The Great Debate!

Background

Throughout this semester, I have been working to design a lesson plan that is completely oriented around the belief that everyone has the ability to change their community for the better. The unit I have created entitled, “YOUth in Charge,” where students will learn the multiple ways in which we can be civically engaged citizens and make a difference. During our class for the week of November 8th-10th, we were provided with the responsibility of creating a mini-unit which would pertain to our lesson. Since my first class would be taught on election day, I thought it would be very fitting to have a lesson on the importance of debating, and how we can debate. The art of debate is something that has been lost in our presidential stage (regardless of party ideology) which has resulted in less discussion around policy, and more arguments around appearance and demeanor. I knew that the students I was instructing had a basic level of understanding as to what a debate is, as well as being able to discern why debate is essential to our society, but I wanted to build on those foundations and have students debate with positions they don’t necessarily agree with, because it allows for a better understanding of the differing perspectives people have, and when we are able to understand where a position is coming from, we can counter said position in a constructive, and thought-provoking manner.

Connecting to Students

To connect to P.C. 7.1 & 7.2, I constructed my mini-lesson in a way that would draw in the interest and content knowledge from my fellow classmates. My class of four had two history majors, and two science majors (environmental and physics, respectively). I knew that the two history students most likely had a better background knowledge on the art of debates, but I wanted to ensure that there would be equity in the level of engagement within this class, so I asked the science students topics they would be interested in debating, and we were all able to agree on debating whether or not NASA should receive public funding. For each team, there was one science major, and one history major, to create near equal teams. This garnered everyone’s interest, because it connected everyone’s content knowledge together through recognizing their personal interests, as well as placing low stakes, but potentially high pressured debate that would be rigorous for a 20-minute class. There was a strict time limit that was put in place throughout the debate, in which each student had one minute for an opening remark, a total of 6 minutes for rebuttals, and one minute a piece for a closing argument. Students were also expected to bring citations and sources for their arguments to demonstrate their ability to research, as well as identify problems (in this case, it was potentially seeing flaws in a case being made). This also gave students the opportunity to think on their feet, and practice how to civically respond to a potentially contentious topic of discussion, which is a valuable life lesson if we are to communicate effectively with our audience, whether it is for science, or history.

Communication is Key

In addition, I created my lesson around two more P.C.’s that are connected, 5.1, and 5.2. For the first P.C., I intentionally connected our lesson to the presidential election, to make connections to our community and our nation. The importance of being able to see that effective communication through debate, allows us to discuss serious national issues that have very real implications. Sometimes it isn’t necessarily clear how a lesson connects to our world, but I tried my best to make our lesson more than an academic experience, but a valuable life tool that will allow us to be the agents of change in our communities. In regards to P.C. 5.2., students during this lesson were required to think critically and on the spot, when debating the other perspective. What’s more, students also had to collaborate both inside, and outside of the class in order to create the most articulate, and meaningful debate points. In real life, a debate is simply between two people, it is instead, a continuing discussion of policy that citizens must present their reasons for either supporting, or being against legislation or decisions in the hopes of persuading and convincing others. There is a reason why there are political parties, lobbyists, as well as even having a union, so that people can collectively convey their points to the community in the hope of convincing others that their solution is the best solution.

Within my lesson, I also connected my accommodations matrix to P.C. 8.1., where I had a nonverbal student in our class. During a debate, this could potentially be an anxiety-ridden time for this student, so I prepared ways in which this student would have the equivalent opportunities for learning. The nonverbal student would create a written debate on a topic of their choice and they would hand in their paper. Additionally, I would have this student be my co-judge (along with other students) to decide who the winner of the debate was. This still allows for this student to have a stake in their education, and to feel empowered through making an important decision for the class. During the presentation, I would have also provided this student with presentation notes ahead of time, that way, if they had any questions, they would be able to ask me, and I would gladly be able to answer them.

One of the most important lessons I have learned while teaching last week is to be flexible with your schedule. As long as the essential and focusing questions are being addressed in a way that is both meaningful and engaging to students, the rest of the lesson is extraneous. Though I was able to do essentially everything that I wanted to do, I wasn’t always able to allow enough time to make it as meaningful as possible. I also learned the valuable lesson of being impartial and neutral when I speak with students. I made a terrible mistake my first day and referred to one of the candidates as, “scary.” Which a couple of students commented on via their written feedback. I immediately emailed the students in the class to let them know what I did was unacceptable, but it also taught a great non-example of what a debate point should be. Claims should be factual and supported with details, not simply a value-laden judgment. Between the first and second class, I also prepared an exercise of reflection for the students the day after election, in which they could write their thoughts (whether positive or negative) and share out to the class if they felt comfortable. A lot of what the students said pertained to the idea that they felt the presidential debates lacked substance, and there was too much name calling, which I was able to tie back into our lesson review for how we debate in a professional manner.

