Mash-Up {Final Lab Reflection}

The lab component of our preservice teaching preparation was a crucial stepping stone prior to student teaching. Simulating a classroom full of high school students was difficult with 13 cohort members who are seniors in college, but there were foundational practices and characteristics that surfaced weekly in which we need to practice to be successful in the spring.

Foundational Practices:

1. Planning for the lesson
Each week we were challenged to prepare a different type of lesson for an allotted time slot. We were to prepare an entire lesson and then snippet the lesson to fit the time frame. As a developing teacher and lesson plan writer, I appreciated only having one lesson plan to develop for lab per week. This allowed me to utilize the online curriculums we have access to, reach out to past cohorts and PA teachers, thoroughly complete each essential element of the lesson plan, and develop supporting lab materials. Sitting here, over 3 months later, I know that taking the time to understand and develop each of these lessons thoroughly has allowed me to be more detailed in my planning which resulted in a successfully executed lab lessons.

2. Comfortability in Front of a Class
I have always found it harder to talk or interview in front of people I know. Lab was no different. I taught 3 friends that role played different student behaviors each week. I knew they would witness all my failures and successes and would provide me with feedback each week. As nervous as this thought was, it was also motivating to ensure I was prepared to show what I was capable of (and the grade attached to the lab was motivating as well). By the time my Life Knowledge lab came around, I was surprised at how comfortable I felt in front of a classroom of 24 high school students. In reflecting, I know it was because of the nerves I conquered with teaching my peers.

3. Feedback 
This was not my first experience receiving positive and negative feedback. Athletics prepared me well for that, but having to give feedback was an art I had the opportunity to practice all semester. Reflective feedback that was constructive, sensitive, and timely was an area I improved in. As the semester progressed I was able to generate more thorough feedback because of the practice I had. Everyone receives feedback differently and I tried to adapt the way I worded certain comments for different members of my cohort just the same as having to know my students enough to adapt to them as well.

Personal Growth:

1. Tools in the Toolbox
Without the lab to apply our learnings from AEE412, I would have be a narrow minded teacher. I envision I would have learned these different types of ways to teach lessons as something taught but never applied because I would forget or be nervous to try them. I would most likely resort back to how I was taught throughout high school. Lab gave me the opportunity to apply learning and styles, feel comfortable doing, and get excited about the variety I have to choose from.

2. Reflective Practitioner 
The theme throughout this blog is practice and experience will result in success and meaning. Reflection follows this theme. Reflection requires practice, that I started awhile ago in athletics that I did not realize, and again in Mississippi on the DSA trip. The questions of WHAT HAPPENED, WHY, and WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE are all important for successful reflection to occur. I want to develop reflective mindsets in my students because it will result in an increased ownership of their individual learning processes.

To The Future and Beyond...
1. Hand pick lab groups
2. Give feedback on lesson plans
3. If time allows, keep discussing lab performance after each person. It is nice to hear and discuss the feedback verses just reading it.
4. Make sections bigger - more feedback and more students to teach is more realistic
5. At the beginning of the semester, take time to teach best practices of giving feedback

BECOV
One of the principles we discussed early on were the 5 Characteristics of Effective teaching by Roshenshine and Furst. While developing and teaching my lessons these were where my sights were set. The video below is a mash-up of a few of my labs highlighting my strongest characteristic of enthusiasm.  This is an innate characteristic of my personality but, as I learned, there is a time, place, and appropriate level to incorporate enthusiasm.

48 Eyes (Life Knowledge Lesson)

Today had many firsts for me. A classroom full of students, 48 eyes specifically, and a bell to cut my teaching off. There were a few surprises, firsts, and a few "I can do this better" reflections.

Surprises
- I was comfortable in front of a class. I was nervous standing in front of the class, knowing this was the first time my cooperating teacher was watching me teach, but once I started I was happily surprised by comfortability. 

- Students were engaged. I think I expected students who just stared at me, did not want to buy into what I was doing, and had the Monday morning blues. I was wrong. There were times when I had to re-ask a question a different way or call on a student to read but ultimately students were engaged. I believe the variability in my lesson was the reason for this success. 

- The students were willing to be open to a new "system". Some of the feedback I received was students liked the bellwork and they enjoyed the "silly" gestures I asked them to make when finished with an activity. I have a different style of teaching from my cooperating teacher and I am still trying to refine, reform, and deliver, and the students were willing to join in and go with it. I appreciated the openness and willingness to adjust to me for one period as well as the respect they gave me.

- Classroom management techniques work. I stood next to students who were talking, I waited and stared at students who were talking, and I was intentional about moving around the classroom and interacting with students, especially the ones that were not as into the activity at the moment. 

Firsts
- IEP students. I was able to identify students who had an IEP and I was not prepared to accommodate them. This frustrated me because I kept moving forward but did not have the time or resources prepared to assist them. Working through this situation pulled a string in me that I need to be aware of these learners before teaching to ensure their learning as successful. 

