I thought I would take a minute to write that I am beginning my action research data recording this week. I am currently reviewing the inquiry-based lab that I will be using this week on fingerprinting. This will be the first inquiry lab that my forensics classes will be participating in. I am looking forward to observing their reactions to this approach. I plan to use my reflections on this week's lessons to help prepare the rest of the inquiry-based labs that we will do throughout the semester.
I began the action research process this week by presenting my first inquiry-based lab experience to my forensics students. The lab was on fingerprinting and required the students to "solve a crime" by developing a way to life and compare a criminal's fingerprints to those of 5 different suspects. I wasn't surprised by their initial reactions. Although we had been learning about the basics of fingerprint, they seemed confused when they realized that they were going to have to figure out a way to lift a set of prints on their own. Once they wrote a procedure and were presented with materials, it was exciting to see them investigate using their own ideas. They asked a lot of good questions and made some good discoveries, not only about fingerprinting, but about the process of studying science. As a whole they did very well on the quiz, including the critical thinking questions that were included. I am trying to incorporate more and more of a focus on critical thinking into the class in general. Hopefully the next unit that we study will go even better! I think that the process of inquiry becomes easier with practice and experience. I hope that my students will take away more than just a knowledge of forensics from this class, but also an understanding of the scientific process!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Week 1 Reflection
Wow! I can't believe it's Friday of week 1 already! This was the week that I dreaded and looked forward to all summer. I am very happy to say that it definitely exceeded my expectations! I have truly enjoyed being in the school again with all of my students and fellow teachers. Things have been a little crazy so far with students still working out their schedules, but it looks like I have some really good groups of kids. In every semester of the program so far I have ended up having only freshman. This year I have the pleasure of teaching juniors and seniors and it is definitely a change! I think i'm going to really enjoy this age group.
My anatomy and physiology students didn't seem too scared of everything that I had for them on the first day. I was afraid they would be overwhelmed by it all, but there wasn't too much complaining! I'm not sure how many students i'm going to end up with in this class, but I had 32 today. After an entire year of classes of 16-17 last year this is a going to be a big adjustment for me. I am hoping that sticking to routines and class procedures will help to minimize any chaos. I started using folders for them that they keep in the classroom and use to turn in and pick up their assignments. I've only used them to pass out information so far, but it does seem to cut down on "down time" at the beginning of class when I don't have to take the time to pass out or collect papers from 32 students. I am still a little worried about my own knowledge of the content for this class, but i'm going to keep reading the chapters and trying my best to learn it so that I can effectively teach it.
The forensics classes have also been going really well. Most of the students seem excited to be taking this class and find the topics that we will be covering interesting. I have big classes of 25-26 with these groups as well but it hasn't been an issue yet. There are a lot of opportunities to teach this class using hands-on and interactive activities. I hope to plan of a lot of activities that will keep the students motivated and engaged. I am conducting my action research with forensics students and I am working on preparing some inquiry-based labs that I will be collecting data from. Several of my forensics students also have my anatomy class or have been in a class of mine in previous semesters. I am trying really hard to learn all of their names because I think it's an important way to show them that I care.
I am also getting involved at the school by co-leading the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with Mrs. Barto. We have a really good group of students involved in FCA and hopefully I can help their club to grow and be successful this year. It also means waking up earlier on Thursdays, but I'll just have an extra cup of coffee that morning :-) The first football game was tonight and it was fun to see everyone preparing for the season. I hope to make it to some games this year to see my students in band, cheering, and football. Overall, I think this could end up being my favorite semester of college yet! Sarah was right about it being the "payoff" for all of the hard work that we've put in during the last four years. I know it will still be a lot of work, but I enjoy putting in the time if I know that my students will benefit from it. More to come soon- Happy Friday!
