Why does this bother me?

First, because some of my students check in on this blog, I want to be clear that the thoughts presented here represent my own issues and are not meant to shame my students or dismiss their perspective. Second, for my 200th post, I thought I would share one of my issues with you. So, consider yourself warned.

Near the end of the semester, I often ask students to reflect on the course and write a letter advising future students on what to expect. (I wrote about it here.) This time, I asked them to narrow it down to three important points. One student wrote:

"This is an education class not a math class."

For some reason, this point really bothered me. I do not know how my student intended it (and it doesn't matter - this is about me), but I took it negatively. One of the ways I can tell I have had a button pushed is when I start getting defensive. So when I began to line up all my arguments, like soldiers on a battlefield, in order to attack this point, I knew that it was time to take a step back and consider why I was uncomfortable with this point.

It did not come to me immediately, but then yesterday I read these Tweets, 

and the linked articles (here and here, respectively). Both use reports from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) to reinforce the narrative that U.S. efforts to train teachers are "abysmal." Yes, I know that the NCTQ teacher prep rankings are non-sense (none other than Linda Darling-Hammond makes the case) but I seem to have bought into the non-sense. Therefore, when the student wrote that my course was an "education class," I began to worry that I was part of the problem.

Most teachers can probably understand this line of thinking. Regardless of what we know about the realities of education, the message seems to be that teachers in the U.S. are to blame for all of our educational ills, whether real or imagined. Therefore, I want to do all I can to "make things better" - even if it is unwarranted.

A friend of mine once told me that if my buttons were being pushed, then I needed to move my buttons. In this case, I needed to shift my attention to aspects of the course that were preparing these future teachers for the realities of the profession; this was, after all the overarching goal of the course.

Please pardon me if this next piece seems self-serving, but I need to acknowledge some of the points other students shared:

• Keep up with the readings! They are very important towards your teaching future.
• As future teachers you understand that the main goal is helping the students learn. That is your professor's goal as well!
• You will work extensively in collaboration with your peers, as you will as future classroom teachers.
• Do not procrastinate! Otherwise you will have an overwhelming amount of work to do.
• Put a ton of effort into this class even though a lot of the things that you do won't be graded because you will get out what you put into the class.
• Take time to reflect on different aspects of class because there is a lot of useful information, and you want to be sure you have learned most, if not all, of it.

Reviewing these, there does seem to be a lack of attention to the mathematical content; this is something to consider for next time. However, as education classes go, I am satisfied that this course provided students with some of the tools necessary for success in teaching: reading research, focusing on learning, being prepared, giving less attention to grades and more on learning, and recognizing the importance of reflection. 

What does it take to be a full professor?

According to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at GVSU, it takes this. I am in the process of preparing my materials to be evaluated for promotion to full professor which includes the writing of an Integrative Statement. As I have done before, I would like to share my efforts with you in order to make my thinking visible and to get your feedback. It is a long statement (all of eight pages), so I understand if you want to skip this post.

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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) values a balanced and flexible academic life that includes teaching, scholarship/creative activity, and service.

Preface of CLAS Standards & Criteria for Personnel Evaluation

Introduction: My View of Academic Life

Before Joint Appointment

I am grateful to work in a college that recognizes the value of “a balanced and flexible academic life.” In order to find that balance, I envision my teaching, scholarship, and service using a Venn diagram. With teaching being my primary focus, I see it as representing the largest portion of my efforts. Because the nature of our work tends to pull us in different directions, I try to concentrate the rest of my academic efforts in the areas that overlap.

After Joint Appointment

Maintaining balance was especially important these past three years as I shared time between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) and the College of Education (COE). My joint appointment resulted in new courses to teach, more scholarship opportunities, and extra service expectations. As I became comfortable in this appointment, I saw how the experience provided an opportunity to expand each of these areas. Consequently, the overlapping areas that represent my balanced academic life also expanded.

In this integrative statement, I intend to share several stories of the work I have engaged in that demonstrate my attempts to lead a balanced academic life while meeting the CLAS expectations of promotion to full professor. Since my joint appointment has been central to my recent growth as an academic, many stories will come from that experience. These experiences do not represent the complete picture, however. I will also share how my efforts to improve my teaching of courses in the Department of Mathematics lead to greater opportunities for scholarship and service. This integrative statement concludes with an overview of future plans for my academic life. In order to put this information into context, I begin by providing an overview of my efforts in each of the academic areas.

