Action Research Essay

“It’s not what you say or how you say it.” This is something we’ve all heard time and time again, and while it’s typically brought up to talk about situations in the past, I wanted to apply the concept to thinking about the way I engage people - specifically my students.

The first stage of my action research was to make myself personally aware of tone. I decided to focus on the way people were talking to me to think about my relationship with those people and what that relationship meant to me. The best way for me to explore this was to write out my thoughts on my relationship with that person before having a conversation where I put this exercise into practice. The results weren’t terribly surprising - but it was interesting to see how those things lined up. The hard part was that while it ‘made sense’ to me, tone of voice was a very very difficult thing for me to describe.

One example was when I started thinking of my boss. This is a direct supervisor who I respect, and when I communicated with him the next day I paid attention to how he spoke. It was thought out, confident and sure.  If he wasn’t sure or didn’t know about something he didn’t get timid about it. He is able to say “I don’t know” or “Let’s figure it out.” in a way that makes not knowing feel okay.  

This was something I definitely wanted to bring to my students. Taken a step further I believe it can be the type of thing that can make the difference between looking up an answer feeling like a chore, and feeling like an exciting thing we are doing together. If I tell a student “You have to go find that answer.” or if I tell them “I don’t know the answer either but I bet we can figure it out!” I can expect very different results.

After some discussion about teaching’s relationship to acting I was able to get a good resource from my boyfriend in the form of a book called “Directing Actors.” This was a book specifically for directors, but it talked a lot about the acting process and something called “the internal monologue.” This is essentially the thought process that a ‘character’ goes through that the actor attempt to experience to create the emotions and tone. So in my above example, it isn’t so much important the way I phrase the question, but how the question is phrased in my head. If I am annoyed, frustrated it’s going to come out the first way as opposed to the engaging way.  This helped me come to realization that “tone” is about much more than the sound of your voice, it’s the entire context of your mindset.

When I first started applying this to my 5th grade group I immediately noticed a difference in the level of engagement. Once I actively became interested in the different topics that they would stray to I could find connections to build with the students and consequently ways to bring it back to the lesson plan. The children were often talking about different games and pop culture figures. Pokemon were a big one that came about. When it came time to talk about our project I would use an instructional tone when teaching them about processes and information, an empathetic tone when relating to the kids about the their concerns or difficulties, and an assertive almost parental tone when they were simply straying completely from the tasks we needed to focus on.

One of my big revelations that, while the context of my mindset was important, the context of the situation was important to. And in most cases the biggest piece of context was: loud classroom. This meant that my volume had to greatly increase when I was attempting any kind of tone - but obviously I didn’t want to appear as though I was yelling.  This was difficult for me as a naturally quiet person, but I feel like I found a good balance of volume that reads as “excited” and “enthusiastic”. In this particular case - addressing a small subset of the class in a loud classroom that I don’t have authority over, participating in the ‘noise’ by being as loud as I needed to be heard (while still trying to respect nearby groups of course) was the best course of action.

Overall tone feels like it’s own entire art form, and just taking basic steps towards implementing it in my group has lead to some pretty good results even if it is something that still needs a lot of work. It’s important to me that I don’t get lazy with it and keep learning how to use it as a tool - because like any tool it’s going to help me get the job done with more quality and efficiency. So while it’s going to take work learning how to use this tool to begin with, I know it will make me a better teacher and be well worth it in the end.

Videotaping Myself Teaching

Video Taken on: 4/22/16

Well it was definitely hard to watch myself over and over. I’m a little fidgety with my hands in the video, but I know that’s something I naturally do so I try really hard to keep my hands still and clasped and not moving all over or playing with things. I’m not sure if it’s super noticeable but I can tell what I’m trying to do. I also can tell the point where I became aware of trying to speak louder and use a clearer tone, it was when I had students write down what they’re excited for on a post it. Being loud has been a goal of mine, because of how quiet I am as a person and especially after watching the video it’s made even clearer that it’s important because of the loudness going on in the rest of the class. My students are very drawn to it, particularly Asia because of her naturally loud tone, so I think continuing to work on that will be beneficial for me. Also I think working on my body language will help a ton and engaging myself more. I come off disconnected a little in the video and not super excited? I think just overall being more engaging will help the students want to listen to me and help when I’m instructing them into different transitions.

In the shorter video I noticed I was a little better when it came to having an assertive tone, I was able to practice it at one point when one of the students got off track and wasn't putting his token shells in the box when he talked. It still isn’t super assertive, but I can tell my practice helped because the student listened and responded to me right away.

In terms of transitions, I think the lesson flows well and that there’s not too much distractions and not any silent spaces or disconnects because of that so I feel good about that part.

All things Action Research!

Starting point: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cnaBCWZvcHsoP0tgDN-WVOz2AEYJW1Q4_03IOoEYhxI/edit?usp=sharing 

1st data entry: 4/8/16

I’ve been using some different tones and gathering the students responses to them. It’s hard for me to break out of using more than an instructional tone. I noticed that the volume is also important to the tone. If I say things louder or clearer I think that could help add to the effect my tone is having on my students. During my last lesson for the warm up the students played a round of getting to know you Jenga. They absolutely loved it but it was tough transitioning to using the shell tokens and then to assigning their roles. The students have been struggling with doing their roles and I think it will help if I smoothen the transition to a clear/firm instructional tone right away after their warm ups. I also think making it clearer of what's expected of them for each role will help them. If they have all their tasks in front of them I think that will help them focusing on doing their role.

