Surprise Teaching Lab Reflection

For a couple of weeks now, the only hint we received as to what we were teaching this week was that we needed to have a sub worthy lesson plan. That means that we needed to have a lesson plan that basically any random person could pick up and follow. So, okay, no big deal; our lesson plans have to be sub worthy to begin with.....well little did we know that....

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!

...we were going to be teaching from our classmates lesson plans. We had all been speculating up until this point on what was actually happening in Wednesday's lab. We didn't know if were just writing a lesson plan that we had to teach or if we were switching (last year's cohort did NOT switch).

I know I did, but I think most of us went into this a little apprehensive about it. You'll see how it turned out in a little while. But first, the actual topics we were teaching were based on the National AFNR Standard that we drew Monday morning in class. This is as opposed to a lesson that we would create to use in the spring (like most labs this semester).

All of us taught each others plans very well...apparently. I didn't see much of a difference in myself since we had about 10 minutes prep time with the new lesson plan. Here is a breakdown of what happened in my lab!

Topic

• Wildlife management enhancement techniques; it was a very dense topic but I made it through, obviously!
• Awesome lesson plan and lots of information!

Opps-Opportunities to Learn, Things to Improve On

• keeping students on task; make Power Points more engaging by having various activities

• I went back to reading off the slides....I didn't know the material, didn't know what I was supposed to be saying so what can I do otherwise?
• I received feedback on both ends of the spectrum regarding enthusiasm; I think my lack of enthusiasm was more of a result of being apprehensive about switching lesson plans with someone than anything else. I just need to get over that and move on. I have to remember why I started doing this in the first place!

Gems- Things to Keep Doing

• Good questioning technique during the Power Point; kept some students engaged; it wasn't strictly reading off slides; I tried to check for understanding or ideas directly related to the content.
• I walked around the room to switch things up by not speaking from behind the podium all the time.

Overall, I want to say that I don't know what I was scared of going into this lab. I kind of liked teaching from someone else's plan. I think that when I go to teach my own plans, I have such a high expectation for it then I put too much pressure on myself to deliver it the exact way I wanted it.

It was a great learning experience that I hope I can continue to build on.

Weekly Investment Toolbox Capacity

Weekly Essential Question:

Is our Toolbox Full?

Key Questions:

Why is differentiated learning important?
How could we utilize individualized teaching techniques?

Key Takeaways:

We are over halfway through the semester...so do we know every teaching method that is out there? No. We don't. So, what's left? This week we are focusing on individualized teaching techniques. It would be ideal if we could pinpoint how every student learned then spend one on one time with them but we don't have time for that. What do we do instead?

Students should "inquire into subject matter." This gives students the autonomy to learn as much as they can, their own way.

• I kind of implemented this in the last lesson I wrote. It is about different uses of forests. I gave students a use that they had to research on their own. It's not completely individualized but I think it was a start. (By the way, I did not do that on purpose!)

Students must realize that teachers aren't the only way to gain knowledge. That is the whole purpose of individualized teaching techniques and the reasoning behind them.

• Even I have struggled with this during my transition from high school to college. Everything came so easily to me in high school and we were always told what we needed to know. But in college, it's completely different. If you were to look at my college grades and compare them to my high school grades, you wouldn't think they all belong to me.
• Making sure students know how to learn on their own is really important to me. They have to be prepared to enter the workforce or go to college and they won't be if all they're ever taught is how to learn from a teacher.

7 Basic Individualized Teaching Techniques

1. supervised study

2. experiments

3. independent study

4. student notebooks

5. use of info sheets

6. use of assignment sheets

7. use of skill sheets

Even through these methods, the lesson must have direction and structure. Students will act up if they don't have anything to follow.

If students don't believe something that you teach is true, have them do an experiment. If an experiment is not feasible, have the students research the problem. Almost anything can be turned around to where the teacher makes the student responsible to find out the truth.

• Sometimes I wish that I had more opportunities for individualized learning in my high school career. Also, as motivated as I actually am the majority of the time, I know that even when I have something interesting to do work on; I don't want to do it. If the students are on their own for studying, how do you keep them motivated to actually work on it?

