From Being A Student To Being A Teacher...

Here we are again one quiz, two papers, and four projects later from last week. I’ve done more projects and written more papers in these past two months than I ever have in two years. I feel like every time we finish one project another one pops up that we have to do. This new one, well it’s kinda two, is one about diversity and the other is actually teaching the class next week. What’s funny is that doing the Class Planning project gave me more trouble putting together than what I’m gonna have to do teaching my content. The only problem I have to confront isn’t how am I gonna make the lesson longer but how am I gonna size it down to only thirty minutes. They say if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life and when it comes to anything history related there’s no such thing as work for me. While some people are going out on the town and partying, I’m here reading about Churchill, Jefferson, and Cicero. I love the subject I’m going out to teach; I’m enthusiastic about my content. I feel like it’s one of the most underrated subjects taught in schools yet it’s one of the most important. But how do I take my enthusiasm for my content and make it interesting for my students? With all these projects, quizzes, tests, and papers I’ve been feeling kinda depressed. But the news that we will be teaching a lesson on our content actually lifted me up. It’s a good place to start on critiquing how we’re gonna teach in a nonjudgmental environment that offers positive criticism on how to improve before you have to go out into the world and do this thing for real.

Another One Bites The Dust... And I Need More Coffee

Last Wednesday in class we were discussing Formative and Summative assessments. And since I've already posted a blog about our high school visit last Monday and we were on break this Monday so I am left to blog about the two forms of assessments from last Wednesday. I am going to attempt to dissect the topic and find a deeper meaning and understanding of the content that I can learn from and apply to my own philosophy.
From my own understanding Summative assessment are in short what we see most in our schools, well at least from my experience. They take the form of chapter tests, mid term exams, and finals. The things all students are pressured to do well on or else they'll fail and have to repeat the course again. I don't think anyone in their right mind enjoys these. I've seen seen students going into take tests with bags under their eyes, red eyes, shuffling their feet because they lack the energy to actually pick up their feet, or are shaking from nervousness or from excessive caffeine to stay awake all night to study. I know the feeling of some of these from studying for finals. But it seems as though these tests and finals and such are not even a true measuring of the students knowledge of the content only that they can normally spit out whatever it is that is required for that one test and never have to remember it again. That the student can argue something from the teacher's perspective but the teacher not teach the students to think critically and think for themselves.
So from what I can understand Formative assessments are a form of "checkpoints" in a class. It is a way for the teacher to check a student's understanding of the topic while teacher is still occurring. It takes the form of quizzes (of low to little point value, helps avoid stress of high point value quizzes), class discussions, online blogs, and exit slips. Funny thing is that until now I haven't notice that this is exactly how our class operates. We do discussions in class and bounce ideas off of each other and it's already interesting to hear some of the different ideas people have about teaching, especially the one that made me question whether we should even have "grades" as we know them. The class is not so much a lecture as it is like almost an open forum, which helps remove the stress and we are emboldened to speak up and talk (as long as it's on topic). It creates a less stressful environment for the student and I think it help bolster the students self esteem in knowing that he has a voice to speak, to question, to discuss, and to let their own ideas be known. From a teacher's point of view I can see why some might be hesitant to allow in class discussion on a regular basis it would require that the teacher give up some power in the class. It would require that teachers not rely so heavily on their step by step uniform class schedule. It would also require the teacher to yield to the student and let them speak instead of telling them that there's no talking in class and to silence anyone that may hold a different opinion or approach as well as being willing to answer many more questions, requiring that the teacher know the content inside and out. But what is the purpose of having a teacher? To teach, to help students learn new knowledge and its importance and application in their own lives. How much are they learning if a teacher is simply reading from an obscure textbook? Are they learning why the content is important to them? Are they learning how to apply it in their own lives? Are they learning period? Although this may make a teacher feel uncomfortable in giving up some of their power, the whole basis of this is to help students learn and that is the whole basis for even being a teacher.

Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder...

Sorry I’m late on this blog, my computer crashed and my iPad has a virus and I had to rewrite some of my essays that were due and study for my mid-term exams. Today is the first day I’ve had to actually work on my stuff from EDU 250. It’s just been one of those weeks.

            Well last Monday we finally went to visit the high school, and as I suspected it was the best visit of the three. Before I start rattling off about how great the class I observed was I’d ask for a moment of silence for our brothers and sisters who went behind the Iron Curtain and were assigned to the Soviet math class… now that that’s over let’s begin.

            The class was much different than what I expected of a history class. History has always been described as one of the most boring classes besides math but what I observed was one of the most interactive classes I’ve seen out of all our observations and a number of my own classes in high school. The teacher was enthusiastic about the content she was teaching which always helps in keeping a student’s attention. The teacher used a projector hooked up to a laptop for the PowerPoint notes and for videos. The videos were very helpful for the subject she was teaching on, textile mill operations, about how the mechanisms operate and their importance. Being a history nerd who has a good understanding of important historical events and inventions; explaining how a textile mill works with no pictures, diagrams, or videos would have been hard for anyone, including myself, to understand.

