REFLECTION
Throughout the Action Research process I had a number of insights and opportunities to grow and reflect on my teaching practices.I learned through this process that as a teacher, I am quite flexible when it comes to adapting planning, instruction and assessment to the needs of my students and that I have more control over the dynamic of the classroom than I previously realized. The most significant take away I gained from this process was an understanding of why teachers might give more attention to certain students and a motivation to not emulate these traits in my future teaching experiences.
I feel very fortunate to have experienced this early in my AR experience. While responding to journals during phase 1 I began to notice an alarming sentiment. I was putting more thought and effort in my responses to students who I felt were writing or contributing more. I was shocked and upset with myself after I noticed myself doing this. The same thought began to come up in my head, "This is not why I went into teaching." I did not decide to become a teacher to teach those who put in more effort than others. Granted, it does make my job easier and those students should be recognized for their efforts, but exclusively teaching students who visibly put in more effort is not what education should be about. At the secondary level there are going to be capable students who need that push to realize their full potential.
I made a conscience effort to write drastically more to the students who responded with just a few lines. It was not until the end of phase 2 where some of these students stopped responding altogether because they were not given any prompts to respond to. But for the majority of 2 months, their productivity increased and they at least wrote something to give me an insight to their feelings towards our class. I believe this opportunity to vent their frustrations eased the tension they might have had.
I feel very fortunate to have experienced this early in my AR experience. While responding to journals during phase 1 I began to notice an alarming sentiment. I was putting more thought and effort in my responses to students who I felt were writing or contributing more. I was shocked and upset with myself after I noticed myself doing this. The same thought began to come up in my head, "This is not why I went into teaching." I did not decide to become a teacher to teach those who put in more effort than others. Granted, it does make my job easier and those students should be recognized for their efforts, but exclusively teaching students who visibly put in more effort is not what education should be about. At the secondary level there are going to be capable students who need that push to realize their full potential.
I made a conscience effort to write drastically more to the students who responded with just a few lines. It was not until the end of phase 2 where some of these students stopped responding altogether because they were not given any prompts to respond to. But for the majority of 2 months, their productivity increased and they at least wrote something to give me an insight to their feelings towards our class. I believe this opportunity to vent their frustrations eased the tension they might have had.
Another take away I realized throughout this AR process is the importance of laying the foundation of to exhibit personableness towards my students. If something happens outside of class that might be awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing for students to talk about in person, if an established written dialogue is already in place they might be more willing to open up. If not students still do not wish to directly reach out for support,dialectical journals can be a place for them to feel support they need without the spotlight on them that might signal something is going on (being called to the counselor office, after school or lunch talks.
This point could not have hit home for me as much as it did the last month of my student-teaching placement. A new student transferred into my class with 2 months left in the semester. Whether her previous school already covered the material or she read ahead of her text book, she entered the class participating and exhibiting knowledge and interest in the material we were covering. She happened to come in the class just as I was finalizing my AR action plan and ready to implement.
A few weeks into my phase 1 I happened upon a fact that administrators were starting to realize at my school. While riding my bike one weekend I saw the same student who entered my class with such optimism and motivation collecting cans and holding a sign alongside her mother asking for anything passersby could spare. As I rode by she quickly turned around. I am unsure if she recognized me or not, but it was undeniable that one of my students was dealing with something I had no clue how to address. I have normally fallen back on my personal experiences to share and support students with whatever they are going through. Not this time. I could not reach back and find a funny story how things got better for me. I could only empathize and offer support if she chose to accept it. But that was the thing, since my interaction with her that weekend happened so fast I was unsure if I should be the one to offer my knowledge of her family situation and explicitly show concern. I decided to talk to the counselors who shared with me their recent revelation that this student was indeed homeless.
This student was absent for 3 days after that weekend where our paths crossed. It is plausible it could be because of something else but I could not help but feel she might be embarrassed that her teacher had saw her in that vulnerable state. She has always been in good spirits and has been able to make friends so I decided to use our journals as a means of support. It was not hard to find areas to praise her effort, attitude and disposition. I made sure that each journal had positive reinforcement and added questions and dialogue to keep our conversations going. I was keeping this avenue of communication open for her to speak her mind and to show my genuine concern for her well-being, even though I did not explicitly say this was my aim.
Because I had a regular written dialogue with this student already I could give additional support and encouragement without the added attention other students might notice. I could keep a daily/weekly check in and provide an avenue for the student to vent, reach out, escape (mentally) etc...