We also had a chapter from Newcomb that was entitled "Learning as Problem Solving." Even though that sounds as if it would go along with what we did a couple of weeks ago, it goes along with this week too. Letting the students come up with questions on how they should solve the problem gets them started. Then the students can have a supervised study time where they find answers to the questions they just came up with.

• I think this is a combo of the Problem-Solving Approach, individualized teaching and inquiry based learning (which is our topic in 2 weeks).
• I believe that my Problem Solving Approach teaching lab lesson fits this idea. See http://saralang13.blogspot.com/2018/10/problem-solving-approach-lab-reflection.html for a reference to that teaching lab.

EduGains Reading

Differentiated instruction requires that the teacher is responsive to the students' learning level. All students are to be taught the same standards and are to be assessed before, during and after the assignment.

Flexibility was something that the reading said was a characteristic of differentiated instruction.

• I know this is something that I need/want to work on. Although, when I plan something, I feel as if I have to stick to it and can't waiver from the plan. (I have noticed this when I give speeches too as well as in my teaching labs by using my lesson plan.) How do I overcome that?

This reading also mentioned choices and group work techniques. By teaching students these skills, it is further preparing them for the real world.

• I have always thought this is really important to teach. Yes, content is important but transferable skills are just as important in my opinion. If you can't talk to people or solve problems (among other things), how can you make it?

References:

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Note:  Chapter 7 – Individualized Teaching Techniques (36 pages)  Chapter 4, Learning as Problem Solving (13 pages)  

 

EduGains. (2015). Reach every student through differentiated instruction.  Retrieved from http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureOct08.pdf

Problem Solving Approach Lab Reflection

Jobs and careers are demanding more and more employees know simple skills such as public speaking, interpersonal and problem solving skills! In education, this is where teachers can bring in the problem-solving approach. I think this is especially applicable to Agricultural Education because the ag industry is always facing problems. Not only does it help the industry but it helps the students gain skills that are easily transferable to other aspects of life.

For this week's teaching lab, we were able to use the problem solving approach in a lesson. This is literally just as it sounds...the students are given a problem that they need to solve. We were only given 20 minutes (the problem did not have to be solved by this point) to teach the beginning of our lesson.

Background on My Lesson

• animal science reproduction taught in the spring to 3rd year students
• we would have just looked at and talked about male and female bovine reproductive tracts and the stages of embryonic calf development
• it was scenario based (real life from my farm); brood cows and 2 year old heifers were aborting their calves and the students had to figure out why
• they had to come up with what they needed to know, questions to ask the farmer, his wife and their daughter (who all had different roles on the farm)

Opps-Opportunities to Do Better

• speed up and have flow for lesson
• just be comfortable with what I'm teaching; I really struggled to come up with a problem that I thought was "good enough" to do a lesson on so I was slightly uncomfortable trying it out; I was fine with content though
• show more interest in students-"shares-a-lot" role said she had cattle but I didn't ask her what kind or anything.
• I think I was afraid that if I talked more about that I was going to get off topic and I didn't want to do that. It was a fine line that I did think about in the moment.
• engage students more
• have them give their answers to the questions and ask if anyone else has anything to add

Gems-Things to Keep Doing

• great real world scenario
• it actually happened to me and may actually happen to students since it is a dairy community
• kept students on track
• there were a lot of snarky comments that were way off topic and I ignored or very briefly addressed them
• moved around room and asked how students were doing
• students can be left out of group work or they can get off task if you don't ask

Overall

• I will keep students engaged, keep my enthusiasm and be comfortable with whatever I am teaching.

Virtual Mentor Exploration....Part 2!!

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

In an ever changing world, we have to be prepared for everything. As student teachers in the spring, we were assigned to ask our virtual mentor team the above question. Who knows what will happen and what kind of students you will have the opportunity to work with.

As a teacher, you have to connect to all of your students no matter where they come from. Here are some great nuggets of knowledge from my mentor team and my cooperating teacher!

Mr. Haussener

• currently has a foreign exchange student
• pair with helpful student for certain activities
• try to find something he really enjoys

Dr. McLean

• currently has Vietnamese student
• have him watch and listen to others
• uses Google translate for directions but has both languages on it
• modify assignment
• school serves military base, students have lived in many different countries
• in foods, open discussion to how different religions have different experiences (meat vs. no meat, dairy vs. no dairy)
• Her classroom vision statement is "Learn Together. Grow Together. Open Eyes."
• above points embody this!!

