Educational TPA Guidelines

Ok so I wasn’t in class last Wednesday and I do not have the “handout” that we should all be writing on. Instead I googled Ed TPA guidelines and looked at websites to get an idea of what we would be talking about in class on Monday. I have been reading things from the website: http://edtpa.aacte.org/ mostly, although I have looked at several teachers’ blog’s and other opinionated websites as well.

The TPA has a lot more support behind it than I thought. I, for some reason, assumed that Washington was one of only a few states that used this method of evaluation for teacher candidates, but I can see that the majority of states have adopted the TPA guidelines as terms of awarding teaching certificates. There does seem to be a lot of positive information about why the process is what it is and how it will ensure a positive influence on the educational structure of our school system.

It also just feels like a lot of propaganda on this edtpa.aacte.org website. Since this system has only been nationally used since 2012 all of the supporting data seems to have been collected in field tests performed in the 2011/12 school term. The field test data was evaluated, the program “finely tuned”, and subsequently declared fully operational in September of 2013. All of this data is very recent. We do not know if, long term, this system will lend to a positive change in the educational system. I think we are just waiting to see what happens.

The statistics given are a bit worrying. The nations teaching force is younger than ever. At least fifteen percent of current teachers in America have less than three years of experience with the number of new teachers graduating from training programs rising each year. Our nation seems to recognize the problematic system we use for education, and as a nation we have made education a priority for our people. I want to be a teacher so that I can be a part of positive change in education because I feel that our system is failing our students. I think a lot of other teacher candidates feel the same way. So the TPA is our answer to ensuring that teachers are ready and able to do the job. Is it the BEST way to determine? Probably not, but if time can teach us, and we are willing to change when given the new information that time provides, then this could be quite good.

I Read it, But I Don't Get it

This book is great. I think it contains a lot of really useful stuff!

I think that for some students, not all but some, we do need to redefine reading. I remember doing book reports in sixth and even seventh grade and realizing that a LOT of my friends did not even attempt to read a book. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just pick an interesting book and read it, but some of those kids were proud to have never actually read a real book and it never occurred to them to try. Some students just don’t see the point in reading. If you don’t read for fun then you probably don’t read well. The more you read the faster you get, the more you understand, the less time you actually spend doing it. So if you never read you might be pretty slow, often lost, and feel like it is a waste of your time.

If we do share real reasons for our students to read and help them understand how important it is, then the more they might be willing to try. Sometimes I feel like teachers are trained to keep information away from students. It’s like we are trying to trick them into learning because we assume that they won’t want to do it if we are honest. For the rest of their lives they will need to find information. It is true. If there is something you need to know you may not have an authority on the subject to ask, and you will have to find the information. We keep our information in written words, at least for now. Even using google to find things requires me to think about my word choice in order to find exactly what I need. Google sometimes comes up with a video link that fits my needs, but more often than not I have to read some article, blog, document, or book entry to figure out the truth about what I want to know.

When my son was learning to read we found out he is dyslexic. It was really hard for him and he got frustrated so easily. I remember telling him, when he refused to continue our phonetic lesson, that once he learned how to read it was like getting keys to the world, and no one would ever be able to lie to him again. He would have access to all the information in the adult world, and learning to read gave him the freedom to know anything and everything he wanted without anyone censoring it. I think if all of our students understood this truth we wouldn’t have to try so hard to make them read.

I didn’t have time to really read this book as closely and carefully as I would like. It is definitely one that I will keep and check back on for ideas, inspiration, and activities when I am a teacher. All of the tools seem easy, practical, and most of all they just make sense!

Social Justice Independent research article

  For this week’s article on social justice in the classroom I chose “Teaching Social Justice through Young Adult Literature” by Jacqueline N Glasgow. I found the article in a search through the EWU library using the JSTOR search resource. This article is not very long, or in depth, but describes a method of teaching social justice in the classroom that the author instituted in her own class.

