Hindsight.

Looking back over this class, I have a lot to take to the classroom. I feel so much more prepared and encouraged by the peers I am living life with and by my professor who models the way teaching should be.

I have learned how to best implement appropriate technology into my teaching in order to make it more meaningful and powerful to the students I come in contact with. I learned about the SAMR model and each level that empowers the students to use critical thinking skills and how to best redefine their learning. Through the TPACK model, I was made aware of the 3 types of knowledge that a teacher needs to reinforce instruction and learning. Technology knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge are all needed to prepare a classroom for 21st century living.

Teaching concepts and generalizations have become second nature to me. Teaching terms such as these and performance tasks had never crossed my ears until this class. Learning a new way to approach teaching and assess learning both formatively and summatively has become easy, especially when comparing it to classy restaurants such as Fogo de Chao. For those who might not understand this comparison, let me explain it to you. Formative assessments occur when the chef in charge of making the meals tastes the meal to make sure it is ready. If the food is not ready, he adds flavor, spice, or whatever necessary to prepare it for the final test, that is serving it to the customer who ordered it. This final test is the summative assessment. Much in this way, students need to be formatively assessed as much as possible. This doesn't require a quiz every time, but a variety of ways that they can share their knowledge with you, and you as the teacher can track their learning.

Next on the list of great learning, was the in depth look at the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards. These standards are to show me what is expected of me as a professional teacher. This was one of the first times I actually looked deep into these standards and what I found was intriguing, challenging and encouraging. I am so excited to challenge myself to reach the accomplished level and to always keep learning as I keep teaching. To further understanding, deep thinking and love for teaching, I tip my hat off to this class and it's professor.

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

P.S. I am always drawn to this site, because it truly offers an amazing resource and inspiration to becoming a powerful, and purposeful teacher.

Also, This link brings you to a website highlighting some difficulties in teaching social studies, as well as encourages teacher to take advantage of teachable moments. Good luck out there!

An Inspiration.

This past Thursday, my social studies methods class had the opportunity of meeting a woman who is extremely knowledgeable in her field, down to earth, and incredibly empowering. Fay Gore has an amazing and long title as section chief for k-12 Social Studies at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. She is also the Character Education Coordinator for North Carolina. This woman has an incredible vision and brings together ideas and tools from schools all over the globe. She shared her recent interactions with educators in Dubai and she was very willing to share what is being done to enrich our students in the United States as well.

Most of her interests are in developing curriculum frameworks that promote hands-on, engaging social studies lessons and this was perfect to tie into our class. Many times, it is hard to fit in social studies with other common core and essential standards that demand our time, and even more difficult to make it actually relate to the child, but she was reassuring us that it is possible. And not only is it possible to fit these standards in, but it is vital to the growth of our students. 

Social studies has become a forgotten subject. After the "No Child Left Behind" policy, 44 percent of districts reported to have reduced time for social studies education. Reducing this time results in lack of vocabulary growth, lack of communication skills, and background knowledge. This all results in  lower literacy levels as well as an increased achievement gap. Rather than restate everything, I will refer you to this article. It directs you to a website packed with benefits of integrating social studies into the curriculum and the importance of doing it correctly.

All this to say, students of today are relying on us as educators to prepare them to be apart of a democratic society. People aren't born with knowledge on how the world works and the history to why things are the way they are. 

Through school, we are able to teach students that they have a voice. Through social studies, we are able to teach them that their voice has power. 

Be the change.

Much love,

Brittany Kertesz

P.S. In case you ever stumble upon this blog, thank you Fay Gore for inspiring us to think harder and deeper! You challenged us today and spoke truth to us about what will soon be expected of us and what our future students deserve. The fact that you took the time to speak to us lowly college students speaks volumes for your character! Thank you again.

