Substitute reflection

This week in lab we had to create a lesson plan that was worthy for a substitute to teach. In my plan I included a lot of detail, so that if there was any question whatsoever as to what anything was the answer would be right there. I also made sure to include an answer key to the packet that I had the substitute provide to the students and I had an activity that the students had to go up and draw on the board. I made sure to include a picture of what the picture should roughly look like (my lesson was on photosynthesis and they were to draw the cycle on the board).

This lab took a turn when it was announced that we were actually going to be teaching another teacher's plan. So I went from thinking I was going to be teaching a class on photosynthesis to teaching a class on artificial insemination (oh boy).

Overall, I enjoyed the lab because I felt less pressure because I was just suppose to do what I could with the information that I had and I didn't feel like I had to have a lot of knowledge in the content I was teaching, since it wasn't my lesson plan.
The way that I interpreted the sub plan that I got was very lecture based. The bell work and the interest approach were fun. However, when it came to presenting the PowerPoint I felt that it was very dry and I couldn't be authentically enthusiastic about it which was difficult for me. I put as my opp that it was difficult to make the content fun because I didn't really know what I was talking about.

However, I put as my gems that I went at a good pace for the students to be able to read the slides and get a grasp of what each AI tool was. I also put as my second gem that I answered questions pretty well. If I knew the answer I gave it to them, however if I did not know the answer I was able to admit that I wasn't an expert and to wait for the teacher of their class to come back and answer it. Even if I didn't answer their question, I gave them the route they needed to take to get the answer. It's ALWAYS better to say you don't know rather than try and give students false information.

Teacher toolbox weekly investment

Teacher toolboxes are important because when one thing may not work out you need to be able to have a back up plan. When thinking about my own personal teacher toolbox all I really have is what I have learned in college thus far. Along with some of my experience teaching in a public setting at the Elk Country Visitors center. In comparison to seasoned teachers that means my toolbox has started however it is not nearly full. 

As a teacher gets experienced they will get more and more comfortable with different methods of teaching as well as becoming comfortable with developing relationships with students. As a student teacher or even as a younger teacher once I get into the profession, I am not going to be able to have as much flexibility in my teaching and relationships with students as a seasoned teacher would. This is not because I'm a bad teacher, but because I'm not fully comfortable yet with my own teaching style. 

Its important to be able to pull from your teacher toolbox different methods of teaching a subject based off of how students are understanding the content. the further along I get in my teaching career the more flexible I will be with changing up my lessons. For example maybe I'm explaining something off of a power point and my students are just not understanding, then I take a moment and think about how I can convey the information to them in a different way. perhaps I would draw on the board so they can visually see step by step where the thought process is going. 

I will also have to be self aware that I am not going to know everything that my students may want to know. I need to be able to teach my student the skills to go find the information on their own. Giving them this autonomy may lead them to discovering information that maybe they could share with the class and even teach me as well. 

When it comes to developing relationships with my students I need to try and not to stick with just one type of student. I need to be able to try and reach out to all types of students. As a teacher I need to be able to put myself out of my own comfort zone and use my knowledge of different mentalities that I have stored in my toolbox and reach out to the students that I otherwise would not have spoken with. 

With all this being said your teacher toolbox is important and it may start out small, but slowly you'll add to the toolbox and it will grow and grow.

Virtual Mentor interview on cultural diversity and ELL

For this virtual mentor interview I posed the question:

What strategies or resources do you use to help your class/program be responsive to cultural diversity and English language learners?

When talking to my mentors they had a lot of the same mind sets because they all pretty much come from schools that are not highly diverse. They said that it is important because of the low diversity in the schools to make sure you are some how exposing students to other people who may not be exactly like them.

A really good way to do this is to make sure that you have an active and involved program. Getting students out there to meet other students that are not like them is a very good way to get students familiar with the fact that not everyone is like them. Not only does being involved and going places like state or national convention allow students to be exposed to diversity, but it also helps them create lasting connections that they otherwise would have never gotten.

Another aspect that was brought up was know your resources in your school, get ideas from other teachers as to they try to include diversity among the students. It never hurts to reach out and ask for advice. Also, doing activities that may be culturally different or watching or teaching content that doesn't strictly talk about the majority of your students population. For instance when doing FFA history don't just talk about the FFA. There was an organization that was called the NFA that was made up of diverse students. It's important for students to realize that there are so many people different that them and the more they can be exposed to it, the better.

