#AEE 412: Lab VIII - Putting it All Together

On Friday after my 3-day micro-teaching experience, I drove down to Penn Manor HS to complete my 8th lab. For this lab we had to utilize a lesson plan from FFA's LifeKnowledge lessons. I combined portions of two lessons to make one lesson on What is Leadership? and What is service-leadership? I taught my lesson to the CASE AFNR class, which was comprised of 19 students who were mostly freshmen. I really enjoyed my day at Penn Manor; it was a great chance to reconnect with some of the students I already knew and meet some more students that I will teach in the spring. Here are some reflections from my lesson:

Gems

Making towers! What type of leader are you?

1. I used a variety of learning activities. After we learned about 3 different types of leaders, the students participated in a group activity to see what kind of leaders they were. They had to work together in groups to build a tower out of hard spaghetti and marshmallows. It was fun to watch the students work together, see who emerged as leader, and solve the challenges they faced. However, FYI: marshmallows and spaghetti were kind of messy and it was almost too challenging to build a structure with.

2. Most of the questions I asked were thoughtful and engaged the students in the discussion. During our discussions I feel like most of the questions I asked promoted deeper learning and weren't just "yes or no" questions. It also promoted participation and engagement during the PowerPoint.

3. I had students resonate instructions after they were given. After each time I gave instructions, I called on a student to restate the instructions for everyone to make sure we were all on the same page. I found this reduced the number of times students asked questions about what they were supposed to do next.

Opportunities for Improvement

1. There were a few times I provided the answer to a question because no one responded right away. This group of students was on the quieter side and often did not want to respond to my questions. I tried to restate my questions or simply wait until someone responded, but there were a few times I just gave them the answer I was looking for. No matter how awkward it may seem, I can't give them the answer because then that just tells them that they don't have to answer questions. In the future I will really work at restating the questions and waiting until someone answers.

2. Time and pacing. I also included this in my micro-teaching reflection, but that is because I realized this after both experiences. Once again, I had planned for more than what I thought we could accomplish, but I like knowing I don't have to worry about running out of things to do. During the one activity, one group of students finished WAY before everyone else. I went back and tried to ask them more questions to keep them thinking/working, but I definitely should have planned out some questions for them to work on while everyone else was finishing up. Like I mentioned in my micro-teaching blog post, I think in the future I need to be better about including "how much time" in my instructions (or asking the students how much time do they think they need and then negotiating from there) and also planning extra questions for those students who finish up really early. I think I also need to work on determining which activities are highest priority to accomplish before I teach the lesson. That way if I see we're running short on time, I can cut out a less important part so I make sure we cover everything.

#AEE412: The 3-day Micro-Teaching Lab

Up until this week, all of our teaching labs took place in Ferguson Building and our students were our fellow #psuaged18 cohort members. So while it has been good practice, it still wasn't real bananas (an inside joke from our lesson about contextual learning). However, this week was different. This week we had a 3-day micro-teaching lab at an ag program in central PA. Each of us was responsible for teaching one class for three days in a row. I taught an Animal Science class about the skeletal system, and while it was an exhausting week, I learned so much and really enjoyed the experience. I am also very thankful that we were so prepared for this from all of the scaffolding that took place throughout the semester. Here are some gems and opportunities for improvement that I took away from this experience.

Gems

1. Mixing up the way students take notes. While I was micro-teaching I tried teaching the components of bone a little differently and had my students take notes differently. I read an article Dr. Foster posted (thanks Foster!) about note-taking and one of the techniques was having a gallery walk to take notes. Basically, I used large post-it posters to write down key information about the inorganic and organic components of bone, put the posters on tables around the room, gave the students a note sheet, and set them loose to write and draw the important information. I thought it went quite well! It got students up and moving and promoted talking about what information was key. However, it is important to walk around the room to make sure everyone is understanding and not just copying the information. The learner satisfaction forms that the students filled out indicated that they enjoyed taking notes in different ways.

2. I used a variety of learning activities in each lesson. I think this is something both my cohort member, Ally, and I did very well. Each of the lessons I taught had a variety of activities to help students learn and review what they learned. We segmented our classes well and made sure that the students weren't doing the same thing for an extending period of time.

3. I included WHY learning about the skeletal system is important. This definitely could have been talked about more and reinforced, but I'm glad I included a segment on how being knowledgable about the skeletal system can help you choose animals who will produce more and live healthier lives.

