Penelope’s Lead Teacher Interview EDU650: Teaching Learning and Leading in the 21st Century (NMA1514B) Instructor: Stephen Halfaker May 10, 2015 Ashford University

Penelope’s Introduction Objective: I have always longed to be a Seventh Grade English Literature teacher. I have always had a love for reading literature and writing. The two combined are not only enjoyable, but they are Common Core State Standard subjects. I feel that my passion for teaching, combined with my love for English, Reading Literacy and Writing will benefit for the school and my students’ futures. Even more so, I love teaching children how to be effective adults. I have always had a love for reading literature and writing. The two combined are not only enjoyable, but they are Common Core State Standard subjects. I feel that my passion for teaching, combined with my love for English, Reading Literacy and Writing will benefit for the school and my students’ futures. Even more so, I love teaching children how to be effective adults. Provided are the details for my contributions towards a better education for schools that focus on Backwards Design, Profession Learning Communities in a modern, skill level based school.

Penelope’s Teaching Philosophy As an instructor of reading literacy and writing, my main goal with my students is to encourage students, regardless of their skill levels to believe in themselves as future college students and business entrepreneurs. I want every student that crosses my path to experience education that is informative, motivational, inspirational, and boundless. I will even integrate a little bit of spiritualism in order to encourage humanitarians as well as scholars. In my classroom, I will guide my students with open ended questions, and give every one of them an opportunity to be the star of the show, to be the one that guides and teaches us what they have learned in their own style. They will discover themselves and be inspired by knowing they are encouraged as brilliant individuals with the free will to be whatever they want to be. In my classroom, the ends of the universe are their limit. They will be the teachers, not I. In me, my students will find a teacher that is open minded, communicative, but also very solid about punctuality and respect for others. I will communicate openly with every one of my student’s parents, and treat each of them with respect knowing that they are entrusting me with their impressionable minds, hearts and spirits. I will teach my students the core curriculum and integrate other wonderful educational subjects using digital devices with advanced learning technology, and creative, IEP based lesson plans, activities, projects and assessments. One of my highest priorities with my students is their safety and their sense of security, that is why I will reiterate on a daily basis the importance of accepting one’s differences. We will celebrate each individual student and their own diverse cultures.

My Role As The Lead Teacher To be an effective lead teacher, according to the article, ISTC Standards Teachers, I must facilitate and inspire my students. I must integrate lesson plans that utilize and take advantage of the technology within our current digital age. Assessments, lesson plans and even community leadership all require digital age awareness. As a lead teacher, I will engage and encourage professional growth and leadership within my student body and global community. I must design my classroom so that date and information, as well as tools and resources are easily accessible to my students and Learning Leadership team. I must be able to adapt myself to a students individual learning skill level, and be able to empathize when they need help with things both subject related and personal related. I must be communicative, but even more so, I need to make my students feel welcome to communicate with me openly about all of their concerns. My focus will be Common Core State Standard focused, but we will integrate fun and creativity so that students are able to enjoy these required subjects fully while learning them. According to the article, Teaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to survive, today teachers must be visionaries and be creative with the educational approaches which often will require risk taking and taking direct advice and even criticism from my students and peers. But I will see the feedback as necessary direction for my teaching approaches. No matter how much of a lead teacher I am by title, the Students are the true leaders. Teaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to surviveTeaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to survive

Penelope’s Classroom Management Plan My Promises to My Students: I promise to my students to respect them every bit as much as they are expected to respect each other.  I will outline and discuss the classroom and curriculum rules and regulations thoroughly. I will answer any questions you have about them. We as Profession Educational Leaders are always open to our student’s ideas on how we can improve the curriculum. I encourage each and every student to communicate their concerns and ideas any time. Many businesses call this “the open door policy.”  I will make sure that all assignments, projects and assessments are thoroughly explained until each and every one of my students are on the same page.  I will work with each and every one of my students individually as well as relate to them as a whole classroom and student body. Assignments: I will be teaching my classroom with a backwards design (The Flipped Classroom). I will be teaching my classroom with a backwards design. Instead of having projects, papers and worksheets as homework, they will do the reading, note taking, and media watching while they are home and be ready for discussions and participation. Participation and quality of in-school work will show a student’s involvement with their studying while they are at home. My Students Promises To Me, Themselves and Their Fellow Classmates:  Every Student is expected to respect their personal spaces and keep their hands and unfriendly comments to themselves at all times.  Every student is responsible for following classroom and curriculum rules and regulations during and after school. Treat others as you wish to be treated.  Students are to come to class prepared and with their homework assignments finished.  Students are not allowed to be disruptive, or disrespectful.  Students are expected to be at school and in their classrooms on time. Consequences Students can lose points on their projects and final grade for off task behavior. Students can be sent out of classroom to designated areas of time-out where the student will be expected to take on an extra assignment which revolves around reflection for their behavior. Students can also be made to give a speech to the class teaching them why they cannot do such behavior and give direct examples.

