First Unit Plan Reflection

I have recently prepared my first unit plan for the classes I will teach during student teaching.  This unit if for the Ag Foundations class which is a class that all ninth graders take at Selinsgrove High School.  All classes are block schedule and will be 90 minutes in length.  The Ag Foundations class is where students will be introduced to many different industries in Agriculture like Forestry, Food Science, Welding and Plant Sciences.  This unit plan is for my Animal Science unit where I will be going over main breeds of livestock of five species.  These species are chosen by students interest and also reflect the local industries that are strong in Snyder county.  I also included lessons about the basics of livestock judging, meat quality and proper injections.  Below I have listed some of my concerns for the lesson and some of the things I believe that I did well in the plan. 

Concerns

• Do I have enough planned to fill 90 minutes 
• Do I need to have more activities planned
• Do I need to have more objectives for each lesson 
• Do I need to add anything to the lesson/ remove from the lesson 

Successes 

• I really like the format I used to lay out my lessons, but might need to change format for rest of plan 
• I really like the content that I am going to cover in the unit (Think I am covering some real fun/interesting topics) 
• I really like my unit assessment, I made this test from scratch and think that it covers a lot of information from the unit 
• I really like my reasoning for this unit  

Many of my successes and concerns were brought up in my feedback.  I actually had many people review my unit plan and give me feedback.  A lot of my feedback helped me with my length of lessons.  I think that as I learn more about pacing I will be able to better understand how much to plan for in each lesson.  I also think that some of my lessons may need a little extra added while other lessons are really full.  I think that I just need to shift some of my topics around to have it spread out well.  I had a lot of positive comments both on my layout as well as my assessment.  This makes me feel great because I put a lot of time into my assessment and making sure I am testing on the important information.  I think that as I go forward in planning units, I will only get better and learn more about how to effectively prepare a plan.  

Interesting points on my Interest Approach

This week our lab session was to demonstrate an interest approach.  I chose to do my interest approach for a lesson on the basics of livestock judging.  In livestock judging, you are usually presented with four animals that you then have judge.  This is exactly what I wanted my students to do in my interest approach but instead of showing them four animals, I gave them four oreos.  What I did was give each student 1 perfect regular Oreo, 1 regular Oreo that had half of the top cookie broken off, 1 min Oreo that had half of the top cookie broke off, and finally a regular Oreo that was only the bottom cookie.  I then asked the students to rank the cookies based on quality.  I asked them too look at the cookies and take notice if the entire cookie was there, were the cookies broken etc.  All of the students has placed the perfect Oreo first and the cookie that only had the bottom cookie last.  They two cookies in the middle though were different for each student depending on their taste.  You could truly rank these two cookies either regular over mint or mint over regular you would just need to defend it by saying that you "personally prefer one over the other because..."  That was a overview of my lesson altogether but below you will find a list of my gems and opps for the lesson.  I really like my interest approach and could find this working great in an actual class setting.  The added benefit is that at the end of the interest approach the students are free to eat the cookies!  Please feel free to leave any comments on how you think this would work in a class or if I should change anything up!! Thanks :)

Gems

• Students were engaged and interested in what we were going to do with the cookies 
• Students were able to rank the cookies as I hoped the would 
• Feel that I dealt with issues well 

Opps

• Bellwork took way too long -should have only had them do one type of species 
• Time ran out before students were able to talk about why they ranked their cookies the way they did 
•   Gave Students less time to judge the cookies 

#AEE412 Weekly Investment #5 Effective Questions

This week through the readings, I learned about effective questioning in the classroom.  Questioning your students is crucial to determining if they are absorbing the information you present to them during lectures and discussions.  I have always been a little worried about questioning though.  I never want to pose a question too hard that they feel dumb or can't answer but I also don't want to ask a question that is too simple or below their level.  Through the reading however, I have learned that either scenario isn't necessarily a bad thing.

When you pose a question to the class and there is no response, this could mean two different things.  1.  No one feels comfortable answering or 2. They did not learn the information required to answer.  Both solutions come back to you as a teacher and are able to fixed.  If no one feels comfortable answering, then  you as a teacher need to address the classroom atmosphere and get the students to help you understand what a more relaxed environment would be for them to feel as though they could feel confident in answering.  If they do not posses the information to answer the question, this probably means that you as the teacher had an off day and didn't do a good job teaching it.  Do not take it personally!  There is always going to be a time where you could have presented the information in a better or more clear way.  This just means that you are going to have to say "Okay guys, I did not do a good job of explaining this.  How about we go back and try this again?"  Does not mean that you as a teacher or them as students have failed, you just need to adjust and try again.

