Weekly Blog #8

A highlight from this week was definitely my observed lesson. I was a bit apprehensive leading into it because it's getting late in the school year which means kids are starting to lose it. Also, the lesson was supposed to be spread over two days but it got condensed into one. Leading into the lesson I called an audible and decided to cut out a discussion and switch up two of my demonstrations. I realized if I followed my initial lesson then there was no way I was going to beat the clock. It worked and the kids still reached the objectives and the academic language content.

Something that made me think a little differently was how important discussion is to provide adequate learning for all learners. In one class there is 4 high level learners and 4 low learners. This contrast is a difficult one to tackle especially if you're trying to get to every student in a single period. A discussion allows a build up of the difficulty of question which allows everyone to participate. It also gives multiple perspectives as there are only so many ways I can think of to present material. Sometimes students learn best from their peers and are more comfortable with that.

A strategy I want to implement is using the jigsaw method. I think at this point in the year a research project would really draw students in and keep them engaged. The idea to split them into groups and give each group a segment of research would really help with accountability. It would also help cement students ability to work as a group and to take on responsibility that goes beyond just taking care of and cleaning up lab materials. This method would be good to cover a historical or cultural piece on science which is an area that is often neglected.

A perplexing situation that occurred was having a group of five boys being suspended for playing a game of slapping girls' butts. It's easy to come down hard on these kids especially in a time where sexual harassment is a touchy subject. Boys at this age are trying to figure out all these emotions that are coming out and unfortunately they didn't choose a tasteful way to express themselves. I just hope that they are taught the proper way to conduct themselves from their parents because without consistency at the home then the situation will re-occur.

Weekly Blog #7

A definite highlight of this past week was putting on a party for the math class for their outstanding scores on the NWEA testing.  The kids were stoked on getting some pizza, pop, cake, and ice cream. One girl brought in her guitar and played covers of any song new and old and even broke out some Nirvana for me. The girl is one that you would think is an outcast but she definitely connects with everyone. It was good to see after all the testing that the kids were able to celebrate their success together and realize that their hard work payed off. The kids were impressed that I knew every song they did and they remembered that I'm not old! I hope as time goes on that I don't distance myself and to know what makes kids click.
 Something that made me think a little differently was out of those scores, one student who is having his first full inclusion year improved 42 points while the class average was 15 points. It just proved to me how much including students with their peers motivates a kid to succeed. His behavior has been a complete 360 degree turn around as the previous year he was constantly getting into fights. This year zero. A kid like this motivates me to really try and improve on differentiated instruction and one aspect of that is letting students know that they can teach one another. I'm only able to teach a concept so many ways but students can add their own perspective that might make something click.

A strategy that I want to implement is project based learning. I've gotten a taste of this method in our chemistry unit as it has built upon itself in academic language and in referring back to 9 substances. I think this has helped students make connections to prior knowledge to help explain what is happening in the reactions they are seeing now. I would try to extend this unit by providing an end goal and to let students help plan how to reach that goal or essential question. For a chemistry unit like this I could see looking at a car engine and explaining how a car runs based upon the combustion reactions. They would have to explain the properties of the elements involved and how to write out the reactions. Of course I would want to see overall what student interests are and tailor the project to different groups.

A perplexing situation that occurred was dealing with all male lab groups. The seventh period class has a high ratio of boys versus girls and it does affect behavior. When one boy gets going it can get the rest of them going, combine that with chemicals and cool reactions, it can become a safety issue. I have found myself being more stern with them and letting them no that they get no extra chances in lab. Overall, they have become more responsive to my authority and know when it's alright to joke around as well. My cooperating teacher is really good at this and it keeps learning on track.

Weekly Blog #6

A highlight from this week was conducting a lab that uncovered the differences a mixture and a solution. This lab contained a fairly complex procedure for this age group and it was interesting to see how the lab was executed. Students for the most part did quite well and have come a long ways in how they conduct themselves in a lab environment. It has created some relief for me seeing that students can be trusted with chemicals and various equipment but that only came because rules were set. For most class rules they are enforced to some degree but lab rules have no exceptions. Students respond to this well and I think this is so because they are doing something really fun and don't want to lose that privilege.

Something that made me think a little differently is that there is no reason to "teach to the test" if the teacher is committed to teaching to the standards. My cooperating teacher has never made mention to her students that we are conducting a lesson that tailors to what the MSP might be testing on. Instead she revolves her lessons on hitting the OSPI or NSTA standards and knows that her students will be prepared. This approach leaves the students and the teacher less stressed and propagates learning that has meaning, not just for the sake of passing a test.

A strategy I want to try and implement is using peer pressure to get a whole class to commit to an assignment or behave. Towards the end of a class the last task was to read 4 pages independently from the textbook. Students started to gripe about it but my teacher said that if everyone read silently than no one had to answer questions off of a worksheet. That was all it took as everyone kept quiet even after they had finished reading before others. Although this is not a practice I will use all the time, I find it effective when they are having issues with authority and it becomes easier to place the power within themselves.

