The Journey through my Heart and Soul to Creating a Manifesto

 

Have you ever created a manifesto? I searched my soul to create mine and the discoveries I made came out like music. So, what is a manifesto in the first place? Well, my definition comes from the emotional journey I embarked on to construct mine. I believe a manifesto is everything we pull from our hearts to construct a positive message to the world. Throughout this blog, I will discuss what I found when I looked inside myself and the meaning of the words, colors and designs spread across the canvas.

My journey was sparked by a simple graduate class assignment. I Found myself sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out how to yet another assignment. But after some time, it went from an academic task to something a little more abstract that involved being honest with myself and soul searching. I discovered that I would have to reach deep inside my heart and pull out everything and convert it all into words. The closest metaphor to this project is how a guitar player plays a solo during a concert. There are no music sheets in front of him/her and no memorized notes. The guitar player absorbs the energies from the environment, reaches into the deepest depths of his/her heart and just plays. You might say at this point that creating a manifesto is a way of synthesizing our ideas, feelings and beliefs into colors, shapes and words.

So, let’s begin by following the order of steps which I took to create my piece. First, I chose to set a background texture of violent red and orange flames consuming the page. For me fire symbolizes raw passion and anger. These virtues are unstable in nature but for me they represent how deeply and intensely I care. In terms of what this means for me as an educator, I will push my students to succeed and to learn. It makes me angry to see where the values have shifted in our younger generations. For example, video games are the scourge that all educators have to contend with. The reality is that educators are fighting a two front battle every single day we enter the classroom; the battle to teach our students and the other against video games. As an educator in training this is a clear source of anger which I believe will motivate me during my career to show children that if they can turn off their game consul, they can learn something practical and real. I went through my first fieldwork experience as a graduate student and I quickly learned that as long as I was involved with the students, I was competing with their interest in video games. It seems that educators have long embraced technology by using games to make learning more fun. Here’s the truth! Learning IS fun. Educators should not have to make it fun or enjoyable because it should be rewarding enough to learn a new skill. I believe that video games have stolen the thunder of educators and we MUST take it back! My anger toward that very problem will be what motivates me to do something about it.

There are other things that have been a cancer to all classrooms long before video games ever arrived on the scene that also stokes the fire of my anger such as bullying. As an educator in training, I have a soft spot for children with disabilities and seeing them being battered, bullied and belittled makes my blood boil. I feel their pain therefore it’s almost as if myself and the student go through it together. For the sake of length, I will conclude my discussion of anger and how it is represented in my manifesto here. Although, rest assured it will play a positive role in my teaching career and it is my hope that it helps me give my students a true learning experience. Anger has been given a bad reputation but the truth is that when its power is harnessed correctly, you can do wonderful things with it.

Let us move on to the ideas spread across the page. For starters, the word “achieve” appears in bold, yellow font. Setting and achieving goals is very important to me as a person. I believe that setting out to achieve goals makes us all better individuals. Over the course of my life, I have set goals for myself and I haven’t been the same since. When I was in high school, my goals for my senior year were to achieve straight As, qualify for the National Honor Society, run a five-minute mile, date my best friend and be a successful Varsity track athlete. I am happy to report that I did achieve all of those goals. The interesting thing about goals and achievement is that it’s not the goal itself that changes you. Rather, it is the journey. To achieve the listed goals, I had to learn the skill of time management and how to prioritize my school work, athletic training and the time I could spend with my girlfriend. Time management and prioritization are two skills that still serve me well today as I learn to become an educator. I consider them things that I will model for students as a mentor figure.