North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards - NCPTS

In order to become an effective and meaningful teacher in the 21st century, teachers are given a list of 6 professional teaching standards to follow. These standards are in place in order to become a proficient or accomplished teacher in the classroom and best teach the students placed in our classroom. Under these 6 standards are subcategories of what is expected during each level of proficiency. These standards are as follows:

Teachers demonstrate leadership
Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students
Teachers know the content they teach
Teachers facilitate learning for their students
Teachers reflect on their practice
Teachers contribute to the academic success of their students

These standards are set in place to hold teachers accountable and challenge them. There is a level for each standard. The lowest level is emergent. Starting out student teaching, each teacher should be at this level. Upon practice in the classrooms and growth as a teacher, moving up in the levels is the next step. This step is called the developing candidate. One important item to stress when moving up in levels is that a developing teacher has covered all of developing candidate stipulations AND the emergent candidates requirements. This shows that this knowledge and growth is built upon each other and prior knowledge is still there. From here, the proficient candidate is the next goal. Once this is reached once a professional educator is successful in all areas of emergent candidate skills, developing, AND proficient skills. Rather than each of these fields being something entirely different, they are embellished and slightly more complicated to reach. This is the level student teachers must be at in order to receive licensure from the university. The top level is the accomplished teacher. This is where "big things happen" and one has finally landed a skip, hop, and a jump away from beginning student teaching.

After going through these standards more in depth, I am able to understand what is expected from me as a teacher and my fellow coworkers. It is intimidating to see them all lined up in this manner, but also incredibly helpful to have a set of guidelines and models to follow after.

Every time we are in class and our future is brought up, we tend to get uneasy and question what is actually expected of us. To answer these questions, I now know to direct others and myself to the NCPTS. This link provides the reader with the NCPTS and deeper explanations of each standard. Also this link is a breakdown of what tests we are required to take as well as what licensure entails. With these two resources I am better equipped to take my future into my own hands and be a responsible, growing student as I one day plan to be a responsible, effective teacher.

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

What about this Flipped Classroom?

During a few of our classes at the beginning of the semester, the term "flipped classroom" kept coming up and I had absolutely no clue to what they were talking about. I even researched a little of what it was and was still very confused by what it truly was. Now, after taking time to learn this model and teach it in the classroom with our peers, I understand what it is.

A flipped classroom is a model where a teacher records the lesson through video, posts it and has the students watch it at home. Then, when the whole class is back together the next day, they are able to work on the learned material and practice it in class.

This model allows for a more student-centered classroom, as well as allowing the students to have more control over their learning and studies. This type of teaching also allows parents to watch what their child is learning and participate if they so choose. It is a great way to get them involved and help them feel more connected to the classroom. It is a great way to offer kids more academic practice in the classroom, rather than be lost at home. Students can come prepared with questions from the previous night's learning and experience growth in class.

There are some cons to this teaching as well. This can only be done if the students have access to a computer. If there is no access, it immediately makes this model more difficult. There must also be a lot of preparation and trust involved in these lessons. If the students do not watch the lesson at home, they automatically fall behind in class.

Now that I have one experience to tie this to, I can make a slightly more educated opinion of this model classroom. I find it to be helpful in the event that I would like to work with my students on the learned material and expand their knowledge on the subject. But, in the case of preparedness, trust and access, I find it to be a little strange; both to the student and the teacher. I had the experience of watching a classmates video one night and by the next day, I had forgotten some of what was in the video. I found it difficult to be both the student and the teacher's roles in this situation.

But I am not going to leave it at that. Flipped classrooms have many benefits. I do like that the practice can be monitored in the classroom and that this doesn't load the students down with tons of homework. I like the progression towards technology and incorporating this into the classroom. For the future of my teaching career, I may use the flipped classroom model a few times, but it will not be my most used approach. I find it useful to know this model so that I may use it or appropriate lessons, but not all lessons should use this model.

Reference: http://www.teachthought.com/trends/10-pros-cons-flipped-classroom/


Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

Children's Literature

Today in class, we saw Dr. Parker effectively demonstrate how to teach social studies literacy from a book. He read to us from "Uncle Jed's Barbershop" by Margaree King Mitchell and showed us how to relate books to the 5 strands of social studies. In his demonstration, our professor showed us examples of relating the books to the reader and it's audience as well. This book was great to introduce certain moments in history such as the Great Depression and the Civil Rights' Movement. It also provides an interactive way to teach life lessons and character traits, such as kindness and self control, in the classroom. He emphasized the importance of text to self and making the connections between the book and the student. During this reading, he didn't simply read, but he taught science, math, social studies and language arts, simply using this one book.