Opportunities for Improvement 

1. Timing and pacing so that everyone is on track. This was a hard one for me. Thankfully I wore my watch two of the days and that really helped me keep track of time. I definitely had way too much planned, which I knew and was ok with, but I think we could have accomplished more. And even some of the students said in their learner satisfaction forms that they think we could have gone a little faster. But I also know that some of the students needed that extra time. I think in the future, I need to be better about including "how much time" in my instructions (or asking the students how much time do they think they need and then negotiating from there) and also planning extra questions for those students who finish up really early. I want my future ag classes to be full of learning for students of all learning levels. I'd love to hear about your experiences and any pro tips you have!

2.  Getting materials to students. I think this stems from a habit I picked up in our other labs. Since there are only 4 "students" in our labs, I always just handed out materials to them at their desks. Well that does not work when you have larger groups of students. In the future I need to have a student from each group come up and get their materials after I explain the directions.

3. Review what a concept map was with the whole class. On the third day, I had them make a concept map that shows the relationship between the components of bone. I gave these instructions to students as they finished their gallery walk notes, but I soon realized that I should have had the whole class review what a concept map was. I guess I just kind of assumed that they all would have made one before in their other classes. We worked through it and I gave an example as I explained it to each group, but doing a whole class review would have been faster and easier. I also think that if I knew the students better I would have known that we needed to review concept maps.

Thank you for following my #TeachAg journey! I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice!

#AEE412 Lab Reflection: Inquiry Based Instruction

I was super excited about this week's lab. Back in May on our annual Domestic Study Away trip, I had my first experience with Inquiry Based Instruction. While in Wisconsin, we had the opportunity to prepare and teach an IBI lesson in Ms. Rachel Sauvola's classroom. It was challenging but I really liked what IBI was all about. 

We just completed 2 weeks of instruction on IBI, including a visit with Ms. Krista Pontius and Mr. Michael Clark at Greenwood High School, further instruction from Ms. Pontius and Mr. Mark Anderson, and a chance to plan and teach an IBI lesson on our own! I chose to plan a lesson on electromagnetism and how electricity and magnets are related. I had a lot of fun planning this lesson and brushing up on my physics. I even had a couple of my engineering friends help me out to make sure I really felt confident with the material. During lab, we taught a 20 minute "slice" of our whole lesson. Here are my takeaways:

Gems

1. I was excited about what I was teaching, and I feel like my enthusiasm helped others get excited, too.
2. I was confident in the material I was teaching, which makes me think of last week's reading on classroom management. Being knowledgable in the content you teach is an important aspect to promoting a positive learning environment.

Opportunities to Improve

1. I definitely should have included more background material on magnets and how they're related to electricity. Sometimes I feel like I have a hard time determining what high schoolers should already know/be able to figure out.
2. While I had a very general plan for this, I should have really thought through what I would do if my students were lost and weren't able to figure out how to make an electromagnet. For example, I could have written down some effective questions that I could use to help get them there.

Thanks for reading! I would love to read about your experiences with IBI and some of your "pro tips"!

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: Classroom Management

I hear that classroom management is one thing that all student teachers are nervous about as they enter into their student teaching experience. I have to say I agree. Not because I don't think I am capable or prepared, but because I know that effective classroom management is so important. I'm glad that we get to have a micro teaching experience in a few weeks to practice teaching and managing a classroom. This week's readings were very informative and provided a multitude of methods/techniques for managing a classroom. Here are some takeaways from from the readings this week:

Effective Classroom Management all comes back to the Teacher.

This point was so important and something that all teachers should understand. If you have behavior issues or problems in the classroom, chances are some of the issue has to do with your actions/attitudes as a teacher. It is so important to develop good rapport with your students, and something that I am very excited to establish. I always respected my teachers that demanded respect, laughed with us, admitted when they made mistakes, and didn't spend their days on a power trip. Our methods text even talks about finding this balance. 

Being knowledgable in the content that you teach is also an important factor in classroom management. I know I certainly would be less likely to respect a teacher that was obviously incompetent about what they were teaching. One goal that I have for my career as a teacher is to be a life-long learner and make sure that what I am teaching stays relevant and up to date. A goal that I have for the spring is to dive deep into Ag Mechanics and become comfortable with the content that I'll be teaching (cough, cough, small gas engines...). 

The First Day is KEY.

Wow, up until this semester I had no idea how important the first day of school is. The first day can set the tone for the whole year, so it is important to plan effectively and ensure your first day is a good one for all involved! You want to be welcoming and sincere as well as accomplish some key tasks on that first day to set the foundation for student success. I really appreciated that our methods book discussed the importance of having students write down or talk about what they want from the class and what they want from you as a teacher. It gives them some autonomy and lets them know that you care what they have to say. It also gives you insight into students as individuals and can help with how you approach classroom management. Covering your expectations and classroom procedures is also important because it lets your students know from day one what you expect and you can use it as a reference throughout the year as necessary.


