UbD Stage One Reflection

In this week’s module, everyone designed the first stage of a unit, according to the format of Understanding by design. We each  presented the goals of the lesson in different forms, and asked guiding questions that students should know how to answer by the end of the unit. I really enjoyed reading others’ ideas of units, especially when I could relate to the units, and even able to possibly use them in the future, in addition to the one I wrote. This model of planning curriculum is very different from what I was thinking it would be. I have studied backwards planning before, and we would actually write assessments first. I like this way, of looking at goals of the unit first. It really helps a teacher focus their planning so that the students can benefit the most from a direct focus. I really like the idea of essential questions. You can even use them to focus each lesson, to give the students a goal by the end of one period.

I really liked looking at others’ stage 1. It gave me great ideas for what I could do in terms of what kinds of questions I can ask, how I can refocus ideas so that the attention is on why we are studying the material, or how the material relates to their lives. I really enjoyed creating my stage one because it helped me focus how I am going to present the first unit in my physical science class. I was able to come up with nice broad questions that can help guide the freshman into high school science, and how I can focus on why we study science in high school.

Observations

These past two weeks, I have had my principal and both vice principals observe my classrooms. I decided to have each administrator observe a different classroom. All the observations went fairly well, despite some students behavior issues. I was very happy to hear the positive things they had to say, as well as get feedback from them. As I have heard from my mentor, I need to work on my classroom management. The administrators gave me great advice on certain situations they saw to help control students’ behavior. They all said that I had great rapport with the students and they all seemed to respect me, even when students were giving me a hard time. One of the vice principals really liked my enthusiasm and how confident the students were to raise their hand, volunteer answers and ask questions. I even used some of the comments the vice principal gave to me about technology management in my observation with the principal and I think it made things go smoother, and showed what I expected from my students. The other vice principal commented on how great my questioning technique was, which is something I have been working on since the beginning of the year. I was really glad that everyone thought I did a great job, and that I have seen an improvement in my own teaching since the beginning of the year.

Planning for enhanced student learning

As I am planning the next concept the chemistry students must master (stoichiometry/ dimensional analysis), I am trying to determine the best type of activities to help the students understand and master the material. In the beginning of the year, my mentor taught the students basic stoichiometry, with simple metric conversions and other conversions the students should already have been familiar with (1 dozen = 12 pieces, etc). Now that the students have learned about the mole, we can incorporate the mole conversions into stoichiometry. The student had a hard time with dimensional analysis the first go around, and the mole is a hard concept for students to wrap their heads around because they cannot see it. I am trying to use small group work to help the students teach each other how to solve the problems. Sometimes, however, I find that the students are not motivated to learn the material unless I give them a quiz, or somthing similar. I am trying to think up ways that I can intrinsicly motivate the students without threatening them.

Ideas so far:

Showing students a map of paths to get between different units and having them use it to guide them to the correct conversion factors.

Using a demo (combustion of methane) and working through problems as a class- choosing students to give answers by drawing popsicle sticks- each students’ name on a popsicle stick.

Having students work in small groups to help each other learn how to solve one problem (each group with a different problem), then mixing the groups to have small groups of one student teaching the other three or four students how to complete their problem.

Motivators:

Telling the students that one of the problems they are solving will be on a single question quiz the next day.

Splitting students into groups and turning a worksheet  in to a competition- whoever completes the problem the fastest, and gets it right, wins.

Having students work as a team through a set of problems. If they get all of them right on the first time they get checked off, they get full points. If they get one wrong, they go back, fix the issue and they can get most of the points, etc.

Standard V Project

I completed a project for EDU 6613 that required an assessment, teaching to help students master the material, then another assessment on the same material. I learned a lot from this experience, and I am looking forward to using this strategy in my future teaching, especially because I can have students share their strategies for solving prolems with other students, because I find that studentss with a system tend to perform better on exams. My completed project can be accessed through the link below.

Standard V Project

Don’t forget the little things!

Yesterday I switched rooms with a colleague who needed lab stations (her current room does not have any). I was doing a review session with my students, and I thought- all I need is the doc cam and my transparencies, so I don’t need to worry about bringing anything extra. I’ve gotten so used to the stack of scratch paper under the doc cam in my room that I didn’t think about the fact that my mentor and I are the ones who put it there. Of course, there was no scratch paper in the other room,  no white board space and I only had two pieces of scratch paper in my binder. I also had students absent the day I gave out the review sheet, and all the extra copies were in my filing cabinets in my room. This was an easy fix, as I just sent a TA to get them (should have thought of this for scratch paper too, since I knew where the stack of scratch paper was!). I wish I could have written things out for the students, and I will know better next time to always check before hand for the little things, and try not to take things in my room for granted.