(If you are reading this document electronically and have access to the Internet, hyperlinks have been included that will take you to online content offering further information regarding my academic efforts.)

Overview: Teaching, Scholarship, and Service

The CLAS considers effective teaching as the primary responsibility of its faculty. This emphasis is one of the reasons I joined GVSU, and data from peers and students recognize that I am dedicated to enhancing learning. Colleagues’ comments from classroom visitations acknowledge my efforts to create an environment where students take a central role in their learning. Furthermore, the average response to question #15 (“I have benefited by having this instructor.”) on student evaluations is usually between 1 and 2 indicating strong agreement or agreement with this statement (see Appendix A). The stories shared in the remainder of this document include specific examples of other ways I have demonstrated a commitment to teaching effectiveness. In order to make the rationale supporting my promotion to full professor clear, the CLAS criteria for effective teaching are coded in blue and precede the narrative. (Teaching artifacts are found in Appendix B.)

In the area of scholarship, I have a consistent record of contributing to the areas of education and mathematics education. This includes research papers, articles for practitioner journals, the sharing of resources through social media, and presentations to local, state, national, and international audiences. My 2010 TEDx Talk and 2011 keynote at a mathematics conference in Canada represent my recent efforts to continually expand my contributions to my discipline (see Appendix C). Again, throughout the remainder of this statement, the CLAS criteria for scholarship introduce the narrative rationale; this time the criteria are coded in red.

Since my last promotion, service is probably the area of my greatest growth. The joint appointment played a prominent role in that growth and contributed significantly to my meeting of the CLAS expectations for promotion to full professor. One of the major goals of the Appointment was to foster greater collaboration between the CLAS and the COE. As a result, I was added to the Professional Teacher Education Advisory Council (PTEAC), assigned to guide a new CLAS major with an education focus through the university’s governance system, included as the co-principle investigator on a state grant for teacher improvement, asked to help redesign the COE’s teacher assisting seminar, and drafted to be one of the CLAS representatives on a project to develop an experimental teacher preparation program (see Appendix D). In many cases, these experiences overlapped with my efforts in teaching and scholarship, but where they specifically address the CLAS criteria for service the points are coded in green

The remainder of this integrative statement highlights the ways that I have met or exceeded the CLAS expectations for promotion to full professor. Because I tend to focus on where the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service overlap, these highlights are organized by story and not by area. In each case, color-coded expectations precede the related evidence. My integrative statement concludes with a discussion of how my past experiences and accomplishments will frame future efforts in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Evidence of Meeting Criteria for Promotion to Full Professor

Applying the Research in Literacy Instruction to Mathematics

Because it is a rich but often under utilized resource for enhancing mathematics education, I am exploring ways to apply research-based literacy models to the teaching and learning of mathematics. Books and conferences on literacy instruction have provided a wealth of ideas that I have tried in my mathematics education courses. I have used learning centers, the workshop model, and the gradual release of responsibility and written about the experiences on my blog (see hyperlinks).

• Continual course development to enhance learning

In 2007, I began using learning centers in MTH 221. This involved developing activities that had several different stations situated around the classroom. Each station had a different activity related to a central theme, like polygons. Because so many preservice elementary teachers take this course, I wanted to model how an approach used widely in literacy instruction could be modified for teaching math.

• Dedication to students, including treating students respectfully and being available to them outside of class

The workshop model has been used in my courses since 2008. It is an instructional approach that includes four parts: schema activation, focus, activity, and reflection. Its goal is to provide learners with a familiar framework in which they can explore unfamiliar ideas. Workshops assigned outside of class respects students as self-directed learners while offering a variety of resources that provide structured support. This support includes the use of instructional technology (such as email, BlackBoard, and Twitter) that increases my availability beyond office hours.

