Chapter 4 focuses on how to make teacher and administrative preparation meaningful, teacher preparation should be more constructive feedback based on classroom observations and collaborative work with grade level peers to ensure they have a common focus aligned to rigorous expectations. Reinvent the culture with the three R’s o Rigor (higher level thinking expectations based on Common Core Standards) o Relevance (information and lessons are current and relevant to data to ensure students needs are being addressed) o Relationships (allowing colleagues to have a positive relationship to provide feedback to become a confident educator) Connection: My first year teaching 4th grade, my administrator in Chula Vista, provided consistent feedback and walk throughs to improve my behavior management and ensure my students were being accountable of their own learning. Through his continuous guidance as a novice teacher, he provided the support and strategies to help my instruction become more effective and efficient. As a result, due to his high level of expectations, I developed into a teacher that set clear and high expectations. Therefore, it is an essential part of professional development to have constant feedback from other colleagues based on Chapter 4. | Chapter 3 focused on student testing, engagement and rigor. These topics captured my attention as a learner and educator because I created a goal to focus on student engagement, academic conversations and collaboration and rigor to assess students straights and needs. The PISA test were opened ended task that questioned skills and knowledge instead of the traditional multiple choice questions that did not provide further information about a students. In addition, in Ch. 3, our goal is to create more complex and open ended tests that demand real thinking and deeper understanding of concepts for the 21st century. I come to realize my own experience in high school, in which I was enrolled in 5 AP classes all throughput high school, thinking that I was being prepared for college. I was wrong, and I enrolled into remedial math and English based on my AP experience of memorization. Therefore, I agree with USA Today article (2006) stated that success on AP exams is not a good predictor of success in comparable college course and lack depth of understanding. I could recite dates and places, and formulas, but could not explain or understand the events in a deeper level. As a result, students should not become intuitive test takers, but students need to explore the questions like inquiry based learning. With alignment of "Habits of Mind" college success include “intellectual openness; inquisitiveness; analysis, reasoning, argumentation and proof with textual evidence, precision and accuracy (math skills) and problem solving with the overall academic skill of writing and research. Rigor means being able to ask the right questions, bot just memorization of vocabulary and learning at a fast pace & have the right answer, it’s about arriving to the answer, the process which takes critical thinking skills. Student motivation and top out rate are linked together in the United States; therefore, we should crate a more meaningful and accountable environment for teacher and students. which they find more engaging and thought provoking. Resources Tony Wagner - Overcoming the Global Achievement Gap. (2010, December 13). Retrieved September 28, 2014, from http://youtu.be/D3gpjjIOqHA Wagner, T. (2010). Global Achievement Gap : Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do about It. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com |