For a first year teacher, they always said it’s the hardest. It was a comment I consistently heard yet powered through my own education and was excited to become a teacher. Empowering the youth and give them the type of education I never had was something I was inspired to give students of all backgrounds. By this being said, I never once thought I would be a science only elementary teacher for my first year on my own. Science? Okay, I will take it. The reason behind accepting my first teaching job as a science only teacher is because the elementary school is the best in Oakland, California. A 10 out of 10 school, the opportunity was too good not accept. So that’s what I did, I accepted a job as a science only teacher. By accepting this position, the school was piloting for the entire BYOD program at my site. My principal really wanted me to get involved since most of the current staff are reluctant to new technologies in the classroom.
About the community and school, the neighborhood in which my school lays on is in the North Oakland Hills, this part of town particularly borders align with Berkeley, California and for political reasons, this school happens to have a very large parent community. The PTA has a very large mass sum for extra enrichment teacher salaries. Also, the expectation of this school is very high. This is why we were able to start a BYOD program to start off for the district of OUSD. Another expectation of this elementary school is that our students test very high academically. These students are academic performers and the expectation is there from pre k to eighth grade. I’m still trying to figure out if any teacher at this school was such a promoter for better learning, but it definitely started at home for these kids. They come from affluent backgrounds and many houses in the mountains, beaches, foreign countries and etc. However, the beginning of the BYOD program, the parents were very unsupportive. This very much surprised me coming into my first year, why were they making such a big deal over better educational devices and having your child become tech savvy? Yeah, the answer wasn’t apparent until much later into my first year, but I will get back to that later.
I came into the school with wanting to making science fun and worth while, because in my early 90’s elementary years, I felt like I got some sort of hands-on science experiment, but nothing like what my students have the opportunity and time to do as 4th and 5th graders. Not only was I required to teach the California State Science Standards, but also introduce my teaching practices to fulfill the Next Generation Science Standards, but also teach these students how to use a device, and how to be responsible for their own property of a device. This goes all the way back on how to carry their devices from classroom to classroom. Also a lecture I remember having with my students was “How to not run with a device in their hand” or “its not safe to rough play in line with your buddies while having a device in their hand.” Yes, these were lengthy conversations and I’m sure my students got tired of listening to me lecture then scaffold the proper behavior in a visual theater.
One major need for these students was their behaviors along with devices. As individuals, my students were very good about doing independent work; write a paper. But with the common core standards, children sitting at a desk alone doing work silently alone is not the common core’s forte of preference, nor was it mine. Especially with science, this was a more social and engaging subject matter, yet devices were strongly encouraged to belong in my classroom and be apart of my classroom culture. However, the students had a hard time working together in collaboration, communicating, and resolving conflicts when a device was being used for small group work. I found this very interesting. Again, these students test scores are absolutely off the charts, yet their behaviors as a whole group was a completely new story. They are having a hard time working together and sharing ideas with each other and most importantly, give credit to themselves for successful ideas.
I mentioned before about how I have a classroom culture, a belief in my classroom’s culture is to be teachers, learners, entrepreneurs, and most importantly innovators. This is a whole new way to learn (for my students) and to teach (for myself and colleagues). This new fierce and positive way of learning is getting acknowledged globally, yet my school community is very resistant. How can I change or influence this behavior? That is what I want to look for, how can I bring this BYOD opportunity to flourish into an amazing new way of learning with an innovating perspective for students, teachers, parents and administrators.
Formally in the past, our education system is charged with an essentially “conserving” task which in the past has been preserving and transferring our knowledge to the next generation. This was through memorizing facts, test, test test, as well as teach to the test. This has caused a gap somewhere between the United States and other countries who long ago thought this process was not benefitting their culture of learning. So in regards to that idea, countries like Finland, China, Singapore and Japan have all changed their ways and that is fine. Change is good, especially if that means to improve our future generations. Knowledge for that matter is essential in order to innovate. Another problem with the traditional teaching model from before was one cannot nor be expected to cover all of the academic content in a given area. The more a teacher tries to do this the more the curriculum becomes a kind of forced march through the material. Teachers were not able to dig deep into the content and let students struggle with ideas themselves. Answers were just somehow given to students, and the students were expected to memorize these facts and move onto a grade level. I felt this crazy system not work for me when I went to college. So, I can personally vow that the educational system from the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s failed me. In no way do I blame my teachers for any of this.
