Thursday, February 26, 2009

Response to Blooming Questions Exercise

1. The "tuning" of another group's questions at first seemed difficult because I was concerned about the possibility of compromising the integrity of the group's original intention. These people felt a need to express something intensely personal relating to the reading using the words they chose, therefore I felt that changing their words could somehow alter their original purpose and did not want that to happen. However, once we began discussing the group's original questions we clearly identified what we believed the original purpose of question was as well as what we thought the author's of the original question intended to express. Once we arrived at this understanding I felt more comfortable revising the work of the original group and believe we actually enhanced the group's original vision using the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

2. Receiving the other group's tuning of our question was quite easy because we as a group were happy to receive constructive criticism and feedback to our original vision. We as educators are used to interpreting the suggestions of colleagues, administrators, and other members of our school communities in order to enhance our professional development. However, I could understand that this could be a harrowing task for groups of people who don't like to receive constructive criticism. Recent studies through the Art of Living Foundation have shown that people are more likely to remember negative feedback rather than complimentary comments. An example is if we were to meet in any given professional situation and I gave you five compliments about your teaching methods and pointed out one area of concern, you would immediately lock onto the negative feedback and disregard the five complimentary comments altogether.

3. I think it would have been more difficult to tune our own questions as a group rather than tuning another group's question because we tend to personalize things and are more resistant to changing our own ideas than others. Tuning another group's question allows us to step outside our own perspective and try to understand that of someone else. Once we established this type of learning environment, the group was able to build upon the original vision by adding what we found most important and relevant.

4. This exercise reinforces my belief that we as educational leaders must also accept that lower level or basic skills should be cultivated as well. I find that administrators are focusing specifically upon teachers implementing the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy into each lesson, while sacrificing or not appreciating the value of developing the basic foundation of the learning experience which is pivotal for a successful exchange of knowledge between the content and our students. Today's students have difficulty with the most basic grammar skills such as spelling and conjugating verbs, yet can create a well-documented thesis statement and provide factual support for it in each body paragraph of an essay. Yet if we were to remove the spelling and grammar tools from Microsoft Word, our students would be reduced to an elementary school level with the most basic skills. This is something that needs to be reevaluated among educational leaders especially since we must understand that not all students learn the same way and our monolithic standardized system of education is failing.

5. The implications of this excercise for school administrators is it provides a wonderful example of a successful technique that should be used in professional development workshops because it engages colleagues in the critical thinking process associated with the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, namely Evaluating and Creating. If we are asking professionals to enhance there teaching methods and participate in meaningful professional development, we as educational leaders must infuze a reflective component that engages colleagues to refine and critique our system of learning for the benefit of today's students. All too often teachers find professional development workshops cumbersome and do not implement the suggestions of the presenter, mostly because they are the victims of the same monolithic standardized practice of teaching that students in there classes must suffer through. However, when we engage teachers in a meaninful reflective and demonstrative process where they observe clear correlations between the workshop materials presented and exactly how they can be used in the classroom, it becomes most meaningful to individuals as well as whole groups of educators.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Response to Administrator Blog

