Semester 2 goals (Spring 2012)

Having busy days and nights is what keeps me going.  My work is fun and diverse and some days I toggle between all of the different things too quickly to do my best job keeping track of what is essential.  So on the dawn of our second semester at school (my online course and PhD student second semesters already started, but better late than never) I am going to post some goals so I can remind myself of what is important every day. This is not exhaustive, of course-- just some things to focus on. Family is number one, and my students next; after that the order is less meaningful.



1) Family

• Don't look at my phone around my daughter unless it is looking at something with her
• Pack good lunches
• Appreciate my awesome husband

2) Being a Face-to-Face Teacher

• Be clear about expectations 
• Hold students accountable to the goals they or I set for them
• Give meaningful feedback about their work every cycle
• Be a caring but motivating teacher of second semester seniors

3) Being an online teacher

• See being a face-to face teacher and 
• Commit to meeting with each student for a half hour individual conference each week
• Be in touch with their families and home schools with good news at least every month

4) Being a Department Chair

• Update the department meeting agendas and dates for the semester prior to the first meeting 
• Support initiatives of individual teachers or sub departments by making connections with resources around school 
• Develop an annual report question that fosters discussion and thought around our curricular review
• Visit classrooms every cycle and write reflections to the teachers

5) Being a Summer School Director

• Find the best people to teach in the open positions and make all candidates feel good about the process of hiring
• Support new and wonderful staff as they transition into the school 
• Communicate clearly with other areas of the Academy and the school as the summer approaches
• Communicate well with families and students about their summer experience

6) Being a PhD student

• Complete the readings for the evening they are assigned (and at least gather the optional readings into Mendely, if not read them) 
• Keep my reading journal on this blog (search for the tag ETEC750D) 
• Continue connecting with scholars in my areas of interest
• Narrow down a dissertation topic (or range of possible questions) 
• Learn from my amazing classmates
• Submit one paper for publication or a conference

That's all, I guess.

(image from http://mikevial.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/plate-spinning.jpg)

A Learning Vacation

Left HNL today to spend a week outside Seattle on Bainbridge Island where I will be working with a great group of educators on preparing classes for this fall's launch of the Global Online Academy. 

We have the big challenge of working to design instruction that takes the best of what we do at our schools and translates that to an on-line environment.  I think that one of the greatest strengths of independent schools are the communities of learners that we cultivate, and the strong personal relationships that are forged which both encourage and facilitate enduring learning.  So how are we going to translate that into an on-line environment in which we may never meet our students face to face?  

Some of the answers to this major question will come from a commitment to engaging student voice and student creation in our courses.  There are many, many, excellent sources of information-- content delivery-- on the internet (Khan Academy, iTunes U, etc).  Where GOA has the potential to be unique, and truly innovative, is in fostering the relationships that allow for learning beyond the gates of our schools, in a truly global and on-line environment. 

I'm excited to see what the baby steps we will be taking tomorrow, as a group, to work on this project.  I know that we have just three (and a bit) days together, so we will have to go from baby steps to running pretty quickly.  I am going to spend the rest of my evening polishing the goals and outline of my course thanks to a great template provided by Ms. Darcy Iams. 

Teaching "Culture" in the Foreign Language Classroom

(from question #1 of my annual report this year)
Question #1:
Please look over the list of your departmental goals (above). Choosing from goals 1, 2 or 3:
2. understand and appreciate the cultures, people and societies of the language(s) they study.

• discuss one goal which in your experience is particularly challenging or hard to achieve, and what makes it so.

This goal, to foster an understanding and appreciation of the the cultures, peoples and societies of the the Spanish language is one that has always daunted me as a Spanish teacher.

I know that universal understanding and tolerance of all cultures (or even just Spanish speaking ones) is a big task for any Spanish class. I know and am confident in my ability to teach kids how to speak and write Spanish. But I find myself feeling like I don't have the background to teach about ALL of the people and cultures. I can talk for hours about the people of Spain, or Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but since I have not spent much time in other Spanish speaking countries, I feel like I can't do as good a job speaking about about the people of those places. But, of course that is just goofy-- because, of course, it is not supposed to be about ME.

One thing I did a few times, which I wish I had done more often was have a round table table homework assignment when we decided to look at a new country (as it came up in the textbook). The homework would be: Find out something interesting or noteworthy about [insert country name/region]. A couple of times I just gave the kids 3 minutes in class to look something up with their laptops. Then we would go around the room and everyone would share. Some kids came up with interesting things, but others just read some bullet points off wikipedia. The depth of their contribution was pretty much directly related to their internet searching literacy. The vast majority of the things that kids share are things that I had not known previously.

I can learn just as much as the students can about these people and places. And with the resources out there I need to work to increase my comfort level in exposing to them that I have so much to learn too. (I worked on this a great deal as a nervous Biology teacher, but for some reason it is harder for me in Spanish classes.)

I think that I missed some opportunities to do more with this in my Spanish 5 class. We had an ongoing collaborative project with a group of students in Malaga, Spain in which we all posted to a common blog. We could have done much more with this than we did but as it was we learned a lot about Spanish culture (as it is NOW-- which was cool).

So in conclusion, a willingness to create more student centered inquiry in language classes to teach culture is something I wish I had spent more time creating space for throughout this year. It seems that this may be a challenge across our department. We teach what we know, and we are reticent to allow space in our courses for students to explore things we don't know which for me anyway, are many.