By setting goals, we also discover what we are made of inside. For example, I discovered during my athletic training that I am a very patient and resilient person. If we fast forward to my time as a graduate student, I discovered that I was capable of earning a 4.0 grade point average. Now in-stead of aiming for a 3.5 grade point average, I want to see how long I can keep my 4.0. Maybe I will graduate from the education program with it. The important thing is that I have learned to collaborate and use the resources available to me. In other words, I know that I’m surrounded with teachers, former teachers and aspiring teachers who would be happy to help me on my journey. I have discovered the importance of asking for help. This is how I have developed the philosophy that there is no reason not to do well at anything you do. The answers to your questions can always be found somewhere. At this point, our discussion about goals and achievement is a great transition into the idea of winning. The word “win” appears even larger than most of the other words on the page. Rest assured winning here carries two meanings. First, the traditional definition of being the best of the entire pool of competitors at a given task, skill or job. Second, it means simply achieving a goal and achieving victory over yourself. The biggest personal example of this can be found during my college track career. In the sport of track, it’s always great to win a race by being the first person to cross the finish line. In my opinion, it is even better to complete the distance in a faster time than before. During a college race at Vassar, I finished second, but I broke my own Mount Saint Mary 400-meter school record by three tenths of a second. In life, it is far more important to better yourself than beat someone else. However, when someone else is better than you, it can be helpful by pushing someone else out of their comfort zone.

If we apply these ideas to the classroom, we will notice that it to can be a competitive environment conducive to self-improvement. I often find myself eager to achieve a higher grade than my colleagues. As I watch them teach, I am often consumed with the desire to be a better and more skilled teacher. Win or lose, I know that I will emerge as a stronger teacher by aspiring to be better than my colleagues. This is where some of the other ideas come into play such as “rise above yourself”, “dream”, “be a force to be reckoned with” and “don’t be afraid.” If we don’t’ get past our fears, we will never achieve our goals. The best personal example I can provide of getting past fear is how I am currently moving past my fear of failure. My abilities as a competitive runner have slowly eroded as life took its tole. On top of that, I became discouraged each time I failed to run a satisfactory time. Now, I have chosen to accept that the only way I can ever become as quick as I was is to accept that I’m not in the same condition. But, if I work hard, I can get there again. When I started college, I couldn’t accept that I wasn’t earning A grades as I consistently did during high school. I decided when I started graduate school, that I wasn’t going to be afraid anymore and now I have achieved even higher grades than I believed I could.

The next main idea present in my manifesto is subtly scattered across the page. The idea is to avoid becoming defined by your career. I do not aspire to become Matt Soltis the elementary school teacher. I plan to become Matt Soltis, friend, volunteer, artist, mentor, athlete, educator, husband and father. Having interests and hobbies that make me happy outside of a job make give me more to bring back to my classroom. For example, if I am an art teacher, I bring my unique skills as an artist/art conservator. It means that I will bring raw enthusiasm which will inspire my students to learn. You can’t be all about business as a teacher because the students will sense it and they will reflect the same attitude about learning. Also, employment by itself is no indicator of success. Rather, it is the love of your friends, students and family. This leads us into my final thought about how love is everywhere and binds all of us together.

Love is the key to everything. It is the energy that moves the circle of life and to make my point relevant to education, it is the reason children learn. It is also what educators put in to teaching. That is why only educators with a true love for teaching and their students will become a permanent fixture in the hearts of students even long after the professional relationship has ended. Only educators who put that kind of loving energy in to their classroom are remembered. We choose to become educators because we love the idea and the importance of education. If we reflect briefly back to my observation about how love powers the circle of life, we will notice a similar circle of wisdom turning in our classrooms. Our generation of teachers will pass on skills, knowledge, values and virtues. Next, our former students will attempt to pass on the same knowledge, skills, values and virtues. The difference is how each generation makes mistakes and teaches from a different perspective. Our careers as educators begin and end with love.

Being Direct About Sustainability

 

As an educator in training, I will be starting my fieldwork experience working with children in a virtual classroom space. I will share the responsibility with my colleagues of teaching elementary students about how to create a sustainable environment and what that means. Sustainability is arguably the most vital issues that can be taught because if the next generations fail to care for our planet, the results will be catastrophic. I believe at this point in time, educators have failed to adequately encourage students to be vigilant about caring for the environment. For my role in teaching my first students about the environment, I have chosen to use direct instruction. I will be thinking with the students and using empathy to help them understand how frightening the world would be if the environment was no longer conducive to human life.