My anatomy and physiology students didn't seem too scared of everything that I had for them on the first day. I was afraid they would be overwhelmed by it all, but there wasn't too much complaining! I'm not sure how many students i'm going to end up with in this class, but I had 32 today. After an entire year of classes of 16-17 last year this is a going to be a big adjustment for me. I am hoping that sticking to routines and class procedures will help to minimize any chaos. I started using folders for them that they keep in the classroom and use to turn in and pick up their assignments. I've only used them to pass out information so far, but it does seem to cut down on "down time" at the beginning of class when I don't have to take the time to pass out or collect papers from 32 students. I am still a little worried about my own knowledge of the content for this class, but i'm going to keep reading the chapters and trying my best to learn it so that I can effectively teach it.
The forensics classes have also been going really well. Most of the students seem excited to be taking this class and find the topics that we will be covering interesting. I have big classes of 25-26 with these groups as well but it hasn't been an issue yet. There are a lot of opportunities to teach this class using hands-on and interactive activities. I hope to plan of a lot of activities that will keep the students motivated and engaged. I am conducting my action research with forensics students and I am working on preparing some inquiry-based labs that I will be collecting data from. Several of my forensics students also have my anatomy class or have been in a class of mine in previous semesters. I am trying really hard to learn all of their names because I think it's an important way to show them that I care.
I am also getting involved at the school by co-leading the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with Mrs. Barto. We have a really good group of students involved in FCA and hopefully I can help their club to grow and be successful this year. It also means waking up earlier on Thursdays, but I'll just have an extra cup of coffee that morning :-) The first football game was tonight and it was fun to see everyone preparing for the season. I hope to make it to some games this year to see my students in band, cheering, and football. Overall, I think this could end up being my favorite semester of college yet! Sarah was right about it being the "payoff" for all of the hard work that we've put in during the last four years. I know it will still be a lot of work, but I enjoy putting in the time if I know that my students will benefit from it. More to come soon- Happy Friday!
Week 2 Reflection
I would like to start this entry by reporting that it is almost the end of my 2nd week and I still love teaching! I have learned so much in only 2 weeks of this internship but I think the best part is that it is reassuring me that I made the right career choice. I honestly cannot imagine a more fulfilling or enjoyable way to spend my days than with these students. I have the pleasure of working with such a wonderful and very diverse group of kids. I love getting to know them: their interests, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses.
I also truly enjoy seeing them learn. I never thought I would be so excited to have a student correctly explain a negative feedback system or be able to draw a bunny rabbit and label it using correct body terminology! Forensics has also been great because I am learning right along with them. There are so many interesting topics to learn about and the students seem to enjoy it.
This week in forensics we did our first hands-on lab activity with the "white mystery powder" lab. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they followed lab safety procedures! After I presented them with the mystery scenario they seemed excited to begin testing their substances. They all worked together really well and allowing them to choose their own groups did not end up causing any problems. While they worked in the lab I walked around and asked them questions to keep them thinking about the reactions they were seeing so that they weren't simply going through the steps. When they began testing their "mystery" powder they were excited about their findings. I loved seeing them achieve such a sense of satisfaction when they figured out the crime.
On a side note- I have had several students this year mention to me that they need to do well this semester and that this is the first year they have ever really "tried hard" at school. I know junior and senior year can be challenging, especially with a lot of AP courses. I have some students in forensics who have never really done well in or enjoyed a science class. Many of them find this class interesting and are hoping to keep doing well so that it will help their grades. I have offered up one-on-one help to students anytime they need it, and with any class. There are a lot of pressures on them at this age and I can't treat my class like it is the only thing that they have to think about. Sometimes I feel like all they need is to feel like they have someone on their side. I would love to see them all achieve to their highest potential, even though this is unrealistic. I just hope to keep developing positive relationships with my students so that they will feel comfortable enough to come to me with any problems or questions that they have.
