#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 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

#AEE412 Unit Plan Reflection

When I first started writing my first Unit Plan a few weeks ago, I was overwhelmed. How can I know all of this right now? How should I assess my students? What should my unit goals be? WHY am I teaching this unit; what is its relevance to the community? The list could go on and on. Not to mention that I wrote my first draft before we learned how to write SMART objectives. But after submitting my first draft to peers for feedback and making edits on my draft, I believe I have come a long way in my knowledge about unit plans and how vital they are for effective instruction (with much more to learn...). Here are some takeaways from this process:

1. Identifying materials needed for a unit is important.

This week in AEE 413, our Program Planning course, we talked about budgeting for an Ad Ed program and it blew my mind that you pretty much have to know all of your materials you will need for the year around the time the fiscal year ends in June. That helped me realize why it's so important to list realia on your unit plans. In my first draft, my peer feedback helped me realize realia lists were lackadaisical. When I revised I really tried to identify the major materials I would need for each lesson in the unit. Especially for the labs we would be conducting.

2. Make sure your essential question and the level of objectives align.

When I was writing all of my essential questions, I first had a hard time organizing them in logical way. I knew this was important because the First Principle of Teaching and Learning states, "When the subject matter to be learned possesses meaning, organization, and structure that is clear to students, learning proceeds more rapidly and is retained longer." I also had a hard time making sure my objectives would ensure my students would know "How do you make biofuel?" for example. In fact, this is something I am still working on and I feel that it will come with practice. But, I am definitely more aware of it now as I work on my other unit plans.

I'm looking forward to improving my unit plan writing skills throughout the semester, and I'd love to hear your tips/thoughts! Thanks!

#AEE412 Interest Approach Lab Reflection

This week's lab was all about creating a desire within our students to want to learn about a particular lesson/topic, or in other words, the interest approach. Prior to this semester, I was confused about what an interest approach was, so I was really excited to try my hand at developing an effective one. This coming spring I will be teaching a unit on Application of Biotechnology, so I decided to create an interest approach for my first lesson of that unit titled "What is the Green Revolution?". After watching my lab, here is one gem and one opp that I took away:

GEM from my Interest Approach Lab:

The video I showed truly caused an emotional response from my "students".

Causing an emotional response was one of my primary methods of capturing my students' interest in this topic. According to Lancelot's Primary Principles of Interest, "A subject is interesting if it affects us, others around us, or humanity at large." The Green Revolution occurred because people were concerned about the rising population and widespread hunger and malnutrition occurring in the world. Currently, we are facing a similar situation so by showing students that connection, they would hopefully be more interested in learning what the Green Revolution is and how it helped save over 1 million people from starvation.

OPP from my Interest Approach Lab:

I did not manage my time as effectively as I wanted to.

I feel like I should have been able to accomplish my interest approach in my 10 minute lab. But I think I took too much time on the bell-work which caused me to try and cram in my interest approach towards the end. And that didn't work. Next time, I need to make sure I tell my students as they begin their bell-work to alert me when they are finished so I know when to move on (ex. put pencil down and look at me).

#AEE412 Weekly Investment 4

Objectives at higher cognitive levels requires teaching at higher cognitive levels.

The cognitive level of your objectives must align with what you teach and must align with assessment. This was a focus of the weekly readings and it's something I want to always work on and continue to improve on throughout my #TeachAg Journey. The idea makes sense. Why would you expect high levels of learning from your students, teach them at a low cognitive level, and then assess them based on your objectives? It is a recipe for frustration and giving up. Thinking back to the article we read by Fink (2003), one way to ensure this doesn't happen is to "analyze the situational factors, formulate the learning goals, design the feedback and assessment procedures, and select the teaching/learning activities." Remember, begin with the end in mind.

Cooperative Learning, when purposefully planned, provides multiple developmental benefits.

This week's readings also discussed group teaching techniques and seemed to focus on cooperative learning in particular. We participated in cooperative learning in many of my high school classes, and I have experienced both the good and the bad. One particular point that was made about how to make cooperative learning effective is how you group the students. Size definitely matters; for example, if a group is too large, students can hide and get by without having to contribute. Reading about cooperative learning made me remember my Educational Psychology class I had a few semesters back. Our professor taught us an effective way to split students up into groups that promotes learning for every student. It was all about making groups with heterogeneous skill levels so that each student benefits from the cooperative learning. But with that being said, as a teacher I think you really need to ensure that each student is participating and there isn't just one student in each group doing all of the work. There is a reason I'm not a fan of group projects in college myself, so I'm determined not to have any of my students feel the same way. According to Groseta et al., the solution to that is staying engaged throughout the entire learning process by using the three steps of monitoring: observation, intervention, and evaluation.