- Bathroom breaks. A student asked me to use the bathroom, and thankfully, earlier in the day a student asked the cooperating teacher, so I knew how to respond. The importance of knowing my school's procedures, to keep my students safe and myself as a teacher from getting yelled at, I need to make sure all procedures are completely properly by the student and I.

- An entire class. This was the first time I was in front of a classroom of students within a traditional school. I mentioned above how nervous I was but I also extremely enjoyed it. My nerves have moved onto having to transition from class to class now without such little time in between. Teaching an entire class was educational for me to see how well activities do or do not work verses the small lab groups we have been teaching all semester. A lot of what I have been told and taught was applicable and I can see how I will grow as a teacher tremendously in the spring from teaching in a high school.

"I Can Do This Better"
In knowing this was my first class experience, there are a lot of areas of "I can do better" but I want to take the most applicable to my first time teaching and reflect on those. 

- The students feedback was all warm and fuzzy because I was different then their normal routines. This is a high for me right now, but it emphasizes the power of variability. How do I make students want me to be their teacher everyday? Or in the words of Dave Burgess... "If students did not have to come to class, would I still have a class to teach?" So maybe this is not a " I can do better" right now but a long term goal for the spring.

- Effectiveness. Effectiveness of directions, instructions, and transitions. These are all areas which I know I will continually grow in but one specific area I did a lot was to transition the students had to gesture to me they were ready by a shark fin, fish face, post it note on forehead, etc. This was great today because the students were about it but a note from my cooperating teacher was to use it sparingly. She is right!! What if I came back each day this week and did the same routine with gestures? They would not be into it. I am going to have one gesture per day and it will be different each day. It will add an element of surprise to classes which will keep the students fresh as well as keep my gestures as effective. 

- Timing. This is going to be my challenge all spring. Having a hybrid schedule will make this extra challenging as well. I was rushing at the end and, unlike lab, I have to let the students leave otherwise I have to write 24 passes!!This is an art that needs practiced but I believe students learning will increase with better time management. 

Again, I greatly enjoyed my experience. There will always be room for improvement and I am grateful for the feedback I received today. I am excited that my students are allowing me to grow as an educator as I excel and fail in front of them. Ultimately, I know am once again reassured of my placement choice, preparation for student teaching, and chosen career.

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.

Playing with Fire and Ice {Interest Approach Lab}

To plan for this lab I decided to use a lesson from my first unit plan I developed and also make it my first informational lesson plan to hand in on Friday. My unit is Introduction to Welding and the lesson title is, "What is Arc Welding?" To prepare for the lesson I practiced the interest approach several times and was successful. In class though, my activity was not successful for my students and it is still weighing on me because it was my fault as the instructor.

My intention for the lesson:

• Students guess what will happen and how it will happen
• Students try to weld ice with a candle
• Students write down their observations and conclusions 
• Teacher states the objectives
• Discuss what student's hypothesis, observations, & conclusions were
• Explain what a weld is
• Have students try again

 What actually happened in lab:

• Students guess what will happen and how it will happen
• Students try to weld ice with a candle
• Students write down their observations and conclusions 
• Teacher states the objectives

Not having the last two parts made my interest approach lack context and content. In saying that, I needed to be prepared with questions and statements to provoke creative thinking on how to weld the ice cubs together while my students worked. 

  

The activity needed more clarification and direction to ensure students were learning and not just doing. This could have been solved by developing questions and statements to ask during their welding time such as, "If the wax is not working, how else can we weld the ice cubes together? Think about ice in a water bottle." This would have been beneficial to insert before the students tried a second time.

On a less critical note, this activity I will utilize in a lesson plan and I learned a lot from practicing this interest approach once with students. I was happy with how the "entering the shop" exercise worked and incorporating the scientific method into the interest approach. Including the scientific approach allowed me time to hand out materials which was a planned moved. After watching the video I thought I accomplished control and filtered enthusiasm today, but still engaged my students.

One of Lancelot's primary principle's of interest states, "Interest increases with the acquisition of any given ability or skill". The students wanted to try a second time to figure it out, but would they have been interested enough in a third? I want my students to be successful in this activity so they keep in interest in wanting to weld metal later on in the class.

Takes aways:

• Provide the direction and guidance towards success and learning
• Effective questioning - preparation ahead of time! 
• With an activity involving hot wax and flames it is important to always be looking around and on the move
• Sell the tickets - this is a Teach Like a Pirate concept that I need to remember with every interest approach I implement 

The First Day of School {Lab}

"What's the soundtrack of your life?"

After our first lab I set four goals for myself to focus on improving for the First Day of School lab. To improve my teaching ability, I revisited and evaluated my goals below.

My goals for this lab were:
1. Filter and control my energy throughout the lesson
2. Conduct a practice run prior to teaching
3. Before deciding on a teaching method for the lesson, look up examples on external websites
4. Slow my pace of speech down

Goal #1:
This goal was where I really focused on improving for this lab. For the first day of school I wanted to have a balance of seriousness while introducing my expectations, procedures, and consequences in addition to cultivating an upbeat, comfort, and fun atmosphere for my students. I deem this goal accomplished for the day, but one that I cannot forget because of my personality. [Also, one minor detail that I noticed was my caffeine intake. Last time I started my day with coffee, and I am not an everyday coffee drinker, and making one small decision like that made me jittery and amped up. So for this lab I had no coffee and it helped a lot.]