Anatomy and Physiology went well this week overall. I think I am finally learning how to effectively lecture, which is something that I was struggling with in the beginning. I didn't want to just read off the slides, and now I think I am learning how to prepare better. I have started reviewing with them at the beginning of each class and I think it is going to help them a lot to see the same things over and over again. Right now some students "zone out" during the reviews, but I think when they start studying for the test they'll realize how much of the material they've been "studying" at the start of class all week.
Well i'm out of time right now but I'll be back with more thoughts soon!
2 days til GAME DAY! lET'S GOOO MOUNTAINEERS!
I also truly enjoy seeing them learn. I never thought I would be so excited to have a student correctly explain a negative feedback system or be able to draw a bunny rabbit and label it using correct body terminology! Forensics has also been great because I am learning right along with them. There are so many interesting topics to learn about and the students seem to enjoy it.
This week in forensics we did our first hands-on lab activity with the "white mystery powder" lab. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they followed lab safety procedures! After I presented them with the mystery scenario they seemed excited to begin testing their substances. They all worked together really well and allowing them to choose their own groups did not end up causing any problems. While they worked in the lab I walked around and asked them questions to keep them thinking about the reactions they were seeing so that they weren't simply going through the steps. When they began testing their "mystery" powder they were excited about their findings. I loved seeing them achieve such a sense of satisfaction when they figured out the crime.
On a side note- I have had several students this year mention to me that they need to do well this semester and that this is the first year they have ever really "tried hard" at school. I know junior and senior year can be challenging, especially with a lot of AP courses. I have some students in forensics who have never really done well in or enjoyed a science class. Many of them find this class interesting and are hoping to keep doing well so that it will help their grades. I have offered up one-on-one help to students anytime they need it, and with any class. There are a lot of pressures on them at this age and I can't treat my class like it is the only thing that they have to think about. Sometimes I feel like all they need is to feel like they have someone on their side. I would love to see them all achieve to their highest potential, even though this is unrealistic. I just hope to keep developing positive relationships with my students so that they will feel comfortable enough to come to me with any problems or questions that they have.
Anatomy and Physiology went well this week overall. I think I am finally learning how to effectively lecture, which is something that I was struggling with in the beginning. I didn't want to just read off the slides, and now I think I am learning how to prepare better. I have started reviewing with them at the beginning of each class and I think it is going to help them a lot to see the same things over and over again. Right now some students "zone out" during the reviews, but I think when they start studying for the test they'll realize how much of the material they've been "studying" at the start of class all week.
Well i'm out of time right now but I'll be back with more thoughts soon!
2 days til GAME DAY! lET'S GOOO MOUNTAINEERS!
Week 3 Reflection
Well, as we near the end of week 3 (and the official start of Steeler's football season!...) I have to say that I have learned a lot during this short week!
I gave my first anatomy and physiology exam this week. I felt like I couldn't have possibly prepared my students more for this test. After the review game on Tuesday though, I realized that no matter what I did, many of them just will not put in the necessary effort to do well in this class. Students had a chance to review for the test and earn bonus points on their score and many of them didn't bother to pay any attention at all. I definitely showed in their scores! I ended up with 6 students who received each letter grade (A,B,C,D &F). Nice and balanced I guess, but I am really disappointed that there were not more A's and B's! I think that they now realize that simply paying enough attention to guess is not going to be enough in this class. They will have to truly understand the material in order to answer the questions. This truly is a college-level course and many of them are not used to the studying that is necessary. I have offered help many times so I just hope that the students who need it will take advantage of it!
Forensics was also interesting this week. We had some disruptions throughout the week and we didn't end up getting through as much material as I had initially planned for. I am still adjusting to how much time is needed to do lab activities and in-class work. Luckily, this won't be a problem because I can easily adjust the forensics schedule to fit the pace of the class.
Overall, I can tell this week that the "excitement" of starting school is dying off for most students. That initial motivation is already starting to disappear as everyone falls into their day-to-day routines.