My Entire Virtual Mentor Team

• treat them with the same respect as others but give them the attention they need to understand and learn

My Reflection

• think of different ways to engage students of different cultures
• specifically with the foreign exchange student in the spring, I will try my best to learn some of his language and relate the subjects to his country

Weekly Investment on Assessment

Weekly Essential Question:

How do we assess and evaluate?

Key Questions:

What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?
Why assess learning? What is the purpose?

Key Takeaways:

Newcomb Reading

Pre-assessment is important because a teacher needs to know what level to start the unit on. Assessing students during or after the lesson is key as well because it helps to keep the teacher in check with how/what they're teaching. Additionally, students even value assessments as it gives them satisfaction or motivation to do better!

• I would actually like to do a lot of pre-assessment in the classroom. I asked Mr. Haussener the question of "Where do I start with my units?" I have to start at the very basic levels and build up from there (scaffolding!). The thing that scares me is that I know there will be students of varying degrees of knowledge.

One thing that caught my eye was that it's suggested to not make true/false questions in a pattern (2 false, 1 true, 2 false, 1 true, etc.). Even though that is suggested, I still see a lot of teachers doing that.

• I feel like if I think about it too much then my questions would end up being in a pattern.

There was a lot of talk about using rubrics in the Newcomb reading. The example rubric was even a guide to grading students on a Problem Solving Approach lesson!

• I got to experience using rubrics firsthand at the Big E last month. It was a lot easier because I knew how to grade them and the students knew what they were being graded on. Although, I did find it kind of hard to keep my grading consistent throughout all of the Vet Science teams I was watching.

Stoughton Reading

There are 2 types of rubrics (task specific and generic). After that there are 2 sub-types: analytic and holistic.

• I never knew this before. The analytic is specifics to the task and holistic is yes or no questions. I always thought a rubric was just a rubric but now I know better!

Jung Reading

Grading Exceptional Learners is something to seriously think about. How do you assign a fair grade to them? You don't want to punish them for something that may be a barrier and you don't want to give them a good grade when they don't deserve it so what do you do? This reading gave 5 steps towards successful grading.

1. Ask whether the standard is an appropriate expectation without adaptations.

2. If the standard is not appropriate, determine what type of adaptation the standard needs.

3. If the standard needs modification, determine the appropriate standard.

4. Base grades on the modified standard, not the grade-level standard.

5. Communicate the meaning of the grade.

• Basically, this article was just giving clarity and dispelling any myths about grading exceptional learners. I never really thought about it differently until I read this article!

Warner Reading

Concept and flow maps can be a good way of evaluating students when it comes to lab settings. The student can write everything they know down and connect it all. This way may be easier for students to put their thoughts onto paper, especially if they are physically doing a task.

• When using concept maps, etc. to assess student learning, I would be worried about how to evaluate the maps. Each one is going to be different for each student.

References:

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Note: Chapter 14 Evaluation of Learning  (38 pages)

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Assessing student learning. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html

Stoughton, A.L. & Myers, B.E. (2008) Creating and working with rubrics. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06900.pdf

Jung, L.A. & Guskey, T.R. (2010). Grading exceptional learners. Educational Leadership, 67(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-ExceptionalLearners.aspx

Warner, W.J. & Myers, B.E. (2010). Evaluating learning in laboratory settings. Retrieved from  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06000.pdf

Weekly Investment The Problem-Solving Approach

Essential Question:

What is the Problem-Solving Approach?

Key Questions:

What is Problem Solving?
How is Problem Solving related to Project Based?

Key Takeaways:

Problem-Based Learning is when students are presented with a problem and they work together to find potential solutions to said problem. They figure out what subject/content knowledge is needed followed by choosing how and with what they will find a solution.

• This could be really useful in my future classroom or even in the spring at Cedar Crest. It could be used in an animal science class (among others). Students could be given a problem regarding an animal reproductive system (that's a unit I'll be teaching in the spring) and then given time to set their own guidelines for solving it.

