Day 7: Final Project

My name is Tayla St. Pierre and I just finished my second year of teaching. I teach at a public charter school in Providence, Rhode Island. My school is comprised of students from a variety of backgrounds. Similar to other schools in Providence, my school has many students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Many students also speak a primary language other than English. My school's population is not representative of the dominant culture in society.

For the past two years, I have been a first grade-reading specialist. My favorite part of teaching reading is my ability to share my love of reading. As I teach, I try to embrace William Butler Yeats’ quote “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of fire.” As an educator, I aim to ignite a love for reading in my students. I constantly ask myself, “What will make students love to read?”

When students leave my classroom, I would want them to feel inspired by reading and books. Although I think reading strategies like Stretchy Snake and Chunky Monkey are important and crucial to learning how to read, I believe these strategies are the what in my teaching and not the why in my teaching. In his TED talk, Sinek discusses how humans are driven by why. During his TED talk, Sinek uses Apple as an example of a company that speaks to the why in consumers. Instead of trying to advertise specific products, Apple advertises by speaking to their consumer of why they should trust, believe, and buy into apple. Here is one example of an Apple advertisement from a few years ago and here is an advertisement from 2017.  I believe teachers should constantly be thinking about the why behind what motivates them to teach. This why should be embedded into their curriculum. CURR 550 has allowed me the time to think about and refine the why in my own teaching.

I am very grateful for the time and space that CURR 550 has given me to reflect, analyze, and create beliefs about my own personal ideology of education. The timing of this class was ideal because I am making a major shift this upcoming school year. Starting in August, I will be switching classrooms and moving from first grade to fourth grade. As I set up my new space, I think it is important to ensure my core beliefs of education, my why, are represented in my new space. In listening to some examples on the This I Believe archive for homework, I was able to begin to cultivate my own beliefs about education.

I also found myself thinking about my own experiences in the classroom. What motivated me to learn? How did I feel about school? What would I change about my own experience?

It often comes as a surprise to many when I explain that I absolutely despised reading in elementary school.  In fact, I avoided independent reading at all costs. I can count on my hands the amount of chapter books that I chose to read on my own during elementary school. What caused me to change my opinion on reading?

                 

I believe there are a few reasons why my opinion on reading drastically shifted between feelings of disgust and resentment to feelings of happiness and joy. In sixth grade, I had access to an elaborate classroom library. This was the first time that I had a library in my classroom. Every Friday, my classmates and I had time to explore and shop for new books. One Friday in March, I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling. My relationship with reading was forever changed.

Although, it might sound cliché, I found that by reading Harry Potter, I for the first time was not simply reading to read, but reading because I loved the story. I was transported to a fantasy world where I was inspired by the text on the page. I fell in love with the characters and found myself routing for Harry, Hermonine, and Ron during times of turmoil and celebrating their victories as my own. Although I had previously heard about Harry Potter, I was not motivated to go out to the bookstore or the library to get this book. However, my classroom library made it possible for me to have access to the book despite my motivation to seek out books. Without my classroom library, I do not know if I would have ever attempted to read Harry Potter.

Besides falling in love with the characters and their story lines, I loved Harry Potter because unlike most books it, it created a community. By reading the book, I was instantly welcomed into a group of other Harry Potter fans. This group of people stood in line to buy the latest Harry Potter book at the midnight release parties, dressed like the characters for Halloween, and discussed the books on the playground at recess. For the first time, I was able to discuss and be a part of something bigger than just my own personal connection with the book. This connection was powerful.

In reflecting on my own experience, as well as articles that I have read across my educational journey, I have come to realize that I have a few core beliefs that I want to live and breathe in my new classroom space. As a reading teacher, I want to ensure that all my students have access to a diversified classroom library. I also want to provide my scholars the space to converse and learn from each other. Lastly, I want my scholars to feel empowered to take ownership of their learning.

As a new fourth grade teacher, I need to set up a new classroom library that will provide students of diverse backgrounds equal access to quality books. Luckily I have been gathering books from family members and friends over the course of the last five years.In another class, I had to read this article by Colorin colorado which helped me analyze books and foster a library of culturally relevant books.

Unlike my previous classroom libraries, I want my students to be able to take their library books home to help bridge the gap between school and home. I wanted students to bring the stories into their homes and share with their families and friends. When I read Harry Potter, I was able to discuss Harry Potter with both my school and home community. Ken Robison would validate that the home school connection is vital in student engagement and learning. Until a few days ago, I was anxious about creating a management system that would allow me to keep track of these books that were leaving my classroom. I had nightmares about utilizing the paper and stamp method. I knew that this system would create chaos and stress. I knew this method would simply not work for me.

While researching online tools for this class, I stumbled upon the website: Book Source. Book Source is an interactive website in which teachers can create accounts to organize and manage their classroom libraries. By using a smart phone or tablet a teacher can scan the ISBN of books and add them to a virtual library that they create. Teachers can also manually add in books online by typing in the ISBN numbers. Furthermore, teachers can even specify the level of the book and the bin that the book is stored within the library. I was excited when I stumbled upon this tool because it was an efficient an easy to use tool that would save me time and help me keep track of my books.

If I were to be the one to then check students books in and out using my teacher account, I would be utilizing this application in a techno-traditionalist way. In utilizing this application, I would simply be exchanging old paper records to a record that is kept online. However, I wanted to create a space for my students where they feel empowered to own their own learning. Therefore, I am choosing to also allow my students access to the student portal of my online classroom library. This portal allows them to use a smartphone or the online portal to check books in and out.  Although giving up control is difficult for me, I hope to construct a place for my students to own their classroom. In his TED talk, Sugata Mitra explains that there is power in giving up control as a teacher and allowing students to collaborate and teach themselves. He goes as far as calling our current model of having teachers instruct as obsolete.

This system not only allows students to check out books, but it also allows them to rate and leave reviews about books. These reviews and ratings are public to other students to view when checking out a book. I hope this feature will foster discussions about books and create a sense of a classroom community. This tool will help me construct a community and discussion forum that I would not have time to formally create in my classroom for independent reading time.  For this reason, I feel that I am using Book Source in a techno-constructivist manner.

In reflecting on my own experience, I realize that creating a classroom library was simply not enough. I fell in love with reading because I felt like I was part of something that was bigger than myself. My love for reading was deepened when I had conversations about what I was reading with friends, family members, and classmates. Turkle would argue that as a society we are shifting to a place where we are alone together. In her article, she explains that we are constantly connected via technology. However, as a society we are losing skills to connect with one another in person.

Wesch would also agree that our education system does not provide a space for students to develop the skills of collaboration. He noticed that the current setup of our classrooms does not foster this meaningful communication where people are allowed to learn from each other. As I am setting up my classroom, I am going to defy the norms of the other fourth grade classrooms in my school. I will defy the norm by putting my students' desks into groups instead of rows. In setting up my classroom in this manner, I hope to incorporate group discussions frequently and show students my belief that discussions are crucial to learning.

I am excited to incorporate my core beliefs in my classroom next year! In creating a space in my classroom for a classroom library, I am attempting to provide all of my students with access to quality literature. In utilizing Book Source in my classroom library, I hope that students will take ownership of their own library and create a platform to discuss books with each other. At the end of the day, I want my library to ignite the fire for students to fall in love with books.

My Pecha Kucha!

Click here for my self assessment.

-Tayla St. Pierre