I hope that I can keep my students interested and excited about my classes. I also hope that as they are faced with challenges, they feel as if they can come to me for help. I truly want them all to be as successful as possible. I am continually evaluating my practices as a teacher every day...even every class period. I can tell that I am going to have many invaluable experiences this year because there have been so many already
I gave my first anatomy and physiology exam this week. I felt like I couldn't have possibly prepared my students more for this test. After the review game on Tuesday though, I realized that no matter what I did, many of them just will not put in the necessary effort to do well in this class. Students had a chance to review for the test and earn bonus points on their score and many of them didn't bother to pay any attention at all. I definitely showed in their scores! I ended up with 6 students who received each letter grade (A,B,C,D &F). Nice and balanced I guess, but I am really disappointed that there were not more A's and B's! I think that they now realize that simply paying enough attention to guess is not going to be enough in this class. They will have to truly understand the material in order to answer the questions. This truly is a college-level course and many of them are not used to the studying that is necessary. I have offered help many times so I just hope that the students who need it will take advantage of it!
Forensics was also interesting this week. We had some disruptions throughout the week and we didn't end up getting through as much material as I had initially planned for. I am still adjusting to how much time is needed to do lab activities and in-class work. Luckily, this won't be a problem because I can easily adjust the forensics schedule to fit the pace of the class.
Overall, I can tell this week that the "excitement" of starting school is dying off for most students. That initial motivation is already starting to disappear as everyone falls into their day-to-day routines.
I hope that I can keep my students interested and excited about my classes. I also hope that as they are faced with challenges, they feel as if they can come to me for help. I truly want them all to be as successful as possible. I am continually evaluating my practices as a teacher every day...even every class period. I can tell that I am going to have many invaluable experiences this year because there have been so many already
Week 4 Reflection
This has definitely been the busiest week yet! With somewhere to be almost every evening immediately after school, I barely got home in time to shower and get things together for the next day before falling asleep! On the other hand, I feel like I gave some of my best lectures yet this week. I am starting to get into a routine and I am becoming more and more comfortable with my classes every day.
I spent some time reflecting on what felt different about the way I taught this week compared to past weeks and even semesters. I realized that I am beginning to plan my lessons by deciding on the end result that I want to achieve first and then planning how to best make it happen. Instead of focusing first on the "activity" or what the students will actually be "doing" during class, I am starting to focus first on what I want them to learn or take away from it. I have started better preparing myself for the lectures in both classes by reading and studying the material ahead of time. This has helped my confidence during the lessons. My biggest concern is still ensuring that I can present them with the material that they need to learn in a way that will be effective. I worry that I won't understand something well enough to know how to teach it. By taking it one day and one lesson at a time, I am hoping that I can continue learning along with them the best that I can.
Overall, I am really enjoying my experiences in the school! I am still getting used to certain routines, such as taking attendance and recording and posting grades to Edline. These are simple things, but they are things that have never been my responsibility before so I am working to make part of my routine. My host teacher has also been wonderful so far. I am learning so much just from watching his lectures and teaching strategies with the AP Biology students. I am also very fortunate that he feels it is important to be organized because I am learning a lot about how to organize my classroom and how to handle everyday issues that must be delt with. He is very understanding about the fact that this is a learning process for me, and I enjoy hearing constructive criticisms and suggestions.
I started on my action research this week so I will write more under that topic! Hopefully the week ahead isn't quite as exhausting! At least the Mountaineers are looking good against Auburn! LET"S GOOOO!
I spent some time reflecting on what felt different about the way I taught this week compared to past weeks and even semesters. I realized that I am beginning to plan my lessons by deciding on the end result that I want to achieve first and then planning how to best make it happen. Instead of focusing first on the "activity" or what the students will actually be "doing" during class, I am starting to focus first on what I want them to learn or take away from it. I have started better preparing myself for the lectures in both classes by reading and studying the material ahead of time. This has helped my confidence during the lessons. My biggest concern is still ensuring that I can present them with the material that they need to learn in a way that will be effective. I worry that I won't understand something well enough to know how to teach it. By taking it one day and one lesson at a time, I am hoping that I can continue learning along with them the best that I can.