My next adventure in blogging focused on blogs published by school principal's and other administrators. I was expecting to find a "brag" page of accomplishments and mission statements, but to my suprise that was not the case. Principal Dustin Swanson's blog entitled "Muddling About" posted his reflections on exciting events taking place in the school as well as scholarly articles about education that were commented on by fellow educators and administrators. Principal Scott Briitain's blog entitled "Ram Review" posted important information for faculty regarding meetings and deadlines, as well as interesting facts about his school. Principal Greg Carroll's blog simply named "Greg's Blog" offered reflections concerning videos he posted about incorporating technology into the classroom and the affects of technology on today's system of education.
I am pleased to see that administrators are actually using the technology they want faculty and students to incorporate into the classroom. Most of these administrators blogs had a variety of topics posted and I was suprised to see how many people actually responsed. I wonder if any of them were faculty members hoping to gain favor with them, but regardless it certainly offers a tremendous opportunity for professional development. Perhaps in the future Principals will be able to have faculty and staff view their blog rather than conducting long and monotonous meetings. I know many professional staff members who would jump at the opportunity to work for such an administrator.
Under the administrator blog's section the first one that I noticed was called "The Other 85%" sponsored by Capella University. This offered articles and opinions concering various college-related topics from online courses to the rising cost of tuition. Another blog entitled "Data and Technology" focused on maximizing student achievement data to bring about meaningful change in the learning process. One case study offered featured Adams County School District #14 which is currently attempting to implement a program that features a balanced scorecard of assessments for Financial, Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, and Customer/Student Achievement. Sample PDF and Word documents were available for download which helps someone like me who otherwise would have absolutely no idea what the article was talking about.
As a result of this blogging experience I can see that our system of education has embraced technology. Today's educational leaders must not only demonstrate knowledge of how to use technology but also to provide meaningful professional development opportunities in order to ensure they have a productive teaching staff. All too often administrators proclaim that technology is the future of education and insist teachers use it in their classrooms, but when push comes to shove we find out that neither the teacher or administrator really has the proper training to successfully utilize technology for the benefit of today's learners. I think we will find that most students will be able to develop the skills necessary for learning technology simply because they are used to using it than previous generations.

Response to Classroom Blog

I selected a blog entitled American Studies from the list of classroom blogs because that is the title of a course I currently teach. At first I wasn't sure what to expect but I was immediately linked to an amazingly interactive website for the Humanities sponsored by Hunterdon Central Regional High School. I was amazed at how detailed this blog was posting a study guide for the course, information about the final examination, upcoming quizzes and tests, as well as analysis papers and class presentations. Links to downloadable assignment descriptions were readily available and students are encouraged to provide feedback about course readings in the class blog.
After navigating through this blog I looked at the rest of the lists of blogs under the classroom blogs section and noticed that most of them were geared for elementary and middle school rather than high school. We currently utilize First Class software at my high school where students have access to a class calendar, homework bin, and blog. I have embraced this technology and post assignment due dates in the calendar, collect submitted homework assignments from the bin, and allow students to interact and post feedback about course topics in the blog for extra credit. I was pleased with myself for this and thought I was serving as a trailblazer for integrating technology into my classroom, until I looked at some of these class blogs!
Another blog entitled Get Lost attracted my attention for obvious sarcastic reasons ; < )
Navigating through this blog I was amazed to find middle school students posting travel information for various European countries they visited on a virtual tour for a class project. Intrepid classroom was posted by a 21 year old "perpetual student of the universe" who offers a wide variety of topics for discussion among educators and students. I can't imagine this kid having problems finding a job in education some day! Finally I noticed a blog offering an opportunity to learn basic music recording skills and to make your own music, entitled "Music Production Skills." I work for a commercial advertising agency called Omni Music Corporation recording original compositions to be sold for radio, television, and internet commercials all over the world. This blog offered various resources and links for teachers, upcoming events, and products available for purchase.