• Timely, fair and instructive evaluation of student work
•  Clear communication with students

Another framework that I have applied from literacy instruction is the gradual release of responsibility. Through formative assessment, I evaluate what students can do and where they struggle and try to offer support that moves them forward. Sometimes what they need is a demonstration. Other times it is group practice, or maybe they need time to practice on their own. Ultimately, the goal is for students to learn to be able to ask for the level of support they need in order to be successful.

Students’ written evaluations that suggest I be less vague indicate that some of them expect greater support than I have provided. Being explicit about the level of support I am offering has helped me to address some of the issues students have with vague expectations, but clearly I must be even more intentional about outlining the students’ responsibility in the process. I plan to include more reflective papers that ask them to identify their struggles and the appropriate support they need.

• Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley State University
• Work-in-Progress

I have worked with colleagues in the Department of Mathematics to share how we apply literacy ideas to mathematics with a larger audience. I have presented sessions on the literacy-mathematics connection at local, state, national, and international conferences. In 2008, Dr. Billings and I wrote an article for Teaching Children Mathematics describing how reading strategies were used in a course for preservice elementary teachers.  Recently, a group of us submitted a paper to Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School on how the workshop model supports the teaching of the Mathematical Practices from Common Core State Standards.

Social Media

Over the past year, I began exploring how technology might be applied to education. As the role social media is playing in the lives of our students continues to grow, it seems important to find ways to leverage this medium. I decided to pay particular attention to the areas of Twitter and blogging.

• Clear communication with students

Two summers ago, Dr. Golden and I brainstormed ways to use Twitter with our teacher assistants. We thought it might be a way to stay connected with them while they were in their placements. It also offered the opportunity for us to make our thinking visible to our students. As we tweeted seminar ideas back and forth, the teacher assistants could “listen” in. Dr. Golden piloted the project the Fall of 2010, and we soon found that there was a worldwide network of teachers that we could connect with through this platform. One of our graduates even got support from a Canadian educator as she planned a lesson for a job interview. She got the job.

• Tangible contributions to the local, regional, national and/or global community

Several people had encouraged me to keep a blog on education as a way to record ideas shared in class for students to access later.  It also made the ideas available to the larger education community. Thus far, I have written over 120 posts viewed by more than 15,000 unique users from over 140 different countries.

• Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley State University

The combination of using Twitter and blogging also resulted in an invitation to give a keynote at the 2011 Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. One of the organizers follows me on Twitter. He read my blog, watched my TEDxGrandValley talk, and contacted me about speaking. Whenever someone questions my use of social media, I recount this story. Needless to say, I remain a proponent of its use in education and have done several local and state conference presentations with Dr. Golden on its ability to connect with the larger education community.

Comprehensive Science and Arts for Teaching Major

The Comprehensive Science and Arts for Teaching (CSAT) Major was developed to replace the special education certification that the State of Michigan was no longer going to recognize. 

• A record of active participation in appointed committees, task forces, and duties linked to special assignments
• Contributions of service linked to achieving the goals of the strategic plans of the unit, college and/or university

My first assignment during my joint appointment was to guide the CSAT Major through Grand Valley’s governance process. There was a deadline for the change and I was charged with working to ensure that we made the transition before it passed. A final plan had been co-written by faculty from the CLAS and the COE but I was responsible for negotiating changes and amending the document.

• Thoughtful and effective development of curriculum

Once the CSAT Major was approved, I was assigned to be its coordinator. This entailed working with other unit heads to ensure that necessary courses would be available for students in the major and finding faculty to staff the major’s capstone course. A draft syllabus for the capstone, developed by Dr. Jann Joseph and myself, stressed an integrative approach to teaching content in the elementary classroom. Dr. Kasmer agreed to teach the course and did the majority of the work that enabled the capstone to be both a Supplemental Writing Skills and a hybrid course.

• Effective academic and professional advising

I also worked with the CLAS Academic Advising Center to help set up advising for students transitioning into the new major. We used a group advising approach so that the advisors would be able to support one another while helping to guide students through the change. Advising is one of the most important things I do but because it is not something I do routinely it helps to have other knowledgeable advisors available if there are questions. The group advising proved effective and it is still used, although I am no longer the CSAT Coordinator.

