Let's Get Creative!

"Just come to class." That was our instructions for our final teaching lab period. "What we don't have to prepare anything? Am I forgetting something?!" So off we went to lab, feeling a bit unprepared, but excited.

An we loaded up in the van and drove to Dollar Tree for the mission of finding 5 items that we could use in our unit to make things more creative. I brought my Genetics Unit from my Ag Biology class. And here is what ended up on the checkout counter:

1.) A ball- Part of a demonstration where I will have students complete a task with different 'limitations,'which lead into the discussion of natural selection

2.) A pooper scooper- Yup, it clearly relates to the topic of GMOs and related to the demonstration mentioned above in #1

3.) Dice- Students will be rolling them to determine traits. This will lead into the punnet square

4.) Skittles- They will be the 'traits' used for a different punnet square activity

5.) Sidewalk chalk- Why waste paper when we can do activities and drawings outside?!

Overall it was a great time once our creativity got moving! 

Putting it all TOGETHER

The last teaching lab of the Spring 2013 was teaching an FFA LifeKnowledge lesson at our cooperating center--our opportunity to 'put it all together.' I traveled to Oley Valley feeling ready and confident after a positive experience with the three-day micro-teaching experience at Central Mountain High School the week previously. I used the lesson "What is the value of diversity on teams?" to base my class and then put my own personal touches on it. Overall, I figured it would be a great way to weave in a let's get to know each other activity and also touch on some international concepts...my favorite.
I got the challenge and benefits of teaching the lesson 2 times for the freshman Ag Environmental class. The added challenge was that it was the last day before Thanksgiving break, but actually I think it was a perfect lesson for that! They had a ton of energy (I'm getting the feeling that I like energetic students) and I had a lot of fun activities planned. Also, the fact that I had two lessons helped me make some improvements on the second one...cool!

I really loved the introduction activity...What motivates or characterizes you?! I had the students draw 3 things and then they presented as a form of introduction. It was so cool to see the diversity of experiences and interests in the class, plus it was a ton of fun and I could make connections with a lot of the students. Even with this initial activity, I had to use some class management techniques, but the students were all very receptive.

"What do you think of when you here diversity?" 

I posed this question and had them do a brainstorm speed-round with post-it notes. I varied it between the two periods, and actually wasn't overly satisfied either time, neither with the activity nor the review.

My favorite activity is when I divided the class into groups and handed each one a 'present:' toilet paper, a stirrup leather, a bar of soap, and a sponge. They had 2 minutes to think of as many uses as they could for that item. Wow! I pretty sure they convinced me that with those 4 items, that that was all one needed in life! Anyway, it was a great introduction to the value and challenges of working on a team.

Overall, I thought the lessons went very well. The nature of the lesson topic was very flexible for activities, so that was nice. To my surprise, I was able to have a lot of fun presenting this lesson and still maintain a respectful environment and was able to get their attention back very easily. There were some challenges though. The classroom has stationary science desks and sinks, which means the desks will always be in rows. Teaching-wise, my flow in the first period was choppy, but it improved a bit in the second lesson, especially in the introduction. In the first lesson, I really sped through the introduction, barely talking about the objectives. In the second lesson, I slowed this part down.

I am so thankful for the flexibility and coaching from my cooperating teacher, Mr. Deysher. Overall, it was a good start. I have a lot to learn, but I am looking forward to next semester!

3 Day Micro-teaching Unit at Central Mountain HS

Wow, what a cool experience! We finally got to put all our teaching theory into good use, and I feel so much more excited to keep working hard and improving. Oh course I definitely had some rough points at times during those three days, but overall, I had a ton of fun and I'm feeling like I am on the right track.

I taught Ms. Hack's 2nd period Animal Science class a 3-day unit on Rabbit Management. While preparing these lessons, I had a difficult time making rabbits exciting without an actual rabbit, but the help of a 4-H rabbit kit (thanks to Quinn),  a lot of brainstorming, and some coaching, it was anything but boring.



