Root Learning Beliefs

The central idea of this book are the seven principles or levers that leads to continuous and transformational greatness. These seven principles or levers are divided into two categories Instruction and culture. According to Bambrick without great instructions, there is no student achievement thus no greatness for schools. Instructions include data driven instructions, observations and feedback, planning, and professional development. The book explains that data driven instruction is the instructional manual for rigor, because to be great one cannot know if students are making or not making achievement without data. Instructional practices driven by data yields significant student achievement gains (Bambrick, 2012).

Almost yearly, teachers are inundated with new information on “best practice” and how to increase student achievement. “Given that everyone has different learning needs at different times—we learn at different paces, have different aptitudes, and enter classes with

The researchers had assumed that the most effective teachers would lead students to knowledge through collaborative learning and discussion. Instead, they found disciplinarians who relied on traditional methods of explicit instruction, like lectures. "The core belief of these teachers was, 'Every student in my room is underperforming based on their potential, and it's my job to do something about it—and I can do something about it,'" says Prof. Poplin.

I volunteered at Chiefland Elementary School, under Ms. Sidorenko’s supervision. After doing my twenty hours of volunteering at Chiefland Elementary School, I have gained new knowledge on how religion works in schools. If you grew up in a small town area like I did, you would know that religion around here is not a touchy subject with many people. Many faculty administrators who work in the school system happen to be Baptists or Christians. Therefore, people are able to throw in religious assessments here and there without getting into too much trouble. In this case, at this school, everyone goes to the same church or partners with each other’s churches. Before I go on, let me just say, even though I am a Christian, I think that religion shouldn’t be a topic talked during school hours. My reasoning for this is because children are there to get an education and to learn about the world around them. Teachers barely have enough time to teach the concepts that are mandatory, if we add religion it will just offend students and teachers won’t be able to get their job done. Now that society is changing and is starting to accept individuals more, I have noticed this school is having a hard time accepting that.

The identity of a Catholic school is the key variable that sets that school apart from all others, and without a commitment to fostering the Catholic identity, a Catholic school becomes just a school. The Congregation for Catholic Education (1988) cited in Earl (2008) noted that if the Catholic identity "is not present, then there is little left which can make the school Catholic" (p. 197). Integral in developing and maintaining the Catholic identity of a school is the faith formation of both the adults who work in the building, as well as the students who attend. Nourishing the spirituality of these groups is the responsibility of the administration and those who lead the school. However, the faith formation needs of each group are unique, but nonetheless dependent on each other, to form the Catholic identity of the school.

It is the responsibility of the school leaders to help teachers grow in their practice to improve student learning. Charlotte Danielson contends that the Framework for Teaching “is a valid instrument for defining effective teaching” (Danielson, 2014). She asserts that the Measure of Effective Teaching (MET) project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, demonstrates the predictive validity “that is, when teachers demonstrate high levels of proficiency on the Framework for Teaching, their students show greater learning gains than do the students of teachers who perform less well” (Danielson, 2014)

The reason for the lack of growth is there needs to be a collaborative focus on the instructional core. The instructional core is the interplay between the educator, students, and the content in the learning setting. These three cores make up how teaching and learning look in the classroom. Thus, to go deeper with improving instruction the focus needs to be on what work is done in class and how the beliefs and understandings of knowledge and skill of the adults who are working with pupils constrain their learning (Costante, 2010, p. 4). This means teachers go through routines and procedures where all parties involved are in a comfortable place with teaching and learning. At times students describe the instructional delivery as a game. As long as students follow the routines, procedures, and do the tasks the teacher puts in place, then they will come out with a passing grade. Usually, the tasks completed in class are at a lower cognitive demand, the level of content, and student engagement than educators think they are.

Central to our beliefs and actions lies our worldview. That is, what we see as real, true, and of value will dictate how we act, respond, and view others. Furthermore, our worldview will determine what we give our attention to and what we avoid. Everyone has a worldview, regardless of whether we analyze each of our beliefs and determine whether they complement our other beliefs. It is important for Christian educators (or really all Christians) to examine our own worldview and ensure that it is based on truth and not relativity. People receive and base their beliefs on the following means: family, education, peers, media, and religion. Gradually, family and religion have had a diminishing impact on this socialization process while media and education have had an increasing impact. Educational systems have the attention of students often for more than 20 years. Thus, the worldview of educators and school systems is of utmost importance.

