The Broken Weld {Problem Solving Lab}

This weeks lab was the Problem Solving Lab and it threw me for a whirlwind before, after, and during. I found it difficult to reflect on this lab because I received inconsistent scores and so I utilized the video compare and contrast the feedback.  I also took the categories we were graded on, watched the video, and graded myself. This helped me understand my feedback as well as take notes on what to improve for the next go around. I am going to break this lab down by sharing my thoughts, reactions, and reflections in sections of before, during and after the lesson.

Before:
- I prepared a lot. So much that I think I overcomplicated the lesson

- I was indifferent about switching my lesson because I was not sure how to teach it to 3 students

- My goals were to stay in the correct timeframe and give directions and instruction with clarity

- I was nervous to teach it because I was not confident in what I created

During:
- I became frustrated. This has never happened to me before and it was a different mindset to work through. I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve and due to that I need to be careful. If I do get frustrated, to keep a smile so my students do not feed off of that

- It was not going the way I imagined it because I think the lesson would have been executed better with a class of 20 students

- Have more questions then the main ones written out. (sub questions) Be more prepared with details and quick on my toes to feed off of the students questions.

After:
There are plenty of areas I need to work on. Specifically pertaining to the Problem Solving method, I needed to formulate more questions and set-up the problem so the students thought deeper and I made them think even more then what I did. Aligning with that I should have reinforced the concepts we did talk about throughout the lesson and not just at the end. I thought as a teacher, I overall taught better, but did not execute the concept of the problem solving lab well. 

I talked about wanting to improve my clarity of directions and instructions and I think I have been improving but still have strives to make in that area. One technique I am going to try is typing up or writing down directions or instructions for students to read or look at after I give them. As far as staying in the time frame, I was closer. This was my first week for having to think about shortening what I was teaching to fit within 20 minutes, but I believe without my explanations to the class of what I would be having my high school students do, I was only a minute or two over. 
What I did well was interact with my students, created a comfortable environment, and had a variability of activities. 

Looking Ahead:
I came out of the lab frustrated because we are closer to the end then the beginning and felt like I took steps backward instead of forward. This motivates me to plan better and try to take leaps and bounds forward in executing the next lab.

#TeachAgChat - Careers in Agriculture

Well that is a wrap. The first ever #TeachAgChat is complete and my fearless team and I were the forefront of the pioneers on this journey. The emotions and stress level I felt during our one hour time slot was the exact same as when I was participating. A combination of "What is going on?" and "That went fast!" Ultimately though I would rather host. I enjoyed working with my partners, Sarabeth and Mason, and I was excited about the topic we were sharing, Careers in Agriculture. The most rewarding part was rereading the tweets after the hour was over and absorbing what was said because in the heat of the hour you do not capture it all. Another rewarding part was feeding off of the energy and excitement participants infectiously digitalized, that we felt and were motivated through.

So what worked?

- Plan, plan, plan, plan, and when you think you planned enough re-check your materials and continue planning.  This was our security for success and I believe success if what we achieved. We planned everything from what roles we each played, to questions, to invitation lists, etc.

- Personally contact participants to attend through whatever communication you can. We used Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, text message, and email.

- Create promotional materials that are informative and eye catching. This seems simple and basic but we received a lot of compliments on the both documents we created (which are included in this blog)

- Use tweet deck! Twitter does not allow you to keep up with the chat at the pace you need.

- Also use HootSuite too schedule all of your advertising tweets. It saves a lot of time!

- Play music during the hour. We sat as a team and played music in the background and it calmed us to the point where we were sining along at some points.

Where are our opportunities for growth?

- Only use one set of questions. We tried to break up the questions for educators and industry personnel and it was not needed. We could have developed questions that both sets of professionals would have been able to answer.

- Contact more industry personnel. We relied on the people who said they would participate but many did not show up. So planning beyond the number of people that is ideal for your chat.

To relive and revisit this chat and what was shared Twitter search #TeachAgChat or klandrews_24!

Let's Ace This {Weekly Writing}

WOAH...assessments are multi-facetted. Each article or book I read this week was about a different component of assessment and /or evaluation. I am going to regurgitate some components I found important to recall and highlight before I dive into some information that I learned.

The type of assessment used varies on the class and students. There are multiple forms of assessments besides the traditional exam, which too many students know all to well. The idea of PLANNING resurfaces when discussing assessment because as teachers we need to plan for our students to do well on assessments. Assessments also do not only come at the end of a unit, again a traditional way of thinking, but everyday we are assessing student's performance.

I needed to unpack all of these thoughts and realizations I had while reading before articulating a few of the methods and types of assessments I read about. So now let's dive into the WHAT...