When you start to wonder if questions are too easy or basic, you just need to relate back to your objectives and the content that you had taught.  For each object for the day, you should easily be able to associate at least 2-3 questions that are able to be answered through the content.  If not, maybe you should re-evaluate your objectives or how you are teaching the lesson.  Also if you start to feel if you questions are too simple, maybe shift to a higher level open ended question.  If you usually ask questions in your class that are closed ended, meaning that they only have a right or wrong answer, shift your questions to more open ended; these have no right or wrong answer.  For example:  A closed ended question would be "What are the parts of the flower?"  This only has a right or wrong answer where students would need to list the parts of a flower.  An open ended question for the same content would be "What do you think the most important part of a flower and why?"  The students will still need to know what they parts of a flower are and how they work but it pushes the minds to the next level.

Learning how to rephrase questions and the difference between closed ended and open ended questions makes me think back to when we learned about Bloom's Taxonomy.  Through effective questioning you can easily take your students from the lower level of knowledge to advancing to the higher levels of applying and analyzing.  I found a very helpful resource that connects questioning to Bloom's that I will share in the resources listed below.  It helped me to realize that by pairing effective questions with clear objectives should lead to the success of a lesson!

Resources:  

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Using Effective Questions. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/using-effective-questions.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Dyer, J.E. (n.d.) Effective Questioning Techniques. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC08400.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

National FFA LifeKnowledge. (n.d.) Coaching Session Quick Reference Guide. Retrieved from https://www.ffa.org/myresourcedocuments/coachingguide/Basics_of_Coaching/coaching_Guide/Lesson02/pdf/Individual-Coaching-Session-Quick-Reference-Guide.pdf (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site. http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/energy-and-the-polar-environment/questioning-techniques-research-based-strategies-for-teachers 

AEE 412 Weekly Investment #4: Teaching to a group!

This week's reading have lead us to dive deeper into thinking about how to approach an informational lesson which lines up perfectly as this week we are tasked with writing our first informative lesson.  As I sat and brainstormed this weekend about what information I would like to cover in this lesson, I noticed that a lot of the lesson was going to consist of me just presenting the information to the students.  I don't want for me to just be dumping information onto the students so thankfully the readings were able to help me think a little deeper and gave me some great ideas.  As I read, I also couldn't help but think back over my education over the years and realized that most of my teachers used some of these techniques at some point or another.  When students hear the word group work, we usually think of it as a punishment but now I see that the teachers put us into these groups only to help us learn the content much better.  If they would have just stood in the front of the room and talked about it instead of making us think about the information and work together to understand it, I would have just tuned them and not have learned anything.  I hope that I am able to help my students absorb content more efficiently by incorporating collaborative learning into my classroom by utilizing many of the ideas listed within our readings this week.

Our other reading this week talked about effective objectives for students and the importance of having objectives for every lesson.  I need to make sure that I as the teacher am make clear, concise objectives that my students are able to achieve.  Objectives need to be measurable and contain an action verb in the actual objective.  Student learning, written objectives and teaching all need to be on the same level of achievement as well.  Don't  write a high level objective and teach at a low level.  This would be like trying to reach for a book on the top shelf with out having access to a ladder.  Students will become frustrated and just give up.  No teacher wants their student to just give up on anything.  The video I found about objectives helped lay out the same idea just in a little different fashion.  Everyone has heard of SMART goals, well this laid out objectives in the same way.  Teachers need to have SMART objectives; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relative, and Targeted.  If I am ever struggling with writing objectives, I know that I can always look back on these resources.

Resources:
Groseta, K.J. & Myers, B.E. (2006). Using cooperative learning in formal and nonformal education. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06200.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Whittington, M.S. (2005). Writing objectives in secondary agriculture courses that challenge students to think. Agriculture Education Magazine. Retrieved from  http://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume77/v77i5.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpxgLKqhyNo


backgrounds in agriculture or interns in crop consulting  

Final Thoughts of my First Day Lesson

My lesson that was focused on the first day of class went well I feel.    In this lesson we were to introduce ourselves to the class, let the class introduce themselves, discuss the expectations, procedure and consequence of our classroom, and whatever else we could fit into 10 minutes.  I have listed below some of the things I think were successful and also some things I need to work on. 

Successes!  

• Greeted students at the door and introduced myself to them quickly. 
• Was able to get to know the students through example bell-work 
• Loved the idea of my time capsule and think that it would work great in an actual classroom!  
• Expectations, procedures and consequences were well organized and numbered.  

Opportunities for Improvement! 

