Welcome to your capstone year (Fall 2014 into Spring 2015)
I have the privilege to walk beside you during this reflective and introspective journey as you look more closely at yourself as a teacher and learner in your classroom with your students. This is a liberating time for you to think independently, reflexively, and creatively.
"Critical reflection is matter of stance and dance. Our stance is one of inquiry. We see it as a constant formation and always needing further investigation. Our dance is the dance of experimentation and risk" (Brookfield, 1995, p. 42 as cited in Allen, 2009, A Sense of Belonging, p. 20).
Please mark your calendar for Friday, November 7 from 9:00am-3:30pm. You will be sharing your Oral Inquiry Proposal Presentation at the main campus to your committee members. Please arrange your leave with your school principal early on.
Your coach, fan, advocate & guide
Frances
Fall 2014
August 18, 2014 (Session 1)
Writing Prompts: Things I learned last week William Stafford
Review & sign POS & Letter of Intent
Letter to yourself
Research Inquiry inklings
Research Question as a moving target
Intellectual History Introduction (see Train Map)
Intellectual History (2012)
Intellectual History (2013)
Vitali Intellectual History
- Basically, the Intellectual History refers to the major ideas and influences that have contributed to who you are today as a teacher. This involves thinking deeply and individually about your own stories of who you are, pivotal people, events, places that significantly influence what you do, why you do it and how you teach and learn with your students. The SEPTA train map is a metaphor to help you think about your storied and journied professional life and the significant stops/highlights/you have made along that influence the you you are today.
Review Syllabus Highlights
Read Articles for next week (8/25)
Peruse Shagoury & Power text: Living the Question first chapters
Other:
Levin. July/August 2006). Action research: What is it? Why is it important? Exchange.
August 26 (session 2)
Teaching Reflections.......think about......
Reflective Writing with Teaching Vignettes: Capturing the complexity of the Moment
A vignette is a brief, literary sketch. A teaching vignette is a brief story, well-told, about something that happens in your classroom; it includes the writer's perception and reaction to the episode.
Authentic teaching vignettes are usually characterized by the writer's ability to notice and describe (thick description). The beauty, technique and artistry of vignettes are in the details. Powerful vignettes help us to re-think teaching and learning, including our roles as teachers and learners. Additional, compelling vignettes elicit strong, personal connections and questions which often point beyond the classroom and school. How did things come to be this way? How things might be different? Metaphors from your own life.
Trust your instincts when thinking and writing. If you find that you keep thinking about something that happened, there may be some resonance of a chord. Try to discover, through writing, what that connection is all about. Vignettes raise questions and leave us wondering, pondering. Anecdotes often have the same structure as jokes: they are neatly pulled together by the punch line-the crystal clear ending that resolves all doubt and leaves us satisfied. A vignette captures the writer's uncertainty and wonder; it leaves things open-ended, not neatly packaged. When you set out to write you will be surprised with the surprises you uncover. Trust yourself and the process.
- Writing Prompt: Make connections with any of the articles you read (Henderson, Streib, Brown, or Sanford) and entries in your teacher journal. From now on you will be seeing and making connections with what you read, what you think, and what you write.
- Share Intellectual Histories
- Text Chapter 1 dialogue
September 8 (Session 3)
- Visit to SJC Library (honing our library skills)
- Dialogue-Text chapters 1-3
“Story is another
word we all understand in context without being able to put a precise meaning
to it. Stories usually but not inevitably involve location, landscapes,
protagonists, intentions, emotions, conflicts, obstacles, struggles, and
consequences (which always lead into new stories.) These are elements we always
look for in any situation in which we are involved.” (Frank Smith in To Think
(1990)