Flexibility

I really like planning out units before they start, day by day, so I know where I’m going with the material and when the exam will be. Sometimes I get a little overexcited about how much I think the students can get through. This happened today in my chemistry class. We are talking about chemical reactions, and how to recognize 4 different types of reactions. Today we started on predicting products fro a specific types of reaction (single replacement). The students each have what we call a “data book” that has reference tables, and common values that they can use for their homework, on quizzes and exams, etc. For predicting products of single replacement reactions, the students need to look up the reactivity of two of the elements in the reaction and the more reactive element is the one that bonds to the third element in reaction. This seemed very easy to me. I showed them the chart and how to use it, and then let them loose on a practice activity. Pretty much every single student gave me a “deer in the headlights” look. After about a minute, a few students raised their hands, and told me they had no idea what to do. I tried explaining one or two examples and then tried to get them to do the activity again. Most of them still did not have any idea what was going on. We did a few more examples until the end of the period. I went into the next class thinking that I just didn’t explain it well enough and tried to do a better job. I explained what the students should be looking for, how to use the chart and then we did a few examples. Then I tried to do the activity again, because I still thought they could do it. Again, I was wrong. I did a few more examples until the end of the period, as I had done in the previous period. I realized that I would have to start all over again and go much slower, but I wasn’t really sure how to explain what I had done today differently. I did not want to use the same explanation a second time if the students had not understood it the first time.

That afternoon we had a staff meeting (which I wasn’t looking foward to because I wanted to figure out what to do for single replacement reactions). One of the other science teachers is doing a book study on teaching with the brain in mind, and we did an activity about how we learn. Her activity (reading different pieces of information off boixes containing successively smaller boxes in groups- similar to Russian nesting dolls) reminded me that we learn better when things are broken up into smaller pieces, and we need time to digest each piece of information. I realized that I could do this in my chemistry class. First we could practice identifying the two elements to be switched. Then, we could practice looking up reactivities and determining which element would end up bonded to the third element. Finally, we could then practice determining whether the products match the reactants and if a reaction happened or not. I left the staff meeting feeling much better about my plan and looking foward to teaching the next day.

Being the “tough” teacher

Now I have fully taken over both of my mentors chemistry classes, and the students are quickly noticing a difference in our teaching styles. Apparently, we do a lot more in my classes, and I give them MUCH more homework than my mentor gives his other classes. They got really upset with me today when I had them grade their labs for correctness, instead of completion (as they thought was normal). I tell them that I am trying to help them do better on their exams, and the more work they do, the better they will learn the material. We will see how they feel after the large quiz tomorrow.

My mentor also wants our classes to be on the same schedule, and I have been going a little quicker than he has. Today we spent time grading their lab reports, to give them extra practice at drawing shapes of molecules, a HUGE portion of the quiz tomorrow. I am trying to be flexible with my schedule, so that we can stay on the same page.

Week 1/25-29/10

My biggest success this week was planning my next two chemistry units. I looked through all the old material my mentor gave me and put together two units n my own. My mentor made some additions (a few labs) but mostly I am fully in charge of planning and teaching. My students are doing very well, and understand the material the way I am teaching it, which makes me feel that I am doing very well. We have a large quiz tomorrow, so we will see if my students really understand everything.

My biggest struggle this past week was one particular student. He has an IEP, and is a big behavior issue. He has been having a lot of trouble in my class, and my mentor and I are just helping him not be a disruption to other students at this point. Twice last week, he walked out of my class because he did not want to do what we were doing. The first time was during the final, and he did not want to sit still for an hour. The second time, I took a few different pieces of food. He wouldn’t give it to me, so when I went to call the assistant principal (part of his behavior plan) he walked out. Two of the other days he was not in class because he was in the health room and with the counselor (this kid is a chronic liar, so he makes up issues, like “my leg hurts, so I couldn’t use the stairs”). This issue is really difficult because no one really has a solution, except keep writing him up for walking out and keep track of when he is absent. I am currently working with my mentor, his learning strategies (special needs) teacher and the psychologist on campus, but all we can really do right now is keep a log of what the students does.

One thing I would like to work on is writing up each little situation rather than writing up a whole summary at the end of the week. I find I miss things, and I feel that I wouldn’t miss as much if I write many short entries each week.

Week of 1/11-1/15

My biggest success this week was figuring out how to juggle full teaching responsibilities for biology and chemistry. At the beginning of the week, I actually went into biology 5^th period and realized I had not fully read the lab we were completing for the day. I know the gist of what the students were supposed to do, but I had read each step. I was trying to hurry the students through the pre-lab, making a data table and such, and I got frustrated when they were confused. Then I actually read the lab, and realized why they were getting confused. We went back, and talked about each part, and worked everything out. I definitely learned my lesson about needing to prepare for both my classes. It was much easier for me to prepare for chemistry because I am planning lessons on my own. Biology lessons are handed to me, so I lose track of remembering to look over what I am supposed to do. Over the course of the week I felt I did a much better job, planning for both classes every day, and always checking to make sure I know what I am doing when I walk in to class.

