Tripartite Agreement and the Three Ps

I believe a curriculum should offer structure for a subject being taught without anchoring a teacher into obligations or having to check tasks off a list. A curriculum with flexibility for the teacher and student would be optimal. This flexibility would make room for opportunities to shift focus, if the atmosphere of a class changes, to a discussion on another topic. This could be one way to ensure student interest and creativity in the classroom

I idolize a curriculum that is structured yet dynamic to where you don’t know exactly what will be expected. If a teacher is able to keep an element of surprise, and not dread, in the classroom then students may be inclined to start anticipating class.

My hope is to teach a science like biology. I am not sure how often extensive syllabi are used in the secondary level but a goal of mine would be to create a syllabus that outlines the goals of the classroom, in terms of assignments, projects, and expectations for each block or topic within biology.

A component of my biology class would be to read more than just the textbook. I would want my students to start reading journal articles from the web and in print along with excerpts from books. Reading would also be expected to come from newspapers and news websites. This reading along with watching local and national news would help spark scientific discussions on how issues, or topics discussed in class, relate to the world. Infectious disease would be a topic I would be interested in and students can bring their own.

I would want to have discussions, demonstrations, and lab activities more than lectures. I would have scheduled ‘pop’ quizzes and testing would be comprised of more short answer, matching, and fill in the blank questions than multiple choice. For a final grade participation in a Science Fair would be expected.

Writing would also be a focus in my classroom. I think being able to write about any subject would help a student gain proficiency in that particular subject. Writing scientifically, I believe, requires more skill and effort which would spill over into other subjects. To help with this goal I would want to form some sort of tripartite agreement with other teachers. (The Tripartite Agreement was an agreement between the U.S., France, and Great Britain to stabilize currencies in the international market.) My tripartite agreement would be between my biology class and another history and English class, which my students are also in, where students can get threefold credit on an assignment. These assignments would focus on the three Ps: presentations, projects, and papers. Scientific papers can be corrected for grammar and proper citations in a language arts class and the historical relevance on a topic can be presented in a history class for example.

This would be a step to make sure interactive/integrative learning takes place. Participating teachers would benefit from working with colleagues and students can understand how education is not supposed to be segregated.

Bias or Balance?

I know everyone is likely to have a bias no matter how small; but I fail to find one that I can elaborate on at length. I think I’ve always been able to understand different perspectives and appreciate them. However, at times I do find myself to be indecisive, overly analytical, and unable to pick side--at least concretely. I don’t take someone or something at face value and I operate on the assumption that things are not what they seem. Is this good, bad, or both? (Even now I just looked up, once again, the rules for using a serial comma before or/and and I still have yet to pick a style to follow since I don’t write much anyway.) Can being too analytical about something be considered a bias?

Much of this way of thinking stays beneath the surface until a position has been chosen or formulated. Even then I don’t really take an overt stance. Maybe this makes me less vulnerable and more powerful in a way because no one knows what exactly I’m thinking. So this also means that I am less inclined to divulge information and others have to pry to learn my opinion.

Being analytical pertains usually to situations more than it does to people; so I have to walk a fine line between judging or caring about something and disregarding it. I do believe that having an analytical mindset would be an advantage in the classroom in the long run. I am constantly at odds with myself to find the right balance and my fear is that in the process of weighing options and possible outcomes I will end up losing valuable time. At the same time I think this also allows me to be receptive to new people without having an already formed perception.

School on Saturday?

Local Teacher Selected as The National Teacher of the Year

The Albuquerque Journal

Sunday, May 7, 2017

By Bailey Heinz / Journal Staff Writer

  

lbuquerque -- In his fifth year of teaching, Alejandro Sanchez of Albuquerque, NM, is two places he thought he’d never be: teaching and about to receive The National Teaching of the Year Award in Washington, D.C.

Six days a week, yes six, Sanchez has dedicated himself to the success of his biology students from Albuquerque High. On one to two Saturdays a month, during the school year, Sanchez provides additional instruction for students in his classes. This instruction is optional but students who participate can gain hands on experience to what is covered in his classes. Sanchez described his approach as “a way to actively engage students by showing them real life situations where they could apply some of the topics discussed in class.”

Sanchez further states: “We have been able to explore topics like anatomy, biotechnology, cell biology, and ecology throughout Albuquerque by making biology relevant with a social context. It is not enough for teachers to supply information, it is crucial to help make connections.”

This same attitude seems to be shared with his students. Karla Stafford, a 10^th grader, says “The Making Connections section is my favorite part of our textbook and Mr. Sanchez focuses on how stuff can be applied and used outside the classroom.” Another student, Carlos Romero, states that “Mr. Sanchez has motivated me to pursue a career in medicine after I witnessed cutting edge research at UNM’s Cancer Center. I am excited to continue studying biology in college this coming fall.” Alyssa Romero, Carlos’ mother, expresses her pride: “I’ve seen my son eager to go to biology class and I can’t wait to hear what he has learned when he comes home.”

School on Saturday is not the only thing unique about Sanchez’s tenure at Albuquerque High. He has also spearheaded a change in the curriculum by integrating biology with other subjects like history and language arts. “History helps bring a social context to science,” says history teacher Gloria Howard, “and when a student knows that actual people discovered and thought about what is being learned it is appreciated and even retained.” English teachers like Paul Ruiz have partnered with Sanchez in helping students write proposals for grants. “Being able to write well is a skill that both Mr. Sanchez and I want students to have when they leave the classroom, and writing a proposal [for a biology class] brings a higher standard in communication” Ruiz exclaims.

Fittingly, Sanchez will receive his award in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday.

