Looking back on the work that I did researching, preparing, and carrying out my Action Research project, I can see how I have evolved as a teacher. I've learned through my work that teaching is a craft that requires a great deal of knowledge that can' t be taught. While there are thousands of books dedicated to all aspects of teaching, ultimately, good teaching skills come with time and tacit knowledge that one simply can't absorb through hours of reading. Teaching well takes time, practice, and focus.
At the beginning of this process, I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of designing a project based on the needs I perceived in a classroom that was still new to me. Action research is a rigorous process, and there were times at which I was concerned that my questions would be considered a challenge to authority. However, in carving out a space for my own learning in my master teachers' classroom, I gained great respect for the knowledge they've built after years of trial and error of their own methods.
I have learned from my Action Research that I am a teacher who feels a strong need to connect with and understand her students. I will always feel driven by a desire to see my students learn and succeed. However, learning and success both take time and nurturing! Every student learns and grows at his or her own pace. As a new teacher, I continually remind myself that success looks different for every student. Likewise, new teachers like myself must give themselves time to evolve. I have learned that I am sometimes much more patient with my students than I am with myself. However, patience is not just a virtue, but a necessity. I am proud of myself for being so honest and self-reflective throughout this process, but I've also learned that there is an important difference between self-reflection and self-criticism.
Cognitively Guided Instruction has given me a wonderful window into understanding my students. Rather than perceiving my students on the basis of what they need to learn, CGI can be used as a tool to understand what students already know about math concepts. I began my Action Research very unsure what math looked like from a kindergartener's perspective. While I spent a great deal of time during my graduate study learning about effective reading instruction and how students can connect it to their own lives through books, I realized that I didn't fully understand the scope of good math instruction and what its overall goals should be. When I was a young student, math instruction was based on practice and algorithms. These are important to all math instruction, but I learned that there are ways to connect students' inherent knowledge to academic milestones, much as invented spelling provides students with a way of experimenting with their own abilities to formulate words before they've learned all the rules of spelling and phonics. Though I still have a lot to learn about what some of those conceptual milestones look like for older students, I've learned that students have a strong interest in applying what they already know in order to challenge themselves and become better learners.
At the beginning of this process, I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of designing a project based on the needs I perceived in a classroom that was still new to me. Action research is a rigorous process, and there were times at which I was concerned that my questions would be considered a challenge to authority. However, in carving out a space for my own learning in my master teachers' classroom, I gained great respect for the knowledge they've built after years of trial and error of their own methods.
I have learned from my Action Research that I am a teacher who feels a strong need to connect with and understand her students. I will always feel driven by a desire to see my students learn and succeed. However, learning and success both take time and nurturing! Every student learns and grows at his or her own pace. As a new teacher, I continually remind myself that success looks different for every student. Likewise, new teachers like myself must give themselves time to evolve. I have learned that I am sometimes much more patient with my students than I am with myself. However, patience is not just a virtue, but a necessity. I am proud of myself for being so honest and self-reflective throughout this process, but I've also learned that there is an important difference between self-reflection and self-criticism.
Cognitively Guided Instruction has given me a wonderful window into understanding my students. Rather than perceiving my students on the basis of what they need to learn, CGI can be used as a tool to understand what students already know about math concepts. I began my Action Research very unsure what math looked like from a kindergartener's perspective. While I spent a great deal of time during my graduate study learning about effective reading instruction and how students can connect it to their own lives through books, I realized that I didn't fully understand the scope of good math instruction and what its overall goals should be. When I was a young student, math instruction was based on practice and algorithms. These are important to all math instruction, but I learned that there are ways to connect students' inherent knowledge to academic milestones, much as invented spelling provides students with a way of experimenting with their own abilities to formulate words before they've learned all the rules of spelling and phonics. Though I still have a lot to learn about what some of those conceptual milestones look like for older students, I've learned that students have a strong interest in applying what they already know in order to challenge themselves and become better learners.