How
did you find HSLI?
I found about the school while at my previous
workplace. I interviewed at One Fordham Plaza. There were a whole bunch of
people there, about five or six. There was a panel of questions that were being
asked and I responded to those questions.
How
did people in the school meet for the first time?
It was awkward. That was when I first found out
theories behind Learning Cultures. It was a good time for team building.
Overall, it started out awkward but I ended up happy. We started out in HSLI for
planning. At that planning were those who were interviewed earlier.
The ones interviewed later met on the bus in Indiana
[enroute to a Learning Cultures conference].
What
makes our school different from other schools you've been involved in?
Colleague relationships:
I find myself actually willing to be a lot more open
with colleagues, talking, being very up front when we're having team-related
discussions or talking about work-related issues. I find myself having a bond
more with colleagues outside of school. Even with long days, I find myself with
more time to create a personal bond with colleagues. This bumps up the level of
trust. Even when I've had doubts about whether to trust people, at this school
I find myself giving more a try to trusting people.
Student-teacher relationships:
First of all, it's amazing even though these are
teenagers--they're so many areas where they're in the stage of growing--but
it's amazing to see how much they can actually do. I've never trusted students
so much before. If a student says, "Hey, I'm going to be over here after
school." I know the student will be there.
Something I have not seen as much before, is
students showing sympathy/empathy for each other. Seeing that level of
sympathy/empathy. And kids being more open with other kids, and attempting to
resolve their own issues in order to promote each others’ learning and thinking.
In Unison Reading for example, seeing kids solving conflicts without too much
personal feelings attached to things--at least not during the class time. To
me, this says how strong this particular model is.
What
is the future like for the math department?
Last year, was the beginning of a trial stage. We
ended up in a good place last year, considering we really only had a couple of months to practice this model.
I can see how questioning can be so
important--helping them build up their critical thinking. But when I look over
my lessons from previous years, it's like Regents Prep.
But now, I see teaching more as getting students to
start questioning more on their own. Working with peers to solve questions on
their own.
I want the students to become more autonomous and
independent in the classroom and not to come to me as a first source. Students
should come to me with a lot higher order questions, after working with their
peers. After they have collaborated together and formulated questions with
their peers. I still want to answer their questions with more questions to get
them thinking more about searching for solutions.
Where
do you see some or all of our students 5 years from now?
Personally, I don't agree with every student having
to go to college. With the skills they get from our school,
if they decide to go right into the workplace, I would say they would be ahead
of a lot of other students not graduating from this particular model.
For students who are going to college, I am very
optimistic about our students not dropping out of colleges for reasons relating
to being unprepared. Our students are becoming much more proficient at problem
solving and collaborative problem solving. In math, it takes a lot of hard work
and perseverance. With this and a lot of other skills such as independence and
autonomy, they will be a lot more successful in college.
With this model, it's interesting how we focus on
intentionality, pushing for kids to think from various perspectives. This is a
very important piece for kids when they get older. What we are doing here,
making decisions after examining so many different perspectives, will help them
become someone with a strong voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment