PORTFOLIO PART ONE

Noah Richer
Vermont Educator Licensure Portfolio
Part One

Introduction

Hello, my name is Noah Richer and if you are reading this then you know that I

wish to be an educator. To start, I was born and raised in Canaan, New Hampshire

where I would attend Mascoma Valley Regional High School. I graduated from

Mascoma in the spring of 2015 where I would then go to college at Castleton University.

At Castleton, I enrolled in the history and education departments where I would learn

the craft of teaching. In a moment of self-reflection, I can say that I inherited my love of

history from my father. Ever since I was a little kid, my father has been the most

influential person in my life. One of the clearest memories that I have from around the

age of three or four is watching the motion picture Gettysburg for the first time with my

dad. I remember being captivated by such things as the battle scenes, the attire of the

soldiers, and the overall story. At the end of the film I was telling my Dad how much I

loved the movie and thought that it was such a cool story. After hearing me give my

opinion he informed me that it wasn’t really a story; it was something that actually

happened. At this moment my father introduced me to history and began to teach me

about the actual events of Gettysburg. I became enthralled with learning about historic

events. Now, granted I was only a small child so the amount of time that I was spending

on such endeavors was not a great amount once I understood how to tell time. But, to
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my young mind, it seemed as if I spent whole months reading through the course

material that I teach today.

When I got to an older age I began to teach my classmates about historical

events. Some were interested in what I had to say and some not; regardless of their

opinion, I began to realize that I loved teaching people about history just as my father

had once done for me. So, ever since I was in the sixth grade it has been a part of my

dream to become a history teacher. After spending some time in the field and recalling

from my experiences in high school I see it as essential that a history teacher bring

passion to their discipline. When faced with a student who doesn’t care for learning

about history, the first question that I will ask the student usually relates to the subject of

why they don’t like learning about it. Almost always the response is that, in previous

years, they had a history teacher who was boring and monotone. The student had no

fun while they were being taught by this educator and because of this now have a

negative association with history due to this one teacher. So, upon seeing this it now my

job to change how this student views history. I have to make sure that the subject

matters, materials, and activities are enjoyable for the student while also relaying the full

message of the lesson. It is rare to come upon an activity or lesson that both caters to

the learning styles and enjoyment of all students but it something that teachers should

strive for on a daily basis.

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Standard 1: Learner Development

Performance Criteria 1.1

Candidates use understanding of learning theory (in areas such as cognitive, linguistic,
social-emotional, and physical) to design appropriate learning experiences.

Evidence
● https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
● https://www.educationdegree.com/articles/educational-learning-theories
● https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1066095.pdf
● https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/
Connectivism-A-Learning-Theory-for-Todays-Academic-Advising.aspx
● http://www.jstor.org/stable/20343445

Description

“The learner and learning” is a very broad theme that invokes a symbiotic

relationship between between a person and a process. As a student teacher, I have had

first hand contact with this relationship from both the perspective of a teacher and a

student. Personally, I see “the learner” as anyone who actively seeks out knowledge

that can both be for practical use as well the betterment of one's life. So, to follow that

up then, “learning” becomes the process by which knowledge is gained for practical

use and the betterment of one’s life. These two key concepts (the learner and learning)

are essentially the two components of learning theory. In essence, learning theory

encompasses how knowledge is received and processed in any learning experience. As

a teacher, it is my responsibility to learn and understand how learners develop and

inturn cater to the various learning styles and abilities that will be present in my

classrooms. When considering learning theory there are some key aspects that
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teachers must acknowledge when it comes to like designing lessons. If the goal of

teaching is to develop appropriate instruction (lessons) learning theory must be

involved; the involvement of learning theory forces teachers to consider such things as

students’ academic abilities but also things like their cultures. Considering such things

as the varied cultures of your students adds a realness and relevance to instruction that

can only allow for “the learner” to truly achieve the act of “learning.” It is my opinion, that

perhaps the biggest factor when it comes to learning theory in a classroom setting is

establishing a classroom (learning) environment in which meaningful learning can

occur. At the end of a lesson, for a student to have learned and understood the main

point of the day it must be done in a classroom environment that supports learning. A

classroom setting that promotes and supports learning makes it easier

The experience of student teaching has allowed for me to develop what “the

learner and learning” means to me. Due to an unforeseen circumstance, I had to switch

mentor teacher’s with six weeks left at my placement school. So, not only did I have to

build up trust with a new mentor I also had roughly 100 new students who I had to

develop relationships with; I had to do all of this while also jumping into teaching my

solo unit. So, understanding the layout of these new classes would become an essential

component to my success in the field. Teaching in a classroom in the 21st century has

allowed me to see the results of an evolution in teaching technologies. These

technologies are changing at such a rapid pace that allows for materials and lessons to

reach a wider range of people. Just recently, I saw a class viewing a film that I watched

in middle school on youtube. When I was in school I only had access to the film in the
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given time that I was in that particular class. Students now have access to the same film

whenever they wish. Such new learning theories as constructivism and connectivism

are making use of this ever changing world for students of the 21st century; I have tried

to follow suit. Due to such things as colleague collaboration, a learning styles inventory,

use of technology, and a brief personal introduction assignment I feel that I was able to

develop and effectively teach instruction that incorporated learning theory and catered

to the individual learning styles of my students. I feel that I have exhibited my

understanding of “the learner and learning” by doing such things as developing lessons

that strive to be inclusive for all students and developing a learning environment that

allows for the production of meaningful learning to occur.

Analysis

Based on how much my educational experience has changed here at Castleton

due to social interaction and an increase in the use of technology in classrooms , the

two learning theories that I feel I will be able to best utilize for my students are

constructivism and connectivism. According to ​EducationDegree.com​ constructivism is:

“the idea ​that people are responsible in creating their own understanding of the world

and using what they know based on previous experiences in the process of linking new

information to these experiences” (EducationDegree.com, 2009). I feel that my teaching

philosophy would allow me to utilize constructivism in my classrooms allowing for the

greatest chances of student success. Based on the definition listed above a rather large

component of constructivism is linking past experiences to new experiences to create

new information. I argue that the largest part of the past experiences that are involved in
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the new information creating process come from social interaction. In an article that was

written by Qiong Jia for the ​International Education Studies,​ Jia states that: “teaching

should take students’ previous knowledge and experience as the growth point of new

knowledge, and introduce students to generate new knowledge from the former” (Jia,

2010). This excerpt aligns greatly with the main viewpoints of constructionist belief and

alludes to the broader theme of social interaction. Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist who

in the early 20th century was a major innovator in the field of constructivism and social

interaction and developed what he saw as two major factors to constructivism. These

themes were the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and The Zone of Proximal

Development (ZPD).

EducationDegree.com also defines connectivism as a: “ new learning theory,

developed and based upon the idea that people process information by forming

connections. This theory has developed with the digital and technology age, adapting to

advances in these arenas. This new theory suggests that people no longer stop learning

after formal education and continue to gain knowledge from other avenues such as job

skills, networking, experience and access to information with new tools in technology”

(EducationDegree.com, 2009). Connectivism is a relatively new learning theory that

believes that learning also takes place outside of the classroom through technology and

new media.

While this is a learning theory, I personally see it more as a tool to be used by

teachers. I have lived in the 21st century for 22 years now and I can say that even since

I graduated from high school in 2015 advances in technology have greatly changed the
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way things are taught in schools. It is important for teachers to utilize these new forms

of media to not only keep up with changing times but to provide students with the

means to gain proper information. In his article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for

Today’s Academic Advising,” Zack Underwood relates how connectivism even aligns

with traditional academic views while just taking learning a bit further : “ connectivism

principles echo those of academic advisors by combining the idea of previous

knowledge, accepting technology’s role in decision making, and expecting students to

grow form information they gather…connectivism acknowledges the idea that students

are using a broad number of tools and viewpoints to make academic decisions”

(Underwood, 2016).

I have found that my new group of students are more responsive to technology

than the class I was previously with. So, to produce student engagement, using modern

forms of technology, would be essential to the success of this lesson. Connectivism and

constructivism are the two learning theories that I chose to write about for this particular

standard and are present in the lesson that I gave. Connectivism, mainly the inclusion of

new forms of technology, really got my students involved with the lesson in class and

allowed them to go back and review the material after the fact.

During my student teaching I presented a lesson about Africa before Imperialism

and the introduction of Europeans to the continent. What I was really trying to get

across to my students is the fact that despite what is shown in the media, and what they

may learn in other classes, Africa is not a poor downtrodden place. Rather, it is a

continent that has a rich history to offer the world and is like any other place; comprised
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of areas that are both good and bad. Creating the presentation that I gave on Google

Slides allowed me to save it and import it to Google Classroom where my students can

go back and review the material at any given time. Posting the presentation before class

allows students to follow along at their own pace and really take the time to involve

themselves with content. Google classroom is a really amazing site that pairs along nice

with the learning theory of connectivism because ti really allows both the teacher and

student to focus on student-centered learning. If I were to teach this lesson say fifteen

years ago, most of my students would have to take notes and such at a steady pace.

However, now I can give the notes at a steady pace and students can have access to

the materials allowing them to learn at their own pace. This allows for them to learn as

they need to as well as not taking away from other learners who may need a faster

pace; in essence it doesn’t take away from anyone’s learning.

Looking through the lenses of constructivism, this lesson begins by activating

prior knowledge, identifies stereotypes, and through guided discussion replaces the

misinformation with new learning and vocabulary. The student then builds on that by

addressing stereotypes that were present within the “Spot the Africa” clip and why the

information within each slide disproves the stereotype. The new facts are recorded in

the guided notes for further use and reflection. By the completion of the unit the

students have a new understanding of what Africa is and isn’t. The lesson plan to which

I just addressed can be found ​here​.

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Reflection

Overall, I feel that this lesson went fairly well and supported my beliefs about the

two learning theories. Throughout this lesson I feel that was able to utilize both of these

theories to the advantage of the students so that the objectives of the lesson were met. I

tried my best to be inclusive of the three main learning styles of audio, visual, and tactile

learners. The main area of improvement with this lesson was with my tactile learners

with the induction of my stress ball “Penelope the Philosophical Pig.” With Penelope, I

would toss her to a few students around the room and they would be required to tell me

one thing that they remembered from the previous days lesson. All students were

enthused with the presence of the stress ball and showed peaked interests. But one

student in particular, we’ll call them Samori, showed increased attentiveness and

concentration when Penelope landed in his hands. According to a learning styles

inventory that I had the class take Samori is a tactile learner. In the lessons that I have

designed prior to this one I tried my best to cater to the three different learning styles but

always tended to have more audio and visual information. So students like Samori

would certainly learn some things but they would not be as invested as the other

students. However, with this particular lesson having the presence of Penelope to

squeeze and sort of toss around had Samori and other tactile learners more involved in

the lesson than I had previously seen. I was excited to see involvement from this group

in the classroom.

Utilizing newer methods of technology I feel really helped to increase the

involvement of each of the classes as a whole. Before coming to the class, it seemed
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that my current mentor teacher was a very packet based teacher who would lecture and

then have the students fill out assignments in the packet as he continued on with the

lesson. While this may have worked for some, it seemed that the overall consensus

from the students was that they weren’t really learning anything. Upon hearing this, I

tried my best to bring in new forms of technology that really tied into their daily lives

such as chromebooks and google slides. I did prepare guided notes and had the

students fill out them out but overall the increase in technology really seemed to bring

the mood of the class up. From this lesson I feel that what had the greatest success of

peaking student interest was the Trevor Noah “Spot the Africa” clip in which they were

combating stereotypes about Africa. Trevor Noah is a comedian that much of the class

recognized and upon seeing him they really seemed to perk up and become more

attentive with the message that he was pushing across.