More Data:

I've been noticing that my body language is very important because even when I use a tone that I have practiced and feel is successful my body language makes a difference. It's also really tough to do much with my body with where I sit with my group. We have a weird table where I'm positioned in a cut out part of it and the students surround me, facing me. Kristy has mentioned moving spots and putting the louder student at the head of the table creating a role for him to lead. 

I've come to a conclusion that it just doesn't work for me to lower the tone of my voice, I struggle with talking a deeper tone. Instead I am really just trying to put energy into focusing on how I say things and having a very clear and loud tone because I'm naturally a quiet person. I get really nervous but want to sound confident and thing speaking louder will help.

One of the students called me "teacher". It was the quieter student, and it was at the end of our lesson. I immediately became concerned about why he would call me this but after thinking about it for days and then having the last lesson plan, in which the other students all said "bye Mandy" at the end of our lesson, I realized that it wasn't necessarily something I did. Because the other students do know my name. So I think it might be something I need to do to better connect with the quieter student. Or perhaps he just doesn't like connecting with adults or authoritative figures, because I've always had that problem and can understand it. None the less it's hard to draw a conclusion, but I think my goal is really just being as empathetic (by using that tone) as possible with the quiet student and trying to connect with him and keep continuing to encourage him to participate and talk in our group.

Choice Project: Podcast on Ch. 3 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

https://soundcloud.com/raquel-arismendez/educ-podcast

Dialogue, Respect, Love for Humanity, and Praxis (Blog #7)

Every time I understand a new concept in teaching it's like lifting up a mysterious drain cover to find a large dark abyss underneath. This time the idea revolved around history and it's connection to culture, identity and engagement of students in the classroom.

There is a typical way of teaching that I grew up experiencing for the most part, and that I think people automatically recognize or conjure up when they think of teaching. It's become almost stereotypical at this point. Expected.
As described by Paulo Friere:
"[This way of teaching]... turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are."

Hearing this articulated so well strikes a deep chord in me, and really sets up what I hope I am able to accomplish as an educator. I know that as a kid I was never very engaged by the memorize, repeat and forget technique of learning facts. Dates, locations, names, all with very little meaning. I know a lot of people can relate to this and it's a growing topic in progressive education reform.

My question comes when I start to think about the fact that these students really truly are individuals, and there will be no one way or one subject matter that will speak to all of them. I start to wonder if it's important for students to know when the civil war started and began, and the names of the generals who were involved. I don't think storytelling like this does anything beyond filling their heads with useless facts and imparting them with a possibly unjust positive view of militaristic actions.

Taking the example of the civil war, which is the epitome to me of "Facts I know I amassed in school but have all but forgotten" I wonder if there is a better way to broach that subject. It scares me to think about, but I believe a better thing to try would be letting the students learn about wars in their own historical timeline. Let them discuss what it meant for their ancestors and really try to humanize each side.

As mentioned in the texts below, one of the big issues is the dehumanization of cultures. I know when the Native American Indians were introduced to me in elementary school they were a funny character that I had a hard time even imagining as real.  Marginalizing actual people for the sake of making facts easier to memorize is dangerous.

When we start looking to war as adults, in our current world, we still see that attitude. The muslims. The Middle East. Terrorists. Jihad. ISIS. All things that are used to scare and justify military actions that may not be the best course of action.  There are whole groups of people that get characterized and stigmatized. Of course some specific political organizations and terrorist groups might require some action of force, but when we can justify entire wars and strikes to our country simply by putting a specific type of face or skin color on it, it means we aren't looking at the bigger picture. When we are at war with a country they are at war with us. Just like we seem to believe of them, they view us as not being human enough to understand their point of view without the use of deadly force. If we can begin to demystify people who are different and introduce the idea that it is not required to hate your enemy or opponent, then maybe we can feel more confident in our ability to resolve our differences without bullets and drone strikes.

Maybe it's really bold or naive to believe that changing the way we teach our kids about the civil war could have a great impact on our country, but I know it can have a great impact on the way they relate and interact with each other. I'd be willing to bet it's at least a great place to start.

In reference to:
http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html

http://www.practicingfreedom.org/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-what-is-it-and-why-its-still-relevant/

Mastering the beginning stages of the Ukulele (Final update on the Radical Learner Project)

Mastering is a strong word for where I feel I'm at now, but there is definite progress. I can play several chords and parts of songs, as well as strum a few tunes that just sound pretty good. I really feel like I've conquered the feel of the Ukulele, and it took mostly a lot of dedication and focus.

