Final Project – Reflection on Learning and TeachingKathie Swanson

EDU-6525

Scarecrow – How the Brain

Learns

Cowardly Lion –Courage to Teach

Tin Man –Heart of Teaching

Wicked Witch of the West –

Challenges of Teachers and

Students

Dorothy –Teacher and

Learner

Toto – Teacher’s Spirit

Yellow Brick Road –Teacher’s Experiences

and Journey of Self-Discovery

Glinda the Good Witch – Mentors

Munchkins –Students

Ruby Slippers –Teaching

Strategies and Tools

Wizard of Oz –Paradoxes in

Teaching

Teacher and

Learner

“Dorothy is also an individual within a community, afamily of choice seeking wholeness with the support ofeach other. Each community member is a powerful allywithout whom the whole could not face the collectivechallenges that block their way forward. Eachcompanion is seeking something they already possesswithin themselves, but are so stuck in deflated notions

ofthemselves they cannot reclaim their whole selves. Andeach challenge is a chance for personal and collectivegrowth” (http://www.arlecchino.org/ilbagatino/oz/book1.html DH)

Like Dorothy, teachers face many challenges along the road of

education. To help navigate through these experiences, it is

important that they seek out other teachers to help form a

community based on collaboration and trust. Only then will

the teacher be able to find their wholeness as a result of

reflection and growth.

Throughout her journey along the yellow brickroad, Dorothy ran into people along the way whohelped her learn more about herself. In thissense, she was a life-long learner. As she metnew characters, she became their teacher byshowing them the qualities that they had inside ofthemselves. This idea of teaching and learningbeing a continual process is highlighted by Sousa and Palmer.

By collaborating with these characters, Dorothydeveloped important relationships that helped

herfind a sense of identity and integrity. In their

own way, each character helped her create a

communityfounded on trust and understanding – key

principlesof this course.

In doing so, Dorothy experienced several “critical moments” – moments in which a learning opportunity will open up, or shut down, depending on how the teacher handles it.

Teachers face critical moments in teaching and learning on a daily basis. Their ability to effectively deal with these moments are dependent upon their willingness to share their experiences in an open and honest way. It also includes being free of judgment and others deeming what is the right way.

Palmer, 150

Challenges

Just like the Wicked Witch of the West who posed challenges to Dorothy at every turn, teachers have to face a variety of challenges in their everyday lives. Dorothy comes to discover that the witch’s power was ineffective when wearing her ruby slippers. This is a truth that many teachers discover about the educational system when they establish a sense of identity and integrity. No matter what the challenge, the teacher hasnow developed a greater sense of their self to effectively utilize strategies and data to overcome them.

The school system promotes an environment of fear that includes:

Fear of failure Fear of diversity Fear of conflict Fear of losing identity Fear of being disconnected

Support – parents and teachers; too much, too little, in between?

Success vs. Failure – pressure to excel vs. fear of failure

Motivation – general sense of apathy Different learning styles Expectations Peer relationships

Support – administrators, parents, colleagues Discipline – student behavior Classroom Management – how the classroom is organized and run Motivation – student’s desire to learn and teacher’s desire to teach Technology – lack of technology or keeping up with ever-

changing growth in technology Lack of funding – less funding = less educational

opportunities Differentiation – incorporating a variety of learning methods Assessment – creating proper measures of student learning

Brain

“Teachers try to change the human brain every day. The more they know about how it learns, the more successful they can be” (Sousa, 3).

In order to best meet the different learning styles of students, it is important to first understand the different parts of the brain, how they work, and their role in learning. By doing so, the teacher can learn brain-friendly strategies to implement in the classroom.

Sensory registers Emotions/Past experiences Short-term vs. Long-term storage Working memory Sense and meaning (modeling, using

examples, closure)

Factors that affect these areas: Rehearsal Primacy-Recency Effect Teaching Methods Learning Two Similar Skills Circadian Rhythms Wait Time Chunking Power of Transfer

Left Hemisphere (analysis, sequence, speech, time)

Right Hemisphere (patterns, spatial, visual)

Male vs. FemaleLearning to ReadLearning a Second Language

Cognitive growthCreativity and imaginationDifferent learning stylesHelps students make personal and interpersonal connectionsBuilds greater sense of self- confidencePositive academic effectsHigher SAT scores

Complexity vs. Difficulty Guidance and practice Development of critical thinking,

creative thinking, and metacognition

Acronyms Chunking Closure Energizers Entry/Exit

questions Metaphors Movement

•Music•Primacy/Recency•Reflections•Small-group discussion•Snowballs•Summarize•Think-Pair-Share

By learning more about the brain and how itworks, a teacher can find answers to the

following questions:

How can I help students understand and remember more of what I teach?

