I have grown a lot more this quarter than I really expected to. I have so much left to learn and to consider in order to figure out my views on different aspects of education. My largest area of growth this quarter has been in my view of what students should actually learn in school. I came in to teaching wanting to share my knowledge of science with students, and try to excite them about the science in the world around them. I started off the year trying to make sure I covered everything in the curriculum and make sure the students learned it well. I did want my students to learn how to collaborate and communicate with others, and to learn how to be successful in a society, my classroom for example. These were secondary however to mastering the concepts in the curriculum. After taking the post test, I realize how much I have grown in this area. Standards provide a basis for the concepts the students are meant to master in any given class, but teachers can still give students something to learn without them. I think now that it is more important for students to learn how to function in a larger society besides themselves and their friend group. In high school, many students isolate themselves into small groups that do not socialize with anyone else. In my class, I ask them to break free of those cliques and be a part of a larger class where everyone works together towards a common goal. I do want the students to learn some curriculum, and maybe even be a little more interested in the subject I taught them (biology or chemistry). I want students to be more informed, so that they can go into the world and be educated enough to make informed decisions, or be able to do enough research to make an informed decision. If I can excite even one student to go further in my subject, I will have succeeded. If I can get students to understand more about the world and how it works, even if it just catches their interest, I have succeeded. I want my students to be prepared for the world. Whether they learn all of the biology or chemistry I taught them over the year is secondary to them learning how to work with others and becoming aware of how to function in a group society.
Tag Archive: Professional Development
The Professional Development Plan helps a teacher determine how they are going to keep growing as a professional. I drafted mine today, but I plan to develop it a lot more as my career progresses.
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.
This is the standard I feel I have only just scratched the surface on. In my internship, I am quickly learning everything I must do, by law, for my students, especially my IEP and 504 students. I am finding ways to easily use all of the students’ accommodations with a lot of help from my mentors, even if it is as easy as making a copy of the notes I use in lectures, or letting them take an exam in their Learning Strategies class. I feel that these also create a professional setting between me and other faculty members and parents. The students benefit from this as well because they can see that the people around them, including their teachers, want them to succeed.
Different ethical issues have come up this quarter, and I feel that I have done a pretty good job of dealing with them. One incident involved a student drawing something inappropriate on a student’s poster from a previous period. I had to have a conversation about respect in that period, which was really hard because I could not believe I had a student that could be so rude. I have since been able to control myself a lot better, and not gotten so angry when things like this happen, which is good because I feel like I can deal with them better when I am in control of my emotions. Unfortunately, I have had to talk about respect towards others multiple times in this same class. Another incident was between one student and a group of students. The group was bullying the one student, making fun of him because he is different and because he reacts a lot, which is exactly what the group wants to see. It is very disruptive, which means we get through less material in class as well. I had to bring up this issue with the entire class because most of the class was involved. We again had to discuss what it means to respect others and their property and talk about how we can respect other classmates. Another day, I was absent and they had my mentor as a sub. I have been teaching this class since the beginning, so the students are not used to having my mentor as a teacher. They were very disrespectful towards her, and were not treating her how they would normally treat me. I had to have words with them again, and this time made them write her an apology letter. The next time she subbed for me, the class was better behaved.
I feel that it would be extremely difficult to be a teacher and not be reflective about your teaching. Every time I give a lesson, I always think about how I could have done it better, or what needs to be changed, or how I could have prepared the students better for the lesson. I think my whole blog is an artifact for this component, because it shows how much I think about my students and how to make learning easier or more fun for them. It is very easy to get ideas when you collaborate with your peers. I try to ask everyone in my department for ideas, so I can get different ideas and put together something that works for me.
Our biology department works collaboratively in our entire curriculum. We all have the same materials, same activities, even the same exams. We collaboratively go over what we are doing at least bi-weekly, if not weekly, to make sure that we are all on the same page. We go over exams, and compare ideas for changes to the exams, and then send around the final copy. We have even had meetings discussing specific questions on the exam, and how we grade them to ensure that we are making every students have an equal opportunity to succeed.
Our whole faculty at Skyline is participating in a study of the brain and how it affects learning by doing a book study of Teaching with the Brain in Mind. We began with a introduction to the book during the week before school started and did a dissection of a sheep brain, to introduce the faculty to the parts of the brain and to show them what an actual brain looks like. This prompted the biology department to do a short presentation on the brain on the first day of classes, which showed the students how the brain is affected by learning. We have had a few more presentations on the how the brain is affected by learning, the teenage brain, how the teenage brain is affected by learning, and other related topics. I am looking forward to the continuation of this series in following faculty meetings.
Although I do not have much concrete evidence for this standard, I still feel like I am learning a lot through my experience at Skyline. I hope to keep increasing my knowledge as the year continues.
This year at Skyline, the faculty are doing a book study on “Teaching with the Brain in Mind,” led by one of the biology teachers. We read portions of the book and periodically meet to learn about what we read through hands-on activites. For example, during the week prior to the start of school, we had a presentation on the introduction of the book and then dissected a sheep brain, so we could see the different parts (lobes). Next session we will be discussing the teenage brain, and how learning works in their brains. I am slowly expanding my knowledge so that I can use what I have learned to be a more effective teacher.
I started meetings with the Skyline faculty this Wednesday. I did not realize how much stuff there is to do besides planning for the start of the year. The coolest thing about this week was one of the biology teacher’s presentation on the brain. We are going to be doing a book study on “Teaching with the Brain in Mind” this year, and the first of many presentations was Friday. We read a chapter about the recent discoveries about the brain, many of which I did not know. The most interesting one to me was that we can actually change the expression of our genes and that we can grow new brain cells! (very cool ) Then, we actually got to dissect a sheep brain. Although I have dissected many things before, I had not dissected a sheep’s brain, so it was a new and exciting experience. My mentor and I are now doing an activity involving sheep’s brains on the first day of classes, which will be very cool for the students. I think this study will really help in my professional growth as a teacher, and I am looking forward to the rest of the year.