This is why I am so passionate about creating innovative learners in my classroom culture. I want to see these students struggle, yet see the amazing learning going on in my students’ heads and hearts. This approach will give students ownership of their own learning happening. My students also have the support from their parents, which is a new thing. As an educator, I have only worked in communities where students are completely independent from their parents support in academics. This then reflects the attitude of my students. The parents have a hard time accepting their child can participate in their own learning. This is something that my students didn’t come into school in kindergarten to understand or master. The students still need to be taught how to be apart of the classroom culture and adding into our culture how to behave and be apart of a collaborative group with a device involved or a lack of a device.
About the community and school, the neighborhood in which my school lays on is in the North Oakland Hills, this part of town particularly borders align with Berkeley, California and for political reasons, this school happens to have a very large parent community. The PTA has a very large mass sum for extra enrichment teacher salaries. Also, the expectation of this school is very high. This is why we were able to start a BYOD program to start off for the district of OUSD. Another expectation of this elementary school is that our students test very high academically. These students are academic performers and the expectation is there from pre k to eighth grade. I’m still trying to figure out if any teacher at this school was such a promoter for better learning, but it definitely started at home for these kids. They come from affluent backgrounds and many houses in the mountains, beaches, foreign countries and etc. However, the beginning of the BYOD program, the parents were very unsupportive. This very much surprised me coming into my first year, why were they making such a big deal over better educational devices and having your child become tech savvy? Yeah, the answer wasn’t apparent until much later into my first year, but I will get back to that later.
I came into the school with wanting to making science fun and worth while, because in my early 90’s elementary years, I felt like I got some sort of hands-on science experiment, but nothing like what my students have the opportunity and time to do as 4th and 5th graders. Not only was I required to teach the California State Science Standards, but also introduce my teaching practices to fulfill the Next Generation Science Standards, but also teach these students how to use a device, and how to be responsible for their own property of a device. This goes all the way back on how to carry their devices from classroom to classroom. Also a lecture I remember having with my students was “How to not run with a device in their hand” or “its not safe to rough play in line with your buddies while having a device in their hand.” Yes, these were lengthy conversations and I’m sure my students got tired of listening to me lecture then scaffold the proper behavior in a visual theater.
One major need for these students was their behaviors along with devices. As individuals, my students were very good about doing independent work; write a paper. But with the common core standards, children sitting at a desk alone doing work silently alone is not the common core’s forte of preference, nor was it mine. Especially with science, this was a more social and engaging subject matter, yet devices were strongly encouraged to belong in my classroom and be apart of my classroom culture. However, the students had a hard time working together in collaboration, communicating, and resolving conflicts when a device was being used for small group work. I found this very interesting. Again, these students test scores are absolutely off the charts, yet their behaviors as a whole group was a completely new story. They are having a hard time working together and sharing ideas with each other and most importantly, give credit to themselves for successful ideas.
I mentioned before about how I have a classroom culture, a belief in my classroom’s culture is to be teachers, learners, entrepreneurs, and most importantly innovators. This is a whole new way to learn (for my students) and to teach (for myself and colleagues). This new fierce and positive way of learning is getting acknowledged globally, yet my school community is very resistant. How can I change or influence this behavior? That is what I want to look for, how can I bring this BYOD opportunity to flourish into an amazing new way of learning with an innovating perspective for students, teachers, parents and administrators.
Formally in the past, our education system is charged with an essentially “conserving” task which in the past has been preserving and transferring our knowledge to the next generation. This was through memorizing facts, test, test test, as well as teach to the test. This has caused a gap somewhere between the United States and other countries who long ago thought this process was not benefitting their culture of learning. So in regards to that idea, countries like Finland, China, Singapore and Japan have all changed their ways and that is fine. Change is good, especially if that means to improve our future generations. Knowledge for that matter is essential in order to innovate. Another problem with the traditional teaching model from before was one cannot nor be expected to cover all of the academic content in a given area. The more a teacher tries to do this the more the curriculum becomes a kind of forced march through the material. Teachers were not able to dig deep into the content and let students struggle with ideas themselves. Answers were just somehow given to students, and the students were expected to memorize these facts and move onto a grade level. I felt this crazy system not work for me when I went to college. So, I can personally vow that the educational system from the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s failed me. In no way do I blame my teachers for any of this.
This is why I am so passionate about creating innovative learners in my classroom culture. I want to see these students struggle, yet see the amazing learning going on in my students’ heads and hearts. This approach will give students ownership of their own learning happening. My students also have the support from their parents, which is a new thing. As an educator, I have only worked in communities where students are completely independent from their parents support in academics. This then reflects the attitude of my students. The parents have a hard time accepting their child can participate in their own learning. This is something that my students didn’t come into school in kindergarten to understand or master. The students still need to be taught how to be apart of the classroom culture and adding into our culture how to behave and be apart of a collaborative group with a device involved or a lack of a device.