Goal #2:
If I am being honest with myself, I did not stand up, time myself, and deliver my lesson plan like I would present it in a class. This lack of preparation was noticeable when I could not formulate the right questions or transition smoothly. I did read through my lesson out loud which was a step more then last time, but I want to be prepared because I expect my students to be and I do not want them to lose out on opportunities to learn.

Goal #3:
This was fun to do and extremely beneficial. I did not get my lesson idea from doing this, but it help kickstart my creative juices. Watching a First Day of Class video from a past student was helpful because I was able to read the comments and watch a teacher perform verses reading words on a document. This goal was met.

Goal #4:
This goal was unmet. This was one area where I only slightly improved from week one but have a lot of room for improvement.

So this week...

I went into this week's lab with a mindset of trying to incorporate all of the ideas, strategies, and modalities we have learned in AEE 412 into the lesson. It was difficult to incorporate everything into the 15 minute class I taught so I am very excited to implement this lesson into my Leadership unit. Speaking of which, I developed my first full lesson plan which took a lot longer then I thought, but understand the importance of detail and completion of the entire lesson plan. In preparation for the lab, the detail of my lesson plan was beneficial, but as soon as I started to teach I got lost in it and went from memory. For next week I need to adjust my layout so that I can locate what I need in my lesson plan when I teach from it.

After watching my video and reading some of the written feedback I was impressed with the accuracy of my peer and teacher evaluations. My reaction after lab was that I feel uncomfortable in a classroom setting with students staring at me. When I looked at the students while talking a stumbled on my words and questions. An observation I made from watching my video was that my clarity in directions was weak. For Activity 2, my explanation was all over the place and high school students would have stared at me blankly.

Some other external feedback that was given was to:

- State my objectives

- Use signal words to direct students to an action

- Slow my pace of speech down

I knew half way through my lesson that I forgot to state my objectives and I made the decision to not knowledge them and believe that hanging them on the wall would be good enough at that point. I am not sure I made the right decision though? Also, using signal words is not a concept that I ever considered before, but after watching a fellow classmate utilize that tactic in her lesson and execute it successfully, I saw the power behind it.

If I could re-teach this class I would focus on my public speaking 101. The pace of my speech and my hand gestures need to be slowed down and controlled. I think with slowing my pace of speech down I would take the time to be more clear in giving directions, it would eliminate some of the filler words, and improve the fluidity of my transitions. Something I picked up from watching the video that I did not realize I did was that I say my students names when addressing them or calling on them to answer. I found this to be very positive for the atmosphere I was trying to cultivate.

Next week is the interest approach lab. If you are reading this blog and have any great ideas that have worked for you, I would enjoy hearing them! For the Interest approach lab my goals are:

1. Slow my pace of speech down
2. Utilize my hand and body gestures effectively and at appropriate times
3. Practice my lesson one time before I present it
4. Think about and incorporate the minor details that make a lesson function smoothly (Ex. action words, e-moments)

Reflective Teaching Lesson (RTL)

      The purpose of today's lab was to give our professor's a baseline of where our ability to teach currently is. We each randomly chose a topic and had to teach and assess the students (our classmates) in a 15 minute timeframe. My goal was to have the class learn 11 parts of a Flint Arrowhead and be able to match them on an assessment. 

Flint Arrowhead

      My initial thought after executing my lesson was "Did I breath? The answer is no. I have a tendency to be high energy and take things at a face pace. Well as soon as I finished teaching I knew I did not filter any of my energy constructively, but went 100 mph through the entire lesson. This was confirmed after reading student assessments and watching my video recording. Unfortunately with the fast pace and high energy combination, my directions were presented unclearly, I was reactive instead of intentional in what I said, and the students did not learn the content as effectively as they could have. 

      What I and the students thought I did well was engage the audience. The high energy presented downfalls but being the last lesson of the day, I woke the students up and made them more reactive to me. I also felt prepared with my materials and content. I knew what I needed to do and I had the materials to do it, but the time constraint did not allow me to utilize my preparedness, and vice versa, I did not utilize the 15 minutes to the best of my ability. 

      In deciding on the presentation method of the lesson, after watching the video I saw my game would have been better suited as a review game. The students had no prior knowledge and I was enforcing quick guessing with no opportunity to think. The mind reactivity I needed would be best utilized once the information is learned and retained. 

      If I were to do this again, I would go simpler and slower with the timeframe allotted. In learning new content, repetition is key and I failed to include that in my teaching approach. In deciding on HOW to teach, I need to decided on the best suited teaching method to achieve my objective, instead of always choosing to answer and fulfill the question, "What will the students enjoy most?". 

      So below are [my goals] for the next lesson I teach:

1. Filter and control my energy throughout the lesson

2. Conduct a practice run prior to teaching

3. Before deciding on a teaching method for the lesson, look up examples on external websites

4. Slow my pace of speech down