There is no question that from the beginning of this course to the end, I was challenged to think about my approach to the education of children in ways that pushed beyond my comfort zone. The United States is a country that is undergoing significant demographic changes, and these changes will have impact every aspect of American life, including the education system. Educators who are prepared for the new reality will be in a better position to provide their students with the most inclusive and effective learning experience possible. This paper will reflect on the course looking at major concepts and learning strategies; in addition, the paper will discuss my next professional steps and how I plan to implement them.
Significant Concepts and Strategies
Be Flexible
As the country continues to struggle with COVID, educators have had to quickly redesign virtually every aspect of their instruction in order to meet the new challenges presented. To this end, a significant takeaway for me was the importance of remaining flexible and adapting to new circumstances while continuing to provide a high level of education for the students. Specific to COVID, educators have had to learn to maximize the value of their technology, alter their communication strategies, and reprogram their curriculum (Gandolfi, 2021). However, given that education is a dynamic field consistently facing new challenges, flexibility is an important skill beyond COVID. Everything from budget cuts to new laws can impact the way that teachers operate, and the best teachers will be able to maintain their flexibility in the face of challenges and overcome them.
Practice Cross Cultural Communication
A second major take-away for me was learning about cross cultural communication and how to apply it in the classroom in a way that promotes equity between students who speak English as a first versus second language, as well as students who come from other minority backgrounds. I focused much of my study on learning the basics of teaching, mastering subject material, and getting a better idea of education policy and how it can impact the individual teacher. This course helped me realize that it is crucial to take another step, and begin to comprehend how cross cultural communication can improve the learning experiences of minority students, thus helping them bridge the achievement gap with Caucasian students (Irvine, 2002). Admittedly, I believed in a “one style fits all” approach to communication prior to this course. Now, I recognize how important it is to integrate cross-cultural communication into the classroom to ensure the best educational experience for the most students.
Life-Long Learning and Professional Development
A third significant concept from this course was how professional development and life-long learning can help an educator stay ahead of the curve and continue to provide the best education to their students possible. As mentioned prior, I have been focused more on the building blocks and fundamental concepts of education in my education journey. However, this course showed me that a teacher who is willing to research, communicate with peers and professional organizations, and be open-minded to new concepts is a teacher that will inherently be better prepared to teach students (Borko et al, 2010). Focusing on professional development is, admittedly, the step that occurs once the teacher has been hired and begun to become competent in their new profession. However, it is never too early to begin planning a professional development strategy, and this course opened my eyes to that.
Evidence Based Practice: Involving Entire Family in Student’s Learning
A core lesson from this course, through both the topics as well as the resources that we accessed during the course of completing assignments, was the value in involving a student’s entire family, particularly their immediate caregivers, in their educational process. This practice works particularly well if the student speaks English as a second language, and would benefit from the collective efforts of their caregivers to help them succeed academically; in fact, research shows that this type of partnership benefits the student regardless of socioeconomic status or race (Lau et al, 2019). There are several basic approaches to building a partnership between the teacher and the family. First, as touched on prior, cross-cultural communication is essential when the teacher is working with minority families, particularly those who do not speak English as a first language. When the teacher shows a genuine respect for the family’s culture, the family is going to be much more likely to trust that teacher and listen to them (Newchurch, 2017). Bringing that type of communication and respect for the family’s diverse experiences into the partnership is a core building block of the teacher-family relationship.
In addition to practicing cross-cultural communication and respecting the family’s diverse experience, it is also essential for the teacher to be open and consistent with their communication practices. It is not enough for the teacher to try once (or even a few times) and then get bogged down in their work and let the relationship wither; instead, the teacher must be proactive in terms of communication with parents with everything from class expectations to ongoing assessments of the student’s progress (Newchurch, 2017). When the family sees that the teacher is not going to disappear or is merely putting in a cursory effort, that family will be more likely to continue to work with the teacher as partners in their child’s education.