Effective School Model According to the Scholarly Article, Leadership in the Classroom, the traditional classroom is changing. Student’s are no longer bound to a single classroom, but rather they move to different classrooms based on the skill level of a specific subject ( Kovach, 2014). Even more interestingly, schools today are using more and more technology, such as telecommuting having online digital courses instead of traditional classrooms. Classrooms are being laid out in other seating arrangements other than just by rows and seats, but in circles and half circles. Students are leading the class and teaching, rather than the teachers doing all of the talking and asking questions. According to No Excuses University, an effective school’s homework is done the opposite way, in a flipped classroom, where the reading and lectures are being presented at home, and the homework is being done in classrooms which is called the flipped classroom ( Lopez, 2013). More focus is being put into the common core state standards, rather than being designed by textbook units this way that in the classrooms, there are more times for the projects and hands on activities. These are just some examples of the many ways a school could begin to change from the traditional school models. According to the video, New Classrooms Overview 1, the traditional school where classrooms are filled with students, the students are taught at a classroom level rather than teaching students individually. Using modalities, you can have your students work in either small groups or by themselves using technology such as computers, laptops, or video games, or let students learn by themselves with books. These are various types of learning models that are within the same classroom environment. As a lead teacher, I would run my classroom using modalities ( Swanwic, 2011).

Effective Lesson Plan An effective lesson plan is developed from the Common Core State Standards up. Then the teacher is to make an effective lesson plan that involves giving formative and summative lessons, as well as other surveys to discover the multiple intelligences and learning preferences of all of the students. We need to discover our students strengths and weaknesses and design our lesson plans according to their skill levels. According to the textbook, According to the textbook, Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots, an effective lesson plan will have clear objectives, and make sure our lessons have purpose in order to avoid accidental learning (Newman, 2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots Effective Lesson Plans involve the Backwards Design model. Effective Lesson Plans follow the KUD Statement layout, in displaying what students Know, Understand and are able to Do. Effective Lesson plans will expand a lesson based on the results of assessments and the assessments will prove the effectiveness of the lesson. Effective Lesson plans will base on previous units and future units, rather than just randomly jump from topic to topic.

Assessment Matters Assessments have important roles that directly deal with the improvement of schools. Not only must these assessments be integrated to fit students skill levels and needs, but they must also meet common core standards and statewide standardized tests which measure not just students but how teachers and schools are measuring up. Instead of stressing about these standardized tests and putting so much focus on them, we should simply concentrate on the students getting all of the concepts thoroughly, so that they understand many different ways to think. Critical thinking plays a huge roll in how well students study and perform in assessments. It is these thinking skills, study skills, listening and comprehension skills that we must master, so that when it comes time for standardized tests, they are ready for them intellectually, not just based on memorization. As a teacher, it is important for me to understand the roles of summative and formative assessments. As mentioned by the video, Cultivating Thriving Schools, it is important for schools to be able to track how they and other schools are doing both academically and competitively especially in reading skills, mathematic skills and graduation levels. He mentions that science, technology and history should remain important in order to connect themselves to the world, other countries and cultures. What defines a good school are students that know things, and assessments are necessary to not only track their abilities, but to discover just where students learn best. According to the video, Assessment for Learning, a good formative assessment for students is the Green Light, Yellow Light, Red Light assessment, where students can tell you based on their understanding of a subject, whom I have to work more with and who the excelling students can work with ( Rystad, 2013).

Professional Learning Communities To be a successful teacher and to have a successful school with successful students, a school must have teachers that maintain a close network with each other and be less competitive about their teaching approaches. There is nothing more than a groups of Learning Leadership Professionals that are focused more on the success of their students, rather than their own success, which will in the end reward itself. An effective Learning Community will involve teachers, students, other members of student families, other figures within politics or business owners that help show their support to their local schools. According to the Newman textbook, in order to have a successful Learning community, you have to have a community that that collaborative, cooperative and coordinated (Newman, 2013). Colleagues have to gain trust with each other, and share their ideas with each other for the benefit of the school. As a Educations Leadership group, educational professionals have to be focused, and have purpose with mutual goals. Everyone should be supportive of everyone else.

References Kovach, J. V. (2014). Leadership in the "Classroom". Journal For Quality & Participation, 37(1), Lopez, D. (2013). No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools (2nd ed.).Turnaround Schools Publications. No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schoolsNo excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dotsTeaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots Swanwic, Robert. (2011, December 14). New classrooms overview part 1 [Video File]. Retrieved from New classrooms overview part 1 classrooms overview part 1 TEDxTalks. (2011, August 2014). TEDxSoCal – Dr. Brian Stecher – Cultivating Thriving Schools [Video file]. Retrieved from TEDxSoCal – Dr. Brian Stecher – Cultivating Thriving SchoolsTEDxSoCal – Dr. Brian Stecher – Cultivating Thriving Schools Rystad, M. (2013, April 7). Assessment for learning [Video file]. Retrieved from Assessment for learningAssessment for learning International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE Standards Teachers. Retrieved from 14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf ISTE Standards TeachersISTE Standards Teachers Churches, A. (2009). Teaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to survive. Retrieved from Teaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to surviveTeaching skills: What 21st century educators need to learn to survive