Response to Long Tail Article

Anderson sums up the consumerism system of business today with a series of examples beginning with Simpson’s Touching the Void and Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. This is exactly the kind of marketing ploy that companies are exploiting and using the logic of the phrase PT Barnum appropriately coined, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I recently upgraded my Itunes browser to include the “genius” sidebar and it continues to encourage me to purchase songs similar to the ones I have in my library. In fact musicians from the classic rock era have been systematically rereleasing older albums through carefully marketed “greatest hits” anthologies while not even recording a new hit single. In fact I know people who have purchased Beatles CD’s that apparently have new digitally enhanced sound for the same songs they have been listening to on vinyl, 8-track, cassette, and CD for the past forty years! The Bollywood example really shocked me because I participate in two very Indian-affiliated groups; The Art of Living Foundation and International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I thought Bollywood was an up and coming phenomenon especially with the latest craze for Slumdog Millionaire, where I was certain that countless well-educated Americans were going to claim to have in-depth knowledge of the social and political situation in contemporary India especially after viewing Deepa Mehta’s controversial film Water.
But one needs only to view the Super Bowl to understand commercialism and its negative effects. I work for a commercial advertising agency called Omni Music and provide original compositions as a side job. Yet I can’t imagine major companies like Pepsi and Budweiser spending millions of dollars for thirty seconds of air time while we are supposed to be in the midst of an economic crisis! The New York Yankees spend over five million dollars on two pitchers while teams like the Tampa Bay Rays make it to the World Series on a fraction of a payroll. It seems to me that American society is always looking for the “quick fix” rather than embracing the hard working values of previous generations. Among my best students no one wants to be a plumber or a carpenter anymore, they just want to have corporate jobs and make lots of money while sitting in an air conditioned office doing next to nothing. Laziness is running rampant in this country and with it comes the issue of obesity. Children used to enjoy a healthy snack after school and then play outdoor games with friends while fostering positive social interactions. Today’s kids are coming home to minimal adult supervision, eating chips and cookies (after having pizza and French fries for lunch), watching exorbitant amounts of television, and communicating with peers online or over the telephone.
As I prepare to conclude this reflection I find myself searching for a response to how this article is relevant to school administration. I clearly see points I agree and disagree with, and as stated above found topics that resonates particularly strongly in terms of my personal knowledge and experience. I even found things that surprise me and make me want to learn more about. Perhaps as administrators we should take this article’s suggestions as a means of finding community support for the budget, or selling the faculty on a set of guidelines, or securing state and federal funds through grant writing opportunities. Successful administrators have to be able to play the marketing game utilized by corporate America. Education is not recession proof and we have to find new ways to maintain our inflated budgets. As we look to the future one can only venture a guess as to where our system of education will be in the long-term. If we are not serving as trendsetters I fear that we will lose our autonomy and allow federal and state regulations to control our every action because we won’t be able to afford any alternative.

Response to World Is Flat Article

Our current system of education is a business that is strongly being influenced by the current globalization process and technological updates. The days of instructors lecturing students from behind podiums and scribbling notes that read more like a physician’s prescription are over. In fact the perennial classroom that most educators have become accustomed to has become nearly obsolete by today’s standards. Most educators are making use of the Internet for more than a research tool and posting assignments online, creating interactive webquests, establishing class blogs for student feedback, and communicating with parents and students via email.
Administration must ensure proper training and professional development opportunities for today’s educators if they want them to be successful in the “Information Age.” No longer can educators rest on the laurels by having effective classroom management, incorporating multiple instructional strategies, and maintaining open communication with parents and administration. In order to prepare students for the challenges they will face from globalization, schools must now become state of the art facilities with broadband connectivity to the Internet, high performing laptop and desktop computers for staff and student access, multimedia centers with more than just outdated books, and a vast bevy of other assorted technological pursuits. In the past, the purpose of education was to prepare students for the “real world” by infusing the necessary job-related skills into their repertoire as learners. At one time cooperative learning was considered a pivotal component for establishing successful “team management” skills necessary for the workplace. Now it seems that while this is still useful, today’s students would best be served acquiring knowledge of the latest software trends due to the growth of outsourcing in our global economy.
Though this may be intimidating for some (my father refuses to even look at a computer screen and says, “I’m old and have earned the right to never have to use those annoying contraptions”) others embrace the convenience technology brings not only to the workplace but for our life at home as well. Attendance at mandatory production meetings can now be accomplished over the Internet, as colleagues can assess their growth and development while establishing new clients in foreign countries. At home, parents are making monthly payments while their kids are downloading music, participating in chat rooms, and checking their email, and of course watching clips from their favorite television programs online. However, we cannot continue to believe that this lifestyle is uniquely American as foreign competition has more than caught up and in many respects is serving as the trendsetters while incorporating technology. A great example from the article suggests, “Only 30 years ago, if you had a choice of being born a B student in Boston or a genius in Bangalore or Beijing, you probably would have chosen Boston, because a genius in Beijing or Bangalore could not really take advantage of his or her talent. They could not plug and play globally. Not anymore. Not when the world is flat, and anyone with smarts, access to Google and a cheap wireless laptop can join the innovation fray.”
Finally I agree with the article’s selection of the first three flatteners that essentially created a new platform for collaboration beginning with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, launch of Netscape in 1995, and Y2K scare of 2000. I believe that the emergence of Europe, Asia, and Latin American economies in the mid1990s has been the quintessential component for the flattening of our world because it demonstrates as the article claims, “there is nothing that guarantees that Americans or Western Europeans will continue leading the way. These new players are stepping onto the playing field legacy free, meaning that many of them were so far behind that they can leap right into the new technologies without having to worry about all the sunken costs of old systems.”

