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Eric Castro: Academic Review for FDB Meeting January 2016

GENERAL OVERVIEW In his plan submitted to the Faculty Development Board, Eric Castro states that he is interested in “pushing the boundaries of teaching and learning.” Over the past six years he has accomplished just that at St. Ignatius, serving his students and also playing a key role in helping the school move forward with a number of initiatives. This year he has resumed the role of full-time classroom teacher, and he has done a fantastic job in his AP Psychology class and World History 2 classes. Eric is a deep thinker who exhibits tremendous enthusiasm in his classes. Never satisfied with the status quo, he continually reflects upon his craft, always striving to find the best way to reach his goals. His blogs, Intellectual Sprawl and the Restless Pedagogue, are beautiful reflections on his personal teaching and educational theory in general. Eric’s students appreciate his hard work, acknowledging his expertise in the classroom with their feedback in student questionnaires and emails. In addition, Eric’s colleagues both within and outside the Social Science Department have expressed gratitude for his support, openness to new ideas, and innovation. We are very lucky to have Eric in the SI community. Eric has addressed the following academic recommendations from the Faculty Development Board that were proposed during his last tenure process:

1. The Board recommends that Eric continue to work with the World History I level to increase collaboration through the unfolding of the Curriculum Design and Review Process. As Eric writes in his plan, his role at SI changed since this recommendation. That being said, he has provided support for the CDRP process for the entire department. The curriculum for WH1 is posted here.

2. The Board recommends that Eric continue striving to find balance between his work as a classroom teacher and his role as the school’s Educational Technologist, with the goal of improving his availability to students. In our Administration Survey on Eric’s role as Educational Technologist, faculty have indicated they Eric’s availability in helping them with 89% of respondents stating that Eric “responds to questions or concerns in a timely manner always/often.” Eric regularly is observed working with students during Resource Periods and after school, and students indicate that Eric is available to them to a high degree (avg. 5.65 on student questionnaires).

The following reflection is based upon classroom observations, student achievement data, and student feedback, specifically: class observations (Nickolai: 10/18/10, 10/2/15; Christensen 10/28/15, 10/30/15; Molinelli 1/13/16; Ruff short visits; assessment data/final exams, EIT portfolios, administrative evaluations, collegial observations, and student questionnaire information.

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MISSION & IDENTITY

Cura Personalis: Eric actively promotes Cura Personalis in his classes. Activities (like 1st day introduction activity and 2x3x5 activity where students present info and then introduce the next speaker) promote students making connections with their peers. He often uses teams for class activities, and this also helps students trust and respect each other. As noted above, he makes himself available to students and is the “trusted adult” on campus for a number of students. Leadership: Eric has served in various leadership roles in the past (Department Chair/Educational Technologist to name a couple), and he continues to offer support to program heads on campus and collaborate effectively with his colleagues. PROGRAM DESIGN & INSTRUCTION

Content Knowledge: Colleagues, observers of his classes, and students agree that Eric’s content knowledge is excellent. As reflected in his blogs, his Twitter account, his published articles, and his written curriculum, Eric has a keen understanding of how people learn. His pedagogical expertise is top notch, and he has demonstrated the ability to teach at multiple levels in the Social Science Department. He has deep knowledge of the AP Psychology curriculum and although the WH2 course is new to him and Eric feels as if he is learning as he goes, he has a very strong understanding of the material and is able to make connections between 20th century history and contemporary events. Eric continually improves his content knowledge through personal research and extensive reading. A look at Eric’s Twitter account reflects his varied professional learning interests. Curriculum Development: Eric’s curriculum development is to be commended. He has used a backwards design model to create a curriculum with clear essential questions and learning outcomes along with assessments that provide an accurate measure of student learning. Specifically, he has:

• Implemented the use of good digital texts in AP Psychology and WH2 • Focused on making material relevant to student lives

o Use of contemporary articles (i.e., newspaper article on China’s 1 child policy) o “The Future” unit in WH2 concentrating on contemporary world issues o Multiple units dealing with adolescent issues in AP Psychology

• Built an engaging WH2 curriculum o Expanded list of WH2 term paper opportunities o Worked to diversify the curriculum and provide minority perspectives

• Created a fun, rigorous AP Psychology curriculum that not only prepares students for a standardized test, but also helps them become better human beings.

• Reflected upon data to inform future instruction I encourage him to continue using the CDRP process to reflect upon and revise curriculum for his courses as needed. Eric has expressed feeling somewhat stymied by the limits of an AP Psych curriculum, and I encourage him to think about how the course would look without that set format. Could students take the course Eric and Yosup would design it without limits and still take the exam? I also encourage Eric to look at how he might build cross-curricular learning opportunities. Helping students make connections between different disciplines helps students see that true learning does not happen in isolated subjects. These suggestions will be impacted by current curriculum conversations occurring in the Social Science Department.