Overall, I am really enjoying my experiences in the school! I am still getting used to certain routines, such as taking attendance and recording and posting grades to Edline. These are simple things, but they are things that have never been my responsibility before so I am working to make part of my routine. My host teacher has also been wonderful so far. I am learning so much just from watching his lectures and teaching strategies with the AP Biology students. I am also very fortunate that he feels it is important to be organized because I am learning a lot about how to organize my classroom and how to handle everyday issues that must be delt with. He is very understanding about the fact that this is a learning process for me, and I enjoy hearing constructive criticisms and suggestions.
I started on my action research this week so I will write more under that topic! Hopefully the week ahead isn't quite as exhausting! At least the Mountaineers are looking good against Auburn! LET"S GOOOO!
Week 5 Reflection
This week has flown by! I am happily getting more and more comfortable with teaching every day. I am becoming much better at lesson planning and preparing for classes in general. Even the best laid plans go wrong and it has been really important to remain flexible from day to day and class to class.
In forensics this week we covered handwriting analysis and ink chromatography. I found that students liked analyzing their own handwriting to see what it said about their personalities. After the first class I realized that I needed better examples and quickly adjusted for the rest of the day. I feel bad that the first group of the day is always a "test run" of sorts. I feel like the last class of the day almost always goes the best because I have practiced all day. This was also somewhat the case with our chromatography lab today. My host teacher helped me to change plans quickly when my morning "test runs" didn't work out and it was very much appreciated! He's good at thinking on his feet and can almost always help me with last minute decisions and changes. I guess this is something that comes with experience. I was initially afraid that the lab would be too complicated for many of my students, but they actually responded very well to the challenge. I think I may actually be making the class too easy for many of them and they become bored and stop paying attention. I'm going to try and challenge them more with the topics and the types of activities that they participate in.
Anatomy was interesting this week. I gave their 2nd test today and, which many students improved, many grades also dropped from the last exam. It was frustrating to see that so many students still couldn't answer some of these questions on topics that we have covered for weeks now. I felt like I really prepared them for this test. I think tomorrow I am going to try assigning seats. Too much talking and not paying attention takes place during class. While they might hate me for it at first, I think that they will benefit from it in the long run. We'll see how it goes and i'll report back next week! We are also starting a longer, more difficult chapter next week so I hope that I am able to learn everything that I need to successfully teach it. At least the weekend is almost here and I will have some prep time! (and family visiting time this week!)
That's all for now :-)
In forensics this week we covered handwriting analysis and ink chromatography. I found that students liked analyzing their own handwriting to see what it said about their personalities. After the first class I realized that I needed better examples and quickly adjusted for the rest of the day. I feel bad that the first group of the day is always a "test run" of sorts. I feel like the last class of the day almost always goes the best because I have practiced all day. This was also somewhat the case with our chromatography lab today. My host teacher helped me to change plans quickly when my morning "test runs" didn't work out and it was very much appreciated! He's good at thinking on his feet and can almost always help me with last minute decisions and changes. I guess this is something that comes with experience. I was initially afraid that the lab would be too complicated for many of my students, but they actually responded very well to the challenge. I think I may actually be making the class too easy for many of them and they become bored and stop paying attention. I'm going to try and challenge them more with the topics and the types of activities that they participate in.
Anatomy was interesting this week. I gave their 2nd test today and, which many students improved, many grades also dropped from the last exam. It was frustrating to see that so many students still couldn't answer some of these questions on topics that we have covered for weeks now. I felt like I really prepared them for this test. I think tomorrow I am going to try assigning seats. Too much talking and not paying attention takes place during class. While they might hate me for it at first, I think that they will benefit from it in the long run. We'll see how it goes and i'll report back next week! We are also starting a longer, more difficult chapter next week so I hope that I am able to learn everything that I need to successfully teach it. At least the weekend is almost here and I will have some prep time! (and family visiting time this week!)