Student assessment and evaluations is the topic of the week. For the past 4 years of my college career I have heard these 2 terms being thrown around:

          Formative & Summative

Through the readings this week I was provided clarity and differentiation between the two. it is important to remember both terms are a method of answering the question, "How can you measure student learning?" Both of these methods are systematic processes.


What do you need to know about Formative Assessments? 

- What it looks like: Receiving and guiding feedback on their performance
- Not always attached to a students grade
- Allows teachers to gauge where the class is and where it needs to go
- Teachers are measuring performance for a daily or on-going basis

What do you need to know about Summative Assessments?

- What it looks like: Exams, tests, quizzes
- Cumulative
- Used to calculate individual student grades
- Familiar to many of us!

But wait... Curve ball... there is a 3rd way to assess students:

  Direct & Indirect 

Direct Assessments: assess through student's direct application of knowledge or skills

Indirect Assessments: Surveying or observing student learning

Each of these are further detailed out on the CTE website that also elaborates on the rubrics, self and peer assessment, developing good test questions, which are all beneficial resources to utilize when creating lesson and unit plans.

The Triple Threat

There will be encounters will special populations of learners in schools. Exceptional and ELL learners are two examples of special populations, so as educators, how do we grade them fairly? Well the three "P" words helps us answer this question:

Product

Process

Progress

The way I interpret the purpose of the triple threat is that they are each a criteria that breaks down an overall grade. This demonstrates for parents, administration, students, and teachers the learning process and performance of each student. When is comes time for placement decisions, progress reports, or meetings then there is clear evidence of the students performance. 

The Recipe {Problem Based Learning}

There is no set recipe in delivering successful Problem Based Learning (PBL). There are, however, correct ingredients that make PBL a successful teaching strategy. 

Successful Ingredients

5 Cups of the Problem Solving Process

       1. Recognizing and defining the problem

       2. Clarifying the problem

       3. Identifying possible solutions 

       4. Testing a solution or plan

       5. Evaluating the results 

1/6 TB of Reflection

       Dewey added a 6th step to the MODERN DAY 5-Step Problem Solving Process: Evaluating the results

1/4 T of a Driving Question

     - Proactive

     - Complex

     - Open-ended

     - Linked to what students should be learning

2 Eggs of Voice and Choice

Voice: Let PBL be something that students are interested in 

Choice: How are the projects presented at the end? What are the teams? Let students have choice in their learning process! 

There are other ingredients that can be taken away or added into this recipe, but it depends on the audience you are serving. The above ingredients though are the base ingredients needed to start mixing. 

Why use PBL as a Teaching Strategy?

1. Develop students ability to solve problems

2. Create self-directed learners

3. Facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge

Connections

STEM

When researching PBL, a lot of engineering problem solving models arise and my thoughts immediately go to STEM and how PBL can be an effective way to implement STEM into an agricultural program. One of the 8 Essentials for Project-Based Learning is to have Significant Content, which in short means, aligning the PBL with academic standards. Incorporating science, math, and English language can all be accomplished through PBL, which allows students the opportunity to learn and utilize their knowledge of multiple subjects as well as makes administration smile. 

National #TeachAgChat Twitter Chat

Looking forward to this week, our cohort starts the first ever #TeachAgChat and my group has the opportunity to facilitate the topic of Careers in Agriculture. Our goal is to bring together educators and industry personnel to share what is currently being done in schools to prepare students for agricultural careers and what opportunities and need industry has for students. In learning about PBL, I want to utilize the Twitter Chat to hear about the PBL that is occurring in agricultural programs as well as the what industry finds beneficial for students to learn and how educators can incorporate their suggestions as a PBL.

Let's Share Infographics

I am a huge fan of infographics and I found one of Pinterest that was shared in another blog. The infographic was to large to share on this blog so click the link below to see how this infographic lays out the steps of problem solving: Problem Based Learning: Solving World Problems

If anyone has a PBL or problem solving infographic or poster they use and has been effective for them please share the link or picture in the comments section! I am looking for one to hang in a classroom.

Here by the Rising Sun {FLC Reflection}

"The rising sun is the token of a new era in agriculture. If we will follow the leadership of our president, we shall be led out of the darkness of selfishness and into the glorious sunlight of brotherhood and cooperation."

At the Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) held in Altoona, PA I, along with my two co-facilitators, had the opportunity to teach a workshop to 27 chapter FFA presidents. I am going to capture and reflect on this experience through breaking down the word P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T.

Purpose: The purpose of this workshop was to prepare and teach presidents their roles and responsibilities of their office in in 2.5 hours. As a facilitation team we focussed our objectives around the 4 defined presidential roles outlined in the FFA handbook.