What are some of your best practices regarding classroom management? I'd love to learn more!

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: Inquiry-Based Instruction

This week I had the opportunity to attend the National Agriscience Pre-service Teacher Workshop at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. The workshop was focused on inquiry-based instruction, which fits in perfectly with this week’s readings! Here are my main takeaways from the workshop and the readings:

We filled up these interactive notebooks with lots of great info during the workshop!

Inquiry-based instruction does not mean you take away all structure and guidance.

You’ve probably seen it before – the "Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry and Their Variations" chart chart which helps you plan and determine how inquiry-based your lessons are. There are four columns, A through D, with A being teacher directed and D being student centered. There is a common misconception that for a lesson to be IBI every category needs to be in the D column. Well, that is simply not true! As the leader of the workshop said, “if your classroom is completely in the D column, you aren’t doing your job as an educator!” For example, your students will need background information to complete an inquiry-based lab, effective questioning techniques to help students work through their own questions, and oftentimes starting off the class with a problem to be solved.

A. Warner and B. Myers state that during inquiry-based lessons teachers are responsible for:

1. Starting the inquiry process;
2. Promoting student dialog;
3. Transitioning between small groups and classroom discussions;
4. Intervening to clear misconceptions or develop students’ understanding of content material;
5. Modeling scientific procedures and attitudes; and,
6. Utilizing student experiences to create new content knowledge

Planning is key to successful IBI.

According to Alberta Learning (2004), “the planning phase of inquiry is the key to success for teachers and students”. There is a 7-step planning cycle that includes:

1. Where do I begin to plan?
2. Who will work with me?
3. How can we engage our students?
4. What will be the scope of our inquiry?
5. Which resources will work best?
6. When should we introduce the inquiry?
7. Which inquiry and ICT Skills will we use?
8. How will we monitor and assess inquiry activity?
9. How will we begin the inquiry?
10. How will we determine what worked?

I think a neat part of this point is that while planning may be more intensive; the actual facilitation of the lesson is less strenuous than teaching a teacher-centered lesson. I experienced that at the workshop. By the end of the day, all of us attendees were exhausted because we had been doing inquiry all day, while our instructor could have kept going if we had more time! That really speaks volumes to the difference in the amount students learn when they are taught with inquiry-based instruction compared to a more teacher-centered instructional method.

I’m really looking forward to learning more about inquiry-based instruction on our visit to Greenwood HS and trying my hand at inquiry-based instruction at our next lab! I’d love to hear about your experiences using IBI and/or advice you have regarding planning/facilitating IBI!

References:

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2011) What inquiry-based instruction? 

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2014). Implementing inquiry-based teaching methods.

Alberta Learning. (2004) Focus on inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning.

Thoron, A.C., Myers, B.E., & Abrams, K. (2011). Inquiry-based instruction: How is it utilized accepted, and assessed in schools with national agriscience teacher ambassadors? Journal of Agriculture Education, 52(1), 96-106. DOI: 10.5032/jae.2011.01096 Retrieved online from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ955679.pdf

#AEE412 Lab Reflection: Surprise Lab

This week's lab was a little different from our previous labs. One of the goals of this lab was to push us outside our comfort zones and help us practice quickly creating a lesson (perhaps if a teachable moment occurs, etc.) to teach the next day. So, on Monday we were given an AFNR standard and told to create our lesson based around that standard. The lesson was due by 5pm on Tuesday. While I was a little stressed out at first, once I started writing my lesson plan I realized how much I have improved because it came much easier than previous lessons. The lesson I developed was on food safety and the three types of contaminants. Everyone had really creative lessons this week and I think everyone has improved so much from the beginning of the semester. With that being said, here are some gems and opportunities for improvement from my lab this week:

Gems

1. I believe I kept the students engaged throughout the lesson. (ex. asking students to help me capture their thoughts and write on the board)
2. I used Questioning to help a student answer her own question and had her share what she learned with the class when it was time to share out.
3. I used a variety of learning activities.

Opportunities to Improve

1. I did not bring in real cider for one of my activities. I had real cider in my lesson but did not bring it to lab. I need to make sure I'm getting as close to the "real thing" as possible (can someone say contextual learning?!). Plus it would have made it more fun!
2. Although I was better this week, I still need to work on timing. Particularly, I need to push students a bit and give them a time frame to complete a task right from the start and not wait until I see everyone is done.

I'm looking forward to learning about Inquiry Based Learning in the weeks to come. But first...

