ED 645 - Week 5

Thanksgiving break... or the days leading up to it! I now understand the importance of break! The students were on the crazy side this week with the anticipation of a few days off. I've personally enjoyed this break, taking time to focus on family and recharge myself. It's my understanding that the kids can be a bit off as we approach Christmas and having some time to recoup will be important in the upcoming weeks.

One activity we did in classes this week was coloring the families of the periodic table. The students seemed to really enjoy coloring. What was surprising was the amount of time it took students to color their table. It's amazing to me how timing can be so different from what is originally planned in my lesson plan. I feel like I'm always getting caught up in timing, either planning too much or too little time. I still feel like my timing is a work in progress and I think it would be more beneficial for me to reflect more on this aspect of my lesson plans. I know this is something that develops through practice, I just wish it would happen sooner!

Finally, it's still strange to me to see my students outside of school. This doesn't happen often as I live in another state from my students. This weekend I spent time in Lewes with my family. We decided to go the boardwalk for an outing. While there, I ran into one of my students! I expect to run into students when I am in my school zone but 3 hours away is a little different! I'm sure this is something to get used to as well.

ED 645 - week 4

This week my students completed another lab. This lab involved a flame test. Students were asked to burn various metal solutions and observe the colors that were produced. Students had to adhere to strict safety practices and had to use their observation skills during this lab. I like activities like this because it stretches the students thinking and gets them multitasking without them realizing it. It is important for students to develop these skills and it's more of a success when it happens without realization.

When I chose to do this lab, I was a bit apprehensive. My students often have difficulty following directions in class. Adding open flames to that equation seems like a disaster in the making. However, I am always pleasantly surprised on lab days. My students are more aware and on point, probably because there is a perceived threat to their self. What was most surprising was that the class I anticipated performing the worst, performed the best. In fact, they were the most engaged class during the class period.

After the lab was complete, the plan was to watch three videos. These videos showed reactivity trends on the periodic table and served as an attention grabber for the new topic. With this class in particular, they watched the first two videos, actively engaged, and asked/answered various questions about the video content. At the end of one of the videos, a students saw a video on the side under suggestions. Since they were so engaged thus far, I honored his request and watched that video next. It was a bit off topic with what we were learning but it allowed me to teach other important content to them. The video showed a man making a hypothesis, test it out, prove it false, and then provide proof for why he was wrong. We were able to shift into a discussion of how science really works and that often times a beginning thought is false and through experimentation the truth can be discovered. On the way out, I told them how great they did. I am attempting to make a greater effort to recognize appropriate behaviors and not just point out the wrong ones. This can encourage students to make the better choices and also reaffirms my expectations of them.

ED 645 - Week 3

I have never been so glad to see Friday! This week has been extremely crazy and I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend to catch up on grading and decompress from the weeks events. The week began with the anticipation of the election on Tuesday, students have been chatting away about that on Monday. On Wednesday, I returned to work to students in a whirlwind of emotions. Some happy with the election results, some not so much. Although I only teach science, I felt it was important to allow students some time to discuss their points. My goal with this was to get the chatter done so that we could focus on the content and learn new things. I allowed students about ten minutes to chat about their feelings and was pleasantly surprised that they remained calm and did not attack each other. I think this was successful because the students were able to have their discussions on something that was important and relevant and then were able to come back together and focus on the content.

We began a new topic this week, electron configuration, and I was really hit with the reality that this topic is extremely difficult to understand. This is one of the times I have been blinded by my knowledge and really needed to take a step back when we discussed it in class. One activity that the other chemistry teacher provided me was really good and the kids seemed to like it and it definitely helped them understand the basic concepts. After the second class period of looking at this topic, for some of my classes, a lot of light bulbs went off and students really started to understand. My only hope is that this understanding translates into their assessments, which I have found is not always the case. A lot of times I think this is because they hear quiz/test/assessment and anxiety kicks in.

Finally, I witnessed my first fight of the year and it happened to be between two students that I teach. This has really effected me and I am completely heartbroken. I am heartbroken because these kids live this way, seeing people around them resort to physical violence as a way to settle problems. I'm also heartbroken because these kids actually resort to this behavior to solve problems. I worry about their futures and hope that they are able to mature into adults that no longer see violence as a means to an end. In the end, both students lose out and are no better off then when they started. I honestly think this was the hardest part of my week and hope that I do not have to witness this type of behavior in the future.

ED 645 - Week 2

Another new week, another observation. Sometimes I feel like I am in a fishbowl and people are just staring at me anxiously waiting for my next move. This observation was another successful observation that brought praise from my mentor teacher. She noted that my level of questioning had increased and included both level 2 and level 3 questions. She also liked that I allowed productive questions from students to lead discussion. Additionally, she noted that my level of content knowledge was apparent because I explain information beyond the PowerPoint, using the PowerPoint as a presentation method not the presentation itself.

Another success was something called gradual release. This is something that I had never heard of before but after explanation, I think it is a great method for teaching. Gradual release means that we complete examples as a group, then students work together on some examples, and finally students complete the activity independently. I really like this way of scaffolding information because not only does it model to students what to do, it also gets them working collaboratively and building skills that they need to be successful.

Something else that I am trying to do more regularly is to ensure that I use my objective and provide my students with an agenda. The craziness of first quarter has gone away and I am starting to feel more comfortable within my classroom to refine procedures. While I have almost always had an objective posted, often times I have forgotten to read it and connect to it. In doing this, my students seem to better understand what is expected of them and are able to connect the material to a purpose. Every class I start with reading the objectives. As we transition from one item to the next, I point out what objective was covered and what objective will be worked on next. At the end of class, time permitting, I ask the a student to read an objective and attempt to elicit response from students on how we obtained that objective. Additionally, I have been reviewing the materials/worksheets for the day and letting them know what will be collected and how it will be graded. I do this in the beginning of class and feel that this helps keep my students focused. The expectations are clear and less questions are asked over time.

One thing that I had issues with during this lesson I was observed was pacing. Something I thought would take much longer didn't and I didn't have an activity ready to go. I want to make sure my lesson plans include additional activities that eliminate issues that arise from improper time management of a lesson.