One of the hardest parts was using online resources to gather my information. Parts of it were great, such as being able to reference videos of people performing the task and searching for different instruction sets that gave me different techniques to try. One of the techniques that was the most difficult for me to learn was 'chucking' or 'muted strumming'. This is when you get a sort of harder scraping of the chords, and it acts as more of an accent than a specific note. There are a couple ways to do it including hitting the strings with your palm as you strum and lightening your grip on the strings with the other hand.

This technique was difficult because it dealt specifically with the physics of the ukulele and how the sound travels. It was one of the moments where I really could have used an instructor to explain it to me because it was simply baffling at first. I could hear it, and I could see it, but it was so hard to understand exactly what was happening. Eventually it just clicked.

One thing that this highlighted for me in particular was the relationship between practice (homework) and learning (class time). When I would practice without any resources it would have to be things that I understood fully how to do and were fairly easy. I might not have been great at it, but I fully understood what it was I was trying to do.

I've uploaded an audio file of me playing, and it's still not perfect but you can at least get a feel for the progress. From here the next thing to do would be to continue learning chords and to start putting them together to learn to play full songs. There are a couple of these that came from pieces of song tutorials, but I haven't fully been able to put the chords into practice because learning chords and learning a song are two very very different things. 

Lobby Day for Racial Equality for Educators and then some (bonus blog)

Advocating for change! I can’t seem to think about it enough simply because there’s so many injustices that need attention and how else is anything going to get accomplished if we don’t make our voices heard. It’s so simple to me-and I see it pretty clearly despite not being a fan of the messy side of politics. Even if you can’t articulate the substance of the issues at hand in our political system, you can show up. You can make your face seen. Actions often speak louder than words.

However this is something that I struggle with communicating to fellow individuals my age. SO often do I hear people say they’re opting out of politics. Of course they have their reasons, and no matter the logistics of them, I can’t help but think they’re nothing more than excuses built on what though? Fear? Discomfort? Lack of desire to put in the extra work? Lack of passion for the things that need attention?

The importance of making your face seen and your voice heard is becoming so much more relevant to me with each step closer that I take to my desired profession. As a future educator not only am I going to be affected by social justice, but so are my students! And I can’t live comfortably knowing I’m not doing some small part to fight for the things that need attention.

I’m so early in the process that I often become paralyzed by fear, but leaving by 8 am to attend the lobby day for racial equality in the classroom had a huge impact on me. It reminded me that I’m not alone in this, that when we come together we can get so much more done. Before the lobby day I knew that things weren’t black and white but I still at a different notion of what a good educator is. Now I see that you can be a good educator and not participate in our civic process but you can be a kickbutt Leslie Knope style educator by participating in the civic process. And I truly think there’s so much more fulfillment in not just knowing the process and the issues/conflicts at hand but standing up for change and participating in the process. And I don’t even fully understand it-but I feel so much more a part of the collective of teachers that want racial equality in our schools than I did sitting at home reading about it.

I had a similar experience when caucusing till 10PM. I was glad to be in a room with others that wanted similar changes. My main concern with this experience was that most of the individuals in the room were white. The age range was dynamic but otherwise everyone looked middle class or higher white folks. And all of the things we addressed as notions to get passed in our city affect more than just the white middle and upper class. So why is it that way? Why mostly white people? It’s not that they care more. I think it ultimately comes down to not enough access to the caucusing locations as well as lack of education on what they are and how they affect us.

I think the times for caucusing are ridiculous. 6-8 that’s a very unrealistic time frame for anyone working those hours or at home with kids. I’d like to see it become an all day thing, but I’m also curious if there’s any hope for child care to be made available for families that need a place to safely take their children while they participate in the civic process. Another thought is the city pairing with metro transit to get people to their caucusing locations for free. I know they do these sorta free bus ride days on holidays such as New Year's or St. Patrick's day or even free rides to the Twins game. I don’t really know the process behind implementing this sorta thing but it seems like just one idea to push for diversity in our civic process and perhaps our political system.

A couple quotes from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed that stood out to me:

“Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in "changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them," (1) for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated.”

“The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not "marginals," are not living "outside" society. They have always been "inside" the structure which made them "beings for others." The solution is not to 'integrate" them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become "beings for themselves."

In regards to both the lack of racial diversity when caucusing and lobbying for racial equality amongst teachers in our classroom, oppression is a very clear (yet hidden) cause. I think right now with Black Lives Matter having such a huge presence in MN, there’s so much tension to fight for a shift in our society. In a way integrating African Americans and other teachers of color into our education systems as teachers and other even stronger forces is a good first step to addressing the oppression in our society(focusing on the educational system)and it’s not the end solution however I think when Freire talks about needing to transform the structure that this is a huge step that will have a chain effect for so many students. Simply having a good teacher of color in the classroom can greatly benefit students perspective and create conversation to shift the status quo.

Last thought:

Serious shout out to Maria for being a part of the lobby day. I was so glad to see her there. She sparked a lot of my conversation I had with my boyfriend about the lobby day.(just about the importance of participating in these important processes and steps for much needed positive change and the value it adds to an educator) I have no idea what time she must have had to get up to leave to take the bus and light rail from where I live in south Minneapolis to get to the education building, and then she said she spent a while walking to find the right building. My first thought was “you go girl”