IT'S NATIONAL CONVENTION TIME! 

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: Individualized Teaching Techniques

Supervised Study, Experiments, Notebooks, Oh My!

Just like there are many types of group teaching techniques, there are also quite a few options when it comes to individualized teaching techniques. Having this framework makes it really nice to learn all of the different teaching techniques, but I've noticed that when it actually comes to using them you often combine techniques into one. Personally, I like the idea of using student notebooks as an individualized teaching technique. In my high school biology class, we used interactive notebooks, which I enjoyed for the most part. They were a nice tool to capture information and study from. As the teacher, you could plan out exactly how students will fill in the information, or you could give students choice in how they capture what they are learning. By allowing students to choose, they are able to capture the same information in a way that makes sense to them (ex. pictures, writing, diagram), which ties back to the Multiple Intelligences Theory. 

Have you ever used Interactive Notebooks? What were the pros/cons? Do you use another similar technique that you like better? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Differentiated Instruction is different than Individualized Instruction.

According to EduGains (2015), Differentiated Instruction is defined as "effective instruction that is responsive to students' readiness, interests, and learning preferences." There are several essentials of differentiated instruction including: 

• Teachers use a repertoire of instructional and assessment strategies to meet the needs of different learners.
• All differentiated instruction activities are equally engaging and respectful and take approximately the same amount of time.
• Unless students are on an IEP, all differentiated instruction is based on the same curriculum expectations and all students have opportunities to achieve the same high standards of performance.

This is different from individualized instruction, which is defined as "Instruction calibrated to meet the unique pace of various students" (Basye, 2016). In short, the academic goals for a group of students are the same, but individual students can progress through the curriculum at their own pace according to their learning needs. Maybe I just need to learn more about individualized instruction, but it seems like that would be very challenging to use in your classroom. And yet, I think that many students (including myself) would have benefitted from that in high school. Differentiated instruction is a lot of what we have already been learning about, providing variability throughout your lessons so that each student receives instruction that matches their learning needs/style.

What have your experiences been like with differentiated and/or individualized instruction? What are the benefits/challenges in your opinion? Any tips/tricks you'd like to share?

Thanks for reading!

References

Basye, Dale. (2016). Personalized vs. Differentiated vs. Individualized Learning. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=124

EduGains. (2015). Reach every student through differentiated instruction. Retrieved from http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureOct08.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.

#AEE412 Problem Solving Approach Lab Reflection

I really enjoyed learning about the Problem Solving Approach last week as well as trying my hand at using the problem solving approach in a lesson! One of the reasons I like the problem solving approach is because it seems to do a great job of generating interest from the students and letting them guide their learning a little bit by determining (with effective questioning from the teacher guiding this process) what they need to learn to solve the problem.

This week in lab I taught a segment of a lesson I created on fermentation to demonstrate the problem solving approach. The problem? - a local silo with silage inside caught on fire and all of the farmer's silage was ruined. What caused the silage to catch on fire?

Here are some gems and opportunities for improvement that I took away from this week's lab!

Gems

Overall, I liked the problem solving approach that I used for my interest approach. It was a problem that everyone could see the value in solving, whether it was because a student has a silo on their farm and/or they had the opportunity to help someone else. I also asked students to help determine what we need to learn to help the farmer and figure out what caused that fire in his silo. While I think I still have work to do concerning asking effective, guiding questions, the general process was there.

Opps

One thing I keep forgetting about is to check the time when I start my lab so that I can keep track of how long everything is taking! I have a hard time staying on track when I don't know how long students have been working on an activity.

I also noticed that I wasn't very enthusiastic during class. I'm not sure what was going on that day, but I would like to work on being more enthusiastic about what I'm teaching. It's not that I'm not excited about what I'm teaching, but instead I think I overthink things sometimes and get too caught up in making sure everything is going according to plan. Goal for next time: Relax and have more fun!

Thanks for being a part of my journey, I really appreciate it!

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: Evaluating Learning

Just as there are a variety teaching methods, there are also various means of assessment.

It is important to remember that multiple-choice exams aren’t always the best way to assess students’ learning (although I do think there is a place for multiple choice exams, just like there is a place for lectures). I found it very helpful to read about types of rubrics and how to create rubrics based on what the unit goals/lesson objectives are. Rubrics are a type of performance-based assessment, and within the realm of rubrics there are task-specific and generic rubrics. Each type of rubric can be either analytic (focuses on the end product) or holistic (focuses more on process and follows a “yes or no” format). I like rubrics because they provide a guide for students while they are completing the assessment. In addition, by having students complete a self-evaluation they will hopefully take more ownership in their learning. This also allows more immediate feedback to take place, which in turn increases motivation on the road to mastery. Self-evaluation also promotes reflection, which will help students grow and learn better.

