Final Paper

Part 1

The school year of 2020-2021 has been a school year like no other. With a global
pandemic occurring, educators and the future educators have had to learn new ways of teaching
that we might not have considered if it was not for the global crisis. I know for me, ideas I had
about teaching, about students, about how students learn, and ideas about history/social studies
have all been challenged this school year. It is in these years of great challenge that we grow and
hopefully learn more than previous years. I know for myself; this year has illuminated many
things to me and some of what I have experienced has influenced me immensely.
When I think of teaching, I have always thought of the traditional classroom
environment. I know at college level that the options for taking classes online exist, but to have
middle school or high school students have some kind of online format was not something I
never thought would happen. Yet, this is exactly what has happened. This virtual environment
we found ourselves in made me question how would I teach my students? How would I engage
them? How can I really check for understanding in real time online? These have been very
difficult question that have not always been easy to answer. One of the things I discovered very
quickly was that I needed to embrace all the tools online had to offer.
One of these tools was Youtube. I never imagined showing my students Youtube videos
in class but that is exactly what I have done this school year. When I think of History classes I
always envision some lecture, some group, and hopefully a whole lot of discussion. The idea of
playing videos to show them important historical events I never thought I would do, but this year
I did. It seemed to be a good way to keep students interested in the material and for the most part
the short videos I have shown my students have enjoyed and stayed engaged with. Besides
lectures, none of the standard ways I envisioned teaching history could be done at my site. I have
had adapt and try new things. Another tool that I have found beyond useful has been Pear deck.
Pear deck has allowed me to present part of a lesson with slides and then have my students
answer questions on the slides in real time where I can see their answers. It has been a great tool
to assess my students understanding during the lesson.
Another area where my ideas changed was when it came to students. Working with
middle school students was something that I always considered out of the question. In no way
did I want to work with students that age. I always envisioned myself teaching high school
students, preferably upper grades. I did not believe that middle school would be engaging enough
for me to enjoy it. I was completely mistaken. Working with my eighth graders has shown me
how much fun it can be to work with students that age. There is an enthusiasm that I did not
expect from students that age. A lot of my students are very eager to learn, and it is amazing to
see their comprehension expand into concepts that are more difficult to understand. This growth
is truly watching their minds grow from childhood into the reasoning skills of an adult. It is such
a fundamental age and is truly exciting to be a part of.
Another aspect I learned about students is what middle school students are capable of. I
did not think that high school students, and especially not middle school students, had the
emotional maturity to handle the digital format where so much of your education is on the
student. In a regular classroom environment, the teacher can hoover around the students and see
how well they are comprehending the material. During this school year we have doing classes
virtually over Zoom, which has made it much more difficult to gage the students understanding.
In a regular classroom if a student is missing work, we could make them come in and finish
assignments. Over Zoom, we had no power to make them log in at non schedule class time for
extra help. The students had to be responsible for their own education on a level that has not
been expected of students that age before. And for the most part, my students have excelled. A
majority of my students have taken complete responsibility for their education and are making
sure they are caught up and understand the material. When they have questions, they either email
or come to office hours for extra support. I did expect this level of responsibility from eight
graders, but they have proven me wrong.
Digital learning has also opened my eyes up to what I thought I new about learning and
how students learn. I assumed, I think like many others, that students would be really behind this
school year because of distance learning. With my school’s schedule making it so I only see my
students twice a week, I thought it would be impossible that they would learn the same amount
that they would in the classroom. Once again, I have been proven wrong. Where my students are
projected to end by the end of the school year is the same point they would have if they were in
person. Normally my students would be doing more fun/interactive work, but virtual made this
not possible. My students have shown that even in this less-than-ideal environment, they have
still been able to the material. This has shown me that learning can happen in all kinds of
different circumstances, not just the tried-and-true way of doing things. This has also encouraged
me that when I have my classroom to take more risk because even if I am afraid it might not
work and my students will not learn anything, there is always a possibility that they learn from
something I deem a failure.
This school year has of course taught me more about History/Social Studies. In my
classes I have learned the material just like my students. I knew a lot about the material before
getting into the classroom, but I did not know everything about the material that I am teaching
my students. It has been really enjoyable to learn this information and then pass it on to my
students, but that has not been the most important thing I have learned about history this school
year. The most important thing is we are history. Or rather, to teach my students that we are a
part of history.
We are currently living through a global pandemic which has shaped our world for the
foreseeable future. Our students are living through a time that will one day be in history books.
People will discuss this time in history and our students will be first-hand witness to an era in
history. We are all making history right now in this period that will be remembered. Some of the
decisions that some of our students will make will be based off the experiences they have had
during Covid 19. This pandemic could change how people make decisions and live in the future.
I think it is important teach them that they are living in a time that history will be talking about.
Their experiences will be the reference points for future historians on this time period.