If I were to teach this lesson again at a later date I feel that I would like to change

two things. The first being focusing more on some of the Ancient African Empires that

history classes tend to leave out. The second being trying to find an activity for my

tactile learners that relates back to the main theme of the lesson. In the actual lesson I

talked about the presence of the Malian Empire and Mansa Musa for a little bit to just

illustrate to my students that there was great empires and rulers in Africa; this was to

combat the stereotype that Africa is a poor and primitive place. But, I feel that some

more examples of the great African Empires would have really driven home one of the

key points of the lesson which was that Africa is not a poor and uncivilized continent;

rather it is one that has a rich history that could provide much to the world. I thought that
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my auditory and visual learners were very represented in the lesson but my auditory

learners could have been better represented. The presence of Penelope did help bring

the attentiveness of these students up but I had to constantly keep tossing the stress

ball to these students to keep them involved with the lesson. While this could work in a

pinch I feel that heavy use of this will become distracting to my other learners. One of

the key things that I have learned throughout this process is that catering to meet

everyone’s learning needs is very difficult. It seems that with every lesson one group of

students are being left out because their learning needs aren’t being met. As I progress

into my teaching career this is going to be one area that I am going to really tried to

adapt to so that I may reach a larger number of my students.

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Noah Richer
Vermont Educator Licensure Portfolio
Part One

Standard 2: Learning Differences

Performance Criteria 2.2

Candidates use an understanding of diverse cultures and communities to design
learning experiences.

Evidence
● https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=18369391&v=2.1&it=r&id=GA
LE%7CA451311236&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=fulltext​.
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQol_gF2wQXk0430otUzuHeCzi
GWNefqHxNqGi_wtzOJiriYS01nIPvQfADGW7m51MqfcgVC4DhZJ4T/pub​.

Description

When it comes to teaching, especially in a state like Vermont where the racial

diversity is very homogenous, I see it as very important to have a representation of

diverse cultures in classrooms. Come July of 2020 I will have been out of high school

for 5 years. My time at Castleton and teaching in the field has made me realize that my

own learning in high school was very lacking when it came to having both an

understanding and representation of diverse cultures and communities when it came to

learning experiences. I can honestly say that this hurt me at the collegiate level.

Whether it came to discussions in class or talking amongst my classmates I was very

much unprepared and quite frankly it made me seem and feel ignorant. So, I began to

immerse myself, as much as I could, into various cultures. I began to converse with

people of different nationalities, listen to music from other countries, and taking classes
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that really focused on the history and cultures of different places around the globe;

much of the classes that I took revolved around Africa and its rich history.

To me, it is important for students to have an understanding of diverse

cultures/communities so that they will be prepared to become citizens of an ever

globalizing world. It is the job of an educator to prepare students for the world that they

will face and our society due to such things as rapidly evolving technology and social

media the world is becoming more globally connected and in a span of less than 3

seconds someone in a place like Vermont can contact someone in China about

practically anything. With this globalization we are seeing a global migration shift in

terms of population. At growing rates people are beginning to relocate themselves to

places around the world to call new places home. To properly appreciate and assimilate

into a new area one must become accustomed to the culture of their new area. Now, in

education we as educators simulate this moving to a new place. Our classrooms

become experimental settings where our students can see a simulation of a new culture

and all that it brings to the world. Having an understanding of these diverse cultures

allows for our students to grow up into citizens who are ready for this ever globalizing

world and will thus be able to make it a better place for the time that they are here.

Analysis

We live in a time where our country is only getting more diverse with the influx of

people from all over the globe who are looking to migrate to our country. I see it as

important that we as teachers look to bring this diversity into our classroom in a

productive way by incorporating people of different cultures into our classrooms as well
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as informing those already in our classroom as to the importance and history of those

new cultures coming into the country. Like the United States, Australia is a country that

people migrate to when they are looking for a new place to call home. Because of this

the University of Melbourne looked to develop a parenting community at schools that

looks to design inclusive learning environments with the help of parents. The article,

“Giving voices and providing skills to families in culturally and linguistically diverse

communities through a productive parenting program,” by Jan Diens, Rachel Liang, and

Erica Frydenburg looks at just this topic by discussing a practice that involved parents

from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds that took part in an Early