The CSAT Major needed a long-term coordinator, but my joint appointment was designed to be only three years. Also, there was another collaborative project between the CLAS and the COE in development. Therefore, I turned my attention to the joint effort to develop an experimental teacher preparation program.

W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship Program

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation seeks to prepare individuals with experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to teach in high-needs secondary schools. In 2010, a group of faculty from the CLAS, the COE, and local districts came together to create an experimental program for preparing up to fifteen fellows for success in teaching secondary science or math.

• A record of active participation in volunteer committees and/or task forces
• Self-critique and personal pedagogical development

Together, we developed a program that went beyond the typical teacher education curriculum. This included activities that would build positive relationships among the Fellows and a residency program based on those found in medical education. I was also part of a sub-committee that designed a course for the new program, an adaptation of the COE’s current classroom management course. I had taught this class to undergraduates and I was excited to use my experience of what had and had not worked to improve the course. First, we shifted the focus from managing classrooms to facilitating learning environments. The course would be split over two semesters to reflect the fact that the Fellows’ understandings of engagement would grow with experience. I taught the course and between the summer and fall semester I adjusted the content to better meet the needs of the fellows. Because they were being immersed in the classroom culture in high-needs schools, the Fellows required more concrete support than we had originally planned.

• Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley State University

My experience with this project also provided opportunities to present invited and peer-reviewed talks at national conventions. During the summer of 2011, I was asked to give two talks at the Convening of Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows in Indianapolis, Indiana. Also, a proposal written by several members of the program development team was accepted for the Association for Teacher Educator’s 2012 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Unfortunately, another project involving the observation of math student teachers and my role as a supervisor for Fellows’ student teaching precluded me from attending this event.

• A record of participation in student-centered events such as student recruitment, scholarship interviews, and student registration

While I am not scheduled to teach any more courses in this program, I continue to support it. Each year I have helped in reviewing Fellows’ applications. This is a natural extension of my work on the Graduate Committee for the Department of Mathematics. In this role, I look over the materials of prospective teachers to see whether or not they have the necessary mathematics courses to ensure their success in teaching in the secondary mathematics classroom.

Educators’ Mathematics Content Collaborative

The joint appointment also provided opportunities to further develop my relationships with area teachers through professional development projects. The Educators’ Mathematics Content Collaborative (EMCC) brought faculty together from the COE and the Department of Mathematics to work with local teachers.

• Preparing and submitting grant proposals
•  Receiving competitive grants for scholarly or creative activity

I was the co-principle investigator of EMCC with Ellen Schiller from the COE. This was a Michigan Department of Education Title II grant for almost $200,000. The grant supported middle school mathematics and special education teachers in improving their mathematical content knowledge and instructional methods.

• Active use of one’s scholarly/creative endeavor in the classroom
• Engaging in scholarly work that is student-centered, actively engages students, and provides a high-impact learning experience

The mathematical content portion of the grant was my primary responsibility. This entailed working with my colleagues in supporting the development of monthly workshops during the school year and two multiday summer institutes. During the Winter 2011 semester, the only time available for many of the inservice teachers to meet conflicted with the teaching schedules of nearly all the GVSU faculty, including mine. I saw this as a chance to bring the practicing teachers and my preservice teachers together to discuss the topics of assessment and evaluation. On two occasions these two groups met for an hour. The preservice teachers benefited from the inservice teachers’ experience and the inservice teachers appreciated our students’ content expertise and creativity. I am using this model to plan a joint 329-629 course during the Fall 2012 semester.

• Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley State University

The Educators’ Mathematics Content Collaborative included attendance at the 2010 Chicago Lesson Study Conference and 2011 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. A small group of us also presented at the NCTM Conference on what we had learned about trying to design and implement a job-embedded professional development project.

Lesson Study

This was the second time I had attended the Chicago Lesson Study Conference.

• Active, vigorous engagement with students in the classroom and other learning environments
• Continued growth and productivity within one’s scholarly or creative activity
• Participation in the larger community of that scholar’s discipline

The first time was in 2009 with three mathematics majors. These students were in our teacher assisting seminar, which uses The Teaching Gap as a text. This book describes how Japan uses Lesson Study to improve teaching and these students were excited to learn more about this approach. With the support of the CLAS and the COE, I traveled with the students to this national conference. The following Fall, the students presented what they learned to the COE at one of their assemblies. 

