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!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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.
Week 7 Reflection
This week has been a great learning experience for me. I have become more comfortable with the routine of things and it has allowed me the opportunity to focus on classroom management and lesson details that I may have overlooked before. I also received feedback from a liason observation this week, which was very helpful.
This was spirit week at the school and it was fun to see everyone dress up each day. I really like the atmosphere of school spirit that they have here because it is something that I can honestly say I never had in high school. I rode in the homecoming parade with FCA on Wednesday and it was great to see my students outside of class. I really enjoyed getting to know some of them better by spending this time with them. Homecoming is tomorrow night and I am going to chaperone so I am sure that I will get to know more about them than I ever wanted to! It should be a good time though.
In forensics this week I learned a lot about the importance of having organized structured labs. In order for the students to get to do a lot of hands-on activities I have to be willing to come early to set up and stay late to clean up. It really makes everything run smoothly if all of their materials are ready to go when they arrive to class. I also need to make sure that they have very specific instructions both written and orally. We finished up the hair analysis unit today and I finished collecting the data for my action research on this lab. They all scored very well on their quizzes and I gathered some good observational data.
Anatomy has been great all week, until class today. We finished up chapter 5 part 1 this week and I even had 2 full days of class to do in-class enhancement activities and reviews. I have made a lot of adjustments to the lectures for this chapter to help them learn it better. I feel like i've really presented the material well, and yet so many of them still don't know it. During today's test review students just complained about the review game and because they didn't know the answers to the questions. I wish they realized how much help they are missing out on by not paying attention or blowing it off. I am beginning to see that the students who want to do well will and those who don't care about their grades won't pay attention no matter what I do or how I present it. I try not to take it personally when they don't remember things that we've talked about a million times, but it's hard not to still feel responsible. I am going to finish writing the test this weekend and I hope that they remember to study and aren't as shocked on Tuesday as they were during the review today!
I try to remind myself that it is their loss if they refuse to pay attention but I always feel like there has to be something more I can do. I plan on spending some time evaluating my practices this weekend and making sure that I am doing everything possible to help my students succeed. I am definitely willing to try new ideas and make adjustments if I think it will help them in some way. I guess this is a task that is never finished as a teacher! I'll report back soon about any changes and how students are responding!
This was spirit week at the school and it was fun to see everyone dress up each day. I really like the atmosphere of school spirit that they have here because it is something that I can honestly say I never had in high school. I rode in the homecoming parade with FCA on Wednesday and it was great to see my students outside of class. I really enjoyed getting to know some of them better by spending this time with them. Homecoming is tomorrow night and I am going to chaperone so I am sure that I will get to know more about them than I ever wanted to! It should be a good time though.
In forensics this week I learned a lot about the importance of having organized structured labs. In order for the students to get to do a lot of hands-on activities I have to be willing to come early to set up and stay late to clean up. It really makes everything run smoothly if all of their materials are ready to go when they arrive to class. I also need to make sure that they have very specific instructions both written and orally. We finished up the hair analysis unit today and I finished collecting the data for my action research on this lab. They all scored very well on their quizzes and I gathered some good observational data.
Anatomy has been great all week, until class today. We finished up chapter 5 part 1 this week and I even had 2 full days of class to do in-class enhancement activities and reviews. I have made a lot of adjustments to the lectures for this chapter to help them learn it better. I feel like i've really presented the material well, and yet so many of them still don't know it. During today's test review students just complained about the review game and because they didn't know the answers to the questions. I wish they realized how much help they are missing out on by not paying attention or blowing it off. I am beginning to see that the students who want to do well will and those who don't care about their grades won't pay attention no matter what I do or how I present it. I try not to take it personally when they don't remember things that we've talked about a million times, but it's hard not to still feel responsible. I am going to finish writing the test this weekend and I hope that they remember to study and aren't as shocked on Tuesday as they were during the review today!
I try to remind myself that it is their loss if they refuse to pay attention but I always feel like there has to be something more I can do. I plan on spending some time evaluating my practices this weekend and making sure that I am doing everything possible to help my students succeed. I am definitely willing to try new ideas and make adjustments if I think it will help them in some way. I guess this is a task that is never finished as a teacher! I'll report back soon about any changes and how students are responding!
Week 8 Reflection
First of all, four day weeks are awesome! It was great to have Monday this week to prepare and catch up on things! My host teacher was gone 2 days but things still ran pretty smoothly. I definitely realized how much I value his opinion and rely on it to back up my decisions.
One of these decisions was after grading the 3rd anatomy and physiology exam early in the week. Many students struggled with one particular section on joints. I thought about it and realized that the instructions may not have been as clear as possible. I decided that it would be fair to give them a minute to look over the material and then re-take that portion of the exam. Instead of passing back all of their tests, I simply read the questions aloud. They had to write down the correct answers on a sheet of notebook paper and turn it in to me to be graded. Adding up to 6 points to their scores really helped a lot of students.
I was pleased to see that several students showed improvement on this exam. A few mentioned that they "actually studied" this time. One student in particular scored a 40% on the last exam and a 94% on this one. Wow, what a difference actually trying can make! He was so proud of himelf and his improvement that he also got a perfect score on the Friday term quiz! I hope that this encouragement continues! 2-3 other students who came to me for extra help also improved on this test. We are now starting the anatomy of the skeletal system and I hope that I can keep up the positive momentum of the class as we move along!
It is almost the end of the 9 weeks so i'm wondering whether I should offer extra credit. I feel like many of them did not work hard enough for the "regular credit" so why should they have a chane to make that up now? I plan on weighing the options and, if I do offer extra credit, it is going to challenge them and require them to really apply the topics that we have learned so far.