Since I have been tasked with applying the civics aspect of social studies to instruction on environmental sustainability, I will be teaching about our responsibility as citizens for sustaining the City of Newburgh. I believe that effective instruction on this subject matter involves injecting a touch of fear into the lesson. For example, after introducing the subject, I will talk about what an inhospitable world would look like in detail. I will ask the students how they think air, land and water pollution is affecting their lives now and what it could mean in the future. By having them paint a picture of what the future will look like if we don’t act now, student’s will be far more encouraged to make protecting the environment part of their lives.

Key prerequisite concepts for my lesson involve understanding global warming, greenhouse gasses, the United Nations and the Green New Deal. I believe it is important to bring current events into my instruction about the environment since the debated Green New Deal is the current plan to solve the global climate crisis. During my discussion with the students about the Green New Deal, I will show them how to create their own plan outlining how to sustain the City of Newburgh. I believe it is also productive to have a debate between students about agreements like the Green New Deal. Moderating a debate will encourage students to think for themselves and choose a side about a given issue. It will develop and refine their critical thinking skills and possibly give them the insight to create an even better plan.

I believe that administering a democratic classroom is key to students having the ability to learn. In other words, As I deliver direct instruction through lecture, I would share a dialogue with the students to keep them thinking and make them feel important. The truth is if students are not actively engaged, they will not learn. Many instructors who use direct instruction fall into the trap of delivering a lecture without establishing a dialogue with the students. In my professional opinion, that is the main reason students retain a small amount of information from direct instruction. As time marches on, educators must continue to think about how to create students that will take the lessons we teach to heart. It’s not enough to have a class of students who perform well. They must apply what they have learned after leaving the classroom  and make a difference by actively taking care of their City.    

The Pedestal of a Socially Just World

 

As an educator in training, studying the social interactive model of teaching has empowered me with the knowledge to meet the challenges of today’s classrooms. Its pedagogical value is higher than ever before as we enter an era of diversity. The fact is that mixed cultural backgrounds, religions and races typically function as barriers between students which blocks learning. The social interactive model breaks down cultural barriers and cultivates an environment of acceptance and inclusion that is conducive to learning. By working together using different cooperative teaching methods and strategies, students can learn how to solve problems while learning about each other.

It is important to note that the social interaction model extends beyond academics by refining and developing social skills. As a graduate student earning a certificate for special education, I believe this model is vital for students with special needs. Many students with various classifications encounter difficulties with social skills therefore, by teaching them to work cooperatively, educators can help them develop skills they will need to be successful beyond the protected bubble of their school. On the other hand, I also believe that cooperative learning strategies must be diligently facilitated by the teacher primarily because they create opportunities for students to shut down and not contribute actively to the task. The cooperative strategy known as JIGSAW is one antidote to that problem. JIGSAW is method based on the concept known as positive interdependence which means that each student in a group is assigned a job or role. Every student in the group depends on the work of the others.

A strong example of the JIGSAW method at work is my own use of it. I was assigned to a base group where each group member was sent to an expert group to focus on learning a different cooperative learning concept or strategy. I was responsible for studying positive interdependence which I was then tasked with teaching to the members of my base group. JIGSAW is a metaphor representing that each group member is a piece of the puzzle. However, after experiencing the JIGSAW method for myself, I discovered it wasn’t air tight. For example, when I began working in my expert group to learn about positive interdependence, I didn’t have a role. Although my expert group had a clearly defined task, it was difficult to establish who was responsible for what part of the task. It would have been easy for a student to fail to contribute since individual accountability is lost at that stage. All students must still be engaged at some level while working with their expert groups in order to be able to teach the concept to their base groups.

The antidote for individual accountability involves Kagan strategies. One example of a Kagan strategy at work is a method called “shoulder partners.” A shoulder partner is usually two students who work next to each other on a task. One student coaches the other by keeping them on task and focused. The other student is responsible for completing a physical worksheet. Since there is a physical assignment the students must submit, I believe giving each student in a group a worksheet or task keeps everyone accountable. Without individual accountability, the positive interdependence concept simply falls apart.

In the end, the social interactive model of instruction equips students with the ability to self-educate. Although educators have used the social interactive model for decades, I believe now it is one of the most important tools teachers poses. By facilitating cooperative learning, students also learn about one another and develop respect and appreciation of all different backgrounds. If educators implement cooperative learning consistently and appropriately, it can be the foundation for a better tomorrow. 

