From Intern Checklist: I have met both the front office staff and a teacher from another department (English). My experience with the front office staff has been great - they are always very friendly and helpful, and one of the ladies appears to be retired and quite eccentric, which is always fun. She told me she was having a bad day because she found out Long John Silver's was closed - I wasn't quite sure what to say to that so I just kept a neutral grimace. The English teacher across the hall from me also has a student teacher, so I was pleased to find out I have a buddy close by. The teacher was very friendly when I met her and has been ever since.
Review and Plans: I had the flu this week, so I missed Tuesday through Thursday, but for the days I was there I could tell that the students were still working on their guided inquiry projects. They were supposed to finish them by Friday. Mr. Barnhart was gone at a track meet on Friday, so I decided to take charge of the class - with the substitute's permission. I told the classes to have their projects finalized by the end of the hour and ready to present on Monday, and to ask me any questions if they needed further guidance. Many groups were finished, so I texted Mr. Barnhart to see if I could let some groups present on Friday. He said that would be fine, but when I asked if any groups were willing to present in the first hour, no one wanted to do so even though most of the class seemed to be done (and were therefore playing games on their Macs). I asked them to do work for other classes if they were done, and most of them pulled out their chemistry homework. In the next couple of hours, most students were not finished with their projects and needed more time. I told them they had until the end of the hour, and all of the groups were able to finish or at least get everything planned to be finished by Monday.
a. One thing that surprised me in my two days this week was the difference in time it takes for each hour to complete a lesson. I thought it was mostly just dependent on the teacher - whether they are consistent enough to get each class on the same page and through a unit in the same amount of time. But, in the guided inquiry lesson, the classes all worked at a very different pace. I think this is something that each teacher learns to adapt to as they teach.
b. I have improved my understanding of guided inquiry - I think that it is a great learning tool, but that as it was implemented by my cooperating teacher, it can become too open-ended and lead the students into doing almost no learning. Some groups of students had one or two who were not doing anything but watch videos the entire class period. My cooperating teacher did little to get them to work - and I tried to encourage them to help their group memebers, but this was not much help. That was my biggest frustration this week.
c. My plan for improvement is to keep the spirit of guided inquiry by encouraging questions (maybe even having a question box for students on Google classroom, or even just a shoe box they can drop questions in), but also adding some more structure to my lessons than we had in the project. My goals for the week are to observe Mr. Barnhart in his "normal" class setting (not inquiry based) for a couple of classes and then to begin teaching on my own. I also hope to be free from illness this week :)
Aaron, we missed you this week in class, so I selfishly hope you are free from illness as well! I want to know more about this guided inquiry project. What roles are the students filling and what role have you and Mr. Barnhart filled throughout the project? Do you think the students are building their conceptual understanding through this project? If not, what are some ways that you would adjust the project to better fit your teaching style/goals?
ReplyDeleteBecca, I'm glad I'm feeling better and that I was able to see you at least in class this week - wish we were teaching at the same school.
DeleteThe students generally worked on a team of four with a couple of exceptions. We asked them to create a rubric of their own, but many of them were puzzled and most of them just didn't do it or bother to ask. It would have been nice to have them all give their input and then create a rubric that incorporated as many of their ideas as possible, but we ended up just making our own. That being said, we asked them to do four basic things (about one per group member, although no one strictly divided them up like that and most worked on multiple items). The four things were 1) research and write about a career you are interested in (architecture, art/photography, health/medicine, graphic design, or any other approved field - one group did tattoo artist, super cool), 2) call a professional in that field and interview them, asking specifically about how they use ratios and proportions on a daily basis, 3) make a real, physical visual aid that has to do with the project (we got some 3D printed scaled down versions of buildings, a painting a student created that was then digitized and scaled up, etc. - also cool stuff), and 4) writing two real-world problems based on their research in their field, using realistic numbers and proportions. The 5th portion of their grade came from their presentation, which they all had to contribute to and was generally about 5-8 minutes. Those are the student roles and expectations, probably more than you wanted to know.
