UTL+Working+Theory+of+Practice

Home

First draft with feedback: Final draft with comments and graded rubric:

Working Theory of Practice: My Philosophy on Urban Teaching Megan Saunders ED 441 Urban Teaching and Leadership Ed Brockenbrough May 6, 2010

 Taking on the responsibility of teaching in an urban classroom means taking on the responsibility for students who have low self-confidence, are underachieving, and who sometimes do not even show up for class. However, the problem and solution lies not within the student, but within the students’ community, environment, and school. Thus, as a teacher, there are certain practices and philosophies that I believe will guide the student to learn and succeed, taking into consideration the impoverished or violent community he or she may have to deal with. When students are not engaged, as a result they are not interested, do not want to learn, do not do well, and then most likely do not learn and do not graduate (National Research Council, 2004). They lack the support and motivation to help them along and realize their potential as well as realize the importance of receiving an education. I believe that to educate urban youth and enable them to succeed academically, teachers must retain high expectations, build strong caring and supportive relationships with them, and provide students with inquiry and engaging activities relevant to their lives as a means of motivation.

 I want to be unique in my teaching, having a great, positive effect on these students who sometimes do not see the point in coming to school, or who have given up before they even step in the classroom. The most important factor is getting them motivated to learn, and once they intrinsically have a reason and desire to work hard to understand, they can succeed. The first and, I believe, most important component to being an effective urban teacher is by getting to know your students. By that I mean that a majority of the time, urban class sizes are so big that teachers do not often create close relationships with their students. I get to know and understand my students, realize the difficulties and obstacles they have in their lives, understand their priorities, and make myself available to listen and attend to their needs. A teacher works with the best interest of the child, in mind and this can extend to outside the classroom. I am not just a classroom teacher, but a life educator. I believe in getting to know my students as best I can, providing opportunities to talk to them, getting involved in the community, meeting their families, and attending their extra-curricular events. It is necessary to create a place where they can feel like they matter, where their ideas are valued, where someone is interested in their lives, and where they feel supported and have a sense of belonging (Haberman, 2000; National Research Council, 2004). Much of that can come from the relationship that is formed between the teacher and student, even beginning with greeting each one of them at the door. I work hard to learn every single student’s name as quickly as possible so I can begin getting to know them as an individual. My students know that I care due to the fact I am constantly checking for understanding or whether or not they are feeling well on a personal level too. In my practice I have recognized that students enter class with different ideas and misconceptions, and using questioning as well as letting students collaborate and explore can serve as the best agent for change. In doing so I am always conscious to give them very helpful feedback so that they can consistently be working to improve their performance and understanding of certain concepts. Giving effective feedback and comments has shown to be a very useful tool in aiding students to build off their prior knowledge and to show that their work and thoughts mean a lot to me (Thompson, Ransdell & Rousseau, 2005). In addition, the respect and high expectations I have for them helps motivate them and get them to continue asking questions and attempting problems or investigations (Sims, 1992). Often times these students may not have the support in their lives that they need.

Consequently, there are times when even “the most engaging teaching practices may have little effect on a student who is homeless, has serious untreated health problems, or faces the chronic threat of violence” (National Research Council, 2004, p.10). Part of the solution has to come from understanding the environment and community in which the smaller school community is situated. By doing what I can to positive affect the student directly or indirectly and motivate him or her to learn, I am building motivation and confidence in that child that can help him or her in a multitude of experiences and capacities, not limited to the classroom. My purpose is that these students can succeed academically, however my goal is that they succeed socially, emotionally, physically and can them apply themselves to succeed academically with the confidence and skills they have acquired along the way. In my practice I make myself available before and after school, support students, and do my best to give them opportunities to succeed, which leads to my next theory.

Students should be given a sense of responsibility, making them feel as though they are doing something valuable for their community, which thus gives school a more personal meaning (National Research Council, 2004, p.52). As a teacher I intend to promote involvement in the community, whether it is simply studying their surroundings, applying for grants to take field trips, or engaging in activities that can benefit their surrounding community and environment. As a science teacher there are plenty of opportunities for students to do research on the science of the community, such as on pollution or chemicals, which can benefit their community and allow students to feel that they made a difference. This gives the students ownership of their work, making them more motivated and giving them a sense of pride, meaning and value to their world, not just their class (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). In relating course work to their lives and community and making it relevant to the world around them, students are able to see the relevance to real life and connect what they are learning in school to different situations outside of school.

In my student teaching placements I provided opportunities for students to explore the pollution in their environment and allowed them to design and implement different environmentally sustainable ways to solve those issues by testing different windmill designs, constructing models of different eco-friendly houses to see which retained the most heat, and various other experiments. At my other placement, students were able to explore acidity levels of chemicals they chose that they were familiar with and use on a regular basis, through which they uncovered the concept of pH. In another assignment students explored the issue of acid rain as it pertains specifically to Rochester which has some of the most acidic rain in all of the United States, simulating lakes with acid, testing different substrata in those lakes, and collecting real rain water and measuring its pH with different technology and pH probes. I also worked with students as they collaborated during an expedition to design an animal shelter for animals on Lolly Pop Farm, studying with professional environmentalists to find a location for the building, and then using architecture, engineering and interior design skills to design the building. The students found these activities and projects so very interesting because they were making the connections to real-life and their community, and felt as though they were contributing to their community and making a difference. Making material meaningful and relevant to the students motivates them to want to learn it and therefore put in more effort into their work. All of the methods and techniques that I believe in to motivate students can be met by using inquiry as a tool for students to learn.