That's all for now :-)
Week 6 Reflection
As we begin the 6th week of school, I am making a few changes based on all that I have learned so far. I still have too many students struggling in Anatomy and I think that it is because they aren't paying attention during class. It is a very big class and a lot of them have friends in there so they end up talking too much. I decided to try assigning seats, which is something that I should have done on day 1. Yesterday they gave me a hard time about why they had to have new seats or why they were being "treated like children" but it honestly didn't bother me because they need it. All of my classes need a better policy for asking to leave the room because it is becoming distracting. At the start of my afternoon classes it seems like everyone needs to use the bathroom or get a water. I understand that they are coming from lunch or band practice, but it is becoming too much of a hassle at the start of class. So, I started this week by explaining a new policy. When they come into the room and need to leave for any reason they are to take the bee and go. If both bees are gone, they must wait for one to return. If they need to use the bathroom during classtime they can just get up and quietly take the bee and leave. So far it has worked really well and no one has abused the privlege of not having to verbally tell me that they are using the restroom. It has cut down on talking at the start of class.
I also started doing "minute mysteries" with the forensics classes for the first 5-10 minutes of each class period. They really seem to enjoy these and it is a great way to get them excited and involved. It also allows time for students who have left the room for some reason to return without missing important work.
Anatomy is starting a very long and involved chapter with the skeletal system. I have decided to break the chapter up into 2 exams instead of one. First, we will learn the physiology of the system and take an exam on it. We will then focus on the anatomy and the physical locations of bones and take a second exam on those topics. The students seem to be more comfortable with this idea and I am hoping that it makes the chapter easier for them to learn. I am learning most of the material along with them, which is more work, but I think it helps me learn how to explain it so that they understand. I try to explain things the way that I need them explained to remember them. I also try to review constantly throughout class. I am going to try and either begin and/or end every lecture with questions from the previous lessons. By doing this I am hoping that it will stay fresh in their memories. I am excited for this Thursday because we are doing a lab in anatomy that should be a lot of fun. Informative, but more interesting than the lectures and quizzes that they are used to. It should be a nice break for everyone.
I also feel like I am now developing better relationships with my students. While they may not "like me" as much, they are now starting to show more a respectful than a friendly attitude towards me. I conferenced with several anatomy students yesterday, and today almost all of them turned in the necessary work to get caught up with the class. I also had a student ask to take me up on my offer to stay after school on Thur. and help him study for the term quiz. I was excited that he wanted my help, so I offered to all of my students to stay with us on Thursday and review. I am hoping that several of them take advantage of it.
I am also attending a meeting tonight hosted by all 4 of us EFHS interns for the participants and tutors. I have a lot of good information to share with them and I think it should go well! I wanted to write early this week because I have had so much going on and have been making so many changes. I am excited to see how the rest of the week progresses. I will provide an update on Friday and hopefully have some positive changes to report.
It is now the weekend and I must say that I have seen some good results in my classroom this week. I was a little nervous about parent-teacher conferences but it ended up being a great experience! I really enjoyed meeting the families of my students. It helped me to understand a lot of them better. All of the parents were very nice and it felt good to give good reports on most of their children. A lot of them told me how much their son or daughter enjoyed my class and that was great to hear. It was amazing how many parents came in and talked about specific forensics lesson that their student had told them about. The fact that they are going home and talking to their parents about what we are learning in class shows me they must be enjoying it or getting something out of the class.
Thursday I stayed to help students study for their term quiz and 2 of the 3 students that I studied with got perfect scores! This is really impressive for a quiz of 100 anatomy terms! Maybe the rest of the class will learn from this and take me up on my offer next time. I may be giving another test in there soon because I decided to split the skeletal system chapter up into 2 parts instead of 1. We are almost finished with the physiology of the system and with some in-class practice and reviews we may have a test on that part of the system later this week or at the start of next week.