Part 2
 When I look back at this last school year, I can pinpoint some things that have influenced
me as an educator. I have gained more insight into assignments, from my course, lessons that
instructors have taught, and from collaborating with other students in my cohort. These
experiences at Cal State East Bay have influenced me as an educator.
All teachers give assignments, this is the nature of teaching. Students need to be given
work to make sure they understand the material. And my time at Cal State East Bay has been no
different. Every course has given out work to make sure you understand the material. For
example, my technology course required us to do assignment based the Google Suite because we
were going to be required to learn that by the end of the course. Those assignments made since.
Another example is in two of my courses I have had to do assignment based on the EDTPA. As
much as I did not enjoy those assignments, I understood the purpose and knew that they were
valuable assignments designed so the other students and I would be better prepared for doing our
own EDTPA. All of that I agree with. What I do not agree with is giving assignment as nothing
more than busy work. I had courses over my time at Cal State East Bay that gave assignments
that did nothing to further our knowledge. The assignments appeared to be nothing more than
things to keep us occupied because the instructor did not have enough material to actually teach a
full lesson. As an educator, I fundamentally disagree with this.
Assignments should be crafted around the material the students are learning. They should
be given to support and reinforce what the students are covering. Assignments should not be
given because an instructor did not take the time to create a full lesson and needs something for
the students to do for the rest of the class. Or because the instructor needs more points in the
class. What we do as educators needs to have a purpose. And part of that purpose is to build
relationships with our students. Relationships are how our students open up and actually learn.
So, when our students see that when we give them work that does not really contribute to what
they are learning they will see that there is no purpose to what we are doing. Which in turn tells
them that we do not take what we are teaching them seriously. When they see we do not take
what we are teaching seriously why would they? And if we do not take it seriously than they will
think we do not care. If we do not care, then why would they ever start to build a trusting
relationship with us. Busy work sends the message that you are not important enough for me to
take the time to come up with something. What we do in our classroom matters and that includes
how much effort we put into preparing for our classes.
In most of my classes the instructors have obviously spent a lot of time preparing. I have
learned a lot from my course but one course that really sticks out to me was my technology
course. This was a course I was not expecting to get a lot from but surprisingly I got a lot out of
this class. When it comes to technology, I am not unfamiliar with it. I understand how computers
work and can build a desktop myself. I have actually studied that A+ Certification for IT in the
past. So when it comes to the fundamentals of hardware and some software I have some
knowledge, but I realized very quickly that there is a whole aspect of technology that I do not
understand at all. I started to see this in my classes right away, but it was blown wide open when
I had to start learning the Google Suite programs. I discovered right away that I was behind the
8-ball compared to my colleagues in the program. For most of them they had grown up using the
Google Suite programs when they were in high school and college. For me, high school and
college was a long time ago. I had not been in any environment where I was required to learn
these programs so my knowledge on that type of technology had become obsolete.
 This is probably why I felt like my Technology class was so beneficial. It showed me
how much some aspects of technology had changed that I had no idea about. I was forced to
learn the more modern tools which I have already found to be a great benefit in my teaching. My
cooperating teacher has been using Google for quizzes and test and has already told me that she
will never go back to using paper copies again. Everything will be done via Google from now
on. And I actually agree with her. Assuming I am in a district were all of my classes have access
to technology I will have almost everything that my students have to submit done via Google. It
is so much more efficient than the old ways. It also cuts down on waste and I am a supporter of
that.
Another thing learning about these aspects of technology has done is to help me bridge
the gap with my students. Understanding the tools that the students are familiar with helps me
understand them a little better. I know from already having one child who has graduated college
and another that is in middle school, sometimes it can be hard to relate to kids those ages. This is
something I have experienced my entire career at Cal State East Bay. Most of the students in my
teaching credential program are the same age as my daughter. I have found it difficult to relate to
the people in my program because of the age/life experience differences. And I felt that even
more when I first started the program and felt really old and out of the loop when I discovered all
the Google tools that I had no clue how to use and most of my classmates knew this stuff
backwards and forwards. So, when I learned how to use those tools in my Technology class it
did make me feel not like the old man who did not know was going on. I felt a little more
connected to how they do things. This same feeling of understanding how to do this stuff has
made me feel like I understand my student’s day to day world a little better.
Something else that stood out to me this school year was some of the lessons that my
instructors at Cal State East Bay taught. There was one piece of a lesson that we learned in my
History Methods course that I really like and plan on using. When the instructor uses a picture
and has the students look at the picture and analyze what they are seeing. I really liked this
teaching tool. This has students start engaging their critical thinking skills and then connecting
that to the next piece of the lesson. This is a great tool that I fully plan on implementing into
lessons in my classroom.
And a final thing that has stood out to me from my time at Cal State East Bay is the
collaborative group work I have been required to do in all of my course. This group is something
that I have never been comfortable with. I have spoken with many people in my classes and
almost all of them did a lot of group work in middle school and high school. They were all very
comfortable with group work. This is something that is completely foreign to me. When I was in
junior high and high school, we did not do group work. In all of my jobs and in my former career
working in real estate, I never had to collaborate with others. Every field I have been in you
might have worked with others, but it was not a collaborative environment you see in group
work. And in education, there is a lot of collaboration and that was something I was actually
uncomfortable with. Until my classes during this program.
I discovered collaborating with other students in my classes that everyone was putting in
the same effort and showing respect to one another. This is not what I expected. I assumed there
would be respect but I figured you would have a few people doing all the work and the others
riding on their coat tails. This could not have been more from the truth. Everyone contributed
equally. I know there were some days when I did not have very good ideas to contribute and
other days my ideas were very good. We all had those days and because we were working
together, we supported one another when one person did not have any ideas that day. This has
given me hope that collaborating with coworkers could actually be a productive useful tool, not a
waste of time.
This year at Cal State East Bay has made me grow in who I thought I would be as a
teacher. I have realized that my identity as a teacher is far more complex than what I thought a
teacher’s identity would be. I have added so many more ideas and ideologies to my beliefs on
teaching that I can definitely say that who I will be as a teacher has changed from my experience
at East Bay.