Wrapping
Everything
Together
The past year has been one of the most interesting, challenging and refreshing in my life in so many ways, due to the fact that I started my career as a bilingual elementary teacher in third grade. This journey began with many fears, I really felt that I was stuck at some point. I loved working with my students and teaching English language arts and social studies. When I was a child I enjoyed going to school each day and I still spend way too much time at school and working with learners. As an immigrant in a new country, meeting new people in a new culture, the learning process has been part of my new life.
Changes are incredibly important because life itself is always changing; people are evolving, technology is advancing, inventions are being developed daily. We need significant changes in the educational field using technology. In the course EDLD 5305 there are many things that I learned, but one specific that I remember is that it is important to identify technology innovations and recognize them as opportunities rather than challenges, accepting that they can proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their organizations. Also, how to apply the principles of disruptive innovation.
At the moment of creating my innovation plan I had no idea about the importance of the concepts learned in this course so far. I decided to implement a plan which is a method called blended learning models. Blended learning includes models as station rotation, it is a course or subject in which students experience the rotation model within a contained classroom or group of classrooms. Also, I have been implementing the individualized rotation that I am using to support my students in class. Using this strategy, students will rotate on an individually customized schedule among learning modalities. This modality sets a daily schedule according to a playlist customized to their specific educational needs (Horn & Staker, 2015, p.45).
After reflecting on my growth mindset plan and reviewing Carol Dweck's research on growth mindset and The Power of Yet, I strongly believe that the power of the mindset is very important because most of the time everything around us is pushing and challenging us to do things that look hard or difficult. The word successful can be different for everyone, what is success for someone could not mean the same for others. That is why we need to understand the kind of mindset that we have. I would like to help and inspire other people in my school to believe that they have the power to take challenges and be open to say I can, I will do it, it is not going to be easy but I will try my best.
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The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your effort, your strategies, and help from others (Dweck, 2016 p.6). The growth mindset is really important because it helps us to understand that where there are problems or obstacles, instead of giving up we can embrace it to change the difficulties for opportunities.
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With this in mind I would like to share with teachers and students in my school the power of the word “yet”. In fact, every single day I share and motivate my third grade students to use the power of yet. I have been sharing with them my life experience, because there have been moments where challenges have come and I clearly heard that negative voice saying you are not going to get it. For example, when I came to the United States I was faced with the challenge of learning a new language. Without a doubt, I was in my fixed mindset but some people encouraged me to think that everything could be possible if I change my way of thinking not knowing that it was a transition between my fixed mindset to a growth mindset. In other words, the motivation that I received from those people changed my life in a good way. I am still learning how to develop my abilities to share it with others.
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During the last weeks I have been learning how to implement an effective learning environment in my classroom, honestly I did not know enough about it, but know I want to share that to create a significant learning environment is necessary to understand the concept of the new culture of learning, as Douglas Thomas states: “there are three different fundamental elements about a new culture of learning, those are passion, imagination and constraint”. As part of an organization I firmly believe that teachers need to facilitate a space in the classrooms where our students can find passion in their daily activities to connect it with a purpose, where theory meets practice and imagination ties up with the real world experiences.
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We have to let our students have a voice in their learning process, by giving them choices that are enjoyable but at the same time educational. In addition, I have been observing in my students that when I implement new strategies like new technology resources to embrace and reach their academic goals, I have seen progress in their reading fluency adding more challenges but doing this in a fun way through digital resources that breaks a little bit the old model of teaching to a new model of learning(Thomas et al,2011). I am not saying that the traditional teaching does not work but combining them to do blended learning.
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I can influence others by modeling what I am doing in my classroom and show them how it is giving me results. I believe teachers have the power to do wonders by practicing the learning environment elements. Being consistent is very important for the students to be able to create routines. From the beginning of this process it has to be successful to be able to influence more students and teachers. Share in my organization and explain to them the importance of the New Culture of Learning.
If I can show that something not only works but is worth trying based on research, more people around me will adopt my ideas. I think that my perspective has broadly been about introducing and effecting change within my organization, it has influenced my philosophy on learning and the actions I feel are necessary to be successful in my goals.
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Teaching, or to teach, is to impart knowledge of skill to someone by instruction or example; or to give lessons in a subject. In contrast, learning, or to learn, is coming to know something, to acquire knowledge or to find something out
(Harapnuik, 2018).
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I strongly believe that we are born capable of learning. In a very simple sense, this is my core philosophy of education. In today’s culturally diverse society the role of bilingual education is to utilize the student’s primary language to create affirming and academic challenging environments that give second language learners multiple opportunities to experience academic success, master the English language and gain useful skills for everyday life.
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As a bilingual teacher, I have been noticing some obstacles that students are facing in reaching their academic goals, especially in a world post Covid. Therefore, it is important to remember that children are creative, inquisitive, and bring their own unique experiences, backgrounds and knowledge to the classroom community. As I learn more about learning philosophy in education, one of the theories in which I feel identify is the constructivist theory, because it is based around the idea that learners are active participants in their learning journey; knowledge is constructed based on experiences. As events occur, each person reflects on their experience and incorporates the new ideas with their prior knowledge.
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Learning is an active and dynamic process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current or past knowledge. The making of meaningful connections is key to learning and knowing (Harapnuik, 2015).
The theory of constructivist learning is vital to understanding how students learn. The idea that students actively construct knowledge is central to constructivism. Students add (or build) their new experiences on top of their current foundation of understanding (Kurt,S.2021). According to Woolfolk (1993), “learning is active mental work, not passive reception of teaching”
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Finally, I am trying to impact my organization in a manner that I can guide my students to develop competencies in reading comprehension in both languages Spanish and English, specifically, to get better results related to their reading fluency levels. I will address in my innovation plan those areas of constructivism to be successful in my classroom, implementing a significant learning environment. Having a better understanding about the learning philosophies, I will continue meeting my students' needs to know where they are at academically and connecting lessons to their lives. This will help raise interest and my children to learn to make meaning of what they are learning. In the classroom, I serve as a role model, share my personal experiences in order to encourage and instill a “I can do it too” (growth mindset) and a belief that everything is possible if you study and work hard.
References:
Dweck, C. S (2016) Mindset: The new Psychology of success.
Harapnuik, D. (2015). Creating Significant Learning Environments (CLSE). YouTube. Retrieved Mayo 09, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
FutureLearn. (2017). What do the learning theories say about how we learn? Retrieved from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/0/steps/24637 Animation and brief overview of learning theories and teaching approaches.
Harapnuik,D. (2023). Learning Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95
Kurt,S.(2021). Constructivist Learning Theory. Frameworks and Theories. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/constructivist-learning-theory/
LearningDctr. (2010, June 17). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Learning and Instructional Theory. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOqgXjynd0
Stanford Alumni. ( 2014, Oct 9). Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Createspace.
Thomas, D. (2012). A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM. (2012, September 13). YouTube. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U
TEDx Talks ( 2012, Nov 18). The Power of belief–mindset and success. YouTube.