I hope that I can create an inclusive environment within my classroom, so that every student feels accepted and wanted. However, I can't just do that alone. I am just one person, I can drive that atmosphere for my classroom, but in the end it's up to the students to accept each other. I believe I can drive that atmosphere by making sure my students are exposed to cultural diversity throughout the time I teach.

problem solving lab reflection

Problem solving lab has been done. For this lab we had to choose one of the 4 problem solving approaches. The 4 approaches are:

1.) forked road

2.) different possibilities

3.) effect/cause

4.) situation to be improved

The one I chose to demonstrate was the forked road approach. I had the students read about a fish (everyone had a different one) and pull out some information on it. I then had them test for pH in water and they had to guess whether or not their fish could survive in the water they had chose. The reason this represented the forked road approach is because the fish they had either could live in the pH level or it couldn’t. There was no real gray area to work with. 

When it came to classroom management the 4 behaviors I had to work with were: 

1.) hard worker

2.) class clown

3.) a student always on their phone 

4.) the average student

The hard worker and average student were not difficult to manage. The student who was always on their phone got one warning, then when I saw it a second time I had the student move the phone to the back of the room. That way it was away from him and he couldn’t use it again. The class clown was probably the most difficult because she decided to throw out jokes about fish at inappropriate times in the class. I cut off the behavior as soon as I could and kept reinforcing that this wasn’t a place or a time to be joking around and that she could share her jokes after class. 

When it came to the group reflection I had how I handled the class clown as both a gem and an opp. I believe that there is a time and a place for jokes and I could have handled the situation differently, allowing the student to make her jokes while we were transitioning between different steps of the class. However, I don’t think I necessarily handled it incorrectly. I just handled it in a more stern fashion than what I had wanted to.

For my own personal gems and opps:

Gems:

I handled the different behaviors calmly and didn’t get frustrated with what I was doing. Going back to my very first lab when behaviors were implemented I know I was very frustrated afterwards, but I really think I have improved and was able to keep my cool and handle the different situations in a calm manner.

I had a hands on activity, hands on activities are always good for keeping students engaged. 

Opp: 

I feel as though I stumbled a lot through my words as I was trying to explain different aspects of the lesson. I KNOW what I’m talking about, but I need to take a second, so that I can collect my thoughts and not stumble through what I’m saying so that way I sound more confident in my knowledge. 

Overall, I think I did fairly well during this lab. Just a couple things here and there, but hey I’m learning. 

Assess for Understanding

What is Assessment and how do we use it?

Assessment is the tool that we use to gain knowledge of where our learners are at in the subject matter we are teaching. It is also used to see how well they understood what you had taught. To see where the learners are at throughout your teaching is known as formative assessment. When you are trying to look at the overall picture to see what they grasped over your series of lessons is known as summative assessment.

There are different ways that we can assess students. Depending on what you taught your students can determine what type of assessment you are going to use. For instance, if you taught something that is very hands on and has step by step procedure it would make sense to do a practicum in the sense that they need to demonstrate it in front of you to show that they had learned and gained the skill that you wanted them to. However, if you taught them something that is very knowledge based like parts of a goat, then you might want to take the route of giving them an image of a goat and have parts that they need to label.

You can also check for understanding throughout your lessons by having them do knowledge based activities. Such as you taught them different concepts that can connect in certain ways. Maybe you would have them do a concept map to see what direction their thoughts are heading with the subject matter you had taught.

Assessments can also be used before you even start teaching! you can use pre-assessments to see where your learners are at even before you begin teaching. This way you don't waste your time or their time teaching content that they already know about. 

When reading through about assessment one thing that I got caught up on and never really thought about was having to make adaptations of the test to students with disabilities and ELL learners. making adaptations according to what a student's IEP may require is an obvious adaption, but how do you adapt when they don't have an outlined required adaptation. So, I am going to take this moment to pose a question to my readers.

If you have had to do this before, how do you make adaptions and it still be fair to ALL students?

If you have not ever done this for an assessment before, how do you think you would go about making these adaptations?

I want all students to feel as though they have an equal opportunity to succeed in my classroom, however on the same wavelength I want all of my students to feel that they are being treated fairly. Any advice on how to balance these two things would be appreciated greatly. 

When doing assessments one tool that is very useful and important is if it's not a multiple choice test with an answer key, then you need to have some sort of way to grade the assessment at hand. This tool would be a rubric. Rubrics ensure that there is a certain critera that students have to meet and it keeps it so you don't seem bias towards any one learner. It's a good way to make a sort of check list so that you can remember everything the student needs to do. It also helps the student's clearly know what they need to do.