Although I doubt that the nature of my further research will be as formal as this study, I certainly will adopt action research as powerful and effective option for improving future conditions within my classroom. I originally had set out to increase productivity in the form of utilizing class time efficiently which I hoped in turn would raise overall grades. I felt I had accomplished this goal with relative success but what I am most proud of is the sense of community and trust I felt was raised within the short months I had spent with my students. The school where I implemented this AR was my second full-time teaching placement (I had opted to turn my 1st semester part-time placement into full-time to prepare myself for the mandatory full-time requirement). This particular class had seen 3 student-teachers already this school year and I felt I needed to do something different to make a connection with my class because at this point they might have felt like a revolving door for novice teachers.
The level of discussion and familiarity I achieved with them made me feel like I knew them which led me to see their true potential. Due to my familiarity with them, I had formed higher expectations for them to meet for which they lived up to for the most part. Where others might have been satisfied with some form of compliance or basic understanding of material, I was able to ask and expect more from them because of our dialectical conversations.
As Eva Pomeroy (1999) noted in her article The Teacher Student Relationship in Secondary School, student-teacher relationships are a key feature of school life. In her study she found that teachers' various approaches to subject teaching were less important to students than the interactive relationships established with students, "...students' relationships with teachers surfaced as one of the most salient features of the educational experience."
This point could not have hit home for me as much as it did the last month of my student-teaching placement. A new student transferred into my class with 2 months left in the semester. Whether her previous school already covered the material or she read ahead of her text book, she entered the class participating and exhibiting knowledge and interest in the material we were covering. She happened to come in the class just as I was finalizing my AR action plan and ready to implement.
A few weeks into my phase 1 I happened upon a fact that administrators were starting to realize at my school. While riding my bike one weekend I saw the same student who entered my class with such optimism and motivation collecting cans and holding a sign alongside her mother asking for anything passersby could spare. As I rode by she quickly turned around. I am unsure if she recognized me or not, but it was undeniable that one of my students was dealing with something I had no clue how to address. I have normally fallen back on my personal experiences to share and support students with whatever they are going through. Not this time. I could not reach back and find a funny story how things got better for me. I could only empathize and offer support if she chose to accept it. But that was the thing, since my interaction with her that weekend happened so fast I was unsure if I should be the one to offer my knowledge of her family situation and explicitly show concern. I decided to talk to the counselors who shared with me their recent revelation that this student was indeed homeless.
This student was absent for 3 days after that weekend where our paths crossed. It is plausible it could be because of something else but I could not help but feel she might be embarrassed that her teacher had saw her in that vulnerable state. She has always been in good spirits and has been able to make friends so I decided to use our journals as a means of support. It was not hard to find areas to praise her effort, attitude and disposition. I made sure that each journal had positive reinforcement and added questions and dialogue to keep our conversations going. I was keeping this avenue of communication open for her to speak her mind and to show my genuine concern for her well-being, even though I did not explicitly say this was my aim.
Because I had a regular written dialogue with this student already I could give additional support and encouragement without the added attention other students might notice. I could keep a daily/weekly check in and provide an avenue for the student to vent, reach out, escape (mentally) etc...
Although I doubt that the nature of my further research will be as formal as this study, I certainly will adopt action research as powerful and effective option for improving future conditions within my classroom. I originally had set out to increase productivity in the form of utilizing class time efficiently which I hoped in turn would raise overall grades. I felt I had accomplished this goal with relative success but what I am most proud of is the sense of community and trust I felt was raised within the short months I had spent with my students. The school where I implemented this AR was my second full-time teaching placement (I had opted to turn my 1st semester part-time placement into full-time to prepare myself for the mandatory full-time requirement). This particular class had seen 3 student-teachers already this school year and I felt I needed to do something different to make a connection with my class because at this point they might have felt like a revolving door for novice teachers.
The level of discussion and familiarity I achieved with them made me feel like I knew them which led me to see their true potential. Due to my familiarity with them, I had formed higher expectations for them to meet for which they lived up to for the most part. Where others might have been satisfied with some form of compliance or basic understanding of material, I was able to ask and expect more from them because of our dialectical conversations.
As Eva Pomeroy (1999) noted in her article The Teacher Student Relationship in Secondary School, student-teacher relationships are a key feature of school life. In her study she found that teachers' various approaches to subject teaching were less important to students than the interactive relationships established with students, "...students' relationships with teachers surfaced as one of the most salient features of the educational experience."