In terms of assessments, I had one diagnostic assessment, which consisted of philosophical chairs, where students presented an issue they thought was worthy debating and why (this allowed me to analyze their reasoning). In addition, I had two formative assessments, the first day, where we had a selected response paper where students demonstrated their knowledge (so far) about reputable sources, and we also did a whip strategy at the beginning of the second class, where each students said one thing they learned from the first class. The summative assessment consisted of a full-scale, timed debate, where they were previously given a rubric.

Connecting back to my educational philosophy of being a humanist, I constantly gave my students elements of choice and freedom within what they wanted to do. I trust students to be leaders in their learning, and my role is to help facilitate their learning. If we are truly to believe that the goal of education is to cultivate an environment where students will become independent, critically thinking leaders, then we must give them they time in school to practice their independence and their leadership with their education. The challenge of allowing freedom in a classroom means that I as a future educator will have to raise the bar for myself to make sure that I can help students devise lesson plans that are oriented around themselves, and not simply teaching to the “average” student (which does not exist).

Reflection

Through my comments, I was told that on one hand, I presented myself calm and collected, but I
also didn’t allow enough opportunities for students to ask questions, nor did I provide enough time for students to digest information. At the collegiate level, our ability to focus and process is much greater than that of a high school senior in their spring semester, so I need to make sure that I provide students to reflect and think about what they have learned, as well as creating opportunities where students can ask questions (whether it is in front of the class, or through an exit slip). This opportunity in class has allowed me to feel more comfortable and confident in my ability to be a future educator, and truthfully, I am incredibly humbled to see the amazing educators in our current class!

Evidence:
Mini-Lesson
Presentation
Selected Response
Rubric

Explain Everything/Shadow Puppet Reflections

One of the quintessential aspects of being a quality educator is the ability to digest complex information within one’s content area, and be able to illustrate the central themes in a way that makes sense to all students.

I am taking two ED classes currently (Literacy & Curriculum), and within these two classes, we have recently worked on creating a visual tool to display our content areas, as well as our preferred content theories in a way that demonstrates our comprehension of the material. For my literacy class, we were assigned the task of making a Shadow Puppet presentation with a partner, to demonstrate collaborative efforts, as well as presenting our content areas in an engaging manner. Additionally, for my curriculum course, we were designated the responsibility of designing an Explain Everything presentation that shows our ability to both navigate through multiple apps so we can utilize programs effectively with our future students, and to display our understanding of what content theory we best align with.

Within my study of political science, ideologies and texts is continuously expanding since it is very much a study of the human condition. When Katelyn Crandall and I worked on our Shadow Puppet Project, we both collaborated and discussed what might be our central themes within our respective disciplines (Katelyn is a math major). We both were working together to firstly figure out what essentials can we pick out from our other majors to ensure that we convey the key elements to both math and political science. We both had a conversation, and drafted an outline of a script to ensure that we could attempt to condense the breadth of our studies into a five minute presentation. When we both finished our script, we provided evidence for P.C. 5.2  to show our collaboration efforts and that link is provided HERE:

Through this collaboration, we were also able to articulate the primary ideas within our respective fields of study, which connects P.C. 4.1. Being able to condense an augmenting field of study and showcase the provisions within a content area demonstrates a high level of comprehension in regards to working with the material. Within our Shadow Puppet, I discussed how civics and history are more than just text oriented documents, they are living breathing accounts of the world in which we currently live, and to better understand who we are as a society, and as the human race, it is pivotal that we understand the major events and socio-political movements that preceded us.

In addition to history being a study of the human condition, it is necessary to break the barriers between your students and your audience when dealing with the misconceptions of a particular study. In our shadow puppet, we both described common misconceptions of the way people view literacy within both math and political science which connects to P.C. 4.2.. For example, people may assume that history deals with primary and secondary documents. Though this statement is true, it is also misleading in the useage of the word, “documents.” Documents can be more than text oriented artifacts, the discipline of history and political science deals with all aspects of human life, whether this is artwork that demonstrates personal or societal struggle, or perhaps history is analyzing Star Wars, and viewing with a critical eye and connecting parallels between the fictional Sci-Fi Thriller, and World War II. There is tremendous brevity in regards to how an educator could demonstrate that history and political science is more than books, history is the culmination of our lives!