My biggest struggle this week was stress about next year. Our superintendent came to the faculty meeting to discuss the budget for next year, and possibilities of teachers getting pink slips. Pretty much, our district is in the same situation as last year, and I know there were a lot of current teachers affected by it. I know they are focusing on keeping current teachers, not hiring new people. The meeting made me very worried for next year. It sounds like job opportunities will be hard to come by, which was an extra stress added over the course of the week. My mentors and friends in the science department are trying to encourage me, saying “you never know what will happen” and that anything could happen between now and August (which would be when I would find out if there is a job opening). I am trying not to worry about next year right now because there really is nothing I can do about it.

Meta-Reflection: Standard T: Knowledge of Teaching

Over the summer, I felt prepared to fulfill this standard in my classes. In my SPU classes, we talked a lot about each of the pieces of the standard. We even came up with our own lesson plans for different ways to fulfill this standard. I developed two different lesson plans over the summer that both fulfilled this standard.

One was a lesson on the characteristics of life, involving a debate on whether Lord Voldemort should be considered alive. I used written and oral communication and individual, paired and group work. I paired the students as best I could with similar ability levels, so that each student could feel that they had a chance to win the debate. Each of formative, summative and self-assessment was used, as students needed use the characteristics of life as evidence of their learning, which means they can check themselves to see if they remember them, the teacher can tell how much students have learned by listening to individual discussions and debates and then at the end of the class, the teacher can see how much the class has learned in the final discussion where the class has to come to a collective decision. I felt like this debate helped the students internalize how we view the characteristics of life and how we apply them to organism today. I think this lesson would also be fun for high school age kids because Harry Potter is very popular in that age group. I feel like this lesson would be one of those that students have a lot of fun, and do not really realize that they are applying their knowledge. Problems I foresee would be students getting off topic, and not using the characteristics of life, but I feel like this could be taken care of with careful direction.

The second was a lesson in which the students needed to discover why we classify living organisms in a specific way by creating their own classification system of one shoe from each class member. This lesson mostly uses self and formative assessments, because it is an introductory activity. The one piece of assessment that could be considered summative would be applying their knowledge from note-taking on each category of the Linnaeus classification system to their own shoe-classification scheme (see the lesson plan). I think this lesson would be accessible to all students, because it is dealing with shoes, which they wear every day. This lesson seemed very easy for the female students, as they probably think about the different aspects of shoes when getting dressed in the morning. I tried to use many instructional strategies, including individual, group and full class work. Because we were classifying shoes, I think every ability level and cultural background could understand this activity. Students with language barriers would be put in a group with at least one other student that they are familiar with to help them understand everything going on. When I entered the classroom this quarter, I found there was a similar activity, classifying household items, already built in to the curriculum which accomplished the same thing.

This quarter, I have seen many lessons built into our biology curriculum that are informed by standards based assessment, intentionally planned and influenced by multiple strategies. Our lessons in biology and chemistry start with a warm up, which is either a formative assessment to gauge what students know about a specific concept before we teach, or see how well they learned the material from the day before. We intentionally organize our lessons in a sequence that makes sense, and make small changes to accommodate all of our students and their needs. We use many strategies, including individual, pair and group work, written and oral work, and using sentences and pictures to convey a concept. The biggest change this quarter however, has been the amount I’ve learned about how to implement technology into the classroom from my educational technology class.

In our classrooms as Skyline, I have access to smart boards, document cameras, and computers, all of which we (my mentors and I) use in our lessons on a daily basis. Students are given the opportunity to see these technologies in use, as well as use them individually for presentations. We also have access to active voters (multiple choice remotes to check student understanding using multiple choice questions) but have not had the chance to use them yet. Through this class, I was able to see many other forms of technology in the classroom, including how to use blogging in the classroom, ideas for projects that collaborate with other classrooms, and how to incorporate technologies that students may need to know how to use in the later careers. I came up with some other ideas for helping students really internalize the skills and concepts they learn in the classroom, such as using computer games and podcasts to give students the means to apply their knowledge to see how well they understand the concepts and skill they have been taught. These new technologies may require use at home, which cannot always assume that students have access to these technologies. We can get around this by creating in class activities that teach students how to use these technologies, which we have done in my classrooms this quarter. Even giving students an option to use technology could help inform all students about technology, as the presentation would show students how the technology can be used. I had two projects, Organelle Commercial and Salting a Slug, that did this, and in both cases, only one group chose to use technology in their project.

Finally, in my technology class we needed to develop a website to help other teachers incorporate technology into their secondary math and science classrooms. We put up several ideas of tools to use in the classroom and example lessons using those tools for each for each component of Tech EALR 1: Integration: Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems. We also developed a digital narrative that discussed our view of technology incorporation in to the classroom. We had to develop a script and use technology to put pictures together that made sense with our script. I feel like I understand this standard a little better than over summer, especially in the technology component. I am constantly learning more ways to fulfill this standard from my mentors. I know that I will learn more as I go through the year and I hope to keep adding to my experience long after I graduate from this program.