In order to use the problem solving approach, problems should be stated in question form and be relevant to the students' lives.
It is easier to use this method when the teacher knows how much the students know about the subject. Also, it's easier when the students know how the problem solving approach works.

• This can bring scaffolding into a teachers classroom. Start small by explaining the problem solving approach. Then build upon it, giving students more and more autonomy each time.

I will also relate this to last week's topic of Questioning. It is always important to ask the right questions at the right time! Whether it is a non problem solving lesson or not, (the right) questions are key for student understanding and thought.

Reports, presentations and rubrics are all forms of assessment commonly used in problem based learning.

• This is something that I know I would have had trouble figuring out if the reading wouldn't have said it.

Kirkley Reading

The first thing this reading talked about was the importance of the Problem-Solving Approach. Studies have shown that more and more industries need people that can think at higher order levels and that can problem solve at higher order levels.

Finding people that fit these criterion keeps getting harder but by using the Problem-Solving Approach in schools, this will start to be remedied.

• I agree that this is really important! I don't know if I could go to a complete problem solving curriculum/plans. I know it's hard to get away from the traditional approach to teaching but I would definitely like to try my hardest to get away from it!

In Project Based Learning, students learn the main concepts from completing projects. It also requires problem solving skills!! That's where the problem solving approach to teaching comes in! The next 2 readings talked about project based learning.

• I have some ideas (sorry no spoilers here!) for projects in the spring. I was going for the more traditional approach of teaching the subject then having the students do a project. This got me thinking about it and I may try flipping that and having the students learn from their projects!

8 Essentials to Project Based Learning

1. Significant Content

2. A Need to Know

3. A Driving Question

4. Student Voice and Choice

5. 21st Century Skills

6. Inquiry and Innovation

7. Feedback and Revision

8. Publicly Presented Product

All of these are interrelated!! Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning and even Inquiry Based Learning are have many things in common. More on Inquiry Based Learning/Instruction will be coming in a few weeks! There are more connections to be made!

References:

Buck Institute for Education's "PBL Starter Kit." 2017

Phipps, L.J., Osborn, E.W., Dyer, J.E., & Ball, A.L. (2008) Handbook on agricultural education in public schools, 1st Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Note: Chapter 15 – Problem Solving (PDF Canvas) 20 pages

Kirkley, J. (2003). Principles for teaching problem solving. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8503&rep=rep1&type=pdf Note: Principles to Teach Problem Solving (Canvas 16 pages)

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). The main course, not dessert: How are students reaching 21st century goals? With 21st century project based learning. Retrieved from http://bie.org/object/document/main_course_not_dessert

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). 8 essentials for project-based learning. Retrieved from http://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/attachments/article/1058/8_Essentials_article_small_file_size_Oct2012v ersion.pdf

Model Unit Plan Reflection

This meme is what I learned these last couple of weeks while preparing this unit plan.

One big thing we, as pre-service teachers, have to do is write unit and lesson plans. We were told to write a "model unit plan" that we would receive feedback on. This model unit could be used by us to base the rest of our units off of (the format and how we planned the unit).

Unit Plan Essentials are as follows:

• Name of Unit
• Unit Rationale (why teach this in your community)
• Anticipated Number of Class Sessions Needed
• Length of Each Class Session
• Supplies Needed for Unit
• PA Academic Standards/Assessment Anchors
• PA Ag Content Standards/Benchmarks (or AFNR; Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources)
• Names of Lesson Titles
• Unit Goals (major concepts that will be taught)
• Specific Daily Learning Objectives Addressed (performance, criteria and condition for student to complete task)
• Unit Assessments/Evaluation Strategies
• Exceptional Children Strategies/Accommodations/Adaptations
• A Specific Science and/or Math and/or English Enhancement (how it relates to core subjects)
• Total Ag Ed Program Connection (FFA and SAE integration)
• Specific Careers Prepared For
• References (APA Format-resources used to make unit/gather information)

At first, I panicked. Then I started to think about it and type it all out. As soon as I started the process, I calmed down because I was getting a feeling for all of the components. Of course, it's not going to be anywhere near perfect but practice makes perfect!

Honestly, I was not real comfortable with bullet points 5-11; the core of an unit plan. I knew about them and what needed to happen, I just wasn't comfortable writing my own yet. We had some practice with all of it but I didn't feel as if any of mine was good enough.