Inquiry involves students questioning the world around them, generating inquiries that they are giving the freedom to solve, thus creating invaluable ownership of ideas and solutions (Chiappetta & Koballa, 2009). It includes hands-on activities and collaboration with peers, allowing students to create a community of learning from which they can form a community of respect that can also lead to social constructivism of ideas (Peterson & Brietzke, 1994). Inquiry allows students to explore different concepts or ideas, in ways that are relevant to them, and guides the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). Sometimes people believe inquiry is difficult to keep up because of the amount of planning it takes to develop questions and innovative activities in preparation for every lesson. Opening a textbook an assigning a worksheet would be easier, however, detrimental to the students’ learning, restraining them from exploring ideas and developing critical skills that they can apply to countless situations in their future (Chiappetta & Koballa, 2009). It is also difficult because of testing requirements and the demand to be sure students are meeting each standard and practicing the cut and dry multiple choice questions they will see at the end of the year. However, my belief is that with some testing practice but even more “doing” and experience, they will learn the material even more thoroughly and with greater understanding, and that they will be likely to succeed on their exams anyway.

It is important to constantly use inquiry as opposed to giving students the answers, because it is always more powerful to have them do something on their own than simply tell them about it. My students engaged in inquiry in the previously mentioned projects with pollution and environmentally sustainable solutions, as well as in different in-class activities when they were using different technologies to predict movement of electrons using a van de Graaff generator. They made predictions of what would happen when students touched the van de Graaff generator, and explored different ideas to test the movement of electrons by creating shocks as they formed a human chain around the room and passed the shock from person to person. They then worked as a class to think critically about the processes that occurred and ask questions and give reasons for what happened. I will constantly use inquiry and challenge my students with questions, encouraging them to think deeper, because I believe it creates inquisitive, critical thinkers with the ability to apply understandings to the world. By providing them with chances to develop questions about things around them, that goes back to the idea of making learning relevant and applicable to their lives, creating the interest that is necessary to motivate them (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). By having a relationship with the students that shows I care, along with high expectations and using inquiry as a tool to get them involved in their community and display the relevance of education to their real lives, I will motivate students to learn. The reason for my theory of practice and way that I teach is because I believe that once they are motivated, that students can prove to themselves that they have the capacity to succeed and will want to keep striving to do better.

My teaching theory is strongly reflected in my practice because I strongly believe that having strong relationships with individual students, making material relevant by relating it to life or community issues, and using inquiry all help develop student interest and motivate them to learn and achieve. Every single student has the ability to learn and succeed, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, learning disability, socioeconomic status, and so forth. It is the teachers responsibility to put forth the effort to provide students with opportunities to excel and build off of their strengths, and as an educator, role-model, and a support system who truly cares about each student, that is what I have done and will continue to do in my teaching.

References

Brown, D.F. (2003). Urban teachers’ use of culturally responsive management strategies. Theory Into Practice, 42(4), 277-282. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Chiappetta, E.L. & Koballa, T.R. Jr. (2009). Science Instruction in the Middle and Secondary Schools. 7th Ed. New York: Allyn & Bacon. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Chinn, C.A. & Malhotra, B.A. (2002). Epistemologically authentic inquiry in schools: A theoretical framework for evaluating inquiry tasks. Wiley Periodicals. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Decker, D.M., Dona, D.P., & Christenson, S.L. (2006). Behaviorally at-risk African American students: The importance of student-teacher relationships for student outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 45(2007), 83-109. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Haberman, M. (2000). What makes a teacher education program relevant preparation for teaching diverse students in urban poverty schools? The Milwaukee Teacher Education Center Model, 1-8. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Love, A., Kruger, A.C. (2005). Teacher beliefs and student achievement in urban schools serving African American students. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(2), 87-98. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. (2004). Engaging schools: Fostering high school students’ motivation to learn. Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn. Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C: The National Academies Press. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Peterson, K.D., & Brietzke, R. (1994). NCREL monograph: Building collaborative cultures: Seeking ways to reshape urban schools. Urban Education Monograph Series, Wisonsin. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Sims, M.J. (1992). Inquiry and urban classrooms: A female African-American teacher in search of truth. Theory Into Practice, 31(4), 342-349. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Tal, T., Krajcik, J.S., & Blumenfeld, P.C. (2006). Urban schools’ teachers enacting project-based science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(7), 722-745. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Thompson, S., Ransdell, M., & Rousseau, C. (2005). Effective teachers in urban school settings: Linking teacher disposition and student performance on standardized tests. Journal of Authentic Learning, 2(1), 22-36.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">__APPENDIX__

//**Artifacts for building relationships with students**//  ARTIFACT 1 Student evaluations of my teaching: [|photo_(5).jpg] [|photo_(6).jpg]

ARTIFACT 2 Supervisors notes on my observed relationships with students: <span style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px;">

//**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Artifacts for inquiry and community exploration for relevance to life **//

ARTIFACT 1 Completed pH lab document: exploring the acidic levels of different common household chemicals, and experimenting with different indicators

ARTIFACT 2 Completed Acid Rain Lab Part II document: hands on activity exploring the acid rain issue in Rochester and measuring the pH of simulating lakes affected by acid rain and the effects of different buffers. Includes photos of students investigating.



ARTIFACT 3 Students exploring the movement of electrons with the Van de Graaff generator as they learned the evolution of the atomic model. Includes photo and worksheet document.



ARTIFACT 4 Photos of students during their exploration as environmentalists, determining the best place to build a shelter on Lolly Pop Farm. A movie I made about expeditionary learning is available at: [] ARTIFACT 5 Students working on their environmental sustainability investigations that they designed and implemented on their own before presenting their results.