SPED+5030+Five+Best+Practices

=//Five Best Practices//=

After reading and viewing videos about the Children's Defense Fund //Freedom Schools,// Edutopia's //Digital Education Project// and //Project Learning//, and Doing What Works' //"Ability is Expandable,"// I have selected what I feel to be the five best practices from these resources to explore further and apply to my own learning and teaching. The links to the specific websites and videos are directly beneath my commentaries. My five best practices are:

1. High quality academic enrichment combined with parent and family involvement 2. Empower students to learn how to learn 3. Don't just learn about things, do things 4. Focus learning to life skills, not just to standards 5. Teach students that abilities are expandable, not fixed

Best Practice 1: By involving students' parents and family in their learning experience, combined with high quality academic enrichment, students can feel like they can learn in a safe and supportive environment. Additionally, their comfort level and connectedness to their own cultures and communities can also be enhanced. I believe this is important for students to have a sense of, in fact, I feel it is much more important for students to feel this rather than feel that in order to be successful they need to move away from home to pursue a stereotypically "successful" career path. Many urban and rural students (more so than suburban students) may be faced with the difficult choice of leaving for college to better themselves or stay close to home to ensure the well-being of their families. I believe in students feeling like they can define their own success, as opposed to achieving the traditional, American Dream version of success that has been ingrained into the psyche of Americans for generations. This version of success is unattainable for many students, and it undermines and contradicts the American ideals of individualism and creating one's own success. The Freedom Schools aim to connect students directly to their community and cultures, as well as promote civic engagement and social action. In my opinion, educational options such as Freedom Schools are hidden gems for students of all types. @http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/freedom-schools/

Best Practice 2: While learning how to teach, and seeing teaching in practice at my partner school every week, I'm convinced that one of the most important things teachers can do is teach students how to learn. In other words, teachers can't just teach content to meet state and district standards or prep for standardized tests, they must teach students that they can be ongoing, lifelong learners. In the "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts" video, the teacher emphasizes empowering students. By empowering students (which can happen in many ways), we can teach students that they can learn the what, where, when, who, why, and how of practically anything on their own, especially with today's technology. With technology, students can also become "critical creators" who can learn about, create, share, and teach their findings. I liked how the teacher pointed out that she doesn't know everything the students will learn, and that she doesn't have to; the students end up teaching her everyday. @http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers

Best Practice 3: In Expeditionary Learning, as discussed in the Project Learning video, students don't just learn about things, they do things. Like an expedition, there is a commitment to an end objective (learning goal) in which people work together to reach that objective, making relationships and connections important, while accepting all consequences along the way (challenges, setbacks, etc.). I think this is a useful metaphor to learning, especially the commitment part, which ties into my fifth best practice below. @http://www.edutopia.org/stw-maine-pbl

Best Practice 4: This one is fairly simple, and yet no less important for a teacher to remember in the midst of constantly aligning their instruction to explicit state and district standards. Learning can't just be about meeting prescribed standards, it must also teach skills and tools that students will surely need and use throughout their lives. Skills and tools such as creativity, cooperation, problem-solving, time-management, and goal-setting, just to name a few, will be invaluable for students as they continue their academic careers and beyond. @http://www.edutopia.org/stw-maine-pbl

Best Practice 5: Scientific research has revealed that there is a direct connection between how students perceive their ability and their academic success. What does this mean for teachers? It means that teachers are in positions of great power when it comes to teaching students that ability is expandable, that abilities and skills can improve with effort. They can teach students, even if they aren't science teachers, that the brain grows as we learn, practice, and repeat tasks, and that a wide variety of challenges also helps the brain expand and grow. It's important to emphasize that this growth is not immediate, but takes time and effort. This is a best practice for me largely because of my music background. Any seasoned musician knows that improvement and growth is not instant and that it isn't about talent, it's about effort. Almost more importantly, however, it's about believing in your ability to learn and improve - believing that ability is expandable and is not fixed, and being committed to your own learning goals. As my double bass professor always told his students, "You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink." This idea of student self-motivation and a positive perception of one's abilities, however, does not come naturally for some students, and as teachers we need to do what we can to help these students know and believe that they can learn and grow. @http://dww.ed.gov/Encouraging-Girls/Ability-Is-Expandable/practice/?T_ID=18&P_ID=34