  The author feels that it is a teacher’s job to create, for students, a democratic and critical space that fosters meaningful and transformative learning. By allowing her classroom to become such a space the educator expects her students to explore ideas, topics, and viewpoints that not only reinforce but challenge their own. Using young adult literature as a catalyst for discussion and critical exploration the teacher is hoping to prepare her students to become citizens sophisticated in the understanding of diversity and group interaction. Through this kind of group interaction focusing on social justice the education system can better prepare students to function in the world with the sensitivity of group diversity.

  I like the way this article goes about saying that reading and discussing young adult literature can help each student to understand and value what it means to be a young adult. Through the understanding of what it means, or what it feels like, to be a young adult each student becomes aware of the diversity of not only the characters in the book, but the students in their own classroom and the characters in their own lives.

  The lessons discussed are all about bringing the diversity and uniqueness of a culture represented in a book and relating it to the world the students live in. This is done both on a micro level of individual and class dynamics and on a macro level of wider cultural and societal organization. Every group is diverse. Every group has opinions and feelings that may be different from our own. Learning to accept and understand the differences within a small class group can extend to the understanding of larger political, ethnic, cultural, or religious groups that exist in our society.

  The article offers book ideas and corresponding topics to explore critically in the classroom.

Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture

  Again this is really interesting stuff and I am glad we are talking about it. Personally I am moved by the critical pedagogy concepts and I think it looks like a really super good way to teach. Then again I can see how hard it will be to incorporate critical teaching into all of my lessons.

  I think this study is very useful. It seems to present the information in a mostly impartial way and acknowledges the bias toward critical pedagogy right from the start. That being said the examples given of actual classroom lessons and interactions seem very useful.

  In college I have had a few experiences with inclusion of pop culture into the curriculum. In English 201 we listened to, read the lyrics for, and analyzed a popular band’s album in much the same way we would a book. I felt like the class really responded to this kind of different approach to interpreting literature so the discussions were livelier and more students participated. I have also had experiences where hip hop music was analyzed like poetry and felt similarly that my classmates were more interested and engaged than when we read Keats. If this works well in college then why not high school?

  I think I identify with the statement on page 190, “We sought to encourage a critical dialogue whereby our students would understand that they possessed the individual and collective ability to achieve even within a structure that can be labeled as oppressive.” So the goal isn’t to recognize the oppression, but to recognize that it does not limit them. I like this. Especially in relation to the movie Stand and Deliver which my educational psychology class viewed as well. It is an inspirational movie and the teacher is a hero! But at the end of that film I just kept thinking, “What good does calculus do those kids after the class ends?”

Critical Pedagogy

            When I took Critical Methodologies (Engl 273) at Eastern it was undoubtedly the most difficult class I have ever taken. It has also undoubtedly been the most useful class that I have ever taken. I guess it was so hard for me because the theories we were working with are incredibly hard to pin down into straight lines and perfect shapes. Understanding what hegemony means is not the exact science that I want it to be and I have never gotten to a point of knowledge where I could say, “Okay I get it now; this is the hegemony of the society, and this is the way it works.” It just isn’t something I can quite wrap my head around and while that provokes a lot of thoughts and introspection about who I am in this hegemony, it doesn’t really help me understand the texts I was reading. And I don’t know if it can help me understand educational theory either. But I am trying.

            This reading is really interesting and I am embarrassed to say that I could not dedicate enough time to reading it for me to feel like I have fully grasped it. I feel like it is a reference material that I can come back to again and again to help strengthen my understanding of many things, including education. But it is also a great reference for other pursuits as well. When I look at the world we live in, the society we believe in, and the future we are working toward it is helpful to understand just how the human systems work. When we read literature we might examine how the imaginary world works on the page and discover what makes the characters tick. But in the end the whole point is to compare the made up world with our real world and see what this work of literature can teach us about ourselves, and our “human nature”.

            These pedagogical perspectives will help us to reveal how our classrooms work, how our schools work, and in a greater sense how our society works. Education is how we build a better world. So what are we building it into? Why do we teach the way we do? And perhaps more importantly: How can we teach our students into a better world?