Day 1: Rabbit parts and breeds

I was so nervous I couldn't even sleep the night before. I felt that no amount of riding lessons or clinics could prepare me for THIS experience! I was terrified, no matter how much I prepared. Within 10 minutes of the start of class, 'the calm' settled in...YES! Despite flying through the material in the beginning (probably because of nerves) and a student giving me a fake name, the rest of the class period was A LOT of fun. It left me feeling motivated and excited about what I was doing.

Day 2: Rabbit selection and the Punnett Square

Coming into this day, I was confident about the class in general, but a bit worried about how the class would fare with the Punnett Square. They came in tired and quiet, but as an interest approach, we picked skittles out of cups to determine the 'traits' of a rabbit face. They ended the activity with some crazy-looking bunnies drawn and a little bit of sugar. Oh...and I had their interest for sure. Despite the negative attitude in the beginning of class about Punnett Squares, they were ready to learn and were very engaged! I could have explained the Punnett Square with more clarity, but they still understood the concept.

Day 3: Rabbit care and quiz

Everything went OK this day, but not like I planned. My YouTube interest approach did not go through, so I started without an interest approach. What a difference in class energy compared to the day before! I like energy; therefore interest approaches = super important! They designed their own rabbit hutch and a management plan for their rabbits and got so involved that we ran out of time to review for the quiz. It wasn't ideal, but it worked just fine. The students did great on the quiz. BUT...my proudest moments were when they were disappointed that this was my last day and reading their positive 'Learner Satisfaction Forms.' :) What a good group of kids.

What things are working? 

 I'm fortunate to be blessed with a lot of energy and a generally positive mindset, so this flows nicely into my teaching. Students commented "energetic, friendly, encouraging" and "she was happy during everything and taught us in a good understanding way" and "I could really understand her and she had us participate." My supervisors noted the excellent use of positive reinforcement and proximity control.

What things aren't working...yet? 

Things went well overall, but we all have a lot to learn. I need to work on my flow by improving my transitions and stating WHY we need to learn the material. Also improving instructions will make things flow better by starting with a signal word, naming the task, declaring the time, and signaling them to go. My questioning could also use improvement. With higher level questions, I will be better able to increase the rigor of the material and create a better flow.

"Well that's all folks!" 

Inquiry Based Instruction: Cracked Open

After learning so much about inquiry based instruction, it was now our time to 'give it a go!' I enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out how I was going to turn my Egg Foam Stability LAB into an Inquiry Based Instruction Lesson. As far as preparation, I really knew the material, gained all the supplies and felt organized; however, I really had no idea how it was going to go.

And the good news? 

I really can't gauge if it was a true success or not; however, I really enjoyed teaching it and felt the students were very engaged and thinking.

When should sugar be added to the egg albumen whisking process for optimum leavening properties using in baking? 

This was the question that I was gearing the students to develop. It related to the previous class lesson about the structure of proteins. I knew this would be a challenging topic, but the students did really well.


I began by handing each student an egg as they entered the classroom as a type of interest approach, asking them about the nutrients in the egg.   THEN, one of the student's egg rolled off the desk and hit the floor...CRACK! Ok, to be completely honest, I actually predicted this would happen but decided to go with the idea for the interest approach, because it would be really funny if it happened (and I love to liven things up whenever possible).

I began my lesson with a power-point presentation to give them a basic understanding of the content. Using the supplies provided, I then told them to pose a question and write a procedure for me to pre-approve before they began. I felt this was a really good idea; however, I really had to throw in some hints here and there to get them thinking in the direction I wanted them to. Finally, they began the experiment, but actually we ran out of time before it was completed! I'm thinking an electric beater could really make this process quicker.

Overall, I think it went well, because I was able to get a better understanding of how to facilitate an IBI lesson.

K-W-L Charts as a Literacy Strategy

The K-W-L Chart is a useful literacy Strategy that helps the student connect what they already KNOW, what they WANT to know about the topic, and then finally what they LEARNED about the topic. For this week's readings about inquiry based instruction, I will being using this strategy.