From pre-k till twelve grade I attended a catholic high school. Even though we all shared the same religion, when the topic of religion came up i believe we all spoke with the up most respect as well as spoke very sensitively because of we wanted to show respect to all. I believe that pop culture portrays many stereotypes of certain religions. This being said, it causes up to form opinions based on what we see. The fact that I went to a catholic school for so long, I don’t believe religion should totally be left out of a classroom, because I happened to learn a lot about my religion, but I do believe it should be talked about with the upmost respect and sensitively.

The Religious Education (RE) grades 1-8 policy document highlights and provides opportunity for students to become familiar with their Religion. Within section 1.3 of the document, the Evangelization, culture and the Catholic school addresses all students, the believers, searchers and non-believers. Therefore a summary of this section of the RE is the role of Catholic school is to renewal the faith within all of the community. It is the teacher duty as evangelical nourishment to start the “spiritual growth of each person” (p. 4). It highlights how the “soil of the believer” (p. 4) is identified as essential for the connections of the student and family culture. The connection is the power needed to encourage the students’ experiences, values and beliefs in their journey of their faith. This section guides the missionary activity for non-believers, initial catechetical activity for those partaking in the Gospel and pastoral activity for those more enrich within mature faith community. As our students grow up in Canada they are fortunate to have the freedom of religion and appreciation for diversity (p. 4). In summary this section is calling upon the educators to embrace the faith and teach the learning to meet the standards and reaching all students, no matter where they stand in evangelization. Therefore, we as educators share with the Catholic Churches responsibilities for the development of social and cultural society views and need to work in collaboration with the

My education was based on rules , norms , moral and civil obligations at very young age. These are the mission, philosophy and foundation of Catholic’s education that I grow up with. I can honestly say that being educated under these principles that helped me to adopt an invaluable concept of discipline and responsibility. I can be anything more than grateful to spend twelve years of my life learning from outstanding teachers and Nuns. I enjoyed coming to school every singled day. As I am here writing these words, my memories come to life. We have diversity in our school faculty , these teachers and Nuns made our learning experiences more interesting. I remember having two different coaches in my PE class, one was the coolest Sor. Maria she was the coolest Nun ever, and Professor Rodrigo. We have religion teachers, in some cases there were Nuns, but not always. Teacher that was qualified was able to teach religions as well. We had a full curriculum , with all the subjects possible to learn including , music, craft and art.

Simon Sinek (2009) wrote that “people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it” (p. 41). Educators are not selling a product in the conventional sense, but the message still resonates. “WHY is just a belief, HOWs are the actions we take to realize that belief and WHATs are the results of those actions” (Sinek, 2009, p. 137). The relationship among academic standards, effective instruction, and student performance fits the model that Sinek describes as the golden circle. The reason that educators do what they do is student performance. As a nation we demand that all students perform at a high level, and there are severe consequences—both tangible and intangible—when they do not. The actions that educators take to realize high student performance can be described as effective instruction. Our communities expect that every student will perform at high levels if the quality of classroom instruction is of high caliber. Academic standards are what educators do; the standards dictate the scope, sequence, and measures of instruction. Our legislators have codified what educators should do in the classroom in an attempt to strengthen our education system for all constituents. Sinek visualized the golden circle as a set of concentric circles with “why” at the center, “how” surrounding “why”, and “what” encompassing both “how” and “why.” The relationship among standards, instruction, and performance can be visualized in the same way (see Figure 1).

Catholic schools often pride themselves in the values they strictly uphold and the mission and visions they aim for. However these missions and visions would mean nothing if they are not realized outside of the walls of their school. Altruistic and kind behavior is often a basic characteristic their religious values aim teach, values which sets them apart from other schools, that can give a good perspective whether an aspect of the missions of Catholic schools are realized.

“More important than the curriculum is the questions of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given” states Bertrand Russell. Observations prepare future teachers to experience how classrooms are conducted every day in turn providing them with the resources that will eventually exist in their own classroom. I witnessed many techniques in the classrooms that will be very beneficial throughout my teaching career that will aid in motivating, inspiring, and assisting students.

Christian schools play a vital role in the development of the community and the students that