APA Resource

Scorscone, J. (Director). (2013, November 27). Kagan strategies [Video file]. Retrieved March 14,                 2021, from https://youtu.be/t9H_pVwX-xY

Social Studies is not what you think

 

I have always thought of history when I heard the words social studies but the truth is that it encompasses so much more! According to Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School, the National Council for Social Studies defines it as the “integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence” (Lyman, Waters, Foyle, & Lyman., n/d). I was surprised to learn that social studies is actually an umbrella term that includes four disciplines; history, geography, civics and economics. Learning the definition also came as a huge surprise to me primarily because of its association to history. I define social studies as the “story of our origin” but I see now that my definition is a far better fit for history than it is for social studies.

If we investigate how we define social studies even further, we will discover that across the United States the definition varies. This opens the discussion of “should there be more than one definition of social studies?” This would mean that students across the nation are learning different things which in my opinion creates confusion and disorder. Chances are that if different states define social studies differently then their curriculums are different as well. In-stead of spoon-feeding students dry and bloodless definitions of social studies, this would be a great opportunity to use inquiry by allowing students to reflect and use their higher order thinking skills to, with the guidance of the teacher, arrive at a definition. In my graduate social studies methods class, my colleagues and I were tasked with a similar activity. The difference was that toward the end we were given a politically correct definition already created. Going into the activity, I felt confident that my definition of social studies was going to be simple and correct. Since we were all given a one size fits all definition at the end, I experienced mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt enlightened because I learned how social studies is so much more than just history. On the other hand, I felt invalidated for myself and my colleagues. I would have used guided inquiry to form a class definition of social studies. I believe that teaching the lifeless definitions packaged and created by institutions such as the National Council for Social Studies robs students of opportunities to think for themselves. Now more than ever, we must investigate what social studies means to students since classroom diversity is a reality. One size doesn’t fit all especially now because social studies mean something different depending on the student’s background. As educators, we must adopt this philosophy in order to include all students.

If we look at the history of our education system, we will discover how the original five subjects evolved and grew into a far more diverse bracket of knowledge. Learning the history of our education system fascinated me for the very reason I love to study history, that is, how studying different times is like traveling to foreign lands. The way I know education is the only way I can every truly know it. In other words, it is hard to imagine learning alongside students of different ages and grade levels. It is even harder to imagine the use of corporal punishment as a behavior management tool. Learning the old ways of education really gives perspective and makes me appreciate my education more than ever before. For example, education after the birth of our nation was hard pressed to supply individuals with basic literacy skills. As a graduate student, I often think of Benjamin Franklin who was a self-educated founding father. Even though I belong to an educational institution, I find myself using my skills to educate myself as he once did. Home schooling is an institution from the days of antiquity that still survives however, parents    who home school their children must follow a curriculum and learn the same material as those in public schools. Now, they are all subject to standardized exams which were absent in the beginning.

Standardized tests are the scourge of educators. As I have asserted previously, spoon feeding students a fixed set of facts that everyone must memorize is counterintuitive to learning. For social studies instructors the challenge is worsened because new history is made each day. Therefore, as time marches on, social studies teachers are forced to rush through to cover everything in the curriculum. This robs students of vital learning opportunities where they could explore things about social studies that interest them. Our goal as educators is to foster a desire for lifelong learning. What we have done in-stead is create a collective of students who aren’t fond of school. We must measure our students by their enthusiasm and clear demonstrations of learning such as a multimodal project where the only criteria for success is “the more creative, the better!”. Here, I will step in as a future educator by following the curriculum and encouraging my students to think and research for themselves to find the truth. Maybe the State’s medieval rule over educators is here to stay but it doesn’t mean that I can’t also teach them to read and think on their own.                                          

Lyman, L., Waters, S., Foyle, H. C., & Lyman, A. L. (n.d.). Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School: Communities, Connections and Citizenship. Retrieved March 1, 2021, from https://www.nsspress.com/php/startup_lyman_teaching.php5

Social studies department. (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://sites.google.com/a/ccsd.edu/social-studies-department/