A perplexing situation that occurred this past week was dealing with getting students back on track after dealing with two weeks of testing. I found this to be difficult as testing comes in May which I consider for myself the most difficult month to concentrate. The best way my cooperating teacher combated this was to start back in with a lab that was fun and had a clear objective. Even then some students get on cruise control which is making me a little nervous for my observed lesson which isn't going to occur until early June. Leading up to my lesson I think I need to come up with a few of my own management strategies, surprise my cooperating teacher, and go out on the best note I can.

Weekly Blog #5

A highlight from this past week was counseling a student on my own during the MSP testing. The student had missed the first day of the writing and the school decided to have him do both days of writing on the same day. This would be difficult enough for most students but this student severely lacks motivation. This bothers me because the kid is very intelligent but just cannot commit to getting the job done. He and I however have built a close relationship and he believes in what I communicate to him. Halfway through his testing he had given up so they sent me down to take him for a walk and have some lunch. I let him discuss his issues with testing, motivation, and life in general. I spoke of similarities that him and I share and what he can do to overcome his situation. I don't know if his effort that day increased at all but I do know that he can come to me anytime and we can make this a long-term deal towards his success.

Something that made me think a little differently  is how much students really enjoy conducting labs. These past couple of weeks with testing have left kids feeling frustrated and worn out. Each day numerous students will always ask if testing is over and if we can get back to our chemistry labs. This happens on a regular basis in seventh period after kids have apparently sat most of the day in their other classes. They want to do something and a lab definitely fills that void. It just re-affirms in me that labs are a great learning tool and is still unique to the science area.

A strategy that I want to try to implement is having students use drawings to depict a situation or process. This proved beneficial in a lesson on understanding density as it related to expansion and compression. Students volunteered to draw what they believed the air molecules to be behaving like and their drawings helped other students either reinforce what they thought or sparked a new way of viewing the concepts of expansion and compression. One way I would manipulate this would be to give each student a small dry-erase board to draw their own depiction and then show me when they are finished. In this way I can receive a lot of feedback in a short period of time.

A perplexing situation revolved around good ol' standardized testing. This week students are taking the NWEA test to show if they made improvements in math and science. When I arrived yesterday the computer-based testing had already fouled up twice resulting in chaotic classes as the lab would take too long to complete in that time. With two issues already they still decided to try it a third time and again the system froze up about 25 minutest into the testing. My teacher, who helps coordinating these tests, had to stick around to try and solve scheduling conflicts so she left me to take the class back to the room with no agenda whatsoever. It got a little chaotic with a group of boys and I was scrambling to find anything to do. With my mind blank I asked them and the whole class said, "silent ball!". Bingo, it worked like a charm. It made me realize that I need to always have a backup plan or two when everything gets thrown out the window.

Weekly Blog #4

1. A definite highlight of this past week was the chemistry lab we conducted. This lab kicked off our chemistry unit that we will finish the year off on and it felt good to move into something completely new. The experiment revolved around finding out what two substances constituted a mystery mixture. Students worked in lab groups and got to test their hypothesis and narrow down of what they believed the mixture to be. I enjoyed using inquiry and letting kids discover the various properties of the substances on their own. I think sometimes math and chemistry go hand in hand as something that is scary to students and overwhelming. This lab however put the students at ease because they got to dive right into the "fun" area of chemistry. Who doesn't like to mix chemicals together?

2. Something that made me think a little differently about teachers was working with my cooperating teacher who heads the MSP testing. She has had to give up her class on testing days to prepare each classroom with the test materials and then organize test booklets post test. I had no idea the kind of operation that went on in keeping track of students and making sure that testing remains standardized. She has kept very calm through the process especially since she is missing class time and instruction with her kids. It makes me wonder if there can't be an outside agency that could come in and take care of the logistics if the concern is to be standardized and make sure that procedures are followed and carried through with.

3. One practice that I will adopt is explicit instruction especially when students are expected to follow a procedure. We conducted a lab that required many steps that need to be precise and accurate. My teacher took the additional time to go through those steps and explain why each step was necessary and important. I think too often teachers can just give directions without any justification or reasoning to why a particular step was needed. Without that explicit instruction students at the middle school level will either be sloppy or just plain forget.

4. A perplexing situation happened during MSP testing in which my cooperating teacher was occupied with the testing and couldn't be in class. The sub that was there was a retired teacher whose idea of a good classroom was a quiet classroom. Of course that did not happen and it was a battle the whole time. There I was stuck in the hard spot because students were looking to me to correct the situation as I know how the class is run but I didn't want to intervene with the prospect of disrespecting the sub. So I sat and watched some the chaos ensue as students were supposed to sit silently to a 1950's donald duck math movie for 25 minutes. It makes me wonder how I can avoid the pitfalls as I begin subbing to start my teaching career. It might be beneficial to include some kind of reward system or ask for the class rules and expectations.

Weekly Blog #3

A definite highlight from last week was starting the chemistry unit. The end of our last on biomes and ecosystems didn’t involve a lot of lab work which the students really enjoy. This whole week has been conducting an experiment on finding the “mystery mixture” with deductive reasoning and observations of 9 known substances. It was a lot of fun to let the students’ use the process of elimination and to try new tests that might reveal to them what the mystery mixture was. Each day we would progressively move closer to what the substance was and that kept students very engaged. It was a good lab to break into our chemistry unit as well because it reminded and taught them their lab procedures that I know I never received in middle school.

Something that made me think a little differently about kids was a girl who finally made it back into class after missing 10 days. She missed 10 days not because she was sick but because her parents took her to California without picking up any of her work. I was actually stressing out for her when she got back because knowing myself I would’ve been out of my mind thinking I could never get back on track. She on the other hand apologized for being absent, asked for her work, and got right back into the swing of things. I was amazed by her composure in that moment but then I was also amazed with her willingness to come forward and ask for help. I guess her predicament would’ve been way out of my comfort zone at her age and I realized I should expect a lot from my students because they can rise to the occasion. 

I will definitely add in the practice of assigning tasks to students who either need to get up and move around or finish their work early and become a distraction to other students.  One boy just cannot sit still in his seat for an extended period of time and instead of punishing him for his behavior and not making any permanent corrections my teacher allows him to pass out papers or hand out red pencils for self-assessing math assignments. He takes his role seriously and it becomes a win for everybody. The only issue I can ever see with this is if a student is not comfortable with another classmate seeing their score. For this class though she must have asked everyone at the start of the year if it was okay because it’s never been questioned before.

I had a management issue for the last 5 minutes of the period (felt like 30 minutes). The students had conducted an experiment on their nine substances to determine seven pairs that reacted together. They were in lab groups of 3-4 and so some of the results varied to a degree as I was walking around. I wanted to bring them back together as a class and go over their results and summarized them on the document camera.  Unfortunately, I received very little feedback and most students had already put their data sheet in their binders. They basically had shut down and I had to be stern with them to get their data sheet back out but they were still reluctant to give their feedback. I think I should’ve given them warning at the start that we were going to summarize and the benefit of comparing data. I think they just thought it was repetitive and pointless even though I knew they had discrepancies in their data.

Assessment Strategies Article Response

Review and response to: Formative assessment and the contemporary classroom: Synergies and tensions between research and practice

The study conducted was constructed by way of interviews of a mixture of primary and secondary teachers in southern Ontario, Canada. The goal of the interviews was to find out the balance of using summative and formative assessment. Formative assessment was narrowed into the techniques of questioning, feedback without grades, self-assessment, formative use of summative assessment, and professional development. This study was a direct result of the hopeful shift away from “teach, test, and hope for the best” model that was the mainstay.

The promotion of formative assessment instead of relying on summative assessment was evident.  Too often there has been a heavy reliance on summative assessment as a way to measure a student’s placement but that only provides a snapshot in time. A multi-synergistic approach was recommended with heavy emphasis on formative assessment that has been evidenced to vastly increase the speed of learning. I find that there should be an emphasis on formative assessment as there is the ability to see gains in progress daily and weekly. The conflict arises when teachers have to match their formative assessment techniques with high stakes testing where a number score is the only validating measure. Teachers can neglect formative assessment strategies to teach to the test.

Questioning was a popular formative technique and when used properly was cited as a way to reduce stress levels. It was noted that a great way to use questioning is through Bloom’s taxonomy where a teacher should start at the bottom and work their way up into higher level thinking. I use questioning a lot in my classroom both in large group settings and individually. What I don’t think about all the time is incorporating Bloom’s taxonomy to build into higher level thinking throughout a lesson. That’s kind of ridiculous seeing that I base by objective around a measurable verb from Bloom’s taxonomy. I think it’s something that I need to consciously think and write out before a lesson in a pyramid fashion.

Feedback without grades was of high value of the teachers interviewed but it has to done correctly and consistently. One teacher promoted the practice of giving 7 submissions of an assignment with feedback before it is due and in that way the teacher knows that learning was occurring. Another point was that the feedback must have significance to the student otherwise it just becomes marks on an essay. The end goal though is to place more significance on the process than the graded assignment. I find that in order for feedback to be effective a student must make improvements either on that assignment or the next assignment otherwise it’s a waste of time. I like the idea of providing multiple submissions with feedback before the due date but I would be concerned on the work load that it could place on me. 

Self and Peer assessment were two forms of formative assessment that the teachers interviewed felt most uneasy about. They understand that they are both great tools but are sometimes unsure about how to employ them with success. It is difficult for some teachers to give up some of their authority and allow students to be in charge of their own learning. It is equally difficult to measure peer assessment with confidence as there are relationships that get in the way and students’ lack of the content knowledge. I find uneasiness in how to approach these two strategies as well. I can remember “editing” papers in high school and not wanting to offend my classmates. I think it’s important as a teacher to provide rubrics and to give clear examples of what is expected. A way that self-assessment is used with some success in my classroom is students correcting their own math assignment in red pencil. It still gives my cooperating teacher a chance to see mistakes when they turn it in but it provides students another opportunity to see exactly where they could improve.