What I already KNOW: 
1.) Inquiry based instruction uses discovery and trial to teach the students.
2.)  It is student directed learning rather than teacher directed learning.
3.) There are different degrees of inquiry based instruction.

What I WANT to learn: 
1.) I want to learn better how to facilitate this method of instruction.
2.) I want to better relate my lessons to real-life scenarios.

What I LEARNED:

Wow, the readings really covered a lot! Meyers noted that inquiry based instructions allows learners to take charge of their learning. It is most beneficial when it is viewed relevant to the students and connects to past experiences. The readings also focused on the teacher's exact role, which was helpful to read. This included promoting student dialog, intervening to clear misconceptions, and transitioning between small groups and classroom discussions. The reading, "An Inquiry Primer," focused on inquiry learning being related to the scientific method. It also discussed different forms, including structured inquiry, guided inquiry, open inquiry, and the learning cycle.

The reading, "Simplifying Inquiry," presented a very interesting technique to help facilitate this type of instruction, called scaffolding inquiry. Since this method can be difficult for many students to grasp, it was suggested that throughout a school year, the lessons grew from low level inquiry to later a high level of inquiry. That way, the students gain understanding and confidence as they begin learning through the inquiry based method.

Utilizing the Problem-Solving Approach

Wow, that was a tricky lesson to plan! I really appreciate the benefits of utilizing the problem-solving approach, but yet I really struggled initially to develop a lesson using this teaching technique. With a little extra help, I was able to plan it out and felt confident on my lab session day.

To Breed or Not to Breed? 

Upon starting my Animal Reproduction unit in my Animal Science class, I posed the question, "Should my friend breed her mare or should she NOT breed her mare?" At this point in the course timeline, that class had just finished the Equine Science unit, and I felt that this discussion would link the two units nicely. I began telling a story about my friend's mare and the stallion that she was intending to use before I posed this 'forked road' problem. I had them break into groups and write down as many different topics that we needed to learn about to best advise our friend. Finally, we had a group discussion, where I took their answers and wrote them on the board.

Success? 

Yes! I thought it was my best lesson so far, because I was able to stay on track, stay organize, and become a little more clear. Yes, I still have a TON to work on, but I'm starting to feel a bit more confident.

Improvements to be made: 

1.)  My Sense of Time:  I really have no sense of time when I teach. I felt like my lesson was taking so much time and was afraid that I was going over time actually! In fact, I was very much under time! My plan for this is to set the timer on my phone, so I can better gauge my timing.

2.) Keep Probing Questions for Deeper Thinking: I was very quick to take the students' answers and recreate them on the board to match what I had in mind. For example, they said, "We need to learn about how phenotype and pedigree affect breeding decisions." I then took that and said, "Alright, so we need to look into genetics content, right...?" It would have been better to keep posing questions that would lead them to the over arching theme of genetics.

Time for Learning Evaluation!

When students think of evaluation, they think of test and exam time, usually negatively. Why do we have evaluations? 

2 Main Reasons

1.) To assess student learning

2.) To assist teachers in self-evaluation

To break this down farther, assessments help motivate students to learn the content, so the students can self-appraise their progress, so students synthesize all the unit information, and finally to develop class grades.

There are all kinds of questions to include on tests. Depending on the content and the situation, different types will be used over others. They include multiple-choice, short answer, true-false, matching, and essay questions. As a student, I get very frustrated with true-false questions. After reading the chapter from Newcomb, et al., I read that true-false questions are very difficult to write and often test a low cognitive area. As a teacher, I plan to stay away from these types of questions for the most part.

Tips for Grading

• Grade one question at a time
• Grade anonymously
• Use a consistent scoring system- a rubric is great for this!

Example of a concept map

The reading by Stoughton discussed the use of rubrics for consistent grading. Depending on the situation, a generic or task specific rubric may be used. These two types of rubrics are either analytic (details of the performance) or holistic (yes or no about a specific task). 

The reading by Warner discussed the evaluation of labs, which can sometimes be difficult to do. Techniques such as concept maps, Vee maps, or portfolios can be used. 

