Theoretical Applications
In today’s digital world, there is a continued need for technology to grow in the field of education. According to Routman (2000)”Technology is here to stay, so if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” (pg. 506). I feel, as an online teacher, I’m on the forefront of a new movement and I find it very exciting. Technology seems to be a running theme throughout most of my courses. It is evident that teachers are realizing the growing need to “meet students where they are,” and where they are is in the midst of an extremely plugged in society. Through projects like creating Google sites, using web 2.0 tools, and making digital stories, I have become more equipped for relating to my online high school science students. I’ve also discovered new ways to offer enrichment and remediation.
Fluency has also been a trend that has been emphasized in my master’s degree courses. I have struggled with the minimal attention that fluency receives in our schools as of late. Reading Fluency was once considered to be a hot topic. However, it has recently been losing steam to more popular literacy issues such as comprehension and vocabulary (Cassidy, Garrett, & Valadez, 2010). In my opinion, fluency should be part of every teacher’s instructional day. Fostering good fluency skills can assist students with comprehension, word recognition, and story retelling, among other literacy skills. According to Allington and Cunningham (2011), fluency is critical to reading comprehension due to the attention factor, meaning that when students are focused primarily on decoding the words, they are unable to gain true meaning from the text. There seems to be a slight disconnect between the research and readings that I encountered during my master’s courses and what I’m seeing in the schools. As I mentioned earlier, schools seem to be focusing less on fluency and more on comprehension. However, from my research, it is clear that fluency can lead to better comprehension skills in students. For my Trends in Language Arts class I created apower point that could serve as a tool for instructing other teachers about the importance of fluency and how we can foster good fluency skills in the classroom.
The teaching profession is an ever changing, growing, demanding job. According to Routman (2000) “It is only through collaboration and collegiality that we grow and thrive” (p. 520). It is important that teachers recognize the allies that they have in each other. I realize that we all think that we have great ideas and that we have it ‘all figured out,’ but I often think of the impact collaboration can have on student achievement as well as the morale of the school environment.When I was a classroom teacher, I once had a co-teacher complain to me because she felt that another teacher on our team was ‘stealing’ her ideas. Can you imagine? I explained to her that this is the ultimate compliment and that she should be excited to share her wonderful ideas with the team. Unfortunately, this outlook is prevalent in schools and it only stifles creativity and leads to stagnant and tired teaching.
Regie Routman’s text, Conversations (p.549-556),offers a variety of suggestions for how to build a collaborative community within our schools. The first steps mentioned are:
· Talk with one another about practice
· Observe one another engaged in practice
· Work on curriculum together
· Teach one another what they know.
In my brick and mortar school experience, I did not see this as something that was stressed or valued. Teachers often kept their great ideas to themselves and rushed away from school-wide trainings as quickly as possible in order to get back to their classroom and work on planning or grading. One year I had a great team that worked together on lesson planning and curriculum mapping. This created less work for everyone and more time to focus on students and their needs.
Now that I teach with Florida Virtual School, one would think that collaboration is not something that occurs often. On the contrary, I have constant contact with the other teachers on my team through IM (Instant Messenger), email, and chat rooms. We are constantly sharing strategies and ideas, and working together is something that is supported and encouraged by administration.
Fluency has also been a trend that has been emphasized in my master’s degree courses. I have struggled with the minimal attention that fluency receives in our schools as of late. Reading Fluency was once considered to be a hot topic. However, it has recently been losing steam to more popular literacy issues such as comprehension and vocabulary (Cassidy, Garrett, & Valadez, 2010). In my opinion, fluency should be part of every teacher’s instructional day. Fostering good fluency skills can assist students with comprehension, word recognition, and story retelling, among other literacy skills. According to Allington and Cunningham (2011), fluency is critical to reading comprehension due to the attention factor, meaning that when students are focused primarily on decoding the words, they are unable to gain true meaning from the text. There seems to be a slight disconnect between the research and readings that I encountered during my master’s courses and what I’m seeing in the schools. As I mentioned earlier, schools seem to be focusing less on fluency and more on comprehension. However, from my research, it is clear that fluency can lead to better comprehension skills in students. For my Trends in Language Arts class I created apower point that could serve as a tool for instructing other teachers about the importance of fluency and how we can foster good fluency skills in the classroom.
The teaching profession is an ever changing, growing, demanding job. According to Routman (2000) “It is only through collaboration and collegiality that we grow and thrive” (p. 520). It is important that teachers recognize the allies that they have in each other. I realize that we all think that we have great ideas and that we have it ‘all figured out,’ but I often think of the impact collaboration can have on student achievement as well as the morale of the school environment.When I was a classroom teacher, I once had a co-teacher complain to me because she felt that another teacher on our team was ‘stealing’ her ideas. Can you imagine? I explained to her that this is the ultimate compliment and that she should be excited to share her wonderful ideas with the team. Unfortunately, this outlook is prevalent in schools and it only stifles creativity and leads to stagnant and tired teaching.
Regie Routman’s text, Conversations (p.549-556),offers a variety of suggestions for how to build a collaborative community within our schools. The first steps mentioned are:
· Talk with one another about practice
· Observe one another engaged in practice
· Work on curriculum together
· Teach one another what they know.
In my brick and mortar school experience, I did not see this as something that was stressed or valued. Teachers often kept their great ideas to themselves and rushed away from school-wide trainings as quickly as possible in order to get back to their classroom and work on planning or grading. One year I had a great team that worked together on lesson planning and curriculum mapping. This created less work for everyone and more time to focus on students and their needs.
Now that I teach with Florida Virtual School, one would think that collaboration is not something that occurs often. On the contrary, I have constant contact with the other teachers on my team through IM (Instant Messenger), email, and chat rooms. We are constantly sharing strategies and ideas, and working together is something that is supported and encouraged by administration.
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