Furthermore, I utilized Explain Everything, an app that allows people to make tutorials of presentations to educate others. For example, my Explain Everything was about Humanism, which is an educational theory that promotes personal choice, and having an educator act as a facilitator in order to best engage the students which instills the desire to learn. Within this Explain Everything, I discussed what drives me to excel as a future educator. We have a substantial population of youth in the United States, yet the interactions between adults and students are so sparse, in terms of having a meaningful dialog about what future do we envision for ourselves, whether it is a vision of government, education, or how we treat others. When the current education system has largely (not in all cases) decided that education is a top down process in which no experience or learning can be received by educators, administration, or policymakers when students are talking, we completely shut off and hinder how successful our society will be. I vehemently oppose the notion of having a classroom be a top down process, when we have the ability to learn from each other and grow as citizens in our world. I don’t merely want to teach my students, I want to learn with my students and ensure that we are doing our part to create a better world and better community. I believe this aligns well with the Saint Michael’s Education Department and their mission statement including the section on having passionate educators.

Outside of school, I have been working closely with high school students in Vermont, and Washington D.C. to create student advisory councils, or an entity of students that can present information to the state boards of education. These two boards also have student members that preside, and by allowing the student representatives on the board to have a constituency, they can work together to implement and promote well-constructed educational initiatives that will better the lives of all stakeholders in education. When I work with these students, I do not simply tell them what they should do, nor am I trying to teach them a lesson. To the contrary, I believe that the only way one can truly learn is that one must genuinely believe they are the least important, and least knowledgeable person in the room. When I work with these students, I ask them what they want to do on a local, state, and national level and what their short term and long term goals are. From here, I do my best to suggest the best practices involved with making their goals an actuality. Through my political science, and secondary education program at Saint Mike’s, I have learned both theories and strategies that help me take my content area and apply it to meaningful issues on a local and national level, to ensure that all students can be heard, and I believe this connects with P.C. 5.1.

In the future, I do want to be an educator, but I feel that I would be better suited for working at an educational agency, or consortium, in which I could do field work to learn more about what is going on in all of the classrooms, and what experiences are missing in schools, in order to enhance the quality of learning within school systems. I want to continue to work with secondary students from across the country to build the largest stakeholder in education and to affirm their role and solidify their voice so other stakeholders will be able and willing to hear their voices.

Music as Problem Solving

Balancing Passions

Outside of education, my biggest passion in life is making music. For me, music is the greatest equalizer there is, because it does not matter what your gender, race, is, or what language you speak, because when musicians are in the same room, the universal language of music is being spoken and performed. Music has been something I hold so dearly, because it allows me to vent, it allows me to find inner peace, it makes me smile, and it makes me think. As with many forms of art, music can be passed off merely as a form of expression and not a “valid or lucrative field of study.”

One of the greatest conflicts I have in my life is trying to balance my passion for education and my passion for music. Up until recently, I have thought of these passions as mutually exclusive with no possibility of aligning with each other (outside of instruction of an instrument, or having concert band). Lately I have been thinking about my experience in Marching Band, and some of the best lessons I have learned in life have come from our band’s drum instructor, Mr. Jamison.

Our Performance of "Open Seas" in 2012

Lifelong Lessons

Mr. Jamison is a man that was constantly able to pull the best performance out of every single student consistently. He raised the bar so high, not because he wanted to break us or demoralize us, but he truly believed that we had something in us, a talent, that we couldn’t see in ourselves. One of the best lessons that he taught me is that no matter what I end up doing, I can always carry music with me, whether I were to choose a path in music, or that I become an educator, there is always the option of keeping music close to my heart. That is something I have been contemplating a lot recently, and I can’t get that lesson out of my head. During this semester I have worked on making my first official album as a musician and the positives and detriments that come with putting my time into a passion project during a rigorous academic semester. While I had been working on this album, two thoughts came to mind: the first being that Mr. Jamison not only gave me reassuring advice, but he gave me the truth. I was nervous that I would lose one of the things that make me most happy in college, playing and making music. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of performing in three bands on campus as a drummer, and I have also had the time to make an album in which I could create music beyond my comfort zone of drumming. The second thought I had is that college, and education in general, is about exploration and stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and that is something I constantly tried to accomplish while making my album (Existential Happiness).