            The teacher did not lecture the entire class but instead it seemed she taught by asking questions to the students. I don’t know how to phrase or word it other than say it felt like there where nonstop questions the entire class time; which worked to the teacher’s advantage since almost all of the students seemed to pay attention, knew the content, and were VERY involved. The class seemed very lively and the students actually liked the class and the teacher. The teacher was also at times comedic, we’ve all had that teacher that attempts to be funny and flops, but she genuinely could make a joke and related to the students appealing to what she knew teenagers like and hold valuable.

            The teacher it seemed had a loose teaching plan that allowed for more student interaction and took into account of possible setbacks. The teacher took her time and made sure she covered everything before moving on. The teacher also tied together the past and the present to make the content relevant to today. A great example would be when she was teaching about the Tariff of 1832 which she tied the events to the U.S. trade agreement in the Far East Asian nations. The teacher also had an interesting way with students keeping notes which I could not put any better than Colleen did in the last paragraph of her blog.[1]

The teacher, after the class had finished the lesson for the day, then worked in groups on an in class project. The students were given a paper with some questions on it and then three primary source documents from the biggest and most read newspapers of that time about the different economies of the industrial North and agrarian South. The questions weren’t read the article and answer the questions but were thought provoking questions to create discussion on the subject between the students. The whole time the teacher was walking around the class answering questions and making sure the students understood what they were reading.

Overall the class was great and it was the best one I observed and only helped reinforce my decision to teach high school. It also made me realize that I need to step up in my teaching methods seeing how well she handled her class. The three things that really made me think about how I planned to teacher were:

                               I.            How she used the tech, particularly using it when simply reading and talking about a subject won’t help the students understand the content.

                            II.            Her use of questioning to keep the students active in the class but never putting pressure on a student who didn’t get the answer right or didn’t know the answer but would just move on to the next person.

                         III.            Finally her relaxed teaching plan taking into account setbacks and allow for student interaction.

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[1] http://ccockman.blogspot.com/2015/10/back-to-high-school.html

 

Chapter Six: Middle School Here I Come...

Aaaand we’re off! Another week of observing classes this time it was middle school. To me at least this trip was much more interesting and familiar. First we were all individually placed in a sixth grade class by ourselves, which I was not expecting and made me a bit nervous. Class has already started and you come in and thirty pair of eyes are set on you. You have to introduce yourself to the class, what’s your name, where you’re from, what you plan to teach, when you plan to teach, what grade you plan to teach among other things while you’re kinda awkwardly standing in front of the room wearing a suit. After which I sat down in a chair in the back of the class, the only one not taken. The topic was social studies, which was my favorite and best class when I was in school and now my major in college (history). Every minute or so a student would turn around toward me and smile and wave.

            The teacher, unlike the elementary school, did not use a smartboard but instead used a projector. The technology was sufficient for what they were covering in class but nothing fancy like the elementary school where the students were using iPad. I can’t help but think of what the students going into middle school will think when there is no smartboard or iPad in class. The way this next generation is coming up it might be a little bit of a shock. The students didn’t have text books either, given that Dr. Parker and Dr. Clark already told us that, it still surprises me. I’ve always had text books in every class I’ve had since kindergarten with the exception of EDU 250. The teacher would give the students pages containing maps, questions, and definitions on them that they would glue into their notebooks. The students would answer the questions using the information that they went over in class as well as look over their other notes from the beginning of the year to solve the problems. The teacher went over the answers after a given amount of time when the students finished. The teacher though didn’t just go over the answers but would choose at random for someone to answer and back up their answer. If they got it wrong then it would go into discussion between the students and the one who got the answer right and could back up their claim got their choice from a bag of candy. Rewarding a student with candy for the right answer is an interesting way of how to possibly increase a student’s attention in class. I would assume though that after a while that this would get “old” and lose its effectiveness after the first half of the year. The teacher would have students connect what they’re learning now in class with what they learned since the first day. It would seem that the teacher is tying together everything over the course of the whole semester. The subject no longer becomes something that a student memorizes for one test but that they will constantly be referring back to.

The students would get a bit rowdy every now and then to which the teacher would quite them down and explain that “we have a guest” and should act respectful. I didn’t think about it till then that I felt like she was trying too hard to control the class and I also got the feeling that this was not a typical thing and that she was trying to control the class because they had a “guest.” This is perfectly understandable to want to set a good impression because you’re being observed. I’d rather see the whole thing though the good and the bad. Class rarely always goes according to plan and students are not always on their best behavior. I’d rather see the good and the bad of an everyday class, to know what I’m getting myself into in a few years.

           The class had the lights off but had smaller lights around the room enough that students could see what they’re reading and writing. The lamps were not fluorescent, like at government buildings and Walmart, but were warm lights, like at coffee shops. It felt more relaxed than some other classes I’ve been in. The walls were not painfully bright white. Instead the walls were covered with maps and boards and pictures with warm colors that went along with the lighting of the room. It was not too bright that would make you feel like you’re at the DMV or the interrogation room but it was not too dark that you could fall asleep it was in between where you felt comfortable. The learning environment is one thing that we have not gone over in class that I think is incredibly important to the learning experience.

Overall it was an interesting experience and I preferred it to the elementary school visit. The students weren’t always obedient and things didn’t always go according to plan; which to me made it feel more authentic. Referring back to previous subjects that it stays relevant in the students mind, coming up with ways to help students seek their own improvement, and creating a good learning environment were the three main things I came away with and stuck with me in this class.