The way that I see that this standard is written is that the teacher should routinely reflect on his or her teaching practice and evaluate strengths and weaknesses to improve the practice and to facilitate new positive, powerful, and critical learning for his or her students.
Once reading this standard, I am perplexed by two questions in relation to its writing and application. The first question is a two-part question: How is systematically interpreted and how do we systematically reflect? Once reading this standard, I interpreted that systematically meant that teachers should reflect on their practice as if by route. A peer of mine, Ryan Leonard, offered an even better word to my word of routinely: habitually. In accordance with his understanding of this interpretation, a teacher should not just reflect because it is right or that he should do it, but that reflection should become a normal part of daily life. In other words the teacher should make reflection a normalized past-time, almost like reading (to take another thought of Ryan Leonard’s). For the second part of the question, I ask what does it mean to systematically reflect? Originally, I thought that this meant that a teacher thought about the way the lesson went directly after the lesson was given. However, I was torn between formalized reflection and casual reflection. Ultimately, I have concluded that formalized reflection should be used to produce more proactive and substantive comments regarding teaching practice. As Maddie Windham and Todd Dinkelman to be systemically reflective, a teacher’s reflection must be methodical and more formally evaluated.
The second question that I had regarding this question was “who else should be systemically reflecting over our strengths and weaknesses as teachers?” While I acknowledge that there is value in being self-reflective, I am skeptical as to how much a genuine response I, or any teacher for that matter, can give about the strengths and weaknesses of a particular teaching practice. I am particularly worried about personal bias regarding my reflection. For example, for me, I tend to focus on weaknesses or negatives related to my practice, rather than look at the complete picture. I am not suggesting that I shouldn’t self-reflect, as a result of these biases, but am contending that others should evaluate my practice in tangent with my own reflection. To receive a more complete picture, and perhaps less bias one, I contend that students, other teachers, and administrative personnel should also look at the strengths and weaknesses of my practice.
During this semester, I have done various things to formally, and thus “systematically,” reflect on my practice as a whole. For one, completing these standard worksheets for student teaching seminar has given me the opportunity to reflect on my practice. Through them, I have been able to see what things I have done in my clinical space that demonstrates the qualities of “accomplished social studies teachers.” I have also been able to reflect on things that I can do better at, while also looking to improvements in my induction years. Finally through the worksheets, I have been able to connect important aspects of my rationale to my practices as a teacher.
In addition to completing these worksheets related to important standards for social studies teachers, I also had the opportunity to assess my effectiveness as a teacher on the edTPA assessment, where I had to evaluate and analyze my planning, instruction, and feedback given for a particular inquiry lesson. I also had the chance to analyze my strengths and weaknesses through formal field visit reports with my field instructor and liaison to the University of Georgia, Aeri Song.
In my future practice and achieving aspects of this standard, I would like to increase the frequency in which I formally analyze my teaching practice. At first, I envision doing this through periodically completing formal surveys that gauge my strengths and weaknesses in relation to student learning. However, in collaborating with others, I find that I can evaluate my practice in other ways besides formal surveys. For example, Colson Bellmor contended that a teacher could analyze my teaching by watching video recordings of lessons being implemented, or by keeping a teacher journal. Todd Dinkelman also highlighted keeping a journal; however, he also conveyed that a teacher could take notes, collaborate with colleagues, collect data, and pose questions all related to the effectiveness of the teacher’s practice.
As a second deliberate way of reflecting on individual lessons, as a future teacher, I would also like to have a notes section for every lesson plan that I deliver, so that I can formally return to the plan and jot down ideas and observations of what went well and what areas could be improved on. Based on this data, I could modify the lesson to further support students and their needs, while ensuring that my plan matches my implementation.