Years Parenting Program (EYPP) conducted by the University of Melbourne. The study

involved parents and their young children (2-17yrs) from Sudan, Somalia, Vietnam, New

Zealand, and Australia (Diens, Liang, & Frydenburg, 2016). What took away from this

article was how much attention the issuers of the study focused on incorporating

families into Austrialian culture but also strongly endorsing the families respective

cultures so that they are not lost: “particular attention was paid to helping parents align

their cultural practices with those of the Australiam context while at the same time

endorsing individual family cultural practices, languages, and identity” (Diens, Liang, &

Frydenberg 2016). This incorporation of “working the families” into their new cultures is

important but perhaps even more so, is helping the parents by teaching their children

more about the culture that they already have with them. As someone who would

eventually like to teach American history I see this as a very relevant topic for my future

students as many of them will have ancestors who came from various places around
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the globe.

The solo unit that I taught in my time in the field was based on the Industrial

Revolution and Imperialism; with the imperialism being mainly based in Africa. When it

came to teaching this unit, mainly the Imperialism section, I really wished to convey

some of the cultural aspects that make Africa such a marvelous place. I was able to do

this in areas of discussing Africa before Imperialism and Resistance movements to

Imperialism but I did not feel that I was able to successfully go as in depth as I wished

into the many different aspects of culture that each country within Africa has to offer. So,

at the end of the unit, I designed a project that required for students to choose from 14

countries and examine the current state of the country and then explore one aspect of

the countries culture (sports, pop culture, religion, etc). The project was very similar to

one that I had done at Castleton on South Africa and the countries love of rugby. For

the project students had the option to either create a brochure, or google slides

presentation on the country of their choice and the one aspect of culture that they

wished to discuss. The two largest areas that would be assessed with this project would

be content accuracy and knowledge gained. As stated previously, with this unit I really

wished to combat stereotypes about Africa and really wished for my students to

research Africa and explore to the true state of the continent. Not the images and

stereotypes that are displayed across western televisions and social media platforms.

The project rubric for which I just addressed can be found ​here​. Do to time constraints,

my corresponding teacher felt it best that we should use the project that he had

developed from years past. While it does explore some aspects of culture it is not as
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involved with the subject as it would have been in my classroom. He chooses to teach

the unit based around the idea of how the industrial revolution caused the newly

industrialized European nations to wish to go out and colonize the world due to the

economic holdings that they could gain by colonizing places; from there he would go

into how countries would decide where they would colonize based on economic

resources.

Reflection

Overall, I feel that the project that I created would have been very successful in

accomplishing the goals of my unit; to combat the stereotypes associated with Africa

and display the true state of the continent. The project from which I got the basis for the

one I designed did just this for me. Using an aspect of culture that I absolutely love,

sports, I was able to gain an insight into a new country and learn some rather cook

things about it. When I think back on the assignments that I had in college this was one

of the more productive ones that I had the privilege to partake in. If I were to have

assigned this project I feel that it would have done the same for my students.

Despite everything, I feel that the finalized research project that the students will

end up doing will serve as a valuable learning experience for the students. The only

thing that I would really choose to change about the final project that we will be

assigning to the kids is not highlighting the economic motives of imperialism so much. I

feel that this takes away from the agency that the imperialized African nations would

have held. One of the concepts of the unit is showing our students history from the view

of Africa as opposed to the Eurocentric view that is taught it most classes. I feel that
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really focusing on the economic factors of imperialism keeps the focus on European

nations and their motives. I must say that I really did enjoy teaching this unit and feel

that I was able to provide my students with some insight on Africa that they wouldn’t

have found in my absence.

Noah Richer
Vermont Educator Licensure Portfolio
Part One

Standard 3: Learning Environments

Performance Criteria 3.2

Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by
positive social interaction.

Evidence
● http://www.jstor.org/stable/30069441​.
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTQ0vkcFtN--BFgZ-qJlTKw_SjfJ
pkIOcS0r0xtOga_4BCd3L0AWykybGSZ4IezsXWenn7NqirkXUwM/pub​.
● https://www.jstor.org/stable/20343445?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents​.

