Response to "Practice/People"

If your teacher's classroom is looking like this one, there's a definite problem, right? Right. The students are obviously not engaged. Learning is absent from this environment... except for that one girl in the corner, but even she's about to join the dream team.

As Principal Brian Harrison discusses in his article entitled "Practice/People," it's difficult to keep a teacher's personality separate from their actual efficacy as a teacher. The scene to the left gives us the idea of an ineffective teacher immediately, doesn't it? It makes us think that the educator of this classroom really needs some serious help.

I don't believe in that cliché, "Anyone can teach." I tend to think that some are either too hot-headed or get too easily frustrated if the learner doesn't get it right away. Others, however, and hopefully this is the majority of those in our profession, have the personality traits needed to become excellent educators.

Now, I do believe that those educators suited to be great ones can take some advice from the aforementioned article. The practice and the person have nothing to do with one another. Constructive criticism is a part of this ball game and it is imperative that teachers receive criticism of their practice... regardless of their personality.

How is it helpful to observe that a teacher has a great rapport with their students? Granted, I appreciate that particular acknowledgement because, honestly, at times that's all I've got going for me that helps me connect to the students so they listen to what I've got to say. Organization is my greatest fault! If an administrator doesn't call me on it or do something to help me improve it, that administrator is not doing her job to help me improve my craft.

I am an extremely nice person. I am a people person who gets along with virtually everybody. It's a gift. I'm not, however, a perfect teacher. I have faults that I tirelessly aim to improve. If an administrator isn't aiding me in doing so, we need to work on more than just my craft.

Superheros, Superegos, Student Discipline, and Great Power

Undoubtedly, we've heard that everpresent phrase time and time again.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

It's true... With great power does come great responsibility. When it comes to student discipline, I believe that power gets narrowed down to four or five simple responsibilities, two of which are the following: the responsibility to use that power to help others learn from your mistakes as well as the responsibility to use that power to help others learn from their own.

I'm not sure if I would have made the same decision Principal Delp made in his article about his verbal altercation with another student. I agree that he lost his head a bit and perhaps an apology was in order, but to "end the cycle of poor decisions" by giving letting up on the consequences of this child's actions? I disagree with that decision.

Yes, we are human. We all make mistakes that we should own up to and demonstrate humility when it is called for. Consequences, however, are consequences.

Now, perhaps this child does have extenuating circumstances that aren't mentioned in Mr. Delp's article, but if that is not the case, then I believe he should have received the consequences that were called for. It's not okay to exercise defiance to someone who is simply trying to hear both sides of the story. If Principal Delp were Officer Delp, and the student punched him simply because he was "having a bad morning," would Officer Delp let him off easy? I seriously doubt it.

What is our responsibility here? The more I think about it, I would have apologized for my loss of control, but the fact of the matter would still stand that the student was excessively disrespectful and defiant when approached in a very civilized manner. In my mind, it is our responsibility as educators to teach students the importance of consequences for their actions.

Sorry, Mr. Delp. I understand your reasons for your actions, but did that student?

Reflection

I have learned so much about technology and Web 2.0 in the past few months that I believe my mind is literally overloaded!

I had heard the term "Web 2.0" before taking my technology course, and I consider myself to be fairly tech-savvy, but I find that I have only skimmed the surface of the virtual world in terms of what it can do for the education sector. I have so much more to learn (and, eventually, teach)!

Technology is continually evolving. The question of how we, as educational leaders, can best keep up with its exponential growth and harness its positive aspects while exposing and rejecting its negatives is one that requires much more deliberation among colleagues.

The power of optimal networking seems to be the central means of conquering this grandiose inquiry. It is not because of one single innovative mind that we have reached such levels of interactivity in "the cloud." We, as a human race, have only made such achievements due to relentless collaboration. It is with this same level of ambition and tenacity that we, as teachers, must find a way to educate our students on how to pick and choose among such a variety of selections while more emerge every day.

Not only are there a plethora of Web 2.0 choices, but once we have adopted those tools, the fun truly begins in attempting to guide our students into synthesizing them in order to communicate an idea.

Furthermore, what happens when, as an educational leader, you come across teachers who are reluctant to get down and dirty with this new technology? What is the best approach to educate the educators so we can reach the students who are already using the technology... but not to its fullest potential?

I am still wrestling with these questions... all of them and more. That's the first step to answering any question though, isn't it? I am excited. I have been charged to help our up-and-coming citizens be civically engaged in a more and more digitally enhanced world. I don't take this responsibility lightly because technology is not going away. It's only becoming more and more integrated into our society and our students (at least my students) have a limited knowledge, let alone proficiency, regarding these tools that are available for free, and absolute game-changers. I've already begun integrating Prezi and ToonDoo into project and presentation options for my kids. It is only right that they see what is becoming possible. Personally, I can't wait to see how they manipulate these tools to their own likings!

In conclusion, it's time for me to throw my ideas out there and see what happens. Thanks to my education, I feel equipped to get out there and learn about as much as I can while collaborating with whos and whats that are already out there to create something new as well! See you in the Cloud!

Music and Language: Two Peas in a Pod!

I just read a phenomenal article from the Anglistic International Journal of English Studies that explores the strong relationship between music and language learning. This article completely pinpoints my innate understanding of the connection between two of my strongest passions and it has brought a bit of insight as to why I feel that using music to teach ESL is a complete

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So, Fonseca-Mora and friends start out by comparing and contrasting the aspects of language to those of music and they narrow it down fairly well:

Now, we start moving into the deep stuff: SPEECH MELODIES. Speech melodies play a very specific role in language acquisition. As the authors discuss in the paper, it's important not only to understand what is being said, but to learn how to say it yourself. This happens completely naturally during L1 (native language) acquisition. For example, a newborn baby does respond to rhythms and pitches to which she was exposed prenatally, namely, her mother's voice.

Its principles, however, can aid students in the midst of L2 (second language) learning as well! Musical activities can aid L2 learners by helping to develop auditory perception, metacognitive knowledge, and phonological memory (through repetition).

In fact, this research shows that singing and almost ANY musical performance inherently integrates the left and right hemispheres of the brain, thereby incorporating WHOLE-BRAIN function and cooperation. There aren't many activities that produce such rich use of our whole brain.

You see, the authors explain that while the left brain controls speech perception, production, prosody, rhythm and singing, the right brain is in charge of pitch and tonality in singing.

Now, according to the signs of a decently effective lesson (when teaching any subject matter, really)

Music inherently invokes the engagement of all four language skills: listening, reading (input), speaking, and writing (output). For example, as a student listens to a song and reads the lyrics, he can sing along and perhaps, eventually, modify the lyrics. Furthermore, if you really choose the right materials, students will inevitably learn through the "song-stuck-in-my-head" phenomenon! You gotta love that!

The effects of singing on an L2 learner is certainly worth further exploration. It provides a more motivational way of practicing pronunciation and articulation. In fact, according to the authors, 

"songs exaggerate the stress and duration of the phonetic elements,"

This inherent exaggeration, in turn, helps the learner in acquiring and memorizing L2 pronunciation skills.

Countless data show that the overwhelming majority of L2 learners enjoy the integration of singing and music to aid in the learning of a second language and there is a growing breadth of knowledge, as this article demonstrates, linking the two disciplines together into a partnership that is mutually beneficial. Music inherently affects mood and well-being while it can be used as a teaching tool not only for language, but for many other educational disciplines as well (especially those that require substantial amounts of rote memorization).


Time to explore and exploit, I say!