How can I get students to find meaning in what they are learning? When do students remember best in a learning episode? What classroom strategies are more likely to appeal to today’s learners? Why is transfer such a powerful principle of learning? What important questions should I be asking myself as I plan lessons?

(Sousa, 6)

Courage

“In short, we tried to find the courage to keep on teaching even when faced with problems in the

classroom, self-doubts, and unanswerable questions” (Merritt, 39).

Teaching is a challenging and rewardingcareer that requires you to: Embrace contradictions and challenges in your

teaching life Understand and accept the paradoxes in teaching Share insights with colleagues Walk into your classroom and be yourself Find your inner self and accept truths Realize that learning is more process than product Celebrate successes and failures

The courage to teach is also the courage to discover who you are as a teacher, reflect on your qualities, and then put your ‘who’ out there for all to see.

This is a challenging, yet reflective experience, that is necessary if a teacher is to ever fully connect with their self and their students.

Heart

“The human heart is the source of all good teaching” (Palmer, 4).

Heart: a teacher’s identity and integrity

Characteristics: Teaching beyond technique Personal and public Truth Capacity for connectedness Empathy Commitment Compassion Patience Forgiveness Embracing paradoxes

“Face to face with my students, only one resource is at my immediate command: my identity, my selfhood, my sense of this ‘I’ who teaches – without which I have no sense of the ‘Thou’ who learns” (Palmer, 10).

A key theme of this course was the idea thatgood teaching does not come down simply totechnique, but rather it is a matter of heart. Asnoted by Palmer, in order to help makeconnections with students and to help themmake meaningful connections with the subject,the teacher must first discover their inner selfand apply the “who” to their teaching.

By discovering their inner self, the teacher is able to develop a sense of trust in their self-hood. This allows them to bring their subject to life through enthusiasm and passion.

This process encourages the development of identity and integrity and, in turn, encourages students to awaken a truth within themselves.

Without these two important traits, the work teachers and students do will lack meaning. This is because we teach who we are.

“…knowing my students and my subject depends heavily on self-knowledge. When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are. I will see them through a glass darkly, in the shadows of my unexamined life – and when I cannot see them clearly, I cannot teach them well” (Palmer, 2).

Spirit

“My teaching needed to be bigger than just the theory behind it: it needed to be a reflection of my own soul” (Merritt, 38).

A major theme in The Courage to Teach is the idea of the teacher’s inner spirit being at the heart of their teaching. It determines who we are, what we teach, and how we teach it.

In the film The Wizard of Oz, Toto represents this concept well. When he escaped the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West and led Dorothy’s friends to free her from the castle, it showed the idea that your ability to face obstacles and overcome them is dependent on your spirit. This is something that is always with you and can never be changed, just like Toto was always by Dorothy’s side throughout the film.

Upon their return to the Emerald City, Toto opened a curtain and revealed the Wizard of Oz to be an ordinary man operating a machine while speaking into a microphone. This showed how being in touch with one’s inner spirit will help you achieve truths about yourself as an individual, teacher, and student – all vital qualities of good teaching. In turn, this will contribute to your wholeness and help you get in touch with your students and subject matter.

Mentors

“The power of our mentors is not necessarily in the models of good teaching they gave us, models that may

turn out to have little to do with who we are as teachers. Their power is in their capacity to awaken truth within us, a truth we can reclaim years later by recalling their impact

on our lives” (Palmer, 22).

Throughout the film, Glinda the Good Witch serves as Dorothy’s source of guidance and encouragement. She helped Dorothy realize important truths about herself without actually telling her, including the idea that she had the ability to return to Kansas without the wizard’s help all along.

This is similar to teachers serving as mentors to students and colleagues. They are there to help guide along the mentee’s journey of self-realization without imposing their ideas about what is “right” and “wrong.” They also encourage reflection and assessment to improve teaching methods.

Characteristics of Mentors: Provide guidance Model behaviors Encourage reflection Ability to awaken a ‘truth’ within their

mentees Give a voice to the gift of thought

Students

“We must enter, not evade, the tangles of teaching so we can understand them better and negotiate them with more grace, not only to guard our own

spirits but also to serve our students well” (Palmer, 2).

Guiding today’s youth and helping them develop the necessary skills to be life-long learners is one of the reasons why many people go into teaching.

The Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz represent the relationship that teachers seek to build with their students. In the film, the Munchkins considered Dorothy to be a hero because her house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East and killed her – a representation of the challenges they face in school. By helping them overcome this obstacle, a sense of trust and appreciation was developed among the Munchkins. To show their gratitude, they encouraged Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to find her way to Oz.

This is similar to the relationship that is developed between good teachers and their students.

Students are more likely to be invested in a subject, apply meaning and sense to lessons, and work to achieve higher grades for a teacher that has developed a relationship of care, trust, and respect with them.