> Half Full

I believe the purpose of being a teacher is to instill the values and ideas that would help support the needs of the student and community. Teaching is not just about supplying information and hoping the student learns something; the approach has to be active. That is to say the teacher should not drill information but a better approach would be to find how information can be absorbed and practiced in meaningful, thoughtful ways. I guess it would be more difficult to determine how best to show how what is taught in class today could be used later today and not just for tomorrow. Sure teaching should be to prepare a student for college courses but it seems it is only after college that a greater impact is expected.

My intention for my classroom is to not teach just facts or theories but I want to have an immediate impact. What exactly that impact is/will be I am not sure? I do know that discussion and interaction between students would be a valuable activity in the classroom. The classroom is a fragment of society and being involved there would hopefully mean being actively involved in the “larger society.”

I have confidence that everybody has potential and meaning in the world and the ability to learn. There are no useless people or knowledge; there is only tragedy in the failure to act. As a teacher you should not discount what a student gets wrong as much as you should cultivate and see the potential in what the student gets right. Getting a 60% on a test should not be seen as failing by 40%. The glass is more than half full and in time it has the potential to overflow.

Giants will repeat with 31-27 win over Patriots.

 

Endless Forms Most Beautiful



Fennec Fox



I found an exceptional blog from a high school biology teacher, Stacy Baker, who first developed this blog to share class information. Baker saw the potential for the blog and decided to make it more interactive and have her students participate and even direct the conversation. This blog is called Extreme Biology and can be found at:

missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/      

Biology is one subject that I am interested in teaching and using a blog like Baker’s would be an incredibly valuable to tool to encourage and foster a student’s interests in biology and science. Baker seems to take a democratic approach in having her students blog on topics that they are interested in. Baker and her students were featured in The Scientist magazine and below are a couple quotes from their interview:

 "My duty as a teacher isn't just teaching them stuff," Baker said. "It's how to analyze information rather than just memorize it."

The students can write about anything and everything, as long as it's biology-related, explained Baker. "I don't like assigning them specific topics," she said. "I want them ideally looking into subjects that they're interested in or passionate about."

Read the entire article: Blogging biology - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://classic.the-scientist.com/news/display/55349/

Myanmar Pug Monkey

Another interesting feature of this blog is the range of topics that are discussed. These topics include Animal Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, and Medicine. While exploring this blog I found a section under the Topics We Cover header called EFMB which stands for Endless Forms Most Beautiful. I immediately saw two posts, which caught my attention mainly because of their pictures, titled Bless You, Myanmar Pug Monkey! and Are Fennecs Foxes? This blog also features guests who have been invited to blog on topics in which they are experts in.

I may use this blog as a model to help provoke enthusiasm, participation, and understanding in whatever I may teach. The flow of information should not be unidirectional and with the Extreme Biology blog it cycles around from teacher to student, or vice versa, and back again. This blog is an example of how a teacher can use technology to communicate to students by engaging and making them excited to learn. EFMB can also be a celebration of each student's potential.

So why blog to learn about science? Baker’s students answered that question in the following video:

Confluency

This week I realized that learning in the classroom may be more fruitful if it is made a social experience. John Dewey, an American education philosopher, has indicated that we are social individuals and the classroom serves as one place where society starts to form. Of course the development of society has its beginnings at home but the classroom gives some structure to society as a whole.

Some of Dewey’s ideas seem to be more evident in elementary education with social learning. It is at these lower grade levels that interaction in the classroom seems to be more prevalent. Different hands-on activities give students experience that help in their learning process. I believe that this interaction loses its emphasis when one gets to the secondary level and passive learning out weighs active especially when it comes to core subjects.

As educators we are entrusted to foster the interests and powers of our students and guide them to realizing what they may be capable of doing for themselves and society. Interaction in the classroom between the student and teacher and among students is crucial to building a strong foundation for society.

I view healthy social interaction as cells growing in a cell culture dish. Cells grow better when they are near or surrounded by other healthy cells while single cells that grow independently can be more vulnerable and less reliable in experimental use. Confluency is a term in biology that describes the coverage of cells on a surface area and the more coverage there is the higher the confluency and growth. There is also confluency in the classroom where learning and ideas should flow together, merge and blend like tributaries flowing into the same stream of social consciousness. Students can grow alongside their peers, with the direction of the educator, and build upon each others experiences.

It seems that the learning process of students should be cultivated in an active environment so that interests can form capabilities that coalesce to form an individual with social awareness.

The Central Dogma

Welcome to my inaugural blog post which will begin a discussion on the development of my personal philosophy of education. I am planning on teaching science and/or history to 7^th through 12^th grade students and this chronicling of my beliefs about teaching and learning is an attempt to help me better understand what I want to achieve as a teacher.

So to become an effective and competent educator I have to learn the best approach(s) in transferring what I have learned and know to my future students.

What is education? Education, as I view it, is the flow of information from one source to another.

Since science is what I intend to teach I will use the central dogma of molecular biology as an analogy to explain the process of how I want to transfer knowledge. First the central dogma explains that DNA undergoes transcription to RNA which undergoes translation to form proteins. That’s the simple definition.

DNA is what I have already learned, and will still learn, and I have to determine how to transcribe that information in ways that would be best for my students. So the result is what I will end up teaching or RNA, which is similar to DNA but is best for the translation to form proteins. The crucial part of this process is making sure to translate what I teach to gain meaningful results.

DNA à What I have learned

Transcription to

RNA à What I will teach

Translation to

Proteins à What the students will learn and use

Just as the central dogma isn’t entirely unidirectional I fully intend on receiving feedback from my students, the most valuable feedback an educator can get. One goal, if not the main one, is to help develop and add to a student’s powers. Receiving an education makes a person more and more powerful and with that power anything is possible.