In forensics we are finishing up a week of hair analysis. On Tuesday they will participate in our second inquiry-based crime lab. I will present them with a scenario and they will work in groups to solve the crime. They will again write a hypothesis and procedure, collect data, and analyze their results. I will be taking observational notes for my action research and then giving a quiz and the interest survey afterward. I hope that this lab goes as well, if not better than, the previous inquiry lab. Students are getting used to working in the lab and asking questions about what they are seeing which is very important with this type of learning.
I also started doing "minute mysteries" with the forensics classes for the first 5-10 minutes of each class period. They really seem to enjoy these and it is a great way to get them excited and involved. It also allows time for students who have left the room for some reason to return without missing important work.
Anatomy is starting a very long and involved chapter with the skeletal system. I have decided to break the chapter up into 2 exams instead of one. First, we will learn the physiology of the system and take an exam on it. We will then focus on the anatomy and the physical locations of bones and take a second exam on those topics. The students seem to be more comfortable with this idea and I am hoping that it makes the chapter easier for them to learn. I am learning most of the material along with them, which is more work, but I think it helps me learn how to explain it so that they understand. I try to explain things the way that I need them explained to remember them. I also try to review constantly throughout class. I am going to try and either begin and/or end every lecture with questions from the previous lessons. By doing this I am hoping that it will stay fresh in their memories. I am excited for this Thursday because we are doing a lab in anatomy that should be a lot of fun. Informative, but more interesting than the lectures and quizzes that they are used to. It should be a nice break for everyone.
I also feel like I am now developing better relationships with my students. While they may not "like me" as much, they are now starting to show more a respectful than a friendly attitude towards me. I conferenced with several anatomy students yesterday, and today almost all of them turned in the necessary work to get caught up with the class. I also had a student ask to take me up on my offer to stay after school on Thur. and help him study for the term quiz. I was excited that he wanted my help, so I offered to all of my students to stay with us on Thursday and review. I am hoping that several of them take advantage of it.
I am also attending a meeting tonight hosted by all 4 of us EFHS interns for the participants and tutors. I have a lot of good information to share with them and I think it should go well! I wanted to write early this week because I have had so much going on and have been making so many changes. I am excited to see how the rest of the week progresses. I will provide an update on Friday and hopefully have some positive changes to report.
It is now the weekend and I must say that I have seen some good results in my classroom this week. I was a little nervous about parent-teacher conferences but it ended up being a great experience! I really enjoyed meeting the families of my students. It helped me to understand a lot of them better. All of the parents were very nice and it felt good to give good reports on most of their children. A lot of them told me how much their son or daughter enjoyed my class and that was great to hear. It was amazing how many parents came in and talked about specific forensics lesson that their student had told them about. The fact that they are going home and talking to their parents about what we are learning in class shows me they must be enjoying it or getting something out of the class.
Thursday I stayed to help students study for their term quiz and 2 of the 3 students that I studied with got perfect scores! This is really impressive for a quiz of 100 anatomy terms! Maybe the rest of the class will learn from this and take me up on my offer next time. I may be giving another test in there soon because I decided to split the skeletal system chapter up into 2 parts instead of 1. We are almost finished with the physiology of the system and with some in-class practice and reviews we may have a test on that part of the system later this week or at the start of next week.
In forensics we are finishing up a week of hair analysis. On Tuesday they will participate in our second inquiry-based crime lab. I will present them with a scenario and they will work in groups to solve the crime. They will again write a hypothesis and procedure, collect data, and analyze their results. I will be taking observational notes for my action research and then giving a quiz and the interest survey afterward. I hope that this lab goes as well, if not better than, the previous inquiry lab. Students are getting used to working in the lab and asking questions about what they are seeing which is very important with this type of learning.
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