Paradoxes of Teaching

“Paradoxical thinking requires that we embrace a view of the world in which opposites are

joined, so that we can see the world clearly and see it whole” (Palmer, 69).

Separation of head and heart Separation of facts from feelings Separation of theory from practice Separation of technique from learning

Embracing Both-And:“Paradoxical thinking requires that we embrace a

view of the world in which opposites are joined, so that we can see the world clearly and see it

whole” (Palmer, 69).

These paradoxes are similar to the paradox that the Wizard of Oz represented in the film.

The Wizard was represented as a grand, mystical figure with magical powers that could help the characters achieve their desired goals. As grand ruler of the Land of Oz, he was viewed as a person of great authority. Because of this, he chose to use his ability to promote a culture of fear among his subjects. In reality, the Wizard was just an ordinary person born in Kansas whose runaway hot air balloon led him to Oz. He really had no special powers.

He acknowledged this fact and helped the characters realize that the powers they were searching for were in them all along. In doing so, he represented the paradox in truth vs. fallacy – a common theme in education today.

Teacher’s Experiences and Journey of Self-

Discovery

The yellow brick road is a symbol of the long journey that Dorothy had to take to reach a level of self-actualization and inner truth. By meeting the characters that she did and experiencing various challenges along the way, she learned more about herself. She also helped others learn more about themselves, thereby serving the role of teacher. In the end, the characters discovered that what they were looking for was in them all along. This was a major theme of this course.

The art and science of teaching exists within all of us as teachers. By understanding that teaching is a process and not a product, we are able to utilize these concepts within the classroom to achieve the goal of student learning.

Along the way, we learn more about ourselves as individuals and what qualities exist within us to achieve our goals along the proverbial yellow brick road of education.

Teaching Strategies and Tools

The implications derived from the research, data, and reflection emphasized in this course will have a major impact on 21st century teachers.

By knowing that teaching is both a science and art, one can implement brain-friendly strategies along with their ‘who’ to create a classroom environment that promotes student learning.

It is important to help students discover their inner voice and to apply their own ‘truth’ and meaning to experiences rather than teachers determining that truth for them.

By making the classroom student AND subject-centered, the teacher is creating an environment where a student finds identity and purpose.

It is necessary to utilize differentiation to best meet the needs of different learning styles. In doing so, it is important to increase the level of complexity in questions to help students think more critically.

In order to find this sense of truth, it is important to create a sense of community among students and teachers from which to build trust.

To create such a community, a teacher must recognize that they teach who they are. So, the question that must be asked is: ‘Who are you?’ By exploring this truth and its relationship to education, the teacher finds meaning and purpose. In turn, their students find meaning and purpose in what they are teaching.

It is important to utilize a variety of different brain-friendly strategies, but to also recognize that technique is not what makes a teacher – heart does.

By applying the heart of teaching in the classroom, a teacher is able to make connections with their students and real learning will occur.

When combined with knowledge of how the brain works, lessons that engage and promote a transfer of learning will occur.

Like the ruby slippers that guided Dorothy along the yellow brick road, teachers also have a variety of effective strategies to gear them towards their goal of good teaching.

To achieve this goal, I plan to implement many strategies from this course into my own classroom. They fall under the categories of the science and art of teaching.

Use research to help guide my teaching Promote higher-level thinking skills Help students understand their own learning

styles Keep in mind the Primacy-Recency Effect when

planning lessons Find ways to better incorporate wait time and

classroom energizers Use closure to enhance sense and meaning Utilize more arts, music, and movement Design activities and assessments for both

hemispheres of the brain

Build a sense of community among students and colleagues

Allow my students to determine their own ‘truth’; don’t assume that my interpretation is the correct one

Acknowledge and embrace the paradoxes in teaching Help students find meaning and value through their

experiences Promote success and failure Show compassion, empathy, and understanding without

instilling a culture of fear Encourage students to take risks and challenge their

own views Continue to be enthusiastic about my subject and

students, for they are what teaching is all about!

“My job is to use my energy, enthusiasm, and skill to propel the object itself into the center of our attention while creating a learning environment where all understand truth as the passionate and disciplined process of inquiry and dialogue itself, as the dynamic conversation of a community that keeps testing old conclusions and coming up with new ones” (Palmer, 104).

The End

Bell-Arlechinno Malbenvolio, John Griogair. http://www.arlecchino.org/ilbagatino/oz/book1.html

Palmer, Parker J. (2007). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pritchard, Massengil, Merritt, Jackl (2007). “The Courage to Teach: A Review.” The Quarterly, 34, 37-40.

Sousa, David A. (2006). How the Brain Learns: A Classroom Teacher’s Guide, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.