“Are you nervous, kid? Well, you should be!”- The Threshold of Realization as students become teachers.

The week that welcomes back from a hopeful and restful Spring Recess finds students making last minute preparations as they foray into the realm of teaching. As they commence into teaching, I would like to offer some last moments of counsel for as they become teachers, I become a student (Is this fun or what?).

I think one of the most critical elements that teachers should keep in mind is how they envision their classroom. What does it look like? How does the first five minutes run? What are the students doing? I am hoping that teachers can envision the start of class and try their best to anticipate how to set the climate of learning and understanding. I sense that there would be a level of nervousness present in our teachers, and there can be some level of neutralization of this threat if there is a plan, a vision or model of how their teaching should function. The second point I would stress to teachers would be to know their story. What are the important points that they are going to “punch through” to students? It is my hope that teachers have discovered the most compelling concepts to relay to students. I think that instruction would be more meaningful if they can frame the discourse in one of meaning and relevancy of content and this would be accomplished in a clearer manner if there was a strong “story to be told.” Finally, I think that all of our teachers should ensure that there is a level of organization and clarity apparent in their instruction. Even the worst of teachers (and this I know very well being one myself) earn a level of respect for their students if organization and clarity are apparent. I think that this could be a valuable lesson as both practitioner and learner. Teachers who approach the threshold of revelation in an organized and clear manner stand a better chance success. This could be a life lesson, as well.

Once our teaching is concluded, teachers will assess student work and their performance in class. Then, teachers will help prepare their students for the exam, which is scheduled for Friday, April 11. After that, teachers will grade and record the exams. Our next phase commences on Wednesday the 16th, when students will have to make some critical choices about the shape of their learning. These choices will be critical and shall be detailed to students over the course of the next three weeks.

The threshold of revelation allows new insights to be gained, new understanding to be unveiled, and new songs to be sung. Our garden grows richer and more vibrant as all 7-1 students approach the threshold of revelation.

Best wishes.
Mr. Kannan

The dialogue of empowerment: Students as teachers

Over the last week, I have been hearing a great deal of discussion from students about teaching. At first glance, such a statement seems odd. Yet, it has been enlightening hearing students talk about teaching. They believe that they are “teachers.” This is something that is revolutionary for a student. Yet, the reality is that they are “learners.” They are demonstrating that being a teacher is being the lifelong learner. It is interesting to examine the dialogues about “traditional” vs. “non traditional” methods of instruction. It is fascinating to hear groups debate the merits of multiple choice or short answer exams. It is powerful to witness students asking one another what they think the critical components of content are. It is meaningful to see students carrying three different textbooks, trying to obtain as much research and information as possible about Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, or the War of 1812 and what precipitated it. I have enjoyed this assignment for it marks a benchmark in the time of learning in C105. It is the moment where students truly wonder about what it means to be a teacher, what it means to be a learner, and what it means to be a scholar.

The definition of a middle school has come under great debate over the last year. I think we can appropriate it to mean “The climate of a developmentally responsive middle level school is safe, inviting, and caring; it promotes a sense of community and encourages learning.” (NMSA, This We Believe, 1995). Another component of it can include a type of education structure that “centers on the intellectual, social, emotional, moral, and physical developmental needs of young adolescents.... Exemplary middle level programs foster appropriate programs, policies, and practices that foster the development of these tasks in positive ways… through varied instructional methods” (http://www.designshare.com/Awards/2000/10031/10031_POE_4a.htm). When examining how students are working in their student led teaching assignment heterogeneous groups, one sees how the promises of a middle school education are being fulfilled. When students are asking if they can teach “in extended periods,” or if they are allowed “to take the class outside”, students approach their teaching and learning in different ways. This helps account for the differences in learning that are evident at this age. When we, as teachers, engage in tasks where each students’ learning can be accounted for in different and varied ways, I believe that the possibilities for education can be exceeded. All students are actively engaged in their learning because they are teaching, and responsible for how their students learn. The empowerment is evident, and in striving for this end, we highlight the best aspects of a middle school education.

The deadlines for this week are impressive. Handouts and all photocopying are due on Tuesday. Test questions are due on Thursday. All teaching assignments have to be ready to go on Thursday. This week will be an impressive one. Report card envelopes go home on Thursday, with the signed envelope due on April 3, 2008. Students will be ready to teach on the day of fools, April 1st.

It’s an exciting time indeed as new songs will be sung.
All best.

Mr. Kannan

P.S. The website featured above is an article which analyzes a successful Middle School in Massachusetts. It is interesting to note how many principles of the middle school philosophy, as outlined in the article, are in practice with our unit on student led teaching assignments. Of particular note is the concept that "the corridors are an extension of the classroom." Ask your emerging scholar where most of the lesson planning for their unit occurs. All groups meet and plan in the hallways, while one group has control of the entire classroom for their planning purposes.

Taking Ownership: Student Led Teaching Assignments and the Middle School Philosophy

We begin our foray into student led teaching assignments this week. I have always enjoyed this particular section of the curriculum. We take about three weeks examining different aspects of Thomas Jefferson’s Presidency. While the content is important, the format of having students lead the instruction is the portion that is the most satisfying. Students are charged with the responsibility of absorbing the material as a group, then developing a plan of instructing students. Then, they have to compose a lesson to instruct their colleagues, develop a visual aid to help students retain the information, create handouts that students can use while instruction is transpiring, develop an authentic homework task, collect and assess it, and then finally compose and grade a portion of the exam. Students have to teach their colleagues, develop a plan of instruction, and bear responsibility for others’ learning. One of the greatest components of this unit is when I become a student as well as an observer. As the students teach, I will be typing comments on my laptop regarding their instruction, and then students have to grade and assess my homework assignments. Former students come back and reflect on this particular task as one of their most fond.

