best when they can work collaboratively. When we worked together with people from different content specialties or different age levels, we were provided a view into the professional duties and practices of those we do not often see. As Zepeda (2013) states, “learning communities must be ready to confront the fragmented way in which schools are organized (e.g., departments, grade levels, and specialty groups such as gifted and talented), and they must be committed to working alongside each other as a collective to provide support” (p. 84). We must all work toward improving our schools. To do this, my role as a teacher leader must be to bring teachers together to tackle an issue within our school and to help others raise their level of practice together. It is always easier to work on a difficult situation or fix a long-standing issue with the help and support of our peers.

Dean, C., Hubbell, E., Pitler, H., Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for incrasing student achievement. Colorado: McREL.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York: Routledge.

Zepeda, S.J. (2013). Professional development: What works. New York, NY: Routledge.

Standard 2 - Promoting Student Growth

Standard 2 - Teacher leaders analyze learning to promote student growth.

Reflecting upon my practice prior to partaking in the Teacher Leadership program, I realized that my ability and consistency with analyzing learning was rudimentary. This is an area in which I have definitely seen growth in my practice. A quote I reflected upon in my standard three post is also quite fitting here. Sagor (2011) stated that, "even the most celebrated teachers, who are teaching the highest-achieving students, leave their classrooms frustrated, feeling that despite their best efforts, each individual student didn't progress as far as he or she might" (p. 1). This feeling of frustration is one of my motivating factors for pursuing a graduate degree. I wanted to further my ability to gauge where my students are at any given time so that I can adjust my lesson and help more students achieve more.

My pursuit of bettering my ability to analyze learning began immediately with the Accomplished Teaching class. One of my goals at that time (and one that continues to be a goal of mine) was to strengthen my ability to differentiate within my classes. Where I teach, students often come to school many years behind in their math skills, while a few come multiple grade levels above. This imbalance of mathematical skills results in classes where students are often separated by more than five grade levels of prerequisite knowledge. To combat this, I have to determine how to make the learning both accessible and challenging for each lesson. One of the activities that helped me see a different perspective was when we were paired with another teacher and had to analyze and provide feedback for a lesson plan. I was paired with a high school English teacher and was not convinced that this would be beneficial. I was wrong. Working with this teacher provided me with several ideas about how I could make the lesson more interactive and relevant to my students. The lesson I taught dealt with solving systems of equations. This is an area in Algebra that is applicable in more than one way. My collaboration helped me to see a couple different applications that I had not thought about so that my students would have more access and buy in with this content.

One area that has helped me to better analyze student learning has come from formative assessment. Ensign (2012) states that a good way to check understanding is through the use of an exit ticket which, "allows the teacher to quickly see who has mastered the day's lesson and who needs more support in the following days" (p. 160). Through my studies in this program, I have been able to increase my repertoire of formative assessments and become better at recognizing where those can be placed in a lesson. One piece of evidence came from our learning progression created in the Standards Based Assessment class. This allowed me to visualize and plan a collection of formative assessments within a unit of study.

As I progressed through this program, I further developed my ability to determine how a particular intervention effects student learning. I started this with my Applying Action Research class where we learned what to look for when researching strategies to utilize in our classrooms. This led to a strengthened ability to figure out whether an article presented a valid approach or not. My final product from this class allowed me to show the level to which my understanding of valid research has improved. This helped guide me when I planned and executed my action research project the following Winter. Going through this research project allowed me to put into practice the use of technology with formative assessment. While this was not as successful as I had hoped, it led me to a better understanding of what will be necessary the next time I utilize technology to find out where my students are at in their understanding. 