Do you have any strategies you use to promote effective cooperative learning? I'd love to learn more!


References:

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

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

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

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

#AEE412 1st Day Lab

It's the first day of school. The Goal: teach the first 10 minutes of your "first day" lesson plan. This lab was beneficial in multiple ways. First, I got to think through what would be a good way to establish classroom procedures right away, create a welcoming environment, etc. Second, I had the chance to teach for 10 minutes and practice classroom management skills with my cohort members who had transformed into students with various personalities. After watching my video, here is one thing I did well and one thing I can improve on for next time!

Gems: things that went well with my lesson.

Going over objectives and having them written on the wall/board: 

I believe it's important to go over your objectives for each lesson. This all goes back to the first domain of teaching and learning: Organization and Structure of Content Matter. Students learn better when they are aware of the structure of the content as well as see how everything their learning contributes to the end goals. Going over the objectives also helps you as a teacher remain business-like and on task by reminding yourself of what you want your students to be accomplishing during the class.

Opps: Opportunities for improvement in future lessons.

Giving clear directions and ensuring students are paying attention/understand: 

I realized while I was watching my video that students asked me to repeat directions and/or had questions about what I just asked them to do. This means that either I'm not giving clear directions and/or I did not have their attention. So, going forward I want to make sure I thoroughly plan how I want to give directions and then also make sure I ask my students to repeat back the directions after I give them. That will hopefully help my directions be more clear and ensure that students were paying attention.


I'm looking forward to practicing more during next week's lab on interest approaches! Thanks for following my blog, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

#AEE412 Weekly Investment 3

Objectives are CRUCIAL.

Objectives (along with assessments) are the guiding force of instruction. Newcomb et al. states, "in writing instructional objectives, teachers make definite decisions about the content of the problem area. The force themselves to establish parameters that in turn help define and limit the scope and content of the problem area. ... they provide a basis for evaluation" (pg. 91). We learned this week that your objectives and your unit assessments should influence each other. This makes sense because like I said in last week's blog post - begin with the end in mind and everything needs to connect. I found it interesting to learn about the three domains of learning that objectives can fall into.

1. Cognitive - objectives that deal with the acquisition of facts, knowledge, information, or concepts.
2. Psychomotor - objectives that deal with using the mind in combination with motor skills.
3. Affective - objectives that have to do with attitudes, values, aesthetics, and appreciation.

I had never heard of affective objectives before, and found it to be a very interesting concept. My methods book (Newcomb et al., 2004) stated that the most difficult area of objectives to include are affective. I believe this, but after reading some examples and learning what they are I would argue that they, too, are very important to include. I think one of the main purposes of education is to grow up leaders and people with good morals and values, so including affective objectives is one way to work on this. I can definitely see myself including some affective objectives into the Biotechnology & Food Science class that I get to teach in the spring!

Interest Approach - Say What?!

Before this fall, I was always confused about what an interest approach was and why they were important. Over the past couple of weeks I've begun to get a better sense about what interest approaches are all about. Newcomb et al. discusses a variety of ways to go about creating a desire in students to know more about a topic. I think that developing interest approaches based on students' SAE projects is a neat idea. If students can personally connect with the interest approach the WHY of the lesson will be so much clearer.

However, in a research article I found concerning interest approaches in Agricultural Education, the researchers found that the use of an interest approach at the beginning of a lesson had no effect on the students knowledge/learning or student attitudes. But, the data did show that student engagement increased with the use of an interest approach. They did state that more data needs to be collected to further analyze the results of the study. I would be interested to hear what other ag teachers think about interest approaches!

References:

Johnston, T. L., Roberts, T. G. (2011). The Effect of an Interest Approach on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement of High School Agricultural Science Students. Journal of Agricultural Education, 52(1), 143-154. Retrieved from http://www.jae-online.org/attachments/article/1537/52.1.143.Johnston.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 Weekly Investment 2: Designing and Planning Instruction

Maximizing learning and planning instruction. Planning instruction was (and still kind of is) daunting to think about. But, after gaining some new insight through the readings this week, I think I'm beginning to get a better understanding of how these unit plans, assessments, and lesson plans are supposed to fit together. Here are some major takeaways!

