Jonathan M. Duffy
Welcome to the professional section of my website! On this page, you will find more detailed information related to my background and my work and philosophy as an educator.
To the right you will find links to my current resume, my list of references, and a paper on my philosophy of education. Below you will also find informational sections on my work as a pre-service teacher, including sections on:
Thank you for taking the time to get to know me better. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, concerns, or thoughts at [email protected] |
Links: |
"I think that my favorite part of the project was collaborating with my peers to help make a difference. I think I will cherish the appreciation and the excitement the homeowner expressed while we were there. She was so happy to watch her house transform into a more pleasant place." - GLHS Senior "I think that there is a greater need for the services of HUD. By looking at the budgets of DOD and HUD, it is easy to tell that the government thinks that our military readiness is more important because the DOD budget is about 15 times more than that of HUD. However, we need to put more concern on HUD because there are still so many people in need of assistance or in homelessness." - GLHS senior |
Service LearningDuring my time as a student teacher, I had the opportunity to combine my passion for service with my nascent teaching practice. Teaching government, my students all were required to complete community service. I worked to encourage critical thinking and to make connections between classroom content and students' service by designing a service project for students. On a snowy Saturday in February, a group of seniors from Gahanna Lincoln High School worked to paint and to make small repairs to a homeowner in need on the Southside of Columbus. Students conducted pre- and post-service reflections that challenged them to think critically about their service, their position in society, and the government's relation to their service and the homeowner's needs. The day ended with a transformed house, a very happy homeowner, and a group of tired, but happy students.
The service project served as a piece of my ongoing research for my Master's thesis which is working to measure the impact of the implementation of critical pedagogy in the classroom on students' attitudes towards service learning. I did this by not only making a connection between the students service and what they were learning in government class, but by challenging them to think more critically about the material. The service project used funds distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a department of the President's Cabinet. Not only did students learn about this, but they compared the HUD's budget with that of other Executive Departments to consider the differences, the reason for the differences, and who benefits from such differences. Students also considered the needs that their service was addressing versus other pressing needs. Students were also given the opportunity to critique the project and their service requirement itself.
|
Life Long Learning - Professional DevelopmentA lesson that I regularly stress to my students is that learning does not start and stop at the classroom door. To communicate that lesson, I work to model it both in my personal life and in my professional life. Indeed, I am proud to call myself a life long learner.
Professionally, this can be seen in my attendance of and participation in regular professional development. Google for Education Web Academy April 1, 2014 - Online Successfully completed online lessons on Google Services in relation to education and passed the Google for Education Basics Exam. EdCamp Columbus 2014 March 1, 2014 - Gahanna, OH Facilitated session service learning and civic engagement; participated in session on fostering creativity in the classroom. Citizenship and Civic Responsibility February 6, 2014 - Webinar Participated in a webinar that focused on citizenship and encouraging civic engagement. Intense Minds Discussion on Bipolar Disorder November 21, 2013 - The Ohio State University Participated in a round table discussion on the book Intense Minds which highlights the struggles experienced by youth diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Gahanna Professional Development November 11, 2013 - Gahanna, OH Participated in sessions entitled “Making Class Relevant” and “Asking Better Questions.” OCSS Annual Conference September 30, 2013 - Columbus, OH Participated in sessions that covered “Reading and Writing Like a Historian,” “Deciphering Historical Texts,” “Genocide Education,” and “Ohio’s New Standards as a Springboard.” |
EdCamp Columbus 2014In March of 2014, I attended EdCamp Columbus, a unique professional development "unconference" in which educators come together, collectively decide what sessions to hold, and collaborate to share ideas. As a first time attendee, I decided to seize the opportunity that EdCamp provided by proposing a session on service learning and civic engagement entitled "Connecting learning and service towards critical civic engagement." During the session 10 education professionals from elementary to high school levels came together to share ideas and experiences and brainstorm ideas about connecting students learning to their service.
Following the session, I was asked to write a blog post for Gahanna Lincoln High School Principal Dwight Carter's blog. For more information on EdCamp and the session I led click the link below.
|
Before and After the Pie Throwing Fundraiser |
Engaging StudentsDuring my time as a student teacher, I worked to interact with students in ways that would engage both inside and outside of the classroom in the material we were covering in class. My work on creating a service learning project that I discussed above is an example of this. Another example is a Twitter based activity that I created around President Obama's State of the Union speech in January. By "live-tweeting" the speech and encouraging students to join in, I was able to have meaningful interaction with numerous students on what the President was discussing and its connections to what we had covered in class.
For more information about the activity, please click the link below to read an article that was published about it on the Gahanna Jefferson Public Schools website. My efforts to engage and interact with students extended beyond the classroom and the content we were covering to form meaningful relationships with students. This included attending plays, fashion shows, and other extra curricular activities. I was also asked by GLHS's Student Council President to participate in "Gahannathon," a dance marathon and fundraiser for pediatric cancer. At the event, I had the opportunity to thoroughly embarrass myself by partaking in the faculty line dance. Similarly, my students had the opportunity to pay $3 to throw a pie at my face. All money raised went to Nationwide Children's Hospital. The real honor of the night was to witness my students organize and participate in an event that ended up raising nearly $22,000 for pediatric cancer.
|