"This is all too good to be true." That was my thought when he ended his teaching on this book. It seemed so effortless and simple, and even as a college student, I was very engaged in this story and what happened next in the each of these character's lives. I wanted everything to work out for Uncle Jed and I wanted to learn more about life back in the "good 'ole days."

Encompassing all strands of social studies and  other subject areas into one lesson is kind of like a game to me. Not only do books often provide more up-to-date content than even textbooks, but they also allow other students to "live" a life and experience empathy for the characters within the story. Our professor shared with us these slides that give tips and ideas as well as support to why children's literature is important in the classroom.

It was incredibly easy to find resources and books that fit in with social studies standards. This website lists books that would be beneficial to the classroom in teaching different subjects and concepts. This list shares ideas and a sentence or two summary of what the book is about. I definitely plan on using this list for my classroom and reading these books to develop empathy towards the past and inspiration towards learning and achieving goals for the future.

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

TPACK

Living in the "age of technology" has opened many new doors for the education of our students. Models such as SAMR and TPACK are two wonderful steps to becoming a technology integrated classroom and encouraging more class growth and discussion. Often times it can be difficult to keep up with the new and best technology, but these models provide ways to put this technology to the test and implement new strategies for teaching.

Last week I talked about the SAMR model, this week I will introduce a new model as well. TPACK stands for technology, pedagogical, and content knowledge. The TPACK framework includes all three of these forms of knowledge. This model is not performed correctly when only one or two of these knowledge bases. This means it is incorrect if one is only using pedagogy and technology or technology and content. The idea isn't just to get technology into the classroom, but instead to use it in an effective, educational manner. 

I found a great breakdown of what this model looks like on this website. It was helpful to watch a few more videos on this blog that showed how "messy" teaching is, but how to take control of it with the TPACK and SAMR model. The blog shows a few of the arguments that keeping up with technology is too difficult, but in the end shows it is far more useful and effective than going without them. 

There is a fundamental change in our relationship to knowledge. It used to be having the knowledge within us, then came the power of being able to look up all the answers in books, and now we can find this information by clicking a few buttons. This is one reason why simply a focus on content knowledge is no longer a reasonable way to approach the classroom. Using these two models to integrate technology and content into a classroom with knowledge of pedagogy and how a classroom runs is necessary in order to be an effective teacher. These two models show that teachers know the content they teach and that they are being respectful in who they are teaching (NCPTS 2, 3 & 6).

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

S.A.M.R. model

The S.A.M.R. model is one that is, in a way, measuring the amount of technology growth in the classroom. It is a 4 step process that can change the classroom and its' immersion in the technological world. These steps are:


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Substitution: technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change.

Augmentation: technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement.

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Modification: technology allows for significant task redesign.

Redefinition: technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


The first two levels are more for enhancement of the information taught and working on. Substitution is the beginning step with the lowest level of change. For example, rather than writing a paper with pen and paper, the student types the paper out on a computer. There is no functional change and the computer is used as a direct substitution for pen and paper. The next step is augmentation. The student should type the paper up and use some graphics to go along with what they are talking about. Also, they are able to use spell check and word count in order to track their writing.


The next two steps are for transformation of this learning material. The third level is one of the harder transitions. Most teachers don't usually make it to modification stage because it takes more planning and preparation. But for this stage, students could present their paper with an audio version of themselves, or another, reading their paper. In this, they can also provide the listener with a background soundtrack and a visual presentation to go along with their essay. The last stage is one of the most difficult to reach. Redefinition is the total creation of a new task. This includes functional improvement, meaning it also stretches the mind and allows for creativity to flow within the student. This challenges the child to improve the overall function of the task they are doing. This could mean the child creates a video and gets in contact with an important figure in their paper. For instance, if writing about the Holocaust, through means of communication nowadays, the student could get in contact with a survivor and interview them. This could be made into a documentary and research can be more extensive in visiting museums and getting a deeper understanding of how this event impacted the world and its inhabitants.


Upon further researching, this cite provides teaching of the S.A.M.R. model through examples. These are helpful in transforming all parts of the classroom, rather than just the essay writing part we find it easiest to focus on.


Much love,

Brittany Kertesz