Finally, using the ASCD website, I read an article titled, "Chapter 1. The Lay of the Land: Essential Elements of the Formative Assessment Process." While I am familiar with summative assessments, I was not as familiar with formative assessments. Unlike summative assessments, formative assessments focus on the learning progress of students toward the end learning goals. This type of assessment is given during a unit to improve learning and achieve. It is is an "assessment FOR learning." 

Weekly Writing: The Problem Solving Approach

A key skill that employers look for in their employees is the ability to problem solve; however, statistics show that this skill is often lacking. This week's readings all focused on the problem solving approach. As educators, it is important to teach and promote problem solving skills for our students to prepare them for the professional world. Education has sometimes been criticized for not focusing on this element...but we are going to change that!

Bransford's IDEAL problem solving model: 

1. Identify problem
2. Define the problem through thinking about it and sorting out the relevant information
3. Explore solutions through looking at alternatives, brainstorming, and checking out different points of view
4. Act on strategies
5. Look back and evaluate the effects of your activity 

This relates to the human nature of overcoming challenges/problems! Check out this:

Why is this leaf blower no longer working? 

This is an real-life example that we can ask a class to base the content knowledge that they will be learning about small gas engines. The reading discussed three cognitive activities of problem solving that we must present: represent problem --> solution search --> implement solution. We can apply the students' knowledge of small gas engines to find solutions using these three cognitive activities.

So how do we TEACH problem solving?

Newcomb, et. al. went through these six steps:

1. Interest approach
2. Objectives to be achieved
3. Questions to be answered
4. Problem solution
5. Testing solutions through application
6. Evaluation of solutions 

However, one of implementation tips that I read noted that the most effective teaching styles will build student interest, motivation, and confidence, while reducing anxiety. I think this is an incredibly important take-away, because as a student, I find it almost impossible to achieve an optimum cognitive learning level with anxiety present in the classroom.  I am looking forward to learning more delivery methods that focus on this problem solving approach!

Demo Lab Reflection: How to Tie a Bowline Knot

This week of lab continued with the demonstration lessons. My demonstration was how to tie a bowline knot. Students began by naming all the different types of knots they knew of and then I brought 'props' like a sneaker and hemp bracelet to show that there are knots all round us! This was my short interest approach. We then reviewed reasons for doing a bowline knot, and I demonstrated the knot. (I forgot to do the teacher says; student does part...oops). I went right to student says; student does. Then, I gave the students time to practice the knot. I then used a lot of individual teaching to help the students, and also asked proficient students to help other students.

I really enjoyed teaching this lesson, and to be honest, I get so excited about what I'm attempting to teach that I really get mixed up/ forget things in my lesson plan. I worked so hard to prepare this lesson, but I felt that I did not present it like I had planned and now am rather frustrated. The students really seemed to enjoy the lesson, and since they were so busy tying knots, I didn't have any major behavior issues. One point of modification I would like to make on this lesson is the fact that I would not be able to give as much individual time to students if I had a class of 20 students.

Plan for next time? Chill out and talk slow :) 

We all want to be perfect, but this is truly our time to find our style and rhythm in front of a class, and it's ok to have a bumpy ride sometimes.  

Teaching Techniques...Individualized!

So we've talked about group teaching techniques, but then what are some alternative options?

 Individualized teaching techniques! 

These teaching techniques allow the instructor to work one-on-one with individual students for various benefits. We must treat our students as individuals, as each plan to apply the content in different ways, have different interests, and learn in different ways. Great ways for students to get the most out of individualized learning is through these different teaching techniques: supervised study, experiments, independent study, student notebooks, and information/worksheets. By using these techniques, a teacher can spend specific time with each student, therefore being able to better provide special opportunities. Also through these techniques, students develop skills to learn on their own, grow their independence, and become inquisitive about the subject matter.

Experiments: A great individualized teaching technique

My cooperating center, Oley Valley High School, has a one-to-one program, which matches each student with a laptop. I view this as an excellent resource for guiding many individualized teach strategies. Right at their fingertips, students have access to valuable databases, videos, and general websites. Students can be put into groups or asked individually to research a certain topic using different resources. I have heard current teachers note that students really look forward to searching different topics on their computers. It helps them engage in the content, ask more questions, or find things that are even new to the teacher!