• Was nervous
• Talked so fast, need to slow down majorly 
• Need to make my expectations, procedures, and consequences posters more colorful and different from each other. 
• Think I need to carry my lesson plan with me to help remind me of my prompts to ask students

Over all I think it was a successful but very informative experience and I am excited to see what next week's lab brings and how I am able to succeed or improve then.  I also am interested to play with other types of lesson plan formats this week and hope to find the one that fits me best!  

Home of the Seals!

I was able to explore my cooperating center and learn all about the program, the instruction areas, and the FFA chapter.  I can't wait to begin my experience and learn even more about the students, school and community.  Check out all the cool things I have learned so far! 

Mindset: Final Reflection

My reading has come to an end.  I have finished my book on Mindset and I am excited to take

everything that I have gained and learned from these readings and use it to shape me as a teacher with growth mindset.  In the last leg of the book, it discussed a lot of the ways that parents, coaches and teachers not only guide children on the path of mindsets but it also talked about how they themselves need to have a growth mindset.  If you are a teacher who is of fixed mindset but are only trying to have a growth mindset when around your students, they are going to know that it is a fake front and the encouragement that you are trying give them will be wasted time.  Children need the encouragement and praise to be as genuine as possible and the best way to do that is to have a growth mindset from the beginning.  This can be hard! 

As the book goes on further, it talks about how most people are a mix of the two mindsets.  That all of us have a fixed mindset about something and they found that it was usually ourselves.  As teachers or parents, we have growth mindsets when it comes to our children and we are always trying to get them to also have a growth mindset.  We push them and encourage them to keep trying even in the face of failure.  However, when the parents or teachers fail themselves or feel as it they have failed, they will turn to the small part of fixed mindset that they have.  The most important thing to remember in these times is to "Practice what you preach".  You need to listen to yourself and know that it is ok if a lesson didn't go as planned or that every student didn't get a 100% on the last quiz. 

This is something that I particularly hope that I can remind myself of daily when I begin my student teaching.  It is easy for us to be hard on ourselves but encouraging to others who are in the same situation.  Part of growth mindset is that we have to learn from our mistakes and appreciate those moments when we do fail for those are the times of exponential growth.  By no means should we go out of our way to fail, but remember that sometimes the failure is even more powerful than the success!  I know that not every lesson I am about to teach in the spring is not going to go as planned or that I have planned an activity that was not able to meet the objectives of the day.  It is going to very easy for me to think that I am a failure and that I should give up and only conduct lessons that are simple and boring.  However, by reading this book, I hope that I am able to use many of the things I have learned and help keep myself out of these "Poor me" spirals of mindset death.  I need to remember that those will be the times where both myself and students will learn and grow together.  It doesn't mean that any of us have failed; we just need to go back to the drawing board and see how it could have went better. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is going into education but more importantly I would recommend it to anyone!  This book can be beneficial to anyone who wants to change their out look on life or wants to become a more positive person because as I mentioned in earlier reflections, living with a fixed mindset will start to effect your interpersonal relations.  There are countless suggestions within the book on how to start to change your mindset or how to strengthen an already growth mindset.  The most important thing to keep in mind though, is that this is a process.  You can't change your mindset overnight, it will take time and effort to help keep yourself on track to change! 

#AEE412 Weekly Investment Reflection 2

This week we are diving in head first and learning about the part that we all fear the most about student teaching; lesson planning.  This has been on each of our minds within my cohort and it is always one of the first things we have questions about when someone asks "What questions do you have?"  Well this week's reading may help settle at least my mind some.  I was able to take away that sometimes you need to come at a lesson from a different angle.  Our readings specifically talked about started with your desired end result and build you lesson backwards, leading up to developing your objectives.  You could start with a great activity and build off of that or think of a great interest approach and think of  lesson that goes with it; just keep Bloom's Taxonomy in mind.  Doing so will help to ensure that objectives are clear, well stated, and action oriented.

The "right" way to write a lesson plan!

I have had to write a few simple lessons in the past and have indeed had to include objectives in these lessons.  I always thought that the best objectives were those that were lengthy and had elaborate, scholarly wording.  When in fact these objectives are not incorrect, but are not as efficient as those that are clear and easily state what is expected of the students.  I now know that it doesn't matter how elaborate my objectives and not to be as afraid of lesson planning.  I am learning that as long as I keep calm, keep my end results in mind, and utilize the methods and techniques I learn along the way, I will have well written objectives and an overall effective lesson plan. 

I would love to hear how everyone approaches lesson planning as I begin the task of writing my first lesson plans for student teaching!  Please feel free to comment below some of your favorite tips and tricks or ask me any questions you may have! Thanks for reading! 

 http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf (Links to an external site.)
 http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
 Chapter 5, Planning for Instruction (26 pages