I really appreciated reading the article on assessments in laboratory settings. The Vee Map was a new concept to me and I definitely think I will use it in the future. I believe it is important for students to learn how to write scientific reports, but it isn’t necessary for a full-length report to be written after every experiment. Using the Vee Map provides students a way to incorporate the different components of a lab report but on one page. Students write the focus question, vocab, a concept map of various terms/ideas, the procedures of the lab, data and analysis, and a conclusion/claim statement. 

Here is a model of the Vee Map Structure (Roth & Verechaka, 1993):

Grading Exceptional and English Language Learners can be FAIR & ACCURATE.

How do we as teachers ensure our grading system is both fair and accurate, especially for students with disabilities and English Language Learners? The article from the Educational Leadership magazine definitely helped me process what is needed for high-quality reporting. “High quality reporting systems distinguish three types of learning criteria related to standards (Jung & Guskey, 2010).

1. Product Criteria – what students know and are able to do at a particular point in time.

2. Process Criteria – relate to student’ behaviors in reaching their current level of achievement and proficiency.

3. Progress Criteria – considers how much students improve or gain from their learning experiences.

This made me think back to my educational psychology class a couple semesters ago. My professor discussed the importance of providing feedback on how the students have improved. He said that one way to do this was to give them two grades, with one being their improvement grade. When students see that their efforts are making a difference, they will be more motivated to continue putting in time and effort. The article also stressed the importance of incorporating appropriate accommodations/adaptations, and then grading based on that – not the original objective/goal.


I’d love to learn more about effective evaluation of learning. How do you evaluate your students? What are your best tips? Thanks for reading; I’d love to hear your thoughts!

References:

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Assessing student learning. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html

Jung, L.A. & Guskey, T.R. (2010). Grading exceptional learners. Educational Leadership, 67(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-Exceptional-Learners.aspx

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.

Roth, W.-M., & Verechaka, G. (1993, January). Plotting a course with vee maps: Direct your students on the road to inquiry science. Science & Children, 30(4), 24-27.

Stoughton, A.L. & Myers, B.E. (2008) Creating and working with rubrics.

Warner, W.J. & Myers, B.E. (2010). Evaluating learning in laboratory settings.

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: The Problem Solving Approach

Can someone say autonomy and purpose???

When I read about Project Based Learning and the Problem Solving Approach this week, the first thing that came to mind was the book I read over the summer - Drive by Daniel Pink. Problem solving is a perfect instructional method to foster autonomy and purpose in your classroom. Students find purpose in solving a real-world problem - especially one that is relevant to their lives. This is another area where SAE projects come in real handy and provide you with a bank of real-life problems! Problem Solving and Project Based Learning are very student centered methods of instruction, so it's important for teachers to structure them as such! In addition to students determining what they need to know to be able to solve the problem, they should also be able to choose how they present their findings, for example.

Don't forget Reflection!

Larmer &  Mergendoller (2010) states that Project Based Learning includes processes for feedback, revision, and reflection. You can have a super interesting problem based lesson, but without reflection/feedback, students will have a harder time retaining what they learned. Not only should the teacher provide feedback, but I think it is important for students to provide feedback to their peers as well. Providing feedback to a peer in your group can be anxiety-inducing (at least from my experience in high school) so make sure students can provide feedback anonymously. Promoting student reflection is also important. How will they learn to apply their new skills/knowledge in other situations if they don't reflect on what they did in class? This reflection could be in the form of a notebook, blog, etc. Reflecting will also be more beneficial if it is done a various stages throughout the problem solving process (could be in the form of a ticket out).

Phipps et al. (2008), states that if teachers are going to be successful using the problem solving approach they must philosophically believe that problem solving is an effective teaching method, and then goes on to say that planning and practice are necessary to mastering this teaching method. Well, I believe in this method philosophically, so I guess it's time to practice.

References:

Phipps, L.J., Osborn, E.W., Dyer, J.E., & Ball, A.L. (2008) Handbook on agricultural education in public schools, 1st Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Kirkley, J. (2003). Principles for teaching problem solving. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8503&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). The main course, not dessert: How are students reaching 21st century goals? With 21stcentury project based learning. Retrieved from http://bie.org/object/document/main_course_not_dessert

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). 8 essentials for project-based learning. Retrieved from http://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/attachments/article/1058/8_Essentials_article_small_file_size_Oct2012version.pdf