A final strategy that teachers must use in order to establish a strong relationship with the student’s family and form a partnership in education is setting clear expectations and goals for the family, as well as asking how the teacher can best help that family succeed through their student. Kong (2019) concluded that one of the most significant barriers to a family providing effective support to their student is ignorance of what is expected of that student, as well as the short and long terms goals the teacher has for the class. Fortunately, this is a relatively simple problem for the teacher to overcome through the use of well-thought out benchmarks and goals, and the clear transmission of those benchmarks and goals to the family. By combining consistent and open cross cultural communication with clear benchmarks and goals, the educator will help form trusting and fruitful relationships with the parents and caregivers of their students.
The reason why I believe this strategy is effective for helping promote better learning in their students is simple: teachers only get a few hours per day with their students (often in large classes) while families tend to have frequent contact with their child throughout the week and on weekends. While, of course, this can vary on an individual basis the likelihood remains that families and caregivers will typically spend exponentially more time with the child than the teacher. As such, the influence of the family, their ability and willingness to provide support, and the family’s communication with the teacher regarding progress will often do much more for the student’s chances of success compared to the time they spend with their teacher in school (Haines et al, 2017). Given the intersection of common sense and scholarly evidence, I strongly believe in the value of forming mutually respectful relationships with my student’s families for the purposes of increasing that student’s chance for academic and personal success.
Professional Responsibilities: Next Steps
After completing the Professional Responsibilities Activity in Module 1, I felt a bit overwhelmed; after all, there is a huge amount of information in the Danielson Framework, and the sheer scope of professional responsibilities for teachers is a bit overwhelming. After completing the assignment and researching the topic more, the I felt much more confident with the next steps to be taken, and has pinpointed a select few steps that will become an immediate priority based on an honest self-evaluation of what areas are lacking. The first step for me is moving forward is focusing in 4b of the Danielson Framework, maintaining accurate records. This seems like a pretty basic step, but I recognized that I can be unorganized from time to time, allowing my enthusiasm and passion for the work to occasionally result in a lack of organization. To become a true professional, however, I recognized that I need to take a more systematic approach to record keeping, ensuring that all paperwork is completed on time, shared with appropriate entities, and then saved for future review if needed. By setting up an organized, consistent approach towards record keeping, I know that I will have taken a big step towards being a more professional educator.
A second step that I will prioritize moving forward is 4d on the Danielson Framework, participating in the professional community. This step has been challenging for me for two main reasons. First, I tend to be more of an introvert, and expanding beyond my small circle of trusted friends and family can be stressful. Next, I can (admittedly) react poorly to criticism, even if it is constructive. Fortunately, these flaws in my professional development are known to me, and can be worked on like any other skill. I can take simple steps like volunteering for afterschool projects or sports, contributing to the professional community through original research, and even socializing with her coworkers after school to build personal bonds. Taking these steps incrementally will help me expose myself more to my colleagues and the professional community, which will inevitably help generate new ideas that can be implemented in the classroom to help provide a better education for students.
Summary: Supporting Student Learning
In conclusion, this course has given me much to think about, particularly as it applies to what I need to learn and what I plan to implement in the classroom to support student learning. As it applies to learning, the answer is fairly simple: I needs to learn as much as I can in as many areas of education as possible at this early stage of my career. There is little that I should not be interested in, given that a new teacher is impacted by almost any education related topic. Narrowing it down for me, some of the topics that need to be learned about more include the experience that minorities face in the United States and how that impacts their ability to learn, as well as methods of cross-cultural communication that build trust with minority students. In addition, I want to learn more about the best ways to build a professional community of fellow educators for the purpose of mutual support and learning. Forming this type of community would go a long way towards helping me be more confident and informed as an educator and helping me work with my students more effectively and efficiently.
Just as there is much more to learn following this course, there is also much that was learned and can be implemented in my classroom. The first strategy that will be implemented is a very strong effort to develop trusting and beneficial relationships with the families of students, particularly those in need of extra help. As described earlier, there is a wealth of scholarly evidence demonstrating the value of a close partnership between the teacher and the student’s family, and I will work hard to establish this kind of relationship immediately. A second strategy that I will work on is to develop and implement immediately is a better organization with paperwork. I have received fair criticism about a lack of organization from time to time. As teaching becomes more stressful and hectic, I will need to have a system to fall back on that can ensure paperwork does not get lost in the shuffle and students are well served. By following this plan to learn and implement new information, I believe that I will become the best possible version of myself as an educator.
References
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