In relation to my rationale, I think it is important for me to reflect on my practice to ensure that I am creating a classroom that I originally intended. As conveyed in my rationale, I strive to create a classroom that is driven by the students around inquiry of content that they have some interest in. Students must be active participates in the classroom and should be as active in interpreting and creating the diverse curriculum as I am. Therefore, if I see that my curricular interests are superseding the interests of the students, I acknowledge that I need to reflect on my implementations to turn the class direction back towards the students and their interests. Additionally, if I see that I am not allowing collaboration, analyzing social studies accounts, or inquiry to happen, I must recognize, via reflection, that I should alter my practice to better match what I think social studies is for.
The way I see that this standard is written is that teachers should observe on another and reflect each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the teaching practices of all parties involved.
Once reading this question, I am struck with two powerful questions. The first is, “how authentic is collaborative inquiry in showing an average day of my teaching?” When I have engaged in collaborative inquiry (which I will describe in the section below) I have formed academically challenging lesson plans, which may not reflect an average day in my classroom. Typically these lessons have been inquiry-based and have taken around two days to develop. In preparation for these visits, I feel that my lessons are held to a higher standard than on an average day of teaching because my participants know the expectations of my program. In other words, my lesson plan and overall practice becomes more formalized than normalized. A peer of mine, Michelle Ashley, also reflected this concern about collaborative inquiry by posing the question: “What is the balance between a formal and natural teaching practice?”
Another question that I had regarding this standard was initiated by Michelle Ashley, who questioned “why does meaningful collaboration between teachers rarely happen?” I would contend that a large part of why meaningful collaboration doesn’t happen frequently is that teachers are pressed with time constraints. In lesson planning, making materials, teaching upwards of one hundred students, and ensuring that these students are successful, I would conclude that teachers have very little opportunities to meet with other teachers. Those teachers, who could possibly participate in collaboration, also have the same commitments and are thus unlikely to be able to attend and observe one of the class sessions.
While I have doubts that collaborative inquiry reveals my authentic practice and is easy to initiate, I am pleased to say that I have been able to engage in collaborative inquiry several times this semester. In the first example, I was able to invite a peer of mine, Ben Bolander, to come and observe my class. On this day, I was delivering one of my edTPA lessons, and my collaborator noted many strengths and areas of improvement with regards to my teaching practice. Likewise, at the end of the semester, I was able to observe his teaching of a government class and discuss strengths and weaknesses with him. In addition to specifically collaborating with Ben Bolander, I have also participated in collaboration with members of my cohort in the student teaching seminar. In this space, my fellow classmates and I have collaborated with one another to strive for a deeper understanding for the standards that are demonstrated by effective social studies teachers. Finally, several times during this semester, I have sat down with both my mentor teacher and my field instructor, Aeri Song, to look at the overall effectiveness of my teaching and what I could do in the future to improve my practice. For both my peer collaborations with Ben Bolander and my field visits for Aeri Song, I had to write two formal reports.
In the future, I would still like to participate in collaborative inquiry with my fellow teachers, as I recognize that doing so would yield ideas for possible improvements to the teaching practices of all participants. However, as mentioned before, I am skeptical that such inquiry can occur given the teaching schedules of those involved. In question form, how am I supposed to observe other teachers when I have classes to teach? One possible solution, though I’ll admit a possibly unlikable one, is for a teacher to go and observe another teacher during his or her planning period. A more desirable solution might be for the teacher to video tape himself of herself giving a lesson and sending the video to a colleague. Then via google docs, video conferencing, or some other medium of communication, the collaborators could discuss areas of success and areas of improvements in relation to the practices. Having this format to work with, I think it is more possible to collaborate with other professionals outside of the school district that the teacher is employed in.
I believe that this standard is related to my current rationale for teaching social studies, even if it is an indirect connection. A large part of my rationale is that I want students to engage in collaboration with classmates to come up with possible solutions to issues that are meaningful for the students. Thus, as I am asking students to engage in collaboration, it is necessary for me to engage in collaboration with my peers to strive for a deeper understanding related to overall teaching practice, which can and should be a very relevant to all teachers. By engaging in collaboration teachers can see the benefits of collaboration that their students can also witness, like shared decision-making and conversations that include multiple perspectives and positions.