You have to know where you want to end up if you want to develop an effective plan to get there. I believe this thought is essential to effectively planning instruction. This ensures that everything you are teaching in your class aligns together and thus promotes deeper learning for students. So before you start planning your first Soil Science class you need to stop and think, "What do I want my students to be able to do by the end of this class/unit?" Realizing this was very helpful because the other day I was staring at my computer at a loss of how to begin writing my first lesson plan for student teaching. According to the framework by Mctighe et al., first start by identifying desired results, then determine assessment evidence, and finally plan learning experiences and instruction. I really appreciated that the framework takes the time to discuss different types of assessment - performance tasks and other evidence such as traditional tests and quizzes. While I think there is a time and a place for both types, the most important thing is to make sure that everything aligns and nothing is slipping through the cracks. Now, I'm quite excited to try out what I've learned on the unit/lesson plans I'll be writing in the coming weeks!

I know I briefly mentioned this above, but this was a really important area of discussion in all of our readings for this week. When I was in high school, I never really took much thought into why we learned things in the order in which we learned them. All I knew is when I was learning and when I was completely lost/bored. But now as I'm working on writing unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments for my student teaching experience, my mind is a little overwhelmed. There are so many ways we must look for alignment and connection. Whether it's making sure the scaffolding is actually building up towards a specific skill to making sure the assessment is evaluating what we actually taught. But as Reardon et al. state in Strategies for Great Teaching, "Learning happens when brains are connecting in meaningful ways with the subject matter. It occurs when learners make patterns based on existing schema as they seek to understand new content".

References:

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Mctighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.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.

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

West Virginia University, (2010.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html

#AEE412 Weekly Investment: Effective Teaching is Essential

There are two types of teachers that I will always remember from my time in school: the really good and the really bad. As I'm continuing on my #TeachAg journey to becoming an Agricultural Educator, I am realizing more and more just how much work and dedication it takes to be a good teacher. And while this is indeed a little daunting to think about, it's also exciting too.

1. Becoming an effective teacher takes time. But, it's ok to be an amateur. 

Well this certainly wasn't what I wanted to hear when I know I will be teaching people's children in approximately 15 weeks. And yet, what a relief it was to hear and read this. But, I'm still not sure I fully believe it (that being an amateur is ok). How can it be ok to not feel completely prepared when you go to teach your first real class, knowing that you are molding and teaching real students? I'm not sure, but I think my best bet is to give it my all and to do like Kayla Hack and Janae Herr told us at our student teacher workshop: trust the process. I've had the honor of meeting and being taught by so many effective, rockstar teachers. It's easy to forget that they too, started where I am now. This thought takes me back to my summer book Drive by Daniel Pink. In the section on Mastery, he talks about how the road to mastery is a pain and while you can approach mastery, it can never actually be reached. But when you have purpose, the hard work and challenges associated with mastery is all worth it. Realizing this was a comfort to me because I know my purpose. It's the same purpose all of us as teachers have: to positively affect and touch the lives of our students. Suddenly, the road to becoming a "master" teacher seems exciting and well worth it. 

2. Learning is directly related to the effectiveness of teaching methods that are put into practice.

All of the readings this week discussed this in slightly different ways, but it was definitely a common theme. Talk about pressure! From my experiences as a student, though, I would definitely agree with this. I can't think of a class that I enjoyed and truly learned in that wasn't taught by an effective teacher. And yet, I remember discussing this week in one of my classes about growth mindsets and how students have to choose to learn. So... how can both of these statements be true? Well, I think it's because that as teachers, the methods we utilize should create an environment that motivates and causes students to make that choice to learn. That is an important distinction to make. Teaching isn't just presenting information/skills to students in varied ways and then sitting back and letting students choose to learn or not. It's about engaging students and fostering autonomy, mastery, and purpose (in the words of Daniel Pink), creating a growth mindset culture, and as Wong states in The First Days of School "exhibiting positive expectations for all students" (the list could go on). 

3. Community is essential to being an effective Agricultural Educator.

The necessity of positive community relationships seems to be everywhere I look, and for good reason. To be an effective Agricultural Educator, I truly believe that your community is key. The community is a laboratory of the instructional program (Newcomb et al., 2004). I really liked this statement from my Methods of Teaching Agriculture book. By developing positive relationships within your community, you will have all kinds of experts in agriculture that want to share their knowledge with your students. How awesome is that?! Not only that, but they also help you continue on your journey as a life-long learner and ensure that what you are teaching is up-to-date with what is going on in the Ag industry. Community can also be thought of as your teaching community. From other Agricultural Educators to experienced teachers of other subjects, building positive relationships with your colleagues will help you become a more effective teacher through advice and feedback.


Thanks for following my journey so far, I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this semester takes us!

References

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.

Pink, Daniel. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Penguin Group.

Wong, H.K. & Wong, R.T. (2009). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher (4th ed.). Mountain View: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.