The Good and The Bad

After my peers reviewed my unit plan, I felt a lot better! They said that everything looked pretty good. My lesson plan names were all in question form and I did not use "understand" in any of my objectives. For the future, I will definitely keep that the same!

One big thing that I struggled with at the start was making unit assessments. My peers commented on that as well; "these may be hard to assess." As in, the lesson plans may be hard to assess without some solid form of assessment (ex. rubric). For the future, I will seriously consider using rubrics (which I did include for this unit after the revision). I will explore other types of assessment to be used with any and all subjects. Although, I do not want to have the same type of assessment all of the time because I feel like the students would get tired of the same thing over and over again.

Weekly Investment Effective Questioning

Weekly Essential Question:

How do we transition between techniques using effective questions?

Key Questions:

Are all questions the same?

What is the coolest teacher "question tip" you want to incorporate?

Why would asking questions at higher levels of cognition (think Bloom) matter?

What is Student Agency or Student Voice?

Key Takeaways:

Something I found throughout all of the readings was that teachers can't just ask yes/no or multiple choice questions. Asking questions to higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy is what you want.

• gets students to really think about and comprehend what they're learning
• that's when the WHY question comes in (thanks Dr. Foster for pushing us with always knowing the why)!

Dyer reading

The second sentence really caught me off guard. It says, "...Research shows that teachers ask between 300–400 questions per day..."

• If I really think about it, yes it is definitely true!
• about 3 questions/student/period, about 20 students/period, about 8 periods/day = 480 questions asked!!
• that's a lot of questions! If a teacher is going to ask that many questions a day, they need to make them matter by being effective!

There was a good section on "Handling Student Responses." Some different methods were reinforcing, probing, redirecting and rephrasing. 

• I think that knowing how to use these is important. Use each one for different situations; praise the student who doesn't answer often, probe the student who answers with a general statement, redirect when you want to check another students understanding with this students response, and rephrase when students don't quite get the question!

Another thing that stuck out to me was responding to student questions: "Often, students do not realize how much they actually know."

• if a teacher helps them to realize that they actually know the answer to their question on their own, then the "light bulb" goes off in their heads. That's the moment I want to see in every single one of my students!

Tweek Your Teach

"School sucks" was the premise for this reading. Students just sit there and are lectured at (for the most part). Nobody learns anything and nobody wants to be there.

• This is why I really love ag! I've heard so many stories (and even seen some in my high school) where students don't do well and don't want to be in school in their standard subjects but they get to ag and they love it!
• Get students up and moving; this will help them to get their thoughts flowing as well as actually wanting to be there! (For example, this is what I wanted to do with my interest approach lesson this past week)
• They may not get it the first time (or you may have to keep trying different ways of teaching) but you will get it eventually. Just keep going and you will get to where you want to be eventually!

Pursue Passion

This was about how Google let their employees have a day to work on whatever they wanted; to explore new inventions or ideas that the employee had. This significantly worked and out come things like Gmail!

• This is like inquiry based learning for me in a way. They can have questions or thoughts, then have time to explore. They can apply what they know from the classroom (the students) or work (Google employees) and do something for themselves!
• This could also be related to SAE projects! Students get to explore anything that suits their interests, whether or not it has to deal with agriculture. They have time outside of school to do that and sometimes in school (especially to update records as that is a major point of SAE).

This all makes work and school not so mundane!

I will strive to keep my students engaged by asking meaningful questions and challenging them to go beyond how far they think they can!

I want to inspire my students to go out into the world and follow their dreams no matter what they are. I may be an agriculture teacher but that doesn't mean that all of my students have to pursue careers in ag (but they definitely should)! My hope is that all students when they get out of high school (no matter if they take ag) will be well rounded, respectful, knowledgeable citizens who strive to make themselves better and help others.

References

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Using Effective Questions. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/using-effective-questions.html 

 

Dyer, J.E. (n.d.) Effective Questioning Techniques. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC08400.pdf 

 

Read/View: Tweak Your Teach: Dr. Tae's Building a New Culture of Teaching and Learning 

 

Read: Pursue Passion: Demand Google 20% Time at School