Something formidable this way comes...
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been noticing that students are listening to the current discourse of the constitution of a middle school. As we concluded the examination of the political parties, the issue of a middle school under the philosophy of republican and federalist factions was scrutinized. Students voiced the divergent reactions of our stakeholders. While I held my opinions to myself, I found the discussion interesting. As we progress through this discourse and find a level of authentic resolution, I believe that as middle school teachers, our tasks and methods should reflect tenets of the middle school philosophy. One such idea is the notion of differentiated instruction. Stakeholders seem to be rightly concerned with the idea that their particular student is not challenged through content. Differentiated instruction meets this need for it matches instruction to the particular learner. I believe that the student led teaching tasks for chapter nine is an example of differentiated instruction on two levels. The first is that students, themselves, match up their understanding with the task’s aims of how to teach this content to others. The second example of differentiated instruction is the students must develop different means to communicate this content to themselves and their colleagues. One of the beautiful aims of this task is that if forces students to consider multiple paths to meaning and understanding. As middle school teachers, we account for this with almost every breath. When students are discharged with this responsibility, the promise of more relevant teaching and learning is exhibited.
Another particular aim of middle school philosophy is the notion of community. The middle school was conceived as a social experiment in developing community. Our institutional language fosters this. Wings, teams, core extension, flexed schedule, and advisory are a few of the terms which daily address the idea of community and learning as a social construct. I believe that this particular task meets this aim because it forces all students to consider the social dimensions to learning. Initially, when students collaborate with one another to divide up responsibilities, one sees the social construction of learning. The dialogues that build this discourse enhance this: “I can do this....” “Can you do this...?” “I can help you with this…” “I think this might work….” When students are determining how to teach their material to their colleagues, one sees the analysis of material in others’ eyes. When students hold study sessions and distribute back assignments to their peers, explaining what was done well and what required improvement, and when students have to maintain a 70% class average on their particular component of the exam, there is a social construction of learning and community is highly evident. One last point here to be made is the idea that communitarian notions of learning best happen when there is a heterogeneous and intellectually diverse presence. When students are engaging in the analysis of how others’ learn, it is important and almost essential to gather as many points of view as possible on the topic. This happens best when divergent and multiple voices are included in the discourse.
The last component of a middle school philosophy that I will offer in this missive is the role of teacher. As already extensively detailed, middle school is a time of change. It is accordingly fitting that the conception of the teacher be changed, as well. When students assume control of teaching content, the role of the teacher is one of advisor, practitioner, and collegial learner. When the teacher submits homework assignments that are to be graded, there is a change evident. Even the discussion between student and teacher changes; from one predicated on power to one where the discourse is more level and more productive towards a higher end.

We start this task on Monday night, when students receive the task description. I believe that our students, emerging scholars, and soon to be teachers will exceed standards and develop a new and unique stamp on the curriculum. As with all that we have done this year, a new and fascinating song in the garden is waiting to be sung.

All best, happy hunting and even happier teaching.
Mr. Kannan

The last act awaits: The Third Trimester

As we move into the last phase of our journey, 7-1 students should acclimate themselves to embracing a rousing finale to their journeys of scholarship. The final exam for second trimester is now of the past. Students can access their grades online through mygradebook.com and see how they fared. The extra credit tasks for the Constitution will be the last official grades of second trimester (due Thursday, 3/6). If students are content with their performance, then the grade listed in the summary is the grade that will stand. However, should students feel the need to improve their current standing, then completing the extra credit tasks this long weekend might prove beneficial.
In terms of next week, we begin our study of the presidencies of Washington and Adams. The discussion will also reveal the growth of political parties and the pros and cons of partisanship. We will close the week with a speak/ write lecture on the Alien and Sedition Acts, as well as a prologue into the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. The next major assessment for students will be a teaching assignment where they will have to assume the burden of designing a unit around a particular theme of the Jeffersonian presidency. This will lead us into Spring Break, with the actual teaching to take place upon our return. After this, we will be sprinting towards the end with a study of American modernism and the growth between North and South, culminating in our study of the Civil War.
The expectation is that this trimester will be the hardest students have endured. Social Studies extra credit opportunities will be phased out as the trimester progresses, as the work will increase in difficulty. After their teaching assignments, students will have to make some critical choices in terms of coverage of material. One of my hopes for this trimester is that students employ their sense of autonomy in making critical decisions about their academic states of being. I hope to be laying out options to students in methods of covering chapters 11- 14 in different and unique manners. We will be relying on the textbook, primary sources, literature, as well as other tools which will help illuminate the growth of America, and clearly highlight the themes and challenges of modern America.
In the final analysis, third trimester should offer diverse and multiple approaches to content. One of the themes of a middle school education is creating different paths that brighten a child’s way on the path of understanding and scholarship. In our current state of “reexamining” middle school philosophy, I can only hope that we do not “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and gear everything towards the needs of the few, while sacrificing the needs of the many. I hope that third trimester creates settings where all children are offered their own senses of individualized instruction and differentiated modalities that show the execution of the learning process. (It would be exciting if all students engaged in independent study projects. This would no longer be a terrain dominated by the few, but open to all and able to be embraced by all.) By making the connection between choice and learning, I believe that we fulfill a primary tenet of middle school education in creating the life long learner, whose constructivist base allows them a greater success in all realms of learning.
As students enter the third trimester, perhaps they can best understand the experience as beginning the process of departure, where a new door of perception will be opened as more songs in the garden await their arrival into the world. The songs of this trimester, the last one, await.

All best.
Mr. Kannan