All of the things I have learned throughout this program, relating to promoting student growth, have been useful, but cannot be utilized without the ability to relate my analysis to my students. One of the most important pieces to feedback was presented to me by Chappuis, "Effective feedback directs attention to the intended learning, pointing out strengths and offering specific information to guide improvement" (2012, p. 37). This is important because if students do not understand what my formative assessments are telling students, there is not point to utilizing them. Students need to have a clear idea of where they are in their learning. Additionally, Morris and Chikwa (2016) have found that there is not marked difference between students receiving written feedback and audio feedback. This is valuable because in my daily lessons, I incorporate audio feedback constantly. Finally, research performed by Hudesman et al. (2013) states that, "The research we have reported on, when taken together with an ever growing body of other work, has demonstrated the importance of integrating formative assessment and metacognition with academic content instruction so that students can optimize their learning" (p. 12). The work we have done in this program related to formative assessment, along with the importance of reflection we have seen time and again, are both vital to strong analysis of student learning. The tools we have learned in this program are going to allow me to better evaluate students learning and adjust to help my students grow as much as possible in my classes.

Sources:
Chappuis, J. (2012). How am I doing? Educational Leadership, 70(1), 36-40.
Ensign, J. (2012). Teacher-initiated differentiation. Teaching Children Mathematics, 19(3), 158-163.
Hudesman, J., Crosby, S., Flugman, B., Isaac, S., Everson, H., & Clay, D., (2013). Using formative assessment and metacognition to improve student achievement. Journal of Developmental Education, 37(1), 2-13.
Morris, C, & Chikwa, G. (2016). Audio versus written feedback: Exploring learners ' preference and the impact of feedback format on students' academic performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17(2), 125-137.
Sagor, R. (2011). The action research guidebook: A four-stage process for educators and school teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Accomplished Teaching Final Reflection

This quarter, I started with the intent of learning how to differentiate instruction in ways to allow all students to gain access to algebra regardless of where they came to me. Although differentiation was not the focus of this course, I did find ways in which I could help my students at their level through reflection and the work we have produced. My learning about the use of reflection to help guide our practice as an individual, small group, or even an entire staff has had an impact on the way in which I teach and interact in my class.

First, the general information concerning reflection as a tool was enlightening. Early on, the Reflective Practice Spiral as presented by York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, and Montie (2006, p. 20) revealed the power that the use of reflection may have starting with the individual and eventually leading to an entire school staff. One aspect of individualized reflection that I struggle with is the ability to maintain perspective when teaching. My most difficult class, due to both attitudes and abilities (the class is comprised of approximately 50% students with an IEP) is also at the end of my day. When lessons do not go well during that period, regardless of their success throughout the remainder of the day, I have great difficulty taking a step back and evaluating how things went overall. Instead, I have tended to focus on the way that single class period goes and taken that as the level of success the day attained. However, I have begun to reflect with a partner who is constantly asking how all class periods went in an attempt to get my focus away from the single class that may not have gone well and refocusing my reflection toward the bigger picture of how all of my classes went. This particular reflection partnership has helped me a great deal in including how all classes went rather than fixating on the one class that may not have gone well. The practice of reflecting with a partner is not one that I would have appealed to me without this class, and the readings and research in which we have participated.

Another element that has helped me a great deal is the lesson plan (KC's Lesson Plan) that we had to create and debrief with a partner. My work with Sara was difficult to get going because of our different schedules, but was very interesting and informative. The lesson I created, centered around solving systems of equations, has been very difficult in the past because although it has some real world applications, it is not the most intuitive types of problems to solve. The fact that I had Sara’s input, a teacher with relatively little experience in the world of math, was very interesting and helpful, especially the fact that she provided me with some suggestions and ideas that turned out to be very appropriate to the content being taught (even though this was definitely out of her comfort zone). The helpfulness was hopefully reciprocal as I provided feedback on her lesson based off of To Kill A Mockingbird, even though Language Arts is definitely outside of my comfort zone. This collaboration was also helpful in revealing how useful it can be to collaborate with those outside of my content area. I have found myself rarely in the position to make an obvious connection with teachers from the Humanities contents, but this collaboration allowed me to discover that there are possibilities to collaborate with other contents even when the opportunity is not obvious.

