phylosophy of education

Kathy Gordon and The Flipped Classroom

Apr 30

Teachers by nature are “in it to win it”. Their ultimate goal is meeting the need of their students. The educational environment is changing as are 21st century learner needs. Are you ready to flip your classroom to foster student engagement, and differentiate instruction, then this podcast is for you.

Michael Boll Middle School Technology Coach at talks with Kathy Gordon about flipping the classroom. Kathy is a Math Teacher at Concordia International School Shanghai.

Great insights on setting up a flipped classroom, a frank discussion of the pro’s and con’s and the impact flipping has on meeting student learning needs. Listen to this pod cast at http://podcast.concordiashanghai.org/blog/2013/04/22/interview-19-kathy-gordon-and-the-flipped-classroom/

12 Habits of Mind

Jan 31

As we begin the steps of implementing the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) schools have been setting foundational understandings for teachers to ensure they are prepared to teach our 21st Century Learners. We have addressed best practices like Marzano’s 9 strategies for the teaching profession, ELL strategies, 21st Century skills. and technological improvements. At Grace we are also working to ensure our students have the needed foundations needed to become 21st Century learners. Over the last three years we have implemented PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support), and are now looking at Art Costa’s Habits of Mind as a needed foundation for tomorrows learners. There is no one pedagogy, book, or computer program that will help us become better systems thinkers. Instead, the complexity of our worlds demand that we develop “habits of mind” to intentionally use systems principles to understand the complexity of everyday situations and to design for desired futures. The 12 Habits of Mind are:

Sees the Whole: sees the world in terms of interrelated “wholes” or systems, rather than as single events, or snapshots;

Looks for Connections: assumes that nothing stands in isolation; and so tends to look for connections among nature, ourselves, people, problems, and events;

Pays Attention to Boundaries: “goes wide” (uses peripheral vision) to check the boundaries drawn around problems, knowing that systems are nested and how you define the system is critical to what you consider and don’t consider;

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Common Core Standards, California Adoption

Jun 16

Common Core Standards are a set of academic standards that states across the United States follow. The California Board of Education adopted the standards in August 2010, which means that children in Kindergarten through 12th grade in the state are required to follow the same educational curriculum as children in other states that adhere to the CCS.

Purpose

The standards provide a framework to prepare students in schools in California and elsewhere for college and the workforce. California state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has said that the standards give a “consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn” and that they make the U.S. more competitive with other countries.

Development and Implementation

The Common Core Standards were developed by California in conjunction with the other states that have adopted them. The federal government had no role in the standards’ development or implementation in California or elsewhere, and individual states choose whether to adopt the standards

Harvard EdCast: The Great Teacher Checklist | Harvard Graduate School of Education

Mar 20

According to its website, the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project is “designed to find out the best way to give teachers the information and support they want.” Through its research, MET hopes to discover the evaluation methods that can best aid teachers in discovering which among their skills are most effective in the classroom, and also to help school districts identify strong teaching.

via Harvard EdCast: The Great Teacher Checklist | Harvard Graduate School of Education.

I couldn’t agree more with the premise of this very informative article. As school superintendent is a small Lutheran school, approximately 400 students preschool through 8th grade, teacher evaluation has been a major focus for us. Several years ago we re-designed our entire teacher job descriptions as well as the evaluation process. This re-focus has created a collaborative model that focuses on clearly identified teacher standards and benchmarks that focus on improving student learning. It is a collaborative process that includes all teachers from preschool through 8th grade in peer observations, creating teacher standards and benchmarks, and setting clear and measurable goals that are individualized for the needs of the individualized teachers.

What Parents Beleive about School Leaders

Feb 21

I read an article recently comparing and contrasting what parent’s want in their children’s school and what they perceive as the goals of politicians in education. As a private school superintendent we have to opportunity to pay attention to the wants and needs of parents and students and at the same time being concerned with the academic progress of the whole child.
Parents can tell you the name of a favorite teacher who inspired their child, the book their child loved and couldn’t stop talking about and the topic of a report they worked so hard to complete. Parents can tell us which teachers gave to much homework and how that impacted their lives as a family.
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My Philosophy of Education

Feb 20

As an educator I annually review, revise and refine my personal philosophy of education. It is a reflective practice that has helped me more clearly articulate my beliefs about students, learning, and pedagogy and has had a direct impact on my professional activities inside and outside the classroom. Below please find my latest attempt is articulating what I believe about education.

My Personal Philosophy of Education

As we journey further into the 21^st Century I find that through technology our world is changing faster than no other time in history. Our students have a wealth of information available to them twenty-four hours a day. Because of the availability of information it is vital that our schools create a learning environment that encourages social interaction, is less concerned with the past and “training the mind” and more focused on individual needs, contemporary relevance and preparing students to be Christian community participants in God’s ever changing world.

Janie Andrich

21st Century Education