Curriculum Portfolio Entry 1

                 An Amalgamation of Holistic Teacher and Critical Theorist

 Hi, I'm Esther Andugala and I teach 6th grade science at LCJ Summit Middle School. This is my fourth year teaching middle schoolers. I have a passion for teaching science and I would love to instill the same in my students to question the world around them to find answers. In this blog I would like to briefly describe how my teaching and learning experiences have been influenced by both holistic teaching and critical theorists. 

Even before I describe how I consider my pedagogical philosophy to be a blend of both, I would like to demystify and elaborate what holistic teaching and critical theorists mean for the uninitiated. A holistic teacher provides an engaging environment for the student to respond. The students experience a democratic way of learning where the power is shared between the teacher and the students equally in terms of the choices they make. The students' interest drives learning. A holistic teacher has to have a wider repertoire of knowledge and interests to cater to the various needs of the students and to provide those experiences. I have practiced some holistic principles in my pedagogy. In the Volcanoes unit, I gave students multiple avenues to showcase the volcanoes they were researching. They could either make a model, a poster or a brochure. It was wonderful to see their creativity come to the fore as they felt empowered to choose what they desired. In the school district I currently am working in, we work with other departments on projects. For a project, where students built iPad cases we worked with the ELA department as they came to watch the efficacy of the iPad cases when they were dropped from 3 different heights (1 meter, 2 meter and 3 meters). They then reviewed the cases based on how effective they were to protect the iPad. Math department also involved themselves and they calculated the cost of these iPads. In order for learning to be meaningful it has to be relevant to the students and connected to a real-world problem. One of the projects which the middle schoolers do is a research project where they research an endangered species of their choice. They then work in groups to do research and work on a website and create webpages to write about their habitat, biome, physical features, reasons for endangerment and most importantly how we can help to stop them from extinction.

On the other hand, critical theorists bridge social justice and education. They provide equitable opportunities to students from all backgrounds equipping them for leadership. This kind of pedagogy empowers students and also develops critical thinking skills to survive in the real world. I’ve been fortunate to teach a very culturally and economically diverse population of students. Some of them have exited the ESL (English as a second language) program but with poor comprehension skills in English. Their will to learn has helped them overcome their language barriers beautifully in the classroom. Despite the huge disparities economically and culturally, its heartening to see the school system providing equitable opportunities for them to flourish. Thanks to the technological advancements owing to AI in education, a lot of educational apps have come up to help these students. I’m thankful for apps like Magicschool, Diffit etc which provide ample opportunities and resources to benefit these students. The educator is now equipped with a lot of tools in their toolbox when the need arises to make equitable decisions in favor of these students. This not only helps the students to be more confident in their own skills and would give them more encouragement to take on leadership roles in the real world. Critical theorists hope to make the world a better place with social justice while instilling the necessary skills and knowledge in students.

In conclusion, I would like to think that my teaching is influenced by both these kinds of thinking. To quote Miller, we are a blend of all these but some of them are more predominant in our pedagogy than others(Miller, 2011).

                                                          References

  • Curriculum theory and practice: what's your style?. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Oct 20 2024 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Curriculum+theory+and+practice%3a+what%27s+your+style%3f-a0254485117 
  • Glatthorn, A. A., Boschee, F., Whitehead, B. M., & Boschee, B. F. (2019). Curriculum leadership: Strategies for Development and Implementation. SAGE Publications. 
  • Team, P. (2023, May 21). 7 tips to bring holistic learning to your classroom. Planbook Blog. https://blog.planbook.com/holistic-learning-classroom/#:~:text=A%20holistic%20learning%20classroom%20takes,Create%20a%20Holistic%20Learning%20Classroom
  •   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4 Blog Assignment

                                            The effectiveness of AI tools in Education Artificial Intelligence has become a part of our world more than we realize. There are so many tools available on the internet for us to dabble with, but I feel that we should tread cautiously and use AI judiciously only in certain situations. As with any tool, there are pros and cons and there is also an additional responsibility of checking for credibility. The ease of use is so tempting but sometimes taking the easier route will bite us in my opinion. We could use AI for inspiration and ideas but not depend on it solely for completing a said task.  I used the following (NGSS) Next Gen Science Standard MS-ESS2-1: Model the processes within the rock cycle physically and digitally to generate a lesson plan in an AI app called Magic School. International Society of Technology Edu...
Read more

Week 3 Blog Assignment

Image
                                                   How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts and Cultures Hi, In this blog we will briefly look at the processes that support learning, their connection to Gura's discussion of "The Creative Learning Environment" and the ISTE standards for students. This infographic describes the 3 major components of  the processes that support learning impacting curriculum design. It makes a connection of Gura's ideas of creativity and the ISTE standard of creative communicator leading to extension in learning (Kolb, 2017) References Gura, M. (2020). Fostering Student Creativity. EdTech Digest the State of the Arts, Creativity, and Technology 2020: A Guide for Educators and Parents Kolb, L. (2017).  Learning first, techno...
Read more

Week 5 Blog Assignment

                          Professional Development on Universal Design for Learning for Teachers Hi, In this blog we will deep dive into an article about the benefits of professional development (PD) on universal design for learning (UDL) for teachers. In this day and age, the needs of learners have become more varied than ever. Since the inception of the IDEA (individuals with disabilities education) act, the responsibility of doing justice to learners with varied needs on teachers has increased. The universal design for learning (UDL) framework is seen as an answer to cater to these varying learning needs in the student population. Teachers need to be trained on the principles of UDL and then execute them in the classroom. An article by (Craig et al., 2019) has focused on a week long PD on universal design for learning for teachers. The study looked at a few parameters but their emphasis was on whether there was a d...
Read more