Finally, when we were required to research some of our own material concerning the traits of accomplished teaching, I was struck by the ways in which my peers and I approached this task. The article I found dealt with personalized learning environments and was very specific to my initial reflection desires. In the article, there were many informational topics, but the aspect that resonated with me most was the definition of educational equity presented by Hanover Research, “Educational equity is not simply about equal access and inputs, but ensuring that a student’s educational path, curriculum, instruction, and schedule be personalized to meet [the student’s] unique needs” (2012, p. 7). In ensuring that my students get the most they can out of their class, I need to be able to not only work toward individualizing their lessons, but may also need to take into account that they have other commitments that require them to miss classes and require other modes for them to gain access to the information provided in class. Another article I found interesting had a Language Arts focus, but was surprisingly informative to my practice. The article by Tobin (2008) titled, “Conundrums in the Differentiated Literacy Classroom”, helped to offer information about grouping and the benefits and potential pitfalls. One of the best tidbits of information I found from that article is that whatever the method for grouping, a focus on homogeneity versus heterogeneity for example, it is important to not let the groups get remain stagnate or else the practice loses its’ effectiveness (2008, p. 164). Since I am considering using grouping as a differentiation strategy, this struck me as very important moving forward. Further, the work we did at the beginning of the course and throughout with respect to the Danielson framework was important to shaping the way in which I approach the idea of differentiation. In Domain 1, Danielson outlines the requisite elements for an effective teacher, particularly with 1b and 1e. Knowing the student, their interests, skills, and needs, as well as providing appropriate grouping are all elements needed to differentiate successfully in today’s classroom (2013, p. 11, 23). For example, the Distinguished level of 1b offers elements that teachers should be cognizant of when designing lessons and utilizing strategies. These elements range from planning with a various level of follow up tasks so that students with low ability will experience success and learning as will the students who have shown or previously acquired a high level of ability to taking into account the various cultures in the room and participating in them to gain greater insight into the lives of students (2013, p. 13). This, along with many other articles and discussions, provide information that I will be taking with me moving forward in my planning for, and use of, various differentiation strategies.

Overall, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to take this class early on in my Master's program. The elements involved with this class have helped shape my thoughts moving forward with respect to what it means to become the type of teacher I hope to be. My synthesizing elements paper (Accomplished Teaching Paper) turned out to be something different than it would have been if I had been required to produce this at the beginning of the quarter mainly because of the aspect of reflection this class has emphasized. The number of resources I have been exposed to, as well as, the opinions and research provided by my peers and professors has provided me with a much clearer vision of the teacher leader I would like to become through the duration of this program. Moving forward, I hope to deepen my understanding, and use, of differentiation strategies so that I can better reach all of my students regardless of their skill level. I also want to continue building my skills as a teacher leader so that I can help my colleagues become better teachers, but also to become more comfortable working with teachers of various contents and experience from whom I can further learn and hone my practice.

Danielson, C. (2013). The framework for teaching: Evaluation instrument. Retrieved from: https://www.danielsongroup.org/download/?download=448

Hanover Research. (October 2012). Best Practices in Personalized Learning Environments. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from:https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwi9_ZWXu8PJAhVU_mMKHWxDDtcQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hanoverresearch.com%2Fmedia%2FBest-Practices-in-Personalized-Learning-Environments.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEydYQaMsjIIYiMSC2_VwjAfGK1Ow&sig2=Nb8qdMTqC5yBIOGNTS6XzA

Tobin, R. (Winter 2008). Conundrums in the differentiated literacy classroom. Reading Improvement, 45, 159-169. Retrieved from: http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=508023571&site=ehost-live

York-Barr, J., Sommers, W., Ghere, G., and Montie, J., (2006). Reflective practice to improve schools: An action guide for educators. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Initial Reflection for Accomplished Teaching

Something I really want to improve on is my ability to differentiate instruction.  I feel fairly comfortable working with students with varying levels of prerequisite knowledge, but being able to plan for and incorporate strategies to allow access to all students, regardless of their comfort with the material, is something I am very eager to improve. The reality of teaching in my school and content area (as I am sure in many other schools and content areas) is that many students come to my Algebra 1 class without having passed math the previous year, or maybe over several previous years.  This creates a massive disparity in the mathematical understanding of the students in my class.  Additionally, this necessitates me to be very good at differentiating instruction to the point where I need to have my tasks be accessible to students with little prerequisite knowledge to those who are fully prepared for success in Algebra 1.  Further developing and strengthening this ability is my present priority.