I would think that at times, it may be difficult to facilitate individual teaching techniques depending on the students and the particular subject matter. Students must not only remained focused and behaved, but also be able to read, organized, and synthesis thoughts and information.  However, I am looking forward to developing my facilitation skills using these techniques.

Lab 2: Interest Approaches

What a fun lab! Five great interests approaches were presented this go around. Overall, I felt even more comfortable teaching during this lab after the first teaching lab last week. I presented my interest approach for my lesson titled, "What are the causes of air pollution?" I started with a clear jar of water representing clean air. I handed each student a 'compound' that pollutes the air, such as carbon monoxide or particulate matter. After debriefing the students about not eating the hot cocoa mix or dropping food coloring on their clothes, I began telling a fictional story of my week and having the students come up to the front and add a pinch or a drop of their 'compound' as I told them that I drove my car, mowed the grass, painted my nails, and so forth. The jar of clean water turned into a nice, gross dark green color, and I asked the students that if we could see what is in our air, like how we can see the water in the jar, would we want to be breathing this air? No! Then I made a connection to the objectives.

Vehicle exhaust releases CO, SO2, and CO2

First off, this lab was fun to do! It kept the tough students engaged for the most part. When I do this in a real classroom, I will keep it moving a little faster so it doesn't seem too redundant and drug out. Also instead of telling my story, I think it would be best to have them identify their own stories. In that way, I will be able to engage the students more, rather than me saying "I" all the time.

As far as presentation, I felt more confident; however, the trouble students got me a little flustered again, and I tripped over some words or didn't say certain things as clearly as I would have liked. I think the key here is just practice! Good thing we have almost a whole semester of lab left!

Overall, I'm excited to use some of the ideas that my lab classmates gave me and also watch some of the videos from the other lab session earlier in the day.

Weekly Writing: Effective Questions and Languaging in Instruction

This week's readings related to effective questioning and languaging in instruction, field trips, and cooperative learning. When I think of high school, the most effective teachers concerning questioning were the math teachers. They had developed excellent wait time, as they waited and waited until someone in the class figured out the math problem or started flipping through equations to try to figure it out. As a student, is was so frustrating when a teach posed a question but interrupted before anyone could think through the question or look at past notes to figure it out! Or it was always frustrating when a dominate student would interrupt an activity or Q & A session. These readings were helpful to prepare us as teachers to prevent or handle these situations.

Dyer gave gave excellent advice on how to use questioning effectively. The majority of questions that teachers ask tend to be low level rather than high level. A teacher can choose to ask directed or general questions or open or close-ended questions, depending on how he or she would like to engage the students. While student participation may be difficult, techniques can be used such as calling on names and being aware of dominant students.  Finally it is essential to give at least 5-7 seconds of wait time. While I could imagine that this is incredibly painful and long for teachers sometimes, it gives students time to process the question and retrieve an answer.

The reading from Myers discussed effective field trips. Remembering  my high school years, and even college experiences, some field trips were the highlight of the course! However, for some, as I think now, I can barely make a connection to the subject content in focus on those trips. How do we make field trips fun and also reinforce the subject content too? Myers explained this. There are three parts to field trip planning: pre-trip, trip, and post-trip. All three phases have clear connections to the content matter on hand. Also an important note that jumped out at me was the role of facilitator that the instructor plays during the field trip. It is his or her job to make sure the trip is being connected to the content. I am really looking forward to taking my students out on a field trip this spring.
                                           
Groseta discussed the implementation of cooperative learning. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to work with their peers and gain social and academic benefits. However, there are difficulties implementing this teaching technique, such as; assigning groups, behavior management, and evaluation of learners. The article discussed how to handle a lot of these difficulties. I am looking forward to incorporating cooperative learning in my classroom. I also think that the more I incorporate it, the more I and my students will be comfortable with it.