Time Management & the Process of Song-Making

The biggest lesson I learned when balancing music and academics is time management. It is so incredibly easy to have four hours go by in an instant when you are working on something you are putting your full, undivided attention into. When I start from scratch, I see an empty template in which there is a solution, either like a puzzle or an equation. I break down the components I need in a certain song, whether that is the instruments, the mood I want, or the samples I may choose. I now have multiple concepts, but they are not necessarily in the places they need to be in order for this song to be “solved.” The idea of a song being solved is when I am able (from my perspective) to place the elements of the song I want into the places where I think they need to be, and this process involves serious tweaking and attention to detail. This component also is impossible to do incrementally for me, because I constantly feel like I am on the brink of solving the problem, or the song. If I stop, I fear that I might lose the process of spontaneity and creativity. The hardest part of making a song is thinking where one wants to start, because it is the least creative part of song making, because you aren’t necessarily allowing yourself to be spontaneous, this is a very premeditated part of music making, and doesn’t allow for the stream of consciousness to flow as much. The issue here is that on any given night, I typically have five-seven hours of homework to complete, as well as trying to sleep, go to the gym, and see my friends. Being able to balance all of these aspects was near impossible for me, but I learned to let go of the song by a certain time. If I wasn’t done with a song by a certain time in the night, I would breathe, and stop. When I came back to the song the next night, I would remind myself what key it is in, and I would allow myself to improvise from there (I refuse to keep in my head what ideas I should put into my song next, because there is a disparity between a sound in my head, and how it actually sounds on a particular instrument). Time management is the greatest virtue of all.

This semester, I worked on a song entitled, “Cape Cod Heroine.” This song pertained to the heroin epidemic that has plagued my hometown. I wanted to do something in order to advocate for better treatment facilities on Cape (since we do not have long term rehabilitation clinics) and also the dangers of heroin. I acknowledge the fact that I can’t sing, but I solved this problem by finding pieces of a documentary and constructing a narrative with a melody behind it in order to intentionally set a mood, and create an environment in which the listener is able to engage their self with the material, or the song in this case. As a future educator, the quintessential aspect of teaching is engaging students with the material, as a musician, the goal is quite similar. I want to immerse the listener and make them think, while also enjoying the melodies. A lot of conventional songwriting will be delivered in a processed format (intro, verse, chorus, refrain etc…) and that might be a wholesale approach towards sending a message or an idea out to people, but this is not necessarily the most engaging way of doing so. I wanted to avoid the standard format, because I believe that trying something different catches the listener’s attention much more. I have provided below a link to my artist page (Uncle Ephrum) and the song I made (Cape Cod Heroine).

A Lesson on the F-Word (Failure)

An Example of How People Can Learn in Different Ways:

Since I have been home over spring break, I have had the opportunity to catch up with my Mom, who has been my rock throughout my entire life, and has inspired me to be the better person every single day. She has worked as a diagnostic technician in the ER for 25 years and has recently decided to move into another career. The issue was that she had to take a typing test in order to get a job, as well as take an extensive anatomy and physiology test. The concern my Mom had was that she is dyslexic and is not able to type to the standards that the test requires. She asked me if I would be willing to help her study and practice for the exam and I replied saying that I would be more than glad to help.

In order for my mom to pass the typing test, she needed to type at least 30 words per minute (WPM) and she was, at the time, only typing about 0-5 WPM (if typos are taking into consideration). In addition, my Mom was only allowed 10 mistakes on an exam with 100 matching responses. My Mom also told me that we only had three days to study, which made me a little nervous, but I did not want to express that, because I believed in my Mom, because I have seen how much she has been able to provide as a single Mother.

As an aspiring educator, a lesson that I quickly learned in working with my Mom was that I need to further step out of my comfort zone of instruction, typically, I tend to be encouraging and nurturing as a tutor, because I don’t want students to shut down if they get the answer incorrect. With my Mom however, I quickly realized this was not the teaching strategy she needed, or wanted for that matter, because she is use to high pressure and stress, and encouragement doesn’t allow her to focus to the best of her ability. One of the first ideas I had to accommodate for my Mom was to have her be engaged in her typing test (she has told me that she has a lot of difficulty concentrating on a computer). I think one of the greatest problems with online typing tests is that they typically pertain to arbitrary topics that don’t allow people to necessarily see the big picture and importance of being able to digitally communicate in the 21st century. What I ended up doing is relating the typing test back to my Mom’s work environment, where the Emergency Room is high stress, I wanted to convey that sense of urgency by telling my mom she had to pretend that she was typing in the information for an injured patient, and the information had to be completed within a minute, in order for the patient in critical condition to have a greater chance of surviving. This instantly boosted my Mom’s typing speed up to 10 WPM, which made both of us happy, because progress was being made.