Mr. Barnhart and I were basically guiding them whenever they had questions, and a lot of groups had questions. They needed some more direction at first, which Mr. Barhnart gave in my absence with the aforementioned rubric. I looked at it as a chance to get to know the students outside of the typical classroom (literally, because half the groups went outside to work every day) and to encourage students to explore something they were at least a little bit interested in.
Lastly, and most importantly, I think that students definitely built some conceptual understanding from doing the project. They were all doing problems (and writing realistic ones) that involved proportions, similarity, etc. However, if you asked them what the difference is between proportions and ratios (I did this), very few of them would be able to articulate it clearly. I think in order to remedy this, if I were to do this lesson again, I would have them do some research on both the raw mathematics involved and the particular field's applications of the math instead of just the latter.
I second Rebecca's point about missing you in class and hoping you are illness free. :) Your absence from your field placement (as well as Eric W.'s this week) make me wonder about the ways in we think about a few things like: (1) our self care, (2) expectations for students, in terms of behavior and curriculum, when we are out, and (3) adaptation of lessons/experiences.
ReplyDeleteDr. Brugar, I will respond to each of your points individually. 1) Before I got the flu, I washed my hands a pretty normal amount and did not use Clorox or hand sanitizer. This week I have been using Clorox wipes and washing/wiping my hands with a frequency that probably borders on psychotic. I'm now a big fan of those "Hey Flu Bug, Don't Bug Me" signs. I also think that part of the reason I got the flu may have been that I was not getting enough sleep - I got about 6 hours my first few days on a good night. Now I'm shooting for at least 7, more like 8. To my colleagues still reading this, take some sort of immunity boosting stuff like emergen-c. I think it's important to think about very specific things we can do to take care of ourselves physically and mentally. We need time to rest and unplug from teaching - however that looks for each individual person.
Delete2) In terms of behavior, I would expect my students to show the same respect to a substitute as they would to me. I would make sure the substitute knows our classroom rules and/or norms and the general consequences for violating those norms before beginning the day. In terms of content, I LOVE the idea of a flipped classroom (and with permission from Mr. Barnhardt I will hopefully get to put some of those together this semester) - so that is an ideal thing for students to access while I am away. If I don't have videos of my own to share, I could have students watch an online resource.
3) I'm assuming you mean adaptations to lessons while we are gone. I would think that ideally very few adaptations are necessary. I would assign something for a substitute that is very student-driven, even more so than usual. A guided discussion if the substitute feels comfortable doing so, or a group activity in which the sub checks on the groups periodically if not.
Aaron! Definitely missed seeing you in the hallway during school, so super glad you are feeling better! I'm also a bit interested in the guided inquiry project because my teacher has informed me that her students will also have to do a project sometime after spring break. So I am interested in how you answer Rebecca's questions. Also we kind of talked about this the other day, but I would definitely agree, that each classroom has a different learning pace and it's important to realize the differences to better teach each class. However, the teachers in my corner all plan their tests so that they're on the same day. So even if one class is definitely not ready, there is no way to push the test back or else they'll be off from the other classes. I think there has to be some structure to make sure each class gets through all of the material, but it does seem really rigid. How would you feel about this, or handle the situation if your testing days were based on how long the majority of classes would need to learn material?
ReplyDeleteNatalie, I would tend to disagree with a hard deadline for a test date. I know that there are good reasons for having every teacher in a subject agree to a particular test date, but I think in some cases it may be unjust to students. Every student is different, and every class is different. Some classes are ready to take the exam before the test date, and some classes need a little more time. Because of this natural inconsistency, I think it is more reasonable to have a range of dates within which you must complete the test rather than one fixed date.
DeleteHope you're feeling better! You mentioned that you were surprised by the time difference. How has that impacted (or will impact) your lesson/unit writing?
ReplyDeleteI am feeling much better, thanks! I think I will try to write lessons where I can finish about 5-7 minutes before the class period ends. That way, I have already built in the time it takes to answer question, transition from different activities, or refocus students who are distracted. In the one non-project lesson I led, I had a very difficult time finishing within the period - I was fortunate to have the reading time afterward so I could go a minute or two over time. As I teach, I'm starting to get a better grasp of how long something I write down on paper will actually take the students. For example, solving three problems with the Pythagorean theorem for the first time took most of my students about 5-7 minutes.
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