Leading from the Classroom by Example

By: Emmanuel Anama-Green

Elevating teacher voice in Eastern Kentucky has certain obstacles. Nonetheless, many teachers are making the effort. I have a passion for the installation of a proficiency-based World Languages Program Review. While one may easily participate and advocate at the state board of education or the EAARS committee for example, for World Languages Program Review, increasingly tight budgets at the local and district levels cause issue with installing this important review.

Collaborating alongside district administrators, superintendents, and curriculum specialists, I have been able to serve the needs of Harlan County’s necessity for augmentation of the World Languages program into a proficiency-based program. Through the usage of technology, district administrators have been able to broaden our proficiency-based curriculum to all of the elementary schools using the Microsoft Lync® program wherein the two Spanish teachers at Harlan County High School broadcast a brief lesson each week.

One way that I have been innovative in my classroom is by utilizing technology and showcasing its impact on a globally-competent classroom. In my unit about hotels and travel, I require my students make three live Skype® telephone calls for formative assessments, and one live Skype® telephone call (without notes) for summative assessments. The students simply have to make an introduction, ask three questions wherein they inquire about costs, amenities, location, etc, and then end an effective conclusion statement. In short, they have to make a successful telephone call. If they are unsuccessful, they must repeat the call until they are successful. I have a similar assessment created for my restaurants unit.

Collaboration and negotiation have proved vital at the state and local level in the time of the World Languages Program Review due to the issue of funding. I was one of several teachers who advocated in Frankfort on multiple occasions for the Program Review. However, I quickly realized that I also had to be innovative alongside administrators at the local level to maintain the velocity of the voice that had been elevated from a state perspective, which is why I am trying innovative techniques in my classroom.

 
This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.

Collaborative Learning for Students and Teachers

​By: Tyler Murphy

“Collaborative learning” is growing ever more popular in the pedagogical lexicon and educators are often eager to incorporate it in their lessons and classrooms. But, like most concepts we hurriedly use with our students, teachers would do well to reflect on applying collaborative learning to ourselves—in our professional  community and in the learning environment of which we are all a part.

Teachers can benefit immensely from collaborative learning—substantive collaboration that extends beyond mandatory participation in PLC or team meetings. While we are quick to look for outside help and resources to enhance teaching and strengthen learning in our classrooms, we often ignore that our most valuable assets are the women and men with whom we work every day.

At Woodford County Middle School, some teachers have worked to capitalize on the knowledge, skill, and experience of our colleagues. To create a truly collaborative environment, it is important that we understand what is going on inside of each other’s classroom, both from a curriculum standpoint and from a pedagogical perspective.

First is the emphasis on curricular collaboration. Teachers can encourage critical thinking and hone transferable skills by demonstrating to students the concepts they discuss throughout multiple classes are integrally connected. The content we examine in Social Studies, for example, can readily link to concepts and skills addressed in Language Arts. To capitalize on this connection, a Language Arts teacher and I partnered on a cross-curricular unit in which the students designed their own country, creating population data, a constitution and form of government, and regional characteristics. In so doing, they applied their knowledge of population, government, and geography to demonstrate their learning of the Social Studies content. But we didn’t stop there: the students also designed a flag, national anthem, and speech to present their country to the world, emphasizing the Language Arts concepts of imagery, argumentative appeals, and the use of symbols. Finally, the capstone of the project was a simulated United Nations, in which the students came together (i.e., “collaborative learning”) as ambassadors of their self-designed countries to solve global crises in their fictional world, writing and voting on resolutions.

The project covered a wide realm of Social Studies and Language Arts content and it was something the students (not to mention their teachers!) truly enjoyed. As we were planning to repeat the project this year, we realized that there is no reason the project should be isolated to Social Studies and Language Arts. Collaboration with the Science teachers revealed that the students’ countries would be perfect to use during a weather unit, in which students have to determine weather patterns for a specific latitude and longitude (coordinates they had already established as part of their project in Social Studies). Now, we had students creating weather forecasts for their countries. Additionally, the Math teachers recognized the value of the population statistics and data students had to create for their countries and incorporated these in their lessons on graphs and linear formulas.

What started as a two-class activity became a multi-disciplinary activity that demonstrated to students the relevance of, and the connections among, the content they explore in each of their classes. Isn’t that how the “real world” works, anyway? And by working together and aligning our content, the teachers modeled to students what collaboration looks like and how it is beneficial.

This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.

Paving Pathways for World Language Instruction

By: Angie Keaton, NBCT

The mere mention of including World Language into Program Reviews and accountability can strike fear in the minds of teachers and administrators. Multiple questions arise. For example: How will we fund it? Who will teach it? How can we find the time to incorporate it into our schedules? The short answer to all of these questions is innovation.

As a Nationally Board Certified fourth grade reading/language arts teacher in my elementary school, I have already begun the process of finding ways to incorporate project based learning and world language into my instruction. At the beginning of this school year, I set out on a mission to find ways to bring the world to my eastern Kentucky students who are often isolated from exposure to other cultures.

Our E-Pal Project includes teachers in Germany, Italy, and Spain who are also enthusiastic about engaging their students with other cultures and languages. Through this project our students have had opportunities to exchange email and letters, record and exchange videos, and share information about their culture and celebrations. Students are now eager to begin an international book study/literature circle project that will culminate with Skype sessions in the coming weeks.

This is just one way to innovate with World Language instruction. As innovative educators, we must continue striving to find solutions that will help prepare our students to be college and career ready, and give them the skills necessary to be productive members of a global community.

This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.