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About the Author
I began my teaching career in 1990 at Redwood Middle School as a seventh-grade science teacher. Teaming was foundational to the way the school was organized. I shared my 160 students with four other core teachers. It was a “Camelot” time in my career with amazing leadership, mentors, and students. The teaming structure created solid connections between students as well as teacher to student, and teacher to teacher, just like any good team does. I left teaching for a decade to begin my family and when I came back, teaming was still the model we were working in at Redwood but the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was shifting the focus of education from the whole child to the assessments. I could see some erosion of the teaming model as students were pulled from social studies and science classes and put in support math and ELA classes.
In the past, I always knew all the kids on my team as they came into my science classes, but now I knew “most” of the kids because some did not get to take science. Students still knew they were part of a team and that they belonged to that team. We held assemblies through the team structure, organized team-building days, did recognition and homework challenges, went on field trips, played together, worked together, created friendships and middle school moments to remember.
I have discovered that what I really love about teaching science is building community in my classroom through shared science exploration. Because science includes a lot of hands-on experiments and group work, adolescents generally enjoy the class. I look forward to creating experiences that allow students to see and appreciate the way things work, to ask questions and grow their curiosity about the natural world, and to share the experience with a group. When kids work together on a project or lab, they naturally begin to form friendships and our classroom community is created.
In the past, I always knew all the kids on my team as they came into my science classes, but now I knew “most” of the kids because some did not get to take science. Students still knew they were part of a team and that they belonged to that team. We held assemblies through the team structure, organized team-building days, did recognition and homework challenges, went on field trips, played together, worked together, created friendships and middle school moments to remember.
I have discovered that what I really love about teaching science is building community in my classroom through shared science exploration. Because science includes a lot of hands-on experiments and group work, adolescents generally enjoy the class. I look forward to creating experiences that allow students to see and appreciate the way things work, to ask questions and grow their curiosity about the natural world, and to share the experience with a group. When kids work together on a project or lab, they naturally begin to form friendships and our classroom community is created.
The pandemic of 2020 changed everything and creating community was going to require a new way of doing school. I knew I would need to add a lot of technology tools to my teacher toolbox to be able to engage my students with the science content and create connections between people while we were all virtual at the start of the school year 2020. This was the catalyst for my journey into the Innovative Learning program and my research on using affinity groups in class to create connections between students and increase engagement.
When I am not busy lesson planning, learning new tech tricks, or grading schoolwork, I like to go camping with my family, spend time reading a good book, enjoy a hike in the beautiful Napa Valley, or work in my garden. I still see myself as a “nature girl” as I approach my sixth decade on the planet.
When I am not busy lesson planning, learning new tech tricks, or grading schoolwork, I like to go camping with my family, spend time reading a good book, enjoy a hike in the beautiful Napa Valley, or work in my garden. I still see myself as a “nature girl” as I approach my sixth decade on the planet.
This is my blog in case you'd like to peek a little farther into the heart and mind of this teacher.
Reflections on your Journey
After jumping into the Innovative Learning masters program I quickly learned about TPACK, which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Don’t let this scare you off. It is a big fancy name but if you break it down like the graphic below nicely shows, we quickly see that TPACK is simply the three big realms teachers work in. As a science teacher, my content is all the science skills and standards that my student will learn in a year. Content answers the question “What am I going to teach?” Science fascinates me. I love teaching science and learning new stuff every year as our world’s scientific knowledge expands. I would have to say that of the three realms, content is my home base.
Pedagogical Knowledge encompasses all the ways teachers teach. We can think of this as the “How?”. How am I going to teach the science content? Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge a teacher uses to make the subject matter understandable for students. For my class, this included as many inquiry and hands-on labs as I could create, plus debates, discussions, group projects, Cornell notes, and games. For me, pedagogy was always about making students feel like scientists and having a lot of fun. Pedagogy was definitely my other comfortable spot.
The third area of TPACK is Technological Knowledge and this was surely my weakest point. My other two areas were so satisfying and made my teaching so relevant to students that I didn’t really push myself in the technology realm. I used Google slides for notes and group presentations, Google forms for quizzes sometimes, and Kahoot! and Quizlet for vocabulary review, plus some digital videos for content, but seriously I was not tech-savvy. I learned new tools at a very slow pace and just did not focus on it. Most of my students had much better technical skills than I did.
Then March 2020 arrived and we were thrust into virtual teaching and learning as Shelter in Place orders closed down schools for the remainder of the year due to the Covid pandemic. Over the next 3 months, my TK “muscle” would be forced to grow and become stronger as I added tool after tool to my teacher “Tool Kit” in order to reach my students virtually. In my reference list, you can view some of my favorite tech tools that I can no longer teach without. This has been a technology transformational journey for me and it also influenced and grew my skills and knowledge in Pedagogy and Content. For my students and for me personally, I have experienced that synergistic sweet spot where the content, pedagogy, and technology all overlap.
One important idea I would add to TPACK is a foundation of social-emotional learning (SEL). I put the heart behind the TPACK graphic to symbolize this. SEL is still so foundational to student learning. At the base of all this learning, students must first feel cared for, confident, capable, and like they belong and are known. SEL must come first and be intertwined throughout TPACK for powerful learning to happen.
Pedagogical Knowledge encompasses all the ways teachers teach. We can think of this as the “How?”. How am I going to teach the science content? Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge a teacher uses to make the subject matter understandable for students. For my class, this included as many inquiry and hands-on labs as I could create, plus debates, discussions, group projects, Cornell notes, and games. For me, pedagogy was always about making students feel like scientists and having a lot of fun. Pedagogy was definitely my other comfortable spot.
The third area of TPACK is Technological Knowledge and this was surely my weakest point. My other two areas were so satisfying and made my teaching so relevant to students that I didn’t really push myself in the technology realm. I used Google slides for notes and group presentations, Google forms for quizzes sometimes, and Kahoot! and Quizlet for vocabulary review, plus some digital videos for content, but seriously I was not tech-savvy. I learned new tools at a very slow pace and just did not focus on it. Most of my students had much better technical skills than I did.
Then March 2020 arrived and we were thrust into virtual teaching and learning as Shelter in Place orders closed down schools for the remainder of the year due to the Covid pandemic. Over the next 3 months, my TK “muscle” would be forced to grow and become stronger as I added tool after tool to my teacher “Tool Kit” in order to reach my students virtually. In my reference list, you can view some of my favorite tech tools that I can no longer teach without. This has been a technology transformational journey for me and it also influenced and grew my skills and knowledge in Pedagogy and Content. For my students and for me personally, I have experienced that synergistic sweet spot where the content, pedagogy, and technology all overlap.
One important idea I would add to TPACK is a foundation of social-emotional learning (SEL). I put the heart behind the TPACK graphic to symbolize this. SEL is still so foundational to student learning. At the base of all this learning, students must first feel cared for, confident, capable, and like they belong and are known. SEL must come first and be intertwined throughout TPACK for powerful learning to happen.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
