TPCK Chapter 12--TPCK in in-service education: Assisting experienced teachers' "planned improvisations"

I'm a sucker for a good extended metaphor, so I enjoyed this chapter in which teaching was compared to playing jazz. It is so accurate, especially for older experienced teachers. So much of what I do is second nature that I hardly have to think about it. I found this to be very true when I was planning for being out for two weeks after my surgery. "How hard could it be," asked my kids, when I mentioned my struggles. "OK," I said, "imagine that I told you to get up go to your car and drive home right now. You could do it almost automatically, right? Now imagine that you have to give a total stranger directions for doing the same thing. You have to walk them through every step: how to get out of the building, how to find your car in the parking lot, how to turn it on, and explicit direction on how to get to your house. Not so easy, is it?"

This is what teaching is like, second nature. We get relaxed, comfortable. Complacent, perhaps. We don't like change because change asks us to do more, to do things differently, to try, to stretch, to grow. And growing is sometimes painful. So we build barriers and say we have no time! We have no resources! We don't know how! And I get frustrated with people like that. If teaching is about learning, shouldn't we model a willingness to learn and try new things? What would any one of us do if our students used any of the excuses that we try to use? Would we buy it? Probably not. But it works for teachers sometimes.

I liked that part of this chapter that mentioned that "adults need to know why they should learn something, and how, if at all, it will benefit them directly" (p.267). Perhaps it is different for me because I teach high school, but I know that my kids feel this way. They really want to know why they are learning things and how it will benefit them. Incorporating 21rst century skills into the curriculum will not only excite them, it will provide an answer to those questions of "Why do we have to do this?" and "Why do we have to read this" or the more dreaded "Do I need to know this?" and "Will this be on the test?"

I also liked the part of the chapter that talked about "developing a taxonomy of TPCK-related activity types" (p. 263). This may be what some teachers need in order to start exploring TPCK. It's always easier when you have a template or framework given to you, rather than having to re-invent the wheel. We should go back to our schools and implement our projects next year. Then we should present them to the entire staff at our respective buildings. We may be able to inspire some of our colleagues to try "just one thing" related to technology. We need to take away the barriers that are currently used as excuses and challenge everyone to grow.

TPCK Chapter 11--Guiding preservice teachers in developing TPCK

There were many things I appreciated about this chapter. I liked all the little quotes sprinkled throughout the pages, and I really enjoyed reading about the case studies and the examples included in the chapter. Although I am not in the business of educating preservice teachers often, I do occasionally have student teachers, and much of this information will be kept in mind for when I have a student teacher in my classroom.

I took exception to one statement though. The author says, "Tomorrow's teachers must be prepared to rethink, unlearn and relearn, change, revise and adapt" (p 225). Call me crazy, but also call me fairly certain that all teachers need to be able to do this! After all, that is one of the best tools in our toolboxes. The ability to be flexible and adapt to changes. We have all, I am sure, had the experience of going in to the classroom with one lesson prepared and planned and having to revise and adapt that lesson as we taught it more than once. That is the essence of teaching...learning what your students need and changing your lesson so that you meet those needs.

I was also immediately aware, when reading this chapter, that the chapter could conceivably have been written about our class, EDU 583. After all, is that not what we are doing? Are we not planning lessons, incorporating technology, using backward design? We are doing all of these things. Even though we are not preservice teachers, we have varying degrees of skill and ease with technology. This course and the course that will follow in the fall, are preparing us to start thinking more and more like digital natives.

How I spent my April 15...

Where was I April 15?
Proudly watching my nephew graduate from the Connecticut State Trooper Academy. He is now one of Connecticut's Finest! The ceremony was three hours long, but worth every minute. He was also in the Rifle Drill Squad, so that was a total thrill to see.

TPCK Chapter 5: TPCK: educating world language teachers

This chapter was not particularly applicable to me at this stage although I did enjoy thinking about language development. My kids are working on vocabulary building and, although they are sophomores and seniors in high school, they have little skill in pronunciation and word usage. This leads to rather humorous moments when we are going over them in class. Therefore, some of the interesting possibilities of using tech in the classroom come about.

I liked the idea of using a podcast to pronounce the words! This would be very helpful for my students. They would not feel as insecure or self-conscious when going over the words in class. I am sure that there are numerous other technologies available. I feel that I really must try to tap into that next year.