My Mom hit her first hurdle at 10 WPM, so I had to up the ante in terms of providing the work environment my Mom is able to thrive in. She told me that she is an auditory learner and she has great difficulty writing words on a screen. I decided it would be a good idea to ask her who the most demanding Doctor is in the ER in order to get the most efficiency out of her typing, she responded by saying “Dr. X” is the best in terms of motivating people, due to his high standards and fast-paced work ethic. “He is also known to be a hot-head and not accept excuses,” my Mom explained. I was a bit nervous to have to act as an a loud doctor towards my Mom, because I am not the type who likes to put direct pressure on people, nor do I like to raise my voice, but I was also willing to try this in order to best replicate her work environment, in order to show the application of typing skills in the real world. When my Mom began typing, I would yell off the first sentence once, while also stating the time she had left, to illicit pressure. Additionally, if I saw she was over-concentrating and getting stuck on a word (typically it was a smaller word) I would try to lower her level of concentration by telling her the condition of the patient. At this point my Mom was typing at 15 WPM, which is the halfway point for the typing test.

I had one more idea to have my Mom act as if she were really in the hospital working, and I had two ideas: The first idea being that she cannot look at the screen and type at the same time, so I told my Mom to say the sentence under her breath while she was typing, since she is an auditory learner (and also I was not allowed in the testing room so I could not read the sentences for her). Secondly, I went online and found stock ER sounds (EKG machine, the sounds of stretchers, etc…) to simulate her work environment. Before each test, I would tell her to take a deep breath and only focus on the task at hand. At this juncture, her typing was up to 20 WPM. Unfortunately, she was having difficulty consistently getting above 20 WPM, and she was getting discouraged.

I emphasized to my Mom that she was capable of getting to 30 WPM, because I had seen her at points typing upwards of 40 WPM, but she would break her stride by either getting too focused and caught on a single word, or she would have too many typos. I couldn’t stress enough that she already has the capacity to type above the threshold she needed, and that boosted her confidence a little bit, but ultimately she did not pass the typing test.

In terms of the Physiology test, I know that having multiple people practice with each other yields a greater chance of acquiring deeper learning, so I learned the definitions and terms, and we both quizzed each other, and I made sure that when I was reading off either definitions, or terms, that all of my explanations were auditory based, because that is her best way of retaining information. For words that were similar, I would use alliteration and other mnemonic devices in order for the information to be stored in our memory. When we practiced the test out loud, she excelled and was not getting any questions incorrect, but when she went to take the exam online, following the typing test, she also did not pass the physiology test.

Failure Can Only Exist When There is no Commitment to Learning & Teaching:

In my mind, I thought I had failed my Mom at first when she did not pass these two tests, but I realized that she had demonstrated her proficiency in the content of the skills she needed, but her tests did not necessarily accommodate her needs as a test-taker. When a test is only given through one medium, it doesn’t allow the test-taker to project their comprehension if they have a learning disability, and this can easily be applied to the macro scale with common assessments, do we want to test everyone to have the same level of proficiency, or are we testing everyone to have the same proficiency in a particular format? We can’t have the expectation that people learn in the same way, but in a profession, I understand the necessity for people to demonstrate their proficiency.

My Mom and I were not upset in the end, because she was thankful for how much she was able to learn in a short period of time, whereas I was incredibly proud of my Mom for how much she grew in three days. I’m a firm believer that the growth of someone is much more indicative of quality education than what they can demonstrate in a particular form of assessment. I saw my Mom step out of her comfort zone, and she ended up having a fall back strategy, which my Mom and I talked about in the event she didn’t pass the test, I told her that my Professor told us that we should at least have three other options if our first plan does not work out the way we would have desired.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that failure cannot possibly exist when someone can grow in their learning and grow as a person. If a person does not succeed the first time, that does not make them a failure, but they simply haven’t reached their desired outcome, there is always a lesson in success, and there is an even greater lesson in failing, it allows us to see how we can grow when we didn’t get our desired outcome. It is incredibly easy to thrive when we are used to succeeding, because we have a sense of confidence, but when we fail, is really where actual learning begins, because it makes us re-evaluate, it makes us plan, and it makes us grow as people.