Ruh Roh: In the words of Scooby Doo there were some "ruh roh" moments after reflecting on the experience. The biggest one was the lack of stating, posting, and revisiting objectives. The students had no idea what we were going to accomplish today. This was a basic practice we discusses the importance of Day 1 this semester that was a lack of preparation on our part. 

Enthusiasm: This is where we crushed it. I was thankful to have facilitators that met and exceeded my enthusiasm. The students responded well to this energy and spirit by the comments on their learner satisfaction form. What worked well was that we were able to be high energy but also hone in on lower tones and pace when we where trying to drive home the point of a topic.

Share the Stage: This is one area where facilitation and teaching in a classroom is different. I shared the stage with 2 other people and it requires extra planning! I am now not only speaking but I have to think about where the other teachers are, when I need to stop talking, when I jump in, and what my duties are at that time. (Ex: handing out papers) One big take away from this was what to do if your co-teacher misinforms, deviates from the plan, or is unclear. What role do I play then? I can better observe the students when someone else is talking so, for example, if directions are unclear I can see the confused faces. Today it worked out that I could jump in to re-state directions if needed, but my take-away is that I need to be able to observe my students and talk in a classroom setting. 

Informational: "The lesson was more informational then motivational" This was a comment that we received after the workshop. Not sure how to interrupt it at first, I came to a conclusion. We did our job. We gave all 27 of our presidents tools for their toolboxes to be better prepared for their roles and responsibilities. I wish that some of our empowering and call to action comments would have been better driven home, but I know we accomplished our objectives for the day.

Discover: What did I discover today? 2.5 hours is a long time, but when you are over prepared it goes by quick! Dave Burgess told us that you cannot base success off of 100% participation and engagement, and even though it was discouraging to have a few students not be into the activities it was a confidence boost to keep going due to the majority of student's engagement and excitement being evident. Students want the opportunity to express their personalities and skills, so give it to them. 

Evaluation: The area of evaluation and assessment lacked today. As the facilitator I do not know what they learned. They each completed a "Know Book" to take with them, but it was individually completed. Also, I regret not taking the time to provide more time for Q&A during and after the workshop. We constantly where trying to keep up with our allotted times but we never did catch up and it resulted in loss of ensuring our students were learning. 

Next Step: Where do I go from here? As mentioned facilitating is a little bit of a different role then teaching in a classroom, but there are skills I can transfer into a classroom. We had a lot of group activities that allowed me to go around and facilitate conversations and work. Also, when we had students share out, I was able to summarize answers and information. These are just two examples among many, but it was powerful to think about all the practice I had together will applicable skills I can use in a classroom setting. 

Transitions: As something that can always be improved, this was a huge area of emphasis to successfully execute today. Our team aimed to keep the student engaged and the activities connected together. We did well, and honestly some were impromptu, but this is an area of growth I saw in myself today.

"Any other questions?" {Weekly Writing}

In my blog title it asks, "Any other questions?" and this is because I learned this is a non-effective question to ask and I am guilty of saying it. After teaching a few lessons in labs and reflecting on each of them, the teaching tactic of effective questioning has been surfaced several times. Like many college students, I can be a culprit of word vomit, meaning I say something to quickly that I did not mean or that made no sense. With the fast pace that I tend to talk, the combination can be deadly for effective questioning.

One of the documents of our weekly writing addresses the why and how of effective questioning, something I know is important to add to my teacher toolbox. The article boils down to the reoccurring practice of... PLANNING! When writing my lesson plans I need to think:

"What level of thinking am I trying to draw from my students?" 

"What is the type of question that will cause this level of thinking?" 

"When do I ask these questions during my lesson?" 

The chart below is a reference for Bloom's Taxonomy with application of critical thinking skills on each level that has help guide me in developing purposeful and effective questions:

                

Let's talk about my concerns with effective questioning...

Not only do I need to think about the questions I will ask, but the also about the facilitation of answers that maybe given...which is something teachers can not always plan for. In reflecting on facilitating answers, I know this is a mastery skill I will learn through practice and repetition. The creativity and sass high school students can supply sometimes makes this a skill one I am patiently awaiting to practice and master. In addition, students not responding correctly to an answer or with something that I was not quite looking for is also another skill I am uneasy to approach, but am looking forward to practicing. I do not want to have a student not answer again if they are wrong or continually reinforce the same students positively or negatively all the time for their answers. 

Another topic that was explored this week was Differentiated Instruction (DI), and with no surprise, success with DI is a result of planning. I am not going to go into detail but the graphic I found depicts the "Yays" and "Nays" of what Differentiation really is and is not.