• Evidence of assessment, evaluation and/or development of curriculum
• Remaining current in the areas of teaching responsibility and revising coursework to reflect changes that emerge in those areas
• Careful course design, clearly articulated goals, and diligent class preparation

This was my first semester in the COE as a part of my joint appointment. One of the courses I was assigned to teach was the COE’s side of the teacher assisting seminar. I received a great deal of support that semester from Mr. Schultz, the seminar coordinator. At the end of the semester, he asked to meet with me about my thoughts on the seminar. He had read The Teaching Gap because of our presentation and was interested in brainstorming ways to implement a version of Lesson Study in teacher assisting. Over the winter break, we met with some of the other seminar instructors and rewrote the curriculum to focus on development, implementation, and analysis of lessons by the teacher assistants. This curriculum has now been in place for five semesters and is viewed as an effective way to support our teacher-candidates in becoming reflective practitioners.

• Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley State University.

This episode also contributed to a presentation proposal that was accepted for the 2011 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Conference in San Diego, California. I presented with the COE Associate Dean, Dr. Caryn King, on the success of the joint appointment in fostering improved communication and collaboration. The story of how three mathematics majors aided in the evolution of the COE’s teacher assisting seminar held a prominent place in the presentation.

Future Plans

The previous pages highlight my professional efforts and detail how these efforts address the CLAS expectations for promotion to full professor. This is not an exhaustive list, merely representative of my best, most recent work in teaching, scholarship, and service. There is more I could share (please see my Curriculum Vita in Appendix A) but space is limited and I wanted to focus on providing a complete picture of these highlights. I also wanted to leave room to describe where I see myself growing professionally in the future.

Teaching

In working with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship Program, I was introduced to a variation on the coaching model we currently use in teacher assisting and student teaching. One of the districts uses Cognitive Coaching, which mentors people using a metacognitive process; this helps teachers to be more aware of their thinking around their practice. The model we use is a bit more restrictive because of its focus on the act of teaching.

I am interested in learning more about Cognitive Coaching and possibility enrolling in the training course. My wife, a certified elementary teacher with an Educational Specialist degree, took the training and has found it beneficial to her teaching practice.  It is my hope that this metacognitive approach to mentoring will enhance my current efforts to help college students to be self-sufficient, lifelong learners.

Scholarship

My experience presenting at a TEDx event and keynoting in Canada has reinforced my desire to disseminate the work we are doing in the Department of Mathematics at GVSU even more broadly. Consequently, I find myself writing more conference proposals for a wider variety of audiences. As a result, my wife and I are presenting a paper on different coaching approaches at the Mentoring Conference this fall.

I would also like to formalize some of the writing that I have been doing on my blog. Several posts focus on the Teaching-Learning Cycle, a framework we find useful in helping our preservice teachers to understand the complex nature of what it means to be an educator. My wife is also interested in this topic and we have contacted a publisher who has encouraged us to begin writing a manuscript.

Service

Recently, I have come to understand more clearly the need for a united effort between K-12 schools and universities to improve public education. In these difficult economic times, universities can offer resources in the form of expertise and possible apprentices (preservice teachers). At a recent PTEAC meeting, a local administrator told us that universities need to do a better job of marketing themselves to school districts, and that one of the best ways to do that is through Intermediate School Districts (ISD). Therefore, I intend to develop professional relationships with the Muskegon, Kent, and Ottawa ISD. My goal is to connect with local districts and offer my support and the support of the future teachers with which I work. I see this having the potential to being beneficial for all involved.

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If you made it all the way through, I am impressed. I would appreciate any feedback in the comments before I share it with my department on August 20th. Thank you in advance.

What's worse than two guys sarcastically watching a video?

Soon after we first posted Mystery Teacher Theater 2000 Episode 1 and it started getting attention, John and I began to consider, "Now what?" As we so often do, we tried to make this thinking visible by sharing it on Twitter.

In retrospect, I regret using "snarking" and "snark" in this discussion because, as I have written before, the original videos (yes videos, another one came out recently) were meant to be satire. Still, hopefully these tweets demonstrate that John and I try to take a meta perspective when it comes to education. 

Well, that's enough background. We hope the message of this version speaks for itself. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Meta Mystery Teacher Theatre 2000.

I hope you stuck around after the credits, there is a surprise waiting for those who persevered through the entire video.

What can we learn from books/movies about teaching?

While it probably does not happen often enough to be considered a trend, I have noticed that many educators on Twitter are using fictional stories to justify what they see as effective teaching. I have seen arguments that Obi-Wan Kenobi's work with Luke in Star Wars suggests that lecture is not all bad. Others point to Mr. Miyagi's teaching in The Karate Kid as evidence that teachers do not need to make their intentions explicit to be effective. Even I have succumbed to the temptation by holding up Tom Sawyer as an example of the way I would like to teach.

I understand why we do it. 140 characters makes it difficult to state our position and defend it all in a single tweet. Consequently, we rely on parts of familiar stories that transmit a shared understanding of our perspective. When I brought up Tom Sawyer, I trusted that people would remember the passage about Tom being sentenced to whitewash Aunt Polly's fence. I am old enough that, although I read the original story, the picture that comes to mind is from the 1973 movie starring Johnny Whitaker.

The problem is that these characters are responding to Tom's approach because that's how it was written not as empirical evidence of my point. Sure, the story resonates with us because it represents some experience or idea that we are familiar with (in my case, the gradual release of responsibility) but it is important to remember that it is fiction not reality. The progression from modeling to mentoring to monitoring will not be as fast as Tom experienced. To suggest otherwise might lead a teacher trying this approach to believe that such a transition will be quick and easy; this is not the case, which could lead to the teacher to experience frustration when it actually takes time and is messy.

I have said it before, teaching is hard. It is understandable that we might try to simplify it by using familiar stories as some sort of allegory. In fact, I cannot say with certainty that I will not use this approach in the future. What I will try to do is ensure that I encourage a great deal of critical thinking around how the fiction represents some reality of education and where it oversimplifies the teaching and learning process. That is my commitment to making the complexities of teaching explicit.

How am I doing? 2012

It is that time again - annual review. The time of year when I am asked by my employer to demonstrate how I have met the College's expectations regarding teaching, scholarship, and service. This includes providing an up-to-date vita and the past year's faculty activity report. The Department of Mathematics also asks for a self-evaluation that focuses on teaching. As I did last year, I decided that I ought to share this evaluation in order to make my efforts visible to all.

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Technology, especially as it relates to social media, has been the focus of my teaching journey this past year. Social media provides me with the opportunity to connect with my students and colleagues in ways that were previously unimaginable to me. It has also introduced me to educational technology that has enhanced my instruction. This self-evaluation will highlight my efforts but it also includes hyperlinks if you wish more details.

At the end of last year I joined Twitter. My main reason for joining this micro-blogging site was the success I saw Dr. John Golden have with it during teacher assisting in the fall 2010 semester. It allows me to maintain contact with the teacher assistants by providing a window into their thinking and their classroom experiences. As I explored Twitter, however, I found that it had many more educational benefits.

Twitter is a platform that allows teachers from around the world to connect and share ideas. I have encouraged our students to use these educators as resources and mentors. Several teacher assistants and student teachers have sought advice from and used lessons shared by Twitter teachers. Even I have been exposed to new technologies as a result. In modeling iPad use for the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows, I have incorporated several applications that I learned about on Twitter. You can read how I used the iPad here.

Chats are another aspect of Twitter that I have benefited from and incorporated into my lessons. These chats allow participants to share ideas with one another around a particular topic. I have used them for class discussions on instruction, classroom management, and assessment. The benefits of these Twitter chats is that everyone is given the opportunity to speak and it is possible to archive the chat for assessment or further discussion. An example of one of these chats is here. These class chats have been so successful, I have also started hosting chats in sessions at conferences. Here is an example.

Some students remain hesitant to use Twitter to its fullest as a professional tool. This is a challenge I want to address this year. I do not want to force compliance. I want to model Twitter's benefits. As a part of the student teaching pilot program that I am helping to develop, I intend to include a survey that will ask about Twitter and ways to improve its implementation.

I also began the year by creating a blog. This has been an opportunity to make available to students the resources, examples, and concepts that are addressed in class. The posts have become a kind of anchor chart that students can review long after the lesson. I have also used it to reinforce and extend topics presented in class.

In addition, my blog has supported my scholarly and service activities. The information shared on the blog contributed to my being asked to be a keynote speaker at the Mathematical Council of the Alberta Teachers' Association annual conference. A "transcript" of my talk is provided here. The entries on the Teaching-Learning Cycle have provided a framework for a book that has generated some interest from a publisher. I am considering making the writing of this text a part of a sabbatical proposal. Finally, several teachers have commented on how the lessons I have shared have been of service to them as they teach. Providing an open source resource to inservice and preservice teachers around the world is important to me.

I continue to do teaching, scholarship, and service in the typical ways. My efforts are enumerated on my vita and faculty activity report. While these are important, I am passionate about the opportunities technology has for addressing these areas in the future. I have only just begun. There is a lot left for me to learn.

What did we learn?

At the end of each semester, I try to make sure that my learners have time to reflect. If their learning is to last, then they must have a chance to consolidate it. This past semester I used three workshops to support their efforts to look back and look forward.

The first workshop asked the learners to focus on the course objectives.

They identified those in which they considered themselves proficient and what contributed to their proficiency. So much occurs during a semester and too often learners do not recognize what was learned. This task represents a metacognitive activity that makes it more likely that the learners will be aware of all they have accomplished. It also provides me with important assessment data that will inform how I teach the course in the future.

In the next workshop, learners write letters to future students as a way to prepare and encourage them to be successful in my course. Here are two from this semester:

I will share the letters with future learners because people often accept advice more easily from their peers than their teachers. This is not the sole reason for the activity, however. It also provides the letter writers with the chance to reflect on their own growth as learners over the semester. I hope that both current and future learners will benefit from this wisdom borne out of experience.

The final workshop asks them to create a 3 minute (or less) TED Talk about what they have learned this semester. This year I found out the power of showing the Student vs Learner clips early on. Many of them commented on how these videos helped to frame the entire semester. I will now try using them the first day in all of my courses.

The presentations are ungraded and usually very informal. Amazingly, this sometimes leads to more preparation on the part of the learners. Regardless of the time they put into them, I find their sharing to be quite profound and at times moving. Here is an example from this semester:

I remember teachers saying to me, "You'll thank me for this later." This typically accompanied some particularly distasteful tasks. I bristle at this notion and hold the belief that I am not in this for people's thanks but because I believe in what I do. Still, I hope I am getting better at accepting people's gratitude as well as their criticisms. After all, both are a part of the learning process.

Do you trust yourself?

I went golfing today with a friend, and as you can see by the scorecard (generated by Golfshot GPS), we played horribly. Now 45, or bogey golf, is not a bad score for me but we played a scramble format which means this score was a result of our best shots throughout the round. Let's just say we have played better. 

What does this have to do with the Virtual Conference's Prompt? I know that part of my problem today was that I was not trusting myself as a golfer. On almost every shot, I hit harder or softer than I knew I needed to because I was over thinking based on the previous shot.  This is a poor way to play golf. And after reading Golf and the Spirit, I know that these lessons can translate to other aspects of my life, like teaching. So my answer to, "What is at the center of my classroom?" is two-fold: reflection and trust.

In Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck writes:

Forgive yourself each and every bad shot - as long as you have learned what it had to teach you - and then get on with it, free and unencumbered. (p. 266)

As a golfer and a teacher, I spend a great deal of time analyzing my practice, but I struggle with the letting go of mistakes part. This past year I created the following qualitative graph to remind me of my issue.

Personal reflection certainly improves my professional growth but there is a point  where it seems like more reflection actually causes me to go backwards professionally. The extra reflection sucks my time and my confidence. I was convinced that I needed to find that reflective sweet spot and then stop.

Fortunately, I shared this visual metaphor with one of my teachers in training, who asked, "Does that mean I get to a point where I never get better?" To which she quickly responded, "I don't think that's true." (Have I mentioned how great our teaching candidates are at GVSU?) Instead, we thought about how adjusting the graph from a quadratic to a cubic might make better sense.

The idea is that when I find myself questioning my ability as a teacher, I need to be aware of this, accept it as part of my nature, and then adjust by letting go, moving on, and trusting myself (the Yoga Story strikes again). Essentially, I want to identify what I am doing instinctually well and make it intentional.

I have been thinking about this a lot this week because I am putting the finishing touches on a new course that begins next Tuesday. While I worked hard with my colleagues to design this course (see the Understanding by Design plan here), I am now second guessing myself and thinking about ways to do things differently. I almost skipped golf this morning to put even more work into the course. Lucky for me I trusted my instincts instead.

If reflection and trust are at the center of my classroom, then it must begin with me (Jason was right!). My learners will look to me as a model whether we are talking about doing mathematics or teaching. Therefore, it is important to demonstrate a reflective practice that is built on trust - trust of my learners and trust of myself.

How am I doing?

I spent that last few days completing a self-evaluation required of faculty in the Mathematics Department at GVSU. This is a chance to reflect on my work over the past school year in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service and communicate my efforts to my peers. As I reread the teaching section, I decided it might be interesting to share this portion of my self-evaluation on my blogs. Hopefully, it makes my thinking visible regarding my journey as a reflective practitioner. Well, here it goes...
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I start each semester by apologizing to my students. I tell them that I will teach the course better next time because I learn more about what works and what doesn’t based on their feedback. This is an opportunity to model for future teachers a growth mindset toward the profession and it reminds me to keep looking for ways to improve my practice. This past year, I must admit, these improvements have been modest.

One way I continue to strive to improve is setting reasonable limits for my students and myself. The workshop model that I use for class activities and assignments offers a structure that supports these efforts, in terms of my students. Each workshop sets a one-hour time limit for them to engage in learning. At the end of this time, they are free to end the activity and move to something else. I want them to become comfortable with the idea that learning is an ongoing process that cannot always be accomplished in a single sitting. I want them to experience “learning lust” – the desire to keep going because they want to learn more and not because they have to complete an assignment. But mostly, I want them to practice having balance and boundaries in their lives. As future teachers, these are essential elements if they are to have a sustainable, successful career.

I am trying to apply the same idea into my own teaching practice. I find it easy to spend hours upon hours planning lessons or evaluating assessments. The more time I have the more time I use. This past year I have worked to set limits on both of these activities by setting time limits. I do not always stop when the time is up, but I have found myself being more discerning about how I manage my time. This is an ongoing effort that I will continue to hone.

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School often teaches us to avoid (or hide) our struggles, but learning theory shows that challenges are a natural part of the process of developing firm understandings. What are you working on improving and how are you going about making the change? I'd be interested to hear how you reflect on your practice.

What's in a Name?

Learning, thinking, knowing and understanding are significantly enhanced when one is provided with opportunities for 'talking one's way to meaning'.

Brian Cambourne

I decided to blog after a discussion with a colleague in GVSU's College of Education. He explained that blogging gave him a platform to share those ideas that he found himself repeating in class after class. I could relate since I, too, have my favorite "stories" and "sayings" that I share every semester. Being a mathematician, I liked the efficiency associated with this approach to blogging. As I thought more about it, however, I realized that it offered more than that. A blog would provide me the chance to write my way to understanding.

That is where Scape comes from in my blog's name. I want to try to understand the educational landscape. I agree with Cambourne that trying to share my perspective with others consolidates my thinking and enhances my understanding. This blog is not intended to change the reader's thinking, just the writer's. (Here is an example.)

And that is where Delta comes in. Delta is the mathematical symbol for change. (It is also the Greek d, as in David - some things aren't that deep.) I am in the habit of beginning each class by apologizing to my learners. I'll teach the class better next time because of what I learn from my interactions with them and from their feedback. I remind them that they are free to take the class next year - when it is improved. No one takes me up on that, but it sets the tone that I expect to grow as an educator.

So that is why I chose Delta Scape as the name for my blog. Writing it will hopefully sharpen (and change) my perspective of teaching and learning. Feel free to peek in to see what I've learned. Or wait until next year, when I'm sure it will be better.