I feel like I cannot address the importance of my driving question or capstone and who it is meant for without first answering the question, What is Alt Ed Anyway?
For the majority of my teaching life I spent my day to day in a traditionally modeled urban school. Just like almost any other school I encountered typical class sizes (26-32), fairly consistent attendance (90%), students who did well and those that struggled. Our student body was comprised of an array of students form different cultural, economic and social backgrounds that on occasion would intermingle with those not homogenous to themselves. On a day to day basis, systems had been put in place at the site and classroom level that allowed the majority of students to learn and engage with the content. It was a school. The type of school you think about when asked to think of a school. Grades, fights, Back to School nights, open houses, after-school HW help, sports teams, etc. Honestly, looking back over a year and half ago when applying to an Alternative High School position I didn't really think about what it would entail. I figured that I had taught in a few tough schools in Oakland, my management was solid as was my content, how much different could an alternative setting be? Almost two years in I still struggle. I am still constantly questioning what I do, searching for different strategies and trying to problem solve with the question, "How could this better" in the back of my mind. So what is Alt ed? This list is not unique to an alt ed setting (or at least shouldn't be). To me, alt ed is:
With this in mind, my driving question's end user is the students, as they will be the ones that potentially will benefit from this research and design model. However, my end user is also my peers, our sites/districts administration and every other Portland area school district that we service. At our site, attendance is a major issue. Most of our students attend 50% of the time. Planning content that builds on itself is tough. Last year I created individual units that students could work through independently and pick up where they left off. This was fairly successful but still approached math through a traditional lens (that most likely didn't work the first time around). What I am trying to do with my current driving question is create a template for unit design that incorporates a PBL framework and works for students that are at school or not. Basically, I want to take online learning, PBL design and the integration of content areas and smoosh them together. I do not want math to be taught in isolation but rather integrated into relevant unit experiences. We already have a good start on this. I have planned with the Humanities and Sciences to build some pretty cool units that do just this. What is missing is the accessibility aspect and high school rigor. Right now our content is meeting students where they are. The hope is that in the future, by offering other modes of accessibility we can fold more students into the success zone rather than only the students who are frequent attenders and really push skill levels into that "prepared for college" category all the while creating residue from meaningful units that connect in multiple ways.
1 Comment
Christina Schreiber
3/12/2018 12:03:04 pm
I really appreciate the background information on the school you teach at and some of the challenges of being an alt ed teacher. It seems like there are so many more opportunities to customize the learning for your students and/or let the students choose how to tackle some of your content. I think PBL sounds like a great fit with your student population. I also think that you peers have a lot to gain from hearing some of your ideas and research. I am excited to see your final product!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHello, I'm Joe. Welcome to writings about my thought process throughout the journey of Touro's Innovative Learning Graduate Program. Archives
July 2018
Categories |