Description

I currently live, and will be teaching, in a time period where social justice and

correcting mistakes made in history are becoming commonplace. Often though, when

we see these issues addressed in things like the media we see things spill out of control

as topics are not discussed. People wish to tell simply yell their opinions over one

another as opposed to trying to convert someone to their particular train of thought. In

an education based setting this is simply inexcusable and should not be allowed to
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happen. To make sure that this does not occur educators must design learning

environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.

Before coming to Castleton, and experiencing more designed classroom discussion

formats I was one of those people who would try to yell higher than the other person so

that my voice could be heard; and in some way win the argument. After taking classes,

especially history classes, I began to experience environments that supported positive

social interaction and thus allowed for an authentic discussion to occur. I had started the

process of forming myself into a new student and with time a new person. I immersed

myself into any discussion that I could find whether it be sports, cinema, literature, etc. I

began to appreciate discussion. I have tried to implement this in the classrooms that I

have had in my time student teaching. It has been my experience that a classroom

setting that is designed for authentic discussion to occur allows for the most success

when it comes to educating students due to the positive social interaction that comes

from the event.

Analysis
It is my opinion that for learning to have true meaning it must take place in a

learning environment that best supports positive social interaction. As a future educator

the learning environment that I will wish to instill in my classroom is a place where an

authentic discussion can take place. I see the role of a social studies teacher to present

students with factual information from an unbiased perspective. This would mean that

the most difficult thing I would do is combat the misconceptions and ignorances that my

students have; just as my teachers had once done for me. In her article, “Bringing the
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Background to the Foreground: What Do Classroom Environments That Support

Authentic Discussion Look Like?,” Xenia Hadjioannou examined fifth grade classrooms

where the forms of speech used by the teacher allowed for authentic discussion. What

she came to find is that after her research she determined that for authentic discussions

to take place in classrooms in secondary and post-secondary schools the ground work

must be laid out as early as fifth grade (Hadjionannou, 2007). The article to which I just

addressed can be found ​here​. As I am not looking to teach students in the fifth grade, I

will be building off of the work started by others so it will be essential for me to try to

establish authentic discussion in my classrooms so students are presented with the best

learning environment possible for productive learning to occur. For authentic discussion

to occur social interaction must take place and for it to be productive it must be positive.

Lev Vygotsky touched on just these issues.

Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist who in the early 20th century was a major

innovator in the field of constructivism and social interaction and developed what he

saw as two major factors to constructivism. These themes were the More

Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). I see

these two factors as crucial to the field of education as the MKO is someone who is

essentially a mentor to a student who helps the student gain new knowledge by

providing experiences and insights from their own life to help the child make sense of

the world. The ZPD is a tool to measure that is used to show what the student can learn

on their own versus what they can learn with the presence of an MKO. He saw the use

of these two things, through social interaction, to have the greatest effect on the
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potential of student’s gaining new knowledge. This use of social interaction can be seen

in a study conducted by R. Rippey in 1965 where the test scores of students in math

and english courses based on 4 types of teachers were examined. The 4 categories of

teachers can essentially be broken down into: high control of classroom & low

interaction with students, low control of classroom & high interaction with students, high

control of classroom & high interaction with students, and low control of classroom &

low interaction with students (Rippey, 1965). The article to which I just addressed can

be found ​here​. From my understanding, the purpose of this study was to see which

type of teaching environment produced the most productive learning based on test

scores. The conclusion of the article showed that in the study students who gained the

highest test scores, especially in English classrooms, improved the most in those

classes with heavy interaction between teacher and student (Rippey, 1965). This aligns

with my belief that teachers need to have heavy social interaction with students

providing their past experiences to produce the best environment where learning can

take place.