Response to Bloom's Taxonomy Article

Throughout the course of my ten years as an educator, administrators have dedicated numerous hours of professional development seminars to the study and implementation of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Lesson plans have been screened for evidence of critical and higher order thinking strategies. At first I wasn’t sure exactly how this applied to the learning process when I first began teaching, however as I grew in experience I came to understand what a pivotal ingredient Bloom’s taxonomy is. In my first graduate level course for a Masters Degree in Education we engaged Bloom’s Taxonomy by creating a sample lesson plan incorporating different levels of the taxonomy to represent higher-order thinking skills. For example, any average lesson can ask students to simply regurgitate information learned. A sample question would be to identify the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Yet by asking us to create a lesson and then incorporate the taxonomy within that lesson, we essentially moved up to higher levels on the taxonomy such as synthesis and evaluation. Being in collaborative groups was extremely useful because we were able to share our ideas and receive instant feedback to our suggestions.
Churches best sums up the significance of Bloom’s Taxonomy by stating, “You cannot understand a concept if you do not first remember it, similarly you can not apply knowledge and concepts if you do not understand them.” Originally published in the 1950s, Bloom’s Taxonomy begins with the more basic skills related to the learning process by first acquiring knowledge of the topic and gradually building upon that knowledge to participate in the evaluation process. Lorin Anderson updated Bloom’s Taxonomy in the 1990s in order to give educators a better understanding of the learning process and how it applies to individual students. My interpretation of Bloom’s Taxonomy suggests that students need to learn how to obtain knowledge in addition to simply storing facts that have been learned over time. Once a student has learned how to obtain knowledge he has actively participated in the learning process and in essence has served as his own teacher. I find this to serve as an apt comparison with the steps of the scientific method for problem solving, in which the student can propose a hypothesis based upon an initial investigation and gradually form a theory based upon repeated exposure to a topic. The long-term goal of incorporating Bloom’s Taxonomy to the learning process is that students will be able to properly apply these critical thinking methods to everyday situations in an attempt to somehow influence a particular aspect of our ever-changing global society. My current role as both teacher and student has taught me that some students will not find a particular topic very interesting and will require more teacher-directed motivation to ensure a successful exchange of knowledge has taken place. Therefore it is the responsibility of the educator to implement a selection of outside sources to bring a different perspective into a lesson. In my class I have used Internet sources, blogs, Newsweek magazine, Newspaper articles, and primary source documents to promote a more in-depth analysis of course materials rather than simply relying upon the textbook.
Yet despite our best intentions students continue to struggle with subjects they find too challenging. I have had similar experiences with mathematics. Once you feel defeated by the subject or that it is beyond your level of comprehension, it alters one’s ability to continue trying. I said to myself that I cannot have success in math, no matter how hard I try. I had several tutors and my parents even paid my teacher to tutor me straight from the book, but my mind was made up that I could not comprehend math. Now I have written off math, in pursuit of subjects I find stimulating and comprehensive. The point remains that even with the greatest attempt at learning, if a person is affected psychologically in a negative way, than all confidence is lost. During my freshman year of college I was diagnosed with a learning disability that affects my brain’s ability to perform computation and verb conjugation associated with the logical or left brain hemisphere. My only concern with Bloom’s Taxonomy is what modifications should be implemented for special education students? In today’s society with 504’s and IEP’s, school officials must be prepared to implement this for an inclusion as well as traditional classroom environment.