Another exciting thing about this week- we may be getting a forensics text book! I received the teacher's edition and it looks like a great resource. I was really pleased to see that many of the topics and activities in the book are the same as what I have covered so far. It is reassuring that I am covering the necessary topics. It can be good and bad that we don't have a set curriculum or CSO's for this class. I am really excited to read about the ideas in this book and to begin using some of the information for this class. I'm sure there'll be much more to say about the book as I begin using it.
I can't believe this is the end of the 9 weeks already. I have really enjoyed this experience so far and I'm sure it will be over much sooner than I would like! I feel like I am learning so much and i'[m not quite ready for that to end right now. I keep reminding myself to take advantage of this because I will use what I learn now for a long time to come! Well, that's all for now. Let's goooo Mountaineers!
One of these decisions was after grading the 3rd anatomy and physiology exam early in the week. Many students struggled with one particular section on joints. I thought about it and realized that the instructions may not have been as clear as possible. I decided that it would be fair to give them a minute to look over the material and then re-take that portion of the exam. Instead of passing back all of their tests, I simply read the questions aloud. They had to write down the correct answers on a sheet of notebook paper and turn it in to me to be graded. Adding up to 6 points to their scores really helped a lot of students.
I was pleased to see that several students showed improvement on this exam. A few mentioned that they "actually studied" this time. One student in particular scored a 40% on the last exam and a 94% on this one. Wow, what a difference actually trying can make! He was so proud of himelf and his improvement that he also got a perfect score on the Friday term quiz! I hope that this encouragement continues! 2-3 other students who came to me for extra help also improved on this test. We are now starting the anatomy of the skeletal system and I hope that I can keep up the positive momentum of the class as we move along!
It is almost the end of the 9 weeks so i'm wondering whether I should offer extra credit. I feel like many of them did not work hard enough for the "regular credit" so why should they have a chane to make that up now? I plan on weighing the options and, if I do offer extra credit, it is going to challenge them and require them to really apply the topics that we have learned so far.
Another exciting thing about this week- we may be getting a forensics text book! I received the teacher's edition and it looks like a great resource. I was really pleased to see that many of the topics and activities in the book are the same as what I have covered so far. It is reassuring that I am covering the necessary topics. It can be good and bad that we don't have a set curriculum or CSO's for this class. I am really excited to read about the ideas in this book and to begin using some of the information for this class. I'm sure there'll be much more to say about the book as I begin using it.
I can't believe this is the end of the 9 weeks already. I have really enjoyed this experience so far and I'm sure it will be over much sooner than I would like! I feel like I am learning so much and i'[m not quite ready for that to end right now. I keep reminding myself to take advantage of this because I will use what I learn now for a long time to come! Well, that's all for now. Let's goooo Mountaineers!
Week 9 Reflection
This week's reflection is going to be a brief one for now. I continue with my action research this week by finishing up the unit on fiber analysis. This has definitely been the best "crime investigation" yet where the students had to determine the identity of an unknown. I think it's because this time they had several different tests that they could perform on their fiber and they got to choose what materials and tests to use. They got really excited about discovering pieces of the solution. They were also disappointed if they didn't get the answer right away and it seemed to motivate them even more to do appropriate testing on their unknown. The more we learn and experiment, the better they are becoming at thinking critically and not just looking for the obvious answer. I hope that through my research results I will be able to show an improvement in these skills over the semester.
In anatomy this week we learned about the axial skeleton. Overall I feel like it was a successful week because I was able to point to the bones of the skeleton and most of the students could name all of the ones that we have discussed. For the test on this part of the chapter I am planning on giving them pictures of the skeleton and/or labeled parts on models that they must write the name of. This will be different from a lot of exams that they have taken before but I hope that it will serve as the best way to test their knowledge of the skeleton. After this we will move on to discuss muscles, which is another long, very detailed chapter. Halloween is at the end of this week, so I am trying to think about a "skeleton" activity that we can do! Should be fun!
I am also working this week to finish writing a grant proposal for a DNA electrophoresis lab that we can do with AP Biology as well as forensics. It is taking a little longer than I expected but I am glad to be getting this experience with grant writing now. As a science teacher, funding will always be an issue if I am going to provide my students with meaningful lab experiences. Hopefully writing this grant will be good practice for me.
Overall, it is going to be an extremely busy week and I just hope that I can keep up with everything that seems to be happening at once. Being a student and a teacher is becoming a little overwhelming right now so I am just hoping to stay on top of things and do my best!
In anatomy this week we learned about the axial skeleton. Overall I feel like it was a successful week because I was able to point to the bones of the skeleton and most of the students could name all of the ones that we have discussed. For the test on this part of the chapter I am planning on giving them pictures of the skeleton and/or labeled parts on models that they must write the name of. This will be different from a lot of exams that they have taken before but I hope that it will serve as the best way to test their knowledge of the skeleton. After this we will move on to discuss muscles, which is another long, very detailed chapter. Halloween is at the end of this week, so I am trying to think about a "skeleton" activity that we can do! Should be fun!
I am also working this week to finish writing a grant proposal for a DNA electrophoresis lab that we can do with AP Biology as well as forensics. It is taking a little longer than I expected but I am glad to be getting this experience with grant writing now. As a science teacher, funding will always be an issue if I am going to provide my students with meaningful lab experiences. Hopefully writing this grant will be good practice for me.
Overall, it is going to be an extremely busy week and I just hope that I can keep up with everything that seems to be happening at once. Being a student and a teacher is becoming a little overwhelming right now so I am just hoping to stay on top of things and do my best!
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