The instructional tool kit is a document that will continue to grow and evolve

during my teaching experience. I have learned that the more diverse the techniques I

collect, the more possibilities I have to match the learning needs of my students. Each

technique fits a specific learning situation or percentage of the classroom population. In

my instructional tool kit there are many forms of instruction that I feel are integral parts

of positive social interaction in a classroom setting; with perhaps the most integral being

Socratic seminars. Socratic seminars are where students help one another understand
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ideas and issues in a group discussion format. Working in these discussion formats

students learn how to listen to one another and find meaning and common ground in a

discussion format. In my time in the field I tried to implement a socratic seminar in each

of the unit’s I was involved in. Throughout the course of the unit that I taught, which

dealt with the Industrial Revolution and Imperialism, I was able to have several small

socratic seminars that were very successful in relaying one of the main points of my unit

to my students; we must combat stereotypes that negatively impact student’s learning.

One of the more successful seminars that we held in class related to resistance

movements to Imperialism in Africa. Before taking this class many students when

hearing about the colonization of Africa assumed that there was no resistance as it was

taught as if Europeans were able to waltz right in and take what they wished. But, after

viewing a presentation that I created, we had a very authentic discussion about how

some resistance movements in Africa were able to hold off their European invaders or

strike significant blows against them. The students came to realize that despite what

they had learned in other classes and heard from one another there were resistance

movements in Africa that had some success at striking back against their invaders. In

this particular seminar, and any involving Africa, I laid out some ground rules such as

staying away from Tribal terminology and using no derogatory terms. This allowed for,

what I viewed as success to occur throughout the lesson. The instructional tool kit which

I just addressed can be found ​here​.

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Reflection

I have experienced d​esigned learning environments that support collaborative

learning marked by positive social interaction more in the four years that I’ve been in

college than I had in my previous places of education. I have experienced them both in

a university classroom and my field placements in local schools in the surrounding

areas. ​The field experiences that I have conducted thus far have been greatly beneficial

to my future as an educator as I have seen some truly eye opening things. There was

one experience in particular that I do not think I will be able to forget. It was in 2016 right

after the election of President Trump and his discussion of banning “sanctuary cities” in

the country. I was placed in a school district whose city was chosen to potentially gain

some refugee children to have in their schools. The particular teacher that I was placed

with wished to inform the students who were all U.S. citizens what these incoming

students were most likely going to be like. He discussed such things with them like the

cultures of their home country, the languages they potentially spoke, religions of the

area, and various other things that could potentially come up if the refugee students

were to attend the school. Due to the political climate of the time, I was expecting most

of his students to repeat the things they hear from their parents at home about “how we

shouldn’t be taking these people in” and various other things of this nature. Instead, to

my surprise, what happened was the students were genuinely interested in what he was

discussing. They were all very active in the discussion and wished to make their shared

space a welcoming one for the potential students that might have come; they wanted to

create an inclusive productive learning environment. The teacher had designed a

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learning environment ​that supported collaborative learning marked by positive social

interaction. I have based my socratic seminars off of this particular example that he had

set for me. It was rather extraordinary watching this unfold especially at the middle

school level where I did not think these students would have the concept to grasp such

large themes. ​This experience epitomizes what my time at Castleton has equated to

and was a monumental moment in my teaching experience.

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References

Adichie, C. (Director). (2009, July). ​The Danger of a Single Story​ [Video file]. Retrieved
March 12, 2019, from
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?langua
ge=en

Hadjioannou, X. (2007). Bringing the Background to the Foreground: What Do

Classroom Environments That Support Authentic Discussions Look Like? ​American
Educational Research Journal,​ ​44​(2), 370-399. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30069441

Jia, Q. (2010). A Brief Study on the Implication of Constructivism Teaching Theory on

Classroom Teaching Reform in Basic Education. ​International Education Studies,​ ​3(​ 2),
197-199.

The Five Educational Learning Theories. (n.d.). 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from
https://www.educationdegree.com/articles/educational-learning-theories/

Rippey, R. (1965). How Different Classroom Environments Affect Learning. ​The Phi
Delta Kappan,​ ​46​(10), 525-527. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20343445

Underwood, Z. (2016, September). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for Today's

Academic Advising. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from
https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/Conne
ctivism-A-Learning-Theory-for-Todays-Academic-Advising.aspx