The way that I perceive that this standard is written is that our teaching practice should include treating each student equally and holding high expectations for all students. At the same time, as teachers, we should further our knowledge of the history, ethics, social conditions, and practices of social studies education more broadly.
Regarding this standard, one word stood out to me: “their.” In question form, I asked are we supposed to further our knowledge of history, ethics, social conditions, and practices of social studies, or the students’ knowledge of history, ethics, social conditions, and practices of social studies?” Many shared my confusion regarding this word, and after collaborating with others in my student teaching seminar, we found the answer. To put it succinctly and accurately, as teachers, we should continue to learn about and advocate for our profession—this was conveyed by Todd Dinkelman.
Once understanding the “their” in this standard, I was hit by another question that was also asked by another member of my seminar, R.J. Johnson. Both he and I asked “is advocacy risky for first time teachers?” My take on this question is that advocacy for certain practices of social studies might be risky in certain conservative school districts. I am doubtful that I can go into a right-leaning school district, and try to stress my beliefs about discussing controversial topics with students with the hope that the students will go out an invoke positive social change and changing aspects of the status quo. Based on this belief, I worry that other teachers and administrative personnel will not support me in my advocacy. Another take on the aforementioned question is, “will others listen to me?” In other words, will other teachers accept my positions as containing validity if I have such little experience in teaching? To those to questions, I do not have an answer, as it is dependent on the perspectives and attitudes of others. However, I do know that I should still persist in my advocacy, but perhaps with more decorum, even if others do not take me seriously in my induction years.
Unfortunately, I think I have done little in the way to meet this standard during this semester. However, I have attended various professional development sessions with fellow teachers at Apalachee High School. Here we primarily focused on exploring the book, The Cage-Busting Teacher by Fredrick Hess. We also discussed what teachers can do to lessen the teacher dropout rate, how we can positively impact the surrounding community, and deciding what are qualities of a teacher leader. While I enjoyed these sessions, I did feel out of place at the meetings and witnessed critiques of my inexperience many times. In addition to attending these professional development sessions, I have also been actively seeking out literature regarding successful practices of social studies education and schooling more broadly. For example, I have found articles about students making positive and important changes to their schools (found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/05/these-high-school-journalists-investigated-a-new-principals-credentials-days-later-she-resigned/?utm_term=.95d68523b1a3) and articles about teachers implementing new classroom routines to better facilitate learning (found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/well/family/why-kids-shouldnt-sit-still-in-class.html?_r=0).
I would like to achieve aspects of this standard beyond this semester to truly seek out ways in which I can advocate and be a part of the professional practice that I contribute so much work to. Initially, I did not know ways in which I could participate more actively in professional practice beyond just attending and being engaged in professional development sessions. I now see, through collaboration with others including Todd Dinkelman, that I can be active in advocating for social studies practices and for advancing the profession as a whole. Per Todd Dinkelman’s suggestions, I can join both the Georgia Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies. In doing so I can receive powerful, research-based literatures, be connected to Washington D.C. lobbyists, and receive the opportunity to collaborate with others at certain conferences. In addition, I can be an advocate for social studies at my school and in the surrounding communities, by attending and being active at department, town hall, and board of education meetings.
At first glance, I was not sure as to how this standard directly relates to aspects of my rationale. However, I now contend that to have a rationale for teaching social studies, I have to have an understanding of what social studies is for and what it can do. It is through advocating with others in professional practice and learning about the field itself that I have a rationale. Based on literature, collaboration with others, and actual implementation, I recognize what social studies is for. How I see it, the purpose of social studies education is to give students the opportunity to analyze, discuss, and make conclusions about certain complex and sometimes controversial social issues. Now what can social studies do. Ideally, students form a deeper understanding about social issues to be able to offer solutions to these issues and to invoke positive changes in their community and larger societies. These understandings are dependent on finding and understanding literature concerning the aims of social studies and collaborating with other professionals to find how these aims can be implemented or improved on in actual practice.