Learning+Network

My Learning Network

In my learning network, I focused on individuals who have had a significant impact on my professional life. I have divided this up into three main nodes; my current school (CrossRoads Middle School), my previous school (Harden Middle School), and my University experience. I have included bi-directional arrows in all cases because I hope that I have taught other as well as I have learned from them (more so in some cases than others). I started with my current school; CrossRoads Middle School. I picked three colleagues and my student, but I certainly could have included many more. Coming to CrossRoads has been a challenge for me because I taught 7th and 8th graders for the last ten years and now I have 6th graders (and believe me, there is a significant difference). Another major difference is that I kept my students for two years (both 7th and 8th grade) in California. We had a lot of at risk students (second language, poverty, etc.) and felt this was a great way to support them. Here at CrossRoads, I only have my students for one year because we are a sixth grade **//only//** school (they are at the //CrossRoads// between elementary and middle school). Both Gwen and Kris have been instrumental in helping me to adjust to sixth grade by identifying the differences between them and the students I taught previously. Gwen and I are science teachers and spend quite a bit of time planning together (to our mutual benefit). This helps me to understand the depth to which I should expect sixth graders to learn the material. Kris is one of the math teachers that I work with. She and I see many of the same students and she has helped me to gain a better understanding of sixth graders, what motivates them, why they react the way they do, and different ways to interact with them. My final CrossRoads colleague is Chris Craft, who just finished up this program. In addition to a wealth of knowledge and friendship, Chris has helped me with many of my questions about technology and its use in the classroom. Chris could easily be added under my USC title as well as he has provided me with a fair amount of guidance. My final entry under CrossRoads is my students. I learn from them what they need in order for them to be successful. They show me through their work and their behaviors what strategies work best for them and what has little impact.

My next node is Harden Middle School where I worked for 10 years. This is the school that I started working at right out of college. Although the school had many problems (problems that were entirely unrelated to the students), there are many people who I learned from quite a bit from. Joyce was our district science lead teacher and I worked on the district science steering committee as well as the 8th grade benchmark committee. One of our key tasks was to take the state standards and separate them into focus standards (critical information) and familiar standards (still to be taught but at less depth). This process was very enlightening. We took the standards that we restructured and created quarterly benchmark tests from them. These tests, if we designed them correctly, should accurately predict how the students would do on our state test (and they did). All of this taught me to be objective in my development of curriculum and to focus on what the standards are and what the students need to know. The person who I have had the most in depth discussions about teaching in specific and education in general is Kevin Dufault. He and I spent a lot of time before and after school discussing what we saw and what might help solve the problems. The biggest thing that came from our discussions was a major focus on putting kids first; that should be the beginning, middle, and end of all of our decisions. Lisa, Jeannie, and I were a content group. We taught the same grade and subject and spent a lot of time collaborating and sharing lessons. Jeannie was extremely dedicated and organized while Lisa was very creative. Together, we developed some very engaging lessons. Again, I have included my students. Many of my kids in the Salinas were the children of farm workers (look on the back of a bag of lettuce and it is likely to say "Salinas" or one of the neighboring communities). Most of the kids spoke Spanish at home and lived in poverty. Most had seen violence or had something happen to one of their extended family members. Despite all of this, many of these kids came to school and tried their best everyday. As an educated adult, I took several Spanish language classes. The only thing I needed to learn was the language, and I struggled. Taking those classes helped me to understand what these kids are facing with every class they have. They need to learn the English language **//and//** they need to learn the content (science, social studies, math, etc.) of the class. The strength and the perseverance that these kids had to show everyday is simply astonishing.

My final node as that is certainly influencing my professional life. The two professors that I have had, Dr. Wissick and Dr. Smyth, both taught me a lot in their respective classes. I have also included a classmate from 722 (and she is in this class as well); Andrea Wright. Through our group project last semester, I learned quite a bit about the tools that we used to communicate with each other (a wiki that Andrea set up) and the blog tool that she chose as the vehicle for our final project.

 Much of the learning that I have described can fall into two of the underlying theories that Dr. Wortham discussed; the cognitive theory and the sociocultural theory. Much of my direct work with the students is more based on the cognitive approach. The focus has been on how do the kids learn and what helps them the most. The sociocultural piece has also been crucial as well. Many times, the focus has been beyond the individual student or even beyond a specific class. We have looked at what "global" changes need to be made in order for deeper learning to occur.