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Engagement, Management, Motivation: Eric’s classes are extremely well organized and well-managed with students on task throughout the period. He has fluid knowledge of effective technology use and has back-up plans ready to go just in case a glitch might occur. Eric’s rapport with senior students is fantastic, and he has indicated that he is enjoying teaching sophomores. He understands how underclassmen can have a different sense of humor than seniors, and I encourage him to continue being sensitive to the needs of each student audience. Instruction: Examples of Eric’s excellent instructional strategies include:

• Use of blended-learning model o Piloted specific units in WH2 this year for sophomores o Students’ learning continues beyond the classroom

• Fun activities o Psych experiments o Demonstrations o Scary movie assignment on Fear o Break a social norm activity o Inside/Out Chew & View

• Funny/fun Keynotes with good graphics and multi-media • Effective use of social media • Connections to real-world world activities

o St. Ignatius Free Clinic activity where students can diagnose psychological disorders

• Canvas account set up with clear organization = helpful learning tool o Great links o All handouts, activities clearly posted o Multi-media

• Quizzes used to promote student learning • Collaborative activities

o Google notes put together by class o Group/Partner work (i.e., Totalitarian regime activity, Toy activity)

All of these promote significant student learning in the class. In several of his reflections, Eric has commented that he wants to move more from direct instruction to student-centered teaching in order to create an active learning environment that promotes “deep learning”. There is a certain amount of lecture that should occur, especially in a senior class that prepares students for college, but Eric’s desire to keep students actively engaged in their own learning reflects an excellent instructional goal, and I encourage him to keep thinking about this. As noted in his plan, Eric is also interested in developing his approach to blended-learning opportunities. Assessment: Eric has experimented with different assessment strategies over the years, and his current practice of evaluating student learning is excellent. A few years ago he experimented with changing the categories of assessment to more accurately reflect student achievement (i.e., Category of “Content knowledge/Critical thinking” instead of “Tests”/“Quizzes”). More recently, he has used quizzes and tests on Canvas. He has also expressed interest in following up on some standards based grading explorations. His work will be helpful to the school as it moves forward on its Program Evaluation/Data Literacy Accreditation action item.

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The following assessment strategies Eric employs are to be commended:

• On-line quizzes for assessments through Canvas o Use of test question banks to provide individualized assessments o Provides opportunities for students to learn from their performance o Provides answer analytics o Score links with PowerSchool

• Grading strategies that prioritize mastery and minimize grade grubbing o Re-assessment opportunities o Formative practice quizzes that provide low stakes opportunites to show learning o Examples of tests online o Shooting the Moon offering o Practice prep for midterm o Allowing the midterm to trump earlier assessments o Midterm reflection assignment

• Multiple and varied opportunities for assessment o WH2 – quizzes, tests, Notability checks, papers, weekly news reviews o Formative quizzes worth 5 points = minor impact on grade; opportunity to practice

In terms of an outside measure, Eric’s strong AP pass rate in Psychology reflects students’ high achievement. OPENNESS TO GROWTH

As reflected in comments above, Eric is extremely open to growth. Especially impressive is the honesty, vulnerability, and humility he expresses in his personal blog. He sensitively reflects upon feedback provided (posting all observations) and thoughtfully expresses his opinions about it in a manner that is extremely open to growth. PROFESSIONALISM & COLLABORATION

Eric models professionalism and effective collaboration, especially with his teaching partner, Yosup Joo. They collaborate often, share curriculum and assessments, and analyze results to improve an already great course. Eric has also worked extremely well this year with his WH2 colleagues. In addition, Eric collaborates with many individuals outside SI through social media and conferences; he has an extensive sphere of influence. Eric has received a grant and established the NORCALTOPPS conference for teachers of psychology. Finally, his own blogs and twitter feed are followed by thousands of individuals. OTHER/Category IV Please thank Eric for his:

• Work as Educational Technologist o Coordinating iPad program including proposal, implementation, and on-going

support o Providing support, information, tours, and other expertise to tons of schools who

have visited SI to “see how we did/do it.” o Working on Student Information System selection (PowerSchool) o Working on full implementation of Google Apps for Education o Working on LMS investigation o Working on the new SI website redesign o Working with and providing support to the Tech Department

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o Presenting at numerous conferences o Providing professional development seminars for a range of high schools o Very positive feedback on Admin evaluation surveys of faculty

• Serving on Professional Development Committee • Serving on Educational Planning & Policy Sub-committee of Board of Regents • Serving on Library/Learning Commons Design committee • Serving on the Diversity Inclusion Group • Presenting “Stereotype Threat” session at Professional Development In-Service (2015) • Openness to teaching Public Speaking summer school passion seminar

PLAN & FUTURE GROWTH I endorse Eric’s planned action steps as stated in his FDB plan:

• Participate in Social Science catalog/curriculum review • Create blended WH2 curriculum • Create Public Speaking seminar for summer school • Continue work with NORCALTOPSS and #psychat • Publish his book on high school education • Develop culturally responsive curriculum for WH2 (listed under Spirituality but could go in

this category) In addition, I encourage Eric to look for opportunities for cross-curricular learning, learning opportunities that connect students with real-world problems/issues. I think that Eric will naturally do this as he continually adapts his courses.

Tenure recommendation: Highly Effective Submitted